Rio & You

I was visiting Times Square & just walking into this place looking for Japanese food. To my surprise, service was great, food very authentic & quality sushi. Not any poor quality tourist trap. It was a very nice discovery.

Nooooo, this place closed?! It was amazing when I went. Very nice and attentive staff, the food was excellent. This place was very authentic too, they even gave you hot towels before your meal and talked to you in Japanese.

So sad to see but this place has shuttered its doors :(
«Over the holidays, Japanese eatery Rio & You closed its doors after six years on 45^th street between 8^th and 9^th avenues. If Rio & You was Bittman’s secret Japanese restaurant as suggested in the comments — which we’re pretty sure it wasn’t — he’ll have to find a new spot. December 23 was their last day.»

I continue to be a fan of this place, although they gave me a bit of a hard time for a party that turned out OK in the end.
First of all, it was ridiculously difficult to get the manager on the phone to book the party. I would call, ask for the manager, and then the generally unfriendly and difficult woman answering would say something along the lines of «he’s busy right now» and then hang up before I could say another word, repeatedly. VERY annoying. I wouldn’t have persisted, except that it was the ideal location for the party I was planning, and it would have been more trouble to find another location.
On the day of the party, I called to confirm the reservation and it was reported that i had canceled it. They need friendlier people with stronger English skills answering their phones.
In the end, the party was fine, the food tasty as always, and they very kindly accommodated my special request — I had brought students from my Japanese class on a field trip, and they spoke Japanese to us about 95% of the time we were there. The female manager was very friendly.

I returned by accident because the first time I was here my friends treated me so I forgot how pricey it was.
The ramen (which is spelled larmen for whatever reasons on the menu) is decent. I liked the shoyu ramen with pork. They give you a humongous portion so be prepared to unbuckle your pants if you order this.
The sushi, as per my friend, was alright. The rice they use is quite sticky (which can be good or bad depending on your preference) and thus contributing to the feeling of fullness, I presume.
They are supposed to have a dinner special where you order from a set menu of appetizers and get a regular glass of Japanese beer with it. Again, beware of how your pants will fit if you go with this.
Overall, they give you a lot of food that is average-​quality but slightly overpriced, imo.

We were looking for a good Japanese restaurant in the area near Central Park and it was about 10 blocks. The food was tasty. Our dinner started out with miso soup and salad, then we had the tempura appetizer which was made to perfection; then they brought chicken teriyaki sizzling on a platter, my New Yorker sushi and the sushi was very fresh 8 pieces in all; then the yakisoba with shrimp and beef that had crispy noodles, vegetables and gravy (alittle too much white pepper). We asked for extra teriyaki sauce but they didn’t tell us they would charge us extra on our food bill so we gave less tip. For dessert they gave us each a strawberry with chocolate sauce. All in all service and food were good but the only negative was the charge for the extra teriyaki sauce.

The quality of the sushi is good. Pretty empty at lunch though. The people who run this place are Japanese.
I had the sushi set and it was delicious. I like the fact that it includes desert which is strawberries with whipped cream.
The one thing I don’t like is that they refuse to take more than 1 – 2 credit cards per bill.

This place is such a great restaurant but unfortunately located on a side road of Hell’s Kitchen. If it was on 9^th avenue, there would be a lot more people.
Anyways, seems like a family run Japanese restaurant with very friendly hosts and waitresses. The menu has a wide variety of choices from sushi to ramen. You will get a huge bowl of ramen which will definitely fill you up for about $ 11.
You also get a nice strawberry treat in the end on the house as a dessert.

I swung into this place for lunch on Friday. Ever since I saw «Jiro Love Sushi» i’ve been craving some really good sushi and this place did not dissapoint.
I was greated by a very sweet lady (who I assume owns the place) and took a seat at the bar. I ordered the Sushi Special off the lunch menu ($ 16) which came with 8 pieces of sushi, california roll, soup and salad. A great value, even if the sushi were to be less than stellar.
The salad was a typical sushi joint salad, but the ingredients were very fresh.
As I mentioned before, the sushi itself was really top notch. The fish was fresh, and firm, and each was garnished with some sort of flavoring, whether it be chopped scallion, or chili.
I;m used to getting a couple orange slices or some pineapple with my check, but this place give you a fresh strawberry with whipped cream! Totally didn’t expect that; a very pleasant surprise.
The best part was as I was leaving, the owner said to me (keep in mind, I’ve never been here before) «If I don’t see you tomorrow, have a wonderful Father’s Day!» Now, I’m not a father, but the thought was so sweet.
I was enchanted by my experience here, and will always opt for this place over Kodama (which I find to be a little over rated).

In the suburbs, this would be a five-​star joint fa sho. It’s comfy cozy, friendly, plenty of selection, much better sushi than average, giant bowls of ramen (inexplicably called «larmen” – can someone help me explain that?), mom runs the host stand, dad rolls sushi, adorableness fills the air.
In Times Square, its quaintness leaves it standing out even more. It’s not expensive, it’s homey not corporate, and they don’t blast Clear Channel in your face.
However, in a town that is doing ramen so well these days, I have to knock a star for its proximity and relative quality to Totto. And the lights are too bright. And it’s closed on Mondays, and I really, really wanted to eat it tonight.

I really enjoyed this place. The food was fantastic, the service spectacular and the location really quaint. I had the Bento box with Sashimi for lunch and it was super tasty with a ton of different things to chose from. A pleasant treat was the dumplings in the box! The sushi was amazing and the tempura perfect. Looking forward to having this place again! Thanks for reading and enjoy.

Definitely just OK.
Some background information (Feel free to skip this). My friend and I were looking for a nice sushi restaurant around Times Square because our school was paying for our meal. Looking to take advantage of the opportunity, we wanted a luxury meal. Something a little nicer than what the average college student could afford. We literally sat in front of the computer reading Unilocal reviews for 30 minutes and Rio & You is where we ended up.
Review time.
Definitely not the luxury restaurant I was hoping for. I should have known. Restaurants between avenues are always kind of ugly. Probably has to do with how NYC real estate works.
The restaurant was longer than it was wide. Dim yellow lighting. A bench against the wall with some tables in front. Not much to say. It was pretty empty on a Friday evening. There were a few older white men enjoying some beers there and, to be honest, it felt like they were there after a tough day at work and they wanted to prey on some soft-​spoken, Asian waitresses. Weird.
My friend and I ordered 5 rolls of sushi: Alaska, Eel & Avocado, Shrimp Tempura, California, and Salmon. We also ordered pork gyoza. The sushi was good. Alaska, Salmon, and California were pretty average, nothing particularly memorable. Salmon was pretty… chewy, which I didn’t mind. Eel & Avocado was really good. So sweet and the avocado was creamy. Nice job. Shrimp Tempura was definitely my second favorite. It was nice and crunchy on the outside but juicy on the inside. If I were to go again, I would definitely order these two rolls.
However, the pork gyoza… after trying it, I wanted to punch the chef in the face. After taking my first bite, I felt like I was in a Korean supermarket hovering over the sample table while waiting for my mom to finish grocery shopping. Don’t get me wrong… it tasted fine, just not anywhere near spectacular. I would have much rather gone to Han Ah Reum (or H-​Mart) and purchase an entire bag of «gyoza». Another annoying thing… it was COATED in oil.
In the end, I felt like I experience a decent meal. or appetizer. I wasn’t full at all after (possibly because my stomach is a black hole). Although that is certainly not the restaurant’s problem… it’s mine. In short, the sushi was pretty good but the ambiance was off. And the gyoza sucked.
I wouldn’t make a trip there, but I wouldn’t avoid the place either.

So, I’ve been on this ramen kick for a few months now and wanted to try this place because of the low– key atmosphere (as opposed to Ippudo’s) and high Unilocal rating. Unfortunately, I was terribly disappointed by their pork and scallion ramen.
At first glance, it looked like a large, hot, delicious bowl of pork ramen-​chock full of goodies like bamboo shoots, cabbage, carrot, sesame seeds, and plenty of noodles.
The pork was dry dry dry. The noodles were on the mushy side. The egg was hard-​boiled to the point that the yolk was yellow-​gray. The broth tasted like the 99 cent ramen salt flavor packets. The menu is pretty extensive, so I’m sure there are a ton of other great options, but the ramen was a definite miss for me.

Just ate there and service was awful. It was like we had slighted them in some way. Food was okay and there are SO many other good sushi options with MUCH better service nearby in NYC. Also, the Shabu Shabu was very bland. We ended up having to pour other stuff in from other people’s meals to make it taste better.
tl;dr — food = meh, service = RUDE!

Came here for a late lunch on a Sat. Not crowded at all and warm and calm atmosphere. So clean, friendly, and pleasant. a TOTAL HIDDEN GEM.
incredibly kind service, very attentive (so many tea and water refills) and I had a luxurious uni and sashimi chirashi bowl with salad AND miso soup for $ 17. Amazing deal. PLUS at the end of the meal they gave you a strawberry split in half with whipped cream. It was so lovely and the people were so amazing; i can’t wait to come back again for the sapporo draft and sake and dinner.

Easily the best restaurant this close to Times Square. If you are a tourist in time square looking at Unilocal on your phone trying to find somewhere to eat then guess what: you just stumbled across deliciousness.
I don’t want to oversell Rio & You but I enjoyed the experience way more than seems possible for a restaurant in this area.
Lets start with the food: they serve the best curry I’ve ever had. And I eat a lot of curry. I’ve tried curry at Japanese places all around the city. I’ve tried curry at Japanese places all around OTHER cities. I’ve traveled to the original source of curry in the remote peaks of Hachirōgata to taste the dish from its source*… And still this is my favorite dish of curry ever**.
Did you know that in Japan people eat curry an average time of 125 times per year**? No? Then you seriously aren’t spending enough time on the curry wikipedia page. Get on that.
The space was so cozy and inviting that we didn’t want to leave when the meal was over. My girlfriend and I actually plotted reasons to make it seem normal that we weren’t leaving yet. «oh, could we just have one more cup of this delicious tea»? perfect.
There is a reason so many people are five starring this place and trying to persuade you to come here.
*This is of course utter and complete bullshit for as many reasons as I could fit into one sentence.
** This, actually, is not bullshit. The curry was so good that it made me want to go to wikipedia and learn random facts about curry. I bet when you ate that overhyped ramen at Ippudo it wasn’t good enough to make you study up on wikipedia.

Today is the 3^rd time I stopped by here for lunch. And I feel obliged to write a review about them!
Service: 5 stars
Food: 4.8 stars
This is a hidden gem. Have been to Japan couple times and have been to most Japanese restaurants in the city, I am pretty surprised by the quality of the food at this tiny yet super cozy hole in the wall.
I have been here 3 times already. The first time was nothing special. But the 2^nd, especially the 3^rd time is phenomenal. The sweet shrimp sashimi today literally made my day. I was stressed at work and starving while I stepped in at almost 3pm. I was greeted warmly by the host as if I was an old friend. During my lunch, I talked to the chef who was a true expert about seafood — what is the best part of the tuna, how to properly serve sweet shrimp. And the fish (i only have sashimi here, they change fish categories day to day) is always fresh and seasonal. Cannot emphasize how important freshness in Japanese cuisine! The host and the chef have become my friends — I even received a free toro today, on the house! so yummy!
Service is always attentive. 5 stars!
as I am working nearby, i will definitely come back often. And I am recommending it to everyone like authentic Japanese cuisine.

I went to this restaurant last night to catch dinner before a Broadway show and to be honest I’ve always known about this place but never ever bothered dining there because my friends and I were always comfortable dining across the street at the other Japanese restaurant.
First things first, the obaachan at this restaurant is so sweet and nice as was the entire staff. I couldn’t help but laugh on the inside when she mentioned that if I ordered the Nabeyaki udon, I will feel «hot hot hot» on the inside. Too cute.
To me, while it was a good sign that it was a Japanese owned establishment with (what I’ll assume) Japanese cooks, the food itself was fairly average. The sushi was quite good and my friend’s ramen was good as well. However, that’s all it felt to me– just good.

This past weekend, I had a friend visiting from San Francisco, and among other friends, we all decided for sushi for dinner. A couple of friends who have been there suggested Rio, so we rolled down the street and got seated right away.
Upon perusing through the menu, we noticed that there was a special: Order a Large Beer, get an appetizer of your choice. Cool. We all did it.
And what a disappointment. Firstly, they fill the beer ¾ of the large mug. When we inquired and asked them to fill it to the top, the waitress said to us that because we were getting a free appetizer, they do not top off the glass. FAIL.
Then, for five of us, we only received one glass of water. Maybe they expected us to share it? It was not until we asked for more glasses of water that everyone got a glass. FAIL… Part Deux.
Then onto the appetizers. At least they got that right. And free, so I suppose that accounts for the one star I am giving them.
And then, the entrees. Maybe it’s me, but not all the food came out at the same time. One of us got the soup. While some of us got our entrees. And one of us got our salad after the entrée. Just overall inconsistent.
The sushi was ok. But nothing too special for me to want to go back. And after this experience, that would be a no!

I love this place near Times Square in Manhattan. It is very authentic Japanese, great atmosphere and excellent food! The prices are the most reasonable in Manhattan if you ask me.
They have Japanese and Chinese food that compares to meals I’ve had in Japan and China! Excellent stuff! Friendly family runs the place too.