Shochu & Tapas – Aya
“The food menu is simple, but interesting with a variety of interesting takes on Japanese izakaya dishes that go great with shochu or sake.”
“I also really enjoyed the Uni Egg, Shimmering Chicken, and Steak.”
“Al dente, bacon added just the right amount of saltiness, and the sauce was not overpowering.”
Shochu & Tapas – Aya
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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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.
I think this place is relatively new! Was kind of empty, has few reviews, but it has a good ambiance and cute décor. I was under the impression that this is more Japanese-influenced than it is, but the food is really more Italian. The entree I tried was the seafood risotto, shared between two. I liked it a lot — it was not as creamy as you would expect and very flavorful. Comes with a decent amount of seafood as well.
I haven't tried the Shochu here, but I would assume it is good here! They have a very large selection.
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)
pate bruschetta – 3* (the pate 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*
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 pate 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!
Food here is super fusion. A mix of French/Italian/Japanese.
What we ordered:
-Loved the salmon scallop avocado bruschetta!
-egg on egg was interesting. Def an acquired taste. A little too slimy of a texture for me.
-ratatouille had a lot of flavor. Yummy!!
-risotto was not what I expected. The rice was bigger and more al dente than usual. But came with a good amount of seafood on it.
They were really nice with help us split our food since we were sharing everything. Really nice staff. Cute ambience with a piano up front!
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.
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. Decor 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.
Really liked their lunch special set, which includes yuzu grilled salmon, salad, miso soup and a small bowl of rice. Salmon was a little bit over-cooked but flavor-wise was pretty decent. It was also paired with shaved radish and mashed potato salad – nicely present with good portion size. They also serve curry/katsu bowls and noodle soups for lunch special.
Probably because we came in earlier and thus saw plenty of empty seats. Good for a quick lunch in midtown east area.