Dumont Visited 4/24/10 1.5 Forks

Dumont 432 Union Ave,Brooklyn, NY 11206

DuMont is one of those places I really want to like. The outside patio area is almost nice enough to make me want to forget all the bad things about this place. Now I've been to DuMont before for dinner and while it was not mind-blowing, sometimes you just want a nice juicy burger or mac&cheese. I remember finding it slightly overpriced, but after looking at the brunch menu on-line, they looked affordable.

The brunch started out nice enough. We got a nice table outside and hot yummy donut holes right away. Then we waited...and waited...and waited, until I almost stood up and walked out. We had sat down for over 20 mins with no one coming to take our order, drink or food. People who were sitting across the restaurant who had come in after us were already getting their food and we hadn't even ordered. Our waitress was tending to other customers, but didn't once come over or make eye contact to say that she saw us. When we finally did order, I got the eggs benedict ($10) and white sangria ($9) in honor of Magda's. Dan got the eggs, grits, and chipotle sausage with a red sangria. So everything was fine until the table next to us, who not only sat down after us but ordered after us got their food first! I was so enraged and if I could have thought of a place nearby to eat at, I would have walked out at that point. But then our food came out pretty quickly afterwards. The food was fine. The eggs were runny and the potatoes were actually nice and crispy on the outside. While there were 2 eggs, it only came on 1 muffin, which I think is a cop-out. Dan thought his chipotle sausage was too oily and wasn't impressed with his meal overall. The sangria was also not that great, it didn't taste that strong and had a weird aftertaste, although dan pointed out that mine was an apricot flavor sangria, so that might have been it. Another thing that bothered me was that they didn't bring dan's coffee out til after everything else had come out. WTF?

The waitress was nice but mildly apologized for waiting but it wasn't enough for me. The total bill was $46, which was the same price we paid for our dinner at Umi Nom last night (granted we didn't order alcohol) and was much better experience overall. The the service wasn't an issue I might have given this place 2.5 Forks and consider going back, but at the very least I won't be back for brunch again.

Umi Nom Visited 4/23/10 3.5 Forks

Umi Nom 433 DeKalb Ave. (between Classon Ave & Taaffe Pl), Brooklyn, NY 11205

Finally, I ate at Umi Nom. After hearing about this place for a while and having loved it's Manhattan sister restaurant, Kuma Inn, I was happy to have eaten here. But (and this is a big but), the location leaves MUCH to be desired. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It's a few blocks from the G train stop, but that's not saying much. I'm not really familiar with the Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy/Pratt area and perhaps I am missing something but I could have really done without the location.

The inside of the restaurant was small, but nice. It had pretty exposed brick which had a small opening into the "open" kitchen. I wish they had blown out the opening even more so that we could get a full look at the chefs while they cooked. The concept and most of the menu is very similar to Kuma Inn. I had read that for 2 people 3 apps and 1 entree was sufficient. We asked our waitress what was the appropriate # of dishes to order and she said "1-2 dishes per person"...um, ok, so is our order ok? she then repeated "1-2 dishes per person", so we decided to order 4 apps instead. We order the manila clams (I had heard amazing things about it), the sliders, pork spare ribs, and spring rolls. Then she said "and for an entree?" -- we were so confused b/c didn't you just tell us to order 1-2 dishes?

Regardless, we stuck with our 4 app order. The first one that came out was the spring rolls. While they were good, they're just spring rolls, and it wouldn't have been something I ordered, but Dan wanted it, so I didn't object. Next came the clams and they were DELICIOUS! They are similar to the black bean sauteed clams that you usually get in chinese restaurants, but these were soaking in some sort of salty, buttery, spicy goodness. I basically wanted to drown myself in the broth. Instead, we poured it over our coconut rice (which at $3, wasn't really worth it. It was white rice with coconut juice poured over it. It was yummy, but for $3 for a small bowl, I'm not so sure...). The sliders were also great, 3 buns filled with beef, pork and hoisin sauce. The pork ribs were also very tasty, although some pieces were more falling off the bone than others. While 4 dishes was enough, I could have ordered much more. The couple next to us got some sort of crispy chicken lollipops and said they were worth the wait.

While I really enjoyed my meal, I wished their brooklyn location was in a more convenient location. Given that the LES location is probably just as close/far and there's more stuff around it, I might be inclined to stick with the city locale for now. Total bill was $46 with tax.

Do Hwa Visited 4/21/10 3 Forks

Do Hwa 55 Carmine St(between S 7th Ave & Bedford St), New York, NY 10014

This is my 2nd time here, but 1st time for dinner. The only real reason I ended up at dinner here was b/c VA had a 30% Blackboard Eats discount (thanks!). VA had such high praise for Blackboard Eats that I signed up the next day.

The were 4 of us for dinner, so we decided to split a bunch of dishes. You can sit at either a table with a BBQ set-up or a table with a regular set-up. We were seated at the one with the BBQ set up. But first we each started with cocktails. I got the Ginger Cocktail ($12), which tasted really good until I got to the bottom and then it was really thick and gooey. The other girls at the table got a tea kettle filled with unfiltered sake, which I thought was a cute idea. We started with potato pancakes (there were 2 of them) that was pretty small and I didn't think was that worth the $7. We then got the boiled kimchi/pork dumplings for $9. There were 5 of them and while they were fine, it wasn't anything that I couldn't just buy at the korean supermarket for $10 for a bag of 50 and make myself at home. We then split kimchi, chili pepper, scallion pancake for $9.50. This one was much bigger than the potato pancake and was actually very tasty with the right proportion of scallion. For an entree, we split the crispy chicken tenders ($17), which were indeed super crispy and tasty. It was in a sweet and sour sauce and while there was a crispy coating on it, it wasn't all batter, you could still taste the tender chicken underneath.

We then ended with 2 bbq'd meat, the typical bulgogi ($24) and a spicy pork belly ($21). At first I was worried that it wasn't going to be enough food, but by the time the bbq meats came out, I was starting to get full and there was tons of meat to bbq. It also came with lots of the typical small korean sides, but no bean sprouts! :( The meats were really delicious, but I guess it's hard to get marinated do-it-yourself meats wrong. The pork belly was not to fatty but had the right balance of meat and it went very well with the butter lettuce wraps. With the Blackboard discount, the total meal came out to be $32/pp, which is a pretty good deal considering all the food we had. Given the prices, I think unless you got individual entrees, the bbq is pretty expensive for small parties. If you're going to do bbq, you need at least 3-4 people to make it fun and worth it.

El Pollo Visited 4/19/10 2.5 Forks

El Pollo 291 5th Ave(between 1st St & 2nd St), Brooklyn, NY 11215

I have had great previous experiences with Peruvian food before at Pio Pio in the city and had read great reviews for this place. I figured I had walked past it so many times and the prices were pretty cheap that it was worth a try.

The main draw of Peruvian food is basically rotisserie chicken, rice and beans and this spicy green sauce. Unfortunately, I had already had a slice of pizza before this and Dan wasn't in the mood to split a chicken, so I had to order a 1/4 chicken for myself and he ordered the chicken avocado hero sandwich and a side of sweet plantains.

First off, the restaurant is really small and not really much in the way of decor but that's kind of what I expect from these types of chicken joints. There was only 1 other family there when we got there and they were wrapping up their meal, so I wasn't sure why it took so long for our food to come out. It might be b/c of delivery and pick up, but it still annoyed me.

When the food did come out, I was a bit disappointed with my chicken. I guess it's my fault for only getting 1/4, so they had to chop it up a bit but it just didn't seem as juicy as other chickens I've had. Certain parts were definitely juicy and showed the promise of what it could be, but overall, it just seemed like a regular piece of chicken. The rice and beans were good (kind of hard to mess that up) and the green sauce was OUT OF CONTROL spicy. Much spicier than any other green sauce I am used to but it's still like crack and you keep going back for more. Dan's sandwich tasted pretty good and he mentioned that the chicken was very tender. Although I give it 2.5 Forks, I would consider going back if I could get the whole chicken. The best part of the meal was it everything was only $19, you can't beat that, even if the meal wasn't stellar.

Gyu-Kaku Visited 4/17/10 4 Forks

Gyu-Kaku 34 Cooper Sq, New York, NY 10003

Dan and I had been wanting Korean food or Korean BBQ, but I wasn't really in the mood to trek up to Koreatown. I had remembered this place but I couldn't remember the name or address, so we headed for Ippudo as a compromise instead. As usual, the place was a zoo, but it was my fault for trying to get a table for 2 on a Saturday night at 8pm. The wait was 1 hour and 45 mins. So we said forget it and we were going to walk over to Hecho en Dumbo on Bowery. While we were walking over there, I noticed Gyu-Kaku was still open and I'm so glad that we noticed it.

Th inside is MUCH larger than I would have ever imagined. While the wait was 45 mins, we were willing to wait at the bar given that it was already 9pm and any other place was going to be just as long. We settled at the bar and I noticed that they had some pretty good happy hour deals on booze and food, so that's something to keep in mind.

When we finally got seat, we were overwhelmed by the bbq choices. The meats looked really good (but yet sounded the same) and then there were lots of choices of veggie and rice dishes. Instead we settled on the Geisha Special for 2 ($70) and it was amazing! It was actually too much food and I could have done without the miso soup and edamame, but that's ok. The meal came with miso soup, Gyu-Kaku Salad, edamame, sukiyaki bibimbap, prime rib eye ponzu, premium kalbi tare, harami miso skirt steak, garlic shrimp, asparagus, mushroom medley and s'mores for dessert! Phew!

The salad was light and refreshing...it had some kind of ginger-like dressing that wasn't overpowering and quite tasty. The bibimap was basically like a fried rice and I thought it usually came with egg and more veggies, but it was good to have it around to mix it up with all the meat we were eating. Then all the meats came out and it was overwhelming. I can't really remember what meat was what, but they were all really good and melt in your mouth. We went for the more raw/undercooked style, but it tasted fine and the dipping sauces that they came with made them taste even better. The garlic shrimp was also perfectly seasoned and tasty, but took a bit longer to cook. The veggies also took a bit longer to cook than we realized. The asparagus is wrapped in tin foil with a ton of butter, so just take a peak in the foil before assuming it's finished. I love love love mushrooms and I'm glad the medley came with the meal but they could have put more kinds in there. They had your usual button mushroom, some shitake and my favorite, golden mushrooms. But they didn't seemed to be marinated or seasoned, so it was kind of like just eating plain grilled mushrooms. By the time dessert came around I wanted to just unbutton my pants b/c I was so full. Luckily it was only 1 s'more each, which I honestly could have done with out. It was literally 1 marshmallow, 2 graham crackers and 2 pieces of Hersey's chocolate bar..something I could have totally made at home or at camp. I really enjoyed my time there and can see how it's even more fun with a group of people. There were tons of large groups there celebrating birthdays.

The only slightly annoying thing is that it's fairly close to NYU, so there are lots of kids there and since the booze is pretty cheap (we got a 300 ml bottle of unfiltered sake for $5), I can see how things could get rowdy.

Our waiter was quite attentive and the service there is very easy-going...they mix your salad and put it into bowls for you as well as mix the bibimbap and putting into personal bowls too. I think for $48/pp (including tax and tip), it was a great deal and experience. Given that the night before we spent the same amount at Sel de Mer and got half the food, I would gladly come here any day of the week.

Harefield Road Visited 4/17/10 2 Forks

Harefield Road 769 Metropolitan Ave Brooklyn, NY 11226

After finding out that our neighborhood brunch staple, Magda's, was closed for renovations, we had to find a new place to eat. Since we had just gone to Sel de Mer for dinner the night before and I wasn't a huge fan of Mesa's brunch options, we decided to give Harfield Road another try. I had been there a few years ago for brunch and didn't remember it being memorable, and apparent it's still not.

The place is cute enough inside. The inside has a slightly nicer Irish pub look with nice wooden benches and a pretty large space further back. I think this would be a great place to grab drinks after work or just on a lazy weekend. But I would definitely not come back for the food. The brunch menu is set at $12 which includes an entree (a fairly large selection of your usual breakfast fare: eggs benedict, breakfast burrito, omelet, etc) and your choice of irish tea, mimosa or bloody mary. So it's a pretty good deal in terms of price and selection. I got the harefield eggs which was just eggs benedict with salmon instead of ham and Dan got the breakfast burrito. First of all, the food comes out really quickly, which usually makes me a bit suspect (unless it's a thai or chinese place!). The roasted potatoes were burned and incredibly overseasoned. Now I'm someone who usually salts her food BEFORE trying it but in this case I'm glad I didn't, otherwise I would probably have consumed my daily salt intake on this meal alone. Not only was it over-salted, it was just over seasoned with something spicy as well. While the eggs were poached well (they were perfectly runny when I cut into them, which is how a poached egg should be), the egg muffin was over toasted and it was really hard to cut. I felt like I was cutting cardboard. The salmon in the middle was fine, nothing to write home about, but a side of tomato or something else would have been nice on top of it. The breakfast burrito looked a bit more palatable and Dan finished the whole thing, so apparently I might have just ordered the wrong dish, but unless there are absolutely no other options, I'm not so sure I would go back from brunch.

Oriental Garden Visited 4/11/10 3.5 Forks

Oriental Garden 14 Elizabeth St(between Bayard St & Canal St)

This is VA and mine's go-to dim sum place in the city. There are probably more authentic places but since VA is such "close" friends with the owner, we always get to skip the line and get special treatment, which is always nice on the crowded dim sum weekends.

The main difference between this place and most other dim sum places is that it's pretty small and tight, so there aren't a lot of carts being pushed around. There is usually just 1 cart that can fit around and then the rest of the dim sum is carried around by hand by the waitstaff. The food is usually pretty good and they have almost all of the usual dim sum staples, or at least the ones that I like to eat. The food is generally hot and pretty fresh tasting, which can be questionable at some of the larger other dim sum places. This place is also much cleaner than most chinatown places, which is a nice change of pace. I would like to explore other places in the city but I think this place does a good job of being our standard go-to. The best part of dim sum is that we must have gotten 8 or 9 dishes and it was $16/pp with tax and tip and we were definitely filled up. The one bad thing about dim sum is that it can be quite salty (or perhaps it's the MSG) and I must have drank at least 5 glasses of water while I was there.

Calexico Carne Asada Visited 4/10/10 3.5 Forks

Calexico Carne Asada 122 Union St(between Columbia St & Hicks St)

One of my biggest gripes about NYC and Brooklyn in general is that there aren't enough good mexican places. While Calexico isn't really near my apt, but it's definitely an option that I would consider going back to many times. When we first got there the cashier guy told us that the wait would be 50 minutes! I had to do a double take b/c, while the place was full, it didn't seem like it would merit an almost 1 hour wait for food. But I was to tired and lazy to go somewhere else, so we decided to stay.

They have the typcial mexican assortment on the menu: burritos, tacos, quesadillas, etc. I got the carne asada burrito with crack sauce and dan got the pulled pork version. We got a bottle of water and buckled down for our wait. But after 25 minutes our food came! I was a bit surprised by that b/c other people who were there before us still hadn't been served. But i wasn't going to complain. The carne asada burrito($8 + $.50 for crack sauce) was delicious! The meat was incredibly juicy and well cut and seasoned. I know I had asked for crack sauce but I didn't feel like it was in my burrito, even though the burrito had a lot of other stuff going on in it. Dan had some kind of orange sauce that tasted like 1,000 island dressing that we thought was the crack sauce. The burrito was wet and the shell was not dried out, which is what I get from a lot of places around here. After trying the food here and seeing what the other Mexican options are in the 'hood, I completely understand why there would be a 50 min wait. I just wish they delivered to my apt.

Walter Foods Visisted 4/10/10 3.75 Forks

Walter Foods 253 Grand St(between Driggs Ave & Roebling St)

Although Walter Foods has been on my list for a while, I've never really felt super compelled to go. On this day, we didn't really have a choice as both our 1st and 2nd choice brunch places were closed for some reason. After we noticed that Magada's (dan's favorite place) was closed, I thought it would be fun to try going to Rye, which has been getting a lot of press lately. I had checked their menu online, they did have a brunch menu, so I just assumed that they would be open. However, when we got there, they were closed! Frustrated, we were just going to walk down the road and maybe check out the Robeling Tea House b/c I couldn't think of anything else.

But as we're walking I noticed Walter Foods. I thought, it's open, why not? And I'm glad we did check it out. In typical NYC fashion, it's one of those old fashioned parlors that focuses on whiskeys and has waiters with hipster facial hair. The brunch menu has a variety of actual egg-y dishes and sandwich options. They also had a great line-up for specials.
I got the crabcake benedict ($14) and an iced coffee ($3.50) and Dan got one of the specials: Salomon scramble (salmon, goat cheese and chives) and a bloody mary ($9) and regular coffee. We also split a side of sausage, which was 5 links. The benedict was delicious, but it did only come with 1 crab cake, which in hindsight was probably enough food. There was no muffin, it was basically a crabcake on top of a bed of arugula and tomato and a well poached egg. Usually benedicts come in pairs, which was what I was expecting, but this turned out fine when I added the sausage and coffee. Dan's scramble was amazing as well. The eggs were perfectly wet and fluffy and had just the right amount of seasoning.

I was definitely pleased with the food but when the bill came it was $59 with tax and tip, which honestly I think is a bit too much for brunch. I might consider going back for dinner but at the slightly elevated prices, I might not be running back.

Miyako Sushi Visited 4/9/10 3.5 Forks

Miyako 143 Berry St(between 5th St & 6th St)

It seems like Miyako has been around Williamsburg forever. In my opinion, I don't think that there are a lot of quality sushi places in the 'hood. I think this is a pretty solid go-to place that isn't mind blowing but won't really let you down. They offer a good selection of speciality platters but we usually end up going more a la carte.

We started with edamnae ($3.50) and split the sashimi B ($18.95) and had the Love Roll 2 and Sunny roll (each around $8-9). The sashimi had a good selection of fishes, pretty safe types of fish: 4 pieces of salmon, 4 pieces tuna, 3 pieces white tuna, 3 pieces yellowtail, and 3 pieces white fish. They were all pretty fresh and tasted good and I liked that they didn't go too crazy with mackerel or octopus. I feel like those types of raw fish needs to come from a very nice/fresher place in order for them to really taste good. The love roll had a bit too much rice in it for me, but in a way that was good b/c it helped fill us up a bit more. The love roll had salmon, tuna, avocado and was in the shape of an oval. The sunny roll had spicy tuna, and was wrapped in tuna on the outside and had avocado as well. The restaurant is always busy and packed, so the service can be a bit spotty. All in all, it's a solid place to go for sushi in the 'hood but it's definitely not for those expecting fancy quality sushi.

Northern Spy Food Co. Visited 4/7/10 3.5 Forks

Northern Spy Food Co. 511 E 12th St(between Avenue A & Avenue B)

I was originally a bit hesitant about going here b/c the menu seemed so limited. But I was willing to give it try based on all the good reviews I had read about. A friend and I met up on a beautiful Weds. evening around 7pm, and all the windows were removed/open to create a nice airy environment. The place is small with a bunch of small 2-4 top wooden tables.

The menu is indeed limited but they do have a few specials on the board when you walk in. I was torn between the special seafood chowder, special pork belly or the polenta. I settled for the pork belly ($17) which initially looked like a pretty small portion. It came with 2 very well cooked pork belly pieces, roasted potatoes and some sauteed greens. Swaroopa had the mushroom sandwich ($11), which she said was good and it looked pretty fresh and clean tasting. The sandwich didn't come with any sides and we debated getting a side of potatoes b/c we both felt like our meal wasn't enough. But instead we decided to go for dessert ($6/each). I went with the apple pie and Swaroopa went with the chocolate pudding. I thought my apple pie was actually really really good! The ice cream that it came with was a-mazing. It was some kind of almond tasting ice cream and the pie was super soft and had a lot of spices. I hate apple pie that has the hard bready shell and this was the complete opposite. The chocolate pudding looked to be good too, but it looked like it was more of a milk chocolate instead of a dark chocolate.

Overall it was a good experience and by the time we left around 8:30, the place was completely packed with a line outside. The one thing that did kind of annoyed me was that the table next to me also got the pork belly and the guy got 3 pieces to my 2 pieces! I would have loved to have had a 3rd piece!