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THE TAISHO
Experience Pub Food
With A Japanese Twist
By Zain Deane

There’s Japanese food, and there’s Japanese pub food. The former has cropped up all over the place, with sushi restaurants—and shady outfits masquerading as sushi restaurants—dotting the national dining landscape. The latter, however, are as rare as an undernourished sumo wrestler.

But you don’t have to book a flight to Tokyo to enjoy pub food with a Japanese twist. Fortunately, there’s a worthy outpost in New York City. In rapidly urbanized St. Mark’s Square, Yakitori Taisho does a raucous, bustling business. It’s a smoky, rough-hewn place carved into the bottom of a building that transports you light-years from Manhattan. For something truly unique, it’s well worth the journey.

The pub has a rustic ambience so far removed from hip that it’s become hip. The staff is all Japanese—a rarity—and they yell something incoherent at you as soon as you walk in (really, it’s “welcome,” but who’s going to know that?). The clientele is also mostly from the home country, always a good sign when eating at any ethnic restaurant. Décor was not the primary vision behind Yakitori Taisho’s. True to the sushi bar, there is a long, curving wooden counter in front of the kitchen where diners squash together to enjoy a meal and a drink. Some of the tables are wobbly, and many have maddeningly uncomfortable chairs (squat stools, really) with barely any place to stow your coat. It’s bustling and cramped, even if you get taken into the back room, which has a little more space.

But all that is incidental and part of the campy fun of the place. Most people are happy to sit in discomfort and listen to the truly damaging Japanese pop music blaring through the speakers for the terrific, cheap and original food. The highlight of a meal at Yakitori Taisho is the amazing variety of skewers. The small kitchen is dominated by a long grill, where the short, bearded, bandana-clad “taisho” (or “boss” in Japanese) and his acolytes slap skewers of chicken (“yakitori”), beef, chicken wing, smelt (with roe), shrimp (in shell), shitake mushrooms, scallions, and various other meats and vegetables. The shining star of this show is the mouth-watering chicken meatballs, a must-try for anyone who visits the pub. The skewers are served on a bed of raw cabbage leaves, which make for a crude but surprisingly good accompaniment.

While you’d be sorely amiss not to sample at least one skewer, there are plenty of other dishes on the menu to tempt you. The taisho avoids the Japanese fare that most Western palates are familiar with, offering only the occasional sashimi special and not much in the way of ramen noodles. What he does give you is all the authentic, down-home, stomach-filling victuals you can imagine a tired Japanese businessman, tie askew, wolfing down near the train station on his way home. This includes some of the best agedashi-tofu I’ve ever tasted. This is a dish of tofu dusted with cornstarch and lightly fried, then served resting in a shallow broth. The tofu is topped with thin flakes of bonito that seem to wriggle with life on the plate. Other specialties include Japanese pancakes (which are savory, filled with seafood and vegetables, and covered in mayonnaise) and a variety of finger foods and sides, such as fried fish sticks with cheese, excellent fried squid chunks, a smashing potato salad, and rice balls served steamed or grilled, plain or stuffed with salmon or bonito flakes.

Of course, as pubs go, there’s a selection of Japanese beer and soft drinks, served in regular mugs or glass tankards, to help you wash down your meal. You won’t find a large variety of cocktails and liquors; this place is about simple, scrumptious food and simple, thirst-quenching drinks. Throw in the bargain prices (the set meal combinations are terrific deals) and the easygoing, affable staff who speak a broken but passable English, and it’s no surprise that the pub gets mobbed on weekends.

Even on cold winter nights, New Yorkers are happy to line up on the steps outside the restaurant or squeeze into the narrow entrance hall to wait for a table. The orange paper lantern outside is like a beacon for the hungry traveler … whether he is on his way home from work, tie askew, or just on his way to see “the boss.”

5 St. Mark’s Place, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
New York, NY 10003
212-228-5086
www.yakitoritaisho.com