Udon

Sometimes trying a new spot might not always be a good idea. Udon West located on the Japanese strip of St. Marks Pl was a disappointment. After being seated, we were greeted by the waitress dressed in dirty stained yellow t-shirt. It was questionable the cleanliness of the kitchen if the waitress can't present herself with clean clothes. Since I'm here for the food, i should not make any judgement beforehand.
The marinated beef udon didn't look too appetizing at first sight. It seems that the beef was in the cooking pot over couple of nights and the texture was like a old tangled rug. The soup base tasted like beef stock directly from the can. All-in-all, the udon bowl was so bland that it's totally not worth another visit.
East Village: 11 Saint Marks Pl, NY (btw 2nd & 3rd Ave.)

Ramen

It's unusual to see New Yorker line up for a chain restaurant. Ippudo is the exception. I stopped by 10pm but guess what, i still had to wait for 20 min. The fresh homemade ramen was perfectly prepared in flavorful meat broth. The down side is, for a $13 base price ramen, there are only 2 slices of pork and had to pay extra for a hard boiled egg. But if you're a noodlehead, you can drop another $2 for an extra noodle ball. 

East Village: 65 4th Ave (x E8th St), New York

Japanese Crepe

As we all know, crepe was origin from the french. But the japanese, Cecel Cafe Crepe, has retrofitted the crepe to a japanese crepe served in a rolled up fashion. The japanese crepe can be served sweet or savory. With my itching sweet tooth, i've picked the summer special: fresh mango, strawberry, japanese cheese cake, chocolate fudge and a generous amount of custard. It sounds fattening but i have to say it's very hard to resist.  

East Village: 135 1st Ave (x St. Marks Pl), New York, NY

K in the Village

New Korean restaurants have been popping up in the east village recently. Couple years back, you'll only find K-food in K-town, but that's not the case nowadays. Korean Temple Cuisine has a simple interior design dining room that only fits 18 people. The meal started off with a complimentary appetizer side dish, followed by the mini pancake, then the spicy squid dolsot served in hot stone bowl. Last but not least the classic spicy tender pork served on green lettuce. The Temple is not a bad choice if you don't want to wait in the over crowded queue in K-town and inexpensive k-food. 

East Village: 81 St. Mark's Pl (x 1st Ave.), New York, NY

Curry-Ya

Curry-Ya was recently opened in this intimate space with only 14 wooden stool seating in the East Village. This specialized Japanese curry house has 9 curries that can be customized with different topping, spice, and size. I've ordered my favorite berkshire cutlet curry and i was a bit disappointed. I expected more to the curry since it's a curry house but it was like any other curry i've had elsewhere for 1/2 of it's price.

East Village - 214 E10th St @ 2nd Ave, New York