Love the titillating taste of sake? Visiting the Big Apple and need a place to sip and sup? These three sake houses are among the best of the best:
Sake Bar Hagi – 152 W. 49th Street, 212-764-8549
This Times Square Theater District establishment caters primarily to Japanese clientele. This sake café is the place to go before or after seeing a Broadway show. Service here is casual and friendly and offers authentic Izakaya (Japanese pub food) in small portions with a wide range of choices to fit your palette. Check the blackboard for specials or try the tempura sea eel. Standard sakes are $7.50 a glass and are offered masu-style.
Favorite Drinks – Try a Soju.
Recommendations – No reservations, so get here early as the waiting line goes out the door.
Sake Bar Decibel – 240 East 9th Street, 212-979-2733
Opened in 1993, this is New York City’s original Japanese sake bar. Step into this underground secret hideaway and choose from literally hundreds of sakes available. This is the closest you’ll get to really being at a sake house in Japan. Try the shrimp chips.
Favorite drinks - Have a Ginjo-type Kaori chilled in a box.
Sachiko’s on Clinton – 25 Clinton Street, 212-253-2900
Popular with Foodies, Executive Chef Soichi Kojima provides a top notch variety of food that makes eating here a sensuous experience. The melt-in-your-mouth sushi bar provides fresh fish daily. Everything here is good, but if you’re stumped, try a Sushi and Sashimi Combination or a Beef and Potato Kushiage.
Favorite drinks - Don’t go away without trying Yusura sake made by Sudo Honke, the oldest sake brewery in Japan dating back to 1140 AD.
Sake Bar Satsko – 245 Eldridge Street, 212-614-0933
Owned by Satsko Watanabe, this 40-seat casually elegant East Village sake house is a favorite among the locals. Like its original sister restaurant located on East 7th Street, Eldridge Satsko offers a warm and friendly atmosphere with a more extensive menu and sushi bar. The endless sake menu ranges from $9 a glass to $100 a bottle for premium sake. Pan Asian cuisine is served in small, affordable portions. The great service and friendly staff offers recommendations without attitude. Weekly sake tasting on Wednesday nights offers six kinds of high-end sake with complimentary appetizers, all for $25 per person.
Favorite drinks – Try a Sake Bomb or a Saketini (sake, pom juice and lychee)
Sakagura – 211 East 43rd Street B1F, 212-953-7253
This hidden gem is located in the basement of a Midtown East office building. Sakagura is the ultimate sake house with over 200 varieties of the best sake to choose from. The Tapas-style lunch and dinner is plentiful, exceptional and inexpensive. The choice of sake here is daunting and even includes choosing the drinking glass to suit your mood. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from the extremely helpful wait staff that will assist in pairing sake with your cuisine. Try the Daikon salad and the Amadai Saikyo Yaki.
Favorite drinks – Ichinokura "HIMEZEN"
in New York
