New York has quite a variety to offer in Japanese cuisine. Cafe Zaiya has great not too sweet desserts and cakes, but I’m mentioning them more for their bento and riceballs! These are things every anime fan sees constantly and is probably curious about.

As can imagined, the lunchtime crowd for Cafe Zaiya is rather hefty but that is also when they have the most choices since going later in the day may result in them being out of certain items. This also ensures that things are fresh that day. I recommend the salty shrimp tempura riceball and the spicy curry one. And pay attention to the way they are wrapped, the seaweed is actually not touching the rice until you pull off the plastic. They also provide hot and cold lunches. Now even though I said this was mostly a post for lunch items, the desserts are hard to pass on. I’m a big fan of the melon and chocolate chip pan, but they have many other familiar cakes, such as a very light strawberry shortcake, and the like. It it worth remembering that Japanese sweets are much less sugar intense than American ones. Cafe Zaiya is an easy place to just grab and take to the park or wherever you are headed or you can stop by in the morning to pick up something later for lunch.

Cafe Zaiya has three locations in Manhattan, one right inside of Kinokuniya which is rather convenient. However, you’ll find better variety in the other two shops on 41st ad near Cooper Square.