Banjara Visited 5/28/2011 4 Forks

Banjara 97 1st Ave., New York, NY 10003

Now that I've decided to stop rating with quarter stars, you'll probably see me giving more and more restaurants 4 stars where as in the past I might have given them 3.75 forks.  Banjara is one of those places.  Don't get me wrong, I did rally enjoy my meal but on some level giving it 4 stars is a bit off compared to the other 4 fork ratings I've given.  


It's been a while since I've had Indian food but it's definitely one of my favorite type of food.  It's always got lots and lots of flavor and it's just one of those genres of foods that's great to share with a large group of people.  This place is smack in the middle of Curry Row on 6th street, right next to those crazy places drenched in x-mas lights.  I have passed by it lots of times but never actually eaten there.  Luckily, we were able to snag a table outside on a nice long weekend night but we were seated next to an apartment building where someone was clearly having a party, so lots of annoying hipsters kept ringing the doorbell and yelling while we were eating. So that was kind of a bummer. If you want to eat outside, I would suggest not sitting on the 6th street side, but on the 1st Ave side.


We started with the Aloor Chop ($5), which was potato cake, chick peas, and onions.  I'm not sure what I was expect but it literally came out as 2 dark brown patties.  I didn't think it would come out as a "cake" although that's what is said on the menu.  But despite it's unappealing visual, it was quite tasty.  It wasn't overly starchy which is what you would think when something has potato and chick peas.  Next we shared the Sharabi Kababi ($16), the Bay Goon Ka Goon ($10, and the matar paneer ($11).  The Bay Goon Ka Goon was described as whole eggplant with onions and tomatoes.  Again, I wasn't sure what I was thinking...I guess I thought it would come out as a whole eggplant, but it came out like a smashed/mashed up eggplant.  Some people don't like the consistency of eggplant and I can see why, but I really enjoyed this dish.  It had a nice rich flavor without the smokey flavor that most people associate with eggplant.  The matar paneer was basically tons of butter and cream tossed with peas and cheese. I mean who can you NOT love something like that? Mixed with rice and naan, it's really one great tasting dish.  The Sharabi Kababi was described as pieces of chicken marinated in wine and cream sauce but when it came out it was not saucy at all.  You could definitely taste the wine and cream but I thought that not only would it be marinated in it but it would be served with it.  It came out as 5 large grilled pieces of chicken.  The chicken kind of looked dry at first glance but it was quite tender.   It was hard to see the sauce on the chicken but you could see it more on the veggies.  It was served with large pieces of broccoli, cauliflower, onion and tomato.  I wish the veggies were cut up smaller because they were literally huge chunks that were hard to eat.  What I love about Indian food is that you can sample a bunch of different dishes and mix them up and eat them together and it all still tastes great.  This isn't a fancy place like Junoon but it's not a grimy place like some of the other Indian places in the city.  It's a great mid-level place at very affordable prices.  The total bill for all that food plus naan and a beer was $23/pp.  

Smorgasburg Visited 5/28 4 forks

Smorgasburg 27 North Sixth Street (between Kent Ave & the East River), Williamsburg, Brooklyn

So I am a big sucker for food markets.  I go to them even when I am on vacation in a new city, so I was thrilled when the founders of Brooklyn Flea opened up Smorgasburg in Williamsburg.  It features tons of food vendors in one place by the water.  They are open every Saturday from 9-5pm, but I would suggest getting there early as we got there by noon and there were tons of people there already.

Dan and I took a quick walk around and settled first on the BLT sandwich from Landhous.  They only have 1 thing on the menu, the BLT (duh).  It's 2 very thick cuts of bacon with seasoned lettuce, tomato, and herb mayo on toasted french bread ($5).  Just looking at the bacon made me hungry.  It was a delicious sandwich but very messy to eat.  I thought the bread was over toasted which made it a bit dry but the bacon and herb mayo more than made up for it.  Right next door to it was Kings Crumb, which sold biscuits, fried egg, and gravy ($9).  This was absolutely insane.  The gravy was amazing and the biscuit was warm and buttery.  It was a bit crumbly and the sandwich did kind of fall apart while I was eating but we ended up just taking a spoon and scooping up all the goodness that fell out. By then I was dying of thirst and got a fresh organic ginger tea at ThrisTea ($5).  Honestly, I thought it was super overpriced for just ginger water and tapioca balls.  After that we went for mini cupcakes at Kumquat cupcakes.  I got a red velvet and Dan got a chocolate one ($3 for both).  They were the perfect bite size cupcake but when they are that small, it's hard to really judge the taste.  When though by then we were totally full, I still wanted to get one more item.  There was Shorty Tang's cold sesame noodles, but given that I can make that at home, I couldn't justify paying money for it.  There was Red Hook Lobster Rolls, but I've had that many times before.  I was tempted by the tacos and pupusas but I've gotten them at the Ball Park before.  So I settled on the crepe ($11) at Queen's Dahn Tu.  Apparently the owner had a restaurant in Greenpoint and then took off and traveled to Vietnam and has now returned with re-newed vigor.  The crepe came with shrimp, pork, bean sprouts and you wrap it in lettuce with mint and basil and dip it in fish sauce.  It was a very refreshing taste especially with the mint and basil but the lettuce was a bit soggy and should have been bigger to help with the wrapping.  I thought that $11 was a bit too much (everything else in the market was $10 or less) and especially if she had traveled to Vietnam and eaten this food on the street, she should know that it shouldn't be sold for that much.  The market is a great new addition to the neighborhood.  I hope that they rotate the vendors more often so give it some more variety.  But even if they don't there are still lots of great eats to go around.

What Happens When Visited 5/23/2011 3 Forks

What Happens When  25 Cleveland Pl., (between Kenmare St & Spring St), Manhattan, NY 10012

 I had heard about What Happens When as part of the pop-up restaurant trend.  On this particular night, it seemed like it would be a great night because it was part of the Women Take Over concept featuring women chefs from Pearl Oyster Bar (one of my faves) and Peels (pretty decent place).  But unfortunately after we sat down for dinner, we found out that they had just lost their liquor license and they could only offer us mocktails (juice mixture).  We couldn't even bring in our own liquor or wine, so that was kind of a bust, especially since it was a friend's birthday and they didn't bother letting us know in advance of this problem. 


On to the food, the menu is a fixed menu for all the pop-up concepts (you usually get to pick 1 of 2 options per course) at $58.  We started with an amuse bouche of chicken liver on a small piece of bread.  I personally don't love chicken liver but thought it was fine.  It was fairly smooth which made it much more palatable since there's nothing more gross than grainy pate. Next came the appetizer (choice of their greens or spaetzle).  I chose the spaetzle which came with peas, smoked salmon and salmon roe.  It was pretty salty, most likely due to the roe, but it was really creamy and rich in butter.  Next we waited and waited for our main course.  The service was very slow and you'd think since they didn't offer wine, they could have at least re-filled our water glasses frequently.  Given that the restaurant was not very full, I'd expect much more attentive service in such a small place.  They weren't rude at all, just slow.  For our main course (choice of duck breast or crispy skate) I got the crispy skate and it was indeed crispy and not overly battered.  It was actually perfectly crispy, I just wished that it came with a bit more accompaniments.  There was a small side of asparagus and oyster and shiitake mushrooms, but there just wasn't enough of it.  I tried the duck breast and it was very nicely done, but came with some weird thing called "scrumpy sauce".  For dessert (choice of chocolate and lemon trifle or pot de creme), I got the trifle which came in a pretty large jam jar and you could definitely taste the sourness of the lemon.  It came topped with smooth chocolate mouse and crunchy chocolate bits...it took a couple of bites, but I started to get into it after each bit. The other dessert was a green tea flavored creme de pot, but the green tea flavor was very strong and overpowering and I don't think many of us liked it.  

The restaurant has potential and we might have gone on an off day, but I definitely did think it was overpriced based on other amazing fixed menu meals that I've had (I'm looking at you Torrisi - I love you!!).  Not sure if wine would have really helped with the over all service issue and value prop, but it probably wouldn't have hurt.

Hill Country Chicken Visited 5/21/2011 3 Forks

Hill Country Chicken 1123 Broadway, (between 25th St & 26th St), New York, NY 10010

I hadn't really planned on going to Hill Country Chicken for lunch today.  I had originally wanted to check out the food stalls at Madison Square Park but it was pretty crowded and there was no where to sit, so Dan and I decided to give this place a visit.  We both didn't like Hill Country BBQ, so we were a bit weary of going here, but how hard is it to get fried chicken wrong?

The inside of this place is sort of like a 50's style Southern kitchen, which was cute.  The place is not really a restaurant in the sense that you don't sit down and order.  You order your food at the counter and seat yourself, so it's a very informal place.  We ordered the Country Club ($10), 5 piece Texas Tenders ($12) and a small side of corn salad ($2.50).  The tenders were huge and very meaty, which was a pleasant surprise.  While it was fried, you could definitely taste the juicy chicken in it.  While the tenders were good, they weren't anything really to write home about.  It was like getting the chicken tenders at work but one notch above it in quality.  Meanwhile the country club sandwich was actually quite delicious.  It was a nice thick piece of juicy fried chicken in a square shape, with buttermilk ranch dressing, lots of guacamole, tomato and all on a soft potato bun.  I almost wished Dan and I weren't sharing this because I would have rather eaten the whole thing myself!  It's a combination of all the good things Southern.  On the other hand, the corn salad was a serious bust.  I am a huge huge fan of a good fresh corn salad (and can't wait for the farmers market to start selling corn again), but this corn tasted old and dry.  It didn't have any fresh crunch to it at all. It was such a disappointing side.

I definitely enjoyed my meal here more than my meal at Hill Country and really liked the sandwich.  The chicken tenders were enjoyable but for $12, I'm not sure if it was really worth my money.  And at  $10 for my sandwich,  I wished it came with a side instead of me having to order one.  But I'm glad I checked this place out and if I'm ever in the area again, I would consider it but only if Shake Shack and the food stalls nearby were totally crowded.  Total bill $28.  

Taim Visited 5/14/2011 4.5 Forks

Taim 222 Waverly Pl., (between 11th St & Perry St), New York, NY 10014

Could I actually give a gluten free, cash, and vegetarian only menu a rave review? Yes, I can.  Taim has gotten amazing reviews from almost every blog and they are totally right.  The place is tiny, probably only 5 stools and then maybe 3 benches outside.  It's really just a take out place and there are always long long lines, so just be prepared for it.


There are a variety of salads, sandwiches, and platter options and several side dishes. Everything sounds amazing and it was hard to narrow my choice down.  In the end I had to go with a classic falafel sandwich with green sauce($6.25), Aarti got the Mediterranean Platter ($11) with Beet salad, carrot salad, and eggplant salad, and Will got the falafel platter ($11.50).  We managed to get 3 of the 5 stools there but it's a bit weird because you're facing the street so everyone gets to watch you stuff yourself and end up with tons of hummus and sauce on your face.  The food was ready fairly quickly and it looked super fresh and healthy.  The falafel was delicious...not oily or greasy at all considering it is basically deep fried.  The cucumber, onions, and tomatoes were clean and fresh tasting and the hummus was AMAZING.  I don't know how they get it to be so smooth but it was completely addictive.  I tried a few bites of Aarti's food and it was equally yummy.  
I totally am coming back again and next time I want to try the eggplant sandwich.  

Mables Smokehouse and Banquet Visited 5/13/2011 3.5 Forks

Mables Smokehouse and Banquet 44 Berry St., (between 12th St & 11th St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

Inevitably, any BBQ place in NYC will be compared to Fette Sau, there's just no avoiding that.  So far I haven't found any place that compares and Mables is no exception.  Honestly, if Fette Sau didn't exist this place probably would have ranked better in my mind.  The nice thing about this place was that it's a slightly bigger space than Fette which means that there's less of a chance of eating and standing at the same time (which is what happened last time I went to Fette).  

The menu is a bit more limited than Fette.  While Fette has lots of different kinds of meat from ribs, brisket, pork belly, pulled pork, pastrami, sirloin tip, and sausages (and ordered by weight), there were only 3 kinds of meat at Mables: brisket, st. louis style ribs, and pulled pork (fixed order, not by weight).  The one thing that Mable does have going in its favor is that it has a 1-2 more sides than Fette Sau.  That was always my gripe with Fette was that their sides were limiting and quite honestly not that great.  Here you have choices of mac and cheese, potato salad, cornbread, baked beans, collard greens, and corn.  Dan and I sat at the bar and got the Deluxe Platter ($28) which comes with 3 meats, 3 sides, small cole slaw, wonder bread, and pickles.  For sides we chose, mac and cheese, potato salad and cornbread.  When the food came out, it just looked like a $hit ton of food.  There were 4 fairly large ribs, 3 slices of brisket, and pulled pork.  I immediately went for the mac and cheese and it tasted exactly the mac and cheese that comes out of a box, which taste-wise, isn't necessarily terrible, but I don't necessarily want to pay for it at a restaurant.  The potato salad was good, not too heavy on the mayo and I didn't taste a trace of celery.  The big let down sides-wise was the cornbread.  I don't know how it's possible to make cornbread taste bland but this had absolutely no taste to it.  But on the the more important stuff, the meat.  I actually thought the brisket was pretty good, not too fatty, but Dan seemed to have wanted it to just fall apart without using a knife.  The piece I had barely required a knife, but the piece Dan got was a pretty thick cut that I could see needed a little bit of knife work.  I then tried the pulled pork which was already covered in BBQ sauce (although they did give you a small cup of sauce on the side.  Whereas at Fette Sau they have a large variety of sauces in squeeze bottles at each table).  I thought the pork was totally fine although I would have preferred to have gotten it dry and mixed with my own proportion of sauce.  Next to the ribs.  The ribs that I usually like are the kinds that fall completely off the bone with nothing left after I'm done.  These ribs were not like that.  They were a bit tough to get through and I may have left some meat on the bones but I just didn't have the energy to get everything off cleanly.   But flavor-wise, it was saucy and tasty.

Unlike Fette Sau, they have a pretty basic whiskey selection.  Your typical Jamison, Jack Daniels, Buffalo Trace, and Wild Turkey.  At Fette Sau they have a lot more selection and whiskeys that I have never heard of or seen else where.  In a way, I feel bad about most of this review.  I don't want to rag on this place.  It's just really hard when there is such another great BBQ place so close by.  If you're in the mood for BBQ, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the food here and quite frankly it's nice to be able to actually sit down while you eat your food.    

Dos Caminos Visited 5/12/2011 3 Forks

Dos Caminos 475 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013

Years ago when Dos Caminos first burst on to the scene, it was one of the hottest places to be.  A few co-workers and I had gone and I had remembered that I didn't love it.  It's tagged as a mexican restaurant but really the food was much more high-brow than you local burrito place.  After that experience, I just never bothered going back again. 


But I met up with Aarti and Will after their city hall nuptials at Dos Caminos because Aarti had wanted to get guacamole in a downtown location afterward.  The one nice thing about the SoHo location is that they have a large patio and on slightly cold days they have big heat lamps to keep you warm.  By the time I got there after work, they had already ordered guacamole and salsa for the table.  The guacamole was pretty tasty, very smooth and not bland, which is easy to do when making guacamole.  The chips were nice and thin and salted, not like the thick corn chips you sometimes get in mexican places.    At any good mexican restaurant, it's necessary to order a tasty alcoholic drink.  Since I'm not a huge fan of tequilla, I ordered the mojito instead.  I've had some pretty amazing mojitos before in my life and this was definitely not one of them.  It was totally flat and instead of muddling the lime and mint, they just dumped them into the glass.  Will then ordered the trio of ceviche which was tuna, lobster with mango and red snapper.  I love love ceviche in general and was excited to give this a try.  The tuna was very simple but delicious tasting. I was most excited for the lobster but it was way too sweet.  It was served with chopped up mangoes, which was fine, but it was the coconut chili sauce that was so sweet and masked any taste of lobster.  The red snapper was so finally chopped that I could barely taste it but it was the most classic form of ceviche of the three.  It was served with lime juice and tomatoes and onions, I just would have loved to have had larger pieces of fish. 

For my next drink, I opted for the red sangria ($9), which I was a bit skeptical about given how flat the mojito was, but it was surprisingly good.  It could have been a touch stronger but compared to my first drink, I would have at least gotten another glass of this.  For dinner, I got the Dos Enchiladas ($19) which came with a side of rice and beans.  The enchiladas came in two forms: one with a more smokey mole sauce and another more tangy green sauce.  Even though they were both made the same (chicken inside and drizzled with a little bit of cheese), I really liked the green sauce side a lot more.  The portion was surprisingly large and I was super full after forcing myself to finish the whole thing.  The rice and beans were good but nothing to write home about.  For dessert, we got the white and dark chocolate fondue and even though I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, I surprisingly really loved this dessert.  The white chocolate didn't taste like white chocolate at all, it almost tasted like vanilla pudding instead. They had a nice array of bananas, churros, strawberries, passion fruit marshmallows, and coconut puffs. The one annoying thing was that there are more chocolate than dipping things.  We ended up having almost half of the fondue leftover with no dipping things left.  While the food was not amazing, the service was.  Our waiter was great, just very friendly and easy going.  I can see why the patio and certain dishes are a big draw, but with a sub-par menu of cocktails, I left a bit wanting more.

Slanted Door Visited 5/9/2011 4 Forks

Slanted Door 1 Ferry Bldg, San Francisco, CA 94111

I had heard so much about Slanted Door before I even got there. Its' one of those restaurants that's well known outside of its city.  After reading several reviews I was torn if I really wanted to go. On one hand, it's located in the Ferry Building, which is one of my favorite places in SF.  But on the other hand, I generally have an aversion to overpriced, fancy Asian food.  I came to SF thinking that if I ended up going that would be great but I wouldn't make a huge effort in trying to make it there.

We did the night tour of Alcatraz (which was AWESOME and I highly recommend) and it dropped us off at Pier 33 at 9pm on a Sunday. We were pretty exhausted by then and I really had no idea of what was open for dinner in that area.  So we just started walking down the Embarcadero with the intention of trying to catch a cab back to our hotel.  Since we were so tired, we wanted to head back to the hotel and just grab something around there.  Unlike NYC, where there is a cab on every corner, we didn't see a single cab.  So after walking for 15 minutes, we ended up at the Ferry Building, so I just had to check to see if they had room for us. 


Luckily they had a few tables open and we were seated immediately.  Everyone says that the view from the restaurant is great, but to be honest, it was so late that we didn't get to really see anything.  But the overall decor of the restaurant was very clean, sleek and modern.  So totally different than my preferred Asian decor. We got the cellophane noodles, imperial rolls, and chicken in clay pot.  There were a lot of other great sounding dishes, but it's hard to order a lot of food when it's just 2 people.  The imperial rolls ($10) were your typical shrimp and pork fried summer rolls served with lettuce, mint and rice noodles and a side of plum sauce.  They were perfectly crispy and not oily at all.  Great but nothing I haven't had before.  Next came the noodles ($19), which was a 7x7 recommendation.  Honestly I know it's probably not hard to make but it was really really delicious.  You could see the chunks of crab and it was just really fresh tasting.  I could have ordered another order just for myself.  The chicken claypot ($19) came out next and it was was chicken in this very strong, dark ginger caramel sauce.  We had to order a side of rice in order to really get the full experience.  The flavors really just hit you in the face.   We were pouring the sauce over rice even when we were done with the chicken.  In the end, I really did love my food.  But I will agree with all the comments that it's DEFINITELY overpriced and you could probably just as good food in a hole in the wall Asian place.  Maybe it's because I was on vacation or I'm just used to New York prices or maybe I was just too exhausted to care, but I wasn't that upset then the bill came ($98 with tip and tax for 2).

Ebisu Visited 5/08/2011 3.5 Forks

Ebisu 1283 9th Ave., (between Irving St & Lincoln Way), San Francisco, CA 94122

 I was super excited to try this place because it had gotten great reviews on Yelp.  SF is known for its great fresh seafood and sushi is no exception.  I was actually a huge fan of the neighborhood...it seemed really low key and laid back and not in the trendy parts of the city.  It kind of reminded me of Brooklyn a bit. 

The inside of the restaurant was quite nice.  Fancy but not to the point where you felt like you were out of place in jeans and flip flops.  We started the meal with scallops wrapped in bacon (not very Japanese but who doesn't like bacon wrapped anything?).  They were a bit small and just ok.  I mean it's hard to go wrong with scallops and bacon but there was nothing that wow'd me.  We then ordered 4 different rolls.  The #29 roll ($13), the cherry blossom roll ($11), the QP roll ($7) and the crunchy roll ($8).  The QP roll was supposed to come spicy but it barely registered on my spice palate.  I did like that it had very fresh and large pieces of raw scallop in the middle but there was hardly any mayo or spice.  Next the cherry blossom roll came with lots of large salmon roe on top, which I personally love but Dan wasn't a fan of.  I will say that there was so much roe that it was pretty salty with each bite.  The crunchy roll came wrapped in a thin soybean paper and it was made with a bit too much rice.  Each mouthful was like eating an entire spoonful of carbs.  Lastly the #29 roll was just huge (pictured).  I forgot that the menu said that it was yellowtail, tuna, and salmon deep fried.  I just saw the fish part and totally blocked out that it was fried.  I wish that I had paid more attention because the deep fry totally made it taste not fresh and clean like what I normally associate with sushi.  It tasted warm and cooked, which is not what I like to think of when I have sushi.  


Overall, it would be a great neighborhood joint and they apparently also own the sushi place across the street, so I could see myself coming here often if I lived nearby.  But it's definitely not a destination sushi place, which is what I thought it would be.

Le Garage Visited 5/7/2011 3.5 Forks

Le Garage 85 Liberty Ship Way, Ste 109, Sausalito, CA 94965

While my friend's wedding was in Sonoma, a bunch of us decided to check out Sausalito for brunch on Saturday.  I had always wanted to go there and a good friend of mine was renting a house out there, so it made sense to meet up there.  Before I left for SF I had done a quick search of brunch places in Sausalito and this place kept coming up.  It sounded like it was right on the water and had a fancy brunch menu so it seemed like the perfect fit.  


Getting there is a bit difficult.  While there is a main downtown drag, this place is in a ship yard away from all the main action.  The parking was weird in that even though there is tons of parking, it's all private, so you are forced to do valet ($3), which was annoying.  But the location of this place was perfect.  It was literally right on the water and surprise, surprise, inside an old garage.  It's a great open air restaurant and really gives you that California feel.   Another great perk was that despite being a group of 8, we were seated immediately since another large group in front of us weren't all there.  So it pays off to all car pool together!


The menu looked promising with classic brunch items such as french toast, eggs benedict, croque madams/monsieur and fancy omelets.  We ordered hand cut fries for the table and I had to get the eggs benedict ($14).  Sadly they don't have a liquor menu, so they don't have bloody mary's or other fun brunch cocktails but you can get mimosas and some beers.  Having fun cocktails is kind of half the fun on a day like this.  The fries came out first and they were were kind of skinny for hand cut fries but they came with a great side of aoli (does anyone restaurant not serve aoli these days?) but they just needed to be thicker and crisper.  Our main dishes came out shortly later and they were just ok.  The benedict did not come out on an english muffin but thick french cut bread and they were kind of small in size.  The hard french bread just wasn't an adequate substitute for a soft english muffin.  The egg was nicely poached but there was just something off about it.  I did enjoy the potatoes as they were roasted just right but I would have preferred more benedict and less potatoes.  Dan's croque madam looked good but a bit bready and Aarti didn't seem to love her Oeuf  a la coque, she mentioned that the thick bread with heavy butter was extremely dense.  I was glad that everyone else seemed to like their food, but I just wish that the food matched the great ambiance.  But I was glad that we were all able to all sit together in a restaurant by the water on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  Total $23/pp.     

Swan Oyster Depot Visited 5/6/2011 4.25 Forks

Swan Oyster Depot 1517 Polk St., (between California St & Sacramento St), San Francisco, CA 94109

 As soon as I found out I was going back to SF, I knew I wanted to go to a seafood joint.  There just aren't that many fresh seafood places in NYC.  We headed over to this place as soon as we landed in SF.  It's in the Russian Hill area of SF and it's super tiny.  There is only counter seating and there is about 18 seats total.  Unfortunately, we got there at exactly noon, so right during the lunch time rush. 


There was a line when we got there but luckily we didn't have to wait forever, maybe 30 minutes? The place is definitely filled with locals and tourists alike.  The menu is listed on the wall and there's basically seafood salads, seafood cocktails, oysters, chowder, and cracked crab.  I had read on 7x7's 100 things to eat before you die in SF and their cracked crab was listed as #100 so that was on my mind the whole time.  In retrospect, I kind of wish I had gotten something else instead.  That's not to say that the crab wasn't good but I ended up not having room for a seafood salad, which looked delicious and what everyone else was getting.


We split a bowl of clam chowder ($5) which was extremely creamy and buttery tasting but it wasn't that "chowder" in texture.  I would have liked it to be a little more thick and meaty in texture and perhaps with more clams.  We then got a dozen mixed oysters ($26) which were amazing.  I don't remember all the different types but there were some that I loved, some that were too salty and some that were just ginormous in size.  But it was great to be able to try so many different types of super super fresh oysters in one sitting.  If they weren't expensive, I would have gotten another round.  Next we got the half cracked crab ($18) and as someone who grew up with bushels of blue crabs, the size of this half crab was pretty sad.  It was literally 5 legs and some of the body that was pre-cracked and it came with side of louie sauce (pretty much 1,000 island dressing).  I will say that the crab was extremely fresh but I just wanted more. It was such a tease to get such a small portion. I looked over next to me and everyone had gotten a seafood combo salad, which was a bunch of fresh shrimp and crab on a bed of lettuce drowning in louie sauce.  Yum.  But the salad was another $20, so we opted for the seafood cocktail instead ($9) which was a handful of oysters, shrimp and crab in a small cocktail glass with cocktail sauce in it.  It was good but after seeing everyone else eat something else, I made me kind of sad.


I give this place really high marks for ambiance.  It's just old school and everyone who works there is old school as well (except for the high schoolers working there).  They were all super knowledgeable and made you feel like an old friend. I could see how locals keep coming back.  The guy next to me had said that he goes there once a week, so jealous.  Next time I go, I will know exactly what to order.  Our total bill with beers was $98 (cash only). 

Adour Visited 5/4/2011 3.5 Forks

Adour The St. Regis, 923 K St NW, Washington, DC 20050

 Talk about fancy.  This is the first Alain Ducasse restaurant I have been to, so I was pretty excited to see what he is all about.  He is an extremely well-known French chef and holds a 3 star Michelin restaurant in London, so there were high hopes for this place to blow my mind.  My initial reaction to the ambiance and service was that it took fine dining to a new level for me.  It was almost too high brow.  First, the restaurant was carpeted! It takes a lot of balls to go with white carpeting in your restaurant...I can only imagine all the cleaning and shampooing that rug must undergo each day to keep it as clean as it was.  Our waiter was wearing a very fine business suit and was just so serious that it made me feel like I was a kid at an adults only party.

I believe the menu is French inspired but it didn't scream French food.  There were several fish main entrees and a few cuts of steak and then the tasting menu.  We started with the cheese plate and then I got the Wagyu beef cheek ($37) and we also all split mac and cheese ($8) - which I thought was a bit weird to have on the menu.  They start out with giving you these small cheese puff pastries, which were quite warm and delicious and then an amuse bouche of ginger carrot soup.  The soup was more of a gazpacho since it was cold and it was topped with a bit of chili oil to give it some heat.  You could definitely taste the carrot and ginger but I'm generally not a huge fan of cold soups.  It kind of seems like an oxymoron to me.  Next they offer you your choice of bread, but I didn't see any butter.  Not sure if that was intentional or not, but probably better for my health anyways. Our cheese plate came out and I thought that in a place like this they would stand there and tell you about the cheeses and jams. Instead, they just put the plate down and walked away.  One was definitely a blue cheese and one was a light brie, but I wasn't sure about the other 2 (both hard mild cheeses).  Cheese is always tastes great to me, so no complaints there.  I wasn't a huge fan of the jams actually.  One was very bitter tasting and the others just didn't add anything to the cheeses for me.  They also served the cheese with this really fabulous toasted bread, but it just didn't seem to be the right vehicle for the cheese.  It seemed more appropriate for butter and jam since it was a very thick piece of bread. 

There was a significant lag between our cheese dish and main entrees but luckily I was pretty full from the cheese.  One of the reason I got the beef cheek was because it came with polenta.  But when the dish came out, the beef cheek was on the dish with a garnish of lots of sauteed onions and the polenta was in a side dish.  I guess maybe it's an Asian thing but I like to have my main entree on a "bed" of something or at least on the same plate so that I can combine them into one bite.  But that's not really a huge deal breaker or anything.  I will say that the beef cheek was extremely tender and soft.  I've never had beef cheek before so I'm not sure what I was expecting but it almost looked like a small pieces of steak but with a more pulled meat texture. The meat was fabulous but I didn't really care for the onions on the dish.  My co-workers got the lobster (which looked AMAZING.  I wish I had gotten that) and the cod (also looked very tasty but small).  The mac and cheese came in these small pots and while they were definitely good (how can you really go wrong with cheese and pasta?) it didn't taste any different than mac and cheese I've gotten in less fancier places.  At a place like this, I would have expected a touch of truffle oil or something like that.  For dessert, we got the roasted pineapple and chocolate cake.  They also serve you complimentary macaroons (which they are apparently famous for) and chocolates.  They also had a great sounding souffle on the menu but it takes 20 minutes to make, so I wish the waiter had told us about it earlier so we could have pre-ordered it.  The pineapple dish sounded good because it said it came with rice pudding (which I love) but when it came out, the pudding was more like a thin decorative layer rather than an actual bite.  Both desserts were certainly sweet and beautiful looking and put me over in the edge in terms of fullness. 

The overall experience was just very adult.  Everyone there was clearly either super wealthy or there on business.  I got this feeling that I probably shouldn't have shown up in jeans and a t-shirt. :)  But they didn't make me feel bad about that, it was more of my own feeling.  The service was definitely 5 forks and very attentive, but the food wasn't 5 forks.  It was good but not amazing and I'm just glad that I was able to expense it.  Total bill was $330 (with tip for 3 people).

Niwano Hana Japanese Restaurant Visited 5/3/2011 3 Forks

Niwano Hana 887 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852

I came home for a quick business trip this week but since it was also Mother's Day weekend I figured I would treat my mom to dinner out while I was here. She originally was thinking Seasons 52 (I live in the 'burbs obviously) since it just opened by the new Whole Foods down the street but after looking at the menu, it wasn't really speaking to either of us.  It was basically just a lot of "organic" salads and pastas, so nothing really exciting.  We both love sushi and it was getting kind of late, so she picked Niwano since it was 5 minutes from home. 


I've been here before and didn't remember too much from it except that the spicy scallop roll came with hot scallop on top.  The place is not fancy at all, but a level above your local strip mall sushi.  Unfortunately they were out of the special farm fresh scallop roll that I really wanted.  We ordered the Choice of Sashimi ($23), a dynamite roll ($6) and a hot spicy scallop roll ($8).  The meal came with 2 salads, which was basically just some torn iceberg lettuce with tons of the ginger dressing poured on top.  I liked the fact that the sashimi was just tuna, salmon and yellowtail, so that "big 3" so to speak.  These are your traditionally decent types of fish and in especially in a non-fancy place like this I think it's a good bet.  I don't think I would have trusted the other, more fancier types of fish (like the ones we got at Hibino and Blue Ribbon) here.  You could just tell by looking at the fish that the quality was definitely much lower quality higher end places.  It's still completely edible but just the look and taste of the fish is a notch below.  The rolls were just ok too.  I'm just not a fan of the hot fish on top of my roll but it was the closest thing to a spicy scallop roll I could get.  The dynamite roll was a big disappointment.  They said on the menu that it was 4 pieces, so I assumed they would be 4 large wide pieces.  Instead they were 4 small but very tall pieces of sushi and you couldn't really taste the fish inside.  All you could taste was the spicy chili powder they put on top. 


The service was totally fine and the prices were reasonable.  If you're looking for a affordable but not the highest quality (but not deli level sushi) place in Rockville, this totally fits the bill.  Total bill with tip $48.

Hibino Visited 5/1/2011 4 Forks

Hibino 333 Henry St., (between Atlantic Ave & Pacific St), Brooklyn, NY 11201

 I had been craving sushi for the past few days so when we were out in the Boreum Hill area for afternoon drinks and Dan's friend had mentioned that this place was right down the street from the bar we were at, I got really excited.  It is located on a quiet, unassuming street and the inside has a really clean and modern feel to it.  This place seems slightly upscale but yet was very welcoming and comforting at the same time.  I heard that it was a pretty authentic Japanese restaurant and I definitely got that feeling as soon as I walked in the door.  There are tons of sushi places in the city that are run my non-Japanese people but this place, from the hostess to the waitstaff to the sushi chefs, were all Japanese.  I had also heard that the star of the food here is actually the tapas small plates, but by the time we got there at 9:00pm on Sunday they were all out of these dishes.  The rest of the menu is pretty streamlined and simple.  It's not one of those places where they offer a tons of '"fancy" sounding rolls.  They have very simple and basic sounding rolls and sushi or sashimi plates.  


We got to sit at the bar and watch them make all the dishes and so I knew they used all fresh ingredients.  We ordered the sashimi plate ($24), the spicy scallop roll ($6) and the yellow tail jalapeno roll ($5.50).  In retrospect I wish I had ordered the homemade tofu and seaweed salad too, but that's for next time!  As you can see, the prices are extremely reasonably priced for the quality of the food that you are getting.  It was almost a bit shocking to see such a beautiful place have food priced within reason.  My only complaint would be that the sashimi plate didn't come with a soup or salad, which is something you kind of expect these days.  The sashimi had about 15 pieces of fish: salmon, tuna, amberjack, yellowtail, white fish, scallop, and white tuna.  They were all really fresh tasting and the scallop was truly melt in your mouth.  The one slightly weird thing was that there was a small piece of beef? It was a very melt in your mouth small piece of meat but it was just a bit bizarre to see it on a plate full of sashimi. The rolls really hit the spot and were done well (although they were just as good as some other places I've been to).  The jalapeno definitely packed a punch and the spicy mayo on the scallop roll was done with the right amount of kick.  I would have liked just a bit less rice on the rolls but they were definitely not the monster sized rolls that you sometimes get at sushi places these days.  I saw a few other type of rolls that the chefs were making but I didn't see them on the menu, so next time I would definitely ask if there are any specials (and now that I am on their website I do see a few yummy sounding rolls that I didn't know about, damn).

The service was what you would expect from a well run Japanese restaurant.  Very nice and efficient.  Overall, it was a great meal but next time we go, I want to go early so that we can at least try some of their specials of the day.  Total bill with tip $52.

Trix Visited 4/30/2011 2 Forks

Trix 145 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Dan and I had originally planned on going to the new Mole outpost in Williamsburg but as we were walking there we noticed that this place was open.  Now, the only reason why we even bothered entertaining the idea of eating here was because his friend Greg used to live right next door and for years we would watch as they took forever to build and open this restaurant.  I mean, seriously, we had watched for at least 5 years as they started construction, stopped construction and then started up again.  So we felt like it was almost our duty to check it out.

Given how long it has taken them to open this place, I should have known that it would be a bad experience.  Now, I understand that there will be bumps in the road when you first open a restaurant, but this place seemed like it could have really waited until they got their act together.  The decor was just weird.  The outside was covered in this "fake" metal ivy and then inside there are the metal "paintings" of strippers, which apparently is an homage to what this space used to be (a go-go bar).  They don't make good use of the space as there were no tables (the picture above is a bit mis-leading) in the middle of the restaurant, so it just seemed really empty.  Their menus were printed on resume paper and then stapled together which just seemed low brow. I mean you couldn't really have bought menu holders or something?

I couldn't quite grasp the theme of the menu...I think it was American bistro food? But then again there was edamame on the menu which was weird.  They had a beetroot salad, mussels, scallops, mushroom ragout, brick chicken and hanger steak.  Dan got the sea scallops ($19) with fennel salad and oranges and I got the brick chicken ($21).  We also each got a cocktail; I got the peach smash and he got the billionaire cocktail ($12).  It kind of bothered me that there were no prices for the cocktails (although I had guessed them to be around $10) and $12 is a bit steep for this place.  Plus they clearly had beer but it was not listed on the cocktail menu which annoyed me as well.  I will say that you could tell that the owners/chefs were nervous about opening because they kept walking around and talking to people.  They were really nice and I didn't really have the heart to say anything bad.  While we waited for our food that gave us a plate of raw chinese radishes and butter. Um, weird and not tasty.  I would have rather of just had bread and butter.

Our food came out and the presentation was just eh.  It didn't really feel like they put much time into making the food look nice.  Dan's dish only had 3 scallops and then a ton of fennel in the middle and literally 4 orange slices on the side.  I had 2 fairly medium sized chicken pieces (thigh and breast) and it was supposed to have come with spetzle but I couldn't really see it and it was mixed in with a tons of sauteed onions and grapes (also weird).  As I cut into the chicken I noticed that it was a bit undercooked but I could handle it, although I could definitely see some people not being able to handle it.  Dan's scallops were also undercooked, much more so than mine.  At one point it almost seemed like he was eating scallops sashimi-style.  I will say that the other piece of my chicken was juicy and tasted fine but there was nothing amazing about it and the spetzle was pretty much non-existent.  The best part of the meal was the cocktails.  They were actually pretty good and decent sized.  They would be better off getting rid of the food and just being a cocktail bar.  All in all, we ended up spending $81 which was completely un-justified for what we got.  I wished we had stuck with going to Mole instead.  But alas, after years of seeing it come together we just had to try.  Sorry guys, but Trix are not for kids or really even adults.