Nabe Harlem

This place is not authentic Japanese food.
I’ll start with the positives: good location, relaxing ambiance and clean premises.
Now onto why I’m giving this place 1 star… Our waitress started off friendly but became surly when my date sent back her disgusting food. The food here is microwaved and the plating is sloppy. My soup had splatter all inside the bowl as if it’d been dumped in the bowl. The ingredients tasted fresh but they were scant — the mushrooms in my soup consisted of only three very thinly sliced pieces of a mushroom. There was also very little soup — not even half a bowl full. — for the price
After my date immediately sent her food back, the waitstaff (incl the manager) huddled around and gossiped about us for doing so — very unprofessional!!!
The main tick in my wheel was the looooong wait time for the food. We waited nearly an hour for soup and stir fry even tho we were literally the ONLY customers. And our appetizer was brought out WITH our entrees. Why, Sway?!

I ordered the beef udon and it was so bad that I thought I had to write a review. It was deli meat in a salty brine served at room temperature. It was inedible.

Where do I begin. Went last night to listen to some house music. It is alot smaller than I thought. Seriously $ 20.00 drink/​meal requirement if you can’t find a space at bar. How is an establishment run out of Corona’s on a Saturday night? I order a Blue Moon and they have no oranges for garnish and the beer was so hot she brings a tin bucket fill with ice and we still needed to have glasses with ice to drink beer. I know there are some folks that drink hot beer, I ain’t the one. The «pizza» was more like a Matzo cracker with cheese and sauce. Nothing to brag about on the food end at all. As for service, I will refrain-​everyone needs a job. I pray that Nabe Harlem make some serious improvements.

Terrific place to hear amazing music with a switched on crowd of people.
LOVE open mike night on Mondays where the singers are world renowned. I met a singer who was there from Poland. Brilliant! Turns out he’s really well known in Europe! Berta and Patience who have put this amazing evening together were formally held jam sessions at St. Nick’s Pub. They’re doing it for the love of music! Bless them. So inspiring and thrilling being there!

Granted this is Harlem and everything here in this neighborhood is just soul food. But when the awning looks like a legit Japanese restaurant you kind of expect Japanese food. The waitress was very helpful and polite, but the food wasn’t good. They sold these Thai chicken wings and it was just fried chicken with some Thai sauce on it. It was also over cooked so it made it worse. Good perks is that everyday they try to have something going on. For instance on Mondays it’s jazz night. And I think Thursday or Friday it’s open mike.

Wonderful dining experience at Nabe! Good food, good service and convenient location, adds up to a good time for all. Yesterday, a group of friends decided to try a new place to eat and lucked up on Nabe. We ordered appetizers and was delighted with our food and intimate atmosphere that allowed us to kick back and relax. I particularly enjoyed the kale wrap and wings!!! Looking forward to returning and enjoying their afterwork live music!

Went to Nabe tonight. I almost didn’t leave this review, but after reading some of the fake ones (5 stars on OpenTable? Really!?) I decided I just had to.
Met the BF Underground, who had ordered a beer. We were the only 2 people at the bar, with 2 people at the tables who were there to listen to jazz. Some said jazz would be Underground, some upstairs, general confusion ensued. The bartender says he’ll be back. OK, 15 minutes go back, no bartender. Finally he gets back, and spends about 10 minutes talking to someone about sangria, when all I want is a glass of wine, which would have taken him a minute (literally) to pour me. I decide not to order anything and we closed the tab. So we wasted a half hour downstairs and decided to get noodles at a place we like on Amsterdam. However, it’s too cold for the walk and I suggest we just eat upstairs and listen to jazz. There were 6 people at the restaurant when we got there.
We sit down, and it takes about 10 – 15 minutes for the waitress to take our order. BF gets a beer, I ask for house white. About 10 min. later the waitress comes to double check whether I wanted red or white, although she had a note pad and was presumably writing stuff down.
I get my white wine, and I don’t touch it until my BF gets his beer, so we can cheer. About 10 minutes go by, they tell him his original beer is not available, so he gets something else. The cooler where they keep the beers is behind some curtains, so the waitress needs to walk behind my BF to get the cold beer, walks bar to the bar, and comes back, with the same beer, plus a napkin.
I finally drink my wine and it’s room temperature, which any person in the service industry must know, room temperature white (especially when cheap) it’s basically piss hot (pardon my French). I go to the waitress, because I just know she’s not showing her face at our table for at least 30 minutes) and ask for chilled white. She tells me all they have chilled in Chardonnay. How is this possible? What type of business are you running here? Fine, I’ll take whatever you have chilled.
10 minutes later, the waitress puts a glass in front of me and says, and this is a direct quote, because I was sure to write it down, since I couldn’t believe it. «We found some chilled for you.» I was speechless, but now, in the comfort of my own home, let me just say: WHAT?! You, a restaurant, happened to just FIND some chilled WHITE wine? Again, what kind of business are you running here?
We wait about 45 minutes, and no food. This whole time the live jazz was amazing, mind you, but we were hungry. The waitress comes with some apology, saying the orders were messed up and to give her a few minutes. She comes back, less than 5 minutes later, with my noodles. So gross, I couldn’t eat half of them. 15 minutes later, the BF still had no food. We had to cancel the order and ended up next door at Harlem BBQ, where we were seated and had our order taken in less than 2 minutes form our arrivals.
The manager came and apologized and was nice enough to take 50% off our order (I guess since I only ate 50% of my food), I’m sure in the hopes of us not leaving a bad review. But I’m sorry lady, what a horrible experience! Awful, just awful! Horrible service, horrible food, disgusting warm wine. I wouldn’t give this place 0 stars if I could, I think 1 star is reasonable, because of the music.
I don’t think this place will stay open long if they keep up this terrible service, which is a shame, because the neighborhood could really use a spot like this. But honestly, worst place I’ve ever eaten at in Harlem.

Cute spot for live music but I’ll never go back for dinner– I ordered Pizza & waited over 20mins just for a «to go box» I left with my food regardless (see how in photo) and the bartender obviously didn’t care

I came here yesterday for brunch, $ 35 with a prix menu and a choice of an unlimited drink. awesome. Well not so much. We was part of a large group that came as well as a separate group that was there as well.
Now the brunch was from 12 – 5 we arrived about 3:30 it was pure madness… lack of servers and bartenders. we finally got a table was told by the server we may not be able to order because the chef left? Huh? Then she came back with great news we could put our orders in 20 minutes later she return to advise us the kitchen was out of food so no food. But if we just wanted to drink it would be $ 20. Umm thats great but we actually wanted to eat…
I am giving this place a two star why, because we left and went next door to eat and returned for the kareoke which was great! Although our large party was reserved in advanced they could not handle the load and its ashame because the food that i did see around looked delish although it was mentioned by other patrons that it took over an hour to receive. but they seriously need to get it together.

My party andI waited and hour and a half for our food. It was cold rubbery tasteless. Simply awful. The staff was nice and kept apologizing, the drinks were good..

The noodles were underwhelming. The plus is the $ 20 table minimum when they had live music was that it counted toward your food and drink and the live music was really good and lasted a good amount of time. I will return but the food was just average.

It’s amazing that such a nice room in the wonderful Apollo Theater area is so damn awful… Only about 20 people there (being generous), and yet a 45 minute wait for drinks AFTER they were ordered… Then the longer wait for food, all orders confused… Food was just OK, but not worth the wait. To top it off, many, many problems with processing a good credit card due to «poor internet coverage», and their inability to provide a printed receipt… And then a 10 minute wait for a hand written one…
Nasty restroom to boot…
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

Delicious food, great setup and lighting, super friendly staff and owner came up to us and said hi! There’s also a downstairs bar that’s bumbling with great music, I love the place and would very much recommend it! I had the beef hot noodle with soba (DELIsH) and my girlfriend had the chicken curry hot noodle and was great!
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone wanting to feel a real Harlem vibe with a modern twist and this is officially my favorite central Harlem restaurant by far

Very dissapointed.
I have tried a couple of times, but I have been always dissapointed except my first time.
Taste always change. Only first time was good.
Service is not good. The server doesn’t remember what I ordered, cannot do two things at the same time which all server does. We waited for 45 min-​1hr to be served our food.
I would never come back.

Held an event here recently and I have nooooooo complaints concerning NABE Harlem. The staff was attentive. The food and drinks were satisfying. I even peeked upstairs at the other event and heard some awesome Jazz. Overall everyone in my party had a wonderful time, I look forward to returning.
Oh BTW this venue always has something going on everyday of the week. I think this is a welcomed addition to Harlem.

I really, really wish I loved this spot a little more. I’m always craving a bowl of piping hot udon, especially when it’s cold out. However, this place was really such a disappointment. My friend and I both ordered beef udon and shared a bottle of sake. The udon itself costs $ 12-​$ 15 depending on size and you have the option to add on toppings for $ 2 each. My friend added a few toppings but I stuck with just the udon itself. When I say udon itself, I literally mean… JUST UDON. Besides a few bits of beef, scallion, and broth… there really wasn’t much to my bowl of noodles. Maybe I’m just used to udon back home in California that’s packed with toppings and I guess my udon here could have been if I had opted to pay for more toppings. I just couldn’t justify spending $ 20 on a bowl of noodles that I could easily make at home though. I finished my entire bowl feeling quite dissatisfied and my friend seemed like he was still hungry when we left.
I’ll probably give this place another try, since it’s still a relatively new establishment. The ambience is nice and intimate, so it makes a pretty great date spot. Only downside, your date may not be impressed by the food.

I’ve been here twice, once for takeout and once for dinner.
Atmosphere: Place is small but nicely decorated. Don’t recommend coming in large groups.
Service: Waitress was helpful in helping us decide toppings.
Food: I’ve had the beef soba noodles and it was pretty good. I also had the vegetable Udon with thick noodles with kimchi and it was delish.
I hear they have live music in the lounge downstairs; I would love to check it out.
Great addition to the area!

This review is for the restaurant – very hip.
The menu is quite simple. Several appetizers, all wonderful, and vegetarian. Then come the noodles: soba and udon – available hot or cold.
The snowy first day of spring called for the hot. The staff is very friendly and accommodating. Since there is officially only one vegetarian option, we asked about other suggestions – not that the available option was not satisfying. It turns out that almost all items can be made vegetarian.
Great place in Harlem!

«Real love I’m searching for the real love Someone to set my heart free/​Real love
I’m searching for a real love.» — Mary J. Blige
I think most of the high reviews of this place is for their bar/​lounge or by friends of the Owners. I had high hopes for this few month’s old business, with a promising front entrance, that seemed to offer a little diversity for the neighborhood. But just like the Cover Song muzak station playing, Mary J. Blige «tribute» band performing downstairs (with a packed house for a Wednesday night), everything about Nabe Harlem is just that– an Imitation for the real thing.
One star for the newish nice waitress. She tried hard, but seemed to still get yelled at by the host for packing the wrong take-​out order and to sweep the floors. We got there at 7pm on a Wednesday, as one couple was leaving. We were the only people in the restaurant. The waitress also had to serve the customers downstairs in the lounge– bringing bowls of hot soup outside, down the stairs, into the bar.
The boy got the Veggie Udon Noodles $ 11, which came in a Giant bowl (impressive, til you look closer). The broth was flavorless and tasted like water with a splash of soy sauce, the udon was soggy and fell apart, and the «vegetables» consisted of tempura carrot and a many slices of RAW onions. The tempura dough fell apart within contact of the water and the soup became a big bowl of batter water. His side of Tempura Tofu $ 2.75 tasted like freezer-​burned sliced tofu, mildly warmed up.
My Maitake Mushroom Tempura $ 3 sounded promising (PS. the Staff didn’t know what most of the dishes consisted of– I ordered this anyway), what came were two large greasy pieces of oyster mushrooms. The mushrooms turned out to be raw on the inside (is that poisonous?) and the batter was also kind of raw. I got a plain Cold Soba $ 10. It was NOT Soba, barely tasted of buckwheat flour. It was basically thin whole wheat spaghetti. I’m trying to stay Gluten-​free and can tolerate a little, but for someone with major Gluten issues, can’t this cause major legal issues for their business?!! The wakame seaweed was alright, weirdly salted, tasted like it wasn’t soaked for very long. The fish cake was flavorless and seemed recently defrosted, the scallion garnish were in huge chunks and shredded haphazardly. It was like kids putting this food together. Even if they bought a pack of Udon with bullion mix from the Asian Grocery Store and made it, it would taste better than this. Soba takes 2 Minutes to boil!
It was Just. All. Wrong.
To finish, their computer system when down and they were only accepting Cash. The Boy had to run to the the Duane Reade to get cash. Disappointed for a business that wants to try to be different, but should stick to what they know as a bar/​lounge. They seem to be doing well with different nights for jazz, r&b, and karaōke. They also seem to have a steady stream of take-​out orders– so sad for those customers awaiting food in their cozy homes. Such a shame for the Young Professionals in the neighborhood or Residents who grew up in the area– creating their perception of how Japanese noodles should be. If the Owner supposedly lived in Japan, it’s disappointing, because he’s taking shortcuts to represent a culture that has such high respect for food and ingredients. I really hope they get a new Cook and re-​examine their food and techniques. Soba is NOT wheat spaghetti!
Better yet, just take the train to Udon West or Soba-​ya (FRESH handmade noodles).

This new Japanese Udon and Soba restaurant has a tight, distinct menu and simple décor.
With two people working a 15-​seat space, at times, service was a bit slow.
I found the curry udon broth very tasty, though my added pork was super fatty. Prices are comparable to what you’ll find in the East and West Village for similar options ($ 14/​bowl).
$ 7 for a bottle of Sapporo.
I’d be excited to try this place again when it has another few weeks under its belt.