Go Japanese Restaurant

I miss this place. It was the only place that really served authentic Japanese food. I really loved it and I’m sad that they’re gone.

Walked past this place yesterday and to my dismay, it has closed…
Go was the first restaurant I went to upon my inaugural visit to St. Marks 8 years ago… I kept coming back for the Salmon Ikura Don, which was one of my favorite dishes in NYC. Sad to see this place go.

Stumbled on this place with a friend and was pleasantly surprised! $ 1 edamame during happy hour simply can’t be beat. I got 4 different vegetable maki rolls (all of flavors I’d never seen on a menu before: dried gourd, salted plum, some sort of root, and fermented soy beans), which were quite tasty. My friend got ramen and seemed pretty pleased with his meal.
Nothing spectacular, but better than average. Food is more creative than the typical run-​of-​the-​mill and prices are decent!

Why this place has so few stars is very odd, because it is amazing!!!
The staff is friendly, the sushi is always fresh regardless if you come after an uneventful night of bar hopping or for lunch with friends.
They have fun drink specials sometimes…
Also: okonomyaki and takoyaki without the insane wait from that other place on 9^th ave (otofuko?)

Um, as soon as you walk in, you get a slapped in the face with an overwhelming smell of fish (yeah, I still went in hoping it wasn’t the sushi but the cooked fish that would obviously smell that way, I was wrong). Nothing on the sushi menu is fresh and the portions are mediocre. Just skip it altogether. I can say I gave it a chance, took one for the Unilocal team and I won’t be going there ever again.

So-​so food, nothing special at all.
Ordered two special rolls and did not find them yummy. Special appetizer (raw clam) was good. Ordered fried ice cream (green tea flavor) and they gave me vanilla. Anyways they were quick enough to change to green tea. I was there with a friend but the waiter only gave us one spoon. And when we asked for another spoon they gave me a different one.

We tried miso ramen and katsu don, both of us ended up with diarrhea afterwards.
The taste was average, but the drink was cheap. go when happy hour

Anybody with greater (or equal to) 4 brain cells can quickly identify Go Japanese’s strategy: pray on the desperately hungry and tragically impatient saps who can’t endure the lines at the neighboring /​higher-​quality restaurants, and thus, are willing to lower their standards by two-​to-​three notches and settle here. To be clear, I don’t think there is anything wrong with this strategy, but still useful to understand where they fit.
I think most of the food on St. Mark’s is pretty delicious, so was disappointed at the quality here. Sushi was subpar, as were most of the other entrees /​appetizers we tried. Not creative, not delicious — just satiating to the starving. I believe prices here are comparable to the other places in the neighborhood, which makes zero sense. This place will do the trick, but not much more.

I enjoy reading bathroom poetry or little notes or gang signs of the walls of the restroom in different restaurants I go to. Call it whatever you like, it amuses me and has become a sick obsession. Sometimes I feel spiritually renewed, and others, well, just perplexed.
NO ID? NO DRINK!
Well, I get that one, but what’s about this minimum charge per person of $ 8?! Really? Nothing on the menu is really all that cheap, but I’d think one would come here to eat $ 8 worth of food no matter what no?
Yes, you can apparently buy the art work on the walls and not at a cheap price either.
My beau and I stumbled into this place because Ippudo had a wait of 30 – 40 minutes and it was barely after 5 PM; what’s up with that?! In my mission of wanting something warm and yummy for my tummy, I thought here would do the trick, but it was just an OK experience. Chinatown really has jaded my frame of mind as to what a pot of soup should be — overflowing and boiling hot; I got neither here.
I ended up with the yokohama hot soba noodles with fried shrimp dumplings, chicken, and some fish and my beau got the cold soba noodles with shrimp tempura on the size. We exchanged glances that translated «I don’t think this will fill either of us since we both ate 6 hours ago.» The taste was fairly ok, but I was hoping for more fish. We left content but not full.
Service was fine and I also got the feel this was family owned and operated. I think I’ll try the $ 1 pizza next time.

Octopus balls are a-​okay. Otafuku’s is better.
Fair price for a pitcher of Sapporo. I had the ramen and I thought the broth could have been better. Although the noodles was like any other ramen place. I did like the grilled skewers i.e. chicken gizzards, heart and other internal organs. No I’m not a sicko, but those parts are just good to eat.
Basically, its not anyplace special of a Japanese restaurant on St. Marks.

A friend and I randomly popped into this restaurant on this strip of Little Tokyo, I mean, St. Marks. The pluses are definitely the price, the selection, and the casual but courteous atmosphere. The downside was the actual food itself, which barely passes for okay. I liked the fact that there was a large veggie selection for my vegan friend, so she wasn’t restricted to a few dishes. But she and I concurred that most of the food wasn’t as good as they sounded. The octopus balls were more dough than octopus, and the eel roll was mostly rice. My few sushi pieces were passable, the only standout was a buttery piece of yellow tail.
All in all, good for cheap and casual meals. Not a destination, nor does it try to be.

Walking along St. Mark’s Place, you’ve every right reason to be cross-​eyed by the ubiquitous eateries on the block. Japanese? Korean? Thai? Middle Eastern? Or just a plain old slice of NY style pizza? My mom is trying to ‘control her cholesterol level’, so she wanted to go the healthy route — that would be Japanese I guess.
It’s the weekend lunch time, while everyone else is either sleeping in or boozing on brunch cocktails, this restaurant wasn’t very busy, but service was still a bit hurried or unattentive. The interior cries out Japanese in many ways (wooden furniture; hiragana, katagana and kanji written specials hung on the walls; and authentic Japanese appetizers that wouldn’t be available in other Asian-​owned restaurants.
There were several lunch specials offered. My mom went with the chirashi and udon bowl for a little less than $ 10. Not a whole lot of sashimi (no salmon… boo), but the sushi rice was nice and soft, an ample amount that she couldn’t even finish. The udon bowl was anemically decorated with 3 long stems of scallions and 2 slices of pink fish cake. The broth was a bit salty. Lastly, a side of just washed salad was heavily dressed and it wasn’t the good carrot dressing either (too much soy sauce I guess).
I just had an avocado and tuna salad. Sadly, the romaine wasn’t fresh (black spots on the leaves, yuck), no tomatoes, yet my most disliked vegetables (raw onions) were layered in. Also, if you are allergic to sesame seeds (you know, some people do), be sure to question the server in ANY Japanese restaurants. Me think sesame seeds are equivalent to the purpose of black peppers for Western cuisine.
I think the bento was a better deal (around $ 8). It’s not gourmet Japanese food, but it’s a quick fix and it seems to be a cool place to hang and drink sake or beer with friends.

It was just that, ok. Ordered the Takoyaki, okonomiyaki and a few other things. Me and another buddy ordered an abundance of food and it was totally affordable and it was still decent quality food. I would probably come back here again if I lived here, but since I don’t, I wouldn’t.
Judgement? Average japanese place with average food with reasonable prices. Could potentially be a good regular place to eat.

A casual laid back joint with a load of people chit chatting in this low ceiling restaurant while there are others who are hanging out in front for a seat. Close by (during the warm seasons) there is some great outdoor seating while you people watch.
There is a selection of Sushi/​Sashimi A La Carte, Appetizers, Meat, Seafood, Udon Soup, Dinners, Curry, Noodles, Salads, and Sushi Bar Dinners. Normally, I hit straight for the sushi & sashimi or donburi or curry to top it off with their fried ice cream.

Recent visit for one of my Asian social networking groups to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Moon Festival. Disappointedly I always seek the Bento Box for nearly every lunch and dinner meal, yet for the dinner meal there were no option. The sushi and sashami combination deluxe has Wasabi imbedded, which it did not appease me as I prefer having the option of Wasabi given.
The Plum Wine is very tasty as it left me a warm inviting feeling to briefly uplift my spirit after enduring a week’s long of extreme stress, hardship and struggles both professionally and personally.

Perhaps it was because I went late at night, but thats not unusual for St. Marks… whatever the case the sushi here was far from fresh.
I swear that the salmon was off colour and pretty tasteless.
For the amount of people in there vs the amount of noise inside the restaurant it seemed unbelievable.
Loud, unfresh, probably unhealthy.
Avoid this place.

Was not impressed with the raw foods, but the cooked dishes weren’t bad — the best of the night was the miso cod, which would have been depressing if it turned poor.
The quality of raw fish however, being as disappointing as it was, means that I would not reccend a friend to go there.
The other thing that really bugged me was the server had no idea what most of the dishes were that we wanted to order, and actually had to translate the fish names to English and point to the menu to put our orders in.

+1 star for the butt-​kicking sushi. I was a little apprehensive to try the sushi at first, but I took the chance and was well rewarded. The fish was fresh, and even the tuna was good. In my experience, decent tuna sushi is hard to come by, unless you’re willing to sacrifice your paycheck. Or fly to Japan.
I don’t understand why some people are dissing the ramen here. The shoyu ramen I had made my day. The chashu was cut a bit too thick for my liking, but was good nonetheless, and the broth was excellent. I shared a bowl with my ramen-​loving Japanese mom, and it won her stamp of approval as well. Don’t hate on the ramen.
Oh yes, I can’t forget– good service, too.

They seem to have taken away the quality of the food along with old décor. It’s so much cleaner now with the renovations and all, but why oh why did the takoyaki decrease in size and quality?! I cried a little bit inside, then decided to move on with my life.

This place used to be so much better but after they renovated their place (did ownership change?), menu has changed and food doesn’t taste as good.
And fried ice was terrible. Yikes!
So sad to see my favorite restaurant disappoint me like this.