Bar Louie Visited 12/26/2012 2 Forks

Bar Louie 111 Gibbs St., Rockville, MD 20850

I was first introduced to Bar Louie in college and actually never went but always thought that it as more of a college hang out rather than a formal dining place, so I was surprised to see it pop up in my hometown recently.  I guess it's positioned here as more of a casual bar restaurant instead of a college-like place.  For some strange reason I kind of thought that the food would be a step above college bar food here since it was in a nicer suburb area, but really the food seemed like it would be better suited for the college crowd instead.  I mean I get it's totally bar food but I've had some pretty decent bar food before and this place just wasn't it.

The menu consists of a bunch of overpriced "small plates" (let's just call them appetizers here shall we?), burgers, big salads, sandwiches and other bar favorite entrees such as mac and cheese and pasta and tacos.  Louise, Jeana and I split the nachos ($11) to start and I got the tuna sandwich ($14) medium rare.  The nachos came out and they just looked kind of sad and put together by a bunch of stoned high school kids.  The cheese was orange and only on one half of the nachos and the sour cream and guacamole looked like they came out of a can or jar.  Now I know that I shouldn't be expecting gourmet food here but something about seeing food so sloppily thrown get together kind of annoyed me.  I mean they could have at least presented the food a bit better (i.e. spread out all the ingredients evenly vs. plopping the sour cream in one corner, the cheese in another and the beans in another).  One of the reasons I ordered the tuna sandwich was because Bar Louie listed the calorie count on their menu and it was one of the few items that was less than 800 calories.  I know that eating out is fattening and unhealthy but the fact that 90% of the menu was over 800 calories was just frightening to see on paper.  I will give props in that the tuna was cooked medium rare as asked.  But the cut of fish was so huge that it didn't eve fit with the bun they gave me.  The fish was cut like a filet, so it was long and skinny that there was no way the circular bun could fit around it.  So I ditched the bun (it was hard and dry anyways) and just ate the tuna on it's own and adding the slices of avocado to each bite when I could.  The fish itself was marinated and seared with soy sauce and was actually totally fine.  Thankfully, it did make me feel like I was eating something healthy.  The sandwich came with fries that were overcooked and dry but of course, I ate the entire thing anyways because I am such a sucker for fries.  I didn't try Lou's salad or Jeana's BLT sandwich but judging by the looks of them, they were just eh too.

All in all, the food was your standard sub-par bar food but I did like the spacious atmosphere and the waitress was super friendly and nice about letting us hang out in our seat for 3 hours (granted there weren't a lot of people there anyways).  I realize that I can't judge every restaurant to a high quality, fancy pants standard that I probably do in NYC or even Chicago, but I don't think it's too hard to offer decent food using fresh ingredients is it?  Total bill: $50 total for 3 people w/out tip.

Photo Credit:  Segallgroup.com

Ngam Visited 12/18/2012 2.5 Forks

Ngam 99 3rd Ave., (between 13th St & 12th St), New York, NY 10003

Full disclosure is that I had take-out at Ngam and didn't sit down to eat.  Even though I don't think that necessarily should create a difference in the quality of the food, I do think that it sometimes does have an effect.  Although I stayed in the front of the take out area, I did notice that the decor inside was a funky open space with these cool light fixtures.  It seemed like a fun place of dinner with friends or a date. 

The menu had a note that it was seasonal and changed regularly which is something you don't normally see at a Thai place.  Also most Thai places don't offer a delicious sounding brunch featuring farm fresh eggs from an upstate farm.  So I was excited to see how unique the food could be.  I ordered the Thai Sweet Corn Chowder ($7) and the Pad Kee Mao ($14) with tofu and vegetables medium spicy.  Since they had an open kitchen, I watched them make my order in front of me.  Now I'm not under any illusions that kitchens aren't crazy, hectic and not always glamorous.  But it would be nice if the food was made with a little bit of love and care.  I watched as this guy just threw a bunch of vegetables and noodles in a wok, toss is around for 5 minutes and then plopped it into a take box.  It was only when I got home did I realize that there was absolutely no tofu in it and it wasn't spicy at all.  It tasted more like a pad see ew instead of a pad kee mao.   I did appreciate that there were a variety of vegetables that you normally don't find in pad kee mao such as Brussels sprouts and cauliflower but other than that there wasn't much else to the dish.  In fact when I think about it some more, I'm not even sure there was a ton of noodles in it either.  The square box that they serve the take out in was annoying and made it difficult to eat out of because the flaps kept getting in the way of eating directly from the container (yes, I realize I could have put it in a bowl but I was being that lazy at the time).  It was a bit counter intuitive, but I opted to have the soup last because it looked incredibly hot and I wanted it to cool down a bit.   The description of the soup made it sound wonderful and I loved all the ingredients that went into it.  It was made with fresh sweet corn, coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, Thai chili oil, galangal, Thai basil, toasted coconut.  Unfortunately, the only thing I could taste was an overwhelming flavor of coconut milk.  Although I love coconut, I couldn't taste anything else but creamy coconut milk and it's just not something you want to drink in a large bowl of soup.  I was hoping that there would be bits of sweet corn kernels but I guess they were blended/pureed into the soup. because I didn't see any corn.  But honestly, the soup was borderline inedible for me.  I had to actually put it away for a while and came back to it later and sadly it didn't taste any better. 

Even though I didn't love my dinner take out meal, I am super curious about the rest of the dinner menu and the brunch menu and willing to give it another try.  But this time I will actually dine in and hopefully that will be a better experience.  Total bill: $22 for take out

Photo Credit: Yelp

North End Grill Visited 12/17/2012 3 Forks

North End Grill 104 N End Ave, (at Vesey St), NY 10282

It's pretty surprising that I hadn't been to North End Grill yet considering it's right across the street from my office.  I had been there once for drinks and immediately got the feeling that this place was much more of the Goldman Sachs crowded vs. the American Express crowd.  The decor is much classier than any of the other restaurants in the area and the prices also reflect it. 

Besides the fact that it's too pricey for a regular lunch, another reason I hadn't been here for lunch yet was that I had heard from a bunch of my co-workers that they had really bad experiences there.  Most of the things I heard was that the food was bad and the wait for food was too long.  Danny Meyer and Floyd Cardoz must have heard the comments because I didn't think the food was awful and they asked us up front before we ordered if we had a time constraint and needed the food by a certain time.
The lunch menu here is kind of all over the place.  They have fancy appetizers such as oyster and clam stew to egg dishes such as scrambled eggs with hen of the woods mushroom to main entrees such as seared scallop.  I couldn't really tell what direction they were trying to go with here.  Since I was here for lunch I opted for the chicken burger ($18) and an order of the thrice fried spice fries ($8).  You'd think for $18, you'd get the fries with the burger, but the clientele here is probably 90% corporate dining, so I guess you can get away without having fries included.  Despite all the bad reviews from my co-workers, I actually liked my chicken burger.  It was a pretty big patty flavored with lots of cilantro and pickled cucumbers served on a brioche bun and slathered with a sriacha mayo.  Who doesn't love sriacha mayo?!  My one complaint was that the patty kept slipping out of the bun and making a huge mess while I was eating.  Luckily I was just with my close co-workers so it didn't really matter but if I was with clients it would have been a bit embarrassing.  The burger was served with an Asian slaw that kind of tasted like a papaya salad.  I did find the slaw to be re-freshing and a nice touch but of course I would have preferred the fries instead.  But the one bummer of the meal was actually the fries.  They were over cooked and despite looking like it had been dipped in Old Bay Seasoning, incredibly bland.  This of course didn't stop me from eating the whole thing, but I've had better fries in my work cafeteria.   My co-worker also ordered a side of hashed Brussels sprouts ($9) and that was a much tastier side.  It was served with lentils and lightly dressed with olive oil.  While I liked the taste of it, it was a bit difficult to eat since it wasn't served whole but finely shaved instead.

I was glad that this was a paid for lunch outing because the thought of spending $30+ for a burger and fries at lunch would have given me a stomach ache.  By the time we left I had noticed that the place had really filled up with people.  The scene reminded me of Mad Men except for the smoking part.  Almost every guy there was dressed to the nines in a three piece suit and everyone looked very engrossed in business discussion.  Although there are a few new dining options in the neighborhood, this is really the only one that's uber fancy.   And while I kind of hate on the corporate environment, I do see a need for it.  But unless you're going on a corporate account, you are probably better off hitting up Danny Meyer's other place down the street: Shake Shack.  Total bill: $143 for 5 people without tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

L'Apicio Visited 12/15/2012 4.5 Forks

L'Apicio 13 East 1st St., (between 2nd Ave & Extra Pl), New York, NY 10003

Dining out is not just about the food, but the service and decor can play just as big of a factor for a great meal.  Luckily my experience at L'Apicio was a fabulous combination of great food, great waitstaff and great decor.  Given that it's from the team behind L'Artusi and Dell'anima, it's no big surprise that it was a well run machine.  Despite them telling me that they only had a 5:30pm or 10:30pm opening on Saturday, they were kind enough to tell me that I could also order the entire menu from the lounge or bar area and that walk-ins were welcomed.  So Cicily and I met up at 7:30 and luckily we were able to snag two seats at the bar since there were no tables available.   I loved that fact that they let Cicily sit down first and save me a seat as many places won't even let you sit down anywhere until your entire group has arrived.

I don't know about you guys, but I sometimes really enjoy eating at the bar.  You don't have to worry about if the table is wobbly or if you aren't too far from the table and when you eat at the bar you get to sit close to your dinner mate and not have to scream across a loud table.  I loved that the bar was a beautiful marble top with ample space and room for you and your guest to have a complete meal without crowding the people next to you.   When the bartender asked me what I wanted to drink I noticed that Cicily was drinking a rose and she mentioned that the bartender actually encouraged her to get a rose even though it wasn't the summer because "you should be able to drink whatever you want, whenever you want."  I love that mentality and appreciated that the bartender didn't look down at us or shame us for our drink choice.  She was also very enthusiastic about the menu and told us that everything was great.  So we ordered the braised short rib polenta ($19) and I got the pappardelle with oxtail ragu ($18) and Cicily got the cavatelli with chili and pork sausage ($17).   Now I am not sure if they give everyone a salad on the house but within 10 minutes of ordering we were presented with a fancy salad compliments of the house and I just thought that it was a really nice touch.  The salad was a mix of fricassee, mixed greens and pistachios with a vinaigrette dressing.  It was a dish to wet the palate, although it have been a touch salty but overall it was a great starter salad.  Next came the polenta and for anyone who has read my blog for a while knows how much I love polenta so I was super super excited for this dish.   The polenta here was served on a board (it almost looked like a cheese board) and it's spread out across the board and served with amazingly tender short rib and sauce on top of it.  The combination of creamy polenta and mouthwatering meat is one of the best combinations ever and this one did not disappoint.  I could have made an entire meal out of trying all the other polentas on the menu (they had mushroom, meatball and shrimp varieties too).   As for the pasta dishes, I really loved the pappardelle.  It tasted homemade and fresh and it almost looked like it was one giant beautiful flat noodle.  The oxtail was plentiful and also super tender and cooked perfectly.  Cicily also mentioned that her pasta was delicious as well.  I was super tempted to order dessert but after 2 glasses of wine, polenta and pasta I was pleasantly happy and full.   While the food was definitely very satisfying, the fact that our bartender/waitress was so nice, we got a wonderful salad on the house and that the bar was so comfortable to eat at really made the entire experience so positive.  Other restaurants should take note her that it's not just the food that make people happy but the entire eating out experience that diners appreciate.   If I lived at the Avalon complex upstairs, I would totally eat here for dinner on a very frequent basis.  Total bill: $63/pp with tax and tip. 

Photo Credit: NY 1

Acme Visited 12/15/2012 2 Forks

Acme 9 Great Jones St., New York, NY 10012

Earlier this year Acme was the hottest place in New York, but it's hype has died down a bit and it seems like The NoMad is now the hot spot.  But even when the hype has died down, it doesn't always mean that a restaurant isn't worth checking out.  Not sure if Acme was better during the hype but it certainly didn't live up to it post-hype.

I had been to Acme long before when it was a honkey-tonk bar and grill that served Southern fried such as mac and cheese, fried chicken, and fried okra.  The owners didn't change the outside but the inside got a total face lift with sleek furniture and a large wooden bar in the front.  They also totally changed up the menu from fried food to high end Scandinavian/Danish food.   I don't know much about Scandinavian food except they are really into fish.  Their brunch menu is fairly limited but it did have some good sounding egg dishes so I wasn't too upset.  I opted for the benedict which was served on rye bread, house cured salmon and 2 poached eggs ($16).  The menu didn't mention if it came with any sides but I kind of suspected that a place like this didn't.  So I was tempted to order a side of sausage, bacon or potatoes, but they were wildly overpriced (between $8-10) and it seemed more like sides for 2 people rather than one.  Holly ordered the grilled Romaine Salad ($17) which was served with chicken and parmesan.   It did take a while for the food to come out but at least the iced coffee I ordered was quite tasty and tied me over for a while.  When my benedict came out I had 2 thoughts: (1) it indeed did not come with any sides and (2) it was very small.   It was quite a beautiful dish but about the size of a small tea cup dish.  Then I cut into the 1st egg and it was like cutting into a hard boiled egg.  I mean I could have removed the yolk completely entact and it wasn't even close to being runny or poached.  I was this close to sending it back but for me, unless the food is completely inedible I usually won't send it back.  Luckily the 2nd egg was runny and poached well, so clearly they know how to poach an egg, they just couldn't execute on it consistently.  It's unfortunate that the 1 bad egg (hahah) ruined what was otherwise a pretty lovely dish.  I normally am not a huge fan of rye bread but for some reason it worked here with the salmon.  The salmon was wonderfully cured and was the best part of the dish.  It made me think that this dish could have been so good if only the other egg was poached correctly, the overall dish was slightly bigger in size and served with a side of something.  As for Holly's salad, she mentioned that it was just a plain salad, the dressing looked like mayo and that the chicken (which there was a lot of) looked like it had been pulled off of a rotisserie chicken.  So definitely not a $17 salad.

Acme is one of those places that has a lot of potential but what I've learned this year is that you can't judge things based on potential.  You have to evaluate things based on the facts and what's in front of you at the time.  I also thought that the staff and clientele was a bit too cool for school.  They weren't really warm or inviting, which would have been a nice touch during the holiday season.  Total bill: $25/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Grey Dog's Coffee Visited 12/13/12 3.5 Forks

Grey Dog's Coffee 90 University Pl., (between 12th St & 11th St), New York, NY 10003

Grey Dog Cafe is one of those places that reminds me of college.  Not surprisingly one of their location is right by NYU, so they definitely know what they are doing.  There's no other word to describe it than just cute, cozy and collegiate.  The menu comprises of lots of delicious sounding and affordable sandwiches, big salads, and other comfort food such as tacos, burgers, mac and cheese, soups, cookies and a variety of great breakfast dishes. 

The decor is mostly stain washed wooden benches and chairs.  Maybe it was because it's the holidays but they did have cute Christmas lights strung up as well which added a nice touch.  It just had a nice homey feeling to it.  I had actually been to Grey Dog when I was in B-school and remembered really liking their Roast Beef sandwich, so since I was in the neighborhood, I swung by there on my way home from work the other day for take out.  They have a good sandwich and salad (or soup) combo for $13, so I went for the pressed Cuban and salad (you only get a choice of the country salad).  Even though it was super crowded, it only took about 10-15 minutes for my food to come out.

Now my slight complaint about my sandwich is most likely my fault and has nothing to do with the cafe.  I should have known that getting a pressed sandwich to-go might lend itself to it getting soggy or not as crunchy than if you had just gotten it fresh from the press.  But the ingredients of the sandwich itself were tasty.  It had the right amount of pulled pork, sweet ham, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.  I devoured the entire thing as soon as I got home despite the slight sogginess.  As for the salad, it was a pretty big salad considering it was more of a side salad as part of the combo.  The country salad comes with mixed greens, grape tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, pea shoots, and chick peas, with a house vinaigrette.  It was a bit heavy on the onions and not enough cucumber.  Also I didn't realize the dressing was a creamy dressing (I always thought that a vinaigrette was more oil based) and too garlic-y for me, but there could be worse things right?  Overall, it was a solid sandwich and salad combination.  For $13, I was very pleased with my meal considering that the night before I had paid $21 for a noodle dish and dumplings that should have been more satisfying than a sandwich, but it wasn't.  I would totally come back to Grey Dog's anytime, but I would kind of think twice about getting a pressed sandwich to-go.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Commerce Visited 12/9/2012 3.5 Forks

Commerce 50 Commerce St., (between Barrow St & Bedford St), New York, NY 10014

Commerce is on what is one of the cutest streets in all of New York.  It's in this tucked away cul-de-sac in the West Village surrounded by adorable townhouses (close to where they "filmed" the into of Friends).  The few times I've tried to go to Commerce it's been a complete sh*tshow and so so crowded that I just turn around and leave.  Luckily this time I went to Commerce with a reservation for brunch.

The insides is a bit cramped and quite loud, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you're looking for a lot of space or peace and quiet.  But otherwise, it's pretty cozy and bustling inside.  The menu has tons of delicious sounding brunch dishes and the decision to pick just one thing can be pretty hard.  But the good thing about eating with a large group is that usually people are willing to split a few appetizers or starter dishes.   For the table, we split the cinnamon rolls ($9) and the biscuits and gravy ($16) which I was thrilled about because I definitely wanted to try them both but it would obviously be way too glutenous to order them just for myself.  The cinnamon roll was more like a sticky bun than and a cinnamon roll.  It was like a cinnamon roll in the sense it had the circular twist to the roll but instead of a frosting it had a lot of sticky toffee like topping to it.  Delicious but definitely way too much sweetness for one person.  The biscuits and gravy was served with a heart stopping sausage gravy and topped with a perfect sunny side up egg.  Again, I was happy that I had a bite and that I didn't have it all to myself. As for my main entree, I decided on the soft scrambled egg with cheddar cheese, scallion and ham ($16) and it was served with roasted potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts.  The scramble was indeed soft but I would have appreciated it to be just a bit of a harder scramble because it was a little watery.  But overall, it was super flavorful and a great egg dish.  The potatoes were very crispy and almost like french fries, which I am not going to complain about.  I also really liked the fact that the entree came with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts too.  It was a nice touch to round out the dish with a vegetable side.  

Overall the meal was delicious but the one thing that was kind of stopped this review short of 4 forks was that the service was incredibly slow.  I wasn't sure if they were just waiting to take our order because we were waiting for one more person to show up but we must have waited over 30 minutes just to have our waitress take our order.   I would definitely come back to check this place out for dinner.  Total bill: $42/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: New York Magazine

Betel Visited 12/8/2012 2 Forks

Betel 51 Grove St., (between S 7th Ave & Bleecker St), New York, NY 10014

This entry goes out to my best friend Aarti.  This is a reminder for her (and anyone) to never go back to Betel again.  Aarti and I were both in the mood for some Thai food and when we came across Betel Aarti's first comment was "Wait, I've been there before but I can't remember if I liked it or not".  Instead of racking our brains for 30 minutes trying we decided to just bite the bullet and give it a try.

Now for those of you who know me know that I am usually a bit weary of fancy Asian places that are not run by people of that ethnicity (obviously there are always exceptions to the rule).  But Betel is a prime example of why I stay away from places like this.  My first impression of this place was that it was wildly overpriced and expensive for what it was, but hey, I live in New York and I'm willing to try to be more open minded about things, right?  The menu here is more high end, fusion Asian rather than straight up Thai food.  Aarti and I split the spiced corn fritters ($12) and the pomelo asparagus and cashew salad ($10) while I got the stir fried striped bass ($25) and Aarti got the braised tofu ($21).   If we had stopped our meal at just the appetizers, I probably would have given this place 3 forks.  The spiced corn fritters were nice and crispy and served with shiso leaves and a tangy soy dipping sauce.  The pomelo salad was a nice refreshing salad that I hadn't seen anywhere and I was pleased with the citrus mixed with the chili jam dressing.  However, my one HUGE complaint about this dish was that there were 2 of the world's smallest and skinniest pieces of asparagus I've ever seen in my life.  I mean, the pieces of cashews were bigger than them.  It's ok if it's not asparagus season and if they're hard to find but then don't call it an asparagus salad for christ sakes.  It's incredibly disappointing to expect something called an asparagus salad only to find no asparagus in it.  Boo. 

As for my striped bass dish, the actual fish itself was quite tasty with a nice crispy skin and moist and tender meat on the inside.  But the rest of the dish was a hot mess.  The presentation was quite unappealing with a lot of sloppy and oily sauce splattered all over it which made it super hard to find an actual piece of fish in the dish.  The dish would have been so much better had it been served with just one or two spoonfuls of sauce on it.   That would have made it more elegant in presentation and in taste.  Meanwhile Aarti had mentioned that her tofu dish was totally uninspiring and tasted like something you could get at a strip mall in the suburbs.  For $21, you would expect the tofu to be cooked with more love than that.  We also both agreed that all the dishes seemed to have a very heavy taste of tamarind.  Now I know that they use it a lot in Thai food but to taste it in everything we ate was a bit too much for us.  But what was perhaps the most disappointing part of the entire meal was when we got the bill.  It wasn't the price of the dishes that shocked me (I mean I did read the menu before hand afterall) but they actually charged us $2 for the side of hot sauce Aarti had asked for.  I mean who the hell charges when you ask for a condiment for your dish?!  On top of it, the size of the side of hot sauce was about as big as my pinky and Aarti mentioned that it tasted more like vinegar rather than a spicy hot sauce.  Most mom and pop Asian places usually give you a nice array of hot sauces for you for FREE. The only reason I didn't give this place a goose egg was because the corn fritters were decent and I did think the pomelo salad was very unique.  Total bill: $42/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Sindicato De Cocineros Visited 12/2/2012 3.5 Forks

Sindicato De Cocineros 57 Nassau Ave., (between Lorimer St & Manhattan Ave), New York, NY 11222

Even though Greenpoint isn't really that far from my apartment, it's far enough that I never really take the time to walk over there to check it out.  But after my walk over to Sindicato De Cocineros I will definitely try to make more of an effort to check out all the great stuff I saw on my way over to dinner.  Sindicato De Cocineros is a really cute higher end Mexican restaurant that I would have never thought existed in the more mom and pop neighborhood of Greenpoint.

The menu here is definitely more upscale than your traditional burrito and enchilada joint.  The menu ranges from jicama salads, gazpacho with shrimp and octopus, home made fish tacos, suckling pig and hanger steak.  So it's definitely an eclectic fancy menu.  We started with the guacamole ($9) and for an entree I had the hanger steak ($22).  In most higher end Mexican places that I've been to usually the guacamole is pretty small in size.  However, the size of this guacamole appetizer was actually pretty decent and for the dead of winter the avocados tasted super fresh and ripe.  The guacamole was very smooth in texture and the slices of radishes added a nice crunchy texture to it.

One of the main reasons I ordered the hanger steak was because the description of it sounded like a killer combination:  marinated hanger steak, oyster mushrooms, herbed mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, and snap peas.  The part I was most excited by was the brussels sprouts but when the dish came out I didn't see any of them.  But actually upon closer inspection I did find 4 pieces of brussels sprouts.  I guess it's not sprout season because they were the tiniest brussels sprouts I've ever seen.  But that actually didn't deter from the overall dish.  The hanger steak itself was huge and one of the bigger pieces of steak I've seen outside of a steakhouse.  My one small gripe was how the steak was served.  Usually with hanger steak, I prefer the steak cut into slices but this was served as one large piece and they didn't give me a steak knife.  But at least the meat was cooked perfectly medium rare that cutting it with a butter knife wasn't all that difficult.  The combination of a nice pink piece of steak, mashed potato and vegetables is really so basic but delicious at the same time.  I was so full that I couldn't even finish my steak, much to my dismay.  My friend had the braised pork shoulder with pistachio pipian, black beans & herbed mexican rice and the bite that I had was also done well.  The pork was juicy and tender and paired well with the herbed rice.  Of course, despite claiming that I was super full we had to consider dessert.   We ended up getting the lemon pie which was really more tart like than pie like.  It was a sweet lemon filling sandwiched between two wafers and served with a fresh lemon sorbet.  It was a nice refreshing end to what was kind of a heavy meal.

The ambiance of this place was very nice...it was casual yet also very intimate and cozy.  Although I will warn people that it is super dark in there at night, so if you are at all tired, I could easily see someone falling asleep at dinner.  Total bill: ~$100 for two including tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Di Fara Visited 12/1/2012 4 Forks

Di Fara 1424 Ave J, Brooklyn, NY 11230

I finally made it to Di Fara!  It one of those places that is constantly written up in tons of blogs and articles as one of the best pizza places in the country.  Although it's in Brooklyn, it's in a part of the borough that most people probably have never been to, Midwood.  While it looks far on the subway map, it's actually only 30 minutes on the Q train and it's literally right off the Ave J train stop.  Anuja and I got there on a Saturday night right when it opened at 6:30.  Right when we walked in, I noticed that it was very unassuming.  I wouldn't even really call it a restaurant.  It's more like a very old school pizzeria  with only a few tables.  There is absolutely zero decor or ambiance to speak of.  It's just 2 old men and a pizza oven and maybe 5-6 dirty tables.  Most of the time, the place is filled with pizza smoke and when I left the place not only did my hair smell like pizza but so did my sweater, jeans and jacket.   But despite all that, the pizza is incredibly yummy and worth at least one trip out there.

I'm typically not a huge pizza lover.  I mean, I like it but I never crave it and when I do it's usually deep dish Chicago style pizza.  Although lately, I've had a few good run-in with thin crust pizza (I'm looking at you Roberta's).   You can buy slices here ($5 each) but Anuja and I decided that since we were there, we might as well get a whole pie and then bring some slices home for a snack or lunch.  The menu is pretty basic with your choice of round or square pizza and then you can add a variety of toppings.  We chose to get the Di Fara classic ($32) which came with sausage, peppers, mushrooms and onion.  We were told it takes 30 minutes, so we grabbed a seat and just stared at everyone else's food until he finally called our name, almost exactly 30 minutes later.  It was a huge pie and I was sure that we would have more than 1 slice each left over.  Famous last words.  The one thing I did notice was that there was a lot of grease on top but I felt like it would be an insult to be one of those people soaks the oil with a paper towel.  I didn't find any forks or knives either so eating a giant greasy slice with my hands was kind of a bummer.  But the slice itself was delicious.  The ingredients were incredibly fresh and the additional topping of basil really made the whole bite even better.  I loved that he used sweet orange peppers instead of your standard green peppers and red onions instead of a standard yellow/white onion.  The crust is slightly charred on the edge and nice and crispy but I was never a crust person, so I still didn't eat the crust but everyone around me seemed to enjoy it.  I managed to down 3 slices at dinner and took the last slice home.  Everyone eating there seemed be cult followers of the place.  One guy next to me said "I just had a pizza orgasm" and another guy told his friend to move and get out of the way so that they could make room for the pizza.  It was a fun excursion to a different part of Brooklyn and I would totally do it again with anyone else who's interested.  One thing of note: it's cash only.

Photo Credit: Anuja Gagoomal

Pipa Visited 11/30/2012 3 Forks

Pipa 38 E 19th St., (between Broadway & S Park Ave), New York, NY 10003

Before there was ABC Kitchen, there was Pipa.  It's located next to/inside the ABC store and it's beautifully decorated with gorgeous pieces of furniture from the store.  Pipa was one of the first tapas places I had been to when I first moved to NYC, so I am surprised at how it continues to still be so busy after all these years.

I walked in at 6pm on a Friday night expecting it to be fairly empty and the dining room was about 1/4 full.  However, when I asked for a table for 2 the host told me "yeah, I have a table for you but I need it back at 7:30pm for a reservation. You should be fine to eat in an hour and a half."  Now, on one hand I totally get trying to manage to those who have made reservations.  I know that if I were the one who made the reservation and found out that my table wasn't ready, I would be annoyed.  But on the other hand, it is their job as hosts to properly revenue manage their tables without having to be annoying or rude to their customers.  If they know on average that a table takes 1 1/2 hours to turn over, then they should just know that in their head, seat me, and let me enjoy my meal without causing me any anxiety with me while I eat my meal.  Luckily my waitress was super nice and never made it an issue.  I usually don't like having tapas with just one other person but for some reason this time Lily and I ordered enough food to fill us up while still ordering enough variety to make it fun.  We ordered the  jamon croquetas ($10), the beef meatballs ($12), the tortillia espanola ($8), and the baby chorizo ($10).  The chorizo dish came out first and the 8-9 pieces of chorizo were sizzling in oil in the small tapas plate.  After it finally calmed down, I looked at the dish and it really just reminded me of mini hot dogs in a tapas plate.  Now don't get me wrong, I like a good hot dog every now and then but this was supposed to be chorizo which should have a more spicy and a bit tougher in texture but the whole time I just thought it was a pig in a blanket without the blanket.  Next the rest of our tapas came out.  The meatballs needed a bit more seasoning.  They just tasted kind of blah and didn't really wow me.  Luckily the croquetas and tortilla were both pretty good but since they are Spanish tapas standards and I expect dishes like these to be tasty.  The croquetas were nice and crispy on the outside and creamy and rich on the inside.  The tortilla had a good mix of potato, egg and onion and was served with a mayo like topping.  How can you go wrong with that combination?  I do also want to give a shout out to the red sangria.  It was the right balance of sweet fruit and red wine.  But if you plan on getting more than 2 glasses per person, you're better off getting a pitcher.

While I wouldn't go shouting from the roof about the food here, I will say that it's probably the first tapas place that I can remember in a long time where I actually left pretty full.  Almost always when I get tapas with only 1 or 2 other people, I am also left starving after spending $50+.  The total bill here with 2 glasses of sangria each was $53/pp including tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp