Oh Taisho is a very small, but popular Japanese restaurant located in the growing neighborhood of the East Village of New York City. The East Village is well known for it’s crowded streets and party atmosphere on Friday nights and weekends. This restaurant is often the place of choice when my friends and I are in the area and craving some good Japanese food and sake.

This restaurant offers a variety of famous Japanese dishes including bento boxes, meat skewers and sake shots. The atmosphere of this place is often dimly lit with a nice ambience with table side food preparations straight from the grill. Variety is definitely a big plus here, since there is never a shortage of food that will go bland and boring. Also, this restaurant is open pretty late. The hours of operations are from 5pm to about 4am. This place makes a good place for party goers to grab a bite to eat.

Wait times of up to one to two hours are not uncommon at this place because of the popularity of this restaurant. The chicken teriyaki bento box is my usual everytime I come here. It consists of a small salad, chicken teriyaki chunks,spaghetti, potato salad and pickled ginger. Sounds simple and easy to make right? I remember one time, my friend and I came here for dinner, and my friend ordered a bento box. I ordered a bowl of ramen. It took me about 15 minutes to complete my meal, while his order didn’t even come yet. He ended up cancelling his order.

If I were the owner of this restaurant, I will think about expanding my business to next door. This place is literally a fire hazard with chairs and customers blocking the aisleway to the exit. I would also look to improve on the wait time for the preparation of the dishes.