Japanese food has become ubiquitous enough that you can go to any decent sized metropolitan city and find a Japanese restaurant that will serve sushi, teriyaki, and tempura without breaking a sweat. But there are some Japanese foods that are much harder to find unless you live in very certain cities in the U.S. I remember that when I first started reading Ranma 1/2 one of the things it really made me want to try was okonomiyaki due to my love of Ukyo Kuonji. Even in New York it took me awhile to find somewhere that severed okonomiyaki but eventually I found Otafuku.

Otafuku is not a sit down restaurant. It is a counter for orders, a little standing room, and bench outside and nothing more. The menu is small but they are mostly items you can’t normally find at Japanese restaurants. Okonomiyaki is a cabbage pancake with spices, sauces, and your choice of pork, beef, shrimp, squid, or corn with scallion. I consider it their signature dish. They also have takoyaki (octopus balls) which is something you have surely seen if you have ever watched an anime were they go to a festival. Rounding out their menus is yakisoba (fried noddles) which is probably the easiest to find item normally. You can also get combinations of any of three items above and a yummy taiyaki for desert.

When you are visiting Manhattan you often want to do things that you can only easily do in Manhattan. Otafuku has Japanese street stall food that you can’t easily find outside of Japan definitely making it worth a trip down to St. Marks Place. If you are a New York native then Otafuku is a nice little taste of Japan without the expensive plane ticket.