BambooTori

This place was soooo good.
Cheap, fast, clean & most of all, delicious. Service was really friendly too. And I got free miso soup for checking in via the Unilocal app. Score!
I recommend the bacon-​wrapped asparagus, the tsukune (chicken meatball), and the pork belly skewers. To balance my heart attack on a plate, I got some brown rice w/​my meal, haha.
Worth checking out if you’re on a budget and in the Union Square/​Greenwich Village area.

This weekend only 18÷18−10÷20 $ 1 skewers And $ 2 beers.
The flavor is bleh, had better around St Marks.
Ordered the chicken, beef and pork belly skewers. The chicken was good but not great. Tasted like chicken and juicy but it lacked seasoning. It was just bland and only tasted like the dipping sauce the put on it. THe beef had no flavor, needed that sea salt flavor. The pork belly was a bit better than the beef skewer but it was not great either. Pork belly has a distinct flavor and this had none of it. I was expecting tons of pork/​bacon flavor but it was a dissatisfaction to have it.
I walk by the place everyday and would have loved to have liked it so I can eat more but it left me wanting to have it somewhere else.
Also it takes a while to get your food and a few people were not eating the rice and dumping it. Not sure of it was only that day but while I placed my order, noticed It and decided not to get the rice…
Hope it was just that day and may try it again but not ATM.
PS: the place is small and clean, not sure if they have restrooms, since its a hole in the wall.

Great idea for a little restaurant where pick-​up is ideal (no tables, just a row of stools at a counter). My friends and I stopped by after church to pick up food to eat at Union Square and take advantage of the seriously gorgeous day. The Japanese skewers are made-​to-​order so there IS a bit of a wait. The little yakitori machine is great fun to watch. They grill your options and then stick (pun totally intended) them on the machine to be dipped in sauce.
I splurged on the bacon wrapped asparagus and the tri tip. Hubby tried the buns (which are like mantao buns). Everything was fresh, tasty, and felt super healthy. The price tag feels a bit steep given the smallish entrée sizes, but if you’re in a big group, they give you a 10% discount. Take advantage of the Unilocal check in (free drink) offer or the scoutmob (free dessert). Hubby and I had the green tea mochi and the black sesame mochi. Delicious and homemade. . but not worth the typical $ 3 price tag.

So tasty. If I lived in New York, this place would be in my regular rotation of lunch spots. You choose a set meal which is four skewers with rice, salad or buns. I got the four skewers with salad (and sesame soy dressing) and on pork meatball on the side which was the perfect amount of food (and not too many coma-​inducing carbs). My favorite skewers were the asparagus bacon and chicken thigh — juicy chicken and generally flavorful skewers.
The place is teeny tiny (about 12 seats) so you’re lucky if you can snag a seat. They cook the skewers to order so it can take a bit of time (about a 5 – 7 minute wait) but it’s worth it.

You can find skewers on every corner but you can’t find Japanese skewers everywhere. Setting foot in this place makes me miss the old Wok to Walk even more. This location has seen a string of small Asian eats that haven’t lasted too long but if BambooTori is here to stay, I won’t oppose to it.
I came here for a quick, small snack and got the chicken meatballs. I thought I was going to get a deal with the prices but all I got was three small balls on a stick. I won’t complain; the meatballs weren’t so bad and the texture was actually light and fluffy. The inside was filled with scallions and the taste was actually pleasant – well, at least I know I’m getting a lot of protein there. I don’t think $ 2 for 3 balls was worth it, especially if you’re a first-​timer and you want to stay on the safe side of getting a value because they’ll be finished in a blink of an eye.
If you’ve been to the previous establishments before this, the interior has not changed at all; I’m convinced they’re all owned by the same people, or the lessor doesn’t allow change. The inside is what makes it special with the relaxed look, plus the staff is super nice – they even offered me water while I was waiting! Next time, I’ll be getting several beef skewers!

Good skewers! Good prices! Great customer service!
The skewers come out a little slow after you order, but I’ll assume it’s because they are carefully crafting and cooking the meat to perfection.
Really nice guys behind the counter. I’ll definitely be back. Pork belly is amazing.

It’s not always easy finding a place that has delicious, filling, and inexpensive items on the menu to satisfy my vegetarian and my friend’s carnivorous preferences. We almost passed this place by but I’d seen it on Unilocal in passing and we decided to pop in. I had the four vegetarian skewers, and the zucchini and portobello skewers are tied for the most delicious. I’m normally an eggplant fan but the other two definitely outshone it. My friend had nothing but good things to say about the chicken and asparagus bacon skewers.
Definitely worth stopping by for a quick and delicious lunch!

Tiny place, amazing food (Bacon wrapped asparagus… Enough said). The t-​shirts they hang on the wall add a witty edge to the overall décor of this place. Service is cheerful and helpful. Very cheap prices! Love it.

It’s clean, and the music fits the atmosphere of the place. Service was a little slow, but I assume that’s from it being pretty slow so they didn’t have much that was close to ready. In case, the yakitori they have is a nice variety — various meatballs, chicken breast, thigh, pork belly, etc — I got the latter 3, plus bacon asparagus, which was my favorite (Though 50 c extra).
for ~$ 9 you get a pretty filling lunch — a lot of rice, a few veggies, then 4 types of skewer. sort of like… a japanese halal! which is a good comparison, at least for me…

BambooTori is a Japanese yakatori restaurant on University Place. What is yakatori? It is anything that is skewered. Another term for this is kushiyaki which is skewered and grilled. Every yakatori at BambooTori is beautifully crafted. The meat pieces are all the same size and cut. It’s a matter of fact, sometimes the meat is so well lined and cut, it looks like only one piece on the skewer. Lots of finesse and care definitely went into this, you can tell. I had the make a meal, and had a choice of 4 skewers a salad or brown/​white rice. I choose the chicken meatballs, eggplant, beef tri-​tip and chicken breasts. Sounds like lots of food, but it’s not.
They come in an eco-​friendly tray, and the salad is mesclun greens with small grape tomatoes, some cucumbers slices, slivered carrots and a thin slice of tomato. You have your choice of dressing so I chose the citrus dressing.
The place is modern with a long wooden counter that has bar stools with a real low back. The chairs spin and I didn’t think they would be comfortable, but they were. There is a huge glass mirror, where lots of drawings by customers take up parts of the glass, they use these chalk ink markers to draw like I did while waiting for my meal. Gave me something to do while my meal was cooking up, but it was fun and entertaining.
Employees wear the BambooTori T-​shirt. It says everything is better on a stick and has the BambooTori logo on the front with is 3 balls on a skewer, which is cute and clever. It would be if food here was more affordable but because so much work went into those tiny little skewers, I doubt they could charge any lower. The food was tasty, but light. The four skewers I had each perfectly cooked and skewered were delicious but not filling. The eggplant cut into longish cubes, the chicken meatballs were really tender and soft, the tri-​tip was soft and had a good mouth feel. The chicken breasts were cut and shaped so well, along with the tri-​tip they look like one piece of meat. The teriyaki/​soy sauce went well with the skewers. They also had 2 pieces of pickled pickles and some pickled red onions.
If you are hungry, you will need to order more. If you need something more filling, you will either have to order many skewers or leave feeling hungry. There weren’t many customers at the time I went, just me and one other person eating a meal. So if your food is a work of art, will it sell? I’m not sure. Time will tell if BambooTori can make it.

Who doesn’t like meat sticks in mouth =D ?
Décor: ⁴⁄₅
— fun clean modern
— bar style seating on the back wall against a mirror ~6 seats
— pens provided so you can doodle on the back wall mirror
— bench seating on front side for ~4 people
Service: ⁴⁄₅
— no complaints, friendly, smiles
Food: ⁵⁄₅
— 7.95 $ gets gets you a combo of: 4 basic skewers of choice, over rice or salad
— I really like how you can pick salad instead of rice, they don’t skimp on portions either
— I had the Beef meatball, chicken with scallion, portobello — all were tender, delicious
— Tried the Beef-​tri-​tips after — these are a must have fresh off the grill — medium rare, super tender, make sure you eat these while they’re still hot
— condiments available: siracha, spicy mayo, soy sauce,
–
–They have daily specials available from 3 – 6 and 9-​close
–At 7.95, you get stuffed with delicious fresh and healthy food (if you can stay away from the bacon and pork belly =P, I’ll definitely be back to try the other items.

Sadly, I am not sure why this place gets so many good reviews. I rather hit up St. Marks than to eat skewers here.
I tried the skewer set with chicken thigh, pork belly, zucchini and eggplant with a side salad. They all tasted pretty ordinary to me. For ~$ 9, I was not very full and I do not have a big stomach to start with.
It was worth a try though and if you do, definitely use the Unilocal check-​in and the Scout mob deals, and keep a look out for their daily specials board, that tells you which free goodies you can get on different days of the week.

Six words that instantly give this place five stars:
Bacon-​wrapped asparagus on a stick.
You like veggies, you like pork products, you like sticks.
You thus love BambooTori and want to eat nothing but meats and veggies on sticks for years to come.
This place is great for a first date, grub after da club, somewhere to take your kid, someplace to take your college professor, somewhere to take someone you don’t really want to impress but they end up being impressed anyway.
I wouldn’t take your girlfriend here to break up with her though because she might eat all of your meat and then stab you with the stick. They are pretty pointy on one end.
BambooTori, you are the man with the stick. And I love you.

Small place but good food! I got the chicken breast, zucchini, eggplant, and portobello and everything was delicious. The dressing was so zesty. Also got the salad and that was pretty good. It’s a plastic dish of different kind of greens with the dressing that you pick, which I picked the bamboo tori dressing. It was good! For $ 8 it’s a good healthy meal.
Also if you use the scoutmob deal you get free dessert, which is rice pudding in the form of balls. My friend thought it was too sweet but I didn’t– I loved it!
Really good customer service too!

My experience coming to the store promised quality and well executed skewers.
— Beef Tri-​tips were a juicy meat. Light Teriyaki sauce that came with enhanced the meat flavor even more.
— Chicken Thigh was another hit! I enjoyed lightly grilled outside texture and flavor with juicy meat.
— Bacon Wrapped Asparagus didn’t leave any greasy after taste (so as pork belly skewer) and bacon didn’t over power asparagus, it was well balanced and tasty skewer.
There was one new item that is very promising and exciting. They offer steam bun for only $ 1 (see my photos) and you make your own. Ippudo has Hirata bun that you can choose porkbelly or chicken but two for $ 9 is a bit much for those little buns but at Bamboo Tori, you can create your won with many different choices of skewers that you can make and add their homemade spicy mayo (Q-​pie) with their pickled red onion and cucumber that comes with to make your your won creation bun. One skewer is enough for two buns for me. I made mine with grilled porkbelly. Whole experience was a bit different from Ippudo but closer to Momofuku.
It’s true the staff and owner are very friendly. I appreciate putting customer first service that I often experience in Japan. It’s very attractive.

I really liked this place. It’s nice and close for a quick bite or a quick snack when you’re in the area.
The food is nice and fresh and served hot. The combos are a great idea… to share or for yourself. The salad is delicious with bamboo tori dressing. I had beef meatball, pork meatball, pork belly and chicken. The meatballs are meatballs, but the chicken was nice and moist and the pork belly never a miss.
It’s cool… while you wait, they have entertainment for you. There are markers for the wall so you can add your own mark. Good luck finding space… or just write over someone else’s stuff. LOL.

Juicy meat, fluffy rice, friendly staff, clean shop, and good deal! (thank you, Scoutmob) It still came out to about $ 20 for 2 ppl, but well worth the experience!
Out of our bentos, the king of skewers is definitely awarded to the bacon asparagus and beef tri-​tips. Beef ball and zucchini were also good, everything was just juicy, chewy, and bursting with flavor. I loved the white rice as well, it paired nicely with the skewer sauce. Like many other reviews mentioned, the staff is super nice. They’ll strike up a chat with us and we had some chuckles *nyuk nyuk nyuk*
Tshirts hanging on the wall if you feel like raising some eyebrows of passer-​byers, and the graffiti mirror is equipped with multicolored markers for you to tag (not much space though). Basically, we had lots of fun and barely stopped for a second since entering the shop to finishing and leaving.
Scoutmob gave us free dessert, which was the rice pudding balls, and Bamboo Tori let us combine offer with Unilocal check-​in, which gave us soda: D Remember to pick up a loyalty card and claim your reward after every 4 meals!

2^nd time, didn’t disappoint.
Skeweres were bigger and more filling (I love how they actually read and responded to my last review — you guys are awesome!)… and still soooo juicy and tender… brown rice was cooked perfectly…
Staff is still super friendly and helpful, PLUS the guy helping me gave me a meal card (buy 4, get one free) and was kind enough to punch out one meal for the last time I went :-)
love this place… will def start going more often… mainly so I can fill up my meal card lol

Get to the Chase:
Pros:
1) The owner himself works there making sure the customers are satisfied
2) Facebook «Like» their page and get 1 free skewer
3) Check-​In on Unilocal and get 1 free drink
4) Astoundingly affordable $ 1.50−3.00. So worth it, and perfect for portion control (those who want to eat loads can easily do so without breaking bank, and those who are just a bit peckish can just order a few)
5) Owner mentioned plans of including some more exotic items later in the year (gizzards, livers and hearts)! Can’t wait!
6) Very easy to get to (right next to Union Square)
7) Yummy sauces
8) Quick service, tasty bites
Cons:
1) Small place, so can get cramped quickly during peak times.

Have you heard of the Attraction Triangle Game Theory? Basically, it’s a tradeoff triangle where people believe that you can only have two of the three qualities of attraction: Intelligence, Emotional Stability, and Good Looks. You can never get all three. (See for more:
). My guy friends swear by it, analyzing every female by it, to the point that I have started looking at people through this lens as well.
How does this relate to BambooTori, you may ask? The ATGT is exactly the same theory I have applied to food in the following criteria:
1) Quick
2) Healthy
3) Japanese
No matter where I go, whether it’s Midtown, Union Square, St. Marks… I’ve always had to trade off one of these three traits. If I want Healthy Japanese, I have to wait in long lines or forever at the counter. If I want Fast Japanese, it’s definitely not healthy. If its Fast and Healthy, goodbye Tokyo.
Well, not any longer. Enter BambooTori. Thank you for breaking the strong bonds of the tradeoff triangle and for allowing me to enjoy healthy Japanese fast food at a convenient location.
The restaurant houses a unique machine that allows for really fast skewer cooking. Usually, yakitori takes painstakingly long if made fresh to order and I really appreciated the new concept. I went during their grand opening weekend and was able to enjoy a variety of yakitori, all served on bamboo skewers (hence the name). Like any new restaurant, I know they are still working out some kinks on service and portion size. The owners are super nice and willing to strike up some good conversation.
Standouts included the tender beef tri-​tips, the asparagus wrapped in crispy bacon, and the sweet rice pudding balls. Sets of skewers are served over a bed of brown or white rice that catch some of the delicious house sauce (made with quality mirin and sake), topped with bonito flakes and served with pickled veggies on the side. They have a small menu, but it’s well thought out and offers a variety of items that will satisfy vegetarians, meat lovers, savory folks, and sweet tooths alike.