Lighthouse Visited 2/24/2013 3 Forks

Lighthouse 145 Borinquen Pl., Brooklyn, NY 11211

Although I've eaten at tons of places in Williamsburg, I usually don't venture much to this side of the area.  But I had heard good things about the Lighthouse so I was up for giving it a try. The location is actually kind of hard to find because there is no sign or any indication of it from the outside.  You finally realize where it is once you've walked past it but the entrance is right at the corner of Keap and Borinquen Place at the point of the building.

I'm not entirely sure what the genre of food is here (it's mostly grill type food) so I'll go with American.  The menu is pretty small with only 3-4 appetizers, a bunch of pickled items (not really sure what they means) and 5-6 main entrees.  They have a great selection of oysters, so we started with half a dozen ($15) of them.  I'll be honest that I don't remember what they were but they were all excellent and very creamy and clean tasting.  The waitress was super knowledgeable about the oysters and was very helpful in educating us on what we were eating.   For my main entree, I opted for the hanger steak ($25) and Dan (I'm not going to comment on my personal life here but all I'll say is that we're trying to be friendly with each other) got the pork ribs ($20).  The steak itself was pretty good but would have preferred it to have been a bit more rare (the waitress never asked how I wanted my steak) and to have had a bigger cut of steak.  The dish was served with what they said was mashed potatoes but in all honestly it tasted more like hummus.  It had a very thick non-starchy consistency and it was cold, so I wasn't really a huge fan of it.  It was also served with a bunch of roasted potatoes that were ok, but not amazing.  The dish was good but I've definitely had better steak.  I tried the pork ribs too and most of the meat fell off the bone pretty easily and was nice and flavorful.  But the main issue was that there was a lot of cartilage/knuckle in the pork that made for a slightly uncomfortable eating experience.  Apparently they are pretty well known for their burger and I kind of wished that I had tried it out. 

Overall, the Lighthouse is a nice, modern restaurant in a section of Williamsburg that doesn't have tons of nice options.  But there are still tons of other fantastic options on the North end of Williamsburg that are a bit better and at a slightly cheaper price point.  Total bill: $108 for 2 with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Asia Bay Visited 2/17/2013 3.5 Forks

Asia Bay 1111 E Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

For our last night in Ft. Lauderdale, the girls and I decided that we should treat ourselves to a nice night out and what better way than to go for sushi? Las Olas is the main strip in Ft. Lauderdale with tons of cute shops and restaurants and Asia Bay was a quick 15 minute walk from the condo.  We had originally called for a 8:30pm reservation and we walked in about 10 minutes late and they didn't flinch at all (this would never fly in NYC). 

The menu here is mostly sushi but then there's a bunch of Thai food too.  I'm usually not a huge fan of places that mixes and matches ethnic cuisines but if it's going to be a mix, it might as well be a mix of my two favorite cuisines.  We decided to go family style and went a bit overboard with the ordering.  We started with their famous tuna rock appetizer ($14), the hamachi shiitake sashimi ($19), the steamed mussels ($13) and the yasai itame ($8) for the table.  The tuna rock is what the restaurant is known for and it consisted of chopped tuna, avocado, masago, scallion, spicy mayo sitting on a bed of seaweed salad.  So it was basically tuna tartar.  I loved all the ingredients and had no doubt that it would be a great dish - which it was.  But my one complaint was the presentation of the dish.  To be honest, it kind of looked like cat food.  It was a bit grey and didn't have that dark red look of fresh tuna.  Don't get me wrong, the tuna was totally fresh tasting and the dish overall was great, but looks wise it could have used some work.  The hamachi shiitake sashimi was also great but I didn't think that the shiitake really added anything to the dish.  The dish could have been fine with just the hamachi on its own.  The steam mussels was actually a Thai soup served in a lemongrass and basil broth.  It's a bit hard to share a soup with 8 people, but I managed to sneak a couple sips and the lemongrass really hits you in the face.  The mussels were the green New Zealand mussels that I love but they weren't as big as I've normally seen them, so that was a bit of a disappointment.   As for the yasai itame, it was just a bunch of steamed vegetables and I didn't really get the dish.  It looked and tasted like a plate of veggies that I make at home.

For our entrees, we kind of went buckwild and ordered way too much food.  I got the sashimi appetizer for myself ($13) and then shared the tuna jalapeno roll (it was supposed to be toro but they were out of toro that night.  Boo!  $15), the beauty and beast roll ($11), the rainbow roll ($11), the fuji roll ($16), pad thai with chicken ($16), the pad si ew with chicken ($16) and the sea bass main with ginger sauce ($28).  I had actually ordered two other rolls but luckily the waiter had forgotten to put that order in, which was totally fine because we could barely finish all the food we did have.  The sashimi appetizer was really fresh and totally hit the spot and it almost made me wished that I ordered a sashimi entree.  It came with 3 pieces of tuna, 3 pieces of salmon, and 3 pieces of white fish.  It was the perfect sashimi appetizer.  As for the rolls, they were all quite good and very very filling.  They were all pretty big in size and the quality of all the ingredients were great.  The tuna jalapeno roll had the right amount of heat, the beauty and beast roll was a fantastic combination of eel and tuna (but I could have done without the asparagus in it, I just really don't like my sushi with veggies), the rainbow roll was your usual rainbow roll topped with fresh pieces of salmon, tuna, white tuna and snapper, while the fuji roll was quite unique - it was a tuna roll but it was topped with chunks of avocado, masago, tuna and kimchee sauce.  All the rolls were winners and honestly the menu was full of other really interesting rolls that I would have loved to try but there just wasn't enough time, money or room in my stomach.  I also tried the pad si ew and it's your basic solid broad noodle dish.  We all did comment how it seemed more like a chicken dish with noodles tossed in because there was so much chicken on the dish.  But hey , at least we got our money's worth!  The sea bass was cooked nicely and tossed with mushrooms, onion, bell peppers, pineapple, and scallions.  The pineapple was an interesting touch and I didn't mind it, but it wasn't an amazing addition.  By the end of the meal, I felt like I needed to be rolled out of the place so I was so happy when they "forgot" our last 2 rolls even though they sounded amazing and were actually the ones that I had ordered for the table.  

All in all, it was a great and enjoyable meal.  The service was super friendly even when Noa complained about not enjoying her drink, they gave her another drink with zero attitude.  I was surprised a bit at the prices (one of the rolls on the menu was even $25) and thought they were a bit high for Florida but it was worth the splurge for a nice night out with everyone.  I did dock 1/2 fork for overall presentation but rest assured, the flavors and ingredients are still worth it.  Total bill: ~$60/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Beach Bunnies Visited 2/17/2013 2 Forks

Beach Bunnies 411 S Fort Lauderdale Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Ok, so I'll be honest, I don't think the name of the place we actually ate at was called Beach Bunnies. But the name of the place on my receipt seems to refer to a place that doesn't exist anymore and the place we did eat at did share the same menu as Beach Bunnies so I'm just going with this name.  But that should have been a bad sign right?

The girls and I were in FL walking around the boardwalk strip area starving and looking for a good brunch place.  Apparently people in Fort Lauderdale don't really do brunch or at least not by the beach.  After walking around aimlessly for a while and slowly getting hungry and cranky, we picked a place that had the most outdoor space in the sun.  When we sat down the waitress gave us two different menus telling us that we can order food from both places.  So all the food was coming out of the same kitchen and honestly the menu was pretty much of the same so it was all confusing.   One of the reason we picked this place was because they had a breakfast menu. The menu also had a variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, fried seafood baskets, randomly a bunch of gyros, and also ribs.  So it was just a mish-mosh of totally random things.  Some of the girls got excited by the fact that we could order breakfast but sadly the waitress informed us that they were no longer serving breakfast.  I was kind of annoyed by this as they should have put the breakfast hours on the menu or told us when we sat down.  It's kind of bad to set expectations for customers but only to dash their hopes when they try to order.  In the end, I went for a Greek Salad with shrimp ($14) because I had been eating tons of crap on vacation so thought it would be good to go a bit healthy. 

We then proceeded to wait forever for our food.  Good thing we had ordered drinks beforehand.  I should also mention that most of the mixed drinks were pretty awful here.  A few of the girls ordered Bloody Marys and they mentioned that it tasted like Campbell's tomato soup with some vodka.  The drink looked super thin and watery so I wasn't surprised by  it.  The strawberry daiquiri that Jill and I got tasted like a frozen drink with almost no alcohol in it.  The winner of the day was the mimosa mostly because it came with its own mini bottle of champagne.  When we ordered our 2nd round of drinks the waitress mentioned that they ran out of glasses and had to serve our drinks in plastic cups.  WTF?  It was only 2pm on a Saturday, how could they already be out of clean glasses? Another service gripe was that Kristin tried to order an orangia and the waitress was like "what is that?" and Kristin had to point out that it's the orange drink in the refrigerator.  Really? Then when we ordered a 3rd round of mimosas the waitress told us that they ran out of champagne. 

Finally when the food came out, I was actually a bit surprised by how decent my salad was.  April had mentioned that when she went to the bathroom and got a glimpse of the inside of the restaurant that it looked like a run down Subway Sandwich joint (we all agreed after seeing it for ourselves). So we weren't expecting too much food-wise.  Surprisingly,  my salad was pretty fresh and dressed well with a light dressing.  I just disappointed at the size of the shrimp served with the salad.  I was about 1/2 the size I expected here (and no, I wasn't expecting jumbo shrimp here just ones that weren't so shriveled).  The salad came with a side a taziki and pita that I found quite enjoyable and a great supplement to my greens.  The sweet potato waffle fries were ($4) great and I wished more places offered this as a fry option.  Everyone else's food seemed pretty decent, not great, but we were just happy to have had food and lots of drinks in our belly. 

When it came time pay our bill, we all put our credit cards down and the waitress took the check away for a while.  She then came back 15-20 mins later to tell us they didn't take Amex.  It was a bit frustrating that it took her 20 minutes to tell us that.   Finally, after another 15 minutes (and almost 3 hours after we sat down to eat), we were able to pay our bill ($32/pp with tax and tip).  My gripes are more service related but if you go in expecting that the food is your standard beach/bar food then you probably won't be too let down.  I'm not sure if there are really that many other better beach side restaurants, but I would definitely research your options before settling on a place to eat. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Zizi Limona Visited 2/10/2013 3.5 Forks

Zizi Limona 129 Havemeyer St., (between 1st St & Grand St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

So many people ask me where I get my list of restaurants from and really it's nothing special.  I read food blogs like Eater.com and Seriouseats.com and write down interesting places I read about in periodicals like New York Magazine or the New York Times.  But I often also get my inspiration from friends who recommend places as well.  Despite living in Williamsburg and being "on the pulse" I hadn't heard of Zizi Limona until my friend Lav had mentioned it a few weeks ago. Even though we were supposed to catch the Nets game at the Barclays Center, we figured we'd give this place a try despite being nowhere near the new arena.

My first reaction upon walking in was that it was very cute.  It is predominantly a restaurant but they do have a wall of goods that they sell so it's got this quaint market feel to it too.  The menu here is Middle Eastern which is a cuisine that I think is so under-rated.  A good hummus, falafel or eggplant dish can be just as good as a solid burger or Asian noodle dish in my opinion.  Lav and I split the Hummus Masabacha ($11), the charred beet and lentil salad ($11) and the sabih croissant ($11).  As you can see the prices here are all extremely reasonable which quite refreshing when dining in NYC.  We were first served a starter of warm pita and tahini and it was fabulous.  The pita was so warm and soft that it left like it literally just came out of the oven and the tahini was nice and thick and a great starter to the night.  They then brought out all 3 dishes at the same time, which was actually fine because we were kind of in a hurry.  The hummus masabacha was served with a sliced hardboiled egg, warm chickpeas (ground and also whole), tahini, lemon, cumin and parsley.  I generally like my hummus very smooth and the whole chunks of chickpeas kind of threw me off here.  It was also a bit heavy handed on the cumin, which wasn't awful but it was just a slightly different flavor to how I usually like my hummus.  The charred beets were wonderful.  They were grilled perfectly with some nice grill marks on them and served warm.  The lentils were a nice combination but I tasted a hint of celery and I hate celery so that was kind of a bummer.  Lastly I tried the sabich.  For those of you who have read my blog for a while know about my serious obsession with Taim.  I mean if I lived near it, I would probably eat their sabich sandwich at least 2-3 times a week.  I have yet to find a better sabich anywhere.  Zizi's version was good but not mindblowing.  There wasn't enough eggplant and a bit too much egg.  I did like their twist of having potato salad instead of hummus in there but honestly it was the croissant that just didn't work for me.  The croissant was perfectly fine but it just didn't go with the overall concept of the sandwich.  If I got this croissant at a bakery or for breakfast, I would have gladly eaten it up (it was flakey and buttery) but a sabich still goes best with a pita.

The staff here was very friendly and attentive.  Some Yelp reviews spoke of slow or poor service but I really didn't experience that at all.  I would totally come back and try some of their lamb or oxtail dishes at another point.  While it's not walking distance from my place, it is nice to know that a solid Middle Eastern place isn't too far away.  Total bill: $35 with alcohol, tax and tip per person.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Pig and Khao Visited 2/7/2013 2.5 Forks

Pig and Khao 68 Clinton St., (between Stanton St & Rivington St), New York, NY 10002

There were so many things going for Pig and Khao that I was expecting a lot from it.  It's brought to you by a Top Chef contestant (Leah Cohen) and the guys from Fatty Cue, so that's some pretty decent pedigreed.  It was also written up in New York Magazine as one of the restaurants to watch out for in 2013, so I was eager to try it out.

When I got to the restaurant, I realized that I had been there before but when it was another restaurant.  That's when I know that I've lived in NYC for too long when I start to go to different restaurant incarnations in the same space.  I knew the menu here was Asian but it's much more slanted towards Filipino than anything else.  In fact the menu reminded me a lot of another Top Chef owned restaurant, Talde.   Most of the items on here are small plate versions with a few larger plates to choose from.  Our waitress told us that 2 small plates and 1 large plate was good for 2 people.  So Janet and I decided to get the fried oysters (special for the night), grilled pork jowl ($13) and the cod fish wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf (special for the night) as well as a side of coconut rice ($3 each). 

The fried oysters came out first and they were served with a lime-chili sauce that had some really good heat to it.  While the oysters were nicely lightly battered, I just didn't taste a lot of the actual oyster.  I felt like I was eating a lot of fried goodness but not a lot of oyster goodness.  Next came the grilled pork jowl.  This was served with chunks of watermelon (where the hell are they getting watermelon in the dead of winter?), homemade chicharron, toasted rice and lime-chili fish sauce.  I enjoyed each of the components individually but there was something off when you ate everything together.  The chicharron was also pretty flavorless and didn't add much to the overall dish.  There's something about watermelon with fish sauce on it that wasn't super appealing.  The flavor profile of grilled pork and watermelon just didn't work for me and Janet didn't love this dish at all either.   What I was really excited for was the steamed fish in the banana leaf.  I expected it to be a whole fish (because that's usually how fish is served in Asian restaurants) or at least in large fillets.  But instead this small cut of fish that was about 5 bites total showed up.  I was so disappointed when I saw it.  Taste-wise, it wasn't so bad but it was covered in some kind of thick coconut sauce that made it kind of not so appealing to look at.  But the star of the show was the coconut rice.  It was so good that when the waitress tried to take my bowl of rice away, I actually slapped her hand away and asked her to box it up for me (sorry!!).  The flavor of coconut really hits you in the face, but that didn't bother me.  It tasted amazing on its own but I almost ordered another side dish, just so I could continue eating it without looking like I was scarfing down a bowl of plain rice.

I didn't hate the place but when the side of rice is the best dish of the night, something is not right.  I do want to say that our waitress was awesome and super friendly and made the whole night very enjoyable.  After reading Yelp, it sounded like maybe the sizzling sigsig would have been a better selection, but I'm not so sure if I would come back soon, especially given all the other really great Asian places in NYC.  Total bill: $72 for 2 with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Los Feliz Visited 2/2/2013 3.5 Forks

Los Feliz 109 Ludlow St., (between Rivington St & Delancey St), New York, NY 10002

Los Feliz is really more of a bar/lounge/club than a restaurant but given that I actually did eat dinner there, it still merits a review.  I was here for my good friend Virginia's bachelorette party and it was kind of a perfect venue for it because you can have a fairly good meal early in the night and then head downstairs to their uber packed and uber hip downstairs club afterwards without having to step outside at all.

Even the restaurant portion of this place feels like a club.  It's dark and super loud with blaring music to the point where I could barely have a conversation with the person sitting next to me.  Given that we were a huge party, we had a prix fixe menu where the kitchen just brought out a ton of different dishes.  We started with your basic guacamole ($6) and for the dead of winter I was surprised at how fresh the avocados were.  It had the right amount of cilantro and lime to it and it was creamy but with a few lumps to prove that they used real avocados instead of making it from something canned.  Yum.  Next we were served a variety of tacos:  a vegetarian one ($7), a fish one ($9), and a beef one ($8).  These tacos were the smaller high-end versions of tacos but with all the food that we had, the size was actually pretty perfect for our party.  But I could see if you were here with just one other person, the serving size might not be big enough.  They are all served on a nicely made corn tortilla that was soft but sturdy enough to hold all the ingredients.  The vegetarian one was served with black beans, chipotle potatoes, mole poblano, jicama relish, Cotija cheese and slices of avocado.  There were so many hearty ingredients that honestly you didn't even realize that there wasn't any meat to it.  A great meat substitute.  I also really enjoyed the fish taco which was made with crispy sea bass, aioli, avocado, and cucumber-ginger relish.  The pieces of fish were fairly generous and you could really get the flavor of the sea bass without it being too fishy.  The barbacoa, or beef cheek, taco was also a  winner.  It was made with beer, tequila, oregano and lime roasted onions.  The beef cheeks were quite tender and easy on the palate.  

Next came the Flautas de Pollo en Mole Poblano ($13) or a chicken flauta.  The crispy tortilla was stuffed with chicken and mole poblano.  I found the chicken to be juicy and very well seasoned. There was nothing amazing about the dish but it was tasty none the less.  By the time the quesadillas came out I was so full (not to mention that the margaritas were also filling me up too).  We got 2 different kinds of quesadillas, the mushroom one ($12) and the chicken one ($10).  They were both what you thought of in a quesadillas, soft tortilla with mushrooms, chicken, corn and melted cheese sandwiched in between.  

Normally I assume that food at a club type place isn't all that great but I was pleasantly shocked and pleased by the food here.  My general beef with the place is that it's way too loud and honestly at the end of the day, it's really not a restaurant, it's still more a lounge.  I wouldn't recommend this place if you're looking for a nice quiet place to catch up with friends.  Our prix fixe meal with pitchers of margaritas was $65/pp. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Mighty Quinn's Visited 2/1/2013 4.5 Forks

Mighty Quinn's Barbeque 103 2nd Ave., (between 7th St & 6th St), New York, NY 10003

Many of you know that my love for Fette Sau knows no bounds.  In fact, at one point I had joked that I would want to get married there and just have BBQ at my reception.  So far I've yet to find any BBQ in New York that is as good and as reasonably priced as Fette Sau until now.  Mighty Quinn's come very very close to being as good as Fette Sau and I would say that if you would rather stay in the city rather than go to Brooklyn, this is totally the place to be.

I met up with my good friends Cicily, Joe, and some other AXP folks for dinner here on a Friday night.  We got there at 7pm and it was crowded enough that we had to ask the staff to get extra chairs for us from the back but little did we know that it was going to get way more crowded later.  The set up is similar to Fette Sau where you order your food at the counter and seat yourself.  I like the funky decor at Fette Sau better vs. the more sterile look of Mighty Quinn's but that wasn't really a huge deal for me.  The menu here is pretty basic:  brisket, pulled pork, sausage, spare ribs, brontosaurus ribs, and half chicken.  Everything can be ordered on itself or as a sandwich.  We asked the guy behind the counter to give us everything and enough to feed 6 people.  I believe he ended up getting us 1 lb of everything except for the chicken which they were out of.  Price-wise, you can get everything as a single serving or by the pound.  The pricing here was very reasonable, ranging from $12/lb to $23 at the most.  Moving on to the sides.  This is where they don't really shine (although to be honest either does Fette Sau).  The options here were sweet potato casserole, cole slaw, baked beans, or pea salad (small $3, medium $5.75 and large $11.25).  None of these sides really spoke to us but we felt compelled to get something, so we got the baked beans.  Cicily complained to the staff about why they didn't have mac and cheese, to which they responded "We get that about 45 times a day."  Ha.  Then moving on to the drinks.  Again this is where there was some disappointment.  They only have beer, no whiskey.  I don't often drink whiskey but there's something about having BBQ that really makes me crave the brown stuff so that was kind of a bummer.  They do have growlers here ($20 per growler) and a nice selection of beers on tap, so it wasn't a total loss.  I didn't like that the beer/bar section was tied to the food line.  It would be nice if it were a separate area so that you don't have to wait in line just to get a beer.  Then we went to check out and it was a shock to learn that for 6 lbs of meat, 2 growlers, and 1 medium side the total was $25/pp.  Amazing.  I may have spent that much at other places (except for Fette Sau) for less than half the food.  The cashier was awesome and totally patient with the 3 of us fumbling around on how to pay for our meal and totally holding up the line.

We finally sat down and looked at our food.  It was completely insane how much food we had in front of us.  We all had to start with the brisket and the unanimous decision was that it kicked ass and was amazing.  Moist and flavorful and just awesome.  I thought it was light years better than the brisket at BrisketTown.  I then moved on to the brontosaurus rib.  It's essentially a beef rib the size of my foot and it was also fantastic.  Very juicy and fell completely off the bone cleanly.  I wished I had a picture of it because there was not a single piece of meat on that bone.  That to me is the sign of a perfect rib.  After that I had the spare ribs and that one was a bit tougher to eat and it had a slightly spicy flavor it it.  It was good but after having the brontosaurus rib, it just didn't compare.  I moved on to the sausage and it tasted more like a chorizo with a lot of heat to it.  I personally like the more traditional sausage at Fette Sau better but if you like your sausage more spicey than this one at Mighty Quinn's might be up your alley.  Lastly I had the pulled pork.  It was good but it was a bit too greasy for me and I think it would have been better in a sandwich formation instead of just served naked.  I didn't get to their custom BBQ sauce until later on in the meal but when I finally did, I really loved it.  It was more on the sweet side and went really well with the brisket.  I also had 1 bite of the baked beans and it was totally fine but nothing compared to the meats.  In the end, I was really really happy with my meal here and it is a serious and legit competitor to any of the country's top BBQ places.

By the time we finished our meal, the place was completely over flowing with people.  People were literally stalking tables like vultures and would pounce on anyone the moment they got up. When we left, these 2 groups almost got into a fight over our table, so be forewarned and get there early. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Abode Family Meal Visited 1/31/2013 3.5 Forks

Abode Family Meal - The Old Bowery Station, 168 Bowery Street, New York, NY, 10013

One of the things that I love about New York is that there are so many interesting, different and fun things to do.  The latest craze for  the past couple of years has been the pop-up shop.  It's usually a random space that has been turned a short term restaurant by aspiring chefs.  I was excited when my friend Lav invited me to a pop up that her friend's boyfriend was working at:  Abode Family Meal by Gregg and Sarah - located inside the old Bowery Subway station (complete with old subway tiles and old beams and structures).  I showed up without doing much research but I wished that I had because one of the two founders of the pop-up is currently on The Taste, the new Anthony Bourdain cooking school and I would have loved to talk to her about her experience on the show. 

I got to the space at 7pm and was seated at a communal table with 2 other couples.  Our meal started with a hot toddy small bowls of 5-spiced nuts and olives.  The toddy was a nice way to start the meal - with a good warm kick of alcohol and handfuls of sweet nuts.  The first dish of the night was the egg n'oyster - poached oyster with chili sauce and deviled eggs stuffed with uni.  I enjoyed the oyster but thought that the marinate on it was a bit sour.  But it was a clean and well shucked oyster.  I loved the egg dish and thought it was so inventive and creative with the uni.  I thought that the uni could have been a bit creamier but since it was almost baked into the egg, it had hardened a bit but that didn't really make the dish any less interesting or tasty.  Lav had the vegetarian option for dinner and it looked like they had a bit of a count or service issue because the girl next to us got her veggie starter with 4 stuffed mushrooms but Lav had to wait a while for hers and when she got it, there was only 1 mushroom on her plate.  Waa Waa.  The next dish was the smoked bluefish caesar served on a roasted romaine lettuce leaf.  I'm generally not a huge blue fish or lettuce fan so the combination wasn't my favorite.  The leaf was a bit soggy and the whole thing just didn't work for me.  Meanwhile Lav's vegetarian option was the leaf without the bluefish so being served a piece of roasted lettuce wasn't really the most exciting of dishes.  The next course was the best dish of the entire 7 course meal - the oxtail lasagna.  It was served with smoked mozzarella and oxtail ragu and I loved every bite of it.  The lasagna layers were super soft and light and I would have traded in the rest of the courses for more of this dish.  The next dish was the mussels with scallion focaccia bread.  The best part of the dish was the scallion bread.  It was amazing and squishy and addictive.  Unfortunately the mussel dish wasn't.  The mussels themselves were totally fine but what ruined the dish was the over peppered broth.  It was to the point where I thought I was just eating a bowl of pepper.   Luckily I wasn't the only one who thought that because the girl next to me also started coughing up a storm as she ate the dish.  The dish would have been so much better if they just stuck with a basic white wine broth instead. 

The 5th dish was the glazed skate ribs with a kanzuri glaze and chinese broccoli.  While they were serving us, we were told that we could eat it like a rib but instead I continued to use my fork and knife.  Given that I just came back from Iceland, I've been on a huge fish kick so I was excited for this dish. But my fish piece tasted undercooked and not in the good rare or sushi form.  I just felt like it could have been grilled for a bit longer.  I looked over to Lav's dish and it was one of those things that you see at a wedding banquet where instead of making a new creative dish for a vegetarian they just removed the meat/fish portion that they couldn't eat.  Lav got a large bowl of chinese broccoli and while she said that the greens were cooked well, it's disappointing to think that this was the alternative to the dish I got.  The 6th and last main dish was the roasted pork hocks with black bean sauce, mustard greens and a chicken foot.  Even though I'm Chinese and see chicken's feet all the time when I eat dim sum, the presentation of this one just really unappealing, even for me.  When you get it during dim sum, it's usually covered in a sauce so it doesn't look like it was just served out of the fridge.  While this foot was cooked fine, it was almost white looking and the nails were on full display which was just unsettling to look at.  But I did enjoy the pork hocks part of the dish.  I would have preferred another part of the pig like the shoulder but the tendon was cooked well and it was easy to eat and it absorbed the black bean sauce well.  On to the last meal of the night, the espresso-chocolate budino with a hazelnut and cardamom biscotti.  The general consensus from the table that this was amazing and one of the best dishes of the night (I still liked the lasagna better).  The budino (or pudding) was super smooth and had the right balance of espresso and chocolate.  It was a great way to end the meal.

I should mention that wine was served throughout the meal and while I don't remember the names of the wines we had, they were all very enjoyable and paired nicely with all the dishes.  The service was a bit spotty but generally attentive and good.  Besides the first course vegetarian mix-up, there were occasions where we were served dishes with no explanation or description of what we were eating.  Despite this, I loved the idea and concept of this pop-up and now that I know that the founder is on The Taste I feel like I have someone on the show I can root for.  Another suggestion for them would be to be more creative with their vegetarian dishes.  Just because a dish doesn't have meat or fish means that it needs to be boring or simple.  I've been to a lot of vegetarian/vegan places where they were super inventive and didn't make me miss any meat or fish at all.   Some of the dishes were hits and some were misses but the entire night was great and I'm all for supporting the dreams of local aspiring chefs.  Total bill: $75 for 7 courses and wine pairing.

Photo Credit:  Eventbrite