yaokui: Kasadela

Address: 647 East 11th Street, New York

http://www.kasadela.com

Phone: 212-777-1582

If you didn't tell me Kasadela is a sake house/Japanese restaurant, I probably wouldn't know just by looking in from the outside. I actually forgot to ask the bartender, who we were chatting with while waiting for Kim, where did the name of the restaurant originated. But apparently the owner, a Taiwanese guy who used work in Nobu, cycles quite a bit, worldwide (Alf/HC did you hear this?) and he took pretty nice travel photographs which he displayed on the restaurant wall near the bar. His wife and co-owner of the restaurant was originally from Japan.

We had a good time sitting at the bar, chatting with the bartender and another customer, while drinking some delicious Wakatake Daiginjo Sake. The bar has small but nice selections of sake which you can order either a tasting glass, glass, masu or carafe. When Kim arrived, we went to have our dinner in the dining room. We ordered the rock shrimp salad, buta kimchee, tebasaki wings 手羽先 (a nagoya specialty wings with soy sauce and sake flavor), garlic and butter steak on hot plate, as well as shisamo (grilled smelt). We thought the food was ok, not great -- but definitely more of a charming, cozy little Lower East Side neighborhood restaurant good for drinking, snacking and hanging out.