Japanese Restaurant Near Me in the East Village: Hi-Collar's Omurice and Siphon Coffee

Hi-Collar opens at 11:30 am, closes at 4 pm, and on Monday through Wednesday it takes walk-ins only. The Japanese kissaten at 231 East 9th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in the East Village, serves omurice for $19 and brews coffee in glass siphons at the bar. If your search for a japanese restaurant near me lands here at lunchtime, the Astor Place 6 station is about three minutes away.

A kissaten is the Japanese word for an old-style coffee house, the kind of room in Tokyo where people order a sandwich, a slice of cake and a carefully brewed coffee and stay a while. Hi-Collar first opened on June 18, 2013, at 214 East 10th Street, with Bon Yagi as proprietor, according to Bedford + Bowery's report the day before the opening.

In July 2020, EV Grieve reported that the cafe had moved into a new, larger home at 231 East 9th Street, where it still operates. Resy describes it as the East Village outpost of Sakagura, the long-running Midtown sake bar. The current room has both a coffee bar counter and a separate dining area, and Resy now lets guests on booking days choose between a bar seat and a dining room table, which is a choice worth making on purpose.

The menu is yoshoku, the Western-influenced dishes that Japanese cooks adapted in the twentieth century and that now count as home food in Japan. The signature is omurice, an omelet folded over seasoned rice, served here with an original tomato sauce for $19. The Hayashi Omurice, which swaps in a rich beef hayashi sauce, is $26, and Gachi Hayashi Rice made with US wagyu is $15. Hayashi sauce is a slow-cooked beef and demi-glace stew, and pairing it with the omelet is the most Japanese way to order here.

The sandwiches are the other draw. The Katsu Sandwich is $22 and the Tamago Sandwich, the soft egg sandwich found in Japanese convenience stores and coffee shops, is $17. Pasta comes the Japanese way too: the Napolitan Spaghetti, a ketchup-based dish born in postwar Yokohama, is $19, and so is the Mentai Cream Spaghetti with spicy cod roe.

An honest view on ordering: skip the Gachi Hot Cake at $19 if you already had a full plate. It is a large, slow pancake built to be the main event, and it crowds out the better finish, which is the $6 purin, a firm Japanese caramel custard, with a cup of siphon coffee. The Coffee Jelly at $7 is the lighter choice.

Coffee is the reason to ask for a bar seat. Hi-Collar brews by siphon, the glass vacuum brewer that heats water in a lower bulb and pulls the coffee back down through a cloth filter, and Resy's write-up also mentions pour over and AeroPress. Watching the siphons work is half the experience, and the dining room tables do not have the same view.

Because the room is small and the hours are short, it suits solo lunches and slow conversations rather than big groups. Plan for about an hour. The last call is 3:30 pm and the doors close at 4 pm, so a mid-afternoon coffee break should start by 3 pm at the latest. An omurice and a purin come to $25 on the menu, before coffee, tax and tip.

The rules change by the day of the week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are walk-in only, according to the restaurant's website, so on those days you simply arrive and wait for a seat. The rest of the week, Resy offers reservations in fifteen-minute steps from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm, split between bar seats and the dining room.

For a walk-in day, the best timing is the 11:30 am opening or the last hour before the 3:30 pm last call, outside the main lunch window. On weekends, book a bar seat if you want to watch the siphons.

If a Monday line looks longer than twenty minutes, skip it for now and walk two blocks east to Tompkins Square Park, then come back. The park sits between Avenue A and Avenue B from East 7th to East 10th Streets, and a loop around it takes about fifteen minutes.

Hi-Collar fits neatly into a route that starts at the Astor Place cube and heads east. After lunch, walk to Tompkins Square Park, which has lawns, a dog run and benches under old elms, about seven minutes from the cafe.

The other direction leads west to Astor Place and the Cooper Union Foundation Building, where Abraham Lincoln gave his 1860 Cooper Union address. From there the 6 train at Astor Place, the R and W at 8th Street–NYU and the L at Third Avenue are all within a five-minute walk, so the cafe is easy to reach from most of Manhattan.

Address: Hi-Collar, 231 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10003, between Second and Third Avenues. Subway: Astor Place on the 6, about 230 meters; 8th Street–NYU on the R and W; Third Avenue on the L. Hours: daily 11:30 am to 4 pm, last call 3:30 pm. Monday to Wednesday walk-in only; other days bookable on Resy.

Prices from the official menu: omurice $19, Hayashi Omurice $26, Gachi Hayashi Rice $15, Katsu Sandwich $22, Tamago Sandwich $17, Napolitan Spaghetti $19, Mentai Cream Spaghetti $19, Gachi Hot Cake $19, purin $6, Coffee Jelly $7. Evenings at the same address belong to Five Spot Jazz. Ask the Karpo APP for an afternoon walk from Astor Place.