KaoruMC

VERY REASONABLE PRICE. $ 20 for bowl of sashimi over rice and also miso soup and the portion is huge. Also, the fish they use are fresh and seasonal which surprised me even more. I’ll recommend this place to anyone that’s looking for good fish and cheap price. It will satisfy your cravings no doubt.

Long story short… I was absolutely blown away. If you are a sushi sashimi person, this is an ABSOLUTE must place to go. I was a little intimidated going in because it was very small, but the two good signs you’re in an exceptional place is 1. A limited menu & 2. People of the same ethnicity.
I decided not to take a bet & go for the most popular dish. The Three Amigos! Omg. $ 20 for a Regular bowl but it’s giant! Honestly, as a sushi person, this is some of the freshest fish I have had! I still crave it– the first time I had it I came back a few days later! It’s honestly amazing & a perfect sushi rice & sashimi bowl that satisfies! Definitely enough for leftovers but as for raw fish one would have to be careful the complementary miso soup is good, fairly nice tofu pieces & seaweed.
The ambiance is nice, quite & with light piano music in the background. It’s a fairly small place however it hasn’t been too busy every time I’ve been there.
It’s a really must-​try place! & to be clear– they do NOT have sushi, just sashimi. Talking about it just makes me crave it again!

Super fresh, decent price, good service.
You don’t need to go luxury sushi place to pay so much, just try this place out. You will not regret.

No service at all, only two staff there, one’s busy cleaning up the table while the other busy checking out, waiting for more than ten minutes to be seated. After seating, nobody gives us a menu, we have to ask for one. The food is weird for me, I don’t know why others love it, don’t know how people eat rice with raw fish…

Wow! This place is phenomenal. Came here because I LOVE good, fresh, sashimi and Unilocal said this was the spot. So glad I came by!
The place is small and there is a piano in the corner playing very soft, relaxing music. Good spot for conversation or a casual date.
Now for the food! The menu is small, but if you have any special requests, they definitely work with you! My husband and I would have eaten everything on the menu (the food looked incredible) but we just had our teeth whitened, so we could only eat white foods.
We got chirashi style bowls with hamachi and Madai. It was so fresh… so delicious! I can’t wait to go back and try more of the fish. The tuna, salmon, and ikari on other plates all looked so good. Presentation was beautiful. Our meals were fresh, flavorful, and simply fantastic. Hidden jem!

This place is so delicious and reasonably priced. Definitely recommend the three amigos. A combination of tunas and salmons served over a bed of rice with miso soup for $ 20. It is so fresh tasting. The décor is kinda strange, but it’s still nice inside.

Even thought the list is very limited. But the food is great! I absolutely will come back.

Got the three amigos don, everything is super fresh and the price is unbelievably low for what you get. Will be back.

Everything tastes perfect! Definitely coming back again! I ordered Three Amigos, the salmon is so fresh :)

Love Love Love this place with a bleeding heart! It truly is my dream come true restaurant. 1. Fresh food that speaks for itself, 2) small and intimate place but not cramped in like sardines, 3) family owned and operated, 4) decent price that won’t put me in bankruptcy, 5) in my neighborhood, and 6) love for food and place oozes out from every chunk of fresh tuna. KaoruMC, please don’t ever change.

Its just awesome! Refresh seafood and tasty sushi rice. Not a lot of choices, just the correct food.

Walked by and decided to check the place out and we are so happy we stayed!
Since my colleague is a very picky person we weren’t sure if we were going to stay because they were only serving the sushi bowls… she’s more of a sushi rolls kind of a person.
Gladly she enjoyed the dish because my other colleague and I LOVED it! We will be back to try the other bowls!
For fresh sashimi over rice… go check this place out!

Sashimi Don was great. Quite a bit of sashimi for the $ 18-​$ 20 price. Salmon — sweet and fresh. Hamachi was equally delicious. The ikura was decent but wasn’t as fresh as the hamachi and salmon. The miso soup and sunomono were standard. The natto was the most uninspired dish. Was this $ 0.99 Frozen natto? Did you forget to add the flavor packet that came with it? But the quality of the sushi makes me completely forget about the boring natto. Beer was out of the bottle. I wish they had draft since this is a piano bar that doubles as a restaurant during the day.
Everything felt status quo. But the limited options for the menu are perfect. The focus is on great fish and it achieves this completely. That being said, there was almost zero inspiration in the dishes. Not that this is a bad thing. It has an elegant but ennui feeling.
Get great quality fish, put it on sashimi rice, and serve it up. It works.
I have to mention this awkward experience:
I came into the restaurant close to closing time at 730pm (830pm close?) Service was nice and left you alone… but it did seem like a party was going on in the kitchen. A lot of awkward silence.
There are two customers in the restaurant so why not engage either customer? I even put my phone down and started trying to spark conversation with questions. Why don’t these fun folks come talk to the customers? I even put my phone away. Come on. Im not using my phone, there is no tv, and the music literally stopped (was turned off). The man next to me was reading a newspaper. The guy across the room looked equally bored. The couple behind me are in relative silence and left quickly. Is this a library with a no talking rule? I asked 20 questions to a well dressed employee passing by and he gave me one word retorts. Sorry, am I bothering you? My bad. Customers shouldn’t sit at the bar and talk to staff, I guess.
Okay, obviously some of these late night staff cater to the hostess bar crowd that comes in after 9pm and feel more comfortable speaking in Japanese. じつは、俺、少し日本語を話しますけど。。。
Enough of my rant for attention. This place does one thing that most places in the area do not: serves great sashimi, at a great price, with a nice atmosphere. Just be more outgoing with your customers! When I walked in everyone seemed nice and then just vanished to the back. Clearly the attention goes to the evening VIP crowd who pay for the rent and likely subsidize the low food prices. Great. Just think how far a tiny bit of that attention would go towards your customers experience.

The sushi was so fresh and delicious as was the pork dumpling. The edamame needed salt and the atmosphere was slightly bizarre, but the amazing food and service from my new friend Hiro made it a near 5 star experience. Honestly the lack of salt on the edamame and the creepy dolls on the piano were the only two things I could criticize.

Loved loved loved this place! It’s the hidden jem of NYC if you’re looking for authentic and fresh fish to eat. The menu is very limited but you won’t be disappointed. Everything is in a bowl with fish topped over sushi rice. Miso soup that the chef Makes from scratch is also available. I got the tuna bowl and it was absolutely heavenly– the tuna tartare melted in my mouth and just went I well with the spicy mayo. It’s just to die for.
Here’s the story of Kaoru: her husband is a wholesaler of fish at the NYC sea market. After being in the industry for over 20 years, he finally had the courage and financial stability to open his first restaurant (of which he supplies his own fish), and named it Kaoru, his wife (you’ll see her busy at work on Mondays Wednesday’s and Friday’s)
The setting is cute– there’s an beautiful old wooden bar that seats about 15 people, maybe 6 seats that seats parties of 2, 4 and up to 6.
My favorite part is the service — Kaoru herself helps run the restaurant and she’s the sweetest little lady. Please be patient with her!

Found here by accident. There’s some kind of constructions outside so it’s hard to find. Old bar lounge good environment with no crowds, awesome Japanese food and service. Hidden gem.

Accidentally found this place when I needed a lunch place before visiting the United Nations headquarter. I will go back there if I’m around next time.
Food: I was thinking to have noodles but they don’t seem to have noodle soups. So I had grilled eel over rice, which was super delicious. I’m an Asian (not Japanese), but people sitting at tables around me were all speaking Japanese.
Service: friendly and nice. The place was pretty quiet. Customers were chatting at a very low volume.

I randomly found this spot when I was caught in the rain and in a rush to get a bite before running to the airport. I wasn’t sure what to expect since it just seemed like a sushi restaurant at first glance but it was so much better.
From what I gathered on the menu, they mainly offer bowls of rice with fish on top. We had the top two tuna dishes on the menu. I’m very, very, very picky about fish and I have to say this was some of the best fish I’ve ever had. Since I live in South Florida and near the Keys, I’m exposed to seafood all the time and I’ve never had fish this fresh and savory.
Another thing, the prices were incredibly reasonable. I thought I read the check wrong at first, but I had a large plate of amazing food for much less than what other lower quality restaurants charge.
Even though I had to leave in a hurry to catch my flight, I’ll certainly stop by again when I’m in NYC.

Came here for lunch and had an excellent meal. Had a rice bowl with lots of very fresh tuna, salmon, yellow tail. Would definitely recommend. Looks like they have a piano bar in the evenings.

Definitely recommend this place! Seafood is super fresh and much better quality than b graded other sushi restaurant in Manhattan. Staff are all nice and friendly. I’m gonna be one of regular customers here!