Meatball Shop Visited 8/26/10 4 Forks

Meatball Shop  84 Stanton St, (between Allen St & Orchard St), New York, NY 10002

 The Meatball Shop has gotten a lot of hype lately, but I figured that it might have died down enough to be able to leisurely eat there on a Thursday night.  Apparently I was wrong.  I got there at 6:30pm and it was already crowded beyond capacity and was a 30 minute, which actually wasn't too bad.  By the time we left, it was an hour wait.


The space is not very big inside, so I understand why there is always a wait.  There is basically one long communal table in the middle of the room, accented by maybe 3 or 4 two top tables.  Nancy and I were seated at the edge of the communal table, which was fine because then we were sandwiched in between two random people. 


The way you order there is that you use a black marker and check off items on a laminated menu.  The menu is pretty simple; up top you can order meatball dishes, where you order the type of meatball and choose the sauce for $7/dish (there are 4 meatballs per dish) and then a bunch of sides.  On the bottom of the menu are a variety of sandwiches and sliders.  Nancy and I chose to split 2 kinds of meatball dishes and ordered 1 side each.  I went total classical with classic beef and tomato sauce with a side of polenta.  Nancy got the spicy meatballs in a mushroom gravy and a side of broccoli.  The food came out relatively quickly and they were piping hot.  At first I was afraid that 4 meatballs wouldn't be enough for a full meal, but good lord.  After I started eating, I wasn't even sure I would be able to finish it all.  The meatballs were definitely a good size and cooked really well.  Juicy and flavorful and the spicy ones were indeed spicy without going overboard.  But I think what was the winner was the sauce.  I seriously wanted to lap up both the sauces in my mouth, but instead opted for more bread, which was also delicious (it was thinly cut foccacia bread).  The polenta was also quite good, but I could tell there must have been 4 sticks of butter and cheese in there, which is why is was so good.  The broccoli was good, but not sure if a small dish with 6 or 7 pieces was worth $4, but it was good to have some kind of non-greasy green item on the table.  They did have several other greens and salads on the menu but it's hard to come here and eat totally healthy.  


Nancy and I had every intention of ordering an ice cream sandwich, which we both heard was really good here.  But when it came time to decide about dessert, we were both so full that we had to take a 15 block walk.  The one thing that I did have a complaint about was the service.  While it was super super busy there and the waitress was pleasant enough, she never came back to our table after our meal was served (I had to ask a bus boy for bread) and it took forever to pay our bill.  But the great thing was that all this great food was only $24 for 2!  Granted neither of us drank, but $12 for a very filling and good meal that isn't take out is a great deal.  

Nha Toi Visited 8/22/10 3.5 Forks

Nha Toi  160 Havemeyer St, (between 2nd St & 3rd St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

As many of you might know, I am obssessed with pho and I wish that there were closer options for me rather than going into the city.  So when I heard about this place, I was excited to try it out.  Now, I would hardly call this place a restaurant...there are probably 8 seats maximum in here (and the seating is pretty low budget with tiny stools and tables...kind of a bit how it actually is in Asia), it's more of a take out spot.  But Dan and I got there pretty early that there was no one there, so we decided to take a seat.  The menu consists of several types of bahn mi (the bahn mi pho sounded very intriguing), several types of pho (including a veggie option), and then there are a bunch of specials taped to the wall.  I got what I usually get at a pho place, pho with thinly sliced beef brisket ($9 for large) and Dan got the house special pho ($11) which had all different kinds of meat in it.  We also ordered the peach and coconut spring roll ($4) because it sounded different. 

When you order, you look directly into the kitchen and I could see the old Vietnamese people who were cooking there, so that gave me some sense of relief that it could be authentic.  Our pho came out and they were massive and steaming hot.  Also, since the place has a pretty amemic A/C system, Dan and I were sweating into our food within minutes.  But the broth was pretty flavorful, although my one comment would be that the black pepper was a bit much for me and there was too much onion (and the pieces were pretty thick).  But there was ample pieces of brisket and the overall flavor was pretty good...I can't tell if the noodles were different than what I am used to, but there was something about the texture of the noodles that was a bit off, but not enough for it to ruin the meal.  The peach and coconut rolls were exactly how they were advertised...peachy and coconut-y.  You could really taste the sweetness in the rolls and it was very different than anything I've had before.  The rolls were just the right size (2 fairly large ones) and not overfried.  Overall, I enjoyed my meal and would definitely come back to try some of the sandwiches. Total bill $24 for 2 people, which in my opinion is a bit high for pho since you can get it for cheaper in Chinatown, but since I'm not in Chinatown, I won't complain too much.

Tortilla Flats Visited 8/16/10 2 Forks

Tortilla Flats  767 Washington St, (between 12th St & Bethune St), New York, NY 10014

Ahh, Tortilla Flats.  It's almost a New York institution (having been featured in Sex and the City) and everyone who's lived here long enough has had some bad/blurry memory of being there.  My friend Lav was in town and was thinking of Mexican food.  We both keep to seem to forget that there are very few, if any, decent and quality tex/mex places in new york.  I didn't have time to look up places before I met her and it was pouring down rain, so we just decided to give this old place a try. 


It's definitely a place for your youth.  It's loud and decorated like someone threw up x-mas lights and bad Mexican art, but sometimes that's kind of cute.  I think most people mainly (and rightfully) go for drinks/happy hour.  Food is kind of in the back of their minds.  Unfortunately for us, we were the reverse and had food on our minds instead of drinks.  I ordered a red sangria ($5) and the carne asada ($13) while Lav ordered the nachos (that we split) and a cheese enchilada.  


I was excited for my sangria but when I tasted it something was off.  And I couldn't put my finger on what was weird but it just wasn't very tasty.  Next came the nachos, which were not your usual nachos.  They were more like baked nachos covered in cheese and a small layer of beans in it.  They were fine but I would have liked extra stuff on it like tomato, lettuce, sour cream...you know, the normal/usual stuff you get on nachos??  Then our food came out shortly afterwards.  My dish was basically very large chunks of meat wrapped in tortillas served with rice and beans...a naked burrito if you may.  There was no cheese, sour cream, guac, or anything else.  And the meat was hard to chew and took quite a few cuts to get all the way through.  For the price I paid, I expect a full on burrito with the works, not just the basics.  I didn't try Lav's dish, but it looks very very cheesy and she didn't seem overly happy with it. 


All in all, I think it's one of those places where you can come and "check off the box" that you came here, but don't expect to have good food...and I would maybe stick to beers and margaritas too. 

Hawkers Visited 8/14/10 3.5 Forks

Hawkers  225 E 14th St, (between 3rd Ave & 2nd Ave), New York, NY 10003

Dan and I had tried to go to Ippudo for the 500th time, but even at 6:45pm on a Saturday there was over an hour wait and I just couldn't justify that.    I had just read about Hawkers in Time Out, so we thought that we would give it a try. 


I have always envied SE Asia for their abundance of street food, so I liked this concept of bringing those foods to NYC.  The space is pretty narrow, so I think the long communal table was probably the only way to go in the restaurant.  I wasn't a huge fan of the red walls, it kind of made everything too dark, but I appreciated the funky street vibe they were going for. 


They have a list of about 10 snacks in the front and then they have a variety of fried rice, noodle and other dishes in the back.  Dan and I split the duck buns, pork rolls, shrimp rolls, and drunken noodles.  The service was very friendly...almost too friendly! They kept asking how we were but forgot to ever give us any glasses of water!  The appetizers came out relatively quickly.  The duck buns were  a la Chinese style with hoisin sauce and scallions. It was pretty good, but I would have liked a bit more duck (and some crispy skin) in there, there was only 1 piece in it, but the one piece was moist and tasty.  The shrimp rolls were thin fried rolls with a mayo chili sauce and I thought they were quite good...you could really taste the shrimp and they weren't over fried tasting, which is what happens in some place. The pork rolls were a bit weird.  They tasted fine but the presentation needs a bit of help.  It just looked a bit messy looking.  It was essentially a pork sausage wrapped  in thinly fried skin.  Maybe it is a common style in parts of SE Asia that I'm not familiar with but it just looked like of unattractive, but taste wise worked well.


We then waited a bit long for the drunken noodles, but it wasn't so long that I was going to pass out.  When the dish came, it was just the right size for sharing.  The noodles were perfectly cooked (very moist with the right amount of heat to it) and the chicken was nicely grilled.  It had really good flavor to it and I quite enjoyed it.  We also got 3 beers and our total bill was $28/pp without tip.  I think that's a bit high considering it's "street" food and if we were to get these same dishes on the street our bill would probably be half, but since we were in a sit-down restaurant, I guess I shouldn't expect it to be much cheaper. 

Enid's Visited 8/7/10 2.5 Forks

Enid's  560 Manhattan Ave, (between Driggs Ave & Nassau Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11222

Dan and I went to Enid's because it was close to the Williamsburg Farmers Market and because one of my friends had gone a year ago and said she liked it.

I will say that it is in a good location, right on the corner of a centrally located intersection.  The inside is pretty spacious and has an almost flea market kind of vibe with weird mis-matched furniture and wall hangings.

The had a list of specials that sounded pretty good: I ordered the Jersey Tomato Benedict ($11) with a side of grits and Dan got the cauliflower and cheddar hash ($11).  They also had some standard fare breakfast items on the regular menu.

The benedict was was fine tasting...the egg was poached well with the right amount of runny-ness.  But there wasn't anything spectacular about it.  The jersey tomato was just a large red beefsteak tomato...it would have been better as a regular benedict with ham or spinach.  I do which the benedict had a bit more something else. I can't put my finger on it but it just seemed not as hearty as other benedicts I've had.  The grits also were ok...when it said grits and cheddar I thought the cheese would be incorporated into the grits but instead they were just sprinkled on top like a garnish.  Dan's hash looked like chopped up potatoes, which I guess is what hash is but it just looked a bit like someone threw a bunch of stuff together without much thought.  He said he thought the potatoes should have been cut smaller.   The total bill was $27/pp.

The Commodore Visited 8/6/10 3 Forks

The Commodore  366 Metropolitian Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Eater has described The Commodore as a "gastrodive" and I couldn't agree more.  It's really just a divey bar that happens to serve better than average bar food.  


It's located where Black Betty used to be and the inside looks a lot like Welcome to the Johnsons in the LES.  The decor is very 70's with wood side paneling and old tvs and miller hi-life signs.  There is no waitress or hostess...you order at the bar and then they give you a number and you seat yourself.  There is one person who brings you the food and then cleans the tables.  Since it's kind of a free for all for seating, it can get to be a bit annoying when you want to eat but there is no where to sit.  Luckily, we were able to snag a small booth in the main room.  The menu is pretty limited with some sides and 4 main dishes such as the fried chicken platter (3 thighs and biscuits for $10), the hot fish sandwich ($9), adult cheese ($6) and burgers.  I ordered the hot fish sandwich and a corn/tomato salad ($6) and Dan got the adult cheese sandwich.  They do have a nice assortment of cocktails that are fairly reasonably priced.  I got the frozen mojito ($9) which really tasted exactly like a mojito slushie.  They had a bunch of nice sounding cocktails that I would definitely try next time.


Our food actually came within a reason amount of time.  The corn/tomato salad was surprisingly fresh tasting.  It's totally not something you would expect from a dive bar.  It was white corn with cherry tomatoes, basil, and salt/pepper.  My fish sandwich was a piece of deep fried catfish (I think) with a hot and spicy sauce and sliced cucumbers on a sesame seed bun.  It was actually pretty big in size and was a nice combination of flavors.  Dan's adult cheese was a grilled cheese sandwich with a bunch of weird cheeses that I couldn't figure out but tasted really good together.  It did have a slightly mushy consistency but I thought that the flavors all blended really well together.  I wish I had ordered more food because a sandwich with no sides isn't really a very filling meal, but I guess they were relatively cheap so I should have just ordered a side of fries to share. 


I think the food has great potential but it's in the wrong setting.  I would come back for drinks only and only eat there when it's not completely overrun by hipsters, which may be never. 

An Choi Visited 8/3/10 2 Forks

An Choi  85 Orchard Street (between Broome and Grand), New York

I really wanted to like An Choi but I just couldn't find much to like.  The waitstaff was super nice and friendly and did try their best to accommodate us but in the end the bad food and the constant food mix-up put a bad taste in my mouth.  The restaurant itself is very small and decorated with the raw industrial feel with exposed brick, pipes and filament only light bulbs.  The actual kitchen is probably the size of my bathroom and literally only fit 2 cooks.  That to me was a bit of a bad sign because there was just no room for them to cook in there.  The menu has a lot of traditional Vietnamese dishes that sounded great on paper.  They had spring and summer rolls, bun, bahn mi, pho and other great sounding dishes.  We ordered a bunch of summer rolls for the table and an order of fried chicken lollipops.  The apps came out quickly, so quickly that we didn't even get our drinks (that is another story).  The rolls were fried with pork and shrimp and we also got an order of veggie rolls as well...they were fine, nothing really special.  I tasted more of the fried skin than much of the filling. 

I actually liked the chicken lollipops better although I'm not sure if the rest of the table did.  They were these small bite sized pieces of chicken on the bone that reminded me of Korean fried chicken.  Then the rest of the meal kind of went downhill from there.  We waited for our drinks and they never came, which I think it totally unacceptable when all you're ordering is Diet Coke and Lemonade.  We ended up re-ordering our drinks with a different waitress and then our original waitress came out to apologize.  Finally our drinks came and my vietnamese ice coffee was not very good.  First of all, it didn't come in the drip press contraption.  It was literally coffee on ice with a very small helping of condensed milk on the bottom.  You could barely tell there was any milk and I had to keep stiring to even get any sweetness in the coffee.  

Food wise, I had ordered the pho, bahn mi combo ($12) which I think is such a genius idea!  It's the best of both worlds and I got the sandwich with pork belly and the beef pho.  When it came out the owner made a comment how this was the best combination, so I was very excited.  In most pho places that I go to, it's kind of a dumpy, dirty Asian restaurant, but the pho comes out in 5 minutes and tastes amazing.  But here, the place is a bit "nicer" and it took forever for the pho to come out, which I think is weird b/c most places have been cooking the broth all day and all they do is put in the noodles and beef.  But I was keeping an open mind.  The pho came in a cute and appropriate size bowl but there just wasn't much flavor...something was missing that made it just a regular bowl of noodles in broth.  Meanwhile, VA got a similar combo but she had ordered with meatballs, which were missing from her pho.  I moved on to the bahn mi and again, it was missing something.  There wasn't enough pickled radish/carrot mixture, cilantro and all the other flavorful stuff that makes the sandwich amazing.  Although the bread was soft, there was not much else that I really liked.  VA had ordered the original sandwich and yet again they had messed up her order.  It was some other sandwich that looked similar to mine.  The other girls at dinner got noodle bowls with pork and tofu and some kind of beef dish that they all said they liked.  The total bill was $24/pp, which again is higher than what I would normally pay for way better Vietnamese food in Chinatown. 

Japonica Visited 7/31/10 3.75 Forks

Japonica  100 University Pl, (between 12th St & 13th St), New York, NY 10003

This place has been around NYC for years, but I never went b/c it's a bit on the pricier side of sushi.  But for some reason I couldn't seem to find any other suitable sushi place in Union Square, so I thought this place was worth checking out. 

The menu is half in Japanese and half English, which to me is usually a good sign that they are serious about keeping it authentic.  Also another sign of authenticity is that they don't really have a lot of fancy, crazy rolls.  They stick mostly to the basics, but for the basics, the prices there were pretty high.  Most of the rolls (with the except of the super basic like a tuna roll) were easier $15/each and in the rainbow roll case it was around $30/roll!  In the end, Dan and I decided to split the Hot and Spicy Maki combination ($28) and a Fire Cracker roll ($14), plus a large hot sake ($9).  I was a little worried that we would be getting very tiny rolls and still be starving afterwards.  The miso soup that came out was very salty and I wasn't a huge fan of it.  So I started to get worried that we would be spending a lot of money for bad food and small portions.  Usually for the same amount of money we are able to get more food.  But when the platter came out, I was surprised at how many rolls there were (the combo came with 3 different rolls - a yellowtail jalapeño, a spicy crunchy tuna, and a salmon avocado type roll) and the fire cracker roll was actually a bit larger in size, so it seemed like more food.  What I loved about the platter was that it came with a dish of spicy mayo in the middle! Heaven.  I love love spicy mayo and to have it on the side without asking was great.  The rolls were all just the right size with the right amount  of fish in it.  The yellowtail jalapeño was indeed very spicy and there were times where Dan and I just sat there in pain.  All the other rolls were also very well made and tasted fresh.  In the end, I was pleasantly fully and very happy with my meal.  I saw that they had a bento box dinner special for $25 that looked pretty tasty and to be a good deal.  I think the food here reminds me of my favorite sushi place in Virginia in that they don't offer a bunch of crazy rolls and they have a lot of other Japanese items on the menu...they just offer slightly higher quality food at a slightly higher price.  All in all, I did enjoy my meal even but it's not one of those places I would go to regularly due to the prices.  Total bill came out to be around ~$33/pp with tip and tax.    

Boqueria Visited 7/30/10 3 Forks

Boqueria  171 Spring St, (between Broadway & Thompson St), New York, NY 10012

I had heard about Boqueria a while ago but it's always hard to have tapas with a smaller group of people.  But when I got a BBE's coupon, I figured I'd go try it out even though I was only going with one other person. 


We went at 6:15pm on a Friday and it was surprisingly crowded already.  We started with a pitcher of mixed berry sangria ($38), which produced about 3 glasses per person.  While it was definitely tasty and a good drink for the summer, I felt like it had zero alcohol in it.  You'd think after 3 glasses, you'd at least be a bit buzzed or something, but it was like drinking fizzy fruit infused water.   Swaroopa and I started with 4 different tapas.  (1) Spanish omelet (2) heirloom tomato salad (3) ham croquettes and (4) potatoes bravas.  The omelet came out within 5 minutes of us ordering which I was a bit suspect about.  I think they just have a giant omelet in the back that they just slice up when people order it.  It was good but not amazing...it could have used a bit more salt and it came apart pretty easily when you cut it.  The tomato salad was fabulous and my favorite part of the meal.  It came with cucumber and ricotta cheese and lots of beautiful looking tomatoes.  Since Swaroopa doesn't eat meat, I had the croquettes to myself.  They had a variety of croquettes (they had a wild mushroom version and another one that I can't remember) but I got the special one with ham in it.  It was good but I felt like the first one I had was a bit hollow - not stuffed or creamy enough.  The 2nd and 3rd one were a bit better and more stuffed with ingredients, but I think I've had better ones else where.  The potatoes were seasoned well and there were lots of it, so it was pretty filling.  But after these 4 dishes, we were still hungry, so we were going to order the salt-cod fritters, but apparently they do come with ham in it (although it doesn't say it on the menu...they really should list on there in case people who don't eat meat order it thinking it's meat-free), so we ordered our backup plan, the garlic shrimp.  This came out pretty quickly too and was probably the most disappointing part of the meal.  The shrimp were very small and soaking in some flavorless olive oil.  There was barely any garlic in there and the oil tasted watered down.  The table next to us had ordered the same thing and were shocked by it too and wanted to return it, but didn't. 


We ordered a dessert of churros with chocolate, which was pretty good, but my theory of it's difficult to get fried food wrong still stands.  I noticed that the table next to us had also ordered some grilled peppers with salt (what I had at Mercat and loved!) but these peppers seemed much smaller in size.  I should also mention that the seats are waaay too close together.  Our waiter barely had any room to maneuver in between tables to take orders.  In fact, several couples did sit down next to us but then decided to leave when they discovered that they were practically sitting in our laps.  I will say that the service was quite good and our waiter was super nice and friendly.  The total bill was $91 but with the BBE coupon, it was $62.  I'm glad I had the coupon b/c otherwise I would have thought it wasn't worth the price and for good tapas I would still prefer Mercat instead.