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Taisho is a cramped, dingy subterranean space lined with tin foil, old calendars, and smoke stains. It is also so insanely cool that local Japanese kids (themselves insanely cool) will wait 45 minutes for a table here rather than walk down the street for an easy seat at any of the other yakitori copycats on St. Marks Place. Of course, it's not just a manically friendly atmosphere or semi-secret slice of Tokyo they're after—the food rocks, too. Yakitori —-grilled skewers of anything from mushrooms and chicken to quail eggs and gizzards —-arrive hot, juicy, and eminently snackable, but the menu also features heartier dishes, such as kimchi nabe, a stew made from spicy Korean pickled cabbage, and yaki soba (stir-fried noodles). — Matt Gross