Robataya NY

Once authentic — now pathetic. We have always enjoyed Robataya, but under the new management, this place suffers. The staff is now no longer primarily Japanese. Instead, sugary-​sweet gaijin waitresses wearing a modified kimono and running sneakers take your order. The prices are too high and the portions too small. Even the atmosphere in the front with the men grilling the orders is subdued when it should be a vibrant Japanese farmhouse atmosphere. The greatest insult occurred last night when my wife was being poured a masu (small box) of sake. It is tradition to fill the masu until it overflows. The waitress stopped short of filling it to the top. When we looked at her and called her on this she said, «if you nudge it enough it will spill.» This isn’t a Japanese establishment anymore.

If you like over-​priced and under-​sized portions accompanied by lots of bad inexperienced service, this is the place for you. The only thing I really liked about this place is the interior Japanese décor. The waiters completely neglected to attend to even the most basic tasks such as bringing water.

Food: 3.5 stars
I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. Came on a Wednesday lunch and the fish was fresh. Clean and delicate, but not better than other decent Japanese restaurants. Lunch for two — Sashimi set and the Eel Kamemeshi.
Value: 2.5 stars
A little pricey (especially for the St. Marks neighborhood), but to be expected of a good Japanese restaurant. The sashimi set was a little sparse for $ 26 (2 pieces of mackerel, 2 pieces of tuna, two salmon, halved scallop, and two halves of uni). The Kamemeshi was also tasty, but again, $ 28 was a bit steep. All that said, the prices were as advertised ($$$).
Service: 0 stars
I don’t know if it’s because it was lunch, if the waiter was new, the chef was nursing a hangover, or just poor management. I can’t speculate the cause, but the service was pretty awful. The signage said that they were closed when they were indeed open (red flag). Maybe it was because of the sign, but we were one of only 3 tables at around 12:30pm. We ordered the Eel Kamemeshi and Sashimi set and I asked that the Sashimi be brought with the Kamemeshi since the menu indicated a long prep/​cook time for the Eel. The waiter took down the order and request. When the food arrived, only the Kamemeshi came out, and it was the wrong order (Salmon instead of Eel). I couldn’t get the waiter’s attention after we realized the mistake and eventually had to get the (assuming) manager. The waiter politely told us that we could get the eel, but it would take another half hour to prep. At this point I was already beginning to run late to return to work, so we stuck with the Salmon. It was good. Not worth the wait and letdown though. Bill was paid in full, with standard tip, but I will not be returning. It’s a shame because I like their sister restaurant and wanted to like this location.

It was about five years ago that I went to this restaurant with some old college friends. It’s a quiet, low key place that has booths. One of the drinks comes in a small cube-​shaped glass that almost looks like it belongs in a lab. It’s filled to the brim.

High quality fish and seafood. However it is way too expensive for what you can get at other Japanese restaurants.
I think their grilled fish during dinner is really yummy but not worth the price you pay. If they scaled back the prices of their food, I think more people will actually come back and dine here. But considering the competition of other good Japanese restaurants in the area, I don’t think it is worth it.
That being said, I really enjoyed their ikura-​uni Don during lunch. It came with a small salad and miso soup. But was $ 10 more expensive than places that serve the same thing, at similar quality. I think that’s why, while the restaurant next door was packed, robataya was nearly empty.
I definitely don’t recommend coming during dinner. Last time I was here, my friends and I spent $ 70pp, between 5 people. We all left hungry and with more to be desired. To be very honest, I’d rather pay a little more and eat somewhere way better, i.e. Omakase.

OK for $ 165+tip for 1 person.
I had a muted experience because one of the chefs had a personal emergency and had to leave.
Great:
Echigo beer
Warm sake daishiki
Good:
Lamb
Brussel sprouts
Prawns
OK
Whole fish (grunt)
Would not order again:
Filet
Uni with yam (torro)

Robataya is a great Japanese restaurant where you can try Japanese food you wouldn’t find in most other places. Little dishes and others. Sitting at the bar is a great experience to see the chefs preparing the food in front of you and giving it to you via some long shovel type of tool. If you look for Authentic Japanese food you should definitely try this place.

Love it! Not on the cheap side, and you do not get much quantity. But still awesome.
Consider it more like a tapas place. I got (among other things) the cheese plate which was great. Everything, especially fish, is very fresh.
Authentic Japanese food in a traditional setting. Staff dressed traditionally and very polite. Beautiful rooms with wood panels. In the entrance (first room), there are no individual tables, everybody is seated around a big table where a knelt cook is making the plates right in front of us.
They also have a good choice of whiskey.
One of my best experiences in New York, and once again, stumbled upon this place by chance. I would recommend it for the new-​yorkers or the tourists who are really fond of Japan. This place is one of a kind, a rare gem.

Food is WAY overpriced for the size that’s prepared and presented.
The quality is good, but not amazing.
The table experience we had overall was mediocre.
I def would not recommend this place to anyone, unless its ¹⁄₃^rd the cost.

I came in here a few weeks ago with a buddy from high school. I was so excited, I’ve heard so much about this place and their kamameshi. I was crying for a chicken one with mushrooms!!!
A young man greeted us, long blonde hair in a low pony that I was instantly jealous over. His aura was terrific and I was relieved that he actually had a smile on his face because the place we went to for brunch earlier, our server was R U D E! Unfortunately, this guy wasn’t our server. Turns out he was just our host. Too bad. Our real sever was quite friendly too though, and the food was just as good as I expected– albeit EXPENSIVE.

If you come here for uni, then DON’T. They still put a picture of uni in FRONT of the restaurant. Cheaters. They played with our emotions. I am fooled and forced to order some thing else. They would tell you that uni has not came in for eight months as like normal. Just like not a big deal. Whatever. They never put sold out uni outside to fool people.
We have been waiting for 30 min. The waitress came to us to ask whether we have ordered food. And 10 min later, the dish we ordered came to other tables first, NOT ours. To be honest, this is the first Japanese restaurant to drive me insane. The quality of service «Blow my mind». I have to write this review. If anyone reads this review, please make sure you don’t come to this restaurant. Because you will regret for your division for life time. Also, this is the first restaurant I walked out.

Was really surprised this place has 4 stars on Unilocal as it’s more of a 3-​star spot (esp by NY standards). I found the dishes anywhere from bad to good, evening out to slightly above average, but it was very overpriced. Specifically we got:
— 1 duck skewer ($ 9?!?): super overcooked, it was tough and gamey. I mean cooking it well is a basic expectation of yakitori — nothing else is happening after all.
— steak: this was delicious! High quality beef, medium rare perfection. However it was pretty small — about 5 – 6 small slices, and it cost $ 19.
— fresh fish of the day — sea bream — also cooked well but small and cost $ 26
— grilled Saba — really liked this dish — very fatty and flavorful piece of fish (standard fishiness of Saba which I love)
— grilled veggies: $ 20 for about 18 – 20 pieces of grilled veggies. Grilled very well and probably my favorite thing, but pricy.
— rice pot with eel — not sure why this takes 30 mins to cook. Lacked flavor and was generally just too mushy. Would not eat this again and recall it also being overpriced
— tofu salad — yum, id recommend this. Fresh tofu with bonito, mixed greens and house made dressing.
We also had an off putting interaction with our waitress. She charged us for an extra beer and extra sake that we did not order (everyone should always check their bill! I find a mistake 10−15% of the time). We told them about it and it took 10 – 15 mins to fix the issue after we had already waited 10 mins for the check to arrive in the first place. The waitress also accusingly came over and said «how many beers did I actually end up bringing you» as if we had ordered it initially or something, but we hadn’t.

Wednesday lunch (⁰⁸⁄₂₀₁₅)
Soba-​Ya was very busy as usual with 20 minutes wait. I gave up and headed to next door. It has been five years since I came here for lunch.
The tranquil space with abundant nature every where, water dripping, real greens, bamboos, and sky light glowing onto the room has not changed a bit. It was not crowded like last time. My waiter had a cute bun on the top of his head and with shaved sides, cute. He spiced up this low-​key/​old school space to be somewhat hip.
I opted for small Chirashi and Udon as a set ($ 21) from the lunch special. Chirashi and Udon appeared to be made ahead of time, loosing the lust and dull and
especially Ikura, salmon roe. It was eatable but questionable.
I remembered Robataya was one of Mr. Bön Yagi’s restaurants, Sobaya, Cha-​An, Curry-​Ya, HighCollar, Sakagura… and so on. They are all my favorite Japanese restaurants. But I wonder what happened to this place? I found out later the owner has changed to Ootoya, since last year.
My lunch was disappointing but the service was excellent. When I asked for tea, I was asked for hot or cold. I said cold. He replied «Mugicha?» Barely tea (麦茶) is a favorite summer drink in Japan. My Icy cold Mugicha was in a frosty glass like serving a cold beer, very refreshing. The end of my lunch, I was served hot Hojicha, roasted green tea, without asking like in Japan. Those free drinks and Japanese care, Omotenashi, in service was hard to forget.

Eel kamemashi, miso salmon, and shimeiji mushrooms were phenomenal. We had a $ 49 sparkling sale that was sweet, light, and accompanied the food well. The cooks grilling at the bar had an entertaining performance-​like cadence to what they were doing. The Brussels sprouts and okra are forgettable I think.

This is the second time I’ve gone to Robataya and things have gotten significantly downhill. I got the chicken and burdock kamameshi, which is essentially a chicken rice bowl. When I got it and opened the lid, I was extremely surprised by how little filling there was. There was only 5 to 6 small pieces of chicken (portion size equivalent to 3 McDonald’s chicken nuggets), and the white meat was extremely overcooked and dry. The burdock was completely tasteless, and the only thing there was abundance of was rice, which I had to douse with soy sauce and the shichimi chili pepper to not go hungry. My girlfriend got the salmon and roe, and although there was more quantity, it was also very bland and not exciting to eat. We also got an uni + tuna + Japanese sticky yam special, and that was also disappointingly tasteless with the uni being particularly unfresh.
Overall, huge rip off as each dish was about $ 20. Stay away from here. If you eat here, you’ll be forced to go to Korilla BBQ down the street so you won’t go hungry.
The only redeeming quality perhaps is the service. Everyone was super nice, but you don’t go to a restaurant for people to be super nice to you, you go for the food.

Don’t come here if you are hungry. The portions are beyond small, and overpriced. Fresh tofu, and thinly sliced daikon salad was good and up to expectations, had a different flair to it. Salmon entrée was cooked to perfection, crispy skin and juicy meat on inside. The filet steak was a joke, dont be fooled by my picture. It was literally the size if my palm, about 2 cm thick and not anything special. The rice dishes were tasty but pricey ($ 10/​each). We also got asparagus, zucchini and brussel sprouts at another $ 8 – 10 each. For the amount we spent, I expect to walk out full but our entire party voted to go eat ramen right after. Don’t get me wrong, everything tasted fine but unless you are baller and willing to spend $ 50+/person just to walk out hungry then by all means.

Robataya is an amazing Japanese restaurant. They are known for their tradition Japanese dishes, so if you’re looking for sushi, bookmark this for another day.
I’ve been here a few times and everything on the menu is flavorful. Food is mainly served family style so make sure to order a few dishes to try. I highly recommend the salmon roe with rice!

I was going to be visiting the East Village for a bit of bar-​hopping and was about to resign myself to having a Ukrainian meal at Veselka or something, not realising that in the years since I had last visited the area a number of enticing Japanese places had opened up. I chose Robataya based on the Unilocal review, and the fact that when I rang they had a spot available for me at the counter.
When I arrived, I was immediately pleased that I had chosen the place, since it had exactly the look of the same sort of restaurant in Japan, with a large, irregularly shaped counter in the front room, in the centre of which two yukata-​clad chefs plied their trade. The place was packed when I arrived, and I nearly was given what looked like the most uncomfortable-​looking spot, between two parties of diners, but when I balked they gave me a much better spot, in full view of the chefs’ perches, allowing me to observe the cooking process.
All the waiters seem to know the menu very well, and while they are not all Japanese, they all call the guests’ orders to the chefs in Japanese, giving the restaurant an even more authentic atmosphere.
I asked my waiter for advice on how to order, and he recommended that I get a starter, two vegetables and a meat, which is what I decided to do. The starter I chose was a sunomono of wakame, crabmeat and cucumber in a light vinaigrette, which had a very clean, bright flavour, and a cool, crispy texture, that I started to chill down from the heat on the street (the carafe of nigori sake that I chose from their extensive sake list helped, too). For my vegetables I picked shishito peppers, one of my all-​time favourite izakaya treats, and eryngi mushrooms, both of which were prepared expertly while I watched. Finally I had the duck breast, served as little dominoes of duck meat with a thin fat-​and-​skin layer on top, skewered together and grilled. Delectable!
I opted not to have dessert here, but there were a number of items on offer in that realm. The meal was not too pricey, and considering how much I enjoyed the experience, and the meal, I felt that the money I spent was well earned.

Huge fan of Robataya which has consistently proven to provide great service, fresh food, beautiful presentations each and every time. Décor is well thought out to provide as much natural sunlight into the small restaurant as possible. Female bathroom is awkwardly located right near entrance however.
Get the:
— Tonkatsu set — crispiest tonkatsu ever had, delicious sauce as well. Comes with crunchy cabbage shreds w/​sauce.
— Salmon miso yuan set — classic but delicious

I would give this place a 5 but they ran out of uni aka sea urchin so I was super sad!!!
This place is pricey so be prepared to spend more if you want to be full. The portions are kind of small. Make reservations or else you probably won’t get seated on the weekends. We got a reservation at a table but I’d recommend trying to get one at the bar, that way you can see the chef cut/​prepare your meal.
We got the special fish, filet steak, lamb, and salmon/​salmon roe kamameshi. The special fish was pretty good with lots of flavor-there’s bones in it so if you don’t like picking around the bones then I wouldn’t recommend this. The filet steak was grilled perfectly– medium rare and the dipping sauce paired really well with the meat. It comes with 6 pieces. The lamb comes with 2 pieces and was cooked perfectly as well. I think the main attraction at this place is the kamameshi. They cook the rice from scratch when you order it. It was super fresh and delicious. I wish it came with raw salmon (sashimi) and not cooked salmon. There’s a decent amount of fish but the rice is what is going to fill you up. I also got a sapporo which is 6 bucks a draft. There’s a bar right across the street called solas if you’re bored and waiting for your reservation time.
Overall the experience was great, service was friendly, presentation was on point BUT they ran out of uni so I felt like I didn’t get the whole experience.
The place is small so I wouldn’t recommend coming here in more than groups of 4.