Jam Visited 8/26/2011 3 Forks

Jam 937 N Damen Ave., (between Walton St & Iowa St), Chicago, IL 60622

 With a name like Jam, you'd think they would an expert on brunch and things that go with Jam.  It actually turned out to reminded me more of a molecular gastronomy type restaurant.  The outside patio was had this quirky rustic charm with random horse figurines and a statue made out of rusty tonka trucks.  


Our waiter was initially super helpful and friendly and really described the egg white dish in such extreme detail that we almost all wanted to order it.  But as our meal progressed, we assessed that he might have just been really hopped up on coffee or cocaine.  The menu took a lot of basic brunch dishes and gave them a more innovative twist.  For example, I got the eggs benedict ($10) which said it came with crispy pork belly and fennel hollandaise sauce.  Deanna got the egg whites ($9) which were described at 2 poached egg whites with macadamia nuts, beets, and other vegetables and Dan got the pork terrine ($14) which came on top of pretzel bread.  For the table, we split a half order of the "famous" french toast with came with freshly de-pitted cherries.  I haven't had french toast in a really long time and these pieces were actually pretty good.  They were really soft and eggy tasting and the fresh cream that came with it was amazing.  I wasn't really used to have french toast without syrup but the cherries and actual toast were already pretty sweet that it was probably a good idea not to pour more sugar on it.  When my benedict came out, I immediately knew that this place wasn't the homey rustic place that goes with the name Jam.  We were told that the eggs were poached in a plastic bag which is how they get them to all have the same consistency, which was an interesting fact.  But what I usually love about eggs benedict is the buttery good sauce that is poured all over the meal.  Instead here, the fennel sauce was more on the side and the pork belly, instead of being sandwiched on the muffin, came on the side.  So it was almost like a deconstructed eggs benedict.  Individually, I'm not sure that they worked but when you mixed a bite all together like you would with a regular benedict, it was pretty delicious.  The pork belly was equal parts fat and meat and did have a nice crisp on the outside.  The eggs were nice and runny and the muffins were soft but toasty.  I do kind of wish that the dish came with a side of something like potatoes (or in this place's case, I could see them coming out a dehydrated potatoes). 

Deanna's dish came out and looked like the healthiest thing I have ever seen.  It probably had 200 calories max in it.  The waiter wasn't kidding when he said that it was 2 poached eggs white.  I think we all thought that there would be more egg white to yolk, but we didn't expect there to be absolutely no yoke at all.  It was literally 2 balls of egg whites on top of a bunch of steamed vegetables.  Deanna said she felt clean and healthy afterwards, but that it was kind of an unfulfilling brunch dish.  I had a quick bite of Dan's dish and the pork terrine had a very strong pate-like taste, which I don't mind, but I know he doesn't like, so I was surprised when he said he liked his meal.  The pretzel bread was nice and soft and added a nice twist to the meal. 

Overall, I'm glad that I tried Jam and thought my meal was pleasant enough but it didn't blow my mind like a Longman and Eagle.  Another small negative for this place was that it was cash only, which is a pet peeve of mine.  Total bill $64 for 3 people with tip.   

Takahachi Visited 8/20/2011 4 Forks

Takahachi 85 Ave A, New York, NY 10009

 For me, "good" sushi falls into two different categories.  There's the extreme high quality, expensive sushi joints like Masa, Morimoto, Nobu, etc.  These type of restaurants are for more special occasions and are definitely on a level on their own.  Then there are the more mom and pop, neighborhood joints that are good not mind blowing, but are solid places that get it done.  Takahachi falls into this latter group.  There is by no means anything fancy or high end to this place, but it jut hit the spot and didn't break the bank. 


Dan and I had been lounging around the city and wanted some quality but affordable sushi. We happened to be in the East Village which is teeming with sushi restaurants on every street corner.  It's hard to really figure out which of these are good or blah.  I had been to Takahachi before and remembered it being pretty good and a more low key place.  We got there at 7pm and it was totally crowded, which I thought was weird in NYC when most people tend to eat later.  But when I opened the menu I saw that they had an early bird special: for $18.50 you would get soup, salad, dessert, appetizer and your choice of sushi or sashimi.  It's a pretty great deal but by the time we sat down and got our menus it was already 10 past.  But a mental note for next time. The menu has your basic Japanese dishes but then they have a specials menu that has more choices of more unique bites.  I actually like that they don't have a long list of crazy rolls that seem unnaturally paired (I'm looking at you cream cheese and salmon roll).  They had a good variety of sushi and sashimi combinations and if we were starving I would totally push for one of those dishes.  We ultimately decided on the rock shrimp tempura with spicy mayo ($8), regular sashimi ($17.50), a toro jalapeno roll ($7.50) and a bottle of sake ($12).  

It's hard to imagine getting fried shrimp covered in spicy mayo wrong and they didn't.  It was perfectly lightly battered sweet shrimp and I could have popped about 50 of them in my mouth.  Delicious.  The sashimi and roll came out next and again they were just good solid dishes.  The sashimi came with 3 pieces salmon, 3 pieces tuna, 3 pieces yellowtail, 3 pieces white fish, and 3 pieces of another fish that I can't remember.  They were all fresh and cut at an appropriate size (some places have huge pieces that just seem wrong and then some places have pieces that are so small that I need to order 20 more pieces).  The toro roll was nice and fatty tasting and the jalapeno added a nice crunch and heat to it.  I would have personally preferred scallion over jalapeno but Dan is a big fan of the jalapeno so we opted for this choice.   

The service was attentive and quick, which is what I expected in a local joint like this.  There was a constant crowd coming into this place all night long and it seems like one of those neighborhood joints that locals seem to like coming to.  It made me really wish that I had a Takahachi-type place by where I live.  Definitely check this place out if you are in need of a no fuss, low key, solid sushi experience.     Total bill was $49 for two without tip. 


Photo credit: Yelp

The Farm on Adderley Visited 8/20/2011 3.5 Forks

The Farm on Adderley 1108 Cortelyou Rd., (between Stratford Rd & Westminster Rd), Brooklyn, NY 11218

The Farm on Adderley is one of those places in "far out" Brooklyn that I keep hearing about but have never managed to venture out to.  I'm not sure exactly what neighborhood this place is, but most people call it Ditmas Park.  To be honest, the surrounding area wasn't the most impressive (not a whole lot of character), but once you walk inside this restaurant it's like you are in a totally different neighborhood.

The inside is sleek and modern and has a great outdoor area, which is totally not what you would expect from the surrounding area.  At first glance at the menu, it looked great and affordable (everything was $10 or under).  I ended up ordering the ham and gruyere croque with a fried egg ($9), Dan got the fisherman's eggs ($10), and we split the chocolate brioche ($3) and cheese grits ($5).  The food came out pretty quickly and everything looked great.  My first bite went straight for the grits and they were definitely cheesy tasting and was one of the better grits I've had in the city.  Many places make them super bland and they almost taste like oatmeal, but the grits here were extremely flavorful without being too salty.  Another star was the chocolate brioche.  I'm not a huge fan of chocolate but this had butter and sea salt and it was my favorite dish during our meal.  It was perfectly warm and had the perfect combination of sweet and salty.  I totally want to buy sweet croissant type breads now and put salt on them!  The crust at the end was a bit hard and dry but I had left the crust on the plate for most of the meal and came back to it later, so I'm not really surprised by that.  My croque had a lot of ham and was covered in the gruyere (not a huge fan that the cheese was a bit burned in some areas but that's to be expected in a sandwich like this).  It was a pretty good sandwich except that the ham was pretty salty and the fried egg on top could have been a bit runnier.  Dan's dish consisted of 2 poached eggs, over smoked trout, mixed greens all on a potato latke and hollandaise sauce.  We didn't really expect the greens to be so prominent...we thought it was going to be more like a side salad but they kind of just dumped giant pieces of leafy greens without chopping or cutting them up.  They were way too big to eat and seemed a bit excessive for the dish.  I had the same experience with my dish except it was positioned as a side salad and not a main part of the dish.  The poached eggs could have been poached just a tad bit runnier and the hollandaise sauce had too much lemon in it (not sure if that was because there was fish invovled),  but overall the dish was pretty unique tasting and I liked the mixture of egg, trout and potato.

If this place was closer to where I lived (like walking distance or a shorter drive away), I would definitely return.  The combination of the beautiful decor, affordable prices and great side dishes would make it a no brainer to come back to.  BUT since it's a 20 minute drive away on the highway and not in a neighborhood where there is much else, I'm not so sure I would how often come back unless someone else really wanted to or ended up moving to the area.  Total bill with tip for two was $32.


photo credit: Yelp

Cocoron Visited 8/19/2011 3.5 Forks

Cocoron 61 Delancey St., (between Eldridge St & Allen St), New York, NY 10002

Cocoron is a cute very authentic Japanese soba noodle restaurant by the foot of the Williamsburg bridge that has only 15 seats, so if you want to go, go early.  Aarti and I got there around 6:45pm on a Friday and got the last 2 seats in the place and we realized that as we were finishing up our meal that the two girls who came in right behind us were still waiting for a table!

The concept of this place is soba noodles and not much else.  They have a variety of choices: cold, warm, and dipping.  It was pretty hard to figure out which one to get and luckily they have a dictionary explaining the different kinds of ingredients in each kind of dish.  It looked like most people opted for the dipping type and I was very close to choosing the pork kimchee dipping soba, but then I noticed on the specials menu that they had a cold noodle with salmon roe ($14).  I love salmon roe so I was sold even though most of the other noodles were only around $8 or $10.  Aarti had a harder time deciding and luckily the waiter was incredibly helpful and nice.  He pointed to a cold vegetarian option that was $8.  We also split a marinated tofu appetizer ($5).  I had seen a picture of the house made silky tofu and the size of the dish seemed fairly generous.  But when our dish came, I literally thought it was an amouse-bouche.  I mean it was literally the size of pebble, I totally thought they were joking.  The taste of the tofu was extremely strong and the texture was very creamy...it almost tasted and looked like a piece of sharp soft cheese.  I just wish there was more of it.

I was a bit worried that our soba would also be tiny in size, but it was the right amount of noodles.  While I liked my dish, after seeing everyone else go for the dipping kind, I was a bit jealous and wished I had stuck with my original order.  My soba was slightly undercooked while the broth was really clean tasting. Aarti and I both commented that we felt really healthy while we were eating our meal.  The salmon roe added a nice salty flavor to the dish but it just could have used a little more than just the salmon roe and daikon radish.  About 3/4 way through our meal, another waiter came over and dropped off a box of hot broth.  We were so confused! Were we not supposed to start eating?! It was a bit difficult to understand what the waiter was saying and he ended up showing us an instructional poster on how to use the broth.  We really had no idea what to do, so I just ended up pouring it in my bowl even though I had almost nothing in my bowl.  The broth was also super clean and simple in flavors and helped to neutralize some of the stronger soba sauce. I've never been on a cleanse, but it almost felt like I was on a cleanse but with solid food.

Given that it was pouring rain outside, we opted to order dessert so that we didn't have to walk outside.  Asian cuisine is generally not very well known or good at their sweet options, so I wasn't expecting much.  We ordered the mochi ice cream ($5/each) which was a frozen mochi with vanilla ice cream in the inside and topped with a sweet soy dusting.  It was actually really delicious...very sweet and the soy dusting tasted just like peanut.  I was really caught off-guard by how much I liked it.

Typical of a Japanese restaurant, the service was attentive and helpful.  I would definitely go back and try the warm dipping option.  One negative is that it's cash only.  Total bill without tip: $40.      

Cafe de la Esquina Visited 8/17/2011 3 Forks

Cafe de la Esquina 225 Wythe Ave., (between 4th St & 3rd St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

If Cafe de la Esquina looks familiar, that's because it used to be Relish Diner.  But now instead of a cute 50's style diner, this place has been taken over by the uber trendy restaurant La Esquina, which has a sister restaurant in Soho (one of the first kind of speakeasy/hidden restaurants in NYC).  Despite still keeping the diner vibe and feel, they've managed to make it feel like a club too.  Inside, it's dark and LOUD and the back room is like some weird secret den area.  But overall, I did enjoy the food and who knew that one of the better burgers to be had in Williamsburg could be found in a Mexican restaurant?

We were seated at the counter and I immediately noticed that this wasn't your typical Mexican restaurant.  Now to be fair, I have been to the original La Esquina on Kenmare Street and remembered it being super trendy (I mean you have to go through a secret door and through a kitchen to get to the actual restaurant) and fancy, but I did remember the food being really good, so I was optimistic that the food would be good here.  While the menu did seem to be a bit more limiting than I recall,  Dan and I did manage to find plenty of things to order.  Dan's first thought was that the prices were too high and at first I didn't agree, but after getting the final bill and looking back, I have to agree with him.  We ordered the crab tostadas ($12) to start, and I had the mole enchiladas ($17) and Dan had a burger ($14) - seriously, he ordered a burger with fries here.  But it turned out to be a really great burger...more on that in a bit.  The crab tostadas had a pile of fresh crab meat mixed in with some hot sauce on top of what was essentially a tortilla chip.  While the taste was great and they didn't fill the crab with any filler, $12 for 3 small chips with some topping seems to be bit extreme.  Next came our main entrees and I will say that my dish was HUGE and I ended up turning it into 2 meals.  The mole sauce was nice and smokey and rice and beans were nicely seasoned with a nice salty taste to it.  I really only managed to have about 3-4 bites before I was just too full to continue.  Meanwhile Dan's burger was actually pretty damn good.  It was a hearty size and came on a soft brioche bun and topped with jalapeno and slices of fresh avocado.  I had several bites of it and thought that the meat was spot on but what I really liked were the fries.  They were perfectly crispy and firm and had the right amount of salt and light herb seasoning on it. Even though we finished the burger, I had to ask them to pack the fries home because they were so addictive.
The service was pretty great: our waitress was very knowledgeable and friendly and even when she wasn't around there were always people around to bring us our food, take our plates away, bring us more drinks and even took our credit card.  So it was a nice change from many restaurants where you have to flag your specific waitress down for everything, here everyone seemed to do a little bit of everything.  Given that I liked the food and such, the reason I'm not giving it a higher rating is because when I got the bill, it was $70 (without tip), which seems like a lot of money for what was essentially an appetizer, burger, enchiladas, and a few beers.  When did eating out always seem to cost at least $30-$40 per person without doing anything fancy?  Plus the atmosphere was a bit too trendy for me, but I'm definitely glad to have tried it.   

Palm One Restaurant Visited 8/13/2011 3.5 Forks

Palm One 837 2nd Ave., (between 44th St & 45th St), New York, NY 10017

Normally I don't review the same place or different branches of the same place twice, unless there was something totally different.  Although I've been to the Palm Tribeca several times for lunch, dinner here at the original Palm in Midtown was different enough that I felt like it warranted a separate review.

Frankly, the only reason Dan and I cam here was because he got a $50 gift card from American Express (hello, where was mine??!).  Even with the gift card, the meal was still a bit expensive but it definitely alleviated the pain of payment at the end of dinner.

 The original Palm is in Midtown East not far from the UN...so essentially one of the boring-est areas of NYC (in my opinion).  There's no real character to this area of NYC and the only thing there is tall grey corporate buildings.  But when you walk into the Palm it's like walking back in time.  It's old school and it doesn't really look like they've done many changes since the 1950's.  In typical Palm fashion they have all these drawings of famous people on the wall (although here, I didn't really recognize any of them).  We ended up sitting on the 2nd floor in the middle where there were no windows and it was pretty dark and intimate.  The clientele is what you would expect: a mix of tourists and older East-siders.  I think we were the youngest people there by 15 years. 


But in any case, I move on to the food.  While the menu is pretty much the same as the one in Tribeca, this was the first time I have been here for dinner.  I opted for the prime rib ($45), Dan got the 14 oz filet mignon ($45) and we split a small Caesar salad ($8) and a side of creamed spinach ($10).  It would be better if you came here with more people so that you could try more appetizers or sides because there were a lot of good sounding sides and salads.  I would say if you don't want to make yourself too full, avoid the bread basket because you can easily get sucked into it's delicious soft whipped butter and be full in seconds.  The Caesar salad came out 1st and was the perfect size.  However, it was way overdressed.  It felt like I was eating dressing with a side of lettuce.  Soon there after our steaks came out and Oh my god.  My prime rib literally looked like it was fit for 3 people.  I can't even explain how ginormous it was, it was shocking.  Dan's fillet was also pretty big but at least looked manageable.  I immediately dug into the meat to see if it was cooked correct - I had asked for medium rare.  And medium rare is was.  The outside section for the rib was slightly overcooked but the middle was perfectly pink and delicious.  I wish I hadn't eaten brunch that day because I wanted to eat more but after 10-15 minutes, I was just maxed out.  The rib had a great au jus sauce which was just a smidge too salty and sweet but nothing that totally ruins the meal.  The creamed spinach was good but had a very distinct nutmug or cinnamon spice taste to it, which was a bit weird.  Dan's fillet was cooked just right - he had asked it for rare and while it wasn't bloody or anything, they did a good job keeping it as rare as possible but still having seared it and keeping it brown on the outside.  Funny enough I had originally told Dan to get the 9 oz instead of the 14 oz and in the end the amount that Dan had left on his plate was almost 3 oz.  These were definitely decent steaks but not mind blowing like Peter Lugers or even the Old Homestead where the meat tastes like butter.  We had really wanted to save room for the dessert but we just couldn't find any room for it and when we looked at the calorie count, it was a bit frightening. 


The service was what you would expect from an old school restaurant - very professional and attentive.  I enjoyed my meal and it's worth splurging there every once in a while, but it's definitely an expensive outing.  Total bill with 2 drinks (including a $20 glass of red wine and $12 cocktail) was $150.  Luckily the $50 gift card made it only $100 which isn't too bad for drinks, steaks and sides. 

Cafe Cluny Visited 8/13/2011 3 Forks

Cafe Cluny 284 W 12th St., New York, NY 10011

Cafe Cluny is one of those quintessential "cute" West Village restaurants.  Its on a very picturesque street surrounded by beautiful brownstones and trees.  So it's no surprise that the inside of this restaurant would be homey and quaint too.  It's got a rustic country feel to it and the menu reflects that homey feel.

Aarti and I went here mostly because she had had an heirloom tomato sandwich here months ago and she had loved it.  So we were really excited when we looked at the menu and one of the specials was the heirloom tomato sandwich with basil mayo and arugula ($14).  We both wanted the sandwich but it seemed silly for both of us to get it, so I got the breakfast club ($14) with the bacon on the side because I have to have something egg-y with my brunch meal.  Both sandwiches came with sides, so we got one with salad and one with fries - it was a perfect mix and match!  The sandwiches came out and my first reaction was that while it looked good, it didn't necessarily look like something I couldn't make on my own. The heirloom tomato sandwich came with about 3 sliced tomatoes, a small spread of basil mayo and a few pieces of arugula.  All the ingredients were good but the thing that was kind of disappointing was the bread.  It was 2 pieces of toasted white bread - that's it. They really could have pumped up the sandwich and made it more hearty.  Maybe they would have added balsamic vinegar, had more tomatoes slices, or better bread than white bread.  The fries were also a bit too salty for me, although it clearly did not stop me from eating more than half of them.  My breakfast sandwich came on the same toasted white bread, but inside it had a fried egg, avocado, bacon, and regular tomato.  It was a good basic breakfast sandwich but for $14, I would expect something mind blowing.  The salad was also a bit soggy and came with too much frisee instead of leafy greens.

Overall, it was a cute place in a cute location but about $3-4 overpriced for what they serve.  They have a lot of potential to do great things with their ingredients but they seem to underachieve with them.  But in the middle of the summer it's hard to not enjoy any dish with heirloom tomato.  Total bill $22/pp with tip and tax.  

Fat Radish Visited 8/6/2011 3 Forks

Fat Radish 17 Orchard St., (between Canal St & Hester St), New York, NY 10002

I'm a bit torn about the rating that I gave Fat Radish.  Even though this blog is a reflection of my opinion I do value the opinions of my dinner guests, who are usually very good friends of mine.  For my meal at Fat Radish, I actually really liked my dish but my friend Lav didn't like hers at all and so to give the overall meal and restaurant a more comprehensive review, I took her thoughts and opinions into consideration.

I did really like the space and decor of the restaurant, it was very airy and I loved the exposed brick.  Similar to Public, it had this edgy industrial feel to it.  The focus of the food here is more vegetable focused but it did have several fish dishes and the burger is apparently also pretty famous there.  Lav and I split the grilled cheese appetizer ($6), she got the heirloom bean salad ($12) and the sweet pea summer pie ($14) while I got the green curried monkfish ($21).  The grilled cheese looked like one long sourdough bread cut into 4 narrow pieces.  It was pretty good, perfectly crispy bread and the cheese (wasn't sure what kind of cheese it was, but it was white and sharp) wasn't very gooey...it definitely was a more "upscale" grilled cheese, not the kind you made in college with white bread and american cheese (although sometimes those totally hit the spot).  I also took a bite of Lav's bean salad and it was very fresh tasting. They used beautifully colored beans and they were crisp and not over done.

Then we waited a while for our main entrees to show up.  When they finally came, I was actually impressed with the size of the dishes.  My monkfish came on a huge plate of wild rice and green curry sauce with a yogurt raita on the side.  I immediately poured the entire raita on top of the curry...not sure why they offer it on the side since it is almost an essential part of the dish.  I actually really enjoyed the monkfish.  There were several pieces of nice thick cuts of the fish and it just paired really well with the medium spicy curry and wild rice (which was almost al dente but not too undercooked). It was super filling and I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked it.  Unfortunately, Lav's dish did not fair as well.  She got the pea pot pie which had a huge puffy pastry topping.  Inside were peas, creme fraiche and mint so it had a lot of potential, but Lav said it just had no flavor or taste at all.  Bummer.  Meanwhile, our waiter during that time period went completely MIA.  We sat with empty plates for quite a while and since we were trying to get to a movie, we really need the service to be on point.  We finally had to flag him down to order dessert and since we were worried he would go missing again, we asked for the check at the same time.

For dessert we got the cookie plate ($9) which was just meh.  I generally am not a huge cookie person and usually find cookie plates in restaurants to be lacking, but since they only had 2 dessert choices (the other was a panna cotta) we opted to give it a try.  There were 3 kinds of cookies: oatmeal whoopie pie, a shredded coconut cookie and a lemon shortbread.  None of them were amazing, although if I had to pick one I liked the oatmeal whoopie pie on the best since it had fresh cream in the middle.

If I had to rate this just on my monkfish dish, I would say 4 forks.  But coupled with lacking service, bad dessert and flavorless pot pie, I have to say 3 forks instead.  I would still tell people to give it a try but to order carefully.  Total bill $70 for two (without tip).

Hudson Clearwater Visited 8/5/2011 4 Forks

Hudson Clearwater 447 Hudson St., (between Morton St & Barrow St), New York, NY 10014

 Hudson Clearwater is the latest "speakeasy" restaurant on the scene.  Although the address says it's on Hudson it's really on on Morton Street behind a small beat-up green door with no sign.  It wasn't as hard to find as I thought since the door was wide open and you could see that there's clearly a restaurant behind the door.  Once you get behind the door, you enter into a cute small outdoor patio and you see a townhouse which is the main part of the restaurant.  It's really just a super cute oasis in the middle of the city.

Aarti and I sat outside since it was beautiful weather outside.  The service was a bit confusing at first since one person took our drink order and then 5 minutes later someone else came and asked to take our drink order.  But then after that we did have 1 clearly defined waitress (who forgot to tell us about the Specials which was a bit annoying but not a complete deal breaker).  Aarti and I split the summer vegetable pot pie ($9), Aarti got the quinoa risotto ($16) and I got the hanger steak ($19) - the prices were all fairly reasonable considering it is smack in the middle of the West Village.  

The vegetable pot pie came out and at first glance it seemed kind of small.  But Jesus, the flavor and taste were HUGE.  It was corn, beans, and other fresh summer veggies in a bechamel sauce topped with a few puffy pastry triangles.  You could really taste the butter and milk but the vegetables were incredibly fresh and the combination was simply amazing.  So it really set the stage for the rest of the meal. My hanger steak looked delicious from the start.  I ordered it medium rare and it was definitely more on the rare side which I definitely prefer.  It cut and tasted like butter.  The crust was perfectly cooked and the inside was nice and pink but not tough to eat at all - I probably didn't even need the steak knife they gave me.  It was drizzled with a chimichurri sauce which added a tangy touch to the steak.  The outside of the steak  was a little bit salty but once you mix it with the potato-gratin/onion side and/or kale side the dish came with,  it neutralized the saltiness.  The potato-gratin had nicely thin sliced pieces of potato with a mild sauce on top of it and the kale was just the leafy parts done in a quick sautee.  Aarti's dish was a huge plate of quinoa (which I've never really had in its pure state - it's kind of like fluffy  see through cous cous) with sauteed mushroom and other vegetables.  She also got a side of roasted corn ($5) with spicy farmers cheese - which I thought would come out on a stick like they do at the Mexican food trucks, but it came out like a corn salad.  While she liked her meal, she said the quinoa dish taste a bit better by mixing in the spicy corn to give it some kick.  I had a small bite of both and yes the corn definitely had spice to it and yes the quinoa needed that extra kick to it but it did taste very healthy. 

For dessert our waitress had suggested the strawberry and blueberry shortcake ($8) which Aarti and I had already decided on even before she suggested it.  In my mind I thought it was going to be spongy cake with cream and berries inside but instead it was 2 almost scone-like biscuits with fresh cream and berries just plated on the side.  It was a bit disappointing because it wasn't what I thought it was going to be but it wasn't a horrible dessert (the cream was super fresh tasting), they should just call it something else. Overall, the place is incredibly adorable and the food was fresh and outstanding and price-wise nothing was over $20, so you can't really beat that combination. I would totally come back here again and I hope they open up for brunch soon.   Total bill was $43/pp with tax and tip.        

Public Visited 7/30/2011 2.5 Forks

Public 210 Elizabeth St., (between Spring St & Prince St), New York, NY 10012

If I had written this review right after my meal, it probably would have gotten a higher rating since I was running off the high of seeing good friends and the stunning space of Public.  But now that it's been a few days, I've come to realize that I didn't really love my meal.  It was by no means a terrible meal and if I was still giving 1/4 forks, I would probably give this 2.75 Forks instead, but alas it's not the case.

My initial reaction was that the space of the restaurant was gorgeous.  Very industrial and spacious with lots of exposed brick with the garage door pulled up so that half of the restaurant was exposed to the outside.  It just felt really hip and New York.  I was a little annoyed that our waiter failed to tell us what the specials were since usually brunch specials are my favorite.  But luckily the menu had enough good sounding dishes to keep me pre-occupied.  I ordered the tea-smoked salmon on toasted sourdough bread ($14), Dan got the Fry up (eggs with slow roasted tomatoes and buttered mushrooms) with bacon ($13), Aarti got the Fry Up without bacon ($11), and Will got the salad of lentils ($10) and a side of quinoa hash browns ($4) and we all ordered the coconut pancakes for the table ($11).  I don't know why I seem to be noticing the wait time of food lately, but we seemed to wait a long time for our food and the fact that the table next to us did get their food first irritated me (granted it was only a 2 top, but on principle I was still annoyed).

Honestly, I wasn't blown away by my salmon dish.  The salmon definitely had a "tea smoked" flavor but it was a bit overcooked for me and even though I knew in advance it came on sourdough bread, I just didn't like eggs benedicts that aren't on english muffins.  The hollandaise sauce was used very sparingly, which was probably good for my heart but bad for my palate.  I prefer to have my benedict drowning in egg yolk and hollandaise sauce...no wonder I have high cholesterol.  Plus for $14, you'd think the dish would come with a side like potatoes or something like that, but it was just the benedict.  I will say the poached eggs were done correctly, so plus 1 fork for them.  I tried Will's salad which was surprisingly good and very healthy tasting.  Aarti actually thought that it was the best dish on the table.  I didn't try the Fry Up, but both Dan and Aarti said it was "fine".   The pancake could have used more coconut flavoring but the mango salad on top was quite refreshing and a nice touch.  The pancake definitely could have used more syrup (who serves pancakes in a restaurant but doesn't leave you a jar of syrup??) even though you could tell it was already baked into it.  But I do love the concept of pancakes for the table and whenever I go out with Will and Aarti, we usually go that route.  I highly recommend it since it's hard to just eat something so sweet for breakfast but sometimes you just crave some sweets.  The quinoa hash browns were just weird.  They were in perfect squares but totally grey in color.  It just looked kind of sad and depressing and taste-wise it was bland and greasy.  I thought it was going to be some life changing health dish but it was 50% potato and 50% quinoa. Wah wah. 

Overall, the meal was just ok.  I wouldn't say I would never go back again and the dinner menu actually looked pretty appealing but with so many restaurants in NYC this just doesn't fall at the top of my list.  Total bill $54/couple with tip.