It's been a looooong week, and I could use a good blogging. I hope everyone else could too! This week I'm going to write about a great little Japanese pub type place called Hagi. I would best describe it as a tapas bar with Japanese food with $12 pitchers of Sapporo and Kirin. Pretty awesome.
Chris and I went to Hagi last week before a preseason Ranger game at the Garden. We took the 1 up to 50th street and walked west towards 8th ave. Don't be confused when you get there, you definitely want to take the stairs down to the creepy basement restaurant, it's where all the goodies are! Also, make sure you get there around 5:30-6PM on weekdays and at 5PM (opening time) on weekends because if you don't, there will be a pretty long wait. The restaurant itself probably only has about 15 tables that could hold 50 people at a time. So, it's pretty tiny. But what it's lacking in size, it makes up for with tasty tidbits. Everything on the menu is pretty much under $8. woohoo!
As I was waiting for Chris to meet me there, I ordered some kim-chi and a pitcher of Sapporo. The kim-chi was exactly what I was expecting, pretty standard. It was a good start. When Chris FINALLY showed up, that little booger, we got to the good stuff. We started off with some yakitori yummies. Yakitori is basically just meet on a stick grilled with sweet terriyaki-ish sauce brushed on it. We tried the Wagyu beef, pork belly, duck, chicken skin and calf liver. I'd have to say that my favorites were the beef, duck, and chicken skin. Don't be afraid of the sound of it, it's actually amazing. Like ordering BBQ chicken and biting into the first bite and getting that awesome sweet burnt crunch but instead of being one bite, its a whole stick! Awesome! (I ordered two!).
After those babies, we got some gyoza and wasabi dumplings. The gyoza were great, very crunchy and light - in fact they were so good, Chris ordered another one just for him lol. The wasabi dumplings are great. The pork inside is seasoned like the pork in gyoza but with a hint of wasabi and I'm pretty sure the entire dumpling dough is infused with the hot stuff. It burns so good! My sinuses were cleared for a week after I ate those thangs! Finally, we ended the meal with the terriyaki squid. It was really tasty. Very tender and grilled to perfection and went well with the sweet sauce.
After the delicious meal, we went on to see the Rangers kick some ass and had a pretty great night. So definitely go there, don't be afraid that it's down in a basement, and don't be afraid of the sometimes weird food on the menu. Be adventurous! If it's on the menu, someone is ordering it and loving it. Try it!
Kim Chi!
Wasabi Dumplings
Gyoza (6)
Duck,Pork,Skin,Beefs
Liver (yum)
Terriyaki Squid
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