Ootoya, with O

8 W. 18th St, NY, NY 10011

Rating: 2 - Super Happy
Visit #: 4
In brief: Be prepared to spend at least $20 for lunch, but also be prepared to be completely satiated on delicious, generously adorned, lunch sets.

This may look like a messy blob of gravy sauce but it's actually a quite tasty washu beef (or hamburg as it's called within the genre of Japanese home style cooking). You gotta bring your appetite to Ootoya, the lunch portions are ginormous. Even the mini sets consist of a bowl of miso soup, a bowl of rice and sashimi fish, a plate of cold soba noodles, a little serving of cold pickled vegetables and a custard dessert. Oofta, by the time lunch is over, we're all feeling lazy and satiated.