The Cardinal Visited 8/25/2012 3.5 Forks

The Cardinal 234 E 4th St, (between Avenue A & Avenue B), NY 10009

I've had a major BBQ/Southern/Soul food kick these days.  Luckily my friend Cicily loves this kind of food as much as me, so I was excited that I had someone to try out The Cardinal last night with me.  The decor of the restaurant is much more cozy and cute bistro type vs. what you would expect from a BBQ hall.  The menu here is more of a set menu vs. places like Fette Sau or Hill Country where you order meat by the pound.  The BBQ here comes in a platter format with your choice of 3 kinds of meat (choose from ribs, brisket, hot links, or pulled pork) or if you're there with lots of people there is the President's platter or a bucket of fried chicken.  Even though I do love my BBQ, I opted for the Fried Chicken plate (1 thigh, 1 drumstick, 1 breast) and 2 sides (I got the mac and cheese and the fried green tomatoes) for $19 and Cicily got the BBQ plate for $23.   We did get the crab hush puppies to start ($10) based on the recommendation of the waitress.  I haven't had hush puppies in a long time but once I bit into these I remembered that unique cornmeal-y flavor.  The crab meat was mixed in with the cornmeal and then deep fried.  It tasted exactly how it sounds and it was served with ranch dressing.  It was good but pretty heavy tasting and 2 puppies (that actually sounds kind of gross saying it) was all I could take.  

When I first laid eyes on my fried chicken platter I was "sure" that I would definitely not be able to finish it.   Famous last words right? As soon as I cut into the chicken I could see how incredibly juicy the inside was.  I mean, it was to the point where juice actually splattered on my shirt as I was cutting into it.  And the skin was amazingly crispy and delicious.  It was light and flavorful and the skin had the right amount of fat on it.  It was so good that I finished all 3 pieces of chicken.  Sick.  I barely had room for the mac and cheese and friend green tomatoes.  The mac and cheese was like your classic homey mac and cheese, nothing fancy with 7 different kinds of cheeses and penne pasta, but it was yellow/orangey cheese with soft elbow macaroni.  And it was great.  Unfortunately I didn't love the fried green tomatoes.  That was the one side dish that I was looking forward to, but it just didn't have much flavor to it.  It was needed some more spices or something because it just didn't taste like much.  By the time I was done eating, I could barely move.  I could totally see this place as a great post-hangover brunch place.  While I didn't try the BBQ, Cicily said it was pretty good, although I think if you're serious about BBQ, you still can't beat Fette Sau.  But I haven't met a better place for fried chicken in the city just yet.  Just be prepared to have your heart stop and arteries clogged no matter what you order.  Total bill with: $51 with tax, tip and drinks. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Marche du Sud Visited 8/25/2012 2.5 Forks

Marche du Sud 1136 1st Ave, New York, NY 10065

Normally I would never find myself up by this area (all the way on the east side in the 60's), but a friend of mine who lives on Roosevelt Island was having a baby shower and this was right off the tram.  I will say that the 2.5 rating doesn't really reflect what I thought of the decor and space of the restaurant.  My friend's sister had reserved the entire back room which had this beautiful open feeling with tons of windows surrounding the room.  It was the perfect room for a baby shower because it was totally closed off from the rest of the restaurant and big enough for all of us to walk around and mingle but small enough that it felt cozy.  The meal started with a bunch of french pizzas, which were very thin crusted pizzas with no tomato sauce.  They did come with sauteed onions, creme fraiche, and gruyere cheese.  Although they are not like your usual Italian pizzas, they were tasty and light.  Unlike my rant about how I like pasta with tomato sauce, these pizzas didn't feel lacking without the tomato sauce and I had about 3-4 slices because they weren't so heavy and I was starving.  For the main entrees, we got to pick from a long line of dishes from risotto, burgers, omelettes, waffles, and salads.  I figured since it was a brunch, I ordered the L’Omelette Parisienne ($12) which is an omelette with wild mushrooms, french ham & gruyère cheese.  In an attempt to be healthy, I asked for it to come with egg whites instead.  I'm not sure if that's where I went wrong but when the omelette came out, it was a bit underwhelming.   It was pretty small and thin and looked like something I could make at home.  The salad that came with it was also just ok, a bit overdressed.  I don't mean to make it sound like my food was awful because it wasn't.  It just felt like food that I could make at home with my friends and not at a nicer French restaurant.  I took a look at the other food and the presentation of the other dishes and they also looked underwhelming as well.  But despite all of this, this was a lovely place to have a small gathering like a baby shower.  

Photo Credit: Yelp

Dell'Anima Visited 8/24/2012 3.5 Forks

Dell'Anima 38 8th Ave, (between Jane St & West 4th St), New York, NY 10014

Dell'Anima falls in the category of L'Artusi, Scarpetta, and Spasso of high end Italian restaurants that are sweeping the West Village.  As many of you probably know, I have a love/hate relationship with Italian food.  I mean I love Italian food (who doesn't?), but I have this mentality that I shouldn't be paying $20 for pasta.  So when Lav told me she was meeting a friend at Dell'Anima and that I should join them, I was excited to give it a try because I've heard great things about it but unsure if the food would actually be mind blowing.

We started off sharing the heirloom tomato salad with ricotta, plums, walnuts, citrus zest, and saba ($15) and the roasted summer squash bruschette ($5).  I was super excited for the salad because I love heirloom tomatoes but Lav had mentioned that she had it last time and it was just ok and unfortunately, it was just ok again.  It was underseasoned and tasted a bit bland.  Don't get me wrong, I love my food to taste clean and simple, but it could have used a pinch of salt or some basil to kick it up a notch.  And there wasn't enough ricotta with the dish.  The summer squash bruschette was more of a spread and they gave us 4 beautifully crusty toasted pieces of bread to go with it.  It was creamy but still had some small chunks of squash.  I would have loved to have tried a few more other spreads instead of the salad.  

When it came time to order our mains, I thought I remembered really liking pappardelle pasta, so I got the pappardelle integrale with oyster mushrooms, scallion, pecorino romano ($17) while Lav and Aarti both got the bucatini alla arrabbitata with calabrian chilies, tomato, parmesan breadcrumbs ($16).  While I did really like my pasta (clearly since I demolished the whole thing), I didn't love it.  I did like the thick, long ribbon shape of the pasta but I kind of wished it came in more separate strands like a spaghetti or fettiucini.  It was a bit too oily for me and I've come to realize that I really like pastas with tomato sauces/ragu better.  This pasta was dressed with just oil and most of the flavor came from the mushrooms (of which there was a lot of, which I really appreciated) but I just missed the combination of tomato with pasta.  This was confirmed when I had a bite of Lav's pasta (for those of you who are curious bucatini is like spaghetti but with a hollow inside) and it was delicious and very spicy.  So mental note for me next time, stick with bolognese or ragu sauce next time.  I do want to give a shout out that our waitress was super nice and very knowledgeable about the menu and wine list (she helped us pick out an amazing bottle of rose).  Dell'Anima also has a meatless Monday special and even though I'm a meat lover, I would definitely come back to give it a try.  Total bill: $54/pp with tax and tip and 1 bottle of wine. 

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Reynard's Visited 8/19/2012 3.5 Forks

Reynard's 80 Wythe Ave, (between 12th St & 11th St), New York, NY 11211

As if Williamsburg doesn't have enough of a stigma of being hipster central, the opening of The Wythe Hotel has most definitely put it over the edge.  The hotel is in the more northern part of the 'Burg and it so painfully hip that it's kind of hard to even look at.  But for some reason the hipness didn't bother me and the place kind of grew on me throughout the meal. 

After reading some not to great reviews on Yelp and based on my own preconceived notions of the place, I was totally prepared to not like this place.  But you know what? I actually really enjoyed my meal and had a great time.  I guess it serves me right for being so judgy!  I thought the industrial chic decor really fit in well with the overall vibe of the hotel and really made you feel like you were in somewhere "edgy".  In general the restaurant look reminded me of being in a bright, airy French bistro.  When we first sat down,  the waiter asked if we wanted still or sparkling water and I said "tap is fine".  But he quickly explained that they filter and bottle all their own water and that both are free, so we got 1 bottle of still and 1 bottle of sparkling.  While it's a bit pretentious, it was a nice touch.  I was a bit nervous about the menu at first because when I had looked on-line there wasn't a lot of options on the menu.  But luckily when we got there, they had a few more options to choose from.  Aarti got the heirloom tomato, ricotta, and toast dish ($11) and I got the sausage and egg sandwich ($12).  I know that sausage and egg sandwich sounds really boring, but it was actually a delicious, hearty sandwich that was pretty unique.  It was served on a soft brioche bun, jammed packed with 2 giant juicy sausage patties and covered with tons of extremely gooey gruyere cheese and topped with arugula and onions.  It was pretty much like a high-end breakfast burger and it was so much better than a typical sausage, egg and cheese bagel sandwich from a bodega.  It came with a side of fries and aioli mayo, both of which were fine.  The fries could have been a bit crispier as they were a bit soggier than I would like but I could barely eat them after demolishing my sandwich.  Given how heart stopping the sandwich was, it might have been healthier for the dish to come with a side salad instead.  I didn't get a chance to try Aarti's dish but she did comment that she really enjoyed it.  

I would definitely come back here for brunch or even dinner although I can only imagine this place would be a total scene late at night.  If being in a uber-hip restaurant complete with hipster waiters will bother you, then maybe Reynard's isn't for you.  But the hipness is pretty harmless and not anymore blatant than other nearby bars and restaurants.  Total bill: $17/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Wythe Hotel

CO-OP Food and Drink Visited 8/18/2012 3 Forks

CO-OP Food and Drink 107 Rivington St., (between Ludlow St & Essex St), New York, NY 10002

You would think that I had learned my lesson after my dinner at Empellon Cucina on Monday and not eat to the point of wanting to puke.  But oh no.  I did it yet again.  I ended up at CO-OP on Saturday night to celebrate dinner for one of my friend's (Richelle) and since CO-OP is one of those places where  you share a bunch of plates, we ordered about 1,000 items from the menu and I felt awful later.  The menu here is a bit weird/eclectic.  It's got some Asian influence (duck buns, sushi, sashimi) and then some American style type food (sliders, scallops, mac and cheese) and then throw in some meatballs and poutine.  Since there were so many people, we ordered a bunch of different things for the table to share.  We started with the Mini Ceviche Tacos with Aji Amarillo Sauce, Mango-Avocado Salsa ($12), Chicken Satay ($14), and Spicy Tuna on Crispy Rice ($14).   The tacos were soft tacos filled with pork and pretty tasty and a good starter bite.  The chicken satay was extremely heavy on the peanut sauce, which made it be bit too sweet for me but at least the chicken was moist and tender.  The spicy tuna was a nice little rectangle of tuna on top of a bed of crispy rice.  It was surprisingly delicious and I could have had 3-4 more of them.  We then followed up with CO-OP  roll ($18) and the Soft Shell crab roll.  The CO-OP roll had spicy tuna inside and then topped with rock shrimp tempura on top of it, which was a nice combination of fish and shrimp.  The soft shell crab was ok, it was one of those sushi rolls where the rolls were too big and hard to eat in one bite.  I thought the crab was a bit salty and I just generally prefer raw fish in my sushi rolls then cooked food or tempura.  After the sushi, the peking duck steamed buns ($15), the black cod in butter lettuce ($16) and spaghetti and meatballs ($17) rolled out.  This is the point in the meal where I started to feel super stuffed and hitting a wall.  But I kept chugging along.  The steamed buns were a disappointment.  They were definitely not worth $15 at all and compared to the Momofuku buns I just had the other day, it was light years different.  The buns totally stuck to the bottom of the steamer, to the point where I don't think anyone got an intact bun.  So it's hard to have the full steamed bun experience when the bread has totally disintegrated in front of you.  Then the one I got didn't have any hoisin sauce in it, just the duck and some pickled cucumber.  The duck itself was ok, there was no skin or fat to it, so without the sauce it was a bit dry.  Knowing that you can get much higher quality bun for 1/4 of the price in Chinatown definitely makes these buns even less appealing.  Luckily, the black cod wrapped in butter lettuce was a much more successful dish.  The cod was covered in a miso glaze and the fish was nice and tender but my one complaint would be that the pieces of lettuce were too big for the fish.  While I do love butter lettuce, when it's 3 times the size of the fish, it kind of overwhelms the cod which should be the star of the dish.  By the time I got to the spaghetti and meatballs I could barely move.  The noodles were made from lo mein and were in a sweet chili sauce with a chicken meatball.  I did like the meatball a lot and the noodles were fine but again, I had reached the point in the meal where I could have had the best dish ever and I probably wouldn't have noticed because I was too busy being full.  After these two dishes, out came the mac and cheese ($18) and the diver scallops ($28).  For me, it's really hard to get mac and cheese wrong, especially when it comes with truffle oil.  This dish was decadent and super super rich but yummy at the same time.  As with my meal at Empellon, I wished I had saved room for the scallops.  This one came with a black mushroom puree, which honestly made the dish look really unappetizing.  Unless it's squid ink, I'm not a huge fan of having my dish covered in black sauce.  The scallops were pretty huge and served with nicely cooked asparagus (they were cooked enough to not be raw but had a great crunch to them).   We finally finished the meal with a giant red velvet cupcake, which I thought was a bit on the dry side and should have had cream cheese frosting instead of plain vanilla.  To be honest, I went in to dinner thinking I would hate it based on a lot of negative Yelp reviews.  But I was actually ok with the place.  I totally see where most people are coming from in that it's overly trendy for no reason and the price most definitely are not justified.  But this is the type of place that's great for birthdays which was why I was there.  The total bill was $1,033 (so roughly $110/pp with tax and tip)!  

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Empellon Cocina Visited 8/13/2012 3 Forks

Empellon Cocina 105 1st Ave., (between 6th St & 7th St ), New York, NY 10003

After a long day of eating at a client meeting, we ended up going out to eat with them at 6pm to Empellon Cocina.  It's not that I wasn't excited to go out to eat, but I was so full from eating all day that I just couldn't bring myself to eat a full meal so quickly afterwards.  But I couldn't say no to a business dinner.

I had been to Empellon in the West Village and thought it was ok, so to be honest I wasn't 100% excited to try the East Village version, but hey, you never know, right?  The concept here is very similar to Empellon, fancy small Mexican plates.  You won't find giant burritos or enchiladas here.  Since we were a huge group, we told the waitress to just order whatever she liked for us (yes, it was that kind of dinner).  We started with the Guacamole, Masa Crisps, Pistachios ($12).  The pistachios gave it a nice twist on your regular guacamole.  We then tried chips with 7 different kinds of salsa ($3 per salsa):  Sikil Pak (the mildest salsa - zero heat, came with pumpkin seeds), smoked cashew (very smoky with a hint of chipotle), salsa borracha (I don't think I tried this one), tomatillo chipotle (the tomatillo flavor was subtle but the heat does hit you afterwards), salsa de arbol (also didn't try) and the spiciest of them all, the salsa habanera (many people had tears in their eyes after trying this).   After the salsas came the Roasted Carrots, Mole Poblano, Yogurt, Watercress.  Honestly I am not a huge fan of carrots, but this one was pretty darn good.  The carrots looked very rustic, almost like they were just pulled out of the ground and they were roasted to the point where it was soft but not mushy and I thought the yogurt was a great touch.  Next up was the Swordfish Ceviche, Herbs,
Salsa Veracruz ($15).  Normally I don't think of swordfish as a ceviche and this seemed less of a ceviche than sashimi to me.  When I think of ceviche, I think of it marinating in lime and cilantro but this one was served on a plate and didn't really have any acidity to it.  It was fine because I like raw fish but it wasn't a wow plate.  After this dish, we had the Mezcal Cured Ocean Trout, Cream
Cheese, Roe, Sal de Gusanos ($18).  Even though it was trout it was orange and looked exactly like salmon.  I loved it because it felt like I was eating salmon sashimi or even lox with the cream cheese garnish.  

At this point, I was so full but the food kept coming out.  Next was the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, Black Bean Vermicelli ($18).  I usually love Hen of the Woods Mushroom, but this dish didn't do it for me.  It might have been because by the time the dish got to me, there wasn't a lot of either the mushroom or vermicelli on the plate.  I just got the remnants/ends and didn't get the full experience of the dish.  After this dish, we had the Melted Tetilla Cheese, Lobster, Tortillas ($19).  This was the dish that I was most excited by mostly because it had lobster in it.  The tortillas were great, super thin but sturdy enough to hold all the cheese.  But the actual cheese and lobster mixture was too heavy on the cheese that I felt like I was just eating a cheese quesadilla.  I mean, I know lobster is expensive but I really had to dig for the lobster in that plate.  At this point, I really felt like I couldn't eat anymore and then all of a sudden the Tongue Sopes, Refried Beans, Salsa de Arbol ($11) appeared in front of me.  I really was so full at this point that even if you had put my favorite food in front of me, I would have said no.  This dish was like a mini tart filled with meat and beans, except that the meat is tongue.  It really didn't gross me out nor did I think it was weird, but I was just so maxed out that I took one bite and had to stop eating.  You think the food would stop there or at least we would go straight to dessert.  But no.  Out comes the Maine Diver Scallops, Surryano Ham, Chilaquiles ($19).  Now I am not one to say no to scallops because I love them to death, so I had to try at least 1 of them and it was delicious.  I will say that for $19, you would expect several scallops on the dish but this dish only had 3 scallops on the plate.  Thank god I wasn't paying for dinner.   I was especially happy I wasn't paying for dinner when I saw the Grilled Wagyu Flat Iron Steak, Creamed Corn, Tamal Fries ($45) and Pork Belly Pibil, Pickled Red Onions, Achiote Mustard ($36) roll out.  I really really wished that I had room for these 2 dishes but I literally felt like I was going to explode.  I did have 1 same piece of the wagyu steak and it was fabulous.  It was perfectly red and rare in the middle and if I had room I would have demolished that plate.  It broke my heart when we couldn't finish the dish and the waitress took away an almost full plate of food.  The pork was on the other end of the table, so I didn't get to try it.  But several people at the end of the table were screaming at how inedible it was because it was pure fat.  Now I know that pork belly should have some good percentage of fat on it but by the looks of it, it looked to be almost all fat and really turned people off.  Finally, 3hours later and 6,000 calories later we were done with dinner.  Just as I thought we were going to get to go home, someone made a comment how we didn't order dessert.  Oh my god. I just wanted to get home and lay on the couch.  But I couldn't be rude.  So I stayed for dessert but didn't even try any of it.

All in all, these kinds of gluttonous dinners are great every now and then.  I have no clue how much the bill was but I can only imagine that it was $500+ given that we had 2 of everything above (except for the steak and pork belly).  Similar to what I thought about the West Village Empelllon, the food was way more expensive than it needed to be and the dishes too small.  But if you have the budget for it, it's worth trying out at least once.

Photo Credit: Yelp 
 
 

Laut Visited 8/12/2012 3 Forks

Laut 15 E 17th St, (between 5th Ave & W Union Sq), New York, NY 10003

I went to Laut years and years ago and always kind of had it in my mind as a good go to SE Asian place, but somehow never returned until last weekend.  Laut is one of the few places in the city that serves Malaysian and Indonesian food (in addition to some standard Thai dishes).  Having been to Bali recently I felt tempted to order a Mee Goreng or Nasi Goreng.  But after remembering that I had eaten those two dishes for 2 weeks straight not too long ago, I decided to stick with a simple Thai style noodle dish.  Laut has tons of noodle options: thin noodles, wide noodles, glass noodles, and egg noodles, but I settled for my usual wide flat noodle dish.  I got the Char Kueh Teow with chicken ($13) which is essentially a flat broad noodles with chives, bean sprouts, eggs and soy sauce with home made chili sauce.  In reality, most of the noodle dishes on the menu sound very similar except that there are one or two different ingredients.  For an appetizer, the group split the small bites combo ($13) which came with the shrimp puff, veggie spring roll and dumpling fritters.  You could really just call it a plate of fried food.  In all honesty, they all kind of tasted and looked the same except that one had shrimp, one had veggies and another had chicken in it.  After eating all that fried food, I kind of wished we ordered something "healthier" like steamed dumplings or the rice crepe.

Similar to most Thai places, the noodles came out pretty quickly afterwards and it was your good standard noodle fare.  It hit the spot in the right place but I wouldn't say that it was a wow dish that I would urge you to try immediately.  It's just a good standard staple dish, that's it.  Apparently this place has a Michelin star, which kind of boggles my mind because I would have never seen here.  I'm not saying it bad at all, but Michelin rated?!  Maybe I need to come back and try a lot more dishes.  There are a lot of other entrees and options that you don't see in a Thai/SE Asian places, so I would encourage anyone who comes here to perhaps not order a pad thai or like me a basic wide noodle dish (unless that's what you really want) and try a different type of SE Asian dish.  It's in a convenient location, so if you ever do find yourself in Union Square and need a quick/simple Asian rush, Laut is a good choice.  Total bill: $19/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp  

MAE Visited 8/11/2012 3.5 Forks

MAE (Modern American Eatery) 339 Communipaw Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07304

This is my first Jersey City review and I owe it to my lovely friend Patrick from work.  He had mentioned that he had eaten at this gem of a restaurant in Jersey City and wanted me to try.  I was more than happy to try something different and broaden my horizons and even better Patrick was willing to pick me and my friend Allison up from the PATH train.  I will caveat that if you don't have a car, it's not very easy to get to and it might even be a bit dangerous to get there via public transportation.  While Patrick gave us on a very nice tour of Jersey City (I had no idea they have such beautiful brownstones there), we did literally cross the other side of the tracks and you could immediately tell we were in the more "up and coming" part of town.  So MAE literally sticks out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood.  But it's a lovely bistro type place that I think would do really well in Brooklyn (they already have a hipster waitstaff afterall!).

The brunch menu is a prix fix of either a $12 option or $15 option depending on what entree you order.   It comes with either coffee and juice or a choice of bloody cesar (same thing like a bloody mary but with clamato juice), screwdriver or mimosa.  There were tons of great sounding options and I was torn between the crab benedict or the fried chicken breakfast burrito.  I ultimately decided on the crab benedict (surprise surprise), Patrick got the breakfast burrito and Allison got the vegetarian omelet.  As any long time reader of this blog would know, I am a harsh judge on a brunch place based on how well they poach an egg.  I am happy to say that MAE beautifully passed this test.  It was perfectly poached and super runny.  The crab cake underneath was pretty good (obviously it's not a MD full of crabmeat kind but it wasn't all filler either) and the muffin was perfectly soft.  The dish came with a side of homefries which were really roasted herb potatoes.  They were good, a bit on the undercooked side but they weren't raw.  I had a bite of Patrick's fried chicken burrito and sadly this was a disappointment.  It sounded so good, but it was very dry inside and out.  The tortilla was too thick and dry and you couldn't really taste the chicken.  Poor Patrick had to douse it with hot sauce just to get any flavor and moisture to it.  I didn't try Allison's veggie omelet but it did look really healthy and tasty.  We also this dessert that was a homemade biscuit covered with whipped cream and berries.  It looks delicious when it came out and we were all super excited to try it.  Unfortunately something was off with the biscuit.  It had this sour almost curdled taste to it.  But the berries and cream were great and I could see the potential in this dish and that if the biscuit was done right, that it would have been a great summer dessert.  Maybe there was buttermilk or sour cream in it? Who knows, but we did end up telling the waiter about it and he did feel bad about it.  Luckily, we all felt fine afterwards, so at least no one got food poisoning.

Even though 2 of the 4 dishes weren't stellar, I can see a lot of potential in this place.  They try to cook locally and organically which is pretty unique in a neighborhood filled with strip malls and check cash places.  If you happen to be in the neighborhood or have a car, I would say give it a try (maybe for dinner instead) and I do hope they consider opening a branch closer to the city because I would love to see them do well.  Total bill: $20/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

BLT Bar and Grill Visited 8/10/2012 2.5 Forks

BLT Bar and Grill W New York - Downtown, 123 Washington St., NY 10006

Despite my low rating, I am so glad that I came here for lunch on Friday instead of the usual awful PJ Clarke's option at work.  Usually when we go for a nicer lunch at work, we end up at PJ's and it just always a terrible experience.  Now that Goldman has opened across the street, there are a few more options such as Blue Smoke and North End Grill, but BLT is also a nice option on the other side of the building.

We came here as part of my "farewell" lunch at work since I'm moving on to a new role next week.  Since we were such a large group, we ordered a ton of appetizers to start and then each ordered an entree (which was totally unnecessary - I'll explain later).  We got the tuna tartare ($16), fried calamari ($11), marghertia pizza ($12),  heirloom tomato pizza ($15), sausage and broccoli rabe pizza ($14), polenta ($6), mac and cheese ($11), and the chopped salad ($14).  You'd think with all this food that we wouldn't need more food, but somehow we all thought that we needed our own entrees as well.  I ordered the BLT Burger ($16) as did a lot of my other co-workers and some others got other sandwiches and pastas.  Thank god for the appetizers as its what saved my meal.  The tuna tartare was served in a cube with soy, wasabi, avocado base, and crispy shallots.  It was a bit too chopped up that it made it hard to eat but overall the flavor was clean and refreshing.  The calamari was ok, kind of bland but nothing terrible.  I am a huge poletna fan, so I was pretty disappointed when this one wasn't very good.  This one was served with aged cheddar, bacon and scallions and a LOT of salt.  It was took one bite and couldn't eat another bite.  It felt like I was eating a salt lick.  The star of the appetizers has got to be the mac and cheese.  It was served using penne pasta and lots lots of delicious cheese.  It wasn't the gooey type of cheese, it was more similar to a gratin style cheese.  It was heavy and clearly so bad for you but that's what makes it so yummy.  Everyone else at the table loved it too.  I also tried the sausage and broccoli pizza which was pretty good.  It's a thin crust pizza and not heavy or greasy which you sometimes get when you order pizza.  If I had ended my meal here, I probably would have given them 3 or even 3.5 Forks.  What brought them all the way down to 2.5 Forks was what came during the entrees.

As soon as I saw my burger, I knew something was wrong.  I ordered mine medium rare and this was beyond medium.  It was close to being black and it was very dry.  Also the burger was supposed to be served with aged cheddar, double smoked bacon and fries.   Mine had no cheese and had sauteed onions instead.  Luckily I like onions but these tasted over soaked in sherry wine.  I'm so glad that I was full from the appetizers, otherwise, I would have been starving at lunch.  I forced myself to eat at least half of it because otherwise I would have felt bad about wasting all that food.  If we weren't in a hurry to get back to the office, I would have sent it back.  The only saving grace of the dish was the fries.  They were pretty salty but they were crispy and quite tasty.  I later realized how salty my burger was too because I drank almost 3 pints of water as soon as I got back to the office.  Another deduction was also due to the fact that they messed up 2 of my other co-workers burgers.  My friend had ordered the BLT burger too but got the Blue Cheese Burger (same thing happened to my other co-worker).  Messing up 1 order is bad enough but to mess up 3 people's orders is just a poor reflection of the restaurant.

Despite the bad burger experience, I would still come back for a work lunch since it's a much more pleasant experience than PJ Clarke's.  The appetizers were good enough to encourage me to try it for another work lunch although I probably wouldn't come back for personal reasons.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Roman's Visited 8/5/2012 2 Forks

Roman's 243 DeKalb Ave., (between Clermont Ave & Vanderbilt Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11205

Roman's has got to be one of more disappointing restaurants I've been to in recent months.  And it pains me to say it because its from the people who brought us Marlow&Sons and Diner, both of which I love.  The inside of Roman's is lovely and the waitstaff is also very nice.  But as soon as I looked at the brunch menu I was like "Huh? This is it?"  The menu was only 1 page, which is fine as long as there are great things to choose from.  But the menu here had almost nothing brunch-y at all.  While I am an adventurous eater, sometimes all I want for brunch is a good egg dish with a side of bacon or sausage (or both!).  The menu here was much more refined lunch than brunch.  It featured items like crostini with chicken liver, burrata with fresh peaches, string bean salad, poached eggs on a lentil salad, and spaghetti.   While I'm sure these dishes could be good, I just wasn't in the mood for any them at 11:30AM on a Sunday.  I settled on the most brunch-y item on the menu, the frittata with aioli and watercress salad ($12) and Cicily got the Mozzarella in Carrozza ($12) and we split an order of homemade donuts ($4).

The frittata was made with potatoes, beans and mushrooms and wasn't very impressive.  The aioli on top of it was overly salty and I personally don't like watercress so that just wasn't a good pairing for me.  The Mozzarella in Carrozza sounded really good when the waitress described it (she said it was a mozzerella sandwich lightly battered and fried) but Cicily had about 3-4 bites and didn't finish it.  The saving grace of the meal was the donuts.  They were light and fluffy sugar donuts and I could have ordered an entire dozen.  I left brunch feeling unsatisfied but I will caveat that I have been to many places where it's good for brunch but terrible for dinner or vice versa.  So maybe this place has a much better lunch/dinner experience but I probably won't really go back to find out.   But the one good thing was that it was pretty cheap:  $33/total including tax.

Photo Credit: Eater

   

Kingswood Visited 8/4/2012 3.5 Forks

Kingswood 121 W 10th St., (between 17th St & 18th St), New York, NY 10011

I've walked past Kingswood a few times before but it never really crossed my mind to try it.  I thought it would be your typical cute West Village bar/restaurant.  But apparently it's some uber trendy hot spot because when I was there for dinner last night, the place was packed to the gills with people you would think should be in the Hamptons (sprinkled with a few hipsters).  A bunch of us were seated at a long communal table and really when you have a group larger than 4 people, it's just really hard to talk to be able to talk to anyone who isn't the person directly in front or next to you.  So that was a bit annoying but otherwise I loved the simple farm-like decor of the restaurant.

The menu is a bunch of American farm-to-table style small plates and a few large plates.  The waitress had suggested that we order a bunch of plates to try but everyone kind of had their own thing that they wanted to try, so most of us did order 1 appetizer and 1 main and we did all nibble on each others appetizers.  I had just spent the day helping to bag up and lug around a ton of vegetables at the farmer's market, so I was starving and decided that I deserved a burger.  The burger came with cheddar cheese, sweet chili and arugula ($17) and I decided to get avocado for $2 extra.  Other dishes that people got were the lobster roll ($15 - it's a small sized roll), roasted beets $8), roasted carrots ($7), zucchini flowers ($12), buttermilk sandwich ($12), shaved fennel ($10) and lamb crumble ($16).  I tried the zucchini flowers which were lightly battered and stuffed with goat cheese.  It was pretty delicious, although I might even say that there was too much goat cheese inside (I know, I know, how how there possibly be too much goat cheese but it did overpower the zucchini flower a bit?!).  I also tried the roasted beets and they were served warm and to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of warm beets.  I like them served chilled so that just took some getting used to.  I also nibbled on the fennel and it re-affirmed my dislike for fennel (tastes too much like black liquorish).  When the burger came out, it looked juicy and overwhelming at the same time.  I usually don't like cutting my burger in half but I just had to do it here because it just looked like it was too much to handle on its own.  The burger was most definitely medium rare - closer on the rare side.  I really did love the taste of the burger, the mix of the sweet chili, cheese and avocado was fantastic.  My only issue was that everything inside the bun at some point just couldn't stay inside and the whole thing kind of fell apart on me.  Usually that's because the bun to burger ratio isn't right and the bun can't hold everything and the burger starts to slide out.  It was a shame because the bread looked really tasty, but I ended up eating the burger Atkins style (sans bun) because it was just too hard to deal with.   I should note that the burger was served with truffle fries and they were delicious although just a tad bit on the salty side.  We ended the meal with the blood orange sorbet and the pot de chocolate.  The sorbet was great and super refreshing with the right touch of blood orange flavoring.  The chocolate was fine, I guess as someone who isn't a huge chocolate lover, I could have done without it, but it did taste like your average chocolate pudding.

I do want to note that I didn't love the cocktail I got (Kingswood No. 3).  To be honest, I don't remember what was in it but it was pretty bland and not refreshing or frankly enjoyable.   I had to switch to the rose later which was actually quite good.  The waitress there was super nice and friendly and helped move the dinner along without being too pushy or overbearing.  I would be interested in checking this place out for brunch and it definitely seems like the place to be for a drink/date.

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Mission Chinese Visited 8/3/2012 3 Forks

Mission Chinese 154 Orchard St., (between Stanton St & Rivington St), New York, NY 10002

Mission Chinese has got to be one of the most hyped restaurant of 2012.  Along with Pok Pok and Yunnan Kitchen, Mission Chinese has made Asian food way hipster these days.  I had tried to go to Mission Chinese a few weeks ago and got there at 7:15, only to be told that it would be a 2+ hour wait (it turned out to be actually 3 hours later when they called me).  But I was determined to try to this place out and Holly and I braved the line on a Friday night.  The restaurant opens at 5:30pm and similar to Parm and Pok Pok, the key to not getting discouraged here is to go as soon as they open and either be ok with eating at a time when only senior citizens eat or knowing that you'll be seated during the 2nd wave of diners which will be at least 1-1 1/2 hours later.  I got to Mission at 5:45pm and there was already a line at least 20+ people deep.  Geez.  By the time we got to the front of the line, we missed the 1st wave and was told it would be about an hour wait.  That's actually totally fine by me since I didn't really want to eat at 6pm.

So Holly and I went over to Stanton Social to cool down and for some fancy cocktails.  I won't review it since we didn't eat there but I will say that you are ever in the neighborhood and need a very cold place to sit and sip on great cocktails, Stanton Social is the place to be.  It totally hit the spot. By the time we were nice and cool and 2 cocktails deep 1 hour later, Mission Chinese called.  Perfect timing.

The inside of Mission Chinese is pretty small, with about 10 tables and 4 seats at the "bar" (it's more like a countertop than a bar).  It's pretty dark inside and it's got a giant paper dragon attached to the ceiling that runs the length of the restaurant.  The front of the menu are small plates and the back of the menu are large plates.  The nice thing about the menu was that nothing was more than $15. Holly and I even joked that our cocktails at Stanton Social were more than most of the dishes here (our cocktails were $13 each).  The menu is a good mix of "normal" Chinese food like peanut noodles, mapo tofu and eggplant and more adventurous eats like braised pig tails, pig ear terrine and "married couple's beef" which was beef tongue, heart and tripe mixed together.  Our waiter said that for 2 people, 2 small dishes and 2 large dishes would be plenty.  He also mentioned that they don't adjust the spiciness level of any of the dishes, so that's just something to keep in mind as you order as there are quite a few spicy dishes.   Holly and I ordered the smashed cucumber in garlic sauce ($4), vinegar peanuts ($4), broccoli beef brisket with oyster sauce ($15), kung pao pastrami ($11) and since we were hungry we got a 3rd large dish of sizzling cumin lamb breast ($15).  The cucumber and peanuts came our right away (I had later noticed that they just keep a bunch of them already made in the fridge in the hallway) and the cucumber wasn't exactly what I thought it would be.  I thought that they would be thin slices of cucumber but these were not even slices of cucumber but giant wedges and they were more on their way to being a pickle than a refreshing cucumber.  I didn't try the peanuts but they were actually swimming in the vinegar and Holly mentioned that it would have been nice if the peanuts were dry and not moist.

The lamb came out next and you could most definitely taste the cumin.  In fact the cumin was a bit too overwhelming and for me, cumin is not a seasoning that I like a lot of (I prefer it to be more subtle).  The lamb was also a bit too fatty.  There was more fat than meat on the bones which made it difficult to cut through the meat.  The part of the meat I did have was a bit dry and burned at the edges.  The beef brisket and broccoli came out next and this was my favorite dish (and yes, pretty similar to the very Americanized beef and broccoli).  The broccoli was Chinese broccoli and usually I don't like Chinese broccoli for some reason but this was pretty good..maybe because it was covered in a ton of garlic oyster sauce.  The brisket was also incredibly tender and unlike the lamb, you could actually cut with with just the soup spoon.  Next came the kung pao pastrami which is what Mission Chinese is known for.  Honestly, it was fine but my mind wasn't blown away by it.  It tastes exactly how it sounds.  Cubes of salty pastrami served with the kung pao flavors of spicy chili, peppers, onions, peanuts and celery.  Honestly, I would have preferred to have tried something like the eggplant or tofu instead.  Looking back, the waiter was definitely spot on with the ordering suggestion of 2 small and 2 large dishes.  I was so full and the last large dish was totally unnecessary but it's so hard to not over order when you're hungry.

I'm glad that I finally tried this place but it's most definitely not worth more than a hour wait tops.  Frankly, I thought Yunnan Kitchen was a lot better and if you know where to go in Flushing or even Chinatown, you can get better Chinese food there too.  Total bill: $36/pp with tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Wahoo's Fish Taco Visited 8/1/2012 3.5 Forks

Wahoo's Fish Taco 333 Park Ave S, (between 24th St & 25th St), New York, NY 10010

Wahoo's Fish Taco is really more of a casual/fast foodish type place rather than a restaurant. But I figured that I would blog about it since it's a relatively new/different chain to the NYC area.  The decor of this place is very skater/surfer/Cali like (so obviously so different from NYC in that respect already).  Despite its name, there is so much more than just fish tacos.  It's similar to Chipotle in that they have burritos, burrito bowls, tacos and salads.  But they also have platters, enchiladas, sandwiches and other sides.  Since I had just had a burrito bowl for lunch at work, I decided to stick with the namesake and get 2 fish tacos, brown rice and black beans ($8).  There is no waitstaff at Wahoo's.  You order at the counter, they give you a number and someone will come and find you to give you your food. 

If I wasn't in a hurry, I would have gotten a beer there too since they had great happy hour specials ($4 beers, $5 wine and sangria).  The fun thing about this place is that they have a full bar, which is fantastic if you want a real drink with your food.  For $8, I was super impressed with the amount of food and the quality of it.  The white fish was lightly grilled and it was actually a fairly decent sized fillet inside the taco.  I got the soft taco and they came with really nice corn tortillas, shredded cabbage, pico de gallo and cheese.  There's also this awesome green sauce (why is green sauce always so awesome?!?!) that really made the dish unique.  I wished that I had gotten an extra side of green sauce.  The taco was sturdy but soft and even though there were only 2 tacos, I was super full by the end of my meal.  It was a great, light alternative to having a meat based taco.  The brown rice was cooked well; surprisingly fluffy and soft to eat.  Usually it's pretty easy to make brown rice super dry and gross, but I actually felt very healthy while I was eating it.  The black beans had a lot of flavor to it and the rice and beans itself was almost a 2nd meal for me.

I didn't give Wahoo's 4 forks mostly because it's just really more of a casual cafeteria style place vs. a restaurant.  But the food is a great alternative to gross fast food/deli food in the city and I hope they open more of them in the city (especially if they all have full bars).

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Mile End Sandwich Visited 7/31/2012 3 Forks

Mile End Sandwich 53 Bond St., (between Bowery & 2nd St), New York, NY 10012

When I lived in Park Slope, I had really wanted to try Mile End since it was in a nearby neighborhood and I had heard great things about their smoked meat.  Mile End is famous for its Montreal/Jewish smoked meat a la Schwartz's (which is the world famous smoked meats place in Montreal).  Sadly I never got around to go to Mile End and then moved to another part of Brooklyn that made getting to Mile End not that convenient.  

So I was glad to hear when they opened a sandwich shop in the city and I decided to stop by last night to pick up a sandwich since I literally have just a jar of peanut butter in my fridge.  Their menu has a lot more than just a smoked meat sandwich.  They had wagyu roast beef, smoked turkey, fried eggplant, veal tongue, and a ton of yummy sounding breakfast sandwiches.  I was tempted to go roast beef or fried eggplant but I figured I was here for the smoked meat sandwich ($12), so I should stick with it.  I also ordered a side of potato salad ($3.50) since I thought that I would need something to go along with it and ordering a side of poutine would have just been too gluttonous for 1 person to eat.  I watched as the guy behind the counter very carefully weighted exactly how much smoked meat to put on the bread.  At first glance, the bread looked to be really small and honestly,  it was.  But they made up for it by piling the meat up way high vertically.  I was shocked that the sandwich could even stand on its own without a toothpick or something.  I should almost mention that they also slather the bread with a really strong dijon-like mustard.  Growing up I hated mustard but somehow have turned a corner with it lately (along with my late blooming love for avocado and brussel sprouts).  The meat was pretty lean in the middle and the bits at the end/edges had some nice fat to it to offset a bit of the dryness.  I did end up dipping the sandwich in mustard with every bite.  I'm not sure if it was because I really liked the mustard or because I thought the sandwich was missing something.  But none the less, I would get yourself an extra side of mustard when you go.  But you would have never imagined that this smallish looking sandwich could be so damn filling.  I forced myself to finish the whole thing and wished that I had saved half because I felt awful afterwards.  I did find the sandwich to be a bit too salty.  For every bite I had, I was chugging water at the same time and I must have gone through at least 4 pints of water by the end of the meal.  As for the potato salad, I actually really loved it.  They used wedges of small red potatoes with the skin on with just the right amount of mayo (not too much that it was drowning in it but enough to keep it moist) and they also mixed it with red onion, scallion, and a light smattering of seasoning.  I can honestly say it's one of the best potato salads I've had in a while. 

I'm glad I tried the sandwich here but looking back my meal, it  cost me almost $17, which honestly seemed a bit ridiculous for a small sandwich and potato salad.  But I could be persudaded to go back and try another sandwich because they did sound really good and if I'm with someone else, I would definitely try the poutine.  

Photo Credit: Yelp