Cafe Zaiya -- Mr. Hipster's Booze and Grub Survey

Booze & Grub Alphabetical: # | A | B | C | D | E| F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ALL

Cafe Zaiya
Address: 18 E 41st St. Phone: 212/779-0600	Neighborhood: Murray Hill Website: zaiyany.com	Cuisine: Lunch Smorgasbord

All I can picture when I think of this place are those weird, Japanese pink rice balls. They honestly kinda freak me out. Luckily that's not all that's going on here. It's another one of those lunch joints that has different stations all over the place--but with a Japanese slant. That means sushi and all that kind of stuff. For a take out lunch joint that isn't strictly Japanese, the sushi actually isn't too bad. I wouldn't make it a raw fish destination or anything, but for gobbling at your desk between meetings, you could certainly do worse (and I have). I couldn't help but feel like a bit of a Power Ranger in this place, though, as the decor has a bit of that lucky cat/Hello Kitty vibe going on, and I felt like I was fighting the evil lunchtime crowd monster. And the crowds seemed as confused by the ordering flow as I did. But, as has been pointed out to me in the past, it was a good sign that a large number of the customers were actually Japanese. It's not like you're gonna catch an authentic French person at Pret a Manger or royalty at Burger King. Know what I mean? [MF]

More on Mr. Hipster

Hipster Movie Reviews
Enjoy the rantings as Mr. Hipster proves he slept through his film criticism courses in college.

Hipster Book Reviews
This much ignorance about literature can only lead to hurt feelings and a whole lot of nonsense.

Music
Check out the albums that have left Mr. H with permanent hearing loss in his left ear, but a song in his heart

Find some more joints using the menus below
Neighborhood	Cuisine	Bar/Club Type