I was looking for a sake bar when I stumbled upon Sake Bar Hagi 46, the outpost of Sake Bar Hagi near Times Square. We got seated in the back of the restaurant where a large party was enjoying some food and probably too much drinking, making the noise level close to unbearable...So, needless to say that, although we enjoyed our meal there, we did not take our time to appreciate it fully and, as soon as we payed the bill, guess what? The large party left!!! I had only one fear: that they followed us!

Dining room at Sake Bar Hagi 46 in Hell's Kitchen, NYC

Anyway, the food there was pretty good and I loved the fact that they served small plates so we could order a bunch of them. Here is what we had:

Frog legs karaage or deep fried frog legs. I am not sure where they found these frog legs but they were huge! The frogs were probably the size of a kitten! Otherwise, it was delicious: crispy on the outside, meaty (tastes like chicken but more bland), it was moist.

Karaage ponzu or deep fried chicken with ponzu sauce and grated daikon. Similar to the frog legs, it was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, the chicken being well cooked. I liked the slight taste of the ponzu sauce that was not overpowering, but admit that I did not care about the daikon.

Karaage ponzu or fried chicken at Sake Bar Hagi 46 in Hell's Kitchen, NYC

Fried pork gyoza: good, tasty, but not the best I had.

Age tofu: my least favorite dish. Not sure how they prepare this, but it was weird, a bit gelatinous. I definitely did not like the texture.

Vegetable tempura: very good, crispy and delightfully greasy (slightly though).

For dessert, we went for the green tea mille crêpe with vanilla ice cream. I admit that the presentation was a bit sad, but it was pretty good. The green tea especially was perfect, not bitter at all. We chose vanilla ice cream to go with it: it was good, creamy, but we did not even see that it was an add-on and I thought that for $11.95, it was a bit pricey. Lady M has a better Mille crepes cake for less.

Now you are probably wondering if I had sake. And the answer is yes. In fact, I went for their sampler and picked three of them (from left to right):

Azure, sweet and dry.
Denshin, fruity.
Ginban, super dry.

I like to try different sake, from the sweetest to the super dry to taste the difference and was glad that they offered a sampler.

Despite the noise, we enjoyed our meal at Sake Bar Hagi 46 and will definitely go back. Probably for other dishes as Jodi made me realize after that we only ordered fried dishes...

Enjoy (I did)!

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Sake Bar Hagi 46

I Just Want To Eat!