New Tu Do Visited 10/23/2011 3.5 Forks

New Tu Do 102 Bowery St., New York, NY 10013

 Virginia and I were originally going to get pho at Pho Bang on  Mott Street but when VA got there she discovered they only had a B rating was wasn't down with eating there.  In all honesty, I know I probably should be grossed out by it, but I just always kind of assumed that many restaurants (and lord knows MOST restaurants in Chinatown) weren't all that clean.  But she did make a good point that if the dingy bodega across the street from her place can get an A, any place can get an A. 


Point taken.  So we started to walk the streets to Chinatown in search of a pho place that had an A and we stumbled upon New Tu Do on Bowery.  Not only did it have an A but it was filled with Asians inside, so we had to take that as two good signs that this place was good.  In typical Chinatown fashion, there is absolutely no decor to speak of, but I am not docking any forks for that.  I ordered the #14 which was the only pho option that didn't have tripe or tendon in it.  VA and I also split the fried spring rolls and these steamed crepes with bean sprouts on top.  In true Vietnamese fashion, all the food came out in a flash.  My bowl of pho was actually really huge and it was great that there was so much meat in it.  I also liked the fact that a lot of the meat was still raw and cooking in the hot broth, just the way I like it.  The actual broth itself was very flavorful and had all the right spices and flavor a pho should have such as onion, cilantro, and a small hint of cinnamon.  The size of the bowl was huge and there was more than I could finish.  The broth wasn't too oily which is always a good thing. I always kind of think in my mind that pho is a refreshing dish, when it's really not, but it does for some reason cleanse the palate for me.  Unfortunately, I was so full from the pho that I didn't have any room to try the other two dishes.  I was actually all set to take the rolls home and maybe snack on them later but VA mentioned that they weren't crispy and a bit soggy and even poked into one to show me. Indeed, her fork kind of sagged into the roll but it might have also been that we had been chatting for over 2 hours and the crispiness just wore off. 


All in all, this is a solid pho place (with an A rating to boot).  It's as close to 4 forks for a pho place that I can remember for this year but again I think because of the bad mood I was in, I didn't walk away thinking "damn, that was amazing."  But you know what was amazing was that our total bill for 2 phos, 2 appetizers and 2 drinks was $18/pp.  AND they took credit cards there.  Now that's amazing. 


photo credit: Yelp

Spasso Visited 10/21/2011 3 Forks

Spasso 551 Hudson St., (between Perry St & 11th St), New York, NY 10014

This review might be a bit unfair and it might warrant me doing a re-write at some point because I went to Spasso in a terrible, horrible mood and didn't really have an appetite to eat anything, so I'm sure that probably skewed my thinking.  However, even if I wasn't in a horrible mood, there were some fundamental things about the food that could use some improvement.

But to the good stuff first.  The place is definitely not your mom and pop Italian place.  It's high end without being too snotty.  Surprisingly, Aarti and I were able to get seated right away on a Saturday without reservations and were seated at the "chef's table", which is just a fancy way of saying at the bar that's facing the kitchen.  The menu had a lot of great sounding classic dishes but since it was just me and Aarti we couldn't really order too much (plus I wasn't really hungry either).  We started with the green salad with spicy beets, and then I had the Tagliatelle with saffron seafood ($20) and Aarti got the spaghetti ($16).  I was torn between the tagliatelle and the fusilli with pork ragu and goat cheese but I couldn't pass up saffron and seafood together!  One of the fun parts of sitting at the bar is that you get to watch the chefs cook.  And in a place like this, it totally doesn't gross you out, instead it just fascinates me.  You get to watch the whole process of the chefs getting the orders, them yelling to the sous chefs to prep and then the waitstaff wiping the plates down and whisking them out.  Initially my first impression of the salad was eh.  It had a lot of the darker purplish leaves of lettuce, which I'm not a huge fan of because I usually find them bitter.  But this salad was dressed with a great salt and pepper and vinegar combo that I didn't even notice how the lettuce actually tasted.  The beets actually weren't spicy but that didn't matter, they did taste just right with the rest of the salad.

On to the pasta, which I was really excited about because as I was watching them make it, it looked super authentic and not like something I could just make at home.  But overall I thought the pasta was a bit too al dente and when I looked at the bottom of my bowl there was a huge vat of oil, which was very displeasing.  The best part was the seafood in there.  Fresh mussels, squid, and calms and there were plenty of them (as well as plenty of garlic cloves!).  But I just couldn't really stomach seeing that much oil in my food.  We also ordered a side of polenta which is one of my all time favorite sides, but this one was so buttery that even I couldn't really enjoy it.  Plus it was too smooth in texture, I usually like a bit of graininess to it.  I literally had 2 bites and couldn't eat anymore of it.

The food here really does have potential and my whole experience might have been marred by the terrible day I had, but I the oil and extreme butter were a bit off-putting.  However, I am totally willing to give it another go when I'm in a better mood.  Total bill $43/pp (with 2 glasses of wine).

Photo Credit: Yelp

St. Anselm Visited 10/20/2011 4 Forks

St. Anselm 355 Metropolitan Ave., (between 4th St & Havemeyer St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

I was all ready to give St. Anselm 4.5 forks but then when I got home I felt so dehydrated that I realized how much salt was in the food, that I had to scale back my rating a bit.  Don't get me wrong the food was delicious and amazing and it wasn't too salty at the time, but when I got home I literally had 3 pints of water to quench my thirst.  But it was all worth it.

St. Anselm is a perfect place if you are a big time meat eater.  Their pride and joy are the different kinds of large cuts of grilled meats but strangely there are also several grilled veggie options. They had several really good sounding grilled vegetables and fishes in addition to grilled beef, lamb, and pork.  For an appetizer, we had the 3 kinds of grilled eggplant with fried goat cheese ($9), for entrees the patty melt ($10) and pork chop ($15) and a side of mashed potatoes with truffle oil ($5).  We sat not to far from open kitchen, and after watching them prepare the food, I realized why everything was so mind blowing.  I saw them probably use 2 large spoonfuls of garlic butter on everything they cooked. Not that that's surprising but just seeing it was a bit too much.  But garlic butter does make everything taste better.

The grilled eggplant was delicious and served with caramelized grilled onions and a fat piece of fried goat cheese.  The onions added a nice touch of sweetness to the over dish and it was interesting to see and taste the different kinds of eggplant.  Unfortunately, they were all pretty grilled to death so it was hard to see what they would look like raw, but one looked like your typical purple eggplant, another one that looked green and then a small roundish one that I actually thought was a fig at first because of its shape.  Then the meats came out and good god.  I literally felt my heart stop beating with every bit but it was so worth it.  The patty melt was essentially a burger but served on a toasted piece of rye bread.  We asked for it to be medium rare and it was definitely more on the rare side, but I actually like it that way.  I must have devoured my half in about 10 minutes because it was that good.  On to the pork chop...I actually don't remember if I've really had a pork chop before in my life and I kind of assumed they were all dry but this one was very juicy and moist.   This one was like eating a piece of steak only it wasn't red meat.  All the meat cut off the bone pretty easily and it just blew my mind that a pork chop could taste like this.  The mashed potatoes were also good but I only really got it because of the truffle oil which I didn't really taste, which was kind of a bummer.

I don't believe they take reservations, so I would advise to go early.  We got there at 9pm on a Friday and was told it would be a 90 minute wait! But we checked back in after 45 minutes and managed to finagle a table since the people in front of us never showed.  Another great feature about this restaurant is that despite the high quality of the food, the prices were all very reasonable.  Total bill was ~$45 for 2 including 1 wine and 1 beer.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Blackbird Visited 10/14/2011 4 Forks

Blackbird 619 W Randolph St., Chicago, IL 60606

Blackbird is one of those restaurants that you see in fancy magazines and is, as my friend calls it, very "chi-chi" (or as I would call it very "adult").  It's on Randolph Street which I heard is one of the hottest streets for restaurants these days with Girl and the Goat and Avec as other restaurants on the same street.

The inside reminds me of a modern art museum with its all white walls and minimalist decor.  This is also one of those places where the entire menu fits on to one-sheet of paper, but half of it is just description of the dishes.  The dishes are all very complex sounding (ingredients include foie gras, sweetbreads, and pork confit) yet clean at the same time (ingredients include watermelon, fresh snow peas, and peaches).  For an appetizer I chose the mussel soup ($13) which came with white fish, saffron, garlic and basil and for an entree I chose the duck breast with radish, watermelon, and green garbanzo beans ($36).  The meal started with an amuse bouche of pork belly which was the perfect bite and smokey and flavorful.  What was great about this place was that they had asked if any of us had any dietary needs and my friend Deanna is a vegetarian and they actually listened and got her a separate vegetarian amuse bouche.  Nice.  The soup came out and instead of the soup being in the bowl already, they served me an empty bowl and they poured the steaming hot soup directly from a copper pot into the bowl.  You could immediately smell the saffron and garlic and it was amazing.  There were several giant pieces of mussels and they were super plumb and so freakin tasty.  The whitefish and potato slices also really soaked up the flavor of the dish.  There was actually some kind of spicy component but not so spicy that you couldn't taste anything else.  It was really a fabulous soup.

Next came the duck breast and I had actually seen it on the table next to us before I got it and it looked delicious.  I saw that there was about 1 1/2 inches of crispy skin on it and I was super excited to try it myself.  The plating of the dish extremely modern and minimalist.  It was served on a giant white plate with 2 medium sized pieces of duck and then just a sprinkling of the beans and radishes.  As soon as I cut into the duck I knew it would be spot on.  It was medium rare and just the right amount of juicy.  The skin and fat was the perfect combination: not too oily but not dried out at all.  Many restaurants rarely get duck right because it's really easy to dry out and/or tough, but this was one of the best pieces of duck I've ever had in my life.  I didn't even need any of the other ingredients on the plate as I didn't think they added much value to the dish anyways.   I almost wished this was served with a simple bowl of white rice instead of all the other stuff.

This place was close to a 4.5 fork review but a few things knocked it down.  One was service.  While they started off super attentive and it's clear that the waitstaff knows a lot about food and wine, our waitress disappeared for almost 20 minutes and kept us waiting to order which I find really annoying.  Then the desserts weren't really great.  We got the frozen cucumber mousse ($11) and they gave us the caramelized brioche on the house since we wanted to try dessert at Avec but even at midnight they were completely booked.  The desserts were just too molecular gastronomy for me.  I don't like my desserts to be fancy, I just like a simple moist cake or some fruit.  The mousse actualy really did taste like cucumber which was amazing but that's really not very desserty.  The brioche was tiny and just wasn't fulfilling either.

We had a bottle of wine, beer and some cocktails which really up'd the bill.  Total bill was ~$100/pp, which is actually a lot cheaper than what you would pay in New York for a similar meal, but it's still pretty steep for a night out.

Photo credit: Yelp   

Niu Visited 10/14/2011 3 Forks

Niu 332 E Illinois St., (at Columbus Dr), Chicago, IL 60611

My lunch at Niu was a first for me.  It was the first time that I've ever had a sit down meal by myself in a restaurant.  Seriously, in all my years in going out to eat I've never ate at a restaurant by myself.  To be honest, I was a bit excited in some weird way.  After doing it, it was totally fine and I think it was easier because it was lunch and not dinner.  But now I get why people bring books or newspapers with them because it can get a bit boring to sit there by yourself with nothing to do.

Now back to the restaurant.  This was also a concierge recommendation as I was craving sushi and could only go somewhere that was within walking distance as I had a meeting in an hour.  The hotel mentioned that this was a new place and a 5 minute walk, so perfect!  The place is considered "fusion" and it is pretty huge, spacious and modern on the inside.  The menu had lots of "fusion" dishes which I generally am not a huge fan of.  I'm more of a purist in the sense that I don't like tons of random ingredients like cream cheese, apples, carrots, etc in my sushi. Usually at most sushi places, they have lots of great lunch time specials that are good deals.  Here they did have a bunch of different type of rolls and cooked dishes but they didn't have any boxed sushi or sashimi sets which was a big disappointment.  Instead, I opted for the chirashi ($28) and a rainbow roll ($7).  Also a bummer was the fact that the chirashi didn't come with soup or salad.  For $28, you'd think I'd get at least one or both!

Both dishes came out at the same time and the roll was huge.  I mean it was literally like 12 pieces.  I was shocked.  The roll was too heavy on rice and not enough fish on top.  I actually got it because it had eel inside and since Dan hates eel, I usually don't get a lot of opportunities to have eel.  Sadly in my 1 eel opportunity,  the whole roll was just too much on everything and the eel was slightly overcooked.  The chirashi came out and it was on a modern white plate with pressed rice on the bottom, 1 piece of shrimp, 4 pieces of egg, 2 pieces of salmon, 2 pieces of tuna, 2 pieces of white tuna and 2 pieces of another type of cooked white fish.  I was a bit disappointed there was no yellowtail as that is one of my favorite types of fish. However, the actual sashimi was fine and fresh but it wasn't at the level that I felt like it had just been flown in from somewhere that morning.  The cuts of fish was a bit too thin for me, but I did really like the fact that there was a bunch of fish roe on top of the rice, which made the rice pretty addictive. 

The waitstaff was super friendly and the meal got the job done but I'm glad that I didn't have to pay for this as it wasn't a cheap lunch.  They would really do well if they had more actual sushi lunch specials and didn't try to be so avant garde with their rolls.  Total bill $40 with tax and tip.

Photo credit: Yelp

Volare Visited 10/13/2011 3 Forks

Volare 201 E Grand Ave., (at St Clair St), Chicago, IL 60611

I was in Chicago this past weekend for a work event:  the Food and Wine/American Express Wine Tasting series at the W at Lakeshore (which was an amazing hotel and highly recommend it to anyone but you must stay in a room with a lake view).  After the tasting, the sommelier, rep from F&W and the event planner and I decided it would be great to get dinner afterwards.  Given that it was already 9pm, we really wanted to go somewhere nearby.  Based on a recommendation from the concierge,  we ended up at Volare, which they swore was "amazing."

We walked in and immediately I felt like I was in the Godfather.  They dimmed the lights so much that I could barely see in front of me, all the waiters looked like they were "in the family", and so did some of the customers.  We sat down and we noticed that it was freezing because the air conditioning was on despite the fact that it was 50 degrees outside.  The other thing I noticed was that the menu was laminated.  Not that that's necessarily a bad thing but it's not really awesome thing either.   It actually reminded me of the old Italian restaurants in my neighborhood except that the ones in my 'hood are authentic and surrounded by other old school Italian restaurants whereas this one was in a more tourtisy 'hood.

I wasn't really hungry but somehow I ended up eating so much more than I wanted to.  I guess that's always what happens in an Italian restaurant.  Everything on the menu was pretty standard family style food, although the one thing I did like was that you could pick your pasta and sauce combination.  I don't know why more restaurants don't do that! For starters, we ordered a cold seafood platter (grilled scallops, calamari and octopus), meat/cheese platter, and baked clams.  The seafood platter and bake clams were pretty good but the meat/cheese plate looked like cold cuts I would have gotten at a local deli.  For a main dish, I really truly didn't want anything heavy so I opted for the fish special which was sea bass with asparagus and topped with shittake mushrooms.  The fillet was huge and it was indeed covered in mushrooms.  I love all the ingredients in this dish and could hardly imagine how you can cook fish, mushrooms, and asparagus incorrectly but there was an  issue with my dish.  While the asparagus was cooked perfectly and crunchy, the dish as a whole was pretty oily.  The more I ate, the more oil I tasted.  I don't know if it was because I wasn't super hungry but I actually left 1/4 of it on the plate which is something I usually never do.

We didn't get to finish meal until almost midnight, so it was pretty late when we finished.  I did like that the waitstaff wasn't pushy and let us sit there as long as we wanted, they essentially closed the entire restaurant down around us.  At one point, I didn't even know where everyone went and I thought everyone might have gone home.  While the meal was fine, the concierge was mis-leading when she said it was "amazing".   Next time I am sticking with deep dish pizza for any Chicago Italian cravings.  Total bill (with 2 bottles of wine): $289 for 4 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp        

Fanny Visited 10/8/2011 2.5 Forks

Fanny 425 Graham Ave., (between Withers St & Frost St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

Fanny is literally a 3 minute walk from my house so I really do wish I could give it a better review than this.  I've actually been there a few times before but stopped going and couldn't really remember why.  Now I remember.

To be fair, the place isn't terrible. It's just ok.  There's nothing interesting, mind blowing or alluring about it.  The menu is fairly limited and has your basic hanger steak, mussels, and burger type food.  Nothing was really screaming pick me!  So I ended up getting your basic burger with cheddar cheese ($10) and Dan got one with blue cheese.  As with the rest of my opinion with the place, the burgers were eh.  There wasn't anything really wrong with them but didn't taste like anything I probably couldn't make at home.  I wasn't a huge fan of the bread, as it was just a standard white bun and it was a bit dry.  The fries were like McDonald's fries, but I do say that with no malice since I love McDonald's fries.  They were skinny and salty fries, nothing special but at least tasted good. 

Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed and now I remember why I don't go there frequently.  Plus it's cash only. Thumbs down on that.  Total bill: $48 total includes drinks, tip and tax 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Joseph Leonard Visited 10/7/2011 4 Forks

Joseph Leonard 170 Waverly Pl., (between Christopher St & Grove St), New York, NY 10014

 Josepha Leonard is one of those quintessential adorable West Village type of restaurants. It's tucked away on Waverly Place (how cute) and the inside is just so darn cozy it almost makes you want to vomit.  I've always had Josepha Leonard on my list of places to try but something always stopped me.  I think it was the limited number of dishes they have on their menu, but I'm glad that Lav suggested this place for dinner last week. 

Since they don't take reservations, I highly recommend coming as early as possible.  Lav and I decided to come straight after work and got there at 6pm.  Obviously, anyone who is a hip New Yorker would never dare to eat that early, but we were starving and didn't give a shit if it's passe to eat that early.  Luckily for us, we were seated right away.  We had our choice of closer to the window or closer to the kitchen.  We chose the kitchen.  And when I say kitchen, I mean that very loosely.  It's practically the size of my bathroom so I'm extremely impressed how great the food is that comes out of a place where barely 3 people can fit into. 


While I still feel the menu is somewhat limiting, almost everything on the menu sounded great.  I started with the corn chowder ($13) and had the roasted chicken ($19) for an entree.  Lav got the beets with crispy goat cheese ($14), caramelized cauliflower ($12) and the cheddar grits ($8).  The main reason I got the corn chowder and allowed myself to pay $13 for soup was the fact that it had lobster in it and it was freakin amazing.  Of course there wasn't tons of lobster, but the pieces that were in there were extremely fresh tasting and it made me almost want to tell them I'd pay another $5 for more lobster.  I also tried Lav's beet appetizer and it was amazing as well.  It was essentially a giant ball of fried goat cheese served with cubes of beets.  Delicious.  For entrees, my chicken dish was also cooked perfectly.  The chicken had a nice layer of crispy skin but it wasn't dripping in oil or fat.  The meat was extremely juicy and it came on a bed of corn, peppers, beans, and potato.  Simple but delicious.  Everything just had a really clean and simple taste to it. You could really taste every ingredient and could tell they were all freshly picked/shipped/prepared that day. 


To finish the meal we had the apple turn over cake ($8) which was almost like a sweet sponge cake and it came with homemade whipped cream.  Good but nothing mind blowing either. I should also mention that our waitress was super nice and was able to make great dish recommendations and never rushed us despite the crowds behind us.  All in all, the meal was a great experience and if anyone is looking for your typical "cute West Village" type restaurant, I would highly recommend Joseph Leonard.  Total bill $67/pp including tax, tip and drinks. 


Photo Credit: Yelp