Category Archives: New York City Manhattan

Apr5

Neo Sushi Studio: 1410 1st Ave, NY

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For our final dinner in NYC before the big move to Florida, Gabriel and I were VERY lucky to have our dear friend Betsy take us to Neo Sushi to celebrate. I’d never been, but recently read some reviews claiming that it’s a new UES treasure, even better than Gari or Sasabune (Sasabune, though it’s ridiculously expensive and I have only been once is what I think of as the best sushi I’ve ever had) and at much more reasonable prices.

We were seated right away and the very friendly waiter came to chat with us about what we were in the mood for. We decided to let him choose for us, and I’m very glad we did. He sent over the hamachi sashimi to start. Thinly sliced pieces of exquisite fish topped with cilantro and yuzu black pepper. WOW. This was so incredible and I already felt that this was indeed a special restaurant with a very talented chef. Next we had the Spicy Tuna Rice Crisp. These were little fried rice balls, somewhat reminiscent of tater tots if they were made of rice instead of potato. We were told to top them with the spicy tuna and then dip them in the sauce. Delicious. The mix of hot and cold, spicy and salty, crunchy and squishy was so enjoyable and whimsical. Then the main sushi spread arrived. We had a beautiful assortment of sushi including; salmon with tomato, tuna with soy cream, and hamachi with garlic. We also had a spicy tuna roll and another roll that was filled with asparagus and scallop (If I’m remembering right) and topped with a hot pepper sauce and a special black salt. The salt was a little too much for me, but I enjoyed the crunchy texture of it.

This whole meal was such a wonderful treat and I’m sorry that I didn’t find out about it sooner. Being that it was just a few blocks away from my apartment, I would have gone much more frequently had I known that It was so wonderful. This was such a perfect last meal in NY and exactly the way that I want to remember the NYC dining scene: amazing food, great people, friendly service and reasonable prices. I hope you’ll go check it out.

Apr5

3E Taste of Thai. 34-16 Broadway, Queens, NY

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I have always heard that the best Thai food in NY is in Queens. It took me a very long time to go check it out- and actually this was only a week before moving out of the city to Florida. Well, better late than never. 3E Thai was indeed some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had and at prices that are FAR below my previous favorite (Land, on the Upper East Side)

Gabriel and I were in the area to pack up his apartment for our big move and when we finished our long day filled with boxes and packing paper, we were excited to replenish our lost calories with some great food. We arrived at 3E Thai and were seated right away in the fairly full restaurant. We looked over the menu and, after realizing that the prices were so awesome, decided to share a bunch of things.

We started with a spicy Tom Yum soup, one of my favorites, that came with a few large shrimp. The broth was full of lemongrass flavor with a little kick and we finished it quickly. Next, out came an awesome papaya salad, wonderful shrimp dumplings and an order of chicken satay. We shared the Pad Thai entree as well and it proved to be a bit less peanuty and heavy than it sometimes is. The whole meal was so fresh, light, and healthy and I’m a bit bummed that I won’t get a chance to repeat this whole meal. Oh well- at least I got to try it once! Go check it out…for half of the cost of a meal on the UES, you can eat twice as well.

Apr5

La Mela: 167 Mulberry st. New York, NY

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Last Thursday, Gabriel and I threw a going-away party for ourselves. We had an absolute blast doing karaoke and enjoying cocktails with about 35 friends at 2nd on 2nd in the East Village. When the party ended, we found ourselves starving and rather buzzed (well, okay I was plumb drunk) and everything around was already closed. We decided to wander over to Little Italy to see if we could luck out with finding somewhere open to get big, satisfying plates of pasta. Lo and behold, we found La Mela. Open, mostly empty, pretty inexpensive and with great reviews online.

We were seated right away and quickly scanned the menu. Water and bread were brought out and our orders were taken. I chose the traditional spaghetti and meatballs which came out just a few moments later. Perfect. It totally hit the spot (from what I can remember) and left me with 2 extra meals worth for the following day. The meatballs were huge and delicious and the pasta sauce was bright, flavorful and hot. The pasta was definitely not homemade, but it was fine anyway, and the price was very fair.

If you’re in the area, especially late at night, I’d suggest giving it a try.

Mar5

El Cantinero: 86 University Place. New York, NY

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Gabriel had been telling me about El Cantinero for a while because he thinks it’s great Mexican food, reasonably priced, and (most importantly for him) they don’t charge extra for chips and salsa. When we got there, we were initially told they wouldn’t seat us until all 4 of us arrived, but just a few minutes later the host changed his mind and led us to a great table towards the back. We’d specifically asked for a quiet-ish spot and he gave us a large, round table that was kind of tucked away. Perfect.

Chips and salsa were brought out right away and drink orders were taken. Our friends arrived just a few minutes later and the waiter came back to take their drink orders and to bring us water and menus. So far so good. At that point I asked for an order of guacamole for the table. (request #1)

He came back about 5 minutes later to take our orders and check to see how our drinks were. So far, so good. I asked if the guac was coming out and he said it was on it’s way. (request #2)

Our meals were brought over and everything looked great (except for Gabriel’s order which didn’t include the stuffed pepper he’d ordered, but ok- he was hungry and happy with what came instead).

I found it odd that our entrees arrived and our app still hadn’t so I made that known by asking the waiter about our guac. (request #3) He apologized and asked if we still wanted it.

We ate about 3/4 of our entrees. The guac came out! Hooray! It was quite good even though we were already filling up and slowing down. Better late than never. Kind of. I was not impressed with the service at all. The waiter hardly checked on us at all and the timing of the guac’s arrival was really pretty pathetic. Maybe they had to go harvest the avocados. My chicken mole was good- though not the best I’ve had. Overall, the meal was so-so. My frozen strawberry margarita was delish though!

When our bill came, I honestly thought there was a mistake. 4 of us, one app, a few drinks and 4 entrees came out to well over $120. For pretty typical Mexican food I thought that was really too high but oh well, at least we had plenty of time to catch up with great friends!

Would I go back again? Um, no. Doubtful. Right near me is my fav Mexican, Maz Mexcal.

https://bigforkinmouth.wordpress.com/?s=mezcal

Next time I have a Mexican craving, that’s most likely where I will go.

 

Feb29

Amber: 1406 3rd st. New York, NY

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Our time living in NYC is quickly coming to an end. We are moving to Florida at the end of March (and yes, of COURSE I will continue blogging and reviewing there). The days of a sushi restaurant on every block will be a thing of the past. This is one of the things that Gabriel and I will REALLY miss (as you can read about on our blog byebyeny.wordpress.com) about living here, along with the plethora of livingsocial, groupon, scoutmob type deals that are offered in this city.

We bought a deal for Amber that included 2 apps, 2 classic rolls and 2 entrees for (If I remember correctly) $30 and went to cash in last night. We were surprised to see that it was very crowded on a Tuesday night, and wondered how many others were there with coupons. We actually overheard the waitress ask the next table over from us if they had one, so it must be the reason it’s so packed. The service was very friendly and knowledgable but definitely on the slow side and we had about 5-10 minutes of waiting between each plate that was served.

We, as always, decided to share everything. We started with the BBQ ribs and the shrimp and veggie tempura starter. Just to be totally honest, I completely forgot to take a pic of the ribs so this one is a pic I found online. It actually came with a small side salad with a few slices of (presumably, canned) peaches. The ribs were on the fatty side, but crisp and flavorful. The tempura was so-so. Definitely not as light and flakey as it should have been, but the generous pieces of zucchini and eggplant sort of made up for that.

Our 2 rolls were the highlight for me. One was spicy scallop, which had large scallops in each piece rather than the chopped up kind that a lot of sushi places serve. The other was snowcrab and tobiko which was a little too salty for me, but fresh and a bit different that the ‘classic’ rolls I’d usually order. They came with the seaweed on the outside as I requested it, and were tightly and expertly wrapped.

For our entrees we had the chicken with basil sauce and brown rice and the bird’s nest. Hmm. These were somewhat disappointing. I couldn’t detect any basil flavor on the chicken – just an overly-sweet, orange-colored sauce. The eggplant in this dish was really tasty though, it kind of saved the dish from being a flop. The bird’s nest was totally the opposite of the impressive display I’d anticipated. At most restaurants, it’s served in a beautiful noodle-y basket but here it was a (presumably pre-made) bowl that looked (and tasted) a lot like styrofoam. The chicken, shrimp and veggies inside were fine, but certainly nothing unique or noteworthy.

Overall, I suppose I’d go back for the sushi, but probably not for the entrees or anything out of the ordinary. The sushi was quite good- but not spectacular…and given that I pass about 20 other sushi places on my way to Amber, I guess the likelihood of a return visit is pretty slim.

Feb21

Onegin: 391 6th ave, NY NY

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To call this evening a special experience would be a huge understatement. As someone who has Russian roots but minimal knowledge of the culture, this was an eye-opening journey of cuisine that I got to enjoy without even purchasing a plane ticket.

When Gabriel and I arrived we had our choice of seats in this very lovely restaurant. We chose the red velvet chairs near the windows and sat down for what was about to be a truly unforgettable dining adventure. As we looked over the menu, we quickly realized how little we knew about Russian food aside from blini and borsht and we decided to let our knowledgable waiter take the lead for us. The array of food that appeared was seemingly endless and in between 3 vodka cocktails each, we managed to eat an insane amount.

The pumpernickel bread with dill butter that started us off was wonderful. Fresh and soft with an earthy, nutty flavor. The creamy, whipped dill butter was impossible to not slather onto each slice.

Our first 2 appetizers were very traditional; red caviar blinis and the holodets. Neither of us had ever tried holodets and we were a bit wary of it at first. It looked frighteningly like the jelly that comes with gefilte fish and I’m not really a big fan of that, generally speaking. This was certainly unusual to me and I always say, I wil try anything twice. (I often don’t like things the first time around but they frequently grow on me). This was one of those cases. The first few bites were ummmmm, well, not my favorite consistency in the world…but the more I ate (in between sips of my delicious sour cherry cocktail) the more I liked it. It was enhanced with the sides of homemade horseradish and Russian mustard. Different indeed, and I have to admit, the sheer uniqueness of it in a world that consists of a ton of pizza, sushi and other familiar-to-me foods, was enjoyable. The blini were out of this world. Accompanied by awesome red caviar, sour cream, scallions and chopped egg, they were the perfect consistency and combination of flavors. The presentation was also really impressive, displayed on it’s own little wooden board. We polished them off in about 3 minutes.

The next courses brought out to us were our soups. I had the hot borsht with beef and Gabriel had the Ukha (Russian Fisherman’s soup). Each came with a side of bread- mine were 2 little wonderfully garlic-y rolls and Gabriel’s was a mushroom/fish cake. I didn’t love his soup- it was really just a basic fish broth which was a little too ‘fishy’ for me and not terribly exciting, but my borsht was phenomenal and went perfectly with the garlic rolls. At this point, our waiter brought out 2 homemade horseradish infused vodkas for us, garnished with a crunchy little gherkin. YUM.

Next we shared one entree, I’m not entirely sure what it was called because we let the waiter choose it for us, but it was basically a cutlet made from veal and chicken and fried. It was a bit on the greasy side and not my favorite flavor in the world, but the mashed potatoes and grilled fresh vegetables that came with it were awesome and I happily ate them all.

At this point we were pretty darn full but felt we just *had* to find room to try a traditional dessert. How could we skip a homemade halvah that the waiter promised was truly incredible? We couldn’t…and it was. It seriously changed my mind altogether about what halvah is. This was velvety, milky and cool, with the flavor of rich hazelnut and cashew and served with fresh berries and whipped cream. Excellent. I HIGHLY recommend trying this dessert if you’re like me, constantly ordering the chocolate option on any dessert menu. A great way to branch out without straying from creamy, rich, sweetness.

To finish our meal, we opted to try tea from the very cool lit-up tea box. We had fun opening each jar to have a sniff before deciding which ones to try. I had the lychee green tea and though I am probably still wide-awake writing this because of it, it was worth it. It was presented in such a glorious way in little cast iron tea pots with a sliver-wrapped glass that the waiter explained was how they serve tea on the trains in Russia. How cool is that? Alongside of our tea he served us condensed sweetened milk, brown sugar cubes, honey and cherry jam. What a wonderful treat this was- and a lovely way to sip our way to the end of this meal. Well, we *thought* it was the end until our awesome waiter appeared once more with yet another house infused vodka to try. This final one was made with a natural hazelnut and coffee infusion. I would never have thought that those flavors would work together but this turned out to be my favorite drink of the night.

Overall, I found Onegin to be a really fantastic restaurant. I recently read some negative reviews about it online and think they are totally unfair. I hope that the naysayers give this gem another try. It is honestly one of the most special dining experiences I’ve had in New York. Bravo Onegin, and thank you for an outstanding evening.

Feb20

Hunan Delight: 1469 York Ave, NY NY

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It is really ridiculous that it’s taken me this long to write up a review for Hunan Delight. I’ve been coming here for 5 years since it’s at the top of the block that I live on and it’s WAY better than average chinese food. The Japanese food is pretty darn good too- but I usually stick with Chinese.

If you live on the UES and haven’t ordered in or dined here, you are truly missing out. My boyfriend and I are regulars for both delivery and dining in- we go almost weekly. It’s best to eat there because you get FREE WINE with dinner. The wine is actually pretty good too! When you get delivery, it’s super fast and hot- but the crunchy noodles and duck sauce are not as good as the ones you get when you eat there. The food is plentiful, inexpensive and reliably good.

Today we shared the moo shi vegetables with pancakes as well as the healthy steamed shrimp option with 6 vegetables (mushrooms, black mushrooms, jicama, carrots, baby corn, and bok choy) and sauce of our choice (garlic). As always, the food was great quality, served quickly and with friendly banter.

We often get the healthy steamed choices with either chicken or shrimp and for the price it’s a great deal.  The lunch specials are also an amazing bang for the buck. I recommend the BBQ spareribs, crab rangoon, cashew chicken and juicy dumplings. Everything they make is really surprisingly good. No need to trek down to chinatown!

I will DEEPLY miss Hunan Delight when we move away from NYC next month. I hope you will continue going there on my behalf. BRAVO Hunan, I wish more restaurants up here were as fairly priced and awesome as you.

Feb19

Centolire: 1167 Madison ave. NY NY

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My aunt chose Centolire as the restaurant to celebrate my beloved Grandmother’s 96th birthday in, and what a perfect choice it was. There was an elevator to get to the upstairs dining area, and we were seated at a comfortable table near the windows. The decor is tasteful and cheery with fresh flowers, lots of sunlight streaming in, and orange and gold banquets. The service which was slightly on the formal side, was incredible knowledgable and attentive, save for some empty water glasses towards the end of our meal.

A $25 3 course prix fix was a very reasonable cost for a fine quality meal and the menu was full of so many appealing dishes that we all had a tough time choosing. Luckily for me, my boyfriend and I have very similar taste in food and were happy to share everything, so we were each able to try 6 dishes instead of just 3.

The fresh Italian bread that arrived in a basket alongside delicious olive oil was a good indication of the food to follow. Wonderfully fresh and high quality, the excellent olive oil was clearly carefully selected.

We began with our appetizers: a risotto topped with a bacon wrapped scallop and a baby artichoke, arugula salad with parmesan. Both were fantastic, and even though the one lonely scallop looked like not quite enough to share, it really was. Cooked to perfection and wrapped with a thick slice of bacon, this was amazing on top of the creamy, cheesy risotto and had we opted for the entree sized portion of it, it would have been too much. The salad was simple but fresh and delicious, and the thick slices of parmesan on top were again clearly of high quality.

For one of our entrees we chose the grilled salmon with broccoli rabe, which turned out to be good- but pretty boring. The fish was very fresh and cooked perfectly with a crisp crust. The broccoli rabe had large sliced of roasted garlic and was not at all bitter as it sometimes is. That said, the dish lacked anything exciting or original about it and we were a little disappointed with it’s simplicity.

The ‘strangled priest’ pasta with chicken ragout was a total hit. I’d never had this oddly named pasta before- they were almost like little twisted dumplings and had a great sort of springy consistency to them. The creamy, tomato-y chicken ragout had a similar texture to pulled pork and was something quite different than I’ve had before. I throughly enjoyed this dish and pretty much licked the bowl clean.

Alongside of a delicious cappuccino we shared our 2 desserts. The 2 scoops of gelato were incredible, on one side was pistacho and the other was amaretto flavor. I LOVED the amaretto one and really would have like a giant container of that one to take home. It had little ribbons of the almond cookies going through it and I was pretty much in heaven except that it was gone too quickly. The blueberry and vanilla creme tart turned out to be much more cake-y than tart-y but very good no matter what it was called. It was not too sweet but had a lovely crumbly texture and large fresh blueberries inside.

Overall, I was very pleased with Centolire, especially since the reviews online are kind of mixed and I didn’t go in with terribly high expectations. I would absolutely recommend a visit and think it’s a great choice for a date, a group or even dining alone. When we went, it was a fairly mixed clientele, centering around what seemed to be families and I got the feeling that it’s generally a local Upper East Side crowd. Bravo Centolire!

 

 

Feb19

Popbar: 5 Carmine st. NY NY

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Gabriel and I *almost* ruined our appetites here before going for dinner the other night, but decided to hold off until afterwards. It was the cute storefront that drew us in, and the clever hot chocolate presentation that got us to purchase a cup each. Displayed in the glass case as little chocolate bars on popsicle sticks, the hot chocolate includes one block of milk, dark or white chocolate on a stick and a cup of steamed milk. I had the milk chocolate choice and enjoyed stirring it and letting it melt into the milk. A lick of the chocolate bar gave me a nice, creamy, indulgent treat and my first sip of the drink was warm and cozy. It was a great flavor, not overly sweet, just rich and chocolatey. Yum. The price is on the high side at $3.75 each, but you are kind of paying for the novelty of it. I’m not sure I’d go back, but I really liked the idea of it and plan to make some at home myself with a chocolate bar and milk steamed in my little at-home-frother. Yum. Thanks for the idea!

Feb19

Ido Sushi: 29 7th ave south. NY NY

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It sounded like a great deal. $39 for up to $98 dollars worth of sushi and drinks. The specific details said: 2 glasses of wine or beer, 1 hot or cold appetizer and a sushi/sashimi/maki roll dinner for 2. When we arrived and we seated, the deal seemed to change a bit. First of all, the total was up to $91 worth. The wine or beer was only the ‘house’ type, not what we actually wanted. (and pretty bad, probably from a box) and the appetizers couldn’t exceed $15. When we totaled our meal up it actually came to around $85. Although it was still a nice deal, I did not appreciate that it mysteriously changed from the description and the waitress, quite frankly, was pretty rude and dismissive about it. When I showed her the original offer on my Iphone, she simply said ‘That’s not how we do it, it was a typo”. Oooookay, thanks.

As far as the food goes, we started with the scallops and mushroom appetizer which was tasty, but tiny. If we’d actually paid the full $15 price for it, I would have been very disappointed. The sushi/sashimi/maki roll platter was very good quality, presented quickly and attractively, but really wasn’t as much food as we had expected. We finished everything in about 10 minutes and left with bellies that needed more. We actually ended up hitting another sushi place (Miyabi on West 3rd which is quite excellent, though I did not blog it this time…) a couple of hours later because we were still feeling hungry. Kind of hilarious, but also a ridiculous waste of money that we didn’t really want to spend.

Had this meal been at it’s full price, I would have been appalled. We could have gone to Yuka (one of our favorites uptown that offers a $25 all you can eat deal) and been MUCH happier. As it were, after leaving the 18% tip and tax, this meal cost us about $60 and we were not impressed. Although the atmosphere was cute and cozy, and there was a pretty good live jazz trio playing, the seats were uncomfortable, the food was overpriced and the service was nasty. I would not return.