Putting Glaze Teriyaki to the Seattle Test
Please give a warm welcome to our newest contributor: Donny T. from the site Eat to Blog
Back in December, Glaze Teriyaki opened to a lot of excitement from Midtown Lunchers and teriyaki lovers. The obvious excitement came from the fact that the owner is a Seattle native, bringing what has become THE food of Seattle to NYC. Chris H. was lucky enough to try the teriyaki when it first opened and liked it a lot. But how does Glaze Teriyaki compare to the real thing?
Well, guess what? I just got back from Seattle! Don’t mind if I do…
Seattle the birth place of grunge, coffee culture and the home of the teriyaki. Yes teriyaki, which I only found out when I did my “must eats” research. How in the world did teriyaki become THE food of Seattle? I couldn’t leave Seattle without getting some teriyaki. So on the very last day of my visit, just few hours before my flight I went on a search for it.
Right on Pike St, just blocks from Pike Place, was Osaka Teriyaki. For $7.50 you can get the chicken teriyaki special but for 50cents more I went for the chicken and pork combo. This place was pretty much run by the couple behind the counter. For $8, this plate could’ve easily fed 3 people (or 2 of me!) The meats were piled high and dripping with sauce, tasty sauce. I ate a piece of chicken by itself and thought “wow the sauce is really salty with a little bit of sweetness in it.” But when I ate it with the rice it was perfect! The meats were grilled to perfection with bits and pieces of charred goodness. The raw lettuce with a squirt of (what I think was) ranch dressing was admittedly a little sad, but in some ways it’s what I love about good cheap food- there was clearly no fuss over it. The meat may not have been locally raised or massaged with sake but it was damn comforting- especially in the cool gloomy Seattle weather.
Of course once I got back to New York, I was curious about Glaze Teriyaki (and in need of a perfect lunch for this cool gloomy NYC weather.) For $7.75 I got the Murray’s chicken thigh teriyaki with white rice and the sesame dressing for the salad. I got there right before Noon, which turned out to be the perfect time because the tiny shop quickly filled up after I placed my order- and even then I still had to wait a bit for my food.
I opened the box to a nice looking lunch. The salad was definitely better looking then a pile of raw lettuce and the sesame dressing was excellent. The slices of chicken were juicy and had nice looking grilled marks. But really it all comes down to the sauce. How did it compare to teriyaki in Seattle?! Well, first of all, there wasn’t a lot of sauce on the chicken, and some pieces were actually sauceless (the horror!) But in the end I’ve got to agree with Chris H., there is no fault to be found in this sauce. Sure, if push came to shove I guess I preferred Osaka’s. The flavors were bold and screaming, while the sauce from Glaze was a bit milder. Next time (and there will definitely be a next time) I will try the spicy version and make sure to get extra sauce.
The + (What somebody who likes this would say)
- Closest thing to getting real Seattle teriyaki
- Actually has room for group dining
- Option for double meat? Yes please!
The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)
- Not enough sauce
- Waited too long for my food
Glaze Teriyaki, 638 Lexington Ave. (btw 54+55th St), 212-935-3400
Posted by Donny T. at 11:30 am, February 2nd, 2011 under Glaze Teriyaki.
11 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
glaze is pretty good but their portions are too small for the price…if they had 20% more meat I’d be in much more often. Their double meat option for $3 seems more like 50-70% more meat, which is lame. Also, I find it ridiculous that they charge $1 extra for hot sauce…which is ok, but definitely not worth $1. Get some of that free Sriracha off to the side instead. And agreed about the wait…guess that’s the price of made to order food.