Shochu & Tapas – Aya

The food is very good. Not really traditional Japanese izakaya more Italian Japanese fusion. Service is very friendly and attentive. Aya is a treasure! Incredible selection of sochu! The small plates are varied and tasty. Especially the karage. The pasta is well executed. Al Dente.

I took advantage make a reservation to wedding anniversary.
Meal It was nice to me to present the Cava was also a very suitable restaurant on the anniversary delicious. It is recommended.

Just a short take.
I had a pretty decent katsu don lunch here. Miso soup and salas included.
The pork cutlet was tender and the rice was on point.
I will come back and add more later.

I have nerve seen that this restaurant is packed with customers during lunch time. So, I was awkward to enter, but I decided to try anyway.
I ordered a lunch set of hamburger steak with graded radish and shiso.
It is very average at best. Hamburger steak should have so many panko in it, because I couldn’t taste beef taste much. Shiso is not fresh. I don’t know, but their presentation of dish is not good. It doesn’t stimulate my appetite. And the smell from rest room was too strong…
It was not worth to $ 19 including tip and tax. I will not come back here again.
Lastly, I was the only customer at the restaurant when I left. It was around 1pm. I wonder how long this restaurant can survive…

«Seriously?» That’s what all of my friends said at the table when the waitress said «happy hour ends at 7:00pm, I can’t give you happy hour price, this place is very strict» when I asked her for my drink at 7:00pm (per iPhone) after trying to get her attention at least for 5mins.
I expected much better customer service from a Japanese place. I will NOT going back there.
I’ve been telling my friends this story, and they all said «seriously?!»
Food service was very slow, too. I would give zero if I could.

Recommended gem on 50^th and 5^th. Good service and good food with happy hour specials on drinks. It’s definitely the kind of place you order family-​style and just try a bit of everything. My friend and i especially loved the scallop and salmon tartare with avocados. The crusty, warm bread that it came with was absolutely addictive. Personally, i liked the sea urchin/​uni pasta with clams. The noodles definitely were well-​seasoned in some type of tasty broth before being topped with sea urchin. Get the crème brûlée if you absolutely have room for more. It’s bigger than normal portions from other restaurants, topped with fresh fruit.

You need to understand, before you go in, that this is not a purist Japanese izakaya. It’s kind of modern/​fusion Japanese/​Mediterranean. There’s an extensive shochu menu, a few sakes and beer.
It’s upscale with a largely Japanese clientele. We loved the fried chicken and enjoyed a number of other appetizers. We didn’t try any main courses, but will be back for them.
Very friendly staff. Easy to get in if you go in the evening.

Good value. Waitress remembered everything we ordered without writing anything down! (we couldn’t even remember what we ordered!)
6 of us went and here is a detailed list of our review:
DRINKS DURING HAPPY HOUR — 5*
FRIED CHICKEN — 4.5*
FRIED BABY OCTOPUS — 5*
STEAK & FRIES — steak is 4.5* and fries are 3*
OYSTER & MUSHROOM GRATIN — 5* (flavor, cheesy, big oysters)
Russian potato bruschetta — 3*
Mushroom bruschetta — 4*
SSA bruschetta — 3* (but could use more lemon and salt)
pâté bruschetta — 3* (the pâté is too buttery not so livery)
calamari bruschetta — 4* (good spiciness)
rice croquette — 3* (could use more sauce)
sardine in oil — 3*
steamed mussels — 3*
ratatouille — 3*
pork sausages & daikon — sausages are 2.5* and daikon are 4*
chocolate cheesecake — 3.5*
panna cotta — 3*

sorry, this place actually really sucked. oddly enough it was all japanese customers and so you think that’s a good thing, NOT. We had the clam, uni pasta. The uni was fully cooked cause it sat on top of the hot pasta too long. The clam was so fishy it gave me chills as I ate it.
Than we tried to order another drink to make the HH, the waitress refused to serve us another drink until we finished, than sneakily wait past 7PM to tell us we couldn’t order a drink at HH prices anymore.
BS!

talk about disappointment. been wanting to come here for months. the space itself is pretty and has a small but nice ambience. the menu looked amazing and every japanese/​italian fusion place in the city that i’ve been to (dieci, basta pasta — although i hate their service– and greenwich grill) i absolutely love their food… sadly until this place.
came with a friend and ordered the charcuterie board (the waitress plopped it down and didn’t say anything about what the meats were. so i can only assume that the liver pâté i believe i got was yummy; everything else was underwhelming), egg on egg and spaghetti vongole with uni.
as said, charctuerie was eh, egg on egg had a poached egg and little uni. not that great. but the biggest disappointment was the spaghetti vongole. it was borderline disgusting. pasta itself was nice and buttery but the clams. tasted like no one washed them and were not fresh. clams had sand in them and were super fishy. my friend was actually gagging after she ate one. Spaghetti vongole is one of my favorite dishes (in the world!!! and with uni… score, right!?) but no… gross.
also, i did not like the service here. somewhat friendly but in a very put-​off way. we came during happy hour and i ordered wine. 10 minutes before happy hour ended i wanted another glass of wine but was told i was not able to get another drink until i completely finished the one i was drinking? annoying. but then the waitress said she would give me another wine when I finish, even after happy hour is over. my friend heard this too and thus 2 minutes after happy hour ended she said no to the glass of happy hour wine I tired to order and gave me a blank stare when i tried to repeat what i guess i thought i heard. annoying again.
overall menu looks great on paper but huge disappointment. not a place I would even want to try again and give another chance. too many other good places to try!

This place is awesome and had a great atmosphere. They are fairly generous though mind you this is a tapas restaurant. Menu is great and they have my favorite beer, ginga kogen.
Top notch.

You got try this place. Largest list of shochu in the city and food is great. If you tried while after the opening in 2013, better give it a try again now. The food menu got much, much better recently.

Don’t even know where to start…
The only redeeming feature of the food was it’s small portions. Just terrible.

Shochu & Tapas is a welcome addition to the neighborhood and scores high marks for the shochu and sake collection. They also offer some sweet happy hour deals. This is a Japanese tapas restaurant and although casual, it’s not as casual as your typical izakaya. It has a classy, long marbled bar area and food is served with aesthetics in mind. Some of the food was more memorable than others. I liked the tori dango quite a bit – chicken meatballs with mushrooms wading in a conservative serving of black truffle broth. Good combination of flavors. Beef steak was a surprisingly large portion size and the slices of meat were very tender. The uni egg (scrambled eggs with sea urchin on top) wasn’t bad, but I like Sakamai’s similar Egg on Egg on Egg better. Don’t waste your time getting the aya curry – $ 12 for plate of plain curry and rice, not really worth it.

Let’s be clear. You might think this is an izakaya, but it’s more of an izakaya-​style place. It’s not divey and comfortable like an izakaya ought to be. Rather it’s quite the opposite. Mood lighting, marble tables, and fancy plating — the point of Aya is to market izakaya style food to an upscale, East Side market. Our theory is that they bought the restaurant with all the tables and chairs from its previous incarnation — our guess is that it used to be an Italian or Spanish restaurant. Furthermore, there’s really weird bossa nova muzak playing on the speakers constantly, and I’m pretty sure I noticed the music repeat itself.
So, off to a weird start. The service is extremely attentive, but in weird ways. At a place this fancy, I expect oshibori (hot towel) but wasn’t given one, and I felt pressured to order a drink to start, so I got beer — a $ 7 Kirin draft. Which was a bit pricey for me since you can get that anywhere. No problem though. I also ended up trying a kokuto (brown sugar) shochu that I really enjoyed.
The food was good, I suppose, but served in vexingly small portions for the price. The star of the show was the ‘okomeyaki’, like an okonomiyaki, but made of crispy rice — a great innovation worthy of any izakaya here in the city.
Suffice it to say that we left hungry, and ended up at Donburiya for round 2, and had our fill for less than half the price here. However, even if I did want to spend the money I spent here I would rather go to B-​Flat in Tribeca where the atmosphere is much nicer.

What upset me most about this relative newcomer is that when I came here on a Saturday night, the dining room portion of the restaurant was completely empty the whole night while the bar was slightly filled. I hope on weekdays it fares better because I want this place to last.
Must-​orders were the Japanese fried chicken (one of the best I’ve ever had… light, crispy batter, moist dark meat inside, perfect flavors) and the yellowtail carpacio (very good quality fish served in a tasty soy sauce/​sesame oil mix). Considering trying the spaghetti carbonara as well.
Service was very attentive, although that could be because I was the only one there, but very friendly as well.
Even though there are tons of izakayas in the area, this is definitely a place to check out.

A great shochu specialty place.
The décor is not your typical izakaya. Instead looks and feels more like a café… Think granite top tables and leather chairs. I think I prefer the Shochu Bar Hatchan atmosphere.
Huge selection of shochu and fairly large list of food items to go with the drinks.
We got the sweet potato shochu which was excellent — not sweet and aromatic like sake, but very dry and hard on the palate.
Definitely get the bottle if you like shochu — definitely worth the money and around 30 – 40 dollars a bottle for the entry ones which are excellent.
I would definitely come back if I’m in the mood for shochu.

In what seems to be a clandestine building only marked by the number «247 «lies Aya.
Now while izakayas are popping up all over the city, Aya is one place you will want to check out. Great for after work drinks, meeting up with friends or even date night. Décor is modern with ambiance that could be only describe as sexy and sophisticated.
I didn’t have the chance to try the fare here but what i did try is their ozeki nigori sake. Nigori which is an unfiltered type of sake (notice particals of rice) has a milky consistency which is followed by a sweet after taste. Generally I am not a fan of that type but somehow the stars aligned that night and i really enjoyed it.
Service was prompt and delightful. Even the owner Edwin came by and helped me choose a different type of sake based on my preference. From the batender to the waitress, they were all very affable which really adds character and class to the establishment.
I’ll come back to try the food but if it’s anything like it’s overall presentation then Aya just might have made me their regular.

Snow day? Psh… can’t stop me from going out on a Friday night. Trekked to work and decided to visit a dear old friend who opened up his own restaurant, Shochu and Tapas. Just based on some of the Unilocal reviews and facebook pictures, it looked and sounded like a nice place.
Ventured out during the snow storm and my first impression as I got my tour was warm and comforting. The dim lighting and the ambience was very romantic. The back room (where all the tables were set up) had an elegant touch. The jazz music in the background definitely gave it a light Frank Sinatra vibe. Loved it. If you want to have a romantic date, I suggest sit in the back room. The chairs are super comfy and very relaxing. If you want a more of a fun social experience, I suggest sitting at the bar. It gives it a different feel and lets you interact more.
As I sat at the bar, it seemed like my cup was never empty and kept refilling itself with Ozeki Nigori unfiltered sake (ahem…). Unfiltered sake is becoming my go to drink when I’m at a Japanese place. Sweet and cloudy. I also tried the Oyama Tomizu junmai sake and it was surprisingly really good. Clear taste with a little body towards the finish.
The bartender, Erina, was such a doll and a sweetheart. She put so much livelihood into the place that it made everyone have a good time. If you ever meet her, she’ll make you laugh and feel right at home. And I’m sure she can hold her liquor too if you drink with her. Especially the Jim Bean plus plum wine. Kumpai! Is that how you say it Erina?
My friend spent a long time planning and opening this place up and you can see how much hard work was put into it. From the kitchen to the table setting, everything was detailed oriented and meticulous. He’s very knowledgeable in the sake selection they have to offer. Which region, what the sake was made from, I’m still trying to soak in all that info.
Some of the dishes I had:
— Scrambled egg with wasabi and uni on top — it was pretty good but the cold egg and the warm uni had a different taste experience. I guess it was different and not use to the different temperature contrast. The uni and wasabi compliment each other very well though.
— Yellowtail carpaccio with light soy sauce and wonton crunchies. This reminded me of the Chinese steamed fish entrée with hot oil and soy sauce. Good, but I was expecting something different. Maybe more raw?
— Fried chicken tatsou (?) — yummy but I wish it had a sauce to pair with it.
— Spaghetti carbonara with bacon — this was actually my favorite dish. Maybe because I’m a big pasta fan. Al dente, bacon added just the right amount of saltiness, and the sauce was not overpowering. Delicious.
The food menu has a lot of potential and I hope it expands more the next time I come back. Can’t wait!
Love the atmosphere and the experience. You can spend hours here and not notice how much time pass by because of the good time you’re having. Added an extra star for that.
Clientele consisted of mostly Japanese customers which added the authentic experience. I hope this place stays a secret but knowing how things are, it’ll be popular quite quickly.

Aya Otake, the only certified shochu sommelier currently working in the New York City area, recently left the lovely but tiny Shochu Bar Hatchan, to open her own place, Shochu & Tapas — Aya. This bar and restaurant has a sedate lounge feel with jazz playing softly in the background. The food menu is simple, but interesting with a variety of interesting takes on Japanese izakaya dishes that go great with shochu or sake.
The shochu menu immediately became one of the best in the city with some products not available anywhere else to my knowledge. Both glass and bottle service are available. Draft Asahi beer is also available along with sake, whiskey, and wine, but shochu is the star as evidenced by the name.
Shochu is the traditional distilled spirit of Japan, often made by hand in family run distilleries in small towns in southern Japan, it pairs amazingly well with food and is the only spirit in which you can really taste the essence of the natural ingredients. Barley, Japanese short-​grain rice, and sweet potato are the most common, but Aya also carries Okinawan Awamori (long grain Thai rice), sugar cane, and sesame shochus.
The staff is warm and friendly and knowledgeable. Both staff members that I met on my first visit were from Kyushu, the island where 90% of shochu is made. I’m so happy that we finally have a place like this in Manhattan where not only is shochu available, but great shochu is available, served in a relaxed atmosphere by knowledgeable servers. I’m going to have fun exploring the food menu with the various shochu pairings.
Kampai!