Lobster Joint Visited 4/21/2013 4.5 Forks

Lobster Joint 201 E Houston St., (between Ludlow St & Orchard St), New York, NY 1000

Ahhh, lobster roll.  One of the greatest food inventions ever made in my opinion.  How can you not love chunks of lobster meat in a buttery roll? I've probably hit almost every lobster roll joint in New York from Mary's Fish Camp, to Pearl Oyster Bar, to Ed's Lobster Bar, to Mermaid Inn, to Luke's Lobster, to to Red Hook Lobster Pound, so when my mom was in town and wanted a lobster roll I figured we would just end up at one of those places.  But even those places are all great, I was determined to find a new place in the city to try.  That's when I came across the Lobster Joint.  I knew there was one in Greenpoint (the original one) but then I saw that they had one in the Lower East Side, so we headed over there after a long day at The Cloisters.

Compared to Mary's Fish Camp or Pearl Oyster bar, the place here is very casual.  There is no wait service.  You order from a board, they give you a number and then they bring you your food.  For such a casual place, they have a pretty huge menu.  Not only do they have lobster rolls, but they have crab rolls, clam rolls, oyster rolls, crab cake sandwiches, fish filet sandwiches, full on steamed lobster dinners, lobster mac and cheese, and the menu goes on.  Another great thing about this place is that the prices are all incredibly reasonable.  The thing that I bothers me about nicer seafood sit down restaurants is that their lobster rolls are usually $28+ or if you get a roll from the Red Hook Lobster pound food truck, the roll is pretty small and only comes with a bag of chips for $17 and it doesn't feel like a real meal.  But here for $17 you can get a perfectly sized roll (New England style with the mayo or Connecticut style with butter) with coleslaw, a giant full sized pickle and your choice of fries, salad or chips.  My mom and I both opted for the New England Style with salad and we started with an order of the clam strips ($8).

The clam strips were totally fine.  They were nicely fried and served with a side of tartar sauce and cocktail sauce.  It wasn't overly battered and there was a lot of it and we could barely finish it.  While we were eating our appetizer I noticed that a guy at the bar was eating a dozen raw oysters and I was super bummed because I didn't see that on their menu and I would have preferred to have started my meal with a couple nice fresh oysters. Oh well.  I was here for the lobster roll and it did not disappoint at all.  At first it looked a little small, but once I bit into it, I realized that combined with the huge salad it was definitely the right amount of food.  While it was New England style with mayo and celery, there wasn't much of either which was totally fine.  It really focused on large sweet chunks of lobster from the tail and claw.  Delicious.  It was paired nicely with a super buttery griddled bun that had the right bread to lobster ratio.  Of course I always would like more lobster but for the price point, I thought it was perfect.  What I also loved was the salad that came with it was a seriously legit big fresh salad.  It was mixed greens, cucumbers and tomatoes with a nice vinaigrette on the side and all looked very fresh and not from a bag.  It made me feel slightly healthy in contrast to all the butter and cholesterol I just had.  

All in all, I loved the Lobster Joint.  It's a great casual, affordable seafood joint and a nice reprieve from all the $30 lobster roll places in the city.  It looked like they also had a great happy hour deal of $4 beers or cocktails and $1 Oysters or $4 lobster, crab or fried oyster slides.  Yum!  Total bill:  $51 for 2 people with tip and tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Nom Wah Tea Parlor Visited 4/21/2013 4.5 Forks

Nom Wah Tea Parlor 13 Doyers St., (between Bowery & Chatham Sq), New York, NY 10013

Dim sum is one of my absolute favorite types of meal but I usually stick to Golden Unicorn or in the past Oriental Garden.  So when my mom was in town, I thought I'd try a different place just to spice things up.  I had read about Nom Wah Tea Parlor in lots of blogs and articles as one of the oldest "parlors" (whatever that means) in NYC.  The location is in this tiny random street in Chinatown that I honestly have never been down ever in my 12 years of living in NYC.  My mom and I got there at noon, which for any dim sum place is a bad idea because that is right at peak hour.  We were told it was a 30 minute wait, which really wasn't that bad at all. 

When we were finally seated, I noticed that unlike most of the other dim sum places I go to, at this place my mom and I were actually one of the few Asians in the whole place.  Everyone else there was (for lack of a better word here) white.  That usually says to me that the place isn't very authentic or good but I was willing to keep an open mind here.  The decor here was also very un-Chinese in that it looked mostly like a old school diner and there were no pushcarts available.  I know some people hate that but honestly in NYC, there are very few places that are big enough to have pushcarts, so that really didn't bother me that much.  So instead of the typical pointing and screaming you do at a place like Golden Unicorn, you are given a list and you select which dim sum dishes you want and they then bring it to you table.  To me what is great about this concept is that usually the food will be made fresh to order and be pipping hot.  My general gripe with pushcarts is that sometimes you get the same cart over and over again and the food is cold and old and you could be waiting forever to finally see the cart you want.  Here everything that came out tasted like it was just made and steamed right before being served.  I will say here that the menu is a bit more limited than a typical dim sum place but it has the "greatest hits" of shumai, har gow, rice rolls, various dumplings and even chicken feet.  We went a bit overboard in the ordering and I would recommend that for 2 people you can get away with 6 dishes instead of the 8 we got.  We ordered the har gow ($3.75), shrimp shumai ($3.95), pork shumai ($3.50), shrimp and snow pea leaf dumpling ($3.95), shrimp rice roll ($3.50), fried crab claw ($3.50), turnip cake ($3.50) and the fried shrimp wrapped in bean curd ($3.95).  Like I said before, everything was very hot and fresh.  I made me realize how often I put up with cold dim sum!  I thought the shrimp and pea leaf dumpling was pretty unique and not a typical dumpling you see in most places.  The biggest disappointment was the fried crab claw (which is really a shrimp ball fried around a crab claw) not because of the taste but because there was only 1 of them for $3.50.  Usually you get two to a dish.

Overall, I really enjoyed every dish we got and was surprised at how much I liked it over my other dim sum experiences.  But I do think if you're looking for the "true" dim sum experience you do still need to go to Golden Unicorn at least once so that you can experience the pushcarts and the madness of old Chinese woman screaming at you and putting dishes on your table that you never even asked for.  Classic.  Total bill: $39 for two including tip and tax. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

New World Mall Food Court Visited 4/20/2013 3.5 Forks

New World Mall Food Court  4021 Main St., Flushing, NY 11354

Even though I am a huge fan of authentic Chinese food, I rarely find myself in Flushing, which is probably where you will find the most authentic Chinese food in the 5 boroughs.  But it's far and it's so authentic that many of the restaurants are Chinese speaking only.  One of the big food draws here isn't an actual restaurant but the food courts in the basements of their shopping malls (very similar to how it is in Asia).  I was torn between the Golden Shopping Mall (this is one that Anthony Bourdain loves) and the New World Mall.  After looking at the two malls, the New World Mall was much cleaner and nicer whereas the Golden Shopping Mall was literally one of the dirtiest places I've seen in a while.  I mean I would still eat there at some point because it looked like very local and real but for the purposes of my mom's visit, we opted for the cleaner one. 

At first glance, the food court is extremely overwhelming.  There are probably 20 different stalls offering all sorts of food such as hand-pulled noodles, hot pot, seafood, shaved ice, stir fry, etc.  I was in love with all the options and the best thing was that everything was so cheap.  I don't think I saw anything that was more than $12.  After circling the court twice, my mom, Aarti and I finally settled on the following:  New Zealand green mussels in black bean sauce ($7.95), oyster pancake ($4.95), prince mushroom and vegetable "hot pot" ($7.99), beef noodles ($6.95), and for dessert shaved mango ice ($4.95).  Unfortunately I don't remember the names of all the different stalls but if you go around and look at the menus you'll be able to find out which ones they were.  The green mussels were great, very plump and there was tons of them.  I couldn't believe that a whole box of them was less than $9.  We ordered the prince mushroom hot pot as our veggie option for Aarti and it was gigantic as well.  It was a huge bowl of broth, see-through noodles, sliced mushrooms, tofu and other vegetables.  It was a solid and filling dish but it wasn't also mind blowing (although for $8 you can't complain too much about it).  As for the beef noodle dish, it was nice and spicy.  The beef slices were nice and tender and the noodles were also soft and the whole thing reminded me a lot of the beef noodle dishes I've had in Taiwan before.  The biggest disappointment was the oyster pancake.  It's a very famous dish in Taiwan and I was excited to try it before my big trip.  But there was almost no egg, the oysters were very small and it was kind of a gelatinous mess.  I would barely finish the dish.  After that dish, I needed to cleanse my palate and the shaved ice was a nice way to do that.  Asian cuisine is not very well known for its dessert and there's a good reason for that.  But at least this dish was refreshing and sweet.  We added red beans to it to give it a bit of heartiness to it.  The ice was shaved very very finely that you could barely tell that it was actually ice.  It was bound with condense milk and a mango coating and similar to all the other dishes, it was a huge dish that we couldn't finish. 

The choices in the food court are so overwhelming that even going with 2 other people wasn't enough.  It best to go with at least 4-5 people and really hit up as many different stalls as possible.  I was really hoping to be blown away by my food and while I enjoyed it and loved how cheap it was, I wish I had chosen some other options.   Anyone want to try again with me?

Photo Credit: Yelp

Ootoya Visited 4/19/2013 4 Forks

Ootoya 8 W 18th St., (between Avenue Of The Americas & 5th Ave), New York, NY 10011

Apparently Ootoya is a popular chain restaurant in Japan, but this is their first States side opening.  I had read that it was best to get their early and I got there at 6:30pm but it was still a 1+  hour wait.  Oy.  Luckily there are a bunch of great shopping options nearby, so the hour flew by.  My mom and I were seated at the "sushi" bar which was fine, even though it's really NOT a sushi place here at all but there are also several tables and a 2nd floor as well. 

The extensive menu here is not focused on sushi at all but rather all the other great kinds of Japanese food that people sometimes forget about such as homemade tofu dishes, yakitori, grilled meats not on a stick, katsu dishes, hot pot, rice bowls, chirashi, dons, and soba noodles.  It was totally overwhelming because everything sounds great but there were only two of us, so we paired it down to 3 dishes.  We opted for the fried cod appetizer, the mini salmon don ($9) and the bara chirashi ($25) - we didn't get the box set option which you can order with any of the dishes for an extra $3 and it includes rice, miso soup, homemade pickles, and an egg custard.  None of those extras really spoke to me so I didn't feel the need to order the set.  The fried cod was the daily special and it was 4-5 medium sized chunks of cod lightly battered and fried.  It was served with large pieces of lettuce and vegetables such as broccoli, eggplant, potato, and carrots.  Everything was lightly covered in a thick black vinegar like sauce but it wasn't overwhelming or too  much.  I think we were supposed to have wrapped the fish and veggies in the lettuce but instead we just ate everything individually so it was kind of weird to munch of a random lettuce at the end but oh well, it was still delicious.  Next came the salmon don and chirashi at the same time.  The mini don had about 4-5 melt in your mouth pieces of salmon and about 2 full spoonfuls of fresh salmon roe and served on a bed of very tasty sushi rice.  What I love about don dishes is that you an focus on 1 type of fish and salmon is definitely one of my favorite.  My gripe with this dish is that it's really hard to eat rice with chopsticks but then it's also difficult to eat sashimi with a spoon, so I kept switching between the two different utensils to get a good feel for this dish.  The chirashi was different from other kinds of chirashi I've had before because all the fish was chopped up as opposed to being served in slices.  While I still prefer the sliced fish because you get to really taste the individual fishes, this version was still great and allowed for a lot of variety with each bite.  There was chopped up tuna, salmon, eel, sweet egg, salmon roe and white fish so it's possible to get about 2-3 different kinds of sushi in 1 bite.   Again the sushi rice was awesome and while I try to stay away from white rice these days, I started to just eat the rice on its own because it was that good. 

All in all, I really enjoyed my meal at Ootoya.  It would probably be more fun with more people so that you can try more things given the breadth of the menu.  Also everything here was very reasonably priced so I never felt like I was going to break the bank when I was considering ordering more food.  Another great sign to this place is that its full of Asians, which is usually a good sign of a quality Asian restaurant.  I mean there were probably only 2 tables in the whole place that wasn't occupied by a group of Asians.  Total bill: $67 for two with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Aska Visited 4/20/2013 4 Forks

Aska 90 Wythe Ave., (between 11th St & 10th St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

Ever since I came back from Iceland and was so surprised by the excellent quality of their food, I've been on the hunt for good Scandinavian food in NYC.  Unsurprisingly, there aren't a lot of options.  So when I heard about Aska in the Kinfolk Studios (it used to house various pop-up restaurants such as Yuji Ramen) I jumped at the chance to try it out.  They only offer a 7 course ($65) or 10 course ($110) meal and you must make a reservation.  You can't just walk in and sit and order a la carte.  For the moment I put in my reservation for the 7 course meal, the customer service was excellent.  They follow up with you via email to confirm your reservation and ask if you have any food allergies or food restrictions.  I thought that this was a nice touch considering that most prixe fixe places have an attitude of take it or leave it, no substitutions (I'm looking at you Feast). 

Janet and I sat down and were immediately served a bunch of amuse bouche that I can't really remember off the top of my head, except for the pig's blood chip.  Umm, yeah, I ate it but I can't say I would necessarily run back for that again.  Before the main courses, we got a plate of freshly warm bread with homemade sweet whipped butter.  There is really nothing better than freshly baked bread and soft delicious butter.  I ate 2 whole rolls.  I will say that the bits of anise on top of the bread weren't my favorite but it did add a nice hint of licorice taste to it.  The first dish was an oyster with dandelion and rapeseed.  The oyster was already shucked out of its shell and served in a foamy broth and the first bite was super smooth with a hint of fishiness from the oyster.  If you don't like a strong taste of the sea, I wouldn't recommend this dish but Janet and I loved it.  Next dish was the leek with butter and winter leaves.  Although I'm not a huge leek fan, I loved the warm buttery taste and the leek was very soft.  This was Janet's least favorite dish but I think it was because she had a hard time cutting it up and eating it (the key is to cut along the grain and not against it otherwise it'll be very difficult to cut).   The 3rd dish was crispy pork trotter (pig's feet) with ramps. Ramps!  Ramps are probably the most trendy vegetable possible (if vegetables can even be trendy).  I loved this dish because the trotter was deliciously fatty and combined with the ramps made it even better.  I was glad that the portions here are pretty small because if I ate more of this my cholesterol would have sky rocketed into the 300's.  The next dish was also a top dish of the night although I can totally see how it's not for everyone.  The whelk looked like a plate of sea shells and rocks that you pick up along the shore.  But by using a toothpick you can dig into the shell and dig out what seems like the meat inside a conch.  So it's a bit chewy and has a strong taste of the ocean but I personally enjoyed it because it reminded me of other kinds of shellfish that I like eating.  

On to the 5th course which was pike fish with herbs and haymilk (I really have no idea what haymilk is).  The light white fish was nicely done and served with a bunch of fermented vegetables.   It was probably the most "normal" dish of the night and what you can find at another restaurant.  The last entree dish of the night was a winner.  It was pork with giant raw spinach and beets.  One of the funniest comments of the night Janet made was that she originally thought that the beet juice that was spread across the dish was pigs blood and that kind of freaked her out.  The pork was incredibly tender and was equal parts meaty and fatty.  I wasn't a huge fan of the random raw piece of spinach, I would have preferred it cooked.  The last course was dessert and honestly I wasn't expecting much since Scandinavia isn't really known for dessert.  But it was amazing!!  It was a arrack (it was like a thick ice cream) and served with rosehip, almond and a very strong rum based sauce.  It was a great way to end the meal.  

All in all, I'm not sure how Scandinavian the whole meal was but it was certainly very different and high end.  It's not a casual meal (took over 2+ hours) and it was one of those types of places where the chef and sous chefs come to your table and explain the dish and pour each of the sacues/broths individually into your bowls.   Total bill with tax and tip:  $83/pp

Rayuela Visited 4/13/2013 3.5 Forks

Rayuela 165 Allen St., New York, NY 10002

When my friend Holly mentioned that she wanted to go to Rayuela for her birthday, I thought I had already been there before but after scouring my blog I didn't see any mention of it so I'm glad that I finally get to put in a review of this place.  It's a great place for a birthday or a night out (or randomly bumping into friends too) because it's got a lively and fun spirit to it.

While the service wasn't bad, there was a definitely communication barrier with our waiter.  He was very nice but there were just so many mis-communication cues (I don't think the loudness in the restaurant helped either) that it was a bit frustrating.  First, our waiter asked us if we wanted to start with some appetizers and what we heard was "do you want some guacamole something something something  and ceviche?"  Huh? We said it would be great to start with something and then the waiter said "Ok, great" and went away.  We were like what just happened? Did we just order something?  Then time goes by and nothing shows up and then our waiter comes to take our order as if nothing had happened.  We noticed that the guacamole wasn't on the menu and asked about that and he mentioned that they had guacamole two ways: plain or with crab.  We ordered the one with crab because it sounded very different and unique.  Then we asked that if we wanted to share a bunch of plates, how many should we get?  Instead of giving us a number, he started just rattling off all the dishes that he thought were good and then he left.  We were so thoroughly confused and decided on our own to order 4 appetizer sized dishes and 1 main dish.  Along with the guacamole, we ordered the scallop ceviche ($14), tuna rellena ($14), the gambas y chorizo ($13) and the churrasco rayuela ($31). 

The guacamole came out first and we all immediately thought that we got the plain guacamole because we didn't see any crabmeat in it.  But after a few bites of it, I did taste the crab in it and thought it was a nice difference but not sure if it was worth $18.  But it was definitely tasted of fresh avocado, tomato, onion and cilantro and not pre-made which was nice.  Next came the scallop ceviche and the tuna rellena.  Before any of the dishes came out, I was most excited by the scallop ceviche because I love scallop and don't get to eat ceviche a lot.  But this ceviche was a bit disappointing.  It wasn't bad but it was served more like sliced sashimi with sliced tomatillo, radishes, onions, cilantro, tomatillo sauce & white truffle oil.  We all were expecting chunks of scallop in a lime citrus base and this didn't really have much of that citrus essence that ceviche was known for.  It was just a bit underwhelming.  Next I moved on to tuna rellena which was crab and shrimp wrapped in sliced sashimi tuna, with cucumbers and avocado in sesame soy sauce.  I loved the tuna sashimi outside but thought the crab and shrimp inside seemed a bit off.  It was kind of all mashed up and mixed together in this mixture that just didn't seem like crab or shrimp.  It wasn't bad but it just didn't have that clean flavor profile I usually like with seafood.  Luckily that was accomplished with the shrimp dish.  The gambas y chorizo dish was served with olive oil poached shrimp, creamy manchego rice and Verdejo white wine-chorizo sauce.  I loved this dish a lot because the shrimp was perfectly poached and I was a big fan the foam-y chorizo flavor sauce.  The rice was the right consistency and the manchego flavor wasn't overpowering at all.  Delicious.  But the table favorite of the night was the churrasco rayuela.  We all raved and loved it and even recommended it to the table next to us.  This dish was a grilled rib-eye steak with chimichurri, Brussels sprouts,shitake mushrooms, red onions and celery root puree.  The streak was amazing, cooked so perfectly.  We asked for it to be medium but it was closer to medium rare (my personal preference) but it was so juicy and tender and the vegetable mixture was wonderful too.  I kind of wish that we didn't get the ceviche and just got another order of the steak but that would have been a bit too much meat for the night. 

Lastly, we had to order dessert because we were celebrating a birthday.  You can't have a birthday without dessert!  So we got these chocolate donuts that had hot chocolate on the inside and sprinkled with sugar on the outside and served with a mint ice cream.  It was great because there were 3 donuts and 3 of us, so it was a perfect way to end the night.  I was tempted to give this place 4 forks but after comparing it to other 4 fork ratings, the confusion with the ordering, the ok ceviche and the fact that the sangria (while delicious) didn't seem that strong, I moved it to 3.5 forks.  But it was a great place for a birthday and the steak was worthy of 5 forks itself, so don't think that I didn't like this place because I did.  Total bill:  $120 with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Feast Visited 4/12/2013 4 Forks

Feast 102 Third Ave., New York, NY 10003

I love the concept of Feast and really wanted to give the idea 5 Forks.  The idea here is that everyone "feasts" on a prix fixe menu of either the Farmers Market Feast (all vegetarian - $38) or the Nose to tail Feast (meat based - tonight's was lamb for $48) and yesterday they also had a special Scallop Feast ($58).  I was DYING to get the Scallop feast but unfortunately you can only pick 1 feast for the entire table, so there is no mixing or matching if you have people with different dietary habits.  I found that to be super annoying although when the meal came out, I get why they do it.  But I guess my question would be, what if someone came in here to dine alone?  If they can make a feast for 1, can't they make individualized dishes for larger groups? But I get that it's not an ideal situation so I didn't push the waiter on it.

Aarti and I got the farmer's market feast and even though I would have loved to have tried the other two feasts, this one was still really good and didn't make me miss meat or seafood too much.  I read somewhere that they get all their vegetables from the local Union Square market, so you know that the quality and freshness of the ingredients are top notch.  They start off the meal with 4 different appetizers:  a market salad, baby vegetable garden, smoked goat cheese tart, and beet frites.   These were all pretty bite size and although it sounds like a lot of food, it was all very manageable.  The market salad was a 1/4 bite size piece of squash and then topped with frisee, roquefort cheese, pear and maple vinaigrette.  I normally am not a fan of frisse but the combination of the strong cheese and tangy vinaigrette made it really tasty and made me forget that I didn't like the texture of frisse.  Delicious.  The baby vegetable garden were 3 small pieces of heirloom onion, carrot and radish served in a test tube with olive soil, cumin, and creme fraiche.  I wasn't sure how to really eat this since the test tube was very narrow and the vegetables were cut so short that you couldn't actually dip it into the creme fraiche.  I ended up putting a knife into the test tube and spreading the creme fraiche on the bread.  My two favorite dishes were the beet frites and the goat cheese tart.  The beet frites were like beet french fries served with herbed aioli.  It was like the healthier version of eating fried food.  The tart was served with a large forest mushroom on top which I loved.  I would have preferred that the goat cheese to be a bit stronger but it was a great bite size tart. 

Next came the entrees:  spaghetti squash, stuffed eggplant, squash agnolotti, and roasted cauliflower.  The spaghetti squash was served with a mushroom bolognese that I wasn't a huge fan of.  It kind of tasted like cold chopped up tomatoes with the strong earthy flavoring of the mushroom.  The spaghetti squash was served in a scoop formation and not so much like an actual pasta substitution.  The dish was fine but it didn't wow me.  But I really enjoyed the stuffed eggplant because it was stuffed with risotto, broccoli rabe and then topped with a very potent preserved lemon.  It was super unique and delicious.  The agnolotti was similar to a ravioli stuffed with a kabocha squash (one of my favorite types of squash) and served with brown butter.  It was pretty simple and rich tasting with the brown butter but I loved the subtleness of the squash inside of the pasta.  Last was the roasted cauliflower served with cauliflower puree, grapes and hazelnuts.  It was a pretty simple and clean dish with the cauliflower with a nice char on the outside but I honestly didn't really "get" the point of the grapes.  At this point, we were both very full but there was still a dessert course.  Luckily, it was just one course:  apple crisp with lemon creme fraiche.  But it was a huge dessert, enough for 4 people.  I loved the crisp top and the side of the creme fraiche but the inside of the apple was a little bit undercooked.  But we were both so full by the end of the meal, it didn't really matter that the inside was a bit undercooked because we couldn't finish the dish. 

All in all, I love what Feast is doing.  It would be a great date place (hint hint anyone??) but they do make it difficult if anyone in the group has a dietary restriction.  The table next to me got the scallop feast and my mouth was watering.  It looked amazing and all I saw were the first two dishes (some kind of scallop ceviche and a mini scallop burger).  While they said that you could order a la carte, it doesn't really make sense (financially or food wise).  Even if you "have to" get the vegetarian feast, it's still totally worth the visit.  Total bill with 2 glasses of wine: $65/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Scarpetta Visited 4/16/2013 4 Forks

Scarpetta 355 W 14th St., New York, NY 10014

Scarpetta has been one of those restaurants for me that has always been around and I've heard good things but I've never had a super compelling reason to go.  But this time, my good friend from LA was in town and in trying to rack my brain of where to go, for some reason Scarpetta popped into my head and surprisingly there was an 8pm slot on a Saturday.  

Even though it was pretty easy to get a reservation, the places was unsurprisingly totally packed on Saturday night.  2 of my friends were about 10-15 minutes late and some restaurants will both not seat you but possibly even give your table away.  Luckily here, they asked if Jenn and I wanted to sit at our table while we waited for our other two guests which I thought was very nice.  Once we were all seated we took a look at the menu and we all commented on how nice and manageable the menu was.  The menu also noted on the bottom that they had a vegetarian menu upon request.  I didn't look at the vegetarian menu in detail but apparently it was very robust and had a lot of great sounding options.   I love this fact because I've always had an issue for places that don't have at least 1-2 good veggie options or just think serving roasted vegetables is a valid option.   Back to the ordering, we decided to get the creamy polenta ($19) and the mozzarella ($16) for the table.  Jenn and split two different meat pastas:  the duck and froie gras ravioli ($26) and the short rib and bone marrow angnolotti ($24) and my other two friends split the spaghetti ($24) and the tagliatelle ($25).  After my trip back from Italy, I definitely have a new love and appreciation for handmade pasta but it still kind of gets to me to pay $20+ for pasta.  

The polenta was served with a topping of truffled mushrooms and what looked like a broth/consume at the table.  This dish came highly recommended and indeed it was delicious.  True to its description, it was very creamy and honestly very heavy on the butter.  I loved that the mushrooms gave it some earthy flavor to offset the sweet buttery goodness.  Luckily it wasn't too big in size, otherwise I probably would have ended up consuming 2 sticks of butter that night.  We thought we had been pretty clear that we were ordering the mozzarella but they forgot about it which was a bit disappointing.  Strangely,  at the same time and totally unrelated they brought us a plate of crispy shredded artichokes and herbs (compliments of the chef).  It tasted like thin shoe string french fries and were nice and salty but I would have still preferred the mozzarella dish instead.   I guess the waiter didn't hear us when we ordered it? But at least we didn't get charged for it and honestly by the end of the meal, we were so full that our stomachs didn't miss it either. 

Our pastas came out and they were beautifully presented.  I know that pasta at times sounds very simple and uninspiring, but the way they were showcased here, they definitely looked worth every penny they were charging for it.  Similar to my ravioli dish at I Sodi, I was pleasantly surprised that there were so many pieces of ravioli here.  They were smaller in size and very plentiful and beautifully presented with a drizzling of marsala reduction.  The filling was stuffed with duck and froie gras and the froie gras flavor really came out a lot stronger than the duck (but of course, froie gras in general is a stronger flavor than duck).  After a few bites, you can really start to feel full simply because the filling in the ravioli was so rich and decadent.  After I ate my half of the ravioli, I switched to my half of the agnolotti pasta.  Agnolotti pasta is similar to ravioli in that it's small pocket-like pasta that's stuffed with meat or vegetables. This one was stuffed with beef short rib and bone marrow, so again a very rich and decadent filling.  Both of these pastas had a great fresh homemade taste to it and definitely tasted like it was made with precision and love in the kitchen.  Although both pastas were great, I think I still prefer my pastas with a tomato base because I still really missed that element in both of the pastas.  That being said, the spaghetti that came out looked simple (served with tomato and basil) but fantastic.  I tried the tagliatelle (served with bitter greens, maitake mushrooms and aged goat cheese) and really enjoyed it as well. 

Despite all this pasta, we still had room for dessert.  We split the chocolate cake (served with salted caramel gelato and chocolate butterscotch) and the warm banana bread (served with butterscotch pudding and chocolate gelato).  I am a huge fan of butterscotch in any form so both of these desserts were amazing.  I preferred the banana bread, although I thought it was a bit heavy on the nuts and could have been a bit softer and fluffier.  

Overall, this was a great dining experience.  It was pretty typical "New York" night out with a high-end decor and very attentive service.  We probably had about 4-5 different waiters/servers/bus boys who came around and helped to clear our table, take our orders and ask if needed anything.  I did still think that it was a bit expensive for what it was but it's ok to splurge like this every once in a while, especially if you have a friend in town.  Total bill: $82/pp with tax and tip. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

The Boil Visited 4/5/2013 3.5 Forks

The Boil 139 Chrystie St., (between Broome St & Delancy St), New York, NY 10002

I want to first say that I completely appreciate The Boil for what it's trying to accomplish.  As someone who love loves loves seafood (I mean the down and dirty crab shack kind of seafood, not the fancy, high end seafood restaurants), I don't think that there are many, if any, roll up your sleeve kind of seafood places in New York City.  There are some in Brooklyn near the water but there aren't any places actually in Manhattan.

Cicily and I thought that we were getting there early at 6pm on a Friday but the place was already packed to the gills and the only option we had was to share a table with 4 other people in a corner.  It was actually totally fine because they were very nice and otherwise we would have had to wait 2 hours for  table.  The menu here specializes in seafood by the pound.  They have crawfish ($12/lb), shrimp ($12/lb), dungeness crab ($30/lb), snow crab ($15/lb), king crab ($30/lb), lobster ($20/lb) as well as a bunch of combinations and other appetizers.  Upon first look, Cicily and I both commented on how expensive the prices were.  Yes, we know that it's NYC and not Louisiana or Maryland but at home I can get shrimp for $5/lb or dungeness crab for $20/lb and Cicily mentioned that she can get a pound of crawfish for $3 at home.  Yes, I know real estate is higher in NYC and that there's always a mark-up when you eat out so I was willing to totally over look that.  I haven't really had crawfish before and Cicily mentioned that typically you need about 2 lb/person but since we wanted to do more than just crawfish we both got the combo A (1 lb crawfish, 1 lb shirmp and some corn, potatos and sausage), split 1 lb of snow crab and got a of sausage ($3).  The waitress suggested that we go for the boil special sauce on top of all our seafood - it consisted of garlic butter, old bay and lemon pepper and then we decided to go for spicy flavoring as well.

Cicily had mentioned that in LA they put the seasoning in the water while they boil the crawfish so that the flavors are infused into the crawfish while they cook.  It looks like here instead they boil everything and then coat the crawfish and shrimp on top of everything afterwards.   I usually don't like a ton of sauces on top of my seafood, I prefer to have them cooked clean and naturally and then have the sauces on the side for dipping but I was open to trying new techniques.  The food comes out in this giant steaming plastic bag and they give you plastic gloves and a bib.  Now being true seafood lovers, Cicily and I couldn't bring ourselves to put on gloves and a bib.  The whole point of an experience like this is to get dirty and covered in seafood - although when I got home I was kind of regretting that I didn't use the gloves.  There was a decent amount of crawfish and shrimp.  I actually thought that the shrimp was pretty big in size (they were served with the head on) and preferred them to the crawfish since there was so much more "meat" to them.  The crawfish were good but honestly it was just way too much work for such little return.  At first bite, the sauce was spicy and very flavorful but by the end I realized that it was way too heavy on the garlic butter.  I could almost feel my arteries clogging with each bite and there was so much garlic in there that I was so glad that I wasn't on a date because there would have been no way I would have been able to go near them without feeling self-conscious.   By the time I got to the end of bag, I was completely covered in the sauce and just felt gross.  I moved on to the snow crabs after finishing my bag of crawfish and shrimp and the crab was a bit disappointing.  The size of the legs were pretty small and thin.  I've had much plumber ones from the grocery stores in Chinatown or Costo and I realized that I still like my crabs with a cleaner taste.  I didn't like it covered in all that sauce.  I didn't even get to the sausage because well honestly it just looked kind of gross.  It was covered in that white greasy fat and just wasn't presented in a way that was very appetizing.

Despite all this, I wasn't totally unhappy with my meal, it just wasn't mind blowing.  But what really annoyed Cicily and I was when we were finished and drinking our 2nd beer the owner/host came up to us and said, "Did anyone tell you about the time limit? I need your table for another party now." Umm - no one told us about the time limit and I think it's a bit in poor taste to tell a party about it after they've already sat down and ate.  On one hand I totally get that they were super super crowded and needed our table.  I get that completely.  I just think it could have been phrased better and even when he said that, they never gave us our check!  He just said he needed our table but then walked away.   We had to flag down our waitress 10 minutes later for the check.  It would have been nice if they had said "I see that you're done eating but that you still have a full beer.  Perhaps we can move you to the bar while you finish your drink so that we can use your table for those who are waiting for a table to eat."  The problem is that their bar was also very full but honestly I think that's something that restaurants need to plan for and kicking people out while they are still eating/drinking is a bit off putting.  I do want to say that our actual waitress was super sweet and checked in on us constantly and I had no problems with her.   Another downside to the meal was that it was cash only.  I don't mind places that are cash only if they are on the cheap side, but most people here are probably going to drop $50+ and for that amount,  restaurants should allow customers to pay with credit cards.  All in all, I loved the idea and concept of The Boil and would probably go back if someone wanted to try it out, but knowing that I could steam my own shrimp and crabs at home for half the price and the same or better taste doesn't make me want to run over there tomorrow.  Total price: $52/pp with tax and tip

Kyotofu Visited 4/5/2013 4 Forks

Kyotofu 705 9th Ave. (between 48th St & 49th St), New York, NY 10019

Disclosure:  I have a work partnership with Kyotofu and was invited here for a work meeting

Kyotofu is mainly known for its Japanese desserts so I was actually surprised to discover that they have a real menu of non-dessert food as well.  Unlike what most people may think there is a lot of Japanese food that's not sushi or ramen and Kyotofu tries to showcase that here.  While Kyotofu does not have an extensive menu, there is a nice variety of hot/cold food selections to make a very robust meal. 

We started with the pulled pork sliders ($12), the Kyotofu mac and cheese ($12), and the Artisanal tofu ($10).  None of these dishes are what you would typically think of when you think of Japanese food and maybe they're not, but they were most definitely delicious.  The pork sliders were made with honey glazed berkshire pork and served with pickled slaw on the side.  It seemed more like a BBQ pork slider and it could have used a bit more pork in between the bread but that might have been because I was starving too.  The mac and cheese was made with gruyere cheese, truffle pate, shichimi, and panko crumbs. It was super cheese-y and the top was nice, toasty and crunchy thanks to the panko crust.  Despite its small size it was very filling and rich, so don't be fooled by the size when you first see it.  Next came the tofu, which is definitely the most "Asian" dish of the three.  It's a housemade tofu with 3 different sauces.  The tofu almost looks like a giant ball of mozzarella because it's white, shiny and served in a ball formation.  The tofu was extremely creamy and soft and very much on the silky side vs. the firm kind of tofu.  The tofu was super fresh tasting and you can definitely tell that it's made on in house.  On its own, the tofu doesn't have a lot of flavor but you should definitely drizzle on the different sauces to add more flavor.  I was a fan of the traditional soy sesame on the tofu the most and it was definitely a nice palate cleanser after the mac and cheese and pork sliders.

After all of appetizers, I was getting pretty full but I actually had my main entree to look forward to.  Even though I typically like to have a light lunch, I opted for the pork belly ($22) dish because well, I can never turn down a pork belly dish.  The pork was slow cooked in soy sauce and sake and served with a mixture of pickled cucumbers and purple shiso onigiri and a side of white rice.   I was originally a bit hesitant to go with the pork belly but the owner, Michael, talked it up and said it was delicious and not super heavy and he was right.  I mean, yes it's still pork belly at the end of the day so you can't really get around that but I honestly didn't feel full and gross after eating it.  The belly was very tender and soft and had a great mixture of fat and meat.  I was trying to not eat all of it because I was told to save room for dessert but I couldn't help myself and ate the entire dish.  It's really hard to get pork belly wrong but they did do a great job here with the dish.  Despite all of this food, I did manage to save a small space for dessert.  We had the warm chocolate mochi cake ($12) and the soymilk soft serve sundae ($9).  The chocolate cake was nice and soft but I really enjoyed the soymilk soft serve more.  It was a mixture of black sesame and vanilla flavors and served with some kind of crunchy topping to it.  You could tell that it was made from a milk base and not a cream base because it was less thick and creamy and had more of an ice-y texture.  But it made me feel like I was eating a somewhat healthier dessert even if I actually wasn't.

By the time I was done eating I had no desire to go back to the office.  I just wanted to curl up on a couch somewhere and take a nice nap (the 2 kinds of sake probably didn't help either).  All in all, I was very surprised at the non-dessert items mentioned here.  I don't think many people associate Kyotofu with restaurant like food since they're mostly known of their cookies and desserts through their other distribution channels, but its definitely worth checking out. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Antica Pesa Visited 4/1/2013 3 Forks

Antica Pesa 115 Berry St., (between 7th St & 8th St), New York, NY 11211

So clearly I've been on an incredible Italian food kick since I've been back from Italy.  I've been to I Sodi and Roberta's in the past 3 days and now, yesterday I had Italian food again at Antica Pesa.  I had wanted to go here even before I went to Italy since I had heard that the only other location of Antica Pesa was in Rome and incredibly delicious.  Plus I had heard that Madonna had just had dinner here a few weeks ago and I'm such a sucker for for things like this. 

I have to start off by saying that if I could, I would give this place 10 forks for service.  My friend Nancy was running late from work, so I settled in nicely in front of the fireplace and had a cocktail.  The bartender was so sweet and kept checking on me and asking me if I needed anything while I waited.   As I waited, I noticed how incredibly out of place this place is in Williamsburg.  The decor is much more suited for a Meatpacking or Midtown crowd.  In fact, when I looked around the other diners seemed very un-Brooklyn and much more uppity Manhattan.  The furniture is very mod, Mad Men-esque and to me a bit old fashioned.  When Nancy finally arrived for dinner, I tried to pay the bartender for my cocktail and he kindly refused my payment and said that I was so patient for waiting for such a long time that I deserved a free drink.  Awww.

I was starving when we sat down, so we quickly ordered the crudo e bufala croccane ($17) which is fresh mozzarella wrapped in filo dough and then served with a side of prosciutto.  Then we decided to split the chitarra alla carbonara ($16) and the gnocchi di castagne ($20).  To layer on my love for the service here, when they served the appetizer, they split it exactly in two and put it on each of our plates and then took the empty appetizer plate away. Genius!  The dish was delicious but honestly I didn't think that it needed the filo dough.  The cheese in itself was wet and super fresh tasting and I didn't think the dough added much to the dish except some flakiness.  The prosciutto was thinly sliced, soft in texture and had a great balance of fat and meat to it.  You can never go wrong with a meat and cheese plate.  I was very excited to try the pasta since that was my favorite part of all my meals in Italy but unfortunately the pasta here did not measure up.  The upside of the pastas here is that the portion sizes are much bigger than your typical high end of Italian places in the city.  They are a legitimate meal and won't leave you hungry at all.  The carbonara was served with guanciale (pork jowl) and black pepper.  I liked the actual pasta used here but I thought the guanciale was way salty and too dry for me.  I know it's very similar to bacon, which I love but for some reason I just didn't love the guanciale here.  The overall dish was just too heavy and rich for me and it was a real challenge to finish it.  The gnocchi was served with lamb ragu and bitter greens and the pasta was made from chesnut flour.  You could tell that it was made with a different kind of flour because the texture of the pasta seemed too mushy and soft.  I know gnocchi isn't a hard pasta but this pasta was too limp for me.  But I did enjoy the lamb ragu flavor and it was much stronger and more powerful than the carbonara dish.  While I'm usually not a huge stickler for presentation, I did find the brown shapeless presentation of this dish to be a bit underwhelming and frankly a bit unappealing.  By the time Nancy and I finished the pasta dishes, we had zero room for dessert which was a shame because there were some very tasty sounding sweets.

All in all, I found the service to be impeccable and some of the best I've experienced anywhere but I've had better food at other Italian places (especially in Italy).  I wouldn't write this place off because I think there's a lot of potential but with so many other great Italian places in the city and in Brooklyn, this wouldn't be my first choice.  Total bill: $97 with tax/tip for two.

Photo Credit: Yelp