Saburi Restaurant

It’s one of our favorite restaurant, I’m so sad it’s gonna close… Please let us know if the chef is going to open restaurant in Japan or elsewhere!!!

Most people whine about ‘authenticity’ when they see Japanese and Chinese items mixed together on a menu. The scandalous duel-​Asian menu is no reason to say «sa-​yo-​na-​ra». They know what they’re doing. My order was taken by a friendly Chinese fellow, who cooked my lo-​mien on the stove as a happy Japanese sushi chief rolled together a phenomenal sushi roll at the sushi bar. Just because your good at tennis doesn’t mean you have to suck at basketball. Saburi has both quality Chinese and Japanese cuisine. I’ll return.

Very so so Japanese Chinese dishes with low level service.
Tried many dishes as we were a big group, but none of them tasty.

The gyoza was a little too greasy and the chahan was all right, but the beer was cold Sapporo draft so it all evened out. I noticed that they didn’t give anyone water at our table (one person had to request it) and we had to keep getting up in order to get their attention… even though the restaurant wasn’t busy. Despite that, I’d probably come back here again — I have a soft spot for wafu chuuka since I used to eat it a lot when I was in Japan, so the novelty of being able to eat it here in Manhattan is nice.

I went into the restaurant on Monday for lunch and the place was quite empty. I sat down but never received water. The menu choices were pretty limited and expensive. I ordered the lunch box which was $ 15 plus tax and tip. The lunch box included a miso soup, salad, dim sum, chicken, rice and shrimp but all in pretty small portions and everything was too salty.

I always go for «Sara Udon»
I think this is the only place I can get proper «Sara Udon» in the city.
What nice is the concept — «Chinese food in Japan». it is different from authentic Chinese or American Chinese.
It is a bit pricy, I think it was about $ 14 for Sara Udon but I need it once in a while.
Lunch menu seems like a great deal.

Yes, it’s expensive… Whew, we got that out of the way. But the food and service are great. Momo, our waitress, kept her good humor– and her efficiency despite … shall we say, our heavy demands.
The food was terrific. Just as you would imagine in place run by a Japanese-​Chinese couple. The mapo-​tofu, is the most recommended dish– for good reason. As you’d expect, it is less spicy than the Szechuan version… but it makes up in other tastes what it lacks in killer heat. We had the jellyfish and a bunch of different dumplings– all great. They have beer from the two extremes of Japan (Sapporo) and Okinawa, as well as Tsingtao from China. They also have a good variety of Sake.
It’s a small place, but they’re more than willing to move the furniture to accommodate a big group. Just let ‘em know in advance. Saburi fills an important niche in fusion food. For once, Chinese food not adjusted for American tastes, but for Japanese tastes… in New York.

Sometimes I really want to eat Japanese Chinese food. It is different from Chinese food but it is Chinese food in Japan. Servers never never rush us to leave the restaurant after meal. I always can have a good time with my friends.

Came here for lunch, and the lunch box costed me ~19 $ plus tip. Not really with the money. You can get the same quality food for much cheaper at many other places in the city

Ok, let see what can I say… first. I did go here for lunch and go on Monday and got the lunch set: Shoyu Ramen/​Ban Ban Ji/​Pork Shumai for $ 13.00 + tax and tip. way over priced. for $ 20. I think for lunch. or not maybe I’m just cheap. lol
my lunch time is 1:00p, I thought places will be busy but no-​one was there. one more person came in just as done. I know it was just me in there so I thought services would of been better and friendlier, but it was not. It’s my lunch time who wants to cheat with people any way right. lol.
NOW on Ramen. it was ok. yes just ok. with this place with a Chef that was trained under Chen Kenich to have a ok Shuyo Ramen is just a disgrace. how can they do that? what a disappointment. Ban Ban Ji — it was good little less salt would been better (I did not finish). Pork Shumai — I was good I have to say I could of eaten more (it came with 3).
So I need to come back for dinner service maybe it better. I will not be going to lunch at this place any more. I know a much better Ramen place next block over. hope the dinner is better it does seem like it has a great menu.

Stumbled in here randomly because we were too tired and cold to go anywhere else.
We had nothing when we sat down. No napkins, no utensils, no water. Wth? Not to mention it took a lifetime and a half flagging someone down for anything.
The only thing I truly enjoyed during the dinner was the jellyfish and cucumber appetizer my bf ordered. Everything else was luke.
I ordered some ramen dish, forgot the name, but it was the one with the hot and sour soup. It was decent until I came home with the weirdest feeling in my stomach.
Then they suddenly turned off all the lights in the restaurant (my bf and I were the only remaining patrons at that hour) and one of the waitresses brought out a huge birthday cake for one of the workers, belting out the Happy Birthday song and taking pictures. The waitress must have thought we left beforehand, because she seemed shocked when I finally waved her over for the damn check. State of the art icing on the cake y’all (no pun intended).
Is this real life? At least offer us a slice of that birthday cake if you’re going to be unprofessional jackasses like that.
Never again.

Who remembers Iron Chef Chen Kenichi?
Well another Japanese chef that trained under Chen Kenichi opened up a small restaurant in Manhattan. This place is a Japanese/​Chinese fusion, and it shows in the menu that they serve. The staff are very Japanese, and the patrons that eat here seem to be Japanese, so you know the quality of food here is solid.
Gf and I shared marinated JellyFish and Cucumber as an app. a classic Chinese dish (Shanghainese)? We each got our own ramens. She tried some Hot & Sour soup based ramen, while i had the Sabari Special. The Sabari Special was a thick soy based soup, and it was loaded with veggies and assorted seafood like baby squid and shrimp. My ramen reminded me of those Chinese «birds nest» dishes with the crispy noodles with sauce that makes them soggy. I really liked my gf’s hot and sour soup base. It had a nice tang and minimal spice to it.
The service was slow as the servers were talking to their friends (customers) and celebrating someone’s birthday.
If you are Japanese and can speak Japanese, I’m sure you will be treated better here. However, I don’t mind the service as long as the food is good. The food was decent. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try other dishes, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to… only if i was in the neighborhood.
Good selection of sakes and draft beers too.

Champon noodle is soooo good, amazing remedy for a cold rainy day! This is a Japanese restaurant that cooks Chinese food, sounds strange but the taste is actually very authentic. Believe it or not, Japanese style Chinese is one authentic branch in japan

The mabo Ramen was amazing, and they are open until 3am. I’m really glad we ended up here, I would definitely come back.

This place… this place is just ok. I have a few niggles with it but yea…
So this place goes down and the décor is pretty nice. Somewhere I could envision somebody coming home from work and grabbing a meal, or someone who has no friends grab food and a drink. wow thats a sad thought,
Anyways on to the food. My friend got a Ebi shumai, 3 pieces 7 dollars. I didnt even taste it but
it looked so sad :(
Fried chicken appetizer karaage. Not bad… but it really didnt taste like anything… it was just fried chicken pieces. Also 4 pieces about the size of 1.5 chicken nuggets for 7 dollars, lets not kid ourselves. Mediocre Dish
I ordered a rice thing with a thicker sauce… which actually wasnt too bad i’d cal it average.
Everyone else ordered ramen and they all said it was just OK
On to service. Service was nice enough, servers were polite. However the kitchen is probably the slowest kitchen known to man. There were like 3 tables there and it took 20+ minutes to make ramen… AND they «forgot» my order and I had to flag them down to tell them… and after reconfirming what i ordered they said «oh its on the way». What BS seriously. If you see a guest not having any food to eat, as a server you should use some critical thinking and try and figure out whats the problem… Mistakes happen, but if theres only 3 tables, what else do you have to do other than stare at patrons?
Overall I wouldnt return to eat here.

I was standing on the line at the Shake Shack at Madison Square Park at 11 PM when I realized that I really wanted Japanese ramen, as I hadn’t had any for like FOUR months. So I left my spot (to the disbelief of some out of town food tourists) and walked on over to this establishment.
When I cracked open the menu I was surprised to see lots of items that I hadn’t seen before, and I’ve been to lots of Japanese restaurants. After reading some of the reviews I understood that this was Chinese food, Japanese style.
I had the fatty pork ramen and the pork fried rice because I had skipped lunch that day and was trying to make up for the calorie deprivation. The ramen was good, although a couple slices of the pork were very cold. I had to hold it down the bottom of the bowl so that it would be palatable to me. The fried rice was your run of the mill fried rice, although it wasn’t as oily as the Chinese version.
The vast majority of the customers were Japanese, with a couple middle age white men hanging out at the bar to try their best to pick up the girls behind the bar. It was pretty fun eavesdropping on their exchanges. I came away with great ideas of what NOT to say to women. The service was excellent.

This place lured me in with what sounded like a good lunch special. Ramen, dim sum and an appetizer for $ 9.95 — I love all 3 of those so why not?
On a weekday at lunchtime, the place was absolutely empty. The one waitress was watching an old episode of Bones. I ordered the wasabi shumai, the kara chicken (Japanese fried chicken) and the special ramen that comes with shrimp and pork and a ton of veggies.
The wasabi shumai was so strong I barely was able to finish even one. If your nose is stuffed up, definitely order that one and you’ll be cleared up in no time. It burned so bad I almost couldn’t stand it. A hint of wasabi is fine, to eat a whole dumpling of wasabi is something else. The fried chicken was not so good either. There wasn’t really any meat on it and they were just 2 small pieces. The ramen I will say had a lot of veggies and had a good portion size (my co-​worker ordered the tonkotsu and only half his bowl was filled), but the shrimp were super duper tiny and the noodles didn’t taste that great.
Overall we left still hungry AFTER eating our meal and that place is so hot! They should leave the door open or something, but when you walk in it’s a bit like a sauna.

For lunch, they have reasonably priced lunch special, one appetizer, one Dim Sum and Ramen for only $ 9.95 with a deceiving photo (see my photo).
When my lunch-​set came on a dark wood tray, I felt slightly cheated but it was a tasty Tonkotsu Ramen. It took me back to an ally of Tokyo, sitting on a stool of Ramen cart with a red lantern under the dark sky and slurping hot noodle. I wish I ordered al carte.
It was different from complex flavored Ramen of Ippudo and not like fatty Minca Ramen either. Saburi Tonkotsu broth was a milky-​porky soup but light. I also enjoyed with basic toppings, Char-​siu (pork), Menma (fermented bamboo shoots), scallion and Beni Shoga (red pickled ginger) that was plus for me.
Although Ramen, in the photo, looked regular size but it came in a small bowl but acceptable with 2 side for lunch (see my photo).
For Dim Sum, I chose Xiaolongbao (soup dumping). I wish it had more soup and the dumplings were in a small steam basket like in the Menu. Kara Age (fried chicken) from appetizer was okay.
This is the only Wafuchuka restaurant in the city. When I crave for Japanized-​Chinese dishes, Ebi Chili (shrimps in thick chili sauce), Subuta (sweet & sour pork), Kanitama (crab omelette, closer to soupy egg foo yong), this is the place.

Don’t think the $ 5 ramen deal is there anymore. Review for lunch only.
$ 9.75 lunch special with ramen + dimsum item + appetizer. A pretty good deal.
Spicy miso ramen — great flavor though the bamboo shoot overpower the flavor a bit. Luckily I like bambo shoot.
The eggplant appetizer (fried with sweet soy miso glaze) is also pretty good and greasy at the same time.
Shumai is just meh. Nothing too special.
Empty dining room on a perfect weather day — wonder if they will survive.
Will definitely come back to try their Japanese Chinese specialties.

Where else to get ramen outside of the East Village? Thats also convienent to where I live and go to school? This location is perfect. Their ramen isnt Ippudo quality but it gets the craving satisfied. Cold crisp days call for a steaming bowl of noodles. Their delivery is quick and timely.
Perhaps eating in may give you a better portion size… I have only ordred delivery.
Little pricey for the quality and location but its much better than some of the questionable chinese food in the area.