When I was thinking about writing my own blog weeks ago, I thought that one of my first entries would be about Sake Bar Hagi on 152 W. 49th St. near Times Square. Since this time, I have refined my blog idea into focusing on Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and kind of neglected thinking about one of the greatest restaurant experiences of my entire life – and I’m not being dramatic. Well, maybe I am being dramatic, but I’m not exaggerating.

I found out about this restaurant from “Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations,” one of my favorite shows on television. I don’t want to spend too much time on my man-crush on Mr. Bourdain, so I’ll just say that I find his show as exciting as a show can get. Anyway, he had an episode on New York City and he went to Hagi, which is an ‘izakaya,’ a Japanese bar, of sorts. Of course Mr. Bourdain was raving about how great this place is, and I trust his palate, so I suggested a trip to my friends Henry and Jared, and my sister Meg. This was the best culinary decision I’ve made since coming to New York. And I didn’t even have to do any work, really – thank you Mr. Bourdain.

The four of us met up near the restaurant for dinner, but there was an hour-long wait. Whatever. We waited it out and hung out near Times Square until they called Henry on his cell phone. That’s right, no TGIF-style buzzers at this place – much more personal.

We headed over and got a nice table, where I had a good view of one of their four or five televisions that are hanging off the wall. (This is the type of experience where I have many detailed memories of that night at Hagi, and it bothers me that I can’t remember what college football game was on. All of my senses were heightened while sitting at the table and it’s a shame I can’t remember who was playing. It would have been a nice sentence to pop in somewhere. Something like, “While I was pounding my teriyaki squid, the Buckeyes were pounding on Washington.” Instead, I have a paragraph-long parenthetical). The place was packed and the menu was massive, but I was never overwhelmed. All of us, despite being very hungry, took it slow and tried to focus on what we wanted to get.

Although Hagi is almost always packed and bumping, you’re never rushed. Part of the experience is sitting patiently and talking while your yakitori and dishes are brought to you separately. Hagi is a place to mingle, which I don’t normally enjoy doing at a restaurant. I’ll mingle outside of the restaurant, but not in the restaurant. However, this place put me in a different mindset. Outside of the fantastic food, the entire experience was wonderful, including the mingling and waiting.

Now, to the food. I ordered soft-shelled crab with my sister and a rice bowl with “pickles” and pork. First of all, I must have been completely frazzled if I thought this was going to be enough food, because it wasn’t. Of course, the portions were good, especially the rice bowl, but as soon as the food was put in front of me, I was immediately inclined to horde everybody else’s dishes for myself. Everyone else, I quickly learned, was thinking the same thing, because we all tried each other’s dishes. I can’t remember the last time I let a group of people try my food, but I needed to in this situation. The smoked mackerel that Jared had was just too tempting to stop me from sharing my own dishes. In order to experience Hagi to its fullest, I needed to participate in this foreign (to me) bartering system.

The tempura soft-shelled crab was great – delicate and flavorful, but I was absolutely blown away by two dishes that night – the teriyaki squid Jared ordered (and later, Meg and I ordered) and my rice bowl. The calamari was grilled whole, teriyaki-style, and when it is presented to you, it still holds its shape, but is sliced into bite-sized pieces. There was this group of young people who had just sat down next to us and this one dude could not stop staring at the squid and other things on our table. I think we could have been friends.

I was trying to think about how much I enjoyed the rice bowl I got, but I can’t do it justice. As simple as it was (pickled greens, grilled pork bits and savory sauce atop rice), it was the greatest Asian dish of any kind I’ve had since I moved to New York. Better than the Peking duck at the Peking Duck House, the dumplings at Kai Feng Fu, the banh mi at Ba Xuyen, and the noodles at Yunnan Flavour Snack Shop – and those are some amazing dishes. However, the rice bowl I got was perfect. The rice, the pork, the veggies, the spices – perfect. And cheap. $5.

Everything was cheap. The yakitori that Henry and Jared got – $1.50 and $2. The teriyaki squid – around $6. The noodle soups – around $6. Everything was so good and so cheap, all of us could have sat there for two more hours and eaten who-knows-how-much-more delicious food.

Hagi is the perfect example of having a complete culinary experience. It is a perfect representation of what eating out is supposed to be. You don’t need to get pampered at a fancy restaurant, with the food being served and the water being poured at just the right time, to have a good experience. Hagi is exciting, chaotic, interesting, and, most importantly, refreshing. The food, the environment, and the company left me rejuvenated. I wasn’t thinking about not having a job or my other worries. I was satisfied.