Del Posto Visited 4/19/2012 2.5 Forks

Del Posto 85 10th Ave., (between 15th St & 16th St), New York, NY 10011

I know, I know.  I gave DEL POSTO, a Michelin starred and NY Times 4 star rated restaurant, 2.5 Forks?! Putting it in the ranks of places like Tara Thai but also The Dutch.  How can that be? I'll tell you how.


I will put it out there that Del Posto is not a terrible restaurant, my personal experience just wasn't all that.  I should preface that unlike my usual self I didn't do any research on Del Posto before I went to dinner.  I had been in all day training for 2 days at work and I just didn't have the time or energy to preview it online or read the reviews.  I figured that it was so well-known that I didn't need to.  I guess if I had read up on it, I would have known that it was way more elegant than I expected.  I've been to many of Mario Batali's other restaurants in NYC and LA and while they are all nice none of them were stuffy or old school.  Well, the minute I walked into Del Posto I immediately felt out of place.  I came straight from work training where I was wearing jeans (at least they were my nice jeans) and a casual sweater.  When I walked in, I immediately noticed how beautiful, ornate, and formal the decor was.  Lots of beautiful wood and there was piano in the back with an actual piano player.  There were also lots of grey haired people in suits and dresses.  The average age of the clientele must have been 60, which in itself is not an issue for me, but it just totally wasn't what I was expecting.  I was expecting something a bit more casual but still high-brow...I guess like a Lupa or Mozza (Mario's restaurant in LA).  

Lav and I were seated at 8:30pm and before we could even put our butts in the seat the waitstaff brings over a tiny stool for us to put our purses on.  What?! The only other place that I've known to do this, as Lav had mentioned, was Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  So now everything was starting to fall into place in terms of expectations.   As our waitress handed over the drink list she mentioned that the chef would like to send over an amuse bouche.  Fabulous!  She graciously asked if any of us had any food allergies or issues, which I always appreciate since you never know these days.  This was then where things started to go downhill.  We waited, then waited and waited for someone to at least give us a menu.  We had gotten our drinks and I had practically finished mine (I highly recommend the Whiskey Smash - amazing drink) and we still hadn't even gotten our menu.  After 25 minutes, I finally waved down our waitress to give us our menu.  Another downfall of not researching before hand was that I didn't know that the main focus of the menu was the tasting menu.  I had naively assumed we'd just order a couple of pastas and appetizers (which there was but I'll explain that in a bit). The waitress explained that on the left hand side was the 7 course $145 tasting menu, on the right hand side was the 5 course $115 tasting menu and that we could order most items a la carte but none of the prices were listed on the menu.  It gave me the feeling that it was gauche or not encouraged to not order the tasting menu.  Lav and I figured that as long as we were here, we might as well just got with the 5 course tasting menu.  I started with the Lobster Fra Diavolo with Garlic Bread Panna Cotta & Seaweeds, then you are required to pick 2 pastas that you and your table mate share, so we got the Tortello Puzzone with Taleggio Dolce & Black Truffle Butter at the absolute insistence of our waiter (yes, somehow the woman who told us about our amuse bouche order stopped showing up and we now had this super nice and adorable Tim Gunn look alike waiter) and the Oreccheitte with Lamb Neck Ragu, Orange Carrots, Rye Crumbs & Toasted Sage (one version made without lamb for Lav), and the for the secondi I ordered the swordfish with nvoltini, Smoky Cabbage, Arborio Salad & Fondo of Barolo.  Note that our amuse bouches had still not arrived at this point and it was around 9:20pm at this point.

Finally they bring out the amuse bouche and the bread basket almost an hour after we had been seated.  I'm not sure why they couldn't have brought out the bread basket before hand so that we weren't starving?  My amuse bouche was a small fried risotto ball, a small slide of toasted bread with butter and lardo and a soup.  They were all good but not mind blowing.  As a vegetarian, Lav got a piece of broccoli tempura with 25 year aged balsamic vinegar (our waiter kept emphasizing the age of the balsamic) and 2 other veggie items that are escaping my mind right now.  She also wasn't blown away by her dishes and we were both left wondering how that took 45 minutes to make.  Luckily our antipasti didn't take another hour to come out.  I do want to emphasize that all the busboys, servers, and waiters there (and there were many of them. I couldn't even keep track of them) were all incredibly polite and well-mannered.  You could tell that they were trained well and took their jobs very seriously.  At first Lav's antipasti came out with octopus on it and our waiter immediately started yelling at the busboys to remove the dish.  It was a bit alarming but it was nice of him to notice and remove it without us having to say anything. But it was then that we realized that many of the vegetarian dishes that Lav got were just the same dishes that came with a meat or seafood but with that the meat or seafood was removed....almost like she was eating the garnish.  Not a great feeling.  It would have been better if they created an actual vegetarian dish where the veggies were the focus and not just an after thought.  But I will say that my lobster dish was pretty good. It was chilled lobster tail and knuckle and they were very substantial pieces and delicious.  The panna cotta did taste exactly like garlic bead but I would have preferred actual garlic bread instead.

Our pasta dish came out next and this was where I was prepared to be blown away.  Afterall, it was supposed to be an Italian restaurant and pasta should be there they shine. The waiter had talked up the tortello because of the black truffle butter so I was very excited by it.  We each got 3 pieces of an almost hat shaped like pasta.  I should have let it cool but of course I was so excited that I bit into it and almost burned myself in the process.  My first impression was that it tasted like I was eating a big hunk of brie.  The filling was so incredibly rich that I could barely get through the 3 pieces that I had on my plate.  You could tell that everything was of the highest quality but it was just too rich for me to real enjoy.  We also later realized that there was an extra $20 charge for this dish.  I totally did not think it warranted the extra charge at all.  The orecchiette came out and again it felt like Lav's dish just kind of got the shaft because instead of lamb they just put a lot more carrots on her dish.  They could have made her dish more inventive or added something else in place of the lamb to really make it its own dish.  The lamb neck had almost a ground beef consistency and it was a nice combination with the toasted sage.  Again it was a good dish but not amazing.  I was actually starting to get pretty full at this point but I still had my swordfish and dessert.  Also it was about 10pm at this point and I was about to fall asleep in my food. I definitely did not anticipate this being a 3+ hour meal and was not mentally prepared for it.  Luckily the swordfish came out not too long after the 2nd pasta dish.  To be honest I had just run out of steam by the time this dish got to me.  I just wanted to finish it quickly and get home so I probably didn't really savor or enjoy it as much as I should have.  As the server was explaining my dish to me I had no idea what she was saying.  What is involtini or an arborio salad?!  I will say that swordfish was cooked perfectly, nice and tender but not dry or overcooked.  The best part of the dish was the 3 pieces of swordfish belly wrapped in cabbage.  The cabbage kept a lot of moisture in the belly and it was delicious.  The other parts of the dish weren't super memorable and I couldn't even really figure out what I was eating by then.  At this point I couldn't wait for dessert to roll around.  I ordered the butterscotch semifreddo and Lav got the Chocolate Ricotta tortino with toasted pistachios and extra virgin olive oil gelato.  Luckily both our desserts were great and it helped us to get out of our cranky mood.  The semifreddo was almost like ice cream but more like a frozen mousse.  It actually tasted more like coffee instead of butterscotch but luckily I like coffee so that was fine with me.  I had a bite of the chocolate ricotta dish and it was surprisingly light tasting despite looking super rich and filling.  While both desserts were great, the best part was actually these 2 sugar donut hole type pastries they brought out filled with rich fluffy cream.   I could have had 10 of them, they were that good.  They also brought out a jar of Italian cookies but given that it was almost 11:30pm at that time and I was pretty full, I just couldn't go there.  Sadly, it took another 15-20 minutes to get our check and pay it, despite the fact that there were only 10 tables left in the entire restaurant.  In total our meal took 3 1/2 hours which I don't have a problem with in general, it just wasn't something I was expecting on a random Thursday night outing.

The total bill ended up being close to $200/pp with tax and tip.  Ouch.  Looking back we shouldn't have felt shamed/guilt-ed into getting the tasting menu.  We probably could have had a much more satisfying and affordable meal had we each just ordered a few dishes a la carte.  Don't get me wrong, Del Posto is a beautiful restaurant and I can definitely see why it's so highly regarded, I just didn't have that great of a personal experience.  I was also surprised at the lack of innovation on the vegetarian dishes.  I always feel like vegetarians kind of get screwed in general in situations like this but it was super evident this night.  I would go back but only if someone else pays for me. :)

Photo Credit: Yelp

Kajitsu Visited 4/14/2012 4 Forks

Kajitsu 414 E 9th St., (between 1st Ave & Avenue A), New York, NY 10009

Kajitsu is a truly unique experience in NYC.  I've never been to a place like this in New York before and I can honestly say that I have and will never have a similar meal anywhere (except for in Japan).   And for that, I give it 4 forks.  The food itself is very different and out of the box but I can't say that I loved it so much that I will come back.  It's like how I felt about going to Egypt:  I'm glad I went, had a great time there, can check it off my list of places I've always wanted to go, but probably won't go back.

Kajitsu is one of those very clean and minimalistic Japanese places.  Also, note that it is NOT a sushi or noodle restaurant.  It is an all vegetarian restaurant.  There basically isn't a menu, you either order the 4-course meal ($50), the 7-course meal ($70) or the "special" 8 course menu ($100) but they only offer that meal to 5 tables all night so you need to pre-order in advance.  Aarti, Will and I opted for the 7 course meal.  Luckily, they do leave the menu on a small piece of paper in front of you so that you know what you are eating as you are served and the waitstaff graciously describes each dish (and they give detailed instructions on how to eat them too!).  

Our first dish was the spring vegetable sushi with crispy cherry leaf.  I was a bit weary about the leaf as it literally looked like a giant leaf that looked like it fell off a tree that was lightly battered and fried, but it was amazing.  You could barely taste the leaf part, all you could really taste was a light and crispy tempura.  The vegetables were clean and consisted of asparagus, zucchini and some other veggies I wasn't 100% sure what they were.  

Next was the grated cauliflower soup which was fabulous.  You could really taste the cauliflower but it wasn't overpowering.  Next was a dish of bamboo shots, white asparagus, pickled vegetables and red gelee.  This dish was all sort of confusing because I usually don't like bamboo shoots but nothing on the dish looked or tasted like bamboo shots to me.  I was a bit freaked out by the red gelee dish but it just tasted like pickled cabbage.  There was some fried gluten like component to the dish that was my favorite part of the dish but frankly I couldn't tell you what it was exactly. 

Next was the udon noodles with a trio of vegetables.  Usually when I hear udon I think of thick white noodles, but these were thin almost soba like noodles.  You could tell that they were homemade and they were super light as compared to the pasta they use for Italian dishes.  It was served with light dipping sauce on the side and you are supposed to dip the noodles in the sauce which was a bit difficult.  Why can't you just pour the dipping sauce into the bowl of noodles? But I didn't want to offend the restaurant, so I followed instructions!  The vegetables were again some asparagus, "lettuce" (I use quotation marks because that's what the waitress called it but it seemed more like kale or spinach) and again some kind of pickled vegetable/radish.  This dish was super light and clean tasting.  As with most Japanese food, there isn't a lot of oil, grease or salt and this was the epitome of that kind of style of cooking.  The 5th course was grilled fennel with yuba in an English pea sauce.  The fennel was perfectly cooked, it was super tender and soft and melted in your mouth.  The yuba was actually cubes of tofu skin and this was actually one my favorite ingredients/components of the night (maybe because I actually knew what it was and had it before in Chinese food).  The pea sauce was a light pea puree and was nicely done.  

By the time the 6th course came around, I was actually starting to get pretty full and thought that maybe I made a mistake in ordering 7 courses.   The 6th dish was house-made mochi with butterbur and scallion sauce.  For some reason when I saw the word mochi, I assumed this would be a sweet dish.  But no, it was a savory dish.  The mochi was lightly fried and crispy on the outside and it was a heavy/dense mouthful.  If you are avoiding carbs or gluten, this would be your ultimate nightmare.  This dish was served with a very light broth on the side and super fresh thin slices of seaweed.  You poured the broth into the dish and then mixed in the seaweed with the chopped scallions and mochi.  Totally unique and different from anything I've had before (not that anything I had up until this point wasn't different from anything I've had before).  By the time the last course arrived I was starting to feel like I have had enough, even though I wasn't super full.  There's just only so much of this kind of food you can have in one sitting and mind you, by this time I think over 2 hours had gone by.  The last course was a sweet red bean tofu dish served with vegetable and kumquat chips.  It was totally fine by Asian dessert standards, but then again, desserts are a strong suit for most Asian countries.  The kumquat chip was a strange taste...as Aarti said, it was like eating a burst of sunshine.   Last and definitely least we were served asian candies with freshly whisked green tea.  The "candies" were almost like eating smarties or those weird chalkly mints you sometimes get in a waiting room.  So in a sense, they weren't great.  The whisked green tea was very fresh tasting....it was a bright green powder that they put into a cup and then pour hot water into and then they whisk very quickly until it's frothy.   

Overall, my meal felt like a cleansing of the system.  Everything about it was pure and and unprocessed.  It was great to be able to sit at the counter and watch them make all the food and you can see how basically everything seemed to be steamed, pickled or raw.  There was very little frying going on and you could tell that there were no preservatives, very little salt or sugar used in the food.  It was just a really natural meal and honestly I didn't miss the fact that there wasn't any meat or seafood (although that would have been nice).  It's a great experience and one that I do recommend, especially vegetarians.  Unlike most of eating experiences, I don't think I would ever see these dishes on another restaurants menu because they were just that different and unique.  Plus this place rotates their menu every month, so don't even expect to see these dishes if you go.  While I do recommend Kajitsu, I just don't see myself committing to a 3+ hour meal of 7 courses like this on a regular basis.  

Total bill: $85/pp with tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Super Linda Visited 4/11/2012 3.5 Forks

Super Linda 109 W Broadway, (between Duane St & Reade St), New York, NY 10013

Apparently Super Linda is supposed to be the new La Esquina in that it's a hot Latin restaurant that is also part time club.  But when Amy, Kristin, Anuja and I walked in on a Wednesday night at 6:30, it was practically empty and there were actually families there.  So not exactly what we were thinking but of course it was pretty early on a weekday.  


The hostess was this too-cool for school Australian model who wouldn't seat us until our whole party was here, which was a bit ridiculous because 4 out of the 5 of us were there.  So then we had to lie and say there were 4 of us for dinner and then as we were getting seated we said it was actually 5 of us and luckily at that moment Kristen walked in.  Despite the hostess' slightly snotty attitude our waitress was great.  As we were ordering cocktails, she out right told me, "I was told that the cocktail you order sucked by my last customer."  Uh ok.  So she offered to let me order it and if I didn't like it she told me I could take it back and order something else, which was pretty cool of her.  And you know what? She was right about the cocktail, the Topanga Canyon.  I originally ordered it because it had Stoli and raspberry but it also had orange crush and that just ruined the whole drink.  Instead I got a prosecco with elderflower and lemon which was nice and refreshing.  In terms of food, we ordered a bunch of food for the whole table: scallop ceviche with chile, lime and avocado ($14), 2 orders of the shrimp balls ($12), tostada do esquitas ($8), ravioli with ricotta, walnuts, spinach and mushroom ($18), flat iron steak with pumpkin and grilled scallion ($26), the red and green snapper ($28) and a side of braised kale ($4).  

The scallop ceviche came out on a plate, which I actually thought was a bit weird since they usually get served in a tall glass, but regardless, the scallop was nice and fresh but honestly it could have used a bit more salt and more lime/tartness.  The shrimp balls were tasty and all shrimp (no filler) and  served in this spicy red sauce.  It totally reminded me of the shrimp balls you get at dim sum but at x3 of the price.  The tostada do esquitas was basically the yummy Mexican corn shucked on to a small tortilla.  It came with all the fixins of the corn on the cob, the mayo, lime, and cotija cheese.  But while I usually love that type of corn, I just wasn't wow'd by this dish.  What makes the corn on the cob work is that you get to drown yourself in mayo and cheese but it was hard to do that in this dish.  It was totally fine but nothing amazing. 

Next came the main entrees.  I really enjoyed the flank steak, it was perfectly pink and raw in the middle and seared nicely on the outside.  When they said that it was served with pumpkin, I was a bit unsure if it was in season, but it was actually a sweet potato and it was quite delicious and was a great combination with the meat.  The snapper was served almost like a whole fish (there wasn't a head but the tail was still on) and half of it was covered in a red sauce and the other half in a green sauce (hence the name of the dish).  They gave us tiny tortillas with this dish so I guess we were supposed to make our own mini fish tacos? I didn't and just ate the fish by itself.  I thought the fish was cooked well (although it didn't taste like snapper and more like a more generic white fish) but Kristin had said that she found tons of bones in her bite, so that was a bit unsettling for her.  The ravioli didn't look like ravioli at all, it all just seemed like all the ingredients mushed into a bowl but that could be because I was one of the last people to get to the dish and a bunch of the gals had cut the raviolis in half so none of them were intact by the time the dish arrived to my seat.  Last but not least the kale was actually one of my favorite dishes of the night even though it was just a side dish.  I haven't had kale in a long time but this was delicious and just the right texture.  Not soggy or overly raw and tough.  It totally has inspired me to make it myself at home. 

By the time we were done eating, the place was packed and starting to get that more clubby vibe.  But where it gets super chi-chi is when you walk downstairs.  There is small almost secret room that was pumping super loud music and seemed more like a bar than an extension of the restaurant.  It was a fun night out with the girls, but after getting the bill ($70/pp) I wasn't really sure how we spent that much money after splitting all the dishes that were mostly sides.  I guess those cocktails really did add up!

Photo Credit: Eater

Neta Visited 4/9/2012 3 Forks

Neta  61 W 8th St., (between Avenue Of The Americas & Greenwich Ave), New York, NY 10011

It has been a long time since I had been to a really nice sushi place so I was excited to try this place out with Nancy and Nils last night.  This place is run by Masa alums, so you know that this is not your corner mom and pop type of sushi. It's fancy pants sushi.   Strangely enough, it's located on what I think is one of the worst streets in the West Village, W. 8th Street.  It's so weird to me as to why this street fails to do well when it's literally surrounded by other great streets, but every restaurant I know here that has opened in the past 2 years has closed down and even when I took a short walk before I was to meet my friends, a lot of places were closed or just looked run down.

So it's surprising that a high end place would open on this street.  It's actually pretty easy to miss the entrance as there is really no sign except for a small door with the name discretely written in black on it. When I walked inside, I started to feel a bit out of place.  Even though I had come from work and was in work attire, it just seemed a bit too upscale for me.  But the waitstaff was super nice and let me sit down before Nancy and Nils arrived.  We had gotten a seat at the bar which was great and I could immediately tell that the quality of the food would be top notch and high end.

While I don't regret not ordering the omakase, in hindsight, I do think it would have been the better experience.  It was just hard to justify spending $95 on a random Monday night outing.  Instead, we chose to order a la carte.  The waiter suggested 3-5 small plates and then a few rolls.  We ordered the Neta Spicy Salmon ($13) and the King Mushrooms ($9), toro and scallion roll ($28, yes that's $28 for 1 roll), Kanpachi & Spicy Potato roll ($10), Unagi Cucumber roll ($11), Dungeness Crab Avocado roll ($15), and the soft shell crab roll ($15).  The King Mushroom came out first and it was 4-5 thinly sliced pieces of mushroom served with spicy pomme frites (which were like fried potato shavings) and serrano peppers.  It was good but I wasn't getting a whole lot of flavor to it besides the spiciness of the potato and peppers.  King mushrooms are a favorite of mine mainly for their firm texture and there just wasn't enough mushroom to go around to really get a sense of that. Next came the spicy salmon which was nothing how I imaged it.  First of all, it came out sizzling hot plate with the crispy rice still crackling on the bottom and salmon on top of the rice and then topped with bonito flakes.  It was an interesting concept, but I didn't really taste much besides the rice.  There need to be more salmon to make it really stand out. 

Next came the rolls and in true high class style, they don't give you any wasabi and only a very limited supply of very light soy sauce.  All the rolls here were definitely light on the rice and cut very small (almost bite sized).  The toro roll was my first glimpse of actual raw fish here and I must say the toro was amazing.  It just melted in your mouth and the seaweed that it was wrapped in was so thin and not over powering.  I was a bit disappointed to only see 4 pieces.  For $28, I expected more pieces.  The unagi cucumber, soft shell crab roll, and kanpachi roll were ok...I didn't feel wow'd by them.  I generally don't order rolls that don't have raw fish in them or I usually steer away from rolls that have a fried component to it because it usually takes over the flavor, but the waiter did suggest several of these, so we thought they were worth ordering.  The pieces were just cut too small to really get a true sense of the high quality ingredients.  I know authentic sushi is not supposed to be these giant, monster sized pieces you see at Yama or in other places, but I need something of substance to get my palate going.  I did enjoy the dungeness crab avocado roll as the crab meat was very fresh and prominent in the roll, but when I think about it, it was really a very high quality California roll.  All in all, I did truly appreciate the food here, I just think we should have stuck with more of the raw fish dishes.  As I watched the sushi chefs cut mouth watering pieces of salmon, yellowtail and tuna right in front of me, I wished that I had ponied up for the omakase (although I'm sure I would have financially regretted it later on).  The up side is that all this sharing made eating here pretty affordable.  Total bill: $43/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Eater.com 

Tartine Visited 4/8/2012 2 Forks

Tartine 253 W 11th St., (between 4th St & Waverly Pl), New York, NY 10014

My request for the perfect benedict continues in New York.  I thought that Tartine had a lot of promise since they had Eggs Florentine, regular Eggs Benedict and Eggs Norvegienne on the menu.  They also had other classic French dishes like Croque Monsieur, Croque Madam, and then other random breakfast stuff like corned beef hash.  I went straight for the Eggs Norvegienne ($15.50) which was the benedict with salmon instead of ham.  Aarti got the Egge Florentine (spinach instead of ham) and Will got the Croque Madam.

When the dish came out, I still held out hope that it would be great.  The first off thing I noticed was a bone in my salmon, which actually didn't bother me a whole lot (I guess this is because I grew up eating lots of whole fish which was always full of tiny bones).  But the real issue I had with this dish was that the English muffin was rock hard.  I mean, it wasn't just overly toasted..I could barely to cut into it.  Even Will made a comment that I seemed to be trying too hard to cut into the dish.  And this was with an actual butter knife and not some kind of wimpy plastic utensil. You'd think that bread should be pretty easy to cut into.   I also thought the eggs were a bit overpoached...they just weren't runny enough.  The bright side of the dish was actually the potatoes.  They were pretty unique since they were mixed with tomato and spring onion and that was a pretty tasty combination.  At first I thought that maybe it was just my English muffins were overly toasted but Aarti mentioned that hers were also rock hard and she had to eat around them.  It looked like Will's dish was the winner of the morning as it looked nice and cheesy.   Another downside is that it's cash only, but luckily since it came out to $20/pp, it was easy to pay.  One small plus side is the location of this restaurant.  It's on a super cute, picturesque street of the West Village and if you can get a seat outside, it might make your meal a bit more palatable.

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Parm Visited 4/7/2012 4 Forks

Parm 248 Mulberry St., (between Spring St & Prince St), New York, NY 10012

Lav and I have had a love/hate relationship with Parm for the past 4 months.  We tried to go there twice for dinner and each time we were told it would be almost a two hour wait.  So each time we left dejected and annoyed.  However, this time around we found ourselves right by Parm at 5pm and decided to give it another go.  I should have known that a place that is owned by Torrisi (a place that I seriously love) would have had a very particular seating situation.  Basically, they have a limited menu during the day and if you want to have access to the full menu, they don't start serving until 6pm.  The trick is that they start to take names for the 6pm seating at 5:45pm.  So get your butt there around 5:45pm to be one of the first 7-8 names on the list or else be relegated to waiting another hour.  The restaurant is so small on the inside that once they seat the first group of people, the tables don't turn over for another hour or so (similar to my experience at Mary's on Friday) and hence the constantly long wait.  

So 3rd times a charm and we were seated at 6:10pm.  The full menu itself is actually more limiting than I thought.  They have a bunch of appetizers (garlic bread, pizza knots, etc), vegetable side dishes, main entrees that come in either roll, hero or platter form, and then they have daily specials.  The special for the night was veal parm and the waitress could not stop talking about it, but it sounded like it was a bit too much for me.  Lav and I started with the B&G Poppers ($6), garlic bread  ($7) and I got the chicken parm platter with ziti ($17).  The B&G poppers are jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese and then lightly battered and fried and served with aoli mayo.  I'm not a huge fan of jalapeno peppers but these were pretty good and they weren't too spicy but there was still a serious kick to it.  The garlic bread was perfectly toasted and it came with ricotta cheese/marinara sauce side.  It wasn't too heavy on the garlic but it was still deliciously crispy.  Next came the main dish and I was totally surprised that it was normally portioned.  I was totally expecting it to be this monstrous dish but there were 2 small-medium lightly breaded pieces of chicken breast and a small square of ziti.  I haven't had chicken parm in years and this one made me want to put it into rotation.  The chicken breasts were super juicy despite being breaded and covered in sauce and cheese.  I appreciated the fact that you could actually taste the chicken and wasn't overwhelmed by too much sauce.  I overheard the waitress telling the next table that the ziti was seared on all sides to get this even crunchiness to it and I could totally see what she was talking about.  The ziti was a great side dish to the parm and while it wasn't mind blowing, it was a very tasty dish.  I also tried Lav's eggplant parm and it was super hearty and the eggplant was cooked perfectly (not undercooked or too soggy as they tend to absorb a lot of moisture).  To be honest, the kicker was the dessert.  We got the zeppole filled with chocolate hazelnut sauce ($7).  It's basically a donut hole but they were fresh and right out of the oven and just oozing with goodness.  They were covered with sugar and even as someone who doesn't like chocolate, I loved them.  I would have also been interested in trying the version filled with jelly also (clearly just a jelly donut).  

For all the hoopla, I'm glad I finally got to eat here.  The seating situation does make it slightly infuriating and I think you can order most of the dishes as take-out so that might be a less mind numbing experience.   I could see myself coming here and ordering a hero/sandwich to go next time instead of trying to battle the crowds.  Total bill: $63/pp with tip, tax and 2 drinks each

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Buttermilk Channel Visited 4/7/2012 3.5 Forks

Buttermilk Channel 524 Court St., (between Nelson St & Huntington St), Brooklyn, NY 11231

I had been to Buttermilk Channel many years ago when it first opened.  It didn't blow my mind but I thought that it was a solid joint.  Over the years it became more and more popular especially since famous people like Beyonce and Jay-Z have shown up multiple times. 


So I wasn't surprised when I showed up on a Saturday and the wait was quoted as 30-45 minutes.  Crazytown.  Luckily for us, a 2 top opened up at the bar in 15 minutes.  I ordered the breakfast scramble with house cured lox, green onion and cream cheese which came with hashbrown, toast, salad and your choice of juice, mimosa, bellini, or sparkling wine for $11, which is a pretty great deal.  I also ordered a side of bacon ($5) and the buttermilk biscuits ($4) which I split with my friend.  The scramble came out and it didn't look like what I was expecting.  The eggs were in a small bowl and the hashbrown was a small circular cut.  The eggs were moist and the combination of the green onion and salmon were great.  The cream cheese was really just used  for some light flavoring/texture as you couldn't really actually see the cream cheese in the dish.  I enjoyed the eggs a lot but unfortunately the hashbrown was overcooked and a bit burnt.  The side of bacon was huge, almost 5-6 slices in total.  Some were cooked perfectly crispy with some fat left on it and some were a bit overcooked and too dry but overall the bacon strips were a solid addition to my egg dish.   Meanwhile the biscuits were a bit on the heavy side.  They were very buttery and flakey...but almost too flakey.  The biscuits were so heavy that my friend and I could barely split just one together.   I was so full that I didn't eve get to try the toast or salad.


Overall, I still think Buttermilk Channel is a solid place to go for a meal.  But best brunch in Brooklyn and a 45 minute wait? Hmmm, not 100% sure on that.  However, the prices were super reasonable and it's in a great neighborhood of Brooklyn.  Total bill: $24/pp. 


Photo Credit: Yelp

Mary's Fish Camp Visited 4/7/2012 4 Forks

Mary's Fish Camp 64 Charles St., (between 4th St & Bleecker St), New York, NY 10014

Ahhh, Mary's Fish Camp.  This was one of the first "nice" restaurants that I went to when I first moved to NYC and this was the first place where I ever had a lobster roll.  This is also the place where I waited almost 2 hours for a table and was about to get seated when Gwynneth Paltrow walked in and got seated right in front of me (this is only 1 of the many reasons why I find her super annoying).   I've always had a soft spot for this restaurant yet hadn't been back in a really long time.  Not because it wasn't good but because there are a whole slew of similar seafood places that offer similar and equally tasty dishes: Pearl Oyster Bar, Mermaid Inn/Oyster Bar, Ed's Chowder House, Red Hook Lobster Pound, etc.

Holly and I decided to come back here since it was Good Friday and she needed a place that had good veggie or seafood options.  No slight to all my vegetarian friends, but if those are my two choices, I will easily take seafood.  I got to Mary's at 6:20pm, exactly 20 minutes after they opened and they were already packed and the waiting list was 45-60 minutes!  Basically, you have to get there right when it opens or be prepared to wait at least an hour plus.  The main reason is because the restaurant can only fit 25 people max.  So Holly and I went around the corner to get a drink and came back around 7pm.  When I walked in this group of 3 that had been there when I first walked in was still there.  They looked at me and said "yes, we're still here and only 2 people have left since you left to get your drink."  Luckily, that first round of seating was starting to finish up their meal and all of us were seated within the next 15-20 minutes.

We were seated at the bar and quite frankly, I didn't really need to look at the menu.  Let's be honest, I knew I was getting the lobster roll ($32) who was I kidding? I did contemplate some other options and their specials did sound and look good, but I almost never get to have lobster rolls these days so I had to indulge.  We also split the fried oysters and clams ($11).  When the waitress took our order, she said "ah, this is what everyone orders."  Ok, so we're not super original, but who cares?  The fried oysters and clams were great, very light breaded but for some reason it was a bit hard to tell which were the oysters and which were the clams.  It should be pretty easy to tell the difference, but the pieces of seafood weren't huge, so I just made a guess that the ones that were more round and circular were the oysters.  Next came the lobster rolls and it was fabulous.  There were large delicious chunks of lobster (mostly from the tail and a few cuts of the claw) and they were put in a seriously buttery hot dog bun.  I will say that if you don't like mayo, stay away from this dish because it was definitely heavy on the mayo (but I don't mind that).  The one negative I would say about this dish is the fries.  They were just too thin for me as I tend to like thick cut fries better.  They also put a TON of fries on the plate to mask the fact that you're paying $30+ for a kind of small main dish.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the lobster roll but I definitely didn't walk out of there super full.

I'm amazed at how crazy packed this place is after all these years.  It's still a great place to go if you are a seafood lover and if you have the patience of priest.  When we left, they were quoting 2+ hours, and yet people were still waiting.  Just pray that Gwynneth does walk in when you're about to be seated.  Total bill: $74/pp with tax, tip and 2 glasses of wine each

Photo Credit: Yelp

Gravy Visited 4/1/2012 3 Forks

Gravy 32 E 21st St., (between Park Ave S & Broadway), New York, NY 10010

When you hear a name like Gravy, you obviously assume that it's all about heart stopping Southern-soul food.  While there were some very Southern dishes such as crawfish benedict, and a shrimp po'boy, I was rather surprised that they delegated a lot of the more Southern traditional dishes to side dishes such as biscuits and gravy, grits, and fried green tomatoes.  You'd think these would be big front and center dishes or that they would serve their main dishes with grits instead of potatoes or fries.

I ordered the Tasso Benedict ($15) which was served with tasso ham, arugula, and a chipotle hollandaise sauce.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that I jump at any chance to order a benedict, so I was torn between the crawfish and tasso benedict and for some reason I just couldn't picture crawfish being a great mix with eggs.  When some of the other gals ordered their dishes, they were told their dishes came with sides of fries or potatoes so I had kind of assumed that my dish would too.  But sadly it did not.  It was just the bendict and for $15 I was kind of hoping it be a bit more than that.  If I had known, I might have ordered a side of fried green tomatoes.  The bendict itself was was completely drenched in hollandaise sauce and I never thought I would say that there was such thing as too much hollandaise sauce, but this was really bordering on too much.  The eggs themselves were very runny and when mixed with the sauce, it literally made me feel like I was drinking cholesterol.  The ham was extremely small and was barely a 1/4 of the size of the English muffin.  If there's going to be ham with a benedict, it should be big enough so that you have enough of it with every bite.  Here there was barely enough ham for 2 bites. The arugula was tossed haphazardly on the dish like an afterthought and it was sitting in so much sauce that it was kind of soggy at first bite.  I didn't get to try anyone else's dish but 2 girls got the duck sandwich and they commented on how much duck was in the sandwich and a few of the girls did comment on liking the potatoes and fries that came with their food.

I think if you're going to be a Southern restaurant, you might as well go all out and be a Southern-heart-stopping-gut-expanding restaurant, which Gravy was not.  The space itself is nice and spacious, so it was a good choice for our big group of 7.  They also had a great deal of $16 for an entree and a brunch cocktail.  Total bill: $21/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar Visited 3/30/2012 2.5 Forks

Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar 11 W 31st St., (between 5th Ave & Broadway), New York, NY 10001

Ayza is in this really weird part of the city.  It's not quite K-town and not quite Midtown.  But despite its random location it was pretty crowded on a late Friday night (maybe because it's near MSG).  This place is really mostly a dessert/martini bar but a bunch of us ended up there after drinking already, so we were starving for actual food.  Luckily they do have a selection of appetizers, salads, tartines, paninis and other entrees.  We ordered the artichoke dip ($7), angry chicken lollipops ($8) and white truffle pizza ($10) for the table and I got the smoked chicken panini ($11). 

The waitstaff was a little surly at first (forcing us to move tables when we just wanted to add one more person, repeatedly asking to take our menus when we hadn't finished ordering yet, and not giving us plates or utensils after repeated asks) but they ended up being sweet and nice at the end.  Of all the appetizers, I actually really did like the chicken lollipops.  They were these cute little chicken drum-stick like bites and the meat perfectly came off the bone.  Unlike chicken wings, there was a good amount of meat on the bones and you didn't have to work for your food.  I actually didn't try the dip but it seemed to do well with the other gals and the pizza was fine, nothing great.  The panini was also just ok, it tasted like something I probably could have made at home.  I will say that it was actually a pretty hefty-thick sandwich which was very filling, not something that you would think of when you order a panini at a wine bar.  The salad that came with the panini was too salty for me and had an overwhelming olive taste to it.

We then moved on to dessert and got chocolate covered strawberries ($9), the 20 layer creme cake brulee ($12) and the warm molten chocolate cake ($9).  For $9, I thought that there would be more than 2 strawberries, but that's all we got (although I will say that they were 2 very large strawberries) and that was pretty disappointing.  I'll be honest and say that I don't love chocolate covered strawberries in general but I did try a piece and the chocolate was just too thick and all I could taste was the chocolate and not the strawberry.  I was actually excited for the 20 layer cake and somehow envisioned it to be this giant extravagant dessert.  But it ended up tasting like a giant cream puff.  The 20 layers consisted of crepe batter and whipped cream, but they were very thin and the actual cake wasn't any thicker than a regular piece of cake.  Boo.  The molten cake was also very eh but then again I'm not really a chocolate cake person.  All in all, the place would be good for just the wine and martinis (there were tons of different kinds of chocolate martinis which was unique and interesting) but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you're looking for a real sit-down meal.  Total bill: $26/pp for food.

Photo Credit: Yelp