Kasadela

I went to Kasadela on a Saturday night. There is a bar section as you walk in where they can serve you food, then the place opens up into a warm space with brick walls. The decor is East Village meets Japan, with sake bottles on the brick walls, mismatched chopsticks, and chalkboards hung up on the walls with today's specials.

The Japanese waiters and waitresses are very attentive, and knowledgeable about sake and food. Kasadela has an extensive drinks menu. I tried three bottles of sake, and they were all great. I had the Shunsetsu (literally, spring now), a light, smooth sake, perfect for the start of a meal, followed by Summer Snow (an undistilled sake with a voluptuous flavor), and Masumi (another smooth sake).

We started out with renkon chips (lotus roots), which were very yum, salted just right. After that came the saikoro salad (green salad with steak), nasu dengaku (eggplant with miso), pumpkin croquettes (one of my favorite dishes of the night, shaped like a heart for valentine's), chicken tebasaki (like the Korean fried chicken, Japanese style), and shrimp donburi.

We thought the dishes would be small, and that we might need to order more, but we were stuffed and unable to finish the donburi at the end. The food was fabulous, though, and so was the warm staff. We stayed at the restaurant for three hours, and didn't feel rushed at all.

I'm definitely going back to Kasadela. They take cash only, so make a trip to the ATM before you go. If you forget or go over budget (as we did), there's an ATM around the corner. It's a great gem for foodies and sake lovers.

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647 East 11th Street (close to Ave C)
New York, NY 10009
212-777-1582
http://kasadela.com/