Socarrat Nolita Visited 1/29/11 3.75 Forks

Socarrat Nolita 284 Mulberry St, (between Jersey St & Houston St), Manhattan, NY 10012

 I had been to the original Socarrat in Chelsea when it was one of the most buzzed about restaurants a few years ago.  The location is tiny and takes no reservation so it was fairly difficult to eat there.  But when you were able to sit down, the food was delicious.  The paella was slightly overcooked and crispy on the bottom which one would think wouldn't taste good, but the waiter would come by and personally scrape the bottom where the rice had the right amount of crunch and flavor.  So I was very excited that they opened a bigger location downtown.  

Lav and I made a date to meet there at 6pm when it opened so that we wouldn't have to wait for a table and to make a 8pm movie.  This location was indeed bigger but not huge.  It has a similar long communal table concept with a few small tables.  Since it was just the two of us, we decided to get one veggie paella and then one tapas each.  I was all set to get the sizzling garlic shrimp but when they told us the croquette special of the day ($9) was shrimp, I decided to get that instead.  Lav got the egg tortilla dish ($8) because it's always a great classic tapas dish that's hard to avoid.  The croquettes were quite good, perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with a tasty side of a mayo-like sauce.  While the shrimp inside was good, I prefer the usual croquettes with ham.  After seeing other people get the garlic shrimp dish, I kind of wish I got it in addition to my croquettes, but that would have just been too much food with the paella.  The paella came out ($22/pp) and it was HUGE.  It's a bit too much for just 2 people, but if you're hungry, you can come very close to finishing it.  The veggies in it were very good and it had lots of variety: peas, artichoke, cauliflower, tomato, eggplant, mushroom, and others.  The rice was nicely seasoned with saffron but the one disappointment was that the bottom was not burned or crispy at all.  The waitress came to "scrape" the bottom, but there was nothing really to scrape.  All the rice was soft, slightly overcooked and not crunchy.  This didn't make it bad tasting but after seeing how other tables had the crunch, it was a bit sad.  They had a few good sounding desserts and we decided to get the chocolate beignts, which was puffy pastries infused with tons of chocolate on the inside and fried on the outside.  It was good but too chocolate-y for me.  With 1 glass of sangria ($9) - which was ok, it could have been stronger, and 2 glasses of red wine ($12), our total bill came out to be $65/pp with tax and tip.  It's a bit annoying that they charge per person for the paella because given its size, it's perfect for three people but to have each person pay $22 is a bit ridiculous.  While I did enjoy the veggies and felt "healthy" eating it, I would come back and try the seafood version as it's just not paella without copious amounts of shellfish.

Nan Xiang Dumpling House Visited 1/28/11 3.5 Forks

Nan Xiang Dumpling House 38-12 Prince St, Flushing, NY 11354

 One of my great regrets is that I do not eat in Queens enough.  It's probably got the greatest number of true ethnic eats in the 5 boroughs and is known of cheap authentic eats.  As an Asian, it's probably criminal that I don't know where to eat in Flushing.  So when Dan suggested we have dinner in Flushing, I had to ask around for a good place to eat.  The problem is that almost every place in Flushing probably beats most Chinese places in the city.  A friend of mine had recommended this place and it was also listed in the NY Times "Great Eating in Flushing" article, so I thought it was worth a try.  

The decor is kind of your typical Chinese place: not very nice.  We sat at a table where there were brown spots on the wall next to us, but at a base level the table and utensils were at least clean.  I know that many Yelp reviews complained of slow service, but I experienced the total opposite.  They whisked us to a table, gave us menus, tea, and asked if we were ready to order in about 5 minutes.  Of course we had to order the Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) but when I tried to order in Chinese the waitress looked me like I was speaking another language.  She made me feel really self-conscious about my pronunciation, so much so that I just ended up ordering everything in English (maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was with the only non-Asian person the whole restaurant??). This is how people like me get scared into never speaking Chinese ever again. We also got the jellyfish, scallion pancake with beef, and crispy noodles with pork.  The jellyfish came out in 2 minutes because it was basically sitting out in the buffet-style table in the front of the restaurant.  This dish was a miss...I remember jellyfish being pretty smooth in texture but crunchy and tart.  This was tart but it had this weird rough texture.  I think I freaked Dan out a bit by ordering this and I tried to convince him it was good, but now that I think about it, I didn't really like it that much.  The xiao long bao came out next...there were 6 in one order and piping hot.  The skin was pretty thin and I liked the flavor of the soup inside and the pork filling.  I forget how messy it is to eat these things and I was spraying soup all over the table.  I thought they were pretty good but Dan seemed to have an issue with what he calls "booby trap" food.  He didn't seem to be a fan of biting into something only to have hot soup pouring out of it.  Ha, silly American. The dish that we both loved was the scallion pancake with beef.  It wasn't your typical thin, crispy pancake.  This was very thick but still crispy on the outside.  However, it was the hoisin sauce and beef on the inside that was yummy.  There were 3 to one order and I wish there was 4 just so we didn't have to split the last one. The last dish was the crispy noodles with shredded pork...it's basically your typical Chinese dish covered in a thick brown sauce.  It was good, but it had too much cabbage and not enough pork or straw mushrooms (one of my favorite mushrooms).  All in all, we were full and had a good meal but in retrospect given that Flushing isn't the easiest place to get to, I wish we had gone to a place with more variety or a seafood restaurant.  But the best part of going to a place like this was the bill: $23 total for two.  Cash only.

Junoon Visited 1/21/11 4 Forks

Junoon 27 W 24th St. (between Broadway & Madison Ave), Manhattan, NY 10010

 It's been a while since I have been to a place as beautiful and fancy as Junoon.  A few friends and I ended up there because our friend Maggie's fiance knew the head chef, who also was the head chef at Tabla, the now closed but well received fancy Indian place down the street.  When I first entered the restaurant I was taken aback at how upscale the decor was.  Maggie mentioned that the wooden arches were taken from a temple? Hmm, maybe I heard wrong and they were just modeled after them? But none the less, the decor made you feel like you were walking into an Asian temple.  When I usually get Indian food, I usually go to these mom and pop, slightly lower budget, but delicious restaurants.  The clientele at this place was definitely upscale and seemingly "important", high class Indians.  

The menu isn't terrible overwhelming, but it definitely had enough variety to make everyone happy.  The food is not fusion but it's not your usually saag paneer or chicken tikka masala either.  We asked our waiter what the style of food was and his answer was so unhelpful.  He said "well, you could have it on your own or you could also share it too."  Umm, thanks dude.  But he did mention that they do come around and put a bit of each dish on your plate, so in a sense it is family style-esque.  We ordered a few appetizers, which was their version of paneer ($12) and chicken tikka ($12).  They came out and the presentation was so un-Indian like to me because it was very fancy and had a very clean plate aesthetic.  For the paneer, it was 4 medium pieces of cheese and a side swipe of sauce and the chicken had about 4 pieces on the plate with a green masala sauce.  They were both very tasty and prepared with the perfect amount of spice and flavors.  We then decided to each order our "own" entree and have them put a bit of each on our plates.  So we got the lamb shank ($27), a chicken korma ($21), methi lamb ($26), and the chicken malvan ($22) with a side of naan/roti ($5) and 2 orders of rice ($7) and the chutney sampler ($8).  Again, the presentation and level of service was amazing.  It was almost too professional and adult for me, but it was very well done.  Three different waiters came and plated our food with a bit of each dish.  I was a bit nervous that the food would just be ok, but frankly everything we had was extremely delicious.  The flavors were spot on and not over spicy but had the right amount to me.  The chutney sample was good (mango, tomato, and a pineapple) and was a nice compliment to our food, I don't think it was worth $8.  The naan and roti were homemade and very soft and easy to use to sop up all the yummy sauces (which is always the best part of eating Indian food).  All the food was served in these beautiful copper tins and there was actually plenty of food leftover after the initial serving.  I was completely stuffed at the end of the meal.  We ended up deciding to share a spiced chocolate cake ($12) with a chai tea ice cream.  The portion was rather small but given that our stomachs were about to explode, it was totally fine.  The chai tea was almost a bit too overpowering for me.  The flavor really just hits you in the face...definitely not subtle.  The cake was good but quite frankly it could have been great but I had no ability to taste anything at that point.  

Later Maggie was able to get the chef to come out and say hi to us and he seemed so sweet and humble.  And he was totally cute, so any of you single Indian ladies out there, check this place out! We all also got 2 rounds of cocktails/wine and the cocktails were surprisingly strong because I was definitely feeling it at the end.  The total bill ended up around $287 without tip, which is definitely expensive and more than what I usually spend on a regular dinner out.  But this place is definitely on a different level in terms of ambiance and service and should be reserved for special occasions.

Union Square Cafe Visited 1/20/11 4 Forks

Union Square Cafe 21 E 16th St, (between 5th Ave & W Union Sq), New York, NY 10003

Union Square Cafe is one of the quintessential "New York" restaurants.  It's a Danny Meyer restaurant and is a place where you would find good, hearty American food.  I thought I had never been there before, but I had actually had lunch there years ago and the only reason we decided to go this time was because my friend Vivi had a gift certificate that she wanted to use up.

The whole vibe of the restaurant and clientele definitely skews old.  We were probably the youngest people there by 10-15 years.  It's very quiet and reserved and there were even people who were dressed up in formal evening attire when we were there. The menu is fairly basic American food: lots of pastas, staple seafood dishes like scallop and tuna, and roasted chicken.  Lav ordered the Cara Cara Oranges with Fennel, pine nuts and smoke ricotta ($12) and Vivi got the Bib Lettuce Salad ($12) to start.  I tried the orange dish because it was so different from anything I've had appetizer-wise.  It was very refreshing and the oranges were cut out perfectly.  The fennel and ricotta provided a nice salty balance to the tang of the orange.  While I didn't have Vivi's salad, it looked very well dressed.  For main courses, Lav got the potato gnocchi ($17) and a side of mashed potatoes ($7), Vivi got the Butternut Squash Tortelli with cranberry sage brown butter ($16) and a side of polenta with gorgonzola and walnuts ($7), and I got the oven roasted chicken with potatos, spinach and smoked oyster mushrooms ($27).  Similar to how I feel about judging a good brunch place by how they poach their eggs, I judge American-type restaurants by how good they can make a roast chicken.  And this one was damn good! It was a huge piece of chicken with very little bones to it and just so perfectly juicy.  I was actually pretty full on bread by the time my food came and I was convinced that I would have to take most of it home, but alas, I finished the whole plate!  I did think the spinach and mushrooms were a bit overcooked and seemed more like an after thought on the plate, but the chicken more than made up for it. I also tasted Vivi's butternut squash dish and it was tasty with strong flavors.  I wasn't a huge fan of it's appearance as they looked thin and there didn't seem to be enough on the dish, but it was pretty filling that it was probably the right amount of food.  Lav's gnocchi was indeed very potato-tasting and I couldn't imagine having more than 4-5 without feeling like a potato.  I do think the gnocchi she had at Osteria Morini was better.  Lav raved about the mashed potato dish and they were definitely fabulous...very smooth and whipped and most likely heavy on the butter and cream.  I mean how the hell do you not love a good mashed potato dish?! The polenta was actually a disappointment.  It didn't really look like polenta and the gorgonzola was way too overpowering of a flavor for it.

I was worried that the bill would be outrageous, but since we got the smaller size pasta dishes, it kept the bill down a bit.  Our total bill with a bottle of red wine was $153 (without tip).  This is a great place to eat if your parents are in town or if you're in the mood for perfectly done staple items, but don't come here expecting out of the box/cutting edge food.

Osteria Morini Visited 1/17/11 4 Forks

Osteria Morini  218 Lafayette St., (between Kenmare St & Spring St), New York, NY 10012

 Most people who know me know that I usually don't go for Italian food when I go out to eat.  Don't get me wrong, it's not because I don't love Italian, I actually really love it, but it's kind of this feeling that you can kind of make Italian to some extent at home on your own but it's almost impossible to make Thai, sushi or other types of food on your own at home.  But for some reason, I had suggested this place to Lav when we were trying to meet up for brunch.  And I'm really glad I did because it re-ignited my love for really good Italian food.

We had originally wanted to go for brunch on Sunday but since we had Monday off from work, I thought it would be more fun to go out to a nice lunch on a weekday.  But then when I got there I realized that they wouldn't have the brunch menu, so I was kind of bummed about that.  But it actually turned out to be ok.  The decor of the restaurant is actually pretty casual/rustic feel.  I have read a bunch of stuff about Michael White's other restaurants in NYC and this one seems to be the least stuffy and more up my alley.  The lunch menu doesn't have as many brunch-y/egg types dishes on the menu, but right before I was going to order I caught sight of the baked eggs, polenta and ragu sauce dish ($17).  I ordered that and Lav got the gnocchi ($16), which is always a good choice.  They had a bunch of other really good appetizers around $11+, so if I got one with getting a main dish, lunch would have run me $30+, which is a bit steep, so I opted for just my baked eggs.  I'm actually really glad I didn't get anything else because my meal was so freakin good and filling that I probably wouldn't have had room for everything else.

The baked eggs were AM-AZING.  It came with 3 eggs (2 of which were running and delicious and the 3rd one was a bit overcooked, but hey 2/3 isn't so bad) on a bed of super creamy and cheesy polenta.  I am a huge fan of polenta and would eat it with almost anything.  It was then covered in a meat/ragu sauce and it was just all so god damn good.  Even the lightly toasted bread they served with my meal was perfect.  Lav's gnocchi was also really good and even though I didn't eat all of it, it didn't seem overly starchy and filling.  Based on the fact that Lav took my leftover bread crusts to sop up her entire dish makes me think it was pretty great dish.  For dessert we got the gelato: 2 scoops of  biscotti-flavor and 1 scoop of tangerine.  The biscotti actually tasted just like a biscotti and was extremely creamy in texture.  Meanwhile the tangerine was perfectly tangy and has more of the sorbet like texture.  Both were really good and it was even better mixing the two together! I ended up taking a bit of my food home to go, but then Lav and I started walking around the city and all I could think about was the delicious food burning a hole in my bag.  My one complaint was that the service was quite slow.  Our waitress was super nice and friendly but one of my pet peeves in a restaurant is if they let my water glass go empty for a while and this was the case here.  Sometimes it's nice to be just left alone in a restaurant but at times I felt like I was constantly scanning the restaurant for our waitress, which is annoying.  Total bill without tip $48 for two.   

M. Wells Visited 1/15/11 3.75 Forks

M. Wells 21-17 49th Ave., Queens, NY 11101

It's amazing how a small diner in the middle of nowhere Queens has gotten so much buzz.  This place was recently written up in the NY Times as a place that was worth flying to eat at.  I wouldn't necessarily go that far, but I would say it's definitely an interesting experience.  Dan and I went at 11AM (it opens at 10) and it was already completely packed and was about a 30 minute wait.  The place is pretty small with about 5-6 booths, 2 communal tables, and then a few counter seats.

The concept of the diner is French-Canadian food, which I wasn't really sure what that meant.  Apparently it just means complete heart stopping food.  We ended up sitting at the counter, which I ended up loving because it was right in front of the main grill and I got to watch the chef make almost every dish on the menu.  I can safely say that this place makes everything with great quality food and with care.  The food is not your basic diner/breakfast food.  There are a few egg dishes, but they have quirky dishes like seafood cobbler, meat pies, tongue salad, scallop/clam ceviche, froie gras bread pudding, etc. Everytime Dan and I go somewhere for brunch we always feel inclined to get something with egg, even though a lot of places probably specialize in better things.  We started with a bloody ceasar ($8) which was a bloody mary with clam juice and the bone marrow with escargot ($9).  This was one fairly large piece of bone marrow, topped with 5 escargot and topped with bread crumbs and then baked in the oven.  It was pretty fatty and melt in your mouth but the bread crumbs were a bit too salty for me.

For our main dishes, I got the sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich ($9) and Dan got the egg tortilla with shrimp and blood sausage ($11).  I know it might sound lame to have gotten a breakfast sandwich but after watching them make it I had to try it out.  Everything about the sandwich was huge: the english muffin was the size of my foot, the sausage patty was about the exactly the same size as the muffin, and the egg was perfectly soft and gooey and it was topped with cheddar cheese and pickled jalapeno peppers that offered the right amount of spice.  It was so filling and heart stopping that I am afraid to learn how many calories were in it.  Dan's meal was also really good: they basically mixed egg, potato, shrimp, and chunks of blood sausage in a little skillet and baked it.  Neither of us have had blood sausage before and it was definitely not sausage-like with a casing.  It was soft in structure but not weird or scaring tasting.  While both our meals were good, the chefs were definitely very heavy handed with the salt.  I came home and felt like I should be drinking a gallon of water.   Everything that I watched the chefs make looked great and different than your basic diner, so I am willing to come back and try other stuff on the menu.

The service was a bit slow but after watching them make all the food from scratch and how many people were flowing through the tiny place, they were definitely trying as hard as they could.  Total bill was $43 without tip.

Samurai Visited 1/14/11 3 Forks

Samurai 149 N 6th St, (between Bedford Ave & Berry St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

 I've been to Samurai a few times before and it's nothing really amazing but not terrible either.  It's in a 1 block radius of 2 other neighborhood sushi joints on Bedford (Mizu and Miyako) and I'm usually pretty indifferent between the 3.  I will say that this one probably has the least appealing decor but that's ok.  It's a pretty low key joint that offers a fairly decent menu.  The one plus that this place has that the others don't is that they offer a sweet potato tempura appetizer ($5).  Now for me, besides the shrimp, the sweet potato is the best kind of tempura and this actually the only sushi place, fancy or not, that offers a sweet potato only tempura option.  

They don't have a spicy dinner combo which I usually like to get in these types of places, but we did order a few other special rolls that were surprisingly filling.  We got a basic yellow tail scallion roll ($5.50), a sunrise roll which had spicy crab meat, cucumber, and topped with blackpepper salmon ($10), and a dancing scallop roll which had spicy scallop, crabmeat, scallion and topped with crunch ($10).  They were all pretty decent sized and came in 8 pieces and while in the past I could have eaten all three rolls myself, I was pretty full from splitting these rolls with Dan.  While I like crunch on my sushi, there was too much crunch on the dancing scallop roll, it was literally covering the entire roll to the point where it soaked up all the soy sauce and made it thick and hard to deal with. 

In the end the total bill with a small bottle of unfiltered sake ($13) was $47 without tip.  It's a decent neighborhood joint but it's definitely not for those wanting a fancy experience.

Hung Ry Visited 1/13/11 3.5 Forks

Hung Ry  55 Bond St, (between Lafayette St & Bowery), New York, NY 10012

 I walked into Hung Ry at 6pm on a Thursday night and it was completely empty.  The host asked if I had a reservation and I wanted to give him this look.  When I said no, he looked pained and finally said "well, it looks like I can seat you tonight."  Well, thank you.  But in all fairness he was actually really nice about it and when the clock turned 7pm, I soon realized he said what he said (it was completely packed by then). 
The menu is actually fairly limited and they specialize in hand pulled noodles with broths that come with exotic meats like ox tail, veal cheek, and tongue.  Aarti and I each got appetizers to start; she got the composed vegetables ($7) of beets, carrots, and radish, while I got the short ribs, diakon and shiso ($7).  The veggies looked beautiful and very "organic" and fresh looking.  It made me feel healthy just looking at it.  My short ribs were quite delicious.  The meat was cooked perfectly and melted in my mouth.  I could have done without the foam (I never really quite understood its function) and the diakon was actually really spicy for some reason.  For our main noodle dishes, I got the ox tail, beef brisket, turnips, and black currant ($15) and Aarti got the only veggie option of squash, tamarind, and vegetables ($12).  I was torn between the ox tail and pork belly and the waitress told me that the pork belly was super smoky tasting, and since I generally don't get ox tail at restaurants, I thought I would give it a go.  The waitress was also very adamant that we get the "thick" noodles instead of the thin ones because they don't sop up all the broth.  

While I am a sucker for a good noodle/ramen dish and to be honest, this did not blow me away.  Not sure if it's because I'm Asian and have had my fair share of excellent and cheap noodle dishes, but I walked away thinking "well, that was a good meal but..."  The ox tail was cooked very tender, so that wasn't really the issue.  The dish just reminded me of a basic Niu Rou Mian (beef noodle soup) that I used to eat when I was young...the broth was a bit salty but had that beefy taste to it.  When the waitress mentioned that the noodles were going to be thick, I envisioned more of a udon style noodle, but it was thinner than udon but thicker than ramen. 

When the bill came it was $55 (includes a $5 beer for me and a $4.50 fancy lychee soda for Aarti) which I thought was a bit much for a noodle soup.  I know the quality and the fanciness of the place does merit it to be a bit more expensive than your average Chinatown noodle joint, I don't think it should be this much.

Pure Thai Shophouse Visited 1/7/11 4 Forks

Pure Thai Shophouse  766 9th Ave, (between 51st St & 52nd St), New York, NY 10019

 Ahh, the first review of the year turned out to be a good one.  I had read about Pure as part of the current trend of really good and authentic Thai restaurants (Kin Shop and Lotus of Siam as the other few).  The restaurant is in Hell's Kitchen which has tons of really great cheap Thai restaurants.  But unlike Kin Shop this place is not expensive and has more of a cute cozy noodle shop feel as opposed to a fancy upscale place.  
When I first walked in they greeted me with Sa-Wat-Dee which is hello in Thai and it immediately brought me back to Thailand.  Plus the fact that there was an open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant with giant pots of sauces really made me think of the street food in Thailand.  The menu there is simple yet there is a lot of variety.  It's mostly appetizers and then a bunch of stir-fry and noodle dishes.  I had a pretty hard time deciding what I wanted...they had a dish called Krabi noodles that I was so curious about since I was just in Krabi but there was a big disclaimer on the menu saying that it was NOT for the faint of heart and no returns were accepted.  Given my experience with spicy food in Thailand, I decided that probably wasn't for me.  Instead I chose the fried rice with lump crab meat ($10) and a fried egg ($2 extra) and Aarti got a broad noodle dish with tofu ($9) and we both got thai iced tea ($3.50/each).

The service was super friendly and fast.  The iced tea came out in these super cute mini vases with crushed ice and was pretty tasty but not too sweet.  Our main dishes came out and the portions were pretty generous.  While I didn't see a ton of crab at first, when I was trying to pick out a bite for Aarti to eat I started to realize that it was pretty mixed in there and I could definitely taste its subtlety.  I was worried that the fried egg wasn't runny inside but once I cut it open the yolk was very nice and runny and it immediately brought me back to the fried rice in Thailand that all had fried eggs on it. My first bite was great and thought it was definitely one of the better fried rice dishes I've had in the city.  It wasn't greasy at all and had a lot of great flavor to it.  Aarti said she liked her dish but that it had a slightly overwhelming citrus taste but the noodles looked very wet and saucy and the tofu pieces were quite large. 

There were tons of other dishes on the meal that I would love to try and the best part of the meal was that the total bill was $30.