When is the best time to go to a very popular, super tiny ice cream shop? On a day that is snowing like crazy. Yup. I have been sooo wanting to go to Taiyaki NYC for a while, but I know they usually have lines, so I waited until the right moment. When the moment called “crazy snow” came, off we went. Yes we are that kinds of nuts. The place is really small, I mean, if you blink, you will pass by without realizing it. The facade was interesting, it had the old-fashioned Japanese roof design on top, and wooden structure around it. I didn’t see any store sign, except on a window, it had their cute logo on it.
The inside is really small, the kitchen area takes up a lot more space than the ordering and eating space. There is no table, just one wooden bench and another seating spot around the window. I say many total of six people can sit, and that is it.
They had a cute decoration on the walls, one that depicts what happens here in this store in the most simplistic way, with super adorable drawing, and another one that reads “There’s a new fish in town.” If you are not familiar with taiyaki, it is one of the traditional sweets from Japan, and it means “baked sea bream.” No, it is not a real fish, it is just shaped like one. It is a cute little cake made with pancake or waffle batter, and has fillings inside. The most traditional filling is red bean paste. Nowadays, they have many more fillings like custard, chocolate, cheese, and so on. (you can read more about taiyaki here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/omedetaiyaki-lalaport/) Here, they make the shape of the taiyaki to look as if the fish has a wide open mouth, in order to hold the ice cream on top.
We ordered Straight Outta Japan ($7) and You’re Berry Lovely ($7). They have five pre-selected menu item like this, but you can also make your own Taiyaki, also all at $7. The more topping you add, the higher the price is going to become. All the Taiyaki comes with two toppings, so if you want to add more, it will cost you 50 cents per topping, which is pretty cheap (until you add gazillion of toppings).
Straight Outta Japan is made with matcha sesame swirl ice cream, red bean filling, mochi and wafer, all on top of a taiyaki. This one was really, really good! I loved the ice cream swirl, great flavor of matcha and black sesame ice cream. I loved it!!! The taiyaki part was really cute and fluffy, soft and a bit warm (as they make them right there). The amount of soft serve was quite generous, thank you! I love the colorful mochi topping, and wafer was really nice too. This was worth the wait!
You’re Berry Lovely is made with vanilla ice cream, custard filling, strawberry drizzle, rainbow sprinkles, and strawberry. It sounded really awesome, but after tasting Straight Outta Japan, I have to say, it is not as good as Straight Outta Japan. I think the ice cream flavor of matcha and sesame swirl is so awesome and so tasty, that the vanilla with strawberry drizzle felt it was not enough. Don’t get me wrong, it was really tasty, but I prefer the matcha sesame swirl. Again, the amount of ice cream was really generous, it was great.
They actually hand you the taiyaki ice cream in the paper holder (?) with their super cute logo on it. I took them off for the photo so that you can see the fish-shaped cake. Also, the “filling” is inside the cake, here is the photo of the custard filling inside the cake. Since the cake part is not that large, you don’t get a lot of filling, it’s just that there is not enough room for a lot of filling. But it was still really nice, I enjoyed it very much.
While we were enjoying our ice cream, we spotted a sign by the register that said “Stay cozy with a Croyaki.” What in a world is Croyaki??? They had a cute drawing on the bottom, that had Croissant + Taiyaki = Croyaki. So, obviously, it is a fusion of croissant and taiyaki. Their version of Cronut. We decided to try that out too.
Croyaki ($4) also comes with a choice of filling, either custard or red bean. We chose custard filling. They are made to order, and took a while for it to get ready. We came here after having a nice lunch, so with that plus taiyaki ice cream, we were pretty full. So, we took the croyaki home.
It survived the trip home on a super cold day, still in tact. Just a little bit less powder sugar, as some of them melted or fell off. It was really nice though, flaky like puff pastry texture of the croissant. We reheated in the toaster oven, and was hot and comforting, sweet but not overly sweet, and light but satisfying.
I was thinking that the middle part, the fish-shaped part to be more exact, will be the regular taiyaki with pancake-type dough. However, the entire thing was made with the croissant or puff pastry dough. The filling in the inside was not very much, which was a bit disappointing. I still liked it, I am glad we ordered it so that we could try it out.
I am so happy I got to go for a visit. And going there on a snowy day really worked. When we got there, there were about three other people in there. While we were there, about 4 more people came in. It was quite crowded in the tiny shop, even on a very snowy day, but at least there was no line, no wait. I enjoyed the cute, adorable ice cream, even though it was really cold that day… But hey, it was nice and warm in the inside! I would love to go back again for more of their picture perfect dessert!
Taiyaki NYC – 119 Baxter St, New York, NY 10013