• Info

• Address

• 236 East 9th Street
  between Second & Third Avenues
• New York
• NY
• 10003
• East Village

• Contact

• 212 353 8503

• Payment Method

• Cash Only

• Opening Hours

• Mon-Fri 1pm-10pm
  Sat-Sun 12pm-11pm

• Directions

• 6 to Astor Pl or
  L to First Ave or
  L to Third Ave

• Features

• food delivery

• Map

• Click to view Map

Recommendation

Ryan Block Says

There's so many Japanese people living in New York, but there isn't really a Japantown here. There are a couple of blocks over by St. Marks where there are a bunch of Japanese places, but it's not really what you would call Japantown in any other city. But one of those places I really like is Otafuku, a takoyaki stand. It's basically a hole-in-the-wall, it's not very big, but why would it be because all they serve is fried octopus balls. It's octopus in dough, that they just turn it into a ball and give it a squirt of teriyaki sauce and some benito flakes. It's beautiful, it's simple, it's five dollars, and it's some of the best food you can get in the city. It's a grab and go—they don't have any place to sit down except a bench for two people up front. They only serve takoyaki and okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is kind of like a Japanese style pancake with a bunch of vegetables and other things. I can't remember the direct translation, but it basically means, cake with bunch of stuff in it. If you get the takoyaki- okonomiyaki special, it's enough for two people. I recently went to Japan and I made sure to stop by Osaka. Their claim to fame is takoyaki and okonomiyaki, so I had a bunch of different vendors' and restaurants' takoyaki and okonomiyaki, and I think that our little New York shop is actually really, really good. You don't have to go to Japan to get good takoyaki.

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