Ronin Bar & Grill

Stopped by yesterday for a drink and found the restaurant closed with a yellow NYC Health Department sticker on the door. The building’s Super told me that Ronin restaurant will be no more.
NYC Health Department website says that they found evidence of rats and live roaches at the restaurant …
Evidence of rats or live rats present in facility’s food and/​or non-​food areas.
Live roaches present in facility’s food and/​or non-​food areas.

I’ve walked past Ronin countless times, but never realized this was a Japanese restaurant until a coworker brought me here for lunch recently.
We came in on a Friday afternoon, at the peak for lunchtime, yet the place wasn’t busy at all (about ¹⁄₃ full). The interior is typical «woodsy» Japanese, but feels slightly outdated, at least to me (think late 80s). After noticing the obvious, I quickly lowered my expectations about this place so that I would be happier if the food is good vs getting upset otherwise.
I ordered the tonkatsu ramen, and I am happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised! It was simple, yet flavorful, and the noodles were perfectly cooked with a good chew to them. Definitely something I will return for in the future.

Worst burger ever! Whoever though rice burger was a good idea should not be making food. The rice was really thick and dry, and the teriyaki chicken did nothing to help. The chicken itself was flavorless and dry. It was like eating cardboard. The burger comes with a side salad and thick steak fries. If I didnt have water near me I would’ve choked from all the dry starch. That burger seriously needs some sauce…
I might go back for the Kaisen Don set because it’s cheap but after this meal, I don’t have high expectations for that either.

This place cannot be anything but genuine. The service is superb and everything about Ronin just gives off a thoroughly Japanese vibe.
It is a pity, then, that the food is lacking.
I had ordered ramen here, searching for a good ramen place in town. Let me first admit that the beef is delicious. But the ramen itself, I wasn’t impressed with. For whatever reason, the noodles were not as good. They were more thick and almost excessively doughy. I want ramen with an almost egg noodle consistency.
The food was really just average, but at the price tag advertised, it becomes disappointing.

I don’t understand the 2 or 3 for this place. I’ll summarize my rating for you and why you should give it a try.
1. VERY authentic.
(source: personal experience, my family has a very strict traditional view of japanese food)
2. Not so busy (maybe due to lack of rating)
3. Amazing food and wide range of menu choices including alcohol.
4. Service is good.
Reasons why one often hesitate:
1. Price (value/​worth is personal after all)
2. After office kind of place
3. Your opinion of «japanese food taste»
4. Other people’s random review of place

Some of these bad reviews seem unwarranted, because I had a great experience here.
We came here on a Friday night, and the moment we entered, we felt like we were in Japan. The décor of the place really reminded me of the sushi places I’ve been in Tokyo, and had a very comforting and inviting vibe to it.
The waitresses don’t speak much English, but they are very friendly and accommodating.
For sushi, we ordered their Ronin, Roxy, Elzo, and Benji. We also had the assorted tempura, yakiniku and gyu don.
Everything was delicious, and I can’t really find faults with anything we had.
This place is also quite cheap for a nice Sushi restaurant in NY. Everything came out to like $ 30 per person, and we were all feeling extremely full afterwards (a rarity for sushi).
I will definitely be coming here in the future.

Great Japanese Sushi place in the heart of Manhattan New York, i loved the Spicy Tuna Sushi is my favorite and my daughter ordered a few other great amazing sushi dishes she wanted me to try which she knew i hadn’t had. We had saki too everything was great the service was perfect for dinner time.

Oh god, a 3 star average score on Unilocal.The food must be garbage, raze the place! Insert eye-​rolling. Confirmation bias anybody? At least try the food first…
This seems to be one of the few Japanese places I’ve seen that actually serves Western beer, so if you like beer, that’s a plus. They have Allagash White (tap) and Black (bottle).
Anyway, I’d say a 3 – 3.5, with issues mainly stemming from value. With some price adjustments, I’d consider bumping it to a 4.
I got the sukiyaki burger with rice bun. Now the last time I had a burger with a rice bun that wasn’t from the Japanese chain, «Mos Burger», it was a disaster. A food truck in LA tried to pull it off, and it was just too much bland rice. Mos solves that by blending the rice with other grains. Anyway, so I thought it’d be a little risky, but I like taking risks.
Taste-​wise, I was not disappointed. It was delicious, and I gobbled it up. The rice bun is on the thinner side, so you’re not cramming yourself with mouthfuls of rice. It’s also lightly toasted. Unfortunately, the burger itself was tiny — probably smaller than a modern McDonald’s cheeseburger. I could have easily eaten two of them.
Also, the giant steak fries were mediocre.
They should consider selling the burgers standalone for cheaper.

Ronin is an odd place. It’s a beer & wine only izakaya a few blocks from Koreatown without any natural nearby destinations. I’ve now been several times and I’m always surprised that it’s not more busy until I remember where it’s located. The only time I’ve seen it full was for a friend’s jazz concert, which is a great way for them to bring in customers on the weekend. The beer & wine only aspect doesn’t help either as they can’t serve many cocktails. But the beer selection they have is outstanding by izakaya standards and they’ve got a nice sake selection too. Note: if you’re ordering wine here, you’re in the wrong place.
To clarify a few misconceptions from below and add my own opinion of their food menu.
Japanese restaurants in NYC (and in Japan) often have seasonal menus, which they’ll call «daily specials» and they’ll include every dish that is in-​season, so they’ll often have 20 to 30 dishes available and recommended by the chef. Unlike Western restaurants in NYC, «daily specials» aren’t an attempt to clear out soon-​to-​spoil inventory, but to make customers aware of what they’re likely to enjoy most. You may have noticed a lot of yellowtail on specials lists lately — that’s because right now yellowtail is unbelievably good.
So if you’re not feeling anything on the specials list, there’s still plenty of menu options to sort through. But do yourself a favor. Don’t go to an authentic Japanese restaurant and order Chicken Teriyaki. Nobody in Japan eats that — they serve it here for American diners who think they’re adventurous for eating chicken breast with chopsticks. This the Japanese equivalent to General Tso’s Chicken — nobody in China has ever heard of this dish (or General Tso).
Checking their online menu, the first 5 appetizers listed are:
Stir-​Fried Organic Chicken Liver & Chives
Broiled Organic Boned Chicken Thigh
Fried Organic Boned Chicken Thigh
Fried Cartilage Of Chicken,
Fried Organic Chicken Gizzard
Obviously this is a place that takes their chicken seriously — not someplace you go to order American style Japanese food.
The sushi menu is pretty standard, but check the seasonal menu to see which fish are fresh currently. That’s really where you should be ordering from.
What’s more interesting is there izakaya style appetizers list: simmered fish heads, oden, bitter melon, salted squid guts (a sake drinkers snack), shishito peppers, grilled mackerel — all the tings you want to snack on while drinking in an izakaya.
An unexpected surprise was the ramen. It’s solid — not something you always find at an izakaya, many of which are simply preparing too many other dishes to give the timing of a bowl of ramen the attention it deserves. This is never going to rival Ippudo or any of the other ramen kings in NYC, but if you’re craving ramen while there this is a safe bet. A buddy of mine still talks about it and almost all he eats when we seek out Japanese — is ramen.
So do yourself a favor, ignore the chronically under rated izakaya score of 3 stars and check out this odd place for yourself.
Kampai!

What is wrong with this place?!
I was invited to see my friends perform live jazz at this place, and I accepted gratefully. It was going be a few friends hanging out at a bar, boozing up, enjoying food, and listening to live jazz with friends who were the performers. What more can you ask for?
It wasn’t until I sat down at the table in the restaurant when I first noticed trouble. But lets come back to that to the time I was still happy and excited to try a new Japanese Sushi place out… As I entered a rather spacious Japanese sushi bar hidden in midst of midtown east, I couldn’t help to take delight on how absolutely clean the place was; not to be expected looking at the restaurant from the outside. The décor was warm and simple, open and inviting; a very modern feel to this homely venue where many live musicians graced this room with their talent. The servers and manager were all friendly and spoke fluent Japanese, and even though it was hard to communicate with them at time, their cute accents made me feel like I was transported back to Japan for a short while.
Then I sat down… First sign of trouble was when the server handed me 3 completely separate menus; THREE! It gets worse: one of the three menus was their «daily special» menu… IT HAD LIKE 30 ITEMS ON IT! How can you have anything over 4 items as a «daily special» is beyond me! And the other menu had pictures on it, PICTURES?! My general rule when ever I see pictures of the food on a menu that isn’t considered «fast food,» is to run!
So as I start to sweat a little, I immediately pull out my iPhone to check my Unilocal ap, 3 stars– the second sign of trouble! Now I’m having palpitations. I am truly scared to order here. If i ever eat at a 3 star Unilocal review place, i don’t expect to spend more than $ 10 since I know the food will be crappy. To my dismay– sushi is priced through the ceiling! I came here craving sushi, and now I’m terrified to even consider ordering it due to the bad reviews from my fellow Unilocalers– it literally took me 45 minutes to order since I carefully looking through the whole menu and quickly read almost all of the prior reviews to this place. Again, I noticed trouble; Ronin claims to be a «bar and grill” — yet I did not see the traditional «sushi bar» displaying their assortment of supposedly fresh fish, nor did not understand why it was called a «grill.» Heart palpitations worsen.
After a tab of Xanax later, i decided to order cheap and safe: Chicken Teriyaki Bowl ($ 12) and Miso Tonkotsu Ramen Soup ($ 12). When the food eventually arrived (emphasis on the EVENTUALLY), heart palpitation ceased… and anger and rage kicked it! I came to a Japanese restaurant expecting to have Japanese food, and what was served to me was a complete embarrassment! There was no «Japanese» in the dish being served at all! The Chicken Teriyaki Bowl was nothing more than frozen chunks of chicken that was dry and tasted like cardboard, on top of plain, poorly tasteless rice, with a glob of store-​bought-​tasting sauce on top. I had microwavable Asian Meals that was better than the poor excuse of a Japanese Cuisine served to me that day. Then, of course, there was the Ramen… Did they actually go across the street to pick up some cup-​o-​noddles and serve it on a fancy dish?! The flavor was HORRIBLE! The ramen noddle tasted so instant, it puts shame to the poor college student’s staple of Instant Noddles– something I would have rather preferred over what was given to me!!! I wound’t even feed my dog the two entrees that was served to me that night, and I was so stricken from what should have been a fun night with friends.
Sadly, the story doesn’t end here. Our table didn’t meet the minimum per person for the live music policy they so carefully hidden from us, and although I am more than willing to help support my friends, the musicians get NONE of the proceeds from the crowd they bring in! So we are forced to order two desserts since there were the cheapest items from all three menus ($ 5) and a beer so our table could reach the minimum.
Dessert #1– green tea icecream: can screw that up right? To be fair, no, they didn’t. However, it seemed as if we got the bottom end of a overfrozen box of icecream which was scooped out by a 2 year old and served with icicles in uneven mountainous form. What happened to finesse? Than couldn’t use a round scoop and serve a presentable dish of icecream?
Dessert #2– mashed pumpkin with sweetened red beans. Sounded interesting enough… Then it arrived. It looked like something you would find in a babies diaper and I was astounded by it’s sight! It was literally canned pumpkin and boiled red beans mashed together to produced an awful mess that was not «sweetened» at all!
Just really bad.
To add insult to injury– the manager didn’t honor my scoutmob deal even after the serve hit «use the deal.» I didn’t care, I will never go back to this place, and if your reading this– just run!

I was craving chirashi all day and by serendipity, Scoutmob triangulated that into the exact area where I needed to meet a friend.
Ronin’s interior is clean and quiet, with high ceilings, calming lighting and dark wooden accents. The music is… weird, sort of «dixie Muzak.» Every other diner there was Japanese (I eavesdrop). The waitresses had adorable Japanese accents. Even our sauce dishes were printed «Made in Japan.» A large table of men in suits was having a group dinner where intermittently someone stood and everyone would clap politely.
The pleasing (and slightly absurd) ambiance was really the only good thing about Ronin.
First complaint: The food took quite a while even though most of the restaurant was empty. My friend’s food came 15 minutes before mine did. Her spicy tuna roll ($ 7) was very messily made, and had no spiciness at all to it. Actually, the predominant flavor was mayo. Inauthentic American projections of sushi be damned, I love a good spicy tuna roll, but this was one of the worst I’ve had. (I’m including college dining halls and Financial District delis, so… this is a strong statement.)
Her «Beverly salad» ($ 14) was gigantic and topped with spicy tuna, tuna tataki, and bits of tempura. I’ll never understand why «normal» Japanese restaurants only use boring, ugly, iceberg lettuce for salads. They were generous with the fish, but it was just present in large, awkward clumps. At least for a salad, you could cut the tuna larger, not pulverize it… The whole thing just wasn’t very appetizing.
My chirashi was huge and not terrible, but not worth the normal price of $ 22. The rice was plain and not vinegared. The bowl included: tamago, shrimp, shiso leaf, salmon, tuna, yellowtail, mackerel, octopus, squid, ikura tucked into lemon slices, pickled ginger. It didn’t look bad, but none of it was particularly good or fresh. (though none of it made me sick)! The tamago had this perplexing quality of falling apart. Frankly my favorite bits were the uni, the ikura, and the shiso leaf. Chirashi craving, unfulfilled!
The tea was either roasted barley or genmaicha, but it had so little flavor that I couldn’t figure it out.
The Scoutmob deal has been active for months upon months now, so if you’re looking to give Ronin a shot, do it soon before it expires. And try something other than their disappointing raw options. I would have been really sad about this dinner were it not for the $ 20 off.

Not sure why this place only 3 stars. Definitely love it, especially with the Scoutmob deal, which gets you $ 20 bucks off. HOORAY.
Quiet, spacious Japanese restaurant with dece sushi that is pretty fair priced. Love all the special rolls! Got the Alex and Elzo roll and both were supa tasty! The sushi here has really nice, fluffy rice and fresh fish.
I came on a Fri night and there was a Japanese band, which was kinda interesting. Would definitely go back with another Scoutmob!

Service deserves 4 stars as the staff was very attentive during my first dining experience with them.
Food deserves 3.5 stars overall. I got the Tonkotsu ramen noodles ($ 11) which was recommended by the server– it was good! The Bershire pork broth was tasty and you are given more noodles than other typical ramen restaurants. The 2 slices of chasu pork was a bit skimpy, but you can opt to pay an additional $ 3 to add more. Other ramen restaurants will also have menma (bamboo shoots) but this place does not. My boyfriend got the sushi A set: 3 pieces each of salmon, tuna, and yellowtail + 1 sushi roll ($ 28). Our favorite was the yellow tail sashimi. Delicious! The salmon and tuna itself were not very remarkable.
Overall, the food and service was good. I’d come back if I was in the mood for Japanese food in this location. I’d also want to try the rice burger (burgers made with rice bun).
Hint: Use your scoutmob deal and get up to $ 20 off your meal!

I thought about giving them 1 star, but because of their unique «burger» idea, I am giving them an extra star. However, execution could have been better…
So, they have «burgers» with rice buns, instead of bread. It’s definitely more on the rare item you’ll find at a restaurant. However, I thought their rice buns were blend and executed poorly. Mine broke apart because it was too dry, while my friend’s rice buns were waayyy too sticky.
Also, the chicken and pork (our meat choices) were crispy and hot, they lacked flavor as well. I could taste a little bit of sauce of some sort, but it was barely present. In addition, they gave ketchup and dressing in a tiny tiny bowl. What in the world?!
Oh and something else I did not appreciate– 1 tiny ¹⁄₈ of a tomato. Very odd… It’s not even a slice that I can put inside the burger. It was just so random.
Overall, the atmosphere is quiet and nice, but food was definitely a miss. I don’t think I would go back at all. Maybe if I feel like ordering something else, but I would definitely not go back for their burgers.

got a rice burger here but thought it was just ok… it fell apart after I took my first bite. Service was good tho, nothing more.

Came here with a Scoutmob weekday deal. Service is very nice and there’s a very cute Japanese girl flitting about. Very quiet during lunchtime, which probably explaing the Scoutmob coupon.
I ordered off the specials menu and got a simmered tuna cheek, which came with a bento-​box-​like complement of small nibbles including sashimi and a miso soup. I’d never had tuna cheek before and it wasn’t exactly what i expected, but was tasty nonetheless. My friend had a rice burger on my recommendation but was really disappointed with it, digging into my tuna a few times. It seems the rice burger may not be up to snuff.
The gen mai cha they pour is a nice touch. It’s worth another visit to check out some other authentic Japanese items.

First time I’ve ever eaten out in nyc and actually felt nauseous after my meal. I wanted to get sushi for dinner, but didn’t want to spend that much so I opted to get the pork ginger rice burger. I thought, «oh how cool and creative! a burger with buns made out of rice!» WRONG. not cool. it was nauseating and the burger fell apart the second I touched it. incredibly bland, until I asked them for extra sauce, even then it tasted so bad. They give you lettuce and tomato with it which was just such a weird combination. And french fries… which made it even weirder.
I also got a side of sushi (the alex roll) which was ok. Definitely did not taste fresh. The combination of the rice burger and sushi though… I’m not really sure what I was thinking when ordering this. DO NOT GET THE RICE BURGER.
They also did not have any sushi that had eel which was a huge bummer. HOW DO YOU NOT HAVE EEL. YOU ARE A JAPANESE RESTAURANT.
I used a scoutmob deal here, and usually even if a restaurant isn’t satisfactory, I’ll still be ok with it if I used a scoutmob deal, but this place was an exception. I was incredibly disappointed that I came here to eat.
I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. There’s nothing that makes me want to cry more than bad japanese food.
oh, also I forgot to say that my friends and I were the only people there are a saturday night around 8pm. Meanwhile, our waitress and the sushi maker guy are having their own little wine tasting party at the sushi bar with some friends… like LOLWUT. what is going on? The restaurant also plays weird 90’s love making/​trance music.
I walked out of dinner that night confused, nauseous, and crying.

Rice burgers: awesome.
Sushi: average.
Service: very welcoming.
Décor: nothing special.

Cute, new place. It’s definitely a new, modern take on Japanese food. Casual, lots of seating. Legit as far as Japanese restaurants go bc they are listed under the Chopsticks magazine (haha) and their waitstaff and sushi chef are also Japanese! A-​OK in my book!
They are famous for their rice burgers which are delicious. BUT, they are kinda hard to eat, so I suggest asking for extra napkins and/​or eating with a fork.
They also have sparkling sake which was SO delicious! It was my first, and it literally tasted like flavored Sprite! Yum yum! AND, we were able to use 50% Scoutmob coupon!

Ronin Bar & Grill is located on a street close to Madison Avenue’s large ad agencies. I walked in on one of the most humid nights in memory and to my surprise, they didn’t turn on their air conditioning. They said that it wasn’t working, but I thought it may have been the fact that the dining room was less than half full.
We still decided to eat there and had a sampling of three different dishes, their special rolls, the spicy miso pork ramen and the shrimp burger. Their special rolls, one of which we had contained tuna shrimp avocado filling was perfectly fine, except for the quality of the rice. This was very surprising because since the restaurant is Japanese-​owned, I would expect more attention to quality. The rice was warm which is typical of Japanese made sushi, but it had a pasty consistency, which didn’t leave a pleasant mouth feel.
As for the spicy miso ramen, the spiciness factor was there, but surprisingly the broth didn’t have the heaviness factor. Normally at the new-​fangled ramen noodle shops, a very rich miso broth is served. The broth here was surprisingly thin, thus was a bit shocking considering the modern surroundings and décor. I might add that the pork slices were about 3 – 4 mm thick, not thinly sliced and a bit dry, and without any fat.
Finally with the shrimp burger, the burger was made using a deep-​fried shrimp patty between two layers of compressed Japanese rice buns. Ronin being one of the few places in New York City to make Japanese-​style burgers (i.e. with rice buns) surprisingly made a very poor quality bun. The bun fell apart too easily and had the consistency of rice that had been sitting around, so the glutinousness of the rice lost its stickiness, a definite no-​no when a bun needs to maintain its integrity. The shrimp patty was also a bit greasy.
All in all the food was underwhelming despite the modern surroundings. I ignored the heat in the dining room as I took them at their word for their air conditioning malfunction. A future visit may not be in the cards…