Peels Visited 12/30/10 3 Forks

Peels 325 Bowery, (between 2nd St & Bleecker St), New York, NY 10003

 I will give Peels props for being a visually cute restaurant.  The inside is very warm and cozy feeling with the upstairs consisting of mostly wooden/country-feel communal tables.  It almost kind of reminded me of the inside of a ski cabin.  The menu matches the feel of the restaurant in that it's mostly southern/homey food.  They are well known for their biscuit sandwiches, but what bothered me was that they literally itemize the entire sandwich: they charge you $3 for the biscuit itself, then if you want eggs it's another $3, cheese is another $1 and bacon/sausage is another $2 and it doesn't come with any sides.  The menu has a section for more breakfast type food (eggs, grits, etc) and a section that's more lunch-y (sandwiches, salads, etc).  I was torn between getting a sandwich or an egg dish.  In the end I opted for the Attius Finch ($12), which was roasted pork, fried egg, and cornbread with gravy.  Nancy got the Greens and Eggs ($11) which was poached eggs with collard greens, mushrooms, onions and a biscuit.  

I should mention that the service at this point was lacking.  Our waiter took forever to take our order and I noticed that he also took forever to take our neighboring customers (to the point where the host actually took their order).  Our food came out and I was a bit underwhelmed by the presentation.  It was a piece of pork and fried eggs with a side of cornbread (like I ordered) with gravy poured on top of them.  I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was just lacking with the way our food was presented.  I will say that the pork and gravy were quite tasty and I could have had another slice of it.  The eggs were fine..the yolk was a bit overcooked but not to the point where I was pissed.  I was disappointed with the cornbread. It was very dry despite the gravy and had this grainy texture to it.  Nancy's food also looked a bit austere, but she finished the whole dish, so I guess it couldn't have been that bad although she also agreed that she wasn't wow'd by her meal.  We decided to split a piece of monkey bread ($3), which I thought would be something along the lines of banana bread (I mean, hello, don't monkeys eat bananas?!), but it turned out to be closer to a cinnamon bun.  It turned out to be good but again, nothing amazing.  The one thing that made me kind of want to come back was looking at the other food that people around us were eating.  The guy to the left of us got the Meltin Melnick, which was a huge sandwich with brioche bread, applewood bacon and cheddar cheese...it looked pretty damn good and heart stopping.  The couple next to us got the the turkey sandwiches and they looked pretty tasty (they came with a side of chips which the menu didn't mention).  Our total bill was $17/pp with tax and tip.  I wonder if I had ordered something else if I would have had a better experience, but I'm willing to give it another try at some point.  

Num Pang Visited 12/29/10 4 Forks

Num Pang 21 E 12th St, (between 5th Ave & University Pl), New York, NY 10003

 Having just returned from Cambodia and falling in love with the country, I was eager to seek out what sort of Cambodian restaurants existed in New York (although really the cuisine there was fairly generic South East Asian fare).  Num Pang has actually been on my list for places to try for a while because I love Vietnamese sandwiches and when I had heard about this place I was very curious. 
When I got to the place Aarti was already waiting outside and from the outside the place looked kind of dumpy.  I was curious why Aarti was waiting outside in the cold, but I slowly realized that there is no place to really stand (at least on the first level).  When you open the door you essentially walk right into the kitchen, so you have to know exactly what you are going to order before walking in.  I got the pepercorn catfish sandwich and Aarti got the cauliflower sandwich ($7.50 each).  They do have a very small seating area upstairs (which you get to via a narrow winding staircase) and once upstairs there are only about 6-7 stools and a high counter, so definitely don't go to this place thinking you can have a real sit down meal.  Luckily we got there so early that we had the whole place to ourselves so we could spread out and talk as loudly as we wanted to.
Ok, to the sandwich...it was really good and it reminded me of this place called Xie Xie that used to be in Hell's Kitchen (and was owned by Angela Sosa, a current contestant on Top Chef).  While I don't recall seeing or having any sandwiches while I was in Cambodia, that didn't really deter me from enjoying my food.  The bread was very soft, which a bit of toasty crunch on top, and very similar to a Vietnamese sandwich it comes with cucumbers, thinly sliced carrots, mayo, spices and cilantro.  The catfish was seasoned well and cooked well...I just would have preferred a thicker piece of catfish...it was a bit on the thin side.  They also had a variety of other really good sounding sandwiches there that I would gladly go back and try.  The only downside is that this place is cash only.

Burger Joint Visited 12/26/10 3 Forks

Burger Joint  4827 Fairmont Ave, Bethesda, MD 20814

 When Jeana had told me she wanted to meet up the Burger Joint, I immediately thought of the Burger Joint in New York that's in the Parker Meridien Hotel which is amazing.  But this place is not a part of the one in New York and is its own chain in the VA/DC/MD area.  In any case, Jeana had raved about the burgers so I was pretty excited about it.  It's more of a fast food joint rather than a restaurant.  You order at the counter and wait for your little buzzer thing to light up and you seat yourself in booths.  My first reaction was that except for the regular burger, the other "specialty" burgers were a lot pricier than they should be.  I ended up getting a turkey burger with cheese and it was $11 and an order of fries were almost $3.  So I was a bit shocked that I paid $15 for what was essentially a fancier fast food burger, but I was willing to have an open mind about it.  I wasn't wow'd by it but it wasn't a terrible burger either. The turkey burger did taste like it was home-made and it was a very hefty burger, but it reminded me of veggie burger because it had a sort of a crumbly texture that veggie burgers have.  One of my pet peeves is a burger bun that can't hold a burger and this one held up for a while but then slowly fell apart after I was half way through, but that could have been due to the pile of mayo, lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles on it, making the bread pretty damp.  The fries were thick cut and pretty good, but I could barely eat them after finishing the burger.  Jeana got the rootbeer float which essentially came with a cup full of ice cream and then they give you a bottle of A&W rootbeer and she was raving about it.  If I am there again, I will try the standard burger and save myself some $$. 

Salaam Bombay Visited 12/22/10 3.75 Forks

Salaam Bombay 319 Greenwich St, (between Reade St & Duane St), New York, NY 10013

 Now that Aarti has "retired" from work, we thought that it would be fun if we met up for a nice long lunch before we left for the holidays.  Luckily work is very slow the week of x-mas so I was able to take off two hours for one of our favorite styles of food: Indian Lunch Buffet!  The best way to have many types of Asian food is buffet style because you want to be able to try many different dishes...just having 1 main dish just isn't satisfying, so having food buffet style is just perfect.  There are two Indian lunch options by my office: Taj Tribeca and Salaam Bombay.  I had been to Taj before and it's about $18 while Salaam was only $14, so I figured I might as well try Salaam out and see what it's like. 
It was extremely packed when we by the time we got there already (around 12:15).  The restaurant is quite nice inside and much fancier looking than I thought.  I don't remember all the different dishes that were in the buffet line but it was pretty extensive.  I remember there was a lightly battered chicken dish, paneer, chicken tikka, an eggplant dish, samosas, and basically every kind of Indian food you would normally order at an Indian restaurant. They give us fresh, soft naan bread at the table (you can see them making it in this room in front of you) to help sop up all the fattening, but yummy sauces.  I had about  1 1/2 plates before I was completely full.  All in all, it was a great Indian lunch buffet for $14.  The one downside was that it took forever for us to pay the bill.  We had our credit cards sticking out of the bill holder for at least 15 minutes before I had to practically shove it in someone's face to take it.   We are hoping to make it monthly lunch date going forward.  

Torrisi Italian Specialties Visited 12/22/10 5 Forks

Torrisi Italian Specialties  250 Mulberry St, (between Spring St & Prince St), Manhattan, NY 10012

 Instead of giving each other x-mas gifts, Dan and I usually treat ourselves to a nice, semi-expensive dinner each year.  Torrisi was the perfect place and probably one of the best x-mas meals we've ever had.  The place is a deli by day and at night they have a set prix-fixe menu at $50 person.  They post the menu on the chalkboard outside and there are no substitutions allowed.  Since they do not take reservations, I had read that people generally start lining up at 5:30pm to be one of the first people seated (they open at 6pm).  Dan and I got there at 5:30 and there was not a single person in line (this could be due to the fact that it was a Weds and it was freezing cold outside).  The hostess came and took our names at 5:45pm and told us to come back close to 6.  We were promptly seated inside and I understood why on a crowded night the wait can be up to 2 hours.  The place is tiny with at most 8 tables inside. 
As soon as we sat down, I checked out the menu for the night.  It started with a 4 course anti-pasta course: mozzarella and toasted garlic bread, followed by roasted brussel sprouts with jingle bell peppers, seafood salad, and liver pate served with soft pretzel bread.  They were all small in size but made up for it in taste.  You can never go wrong with mozzarella cheese and as someone who hates brussel sprouts, these were roasted to perfection and didn't even taste like a brussel sprout at all.  The seafood salad was like a ceviche with raw scallops marinated in onion and lime juice.  You could definitely tell that the scallops were fresh and not frozen.  Surprisingly, I liked the liver pate with pretzel bread the most.  The pate was extremely smooth (I've had grainy pate which makes the whole experience gross) and it came with a side of sauteed red onions which were reduced in red wine and the bread was so freakin soft that I could have eaten an entire basked of them.  
The anti-pasta course was followed by a linguine and clams with tobacco flakes.  I thought that the flakes would have been overpowering but there was just the right amount of flakes to give off some heat but it didn't ruin the dish.  The only choice you have for the night is either fish or chicken for the main entree. I got the yellowtail sole with black truffle mushrooms and Dan go the Devil's chicken with Evan's yogurt.  While I enjoyed my fish (it was two fillets baked with breadcrumbs on top of it), Dan's chicken was out of this world.  The waiter even commented that it was going to be a very talked about dish in the future.  It was beyond moist and juicy and the red paprika like dusting really kicked it up a notch.  It was probably best chicken dish I have had in years.  I should mention that we had opted for the $25/pp wine pairing with our meal and by this time we were about 4 glasses of wine deep.  All the wines selected for the meals were amazing. I am normally not a white wine drinker but they brought out this Ecole No. 41 that was practically tasted like water (but in a good way).  It went down waaay to smoothly.  They were pretty generous with their pours and they even re-filled our glasses at times.  The meal ends with a dish of homemade pastries, which initially sounds kind of lame, but they were the best damn pastries I've had in a while.  They were all piping warm and there was two of each kind, so you didn't have to fight over them.  They had a popover with cream filling, a rainbow type cake that tasted like marzipan, mini cheesecakes, and cookies with a chocolate-kiss like filling.  It was the perfect finish to the meal.  
What also made the whole experience great was the waitstaff.  The busboys are essentially the waitstaff and they were extremely knowledgeable about all the dishes and the wine list.  I love that they get the opportunity to be really involved with restaurant beyond just taking our plates away.  The whole meal set us back about $200 with tip and tax, which in NYC isn't totally expensive but it's still a nice chunk of change, but it was worth every penny and for what you get, it's probably worth a whole lot more.  

Le Comptoir Visited 12/19/10 4 Forks

Le Comptoir 251 Grand St, (between Driggs Ave & Roebling St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

 I haven't been to France in quite a while but being in Le Comptoir made me feel like I was in a cute cafe somewhere in Paris.  The entire waitstaff there is French and their accents were so freaking cute, to the point where I wanted to try to converse with them in my horrendously poor french (I wouldn't recommend trying to do this).  You enter the restaurant and there is a large relaxing seating/eating with large couches to the right where you can just sit and hang out with a drink or they will also serve you food there as well.  
The brunch menu had about 7-8 items and were all reasonably priced under $14.  I got the croque madam ($12) and Dan got the special benedict of the day which was lobster and crab ($14).   As we were waiting for our meal, you can see the chef making everything to order so you know it's fresh.  The croque madam came out and it was huge and came with a great side salad of mixed greens in a light white dressing.  The actual sandwich was perfectly toasted on super soft but crispy on the outside bread and covered with gruyere cheese and ham.  The egg on top was perfectly fried with a runny yoke.  As I start eating at more and more restaurants for brunch, it makes me realize how right Tom Colicchio is about making a perfect egg.  I am a Top Chef addict and they always have a challenge where they make the contestants make an egg dish.  Although it sounds easy enough, he always says how hard to make a perfect egg dish and he is totally right.  I can't even count the number of brunch places that I have been to that serve terrible eggs (especially of the poached style). I know judge every brunch place on how they poach their egg and based on that forms my decision if I would come back.  I had a bite of Dan's benedict and it was amazing as well.  The hollandise sauce was perfect...it wasn't too strong but had enough flavor to make you want to lick the entire plate.  The lobster/crab mixture underneath was cold, but it didn't really matter since the rest of the dish was perfectly warm.  The only downside was that the potatoes that came with that dish were slightly undercooked and too crunchy.
The service there was great and super friendly.  Even the chef came out to make sure that our food was good.  My own gripe about the place was that it was cash only.  But given that our total bill came out to $31, it wasn't too hard to pay with cash. 

6th Street Kitchen Visited 12/17/10 4 Forks

6th Street Kitchen  507 E 6th St, (between Avenue A & Avenue B),New York, NY 10009

 I was afraid to suggest a restaurant this time around because I had been having a streak of crappy restaurants.  Although 6th Street had been on my list for a bit, I didn't want to suggest it, but then Aarti also independently suggested it, so I felt like we had to go.  I had actually been to this place years ago when it was called OG, so I definitely got a sense of familiarity when I walked in.  The menu here is American tapas food, which reminds me a lot of Traif, one of my favorite restaurants in Brooklyn.  The waiter was super nice and friendly and made our eating experience very pleasant.  He informed us that from 6-7pm it's Happy Hour for sliders:  the chorizo sliders are $2 each.  Although it seemed like there weren't a ton of options, the items we got more than made us happy and full.  Our waiter suggested that we order 2 dishes each, so we got the beet salad, the mushroom risotto, fish tacos and 2 sliders.  I'm generally not a huge fan of beets but this one was done well as it was topped with lots of fresh dry herbs and goat cheese.  Next the fish tacos came out and they were AMAZING.  There were 2 of them and the fish was very lightly, but perfectly breaded.  It was more tempura style and you could definitely taste the fish through the tempura batter.  It was topped with delicious aioli mayo and red cabbage.  Although I usually think 2 tacos aren't enough, this was extremely filling and light tasting.  The mushroom risotto came out next and was creamy and had nice chunks of cremini mushrooms.  The chorizo sliders were great and super filling.  They came on a potato slider with a very generous chorizo patty and cheese.  It was really juicy with a right amount of spice.  You can also order a regular entree of sliders for $12, but to only have 2 for $4 was perfect if not almost too much.  The only dish that I didn't love was the dessert.  We were going to get the chocolate cake but our waiter told us that the rocky road ice cream sandwich was better.  So we got it and it's basically 2 giant ginger/chocolate chip cookies with rocky road ice cream in between.  I thought that the cookie was too hard and it was hard to split in half.  We ended up just eating the ice cream and cookie separately, which kind of defeated the purpose to getting it as a sandwich.  Our total bill for 2 people was $47, which I thought was a pretty good deal considering all the different dishes we got and how full we were when we left. I would love to come back here and try other small plates. 

Centrico Visited 12/16/10 3 Forks

Centrico  211 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013

 I had been to Centrico before for a friend's birthday a few years ago and I remember it being ok and expensive.  I should have kept that in mind when I went again.  My co-workers and I had a holiday party next door at Vino Vino (which was super cute) but we didn't really have dinner, so a bunch of us decided to go next door to Centrico.  It's claim to fame is that the chef is Aaron Sanchez, who is on a bunch of Food Network shows.  The theme of the restaurant is high-end fancy Latin Food.  I kind of put Mexican/Latin food in the same category of Asian food where I actually usually like it in more cheap-ish/dirty/hole-in-the-wall places.  


I ordered the Mahi Mahi special with cilantro lime sauce since it sounded mildly "healthy".  Everyone else got the steak, which I did really want to, but since I was pretty much diagnosed with high cholesterol, I steered clear of it.  When my fish came out, it was a bit lackluster in presentation.   The fish was a bit on the small cut end and the cilantro lime sauce came in a dish that had about half an onion cut up in it.  Then it had a side of arugula, which didn't have enough dressing or anything else to it.  The fish itself tasted fine, if not a bit over cooked.  Usually when I order fish I expect a thick cut with lots of meat, but this one was flat and slightly overcooked.  Luckily, my director had ordered a side of beans and rice and it was really good, so I would just combine the fish and rice and beans together to make it a more hearty meal.  The steak that everyone ordered did look really good and there was a LOT of it.  Of course you now have to take this entire post with a grain of salt as it was after 4 glasses of wine, so it may have clouded my judgment a bit.  Total bill was $45/person without tip.   

BAD (Breakfast All Day) Visited 12/12/10 1.5 Forks

BAD 131 Grand St, (between Berry St & Rodney St),Williamsburg, NY 11211

When a restaurant's initials are B.A.D, you should probably take that as a sign that the food is bad.  This place was actually beyond bad.  The menu wasn't as extensive as one would think when you're full restaurant name is breakfast all day and they gave us as a xerox copy, not even a real menu.  I ordered the Eggs Firenze ($9), which sounded like it was supposed to be a spinach benedict dish.  The description said that it was 2 poached eggs on an english muffin with spinach and hollandaise sauce and it came with a side of homefries, grits or regular fries and toast.  I had asked for homefries and wheat toast. Dan got the breakfast burrito ($8.50) and a cup of coffee.  Let's just say that the coffee was the best part of the meal.  First, we waited forever for our food despite being practically the only people in the place.  When I got my food I could tell immediately that it would not be good.  At first glance the eggs definitely didn't look poached and when I cut into them, they were essentially hard boiled.  There was about 1/2 a teaspoon of hollandaise sauce and instead of it being on an english muffin, they just put the 2 eggs on the wheat toast that was pretty much burned.  The side of homefries was very small and it was mostly peppers and onions.  Dan's burrito didn't even come wrapped.  They put all the ingredients on a giant tortilla wrap and left it open.  Needless to say, Dan had a tough time eating it as a burrito.  Luckily his dish was so big that I ate 1/4 of it because I could barely finish my food.  When it came time to get the check that also took a long time.  The only good thing out of this meal was that the total bill came to $20, which I think is still too much.

Sapporo Haru Visited 12/11/10 4 Forks

Sapporo Haru  622 Manhattan Ave, (between Driggs Ave & Nassau Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11222

Ok, this place isn't fancy and isn't on the level as other 4 Forks restaurants I've been to, but it just really hit the spot at the right time.  My neighborhood is pretty lacking in terms of good affordable neighborhood sushi.  There are a few places on Bedford that are good, but for some reason this place just really impressed me.  They let you have unlimited free hot sake if you order more than $10, which clearly is never a problem for me and Dan.  We started with the edamame ($3.95) and I personally like them slightly undercooked and crunchy, which these were.  And they practically gave us an entire bag of them, so it felt like I was getting my money's worth, whereas usually I feel like it's a rip off to pay $4 for something that I know costs $1.50-$2 a bag.  Dan thought that they tasted funny like they had boiled it in water that was mixed with something else.  I didn't taste it, but he couldn't finish them because of it. 

The overall menu here is beyond extensive.  They have about 18 different sushi entrees, 36 different rolls and then 28 different chef's special rolls.  I know that this isn't the sign of a authentic true sushi place, but those places, while amazing and definitely make for an amazing eating experience, are generally too expensive for just a regular night out.  We had the sashimi appetizer ($9.95), which I thought was a great deal because you get 3 pieces of salmon, 3 pieces of tuna, 3 pieces of white tuna, and 3 pieces of mackerel.  This is sometimes the same number of pieces you get for a sashimi entree in some places. All the pieces of fish tasted fresh and satisfied my sashimi craving.  We then ordered the scallop roll ($6.95), new york roll ($8.95), and the birthday roll ($8.95).  I really enjoyed all the rolls and they were all very affordable, even the special rolls.  The scallop roll came with a large chunk of scallop (it wasn't cut up and mixed with mayo) with yummy spicy mayo layered inside.  The New York roll was larger than your average roll size and came with spicy tuna, crab, avocado, and a special white seaweed wrapped on the outside.  They claim the crab was Maryland crab, but I definitely didn't taste the "maryland" crab, but the overall roll was quite delicious.  Then the birthday roll was tuna, salmon, yellowtail with 3 types of tobiko on the outside.  This roll was totally fine as well, but nothing extremely special.  There were 6-8 rolls and due to the size of the New York roll, we were definitely full at the end.  We wanted to take advantage of the unlimited hot sake, but we just felt like we had no more room for anything.  I really wished this places was closer (although in the summertime, I would be more likely to walk here than in the cold) and I would totally eat here all the time. There are so many other things on the menu that I would try. It's a great deal and really hits the spot.  Total bill without tip for two people $42.     

Le Da Nang Visited 12/10/10 3 Forks

Le Da Nang  75 2nd Ave, (between 4th St & 5th St), New York, NY 10003

This place used to be Sea Thai, which was one of the first thai restaurants I had been to when I moved to New York and it was a pretty damn good place to eat too.  When I heard it was closed, I was pretty sad, but then it became Le Da Nang, which is supposed to be a Vietnamese restaurant.  I thought I would give it a try since I love Vietnamese food and the location is pretty convenient.  The inside is pretty much the same as SEA except it's a bit brighter inside.  I think it may also still be owned by the people of SEA because the menu tacked up outside made a mention of SEA opening in Las Vegas. 

When I opened the menu I was a bit disappointed to discover that it wasn't really Vietnamese.  It had a few Vietnamese options, but it was mixed in with Thai dishes such as pad thai, stir fried dishes and fried rice.  There was only one pho and bun option.  I decided to order the Ocean Combo ($15) from the specialty section hoping it would be more authentic.  Aarti ordered a spicy noodle with tofu ($10) and we split the veggie spring rolls ($4) and since it was before 7pm, all cocktails were half off (sweet!), so we each got a martini.  The spring rolls were fine, although when I ordered I was thinking of summer rolls instead.  I generally like the non-fried rolls better and they generally seem more healthy.  The main dishes came out pretty quickly and my dish was not exactly what I was thinking.  It was covered in a lot of sauce and it didn't have a huge amount of seafood in it.  There was about 3 smallish shrimp, 2-3 scallops and 2-3 pieces of fried pieces of white fish.  It was supposed to have mixed veggies in it but it was more heavy on garlic and onions, which tasted fine at the time but left a slightly harsh taste afterwards.  I didn't try Aarti's dish but it looked like a pretty decent standard noodle dish.  We also split the warm chocolate cake ($6) for dessert.  It came topped with green tea ice cream, which I loved, but the actual cake part was only ok.  While the food wasn't amazing (even to the neighborhood thai standard), the service was good and they were very nice that they let us sit in the restaurant and chat for 3 hours without really bothering us. Total bill with tip was $53.

Eataly Visited 12/9/10 2.75 Forks

Eataly  200 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

Ah, Eataly.  It has probably been one of the most talked and blogged about openings this year.  I decided to wait a while before going since I had heard that it gets pretty crowded.  Nancy and I decided to get there early so that we could avoid standing and get a seat at one of the restaurants.  There are 4 restaurants in the complex: a seafood restaurant, a veggie restaurant, a pizza and pasta restaurant.  But the confusing thing is there are a bunch of other standing room only eating places.  This place tries to do too much in the space it's given, even though the space is pretty huge.  It's got a market, coffee bar, dessert area, and then shove in a bunch of restaurants and stands and you are really at a loss of where to go. 

We had originally decided to go to the seafood restaurant, but after reading the menu I wasn't really feeling it.  So we went to the veggie place, Le Verdure instead.  The menu was a bunch of cold and hot dishes that were entirely made of vegetables.  We split the special bruchetta (it had king, oyster and other types of mushrooms for $15), the eggplant salad ($14) and the acorn squash ($17).  The bruchetta were pretty large pieces and it came topped with the mushroom mix and sauteed onions.  The was pretty good, but I thought some of the mushrooms were a bit overcooked and could have been more tender.  The eggplant salad came with a arugula salad and capers.  The eggplant was pretty skinny and not very meaty.  I've had much better and fattier eggplant in thai restaurants.  But I did really like the arugula salad, it was seasoned and dressed very well.  Next came the warm acorn squash with black lentils and balsamic vinegar. This dish was described as hearty and I would agreed.  I've never had acorn squash and it while it tasted like squash, it did have a very meaty fall feel to it.  The lentils were small and looked exactly like the capers on the other dish, but they were a good compliment to the squash.  All in all, the meal was fine but when you think about how I spent $30 on 3 dishes of vegetables.  We then stopped to get some dessert and split a run/chocolate cake ($5.80).  It was good, but could have used more rum and for $6, should have been much bigger.  Eataly is definitely a beautiful space and I'm sure if I was a connoisseur of specialty Italian produce, I might like it more but in general I got the feeling that it's all about being unnecessarily expensive.  I'm glad to cross it off my list, but will unlikely come back to the sit down restaurants.  Some of the standing only places looked fun, but if the prices are as outrageous as the sit down restaurants, I'd rather get my Italian food in old school Williamsburg.  

Bombay Talkie Visited 12/7/10 3.75 Forks

Bombay Talkie  189 9th Ave, (between 21st St & 22nd St), New York, NY 10011

I really love Indian food but never seem to have it too often.  I had been holding on to this BBE coupon for a while, so when my friend Swaroopa and I decided to have dinner, we thought it would be a good time to try it out.  It's in a super cute part of Chelsea that I don't go to that often, but as I was walking there I realized how nice of a neighborhood is it.  Most of the Indian places that I've been to are a bit on the "edgy" side (i.e. not fancy), so this place was a real change.  It's quite trendy inside complete with a mural, fine plating and fancy cocktails.  The front page of the meal is "street food" or appetizer type foods and then the 2nd and 3rd page are entrees (one side for vegetarians and another side of non-vegetarians, which is a nice touch when you are eating out with a vegetarian).  The prices were a bit higher than I normally pay for Indian food, but I guess that's what you get when you're in a slightly more upscale area.  I got the Biryani with lamb ($18) and Swaroopa got the vegetarian kati roll ($10) and Dosa ($10).  Typically I would share a bunch of dishes with who I am with, but this time it just made more sense to do our separate things, but there were a bunch of dishes that did sound delicious.  

The Biryani was listed as the Bombay Talkie special, so how could I not get it?  I've never had it before and this was described as lightly spiced lamb (or chicken) with mint, coriander, coconut milk, basmati rice, and cashews.  In all honestly, it tasted really good but I didn't get a feel for all of these different ingredients.  I usually have a pretty sharp palate, but I didn't taste any coconut milk and the only mint seemed to have been in the yogurt-like cooling agent that came on the side.  It was almost more like a Indian fried rice with lamb.  Despite not tasting like what it said, I did really enjoy it.  While I didn't have any of Swaroopa's food, she seemed to like the Dosa but wasn't a huge fan of the kati roll, thus the slightly lower rating.  The total was originally $41 (which seems a bit high for only 2 appetizers and 1 entree), but with the BBE discount it was only $28!  I would come back but maybe order a few more smaller dishes to share.  It's definitely a nice change from the dive-y Indian places on 6th street (although those places always have a place in my heart).        

Bozu Visited 11/29/10 3 Forks

Bozu  296 Grand St, (between Roebling St & Havemeyer St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

Ever since I came back from Thailand and Cambodia I was having a serious hankering for sushi.  So when Dan had suggested sushi I was thrilled.  Honestly, I would have been perfectly content with a neighborhood divey place, but Dan suggested something nicer, so I was fine with that.  I had taken him to Bozu for his birthday a few years ago and remember really liking it, so I was excited to go back.
 
We get there around 7pm on a Monday and it was pretty empty.  I have always like the decor of this place, even the outside (which is pretty hidden).  The inside is very dark looking with exposed brick on one side and a large sit down square sushi bar in the middle and then all these cool looking red maskes hanging from the ceiling.    The menu is not your traditional sushi place.  They have a bunch of small plates, hot dishes, and other tapas and then they have a small variety of sushi "bombs" and sushi rolls in the back, but it's not a huge long list and it's kind of different from your typical "spicy tuna roll" - although they do have a version of their own.  One of the first things we notice is that all the sake there was pretty expensive.  The cheapest bottle was $26, so we both ended up just getting a glass ($8 for mine and $12 for Dan's, so I guess in retrospect spending an additional $6 for more sake wouldn't have been so bad).  We started with the seaweed salad  ($5) which was fine, kind of your standard salad.  We orderd 4 differnt bombs/rolls: the salmon/sea urchin special ($9), the hotate bomb ($6), the mexican bomb ($6), and a guacamole tuna roll ($6).  I loved the salmon/sea urchin special.  I have been wanting to try sea urchin for a while and this totally melted in your mouth and it was a nice combination with the fresh tasting salmon.  I thought the the two bombs we got were fine, but they were a bit heavy on the rice and for $6, we only got 3 bombs each, which I thought was too little.  For $6, they should at least offer you 6 pieces! I mean, that's usually standard and in some places they even offer you 8 pieces.  The mexican bomb did have a nice kick with the green tomoato sauce, but I'm not sure I really loved it on my food.  The tuna roll was good but frankly it just tasted like a giant piece of tuna in a roll.  They don't have giner with their sushi, instead they have a homemade pickled cabbage/beet (?) side.  The cutest part of the meal was the soy sauce: they had 3 options, 1 without wasabi, 1 with a little bit and one that was basically wasbi with a little bit of soy sauce.  Of course Dan and I go straight for the strongest one and it did not disappoint.
 
I'm can't remember why I lliked it so much the first time, maybe it was because we ordered a lot more food because it was Dan's birthday, but this time we definitely left feeling hungry.  We actually planned what our snack would be while we were still at the table.  For $68 (with tip and tax), I definitely don't feel like I got my money's worth, but it's still a cute place to check out if you're not starving.

Viet Royale Visited 11/27/10 3.75 Forks

Viet Royale 6767 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044

In the same vein for trying new restaurants when I am home, I had wanted to go to Eden Center for a while.  It's a very well known Vietnamese shopping complex in Virginia and as a lover of all Vietnamese food (not just pho), I had really wanted to try this place out.  The problem was that there are so many places that I didn't know which specific restaurant to try.  By the time we got to Eden, it was 2pm and I as so hungry that I could have cared less where we went.

Viet Royale was one of the first places we saw and it had a bunch of Washingtonian awards in its window, so how bad could it be? It was in fact very good.  There's not much decor to speak of but I never really expect that in Asian restaurants.  Of course, instead of picking dishes, my mom just asks the waitress what she recommends.  So we ended up getting fried spring rolls, a seafood pancake/crepe, bun with pork wrapped around a sugarcane, and a fish dish with a camarlized sauce in a claypot (sorry that I can't remember the actual names or number of the dishes).  The waitress was extremely friendly and I thought that the overall service was really good.  The food came out quickly and the waitress was attentive and asked us if we liked her selections. 

The fried spring rolls were quite food and flavorful with pork inside.  It was fried just long enough to be crispy on the outside but the skin wasn't so thick that you felt like you were just eating fried dough.  I loved the side of fish sauce and pickled veggies they give you.  It really brings out the flavor of the rolls.  Next came the seafood/bean sprout pancake.  It's basically a giant crepe filled with some shrimp/pork and beansrpouts.  While this was good, it was a bit disappointing to not have more seafood in it and the thiness of the crepe made it a bit difficult to eat.  It did have a slight coconut flavor to it which was a nice twist.  Then the bun with pork sugarcane came out.  Bun is basically vermicelli noodles with some greens/sliced cucumber and then usually a meat.  I had never really had bun before but had heard that it's a popular Vietnamese dish.  While the pork was good, I wasn't too sure what to do with the noodles.  They didn't really have any taste to it.  Maybe I should have wrapped it in the lettuce, but that was a bit unclear. The fish was dish was my favorite.  The pieces of fish were tender and tasty (no bones) and the sauce was sweet but not overpowering.  It went really well with the rice and filled me up perfectly.  The meal ended with complementary "dessert" which was a tapioca,corn,pea cold soup.  It was nice of them to give it to us and it was fine, but as I have said many times before, Asians just don't do desserts very well.  The only reason I'm not giving it 4 Forks is because the bill ended up being a bit more than I would usually like for this type of food.  It was $55 with tip and tax for 3, which in theory isn't a lot, but when you're used to paying $6/dish usually, this seemed a bit much.  But with the American Express Small Business Saturday promo, I ended up getting $25 back on my statement!

Silver Fountain Visited 11/25/10 3.75 Forks

Silver Fountain  13533 Connecticut Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20906

Everytime I go home there is a set list of restaurants that I go to, so this time I thought I would shake it up and try places where I have never been to before.  My mom had been to Silver Fountain before and said that many people considered it the best dim sum in town.  So of course I had to try it. 

It's located in the Aspen Hill strip mall and a bit hard to find.  Once inside, it's your typical chinese restaurant.  Huge dining room jam packed with thousands of tables.  We went on Thanksgiving morning a(leave it to Chinese people to be open on a holiday) and it was totally full.  We had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table.  We were seated in the corner, which I generally don't like because sometimes the carts forget to come to your table, which was exactly what happened.  Actually, I'm not sure if it was more the fact that no carts were coming than they were forgetting about us.  A good 15-20 minutes went by before the first cart came and for a while it was the same dishes being circulated around.  We had heard that the steamer was broken, which is a big deal since most of the dumplings need to be steamed.  But once the carts were back in action, the food came quickly.  We got the usual line up of suspects: shrimp crepe, shumai, shrimp dumplings, shrimp balls with a crab claw, sticky rice in a leaf, turnip cake, chicken's feet and a few other veggie and meat dumplings.  I will say that I thought that the shumai and steamed dumplings were much better and fresher tasting than the usual place I go to in Gaithersburg while some other stuff like the shrimp crepe tasted the same.

The problem with usual place that I go to is that the food is hit or miss. Sometimes it's fine but there have been times where the food is lukewarm to a bit cold.  I could definitely tell the difference here and while it's a bit further away, I would not hesitate to come back here again, especially when the prices were about the same.  Total bill for tons of food was around $45 for 3 people.