Restaurant in New York City, United States
Legit izakaya, low-stress booking, high reward.
Yopparai is a serious izakaya on Clinton Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side, ranked in the Opinionated About Dining Top 375 restaurants in North America for 2025. The shared-plate format and strong sake program make it a practical choice for groups of two to six. Booking is easy — a few days out is usually enough.
Yes — and the answer is clearer once you understand what Yopparai is and isn't. This is a serious izakaya on Clinton Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side, ranked #375 on the Opinionated About Dining Leading Restaurants in North America list for 2025 (up from #374 in 2024, and a Recommended listing in 2023). That consistent upward trajectory on one of the most credible independent dining lists in the country tells you this is not a neighborhood novelty. It is a place worth making a reservation for.
Yopparai operates in the izakaya format: small plates, a strong drinks program built around sake and Japanese spirits, and a room designed for grazing rather than a formal procession of courses. The Clinton Street address puts it in one of the Lower East Side's quieter residential pockets, which shapes the atmosphere. This is not a loud, packed izakaya designed to turn tables. The pacing is more deliberate. If you have been once and found the room relaxed and the menu approachable, a return visit rewards closer attention to the sake list and to ordering more broadly across the menu rather than anchoring on what worked last time.
Chef Junya Miura leads the kitchen. The venue holds a 4.5 Google rating across 467 reviews, which at that volume indicates consistent execution rather than a spike of opening-night enthusiasm. Hours run Monday through Thursday and Sunday, 5:30 to 10 pm, with Friday and Saturday service extending to 11 pm. The extra hour on weekends makes a Friday or Saturday booking the better call if you want a slower, later evening without feeling rushed toward last orders.
Yopparai is not a venue with a dedicated private dining room in the traditional sense, which matters if you are planning around a group occasion. Izakaya-format restaurants generally handle groups well because the shared-plate structure removes the awkward choreography of individual course orders — everyone eats at the same pace, and adding dishes is easy. For a group of four to six, this format works cleanly. For larger parties, contact the venue directly before assuming private arrangements are available; there is no confirmed private room in the venue record. If exclusive-use or fully private dining is a firm requirement, venues like Sakagura, New York's well-regarded basement sake bar and Japanese restaurant, have more established infrastructure for private events.
For a special occasion that doesn't require a private room , a birthday dinner for four, a small work celebration, or a date with someone who knows their sake , Yopparai's OAD recognition gives it enough credibility to anchor an evening. The izakaya format also takes the pressure off: there's no fixed tasting menu commitment, no mandatory minimum spend signaling, and the shared-plate pace feels celebratory without being ceremonial.
Booking difficulty: Easy. Yopparai does not require weeks of advance planning , a few days ahead is typically sufficient for most nights, though Friday and Saturday evenings benefit from booking earlier in the week. Reservations: Reserve directly with the restaurant; no booking platform is specified in the venue record, so calling ahead or checking their website directly is the most reliable route. Dress: No dress code is listed; smart casual is appropriate for the Lower East Side neighborhood and the izakaya format. Budget: Price range is not confirmed in the venue data, but izakaya dining in New York at this OAD ranking tier typically runs $60–$100 per person with drinks , verify current pricing directly. Address: 49 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002. Hours: Mon–Thu and Sun 5:30–10 pm; Fri–Sat 5:30–11 pm.
See the comparison section below for how Yopparai sits against New York's wider dining field.
For more on eating and drinking in New York, see our full New York City restaurants guide, our full New York City bars guide, our full New York City hotels guide, our full New York City wineries guide, and our full New York City experiences guide. If you're interested in how izakaya dining plays out in its home context, Benikurage in Osaka and Berangkat in Kyoto are worth knowing. For US comparison points at the highest end of the dining spectrum, Lazy Bear in San Francisco, The French Laundry in Napa, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, Smyth in Chicago, Providence in Los Angeles, and Emeril's in New Orleans each represent their city's serious dining tier.
The venue record does not confirm specific dishes, so treat any specific menu recommendation with caution until you've seen a current menu. As a rule for izakaya dining at this level: prioritize whatever the kitchen is running as daily specials, lean into the sake list rather than treating it as an afterthought, and order in waves rather than all at once. The OAD recognition suggests the kitchen has depth across the menu, so ordering broadly tends to reward more than anchoring on a single dish. Ask your server what's come in fresh that day.
Yes , the izakaya format is one of the better solo dining structures available in New York. Shared plates become single servings, the pacing is self-directed, and there is no pressure to fill a two-leading with conversation. The Lower East Side location means the room likely has counter or bar seating that suits solo visitors well. At an estimated $60–$100 per person with drinks, it is significantly more affordable than solo dining at New York's $$$$ tier, where venues like Masa run several hundred dollars per person for omakase. Yopparai gives you serious, OAD-recognized cooking without the commitment of a fixed-price format.
Arrive knowing it's an izakaya, not a sit-down Japanese restaurant in the conventional sense: the menu is designed for grazing, drinking, and sharing. The OAD ranking puts this in the top tier of New York's Japanese dining scene below the ultra-premium omakase category. Hours start at 5:30 pm nightly, so an early table avoids any weekend crowding. Booking a few days ahead is usually enough, though Friday and Saturday are worth locking in earlier. For context on how Yopparai sits within New York's full restaurant picture, see our New York City restaurants guide.
For Japanese dining in a similar register, Sakagura is the closest direct comparison , a serious sake-focused Japanese restaurant with more established private dining infrastructure if that matters for your group. For New York dining at the absolute leading of the market, Masa is the reference point for Japanese cooking, though at a price point that is multiple times higher and in a completely different format. If you want to stay in the OAD-recognized tier but outside the Japanese category, Atomix (Modern Korean, $$$$) and Le Bernardin (French seafood, $$$$) both represent serious alternatives, though at higher price points and with more formal booking requirements.
Yes, with one condition: manage expectations about the format. Yopparai is not a tasting-menu restaurant with a built-in arc of courses and sommelier attention. The izakaya structure means the occasion is shaped by how you use the menu, not by the restaurant's choreography. For a birthday dinner for four where the group wants to eat well and drink thoughtfully without a $300+ per-person commitment, this is a practical and credible choice. The OAD Top 375 North America ranking gives it genuine standing. For a special occasion that requires the formality of a private room or a fixed tasting progression, look at Eleven Madison Park or Atomix instead.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yopparai | Izakaya | Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #375 (2025); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Ranked #374 (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in North America Recommended (2023) | Easy | — |
| Le Bernardin | French, Seafood | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Atomix | Modern Korean, Korean | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Per Se | French, Contemporary | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Masa | Sushi, Japanese | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Eleven Madison Park | French, Vegan | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Yopparai is an izakaya, so the format rewards ordering broadly across the menu rather than anchoring on one or two dishes. The drinks program built around sake and Japanese spirits is a core part of the experience, not a side consideration. If you are skipping the sake list here, you are missing a significant portion of what the OAD ranking reflects.
Yes — izakaya format is genuinely well-suited to solo diners. You can work through small plates at your own pace, and a counter or bar seat typically puts you close to the drinks program. Yopparai on Clinton Street is open every evening from 5:30 pm, which gives you flexibility without needing to plan around a group.
Come expecting a grazing-style dinner, not a structured progression. Izakaya dining means small plates and drinks shared across the table, so parties of two or more will cover more ground than solo diners. Yopparai has held an Opinionated About Dining ranking since 2023, reaching #374 in 2024 and #375 in 2025, which signals consistency rather than a one-season spike.
For Japanese small plates and sake in Manhattan, Katana Kitten (cocktail-forward, more casual) and Gage & Tollner-adjacent LES spots serve different parts of the same impulse. If you want a more formal Japanese format, an omakase counter is the cleaner comparison. Yopparai's edge is the combination of OAD recognition and a booking process that does not require weeks of lead time.
It works for a low-key celebration where the priority is great food and drinks over ceremony. Yopparai does not have a dedicated private dining room, so if you need a room buyout or a structured event format, look elsewhere. For a birthday dinner or anniversary where the group wants to eat and drink well without formality, it fits well — Friday and Saturday hours extend to 11 pm, which gives the evening room to breathe.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
