Hangawi Visited 10/27/2012 3 Forks

Hangawi 12 E 32nd St., (between 5th Ave & Madison Ave), New York, NY 10016

I had been to Hangawi years ago and remembered really liking it.  It's not that I didn't like my food here last night but my mind wasn't blown away by it.  It could have been that maybe I ordered the wrong thing but I left thinking that I've had better Korean food before (and it has nothing to do with the fact that this place is vegetarian food only).  The decor here is very mature, subdued and formal.  They make you take your shoes off when you enter and you sit on woven straw mats and it's very dark and quiet inside.  We didn't have a reservation but they told us we could sit if we could leave the table by 8:30.  I was fine with that but I do hate it when restaurants kind of start pushing you out before you are ready.  It's their job to manage the schedule properly and while I appreciate them giving us a heads up, I was annoyed that they would have possibly not seated us if need be.

So as I mentioned, everything on the menu is vegetarian friendly and most of it is vegan and gluten friendly as well.  So I felt super healthy eating there.  A funny comment that both Vid and Aarti both made was that they were overwhelmed by all the choices and that this must be what it feels like for me most of the time since in most cases, I can eat anything on a menu but they are limited to the few veggies options.  But I do equally like vegetarian food and was also overwhelmed with all the tofu and mushroom choices.  We ended up ordering the stuffed shiitake mushrooms ($11) and the kabocha pumpkin pancakes with mung bean ($12) to share.  Aarti and I both got the avocado stone rice bowl ($21) and Vid got the grilled tofu ($19).  In all seriousness, if you are a vegetarian you will be in heaven because of all the different options that isn't just a side salad.  The stuffed mushrooms came out first and they were interesting. It wasn't actually a stuffed mushroom, but looked more like a shiitake mushroom on top of some weird almond tasting cookie.  Alright, it wasn't actually a cookie but it didn't seem like a mushroom either but it was tan crispier than a mushroom and it tasted like marzipan.  Next was the pumpkin pancakes.  Apparently I'm on a pumpkin kick since I also had pumpkin tempura at Sushi of Gari the night before.  This pancake was supposed to have shredded pumpkin with mung bean but honestly I didn't taste either of them.  All I tasted was a savory korean style pancake/crepe and it was served with a light soy dipping sauce.  I really couldn't see or tell what the pancake was stuffed with, which was a bit disappointing.  Then came our main entrees and while I knew that the stone bowl would be steaming hot, the exterior stone REALLY seals the heat in.  I mean, it was practically on fire and made it really difficult to eat because it was so damn hot.  The stone bowl was supposed to be served with a variety of vegetables and tofu over rice and mixed with a miso sauce.  But similar to the pancake, what was supposed to be in this dish was hard to find.  I could barely tell there was tofu in there and there wasn't a ton of vegetables.  I poured the entire side of miso sauce and hot sauce to make up for what seemed to be missing.  It was basically a lot of rice and seaweed and half an avocado on the side.   I will say that when I ate my leftovers the next day and it was a lot cooler, I did find the dish much more enjoyable to eat.  I tried Vid's tofu dish and it was delicious.  It was a huge plate of 10+ pieces of grilled tofu with a sesame leaf and seaweed sauce.  Aarti and I both commented how we wished we had gotten that instead.

Luckily by the time 8:30 rolled around we were pretty much done with dinner.  But that didn't stop the waiters from giving us the check and taking away our plates without even asking if we were done or needed anything else.  I completely get that a group of people with a reservation shouldn't have to wait too long for their table, but I thought it was a bit rude to just start packing up our table right away.  I did notice that while we were leaving there wasn't a group of people waiting for our table which made me eve more irritated that we were ushered out so quickly.  Total bill: $36/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Sushi of Gari Tribeca Visited 10/26/2012 4 Forks

Sushi of Gari Tribeca 130 West Broadway (between Duane St & Thomas St), New York, NY 10013

While I love love love sushi, very rarely do I go to the fancier sushi places such as Sushi Yasuda, Nobu, Sushi Azabu and Sushi of Gari (mostly because they are a bit too expensive for a regular night out).  But this Friday Amy, Kristen and I decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the new Sushi of Gari in Tribeca.  The first thing I noticed was that the space was really weird.  Normally I don't judge or doc a lot of forks for decor but the space here was just really awkward.  At most sushi places the sushi bar is front and center and a focal point of the restaurant.  Here, I had no idea where it was.  I never saw it.  I think it's because the place is broken up into two floors and perhaps it was on the floor we weren't sitting at? We were sitting on the main floor but it was very small and cramped and just a weird layout for a restaurant.   I did appreciate that it was a more quiet, reserved restaurant and not some uber trendy loud sushi restaurant that you might expect from being in Tribeca. 

Ok, well on to the food.  The menu here is very traditional sushi, so there's no crazy rolls with a million ingredients to it.  Most of the sushi and rolls are very simple, clean pieces where the primary focus is the fish.  It's really the way great sushi should be and it reminded me of the sushi I had in Japan.  I would have loved to have ordered the omakase ($100/pp) and I've read that it's the best way to go at a place like this but none of us were really into spending that much money.  But I would totally do it next time for a special occasion.  Instead we all split the following: Kabocha Tempura ($7), Kani Shumai ($7.50), Kaiso Salad ($7.50), Futomaki ($23),  3 pieces of fresh salmon sushi ($4/each), spicy scallop roll ($9.50), eel and avocado roll ($11.50) and fatty tuna with scallion ($14).  I got 1 piece of sea urchin sushi ($9.50) and the waiter had told us that we should try the omakase special salmon with tomato sushi ($5/piece), so Amy got 1 piece of that.  The Kaiso Salad is a seaweed salad made of 4 different kinds of seaweed (most of it wasn't your typical bright green one that you usually get at most sushi places) with a homemade onion dressing.  It was a nice start to the meal and the dressing was similar to the ginger dressing that you get in the salads you get at other typical sushi places.  Next came the kabocha tempura which is basically Japanese pumpkin tempura and it was delicious.  It's very similar to a sweet potato tempura and not so much like the pumpkin you would normally think of.  The kani shumai (3 pieces) was also fantastic.  You could really taste the freshness of the shumai and knew that it wasn't some previously frozen dumpling.  It came with a small side of freshly ground wasabi which added a nice bit of heat to it.  Now for the star of the show, the sushi.  The rolls and sushi were presented very simply on a sleek black bento box while the futomaki was on a separate plate because consisted of 8 HUGE pieces.  I'm generally not a huge fan of pieces that are so large that you have to take multiple bites to finish it and this futomaki was no exception.  It was just so messy to have to bite it in half and then have the eel, egg, and veggies spill out of the roll.  Next I moved on to the fresh salmon sushi and it was amazing.  The salmon melted in your mouth and was simply delicious.  The fatty tuna and scallion roll also brought me back Tokyo and remembering how fresh the tuna was there.  There is nothing like a fresh piece of fatty tuna but it can be pricey which is why when I eat it, I really savor every bite.  The spicy scallop was also terrific and while I am a sucker for spicy mayo, I'm glad that the roll didn't have the spicy sauce on it.  They kept it simply with a bunch of chopped up raw and some sauteed scallop mixed together.  Also mind blowing was the sea urchin sushi.  I've had some great uni experiences and some not so great ones.  This one ranks in the great bucket.  It was super creamy and buttery tasting and felt like a luxurious reward in your mouth.  Surprisingly, I was fairly full from sharing all of these rolls.  I was totally expecting to still be hungry but there was just enough rice on these rolls to really fill you up. 

I give the quality of the food there 5 forks, but the set-up for the restaurant was just a bit weird and it is not cheap (although it is worth paying extra for good sushi vs. paying extra for a good burger or pasta) which put it around the 4 fork mark.  Next time I have a special occasion I would totally come back here and without a doubt splurge on the omakase.  Total bill: $60/pp with tip and tax. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Golden Unicorn Visited 10/21/2012 4 Forks

Golden Unicorn 18 E Broadway, (between Catherine St & Market St), New York, NY 10002

My love for dim sum knows no bounds.  I wish that I could eat it all the time but it's not always easy to drag my butt to Chinatown on a weekend morning and the lines can be painfully long if you don't get there early enough.  Luckily, Mabel and I made the right choice and got to Golden Unicorn at 11AM which just before the mad crazy rush.

Golden Unicorn is your classic dim sum place.  It's in a huge Chinese restaurant with really loud and slightly obnoxious waitstaff and pushcarts filled with steaming hot dim sum.  It's just the way I like it.  I can go a bit nuts when ordering dim sum, but Mabel and I did keep it to 6 dishes (which I think is a record for me):  shrimp dumplings, shumai, shrimp crepes, sticky rice in banana leafs, turnip cake, and some other kind of dumplings in a broth.  Everything tasted very freshly made and you could tell that they just came out of the kitchen because they were incredibly hot.  I've been to a couple places where the dim sum is cold and looked like it had been circulating around for hours before hand.  But everything here looked to be made not too long ago and they did a pretty good job of always moving the carts around so that you're not waiting around for food to come your way.  I had been to Golden Unicorn years and years ago and I don't remember what the quality of the food was, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised.  It definitely impressed me.

One specific comment I'll make about the food is that usually the sticky rice dish I get comes in 1 giant leaf but these were individual sized portions, which I thought was a great idea so that you aren't double dipping and using your fork to constantly scrape out the rice.  My one complaint with the food was that the dipping sauce for the turnip cake was incredibly salty, to the point where I left lunch dying for a giant bottle of water.  One of the best things about dim sum is the price.  I know I can always leave feeling incredibly full, happy that I was able to try a variety of different dishes and pay under $20.  The total bill for both of us was $17/pp including tax and tip.   When we left around 12:15pm, the line outside was a hot mess.  There must have been at least 25-30 people just standing in the elevator lobby waiting for the hostess to scream their number into a microphone.  Ahh, Chinatown, gotta love it.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Wei West Visited 10/19/2012 3 Forks

Wei West 235 Murray St., New York, NY 10282

The only reason a place like Wei West ends up on my blog is because of its convenient location to my office.  Before Goldman moved in, there was only PJ Clarke's, the Grill Room and Southwest as the only sit down options and frankly they're (or were - both the Grill Room and Southwest have closed) all pretty sub-par. Now there's Harry's Italian, Blue Smoke, North End Grill and Wei West which aren't amazing restaurants either but they're at least a notch above those options.  Allison and I went to Wei West for lunch on a Friday afternoon and I was surprised at how crowded it was.  But they do a good job of understanding the business lunch crowd by getting you your food  and bill quickly.  The big problem with places like PJ Clarke's or North End Grill is that they take FOREVER to get you your food and in an area where most lunch time goers only have an hour or 1 1/2 hours tops, it's really important to be able to get people in and out in time for their 1pm meetings.

Wei West has a nice variety of lunch box specials.  They are a bit pricey for what they offer but every now and then I'm willing to spend $20 for a decent lunch.  I got the sashimi bento box ($16.50) which came with soup, 3 dumplings, a small serving of fried rice, a California roll, and 6 small cuts of sashimi.  The food came out in about 10 minutes which was nice because it enabled us to eat our food at a normal pace and not have to worry about shoveling our food in 5 minutes so that we can rush back to the office.  The miso soup was your basic soup, nothing to write home about.  The dumplings were also fine, although the skin was a bit thicker than I like and they clearly weren't freshly made, but hey, that's not what I was expecting here.  The fried rice was made with a bit too much soy sauce but the serving size was about 5-6 bites, so it was bearable but if you ordered the fried rice as your entree, it might have been too salty.  The California roll was actually pretty good and nicely made without too much rice wrapped on the outside.  California rolls aren't my favorite type of rolls (I think they are a cop out roll) but it was a nice addition to the bento box.  What was most surprising was the sashimi.  You know, it was actually pretty good.  I wasn't expecting much but it was very fresh tasting.  The tuna was very red and not that greyish or pinkish looking color that you sometimes see with lower end sushi places.  I really enjoyed the sashimi and wished that the cuts were bigger.  For $16.50, I would have rather had more or bigger pieces of sashimi and not had the fried rice or even the dumplings.  Allison got the 2 rolls lunch special which was choice of any 2 rolls and 1 soup for $12.95.  The rolls looked well made and better quality than the rolls in the cafeteria but it seems a bit pricey for just 2 small rolls.

Wei West is a nice alternative to the every day cafeteria options or the boring Cosi type sandwiches.  It's definitely not a destination restaurant nor would I ever go outside of work or happy hour.   Plus it's a wee bit overpriced but I'm still glad that it's there to satisfy my sushi/Asian food needs near work.  Total bill: $33 total for 2 with tax

Photo Credit: Yelp

Harry's Italian Pizza Bar Visited 10/18/2012 2.5 Forks

Harry's Italian Pizza Bar 225 Murray St., New York, NY 10282

While I wasn't a huge fan of the food at Harry's a do appreciate the fact that it's a new place near work and is a much welcomed addition to what was a desolate area.  I like it for happy hour since they have an actual bar area with seating (unlike Blue Smoke where the bar area is super skinny and tight). But food-wise, I wasn't a huge fan.

I met up with Amy and Anuja after work for a quick bite since they were headed to the movies right next door.  The food here is Italian (obviously from the name!) but it's definitely more your generic, tastes almost from a box and jar type Italian.  It's pretty similar to what you would get at a Cheesecake Factory.  Or food that I could make at home.  I've actually had their pizzas before and they were fine but I was kind of in the mood for pasta so I decided to get the Penne Vodka ($16) since it's not a type of pasta I get a lot or make at home.

I do think $16 is waaay too expensive for the food here.  Since it's literally across from Goldman Sachs, they probably think that they can get away with charging more for their food (reminder - there are other companies near you!).  When the pasta came out, it looked exactly how I expected.  It was the size of a baseball field and there wasn't anything super special to it.  They didn't offer to put any cheese on it - even though I probably could have done without the extra calories.  The pasta itself was a bit undercooked but overall it was totally an ok dish.  Nothing great, but not awful either.  Just really overpriced for what it was.  It was probably worth $8-10 at best.   I wish I had saved half of it so that I could have made it into two meals, but of course I always end up stuffing myself and I finished the whole thing and felt a bit awful later.

I do want to give a shout out for their drinks.  I got the Moscow Mule ($12) and it was pretty tasty.  I would much prefer to come here to drink instead of eating.  If you do want to have some snack-y food, I would recommend getting a pizza and splitting it with your friends instead.  Total bill: $75 total for 3 people with tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Murray's Cheese Bar Visited 10/19/2012 3.5 Forks

Murray's Cheese Bar 264 Bleecker St., (between Cornelia St & Morton St), New York, NY 10014

Except for those who are lactose intolerance, how the heck doesn't LOVE cheese? I love cheese on anything and in any formation.  So I was thrilled when Murray's Cheese Shop decided to open a restaurant completely dedicated to cheese.  When Anuja and I looked at the menu, we were so excited.  Every dish has a cheese component.  Wahoo!  The front page is mostly individual cheese portions for a cheese (and meat if you are interested) board and the back side are all dishes that somehow incorporate cheese (fondues, grilled cheese, burgers, cheese spreads, fried cheese like haloumi, mac and cheese, and baked cheese).  They do have a very small section of sides that don't have cheese such as beet salad and bibb lettuce salad.  I was torn between ordering a bunch of different kind of dishes like a fried cheese and fondue or getting a burger, but ultimately I was craving meat so I went with the special burger which came with gorgonzola cheese on it ($17).

But first Anuja and I split a flight of cheese (3 kinds) for $12.  The selection is the cheesemonger's choice, which takes the pressure off of trying to pick from the 20+ types of cheese they have on their menu.  You can tell them if you don't like certain types of cheese, which prevents you from getting some cheese that you don't like.  I see ordering fancy cheese as similar to ordering wine.  I know that there's a lot of variety and I know what I like but I couldn't tell you for the life of me the names of what I like besides some of the very basic ones.   The cheesemonger came out with a plate of 3 cheeses and she started to rattle off their names and their texture and flavors and honestly, it went in one ear and out the other.   The 1st cheese was similar in consistency to a brie (a soft cheese) but it had a light taste to it.  It was served with a delicious apple butter jam that I wanted to put on everything.  The 2nd cheese and 3rd cheese were both harder cheeses that were similar to a cheddar cheese but not as sharp.  Sorry, I know these are pretty lame descriptions but I just had a hard time remembering everything the cheesemonger told us.  I also loved that they served the us breads and fancy crackers in a little cute bag with the cheese. I was glad that we only got the 3 flight because I was starting to get kind of full off of it. 

I was super excited for a big juicy burger but imagine my surprise when my burger came out and there was no bun.  This was not mentioned anywhere on the menu nor did the waitress tell me about it.  Now there was bread, the burger was served on a large kind of multi-grain Texas style slice of bread but I was expecting an actual bun that would hold my burger on both sides.  But I was willing to give it a try.  The burger itself was almost a bit too rare.  I do like my burgers medium rare and it didn't really bother me, but to those who are squeamish of a lot of pink in their burger, I would say be forewarned because it was borderline completely rare.  The gorgonzola was in full force on the burger.  I know it's a strong cheese but good god, it was very strong and there was a tad too much of it on the burger that it made it hard to taste much else.  I did finish my burger completely but I would have still preferred a traditional burger with an actual bun.  Some people at the table next to us got the cheddar  burger and it was served the same way and instead of it being served with a slice of cheddar it was a liquid cheese that you pour over the entire burger.  Crazy.  They should be a bit more descriptive on their menu with their burgers.  I didn't try Anuja's grilled cheese but she mentioned that that cheese to bread ratio was a bit too high (I could tell as at the end of the meal she just had a huge pile of cheese on her plate).  She did say that the bread was nice and buttery and toasted well.  The dish was served with a small cup of tomato soup, which is always the perfect match for grilled cheese.

All in all, I loved the concept of the place.  I totally get that they are dedicated to cheese, but they kind of need to dial it down on their dishes.  The cheese can still be the star of a dish without overpowering it.  But it's a fun place to try and a cute date place if you just want to get a meat and cheese plate.  Total bill: $78 (mostly because Anuja accidentally ordered a $22 bottle of beer. :) ) with tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter Visited 10/18/2012 3 Forks

Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter 94 Ave C., New York, NY 10009

I was so excited to try this place because it's been written up in a lot of blogs as having great fried chicken and other heart stopping food.  While the food wasn't bad (more on that later), something went awry with the fryer and Jenn and Kristen and I literally waited over 30 minutes for our food, and waiting that long for food kind of soured me to the whole dinner (even though they were very polite about it and I'm sure they were stressing out about it too).

The restaurant itself is very casual and small.  There are about 4 tables and then 4-5 seats at the bar.  You order at the counter and they then bring your food to you, so there's no waitstaff or any formal dining experience.  I ordered the fried chicken dinner ($11.50) which came with 3 pieces of chicken, a biscuit and a side salad.  Kristen had mentioned that our friend Mike said the portions were small and that it would be worth getting a side, so I also ordered the mac and cheese ($4.50).   Jenn also got the fried chicken dinner and Kristen got the buffalo chicken sandwich and a side of grits.  And then we waited and waited until the point Jenn mentioned that we all might be on the verge of turning into the Incredible Hulk if we didn't get fed soon.  Finally the guy behind the counter comes over and apologizes that something went wrong with the fryer and that they were working as hard as they could to get the chicken out.  But in the meantime, would we be interested in a free side of chicken pot pie? Umm, yes please!  Sadly, I didn't think the pie was all that jazz.  The crust could have been flakier and more buttery and I usually expect the inside of pot pies to be very hearty but this was very soupy and thin.  You could actually barely eat it any of it with a fork.  But I did appreciate that they tried to do something nice for us.  Finally, after what seemed like 10 years, the chicken comes out.  You could tell it was just from the fryer too and it smelled delicious.  The first cut into the chicken was great.  Super moist and very juicy.  I was a big fan so far.  Every subsequent bite was also pretty good but my one compliant would be that there was too much fried skin.  I like a nice thin crispy skin, but some parts of the chicken had too much batter and friedness to it.  However, I did think it was a solid fried chicken dish.  I also really enjoyed the biscuit and thought it was pillowy and made with buttery goodness.  As for the salad, I could have totally done without it.  It was overdressed with a honey mustard dressing and it was just a bunch of lettuce and nothing else. 

I really could have ended the meal there as there was plenty of chicken to go around and the biscuit was very filling.  I had no business eating a side of mac and cheese on top of it.  I didn't finish the mac and cheese and to be honest, it wasn't very good.  It was dry and there wasn't an ounce of gooey-ness to it. Very disappointing.  I also tried Kristen's grits and there was an overwhelming spring onion taste to it.  I mean, I really like spring onions but this was just out of control.  I felt like I had bitten into a giant spring onion and could barely taste the grits.

I  liked the concept of the place and would be interested in trying other things on the menu (heard good things about the catfish), but I would definitely avoid any sides in the future.  I would come back but maybe just not immediately.  Total bill: $19 with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Rosemary's Enoteca and Trattoria Visited 10/13/2012 4 Forks

Rosemary's Enoteca and Trattoria 18 Greenwich Ave., (between Charles St & 10th St), New York, NY 10011

I had been wanting to try Rosemary's for a while but there was always a ridiculous long line full of douche-y looking guys and high maintenance girls, so I've been avoiding it for a while.  But Cicily and I both wanted an early Saturday night dinner, so I had hoped that Rosemary's would be pretty empty that early in the evening.  Oh but I was wrong. The place was completely packed to the brim and the host said it would be an hour wait.  I reluctantly put my name down but was already racking my brain of where else we could eat nearby.  All of a sudden, 10 minutes later my phone rings and they told me my table was ready.  Success!  I run in only to find out that they don't seat incomplete parties so they had to give my table up (the host rudely told me "what did you think I was going to do with it?").  Ugh, luckily 10 minutes later Cicily shows up and they were able to accommodate us rather quickly. 

The restaurant has a rooftop farm, so many of their ingredients are literally farm to table.  The left hand side was more small plates to share and then the right hand side was bigger sized dishes.  We decided to split the housemade mozzarella ($10) and the rosemary foccacia with sea salt ($5).  For entrees, I ordered the cavatelli with oxtail ragu ($14) and Cicily got the orecchiette with sausage ($14).  Drink wise, what's great about the wine list is that they have tons upon tons of options of $40/bottle.  We opted for a bottle of pinot nero which was perfect for the night.  The mozzarella came out topped with tons of olive oil and fresh basil.  The cheese itself was amazing!! So fresh and delicious with just the right hint of salt.  It was paired perfectly with the warm crunchy but soft foccacia bread.  I wish there was a bit more basil on the cheese but none the less the dish was a fantastic start to dinner.  Our pasta dishes came out next and while the serving size was a bit on the small size, it was more than made up with taste.  My pasta was perfectly done (just a bit al dente) and there was a heaping of moist oxtail ragu on top of it.  Cicily had mentioned that her pasta was delicious and that she could have had another bowl of it.  I have to say that compared to all the other Italian hotspots in the West Village, the prices here for their pastas were extremely reasonable and I think much better tasting.   None of the pastas were in the $20+ range which many of the more high end places have started to trend towards.  It's really quite ridiculous when to stop to think about how places charge $20+ for pasta.  But for $14, I, too, could have had another entire bowl of my pasta.  

Given the smaller size of the pasta we both had room for dessert.  Cicily got the vanilla gelato ($5) and I got the tiramisu ($8).  I can only speak for the tiramisu which was wonderful.  It came in this small cute maison like jar where you could see each perfect layer of cream and cake.  I will say that I wish it had a bit more hint of espresso in the cake part but otherwise, it was a great way to end the meal. 

But the time we left dinner around 8:30, there were so many people in the front area you'd think it was the only restaurant in town.  While I most definitely loved the food, I had to dock it 1/2 fork for the slightly obnoxious atmosphere.  Besides just being way too crowded, it was also incredibly loud inside.  It's not really the place to go if you're looking for a nice quiet dinner with someone, but despite that I would still brave the crowds and go back for more pasta please! Total bill: $62/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Talde Visited 10/11/2012 2 Forks

Talde 369 7th Ave., (between 6th Ave & 5th Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11215

I haven't been back to Park Slope to try a new restaurant in a while.  It's not because I don't love the area, I still do, but it's just not as convenient to get to as it used to be.  But I had heard so much about Talde and have a love for Top Chef, I finally got around to going last week.  I had really high hopes for it and thought that it would be one of those places that I would be extremely jealous that it opened after I moved from Park Slope.  Sadly I was totally not impressed and miss places like Yamato or Beet more.

The waiter told us that everything was meant to be shared so Nancy and I ordered the following: Pretzel Pork & Chive Dumplings with spicy mustard ($8), Crispy Oyster & Bacon Pad Thai ($16), Char Siu Smoked Pork Shoulder ($18) and the #369 side which brussels sprouts and green sambal ($7).  I was excited that everything was Asian but with a slight twist to it.  The dumplings came out first and I wasn't really sure how the pretzel would be incorporated into the dish and to be honest I'm still not 100% sure.  I guess the skin of the dumpling was thicker and a bit browner than normal dumpling skin? But similar to a pretzel, one bite into the dumpling and I felt like I was biting into a bowl of salt.  The skin was so salty that I could barely taste anything else.  Then I dipped it into the mustard sauce and I don't know if there was something wrong with it or what, but the sauce just tasted awful.  Really sour and off.  Normally I love a spicy mustard sauce but I just couldn't bring myself to dip anymore of the dumplings in there.  Next they brought out the other 3 dishes.  The pork was cooked medium rare and had a touch of smokey flavoring that was great.  It was probably my favorite dish of the night...that is until I ate the last piece that was remaining on the plate.  It was kind of like the butt end of the shouler and it was also super salty and chewy.  If I hadn't eaten that last bite, I would have raved about it a lot more, but that last linger bite kind of made me turn on the dish.  The pad thai was served with 4 bites of crispy oysters which I didn't think added to the dish at all.  The noodles itself were cooked fine but the bacon flavoring yet again made the whole dish super salty.  I would have preferred a more basic simple pad thai from a local Thai place compared to this.  As for the brussels sprouts they were drowning in the green sambal.  The sprouts that were more lightly covered in the sambal tasted better but the majority of the sprouts were literally soaking sambal that made it difficult to taste the actual vegetable.  For dessert, we decided to try the halo-halo which was essentially shaved ice with coconut, lychee, mango and then covered with captain crunch cereal.  It was definitely different and refershing but honestly the fact that I paid money for shaved ice topped with cereal is a bit crazy when you think about it.

I don't mean to totally dog on the food as I've had much worse, but it was all just so super underwhelming and in the light of all the hyped up trendy Asian places such as Mission Chinese and Yunnan Kitchen, Talde just doesn't stack up.  But I will say that the service was very attentive and friendly and I did see Dale from Top Chef working in the restaurant, which just makes me feel even sadder that I had to give this place a bad review.  Total bill: $40/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Raymi Visited 10/2/2012 4 Forks

Raymi 43 W 24th St., (between Broadway & S Park Ave), New York, NY 10010

I had some initial reservations about trying out Raymi since I had an ok experience at his other restaurant Zengo a few years ago.  But I was willing to give his new restaurant another try since I do love a good ceviche and frankly because it was in a convenient location to meet up with a friend of mine.  When I got to the restaurant they told me that they were still undergoing a soft opening.  Frankly, I've never really truly understood what that means.  I mean I guess it means you still have time to change things if they aren't working out.  But I feel like you only have one chance to make a first impression, so if I eat there during your soft opening and it sucks, I don't really care that it's a soft opening or not.  But luckily for Raymi the food did not suck.

I got to the restaurant early so I sat at the bar while I waited for Kristen.  The bartender was super super friendly and really nice and chatty.  When Kristen came to dinner, we decided that it would be easier to eat at the bar rather than close out my tab and try to find a table.  While the food is not tapas style, we decided to split a bunch of appetizers so that we could try out a lot of different dishes (I've always been a big fan of lots of appetizers rather than 1 big plate.  I had always said that if I ever got married I would only have a long cocktail hour with passed h'orderves and no sit down dinner).  We decided to get the salmon ceviche ($15), the special fish collar ($18), the grilled octopus and calamari ($14), the corn empanada ($12), and the chicken skewer ($11). The salmon ceviche was essentially cubes of raw salmon served with ginger, wontons, sesame seeds and peanuts in a tangy citrus marinate.  The bartender recommended that we eat it with a spoon so that we could get a bit of the everything in one bite which was totally the right call.  I would have preferred it to be a bit more sour and tangy as it had more of a sweet ginger taste to it, but overall I still enjoyed the dish.  I wouldn't say that it was the most authentic of ceviches but unless there's something not fresh about the fish, I am just a huge sucker for raw fish in any form.  Next came the fish collar and I apologize but I can't remember what kind of fish it was.  I know it wasn't yelllowtail, tuna or salmon.  Maybe sea bass?  In anycase, one of my favorite Japanese dishes is yellowtail collar.  The meat in fish collar is so tender and since the collar bone is pretty big, you can usually avoid any small bones.  This collar was fried and then served up.  Of course I can never say no to fried food, but I would have liked this dish to have been steamed or baked instead of fried.  I would have also liked the collar to be bigger considering it was $18 but the meat was still tender and enjoyable.   Next came the 3 other dishes: chicken skewer, corn empanada and grilled octopus and calamari.  The chicken skewer was served with a bbq glaze and ginger scallion sauce and I was through impressed with how juicy the chicken was.  I usually find chicken skewers to be dry but this was fantastic and the glaze and sauce added quite a punch to the dish.  The corn empanadas were fried with mozzarella cheese inside and topped with cilantro and chimichurri.  It was a nice solid dish that really filled me up.  As for the grilled octopus and calamari, I'm gonna be honest and say I don't remember a lot about this dish, not because it was bad but because I was 3 drinks in and things were starting to get just a bit hazy.  I do recall the octopus and calamari being cooked right and not too chewy which is always a good sign. 

The good news was that it was all night happy hour and on Tuesdays they also served pig ears, tails and ribs as well as a whole suckling pig.  We didn't try any of it, but the bartender could not stop raving about the entire experience.  I would be interested in trying it if other people are.    I was thoroughly stuffed by the time we left dinner and left feeling really satisfied with all my food.  While I don't love the location very much and I did think the prices were about $3-4 more than what they should be, I really did enjoy my night there a lot.  Total bill $68/pp.

Photo Credit: Yelp