Tag Archives: village

Mille-Feuille: 552 Laguardia Place NY NY

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My friend told me about this bakery when I told her that I’d finally made it to Maison Laduree. https://bigforkinmouth.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/maison-laduree-864-madison-ave-new-york-ny/

She told me that the macrons here were the best in the city, and I, being a huge macaron lover, had to check it out asap. After lunch together, we ended up with a little extra time to kill so we wandered over together so I could see what all of her raving was about. Well, WOW. I have never doubted this particular friend’s food-raving about anything because she is basically never wrong. This went even further to prove that point. It was so so so so so right.

Yes, they are expensive. Yes, the place is tiny. Do I care? Nope, not at all. These macaron are indeed sent from heaven. They are fluffier, WAY more flavorful and more texturally complex than any other I’ve tasted. The fillings were a bit thicker than most other bakeries make them- and especially in the salted caramel one, that was something I really appreciated. I had the vanilla, the salted caramel, the coconut and the pistachio and  it would be difficult to pick my favorite. They were all seriously out of this world. GO. Go immediately…and please bring me back a few.

p.s. I have also heard that the croissant are amazing here but I filled up on the macaron this time…I’ll plan to try them next time I go. They were making almond ones when I was there and If I’d had 30 minutes to wait for them to be ready, I totally would have…they looked incredible.

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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!

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.