Okonomi Visited 6/15/2014 4.5 Forks

Okonomi 150 Ainslie Street , Brooklyn, NY 11211

I'm not in love with Okonomi because it's one of the few non-hipster restaurants within walking distance from my apartment or because Anuja and I had gone to see the owner do a fantastic fish demonstration at Whole Foods - I love it because it's simple, clean food in its purest form and it makes realize that you don't need a bunch of flash to make a really good dish.  As I mentioned, this place is owned by Yuji Haraguchi, who owns the Yuji Ramen stalls in Whole Foods in the East Village and Brooklyn.  Anuja and I had seen him give a fish cutting demonstration earlier in the year and he was just the cutest thing ever and just very passionate about his craft.  So I was beyond thrilled when he had mentioned in the class that he was opening a restaurant literally 5 minutes from my apartment. 

It's on a very unassuming, quiet block in Williamsburg and it just has a lovely peaceful decor.  It's pretty small and only fits about 10 people total but I think that's the charm that goes with the overall vibe of the restaurant and menu.  The menu is really very basic:  it's a set lunch of miso soup, rice with bonito flakes and then a plate of pickled market vegetables, a green vegetable that's blanched and servedwith a tofu cream and sesame seeds and an Japanese egg custard/omelet and then the fresh fish of the day - all for $15 (although I heard it used to be $9).  That day it was tile fish and king mackerel.  What I love about this place is that the menu changes daily based on what's fresh and available, so it's always a pleasant surprise.  They also have a small selection of appetizers and that day they had monkfish liver ($5),  bluefish tartar ($7) and scallop sashimi ($8).   I am obsessed with scallop sashimi so we had to order it and it was amazing.  There was 4-5 pieces and each were incredibly smooth and tasted like they just came out of the water.  Delicious.  As for the lunch set, it was fantastic.  Such a basic and simple concept but everything was just right and to top it off, it was so healthy for you.  I personally liked the tile fish more than the mackerel because it seemed more flakey and moist but in the end, they were both great.  The pickled vegetables and blanched vegetables were a nice complement to the rest of the dish and the whole experience was just incredibly calming and pleasant.  I felt like it was an oasis away from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn and definitely a departure from the hipsters.  And to top it off, everything here was incredibly reasonably priced.  I just hope he can keep up these prices and still stay in business.  Despite how simple the food look, I left fairly full from the whole experience.  

But what's really great about the experience was that Yuji himself was at the restaurant and could not have been nicer to us.  Anuja had posted something on Okonomi's Facebook wall a day or two before our brunch date and he actually recognized her face and made a comment about how he recognized her when we sat down.  How often does that happen in NYC?  He kindly explained the menu to us and was just incredibly sweet.  He was telling us how this place was a year in the making and you could just tell how proud and passionate he was about it.  That's what I love about dining out - when you meet someone who just really loves what they do and then on top of it, does it really well with no pretentious attitude.  The only negatives I can think about is that I can see how the limiting menu is not for everybody and the restaurant is only open for lunch as of now.  But in general I am super excited how close this place is to my apartment and I will definitely be back multiple times.  Total bill:  ~$50 for 2 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Comodo Visited 6/14/2014 3 Forks

Comodo 58 MacDougal St., New York, NY 10012

Aarti and I celebrated my birthday at this Brazilian place late on a Saturday night - in true South American style we had dinner starting at 9:45pm.   I was excited to try this place right off the heels of my trip to Colombia.  The menu sounded great and had a great mix of seafood, meat and vegetables.   I'll be the first to admit that I had been drinking earlier that day, so this review might be a bit skewed but I had sobered up by the time I got there. 

I opted to go with the lamb sliders ($11) to start and got the black sea bass as my main entree ($28) while Aarti got a mix of different vegetable appetizers for her entrees.  She got the Brussels sprout salad ($10), the kale and quinoa salad ($14) and the cauliflower gratin ($12) - all sounded great but I thought the price points were a bit high considering they were vegetable appetizers and not full entrees.   The lamb sliders were served on Brazilian cheese bread and a chipotle cream sauce.  The cheese bread is a popular bread in South America and to be honest, it's just not my favorite.  I think it's a bit too dry and doesn't really have much taste to it.  While the lamb patty was great and I enjoyed the chipotle cream sauce that went with it, but I just didn't think that the cheese bread, while being an authentic South American ingredient, really made the slider stand out.  I guess call me unpatriotic but it would have been better on a basic potato bun.  As for the black bass, it was served with polenta and sauteed broccolini.  The fish and broccolini were way over seasoned and very heavy on the garlic - which usually isn't a huge problem, but I just felt incredibly dehydrated and my mouth reeked of garlic after only a few bites.  The fish itself was cooked well and in theory the pairing of it with polenta and broccolini would be a winner.  It was just cooked with such a heavy hand on the salt that it was kind of hard to finish the whole dish.  I didn't get a chance to try any of Aarti's vegetable dishes but on paper they all sounded great.  Who doesn't like Brussel Sprouts with a mustard avocado Parmesean dressing or kale with quinoa mixed with shitake mushrooms and feta cheese?   

The place is pretty small and narrow and I thought it would be a bit more lively given all the World Cup hoopla, but it was relatively calm on a random Saturday night.  It's possible that my earlier drinking impaired my judgement, so I'm willing to give this place another try but maybe more for  brunch than dinner.  Total bill:  $120 for 2 people with tax and tip

 Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mercadito Visited 6/11/2014 2.5 Forks

Mercadito 179 Ave B, New York, NY 10009

I had been to Mercadito years ago and remembered it being super tiny, hot and just ok.  Fast forward to 2014 and honestly not much has changed.  It's still tiny, it's still hot and muggy inside and the food is still ok.  I will say that it's a lively place with some pretty strong margaritas, which is a good offset to the mediocre tacos.  But another good thing is that on Tuesday it's Taco Tuesdays so instead of 4 tacos for $14.50 it's 2 tacos for $5.  

I was torn between the sauteed fish or the beer battered fish tacos, but I opted for the sauteed version to be "healthy" and then also got the carne one as well.  The table split an order of the guacamole ($13.50) and the pico de tres elote ($5.50).  The guacamole was ok - it was too chunky and not creamy enough for me.  It felt like they forgot to mash up the avocados before putting it in the bowl.  The tacos themselves were also ok...they were definitely a bit lack luster presentation wise.  They just looked a bit sloppy but taste wise they were fine nothing to really write home about.  They were your basic tacos that got the job done if you were hungry but they lacked the quality of a place like ABC Cocina or the originality of a Tacqueria Lower East Side.  The elotes was a corn dish of hominy and mixed with yellow and white corn with pico de gallo.  Again, a standard corn dish but I wasn't getting that biting fresh feeling from it, plus I find hominy a bit dry and boring to eat. 

All in all, it was a standard meal but the Tuesday Taco special does make it at least worth a try while downing margaritas on a lazy Tuesday.  As for the service, it was definitely a bit lacking.  Jill had to order a margarita about 1,000 times and when I had asked for my 2nd one, it took forever to come out that by the time it arrived everyone had already finished their food and drink so I had to chug it which I wasn't really happy about.  Total bill:  $44/pp with tax, tip and drink

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bistro du Coin Visited 6/8/2014 2 Forks

Bistro du Coin 1738 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009

I've never done real brunch in DC before so I was excited to give it at try with some friends who had just moved to the area.  I usually either to go my usual dim sum or pho in the burbs but this time I was meeting up with my friends in Dupont Circle and they picked a place that was within walking distance to their new digs. The place is a cute French bistro and had a great sounding menu - lots of different kind of egg dishes and lots of steamed mussels - which is their signature dish.  Since it was still pretty early in the morning, I opted to not get mussels (although I was very tempted) and went with a traditional eggs benedict with smoked salmon ($15).  It comes with fries and a salad so I didn't feel the need to order any other sides with it. 

As most of you know one of my biggest pet peeves with restaurants, particularly places that serve brunch, is when they can't poach an egg correctly.  And dear lord, did this place totally fuck up the egg in a major way.  It wasn't just over cooked, it was a down right hard boiled egg - to the point where I actually could have scooped out the yolk and it would have come out in a hard yellow sphere.  I know I probably should have said something but I didn't want to cause a fuss and I just ate around the yolk as the rest of the dish was totally fine.  I looked to see if it was just my egg but it looked like everyone else had a similar yolk experience with varying degrees of hard boiled-ness.    There also wasn't enough hollandaise sauce on the benedict - although that is probably better for my healthy anyways.  The fries were nice and salty and that helped me get full off the dish.  I also thought the salad was way overdressed.  In the end, it didn't matter to me too much that the food wasn't great since I was really more there for the company and to catch up with some friends but if I ever did end up here again, I'm thinking I'll probably stick to the mussels - even if it is before noon.  My friends graciously treated me to lunch so I don't know what the total bill was. 
Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rappahannock Oyster Bar Visited 6/7/2014 4.5 Forks

Rappahannock Oyster Bar 1309 5th St NE, Washington, DC 20002

Obsessed.  That's all I can say about this place.  Yes - it's in a totally hipster, bougie market called Union Market and I can see why people are kind of annoyed at all the expensive artisanal stuff in the market, but this restaurant was a big winner in my book.  It's a pretty casual place with some bar seating and a few table tops.  The menu is classic seafood as its best: full on raw bar, seafood chowders and then a few select fresh seafood dishes.  I also loved the fact that they had tons of local beers on tap, including one of my favorite local beers:  Flying Dog.  Now, since I am in Maryland, I know the crab cake ($16) will be amazing there, so there was no question in my mind what I was going to order.   But first, my mom and I split a raw dish of 6 oysters and 2 clams and they were all fabulous - they ranged from salty and briny to sweet and creamy.  They give you cocktail sauce, vinegar and horseradish and they were all great additives to the oysters.   I would have ordered more but since we knew the crab cake was coming and that we were considering snacking/nibbling on more food from other stalls, we refrained.  

On to the crab cake.  Now THIS is how you do a crab cake and this is why I will only eat crab cakes when I'm in Maryland or in the Metropolitan area.  It's pure delicious sweet crab meat with NO filler - which is exactly the way it should be.  There's no heavy breading or fried crap on the outside, it's just heavenly crab meat topped with a fantastic celery remoulade (it had a little spicy heat to it) and it's sitting on a bed celery root slaw.  I was a bit nervous about the celery slaw since I really hate celery, but even here was a wonderful and didn't really taste too strong of celery.   It was a nice side dish that added some crunchy texture to the crab cake.   It was simply fabulous.  I totally wished that I had ordered some of things off the menu like the chowder and steamers because I'm sure they would have been awesome too.  

If I lived near here, I would definitely be here every weekend - especially since they have $1 oyster happy hour.  Union Market itself does have a very hipster Brooklyn feel - so I did feel at home to a certain extent and I am such a totally sucker for these kinds of fancy food markets.   It's great places like this that make me think that maybe DC isn't such a bad place to!  Sorry I don't know what the total bill was since it was mom's treat. :)

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rasika Visited 6/6/2014 4 Forks

Rasika 1190 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20037

Every time I go home I usually go to the same old places, so I thought it would be nice to try some place different in the city for my mom's birthday.  I had heard about Rasika from a bunch of friends and the chef, Vikram Sunderam, was recently awarded a James Beard Award, so I thought it was worth a visit.  I booked the reservation over a month in advance and the only two slots left were the 5:30 and 9:30pm slots.  Since I'm an old lady now, I took the 5:30 one but I was surprised at how popular it was. 

Upon walking in, I noticed that it was a much more of a modern place than the typical mom and pop Indian places on 6th street in New York that I'm used to.  They have a tasting menu as well as an a la carte menu.  We opted for the a la carte since the tasting menu seemed like a lot of food.  The place is famous for their Palak Chaat ($11), so we had to order that.  We also got the Tawa Baigan ($9), the Black Cod ($28) and the Dal Dhungaree ($6) with a side of garlic naan ($3) and cucumber raita ($5).  The Palak Chaat came out first and it was fantastic.  It's crispy baby spinach, yogurt, tamarind and date with some red onion and tomato.  The spinach leaves were perfectly crispy - it wasn't too dried out or raw.  The tamarind and date gave it a nice tang and of course red onion, tomato, and cilantro always make any dish delicious in my book.  It was unique and fabulous.  Next came the Tawa Baigan which was sliced eggplant layered and stacked with spiced potato in between each layer - it was quite tasty as well although it didn't seem as unique as the chaat.  For the main, they brought out the black cod and the dal with the naan and rice.  The black cod was melt in your mouth amazing.  I wish I didn't have to split it family style.  It had a honey glaze that wasn't too overpowering but added a nice touch to the dish.  The one thing that I didn't love about it was that it was served with a peanut quinoa that just didn't do anything for me.  It was fine but I would have rather had more fish and no quinoa.  Lastly, I tried the Dal dish - which was your typical lentils with garlic and tomato sauce and lots and lots of cream.  I love a great dal dish and the sauce was great, but I just wish there was more lentils.  There just wasn't enough actual lentils to make it a hearty dish but the flavor of what was in there was great.

The one small service snafu was that we had ordered more naan because there was too much dal.  So we waited and waited and the naan never came even though our waiter and the hostess both told us it was on its way.   While I don't know much about cooking, I know that naan doesn't take 20 minutes to make.  They finally admitted that they gave our naan to another table.  What?!  At that point, we didn't really want it anymore but they apologized profusely and brought out another naan (it only took 5 minutes) and brought another side of dal because otherwise, what was the point of the naan? The extra naan and dal was free of charge.  So that was nice and appreciated but it kind of disappointing in general from such a high end restaurant.

Overall, it was a lovely experience and the food was quite tasty.  It's not like the crazy, loud or even traditional Indian places in NYC that I love, but it was a nice birthday experience, especially for an "older" crowd.  Total bill:  $120 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Pavilion Visited 6/4/2014 2.5 Forks

The Pavilion 20 Union Square West, New York City, NY 10003

For those of you who have been in NYC long enough, you'll know that this place used to be the popular Luna Park.  It's hard not to be drawn to this place due to it's convenient location right in the middle of Union Square and it's lovely outdoor seating. 

I was meeting the girls there for dinner and luckily they were able to seat Jenn and I as an incomplete party at a table outside while we waited for Maggie and Jill - which is a nice gesture as many places in NYC won't do that.   We wanted to order an appetizer while we waited but our waiter never bothered coming over to ask us if we wanted anything.  So we waited and waited until we finally got his attention and ordered the calamari ($13) to start.  It was your standard fried calamari and a good starter while we waited for the rest of our party.  When we finally got around to ordering dinner, I opted to go for something lighter since I had just come back from vacation and felt like I needed to eat healthier.  So I ordered the salmon crudo ($9) and the Greek salad ($12.50).  The waiter had asked me whether I wanted them together or the crudo first and I said together.  15 minutes later he came out and asked the exact same question and had to repeat back all of our orders - never a good sign.  Luckily they did come out together and the salmon crudo (it did not look like the picture above) was actually pretty nice with slices of citrus on there and a white-soy dressing.   It was a nice light summer dish.  The Greek Salad was served with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, olives, crutons, feta and then dressed with a lemon vinaigrette.  It was a basic salad but I wasn't really impressed by it nor did I think it was worth $13.  I'm guessing (or really hoping) that all of the produce came from the neighboring Union Square farmer's market and while the produce tasted organic and good, it really just tasted like a salad that I could have made at home.  There wasn't enough feta in it and there was too much lettuce in it.  I didn't even finish the salad - not because it was really bad but I just didn't want to finish it for the sake of finishing it. 

I would have ordinarily given this place a middle of the road 3 forks but the service was really just god awful.  It took forever to get any service and the service we did get was quite inattentive.  What really broke the carmel's back was that they gave us the wrong bill and didn't even realize it.  I had to reivew the bill and tell him of the mistake - which was frustrating because we had already spent tons of time chasing him down for the bill in the first place.   Total bill:  $48/pp with tip, tax and lots of wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Demente Visited 5/30/2014 4 Forks

Demente Plaza de la Trinidad, Cartagena

Everyone describes the neighboring area of Getsamani as Cartagena's version of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  It's THE cool, hip 'hood of Cartagena with its underground feel and less touristy vibe from the Old City walls.   It's got a bunch of great graffiti lined streets and it's home to several up and coming trendy restaurants.  We originally stopped by Demente during the day but they weren't open yet, so we decided to come by later for dinner.  Even though we didn't show up to dinner until 9pm, we were still the 1st people there. 

The whole vibe of the place oozes cool.  It's facing the busy plaza - which that night had a wedding party hanging around and then became just a night party with a booze cart, food carts and a strangely enough a kids show as well.  I would recommend snagging the 2 rocking chairs outside if you can so that you can just enjoy the surrounding area for some great people watching.  The menu is tapas style with just a handful of items on the menu and again, it's all in Spanish.   I had read about the oxtail mini sliders but honestly I have no clue what oxtail is in Spanish - so I went out on a limb and ordered what looked like was described as a mini hamburger ($7).   The one word in Spanish that I did recognize was bravas and I knew that usually was served with potatoes - so I went out on a limb and ordered that as well.  Luckily for me, that was exactly what it turned out to be.  The potatoes ($4.50)  were perfectly crispy and roasted with olive oil and some salt.  The spicy sauce and crema on top had the right amount of heat to it and it was pretty damn addictive.  I actually ended up eating the whole plate myself. 

The slider was also quite good, although I honestly can't say if I knew if it had oxtail in it or not.  It was a pretty thick slider covered with a gruyere like cheese on it and it was juicy - it might have been cooked a bit too well done for me, but I would have never known how to say "medium rare" in Spanish anyways.

Allison got the octopus ceviche which looked like it was more grilled octopus but I didn't get to try it, so I'm not really sure how it tasted.  The place definitely got packed around 10 or 11pm with a bunch of young locals and tourists.  It's definitely a great late night people watching place and even if you just wanted to roll in and have a few drinks, it's a great place to be late a night.  While it's not a huge menu, you can definitely make a good meal out of it.  Plus given that our total bill $20/pp with drinks, tip, I felt like it was a very reasonable and affordable alternative to the more touristy, higher end place in the Old City.

Crepes and Waffles Visited 5/31/2014 4 Forks

Crepes and Waffles Av. San Martin, Boca grande, KR 2 No. 8-250, Cartagena 

Crepes and Waffles is a chain throughout South America and unlike their name, they actually offer lots of other options beyond just crepes and waffles (although they do have a large variety of yummy desserts).  I had secretly wanted to go to Crepes and Waffles while we were in Bogota but we never got a chance to go, so I was determined to check it out while we were in Cartagena.  

The location in Cartagena is actually quite beautiful and not what I expected for a dessert chain.  It had a lovely outdoor garden and then a trendy and modern upstairs.  The menu is huge and actually perfect for lunch because of its light and healthy options - lots of panninis and salads (or at least that's what I interpreted from the all Spanish menu).   I opted for the salmon salad that had black quinoa, kale salad and an avocado salad ($12).  It was quite delicious and so not a dish that I would expect from Colombia.  It had a California feel with all the healthiness going on on the dish.  It felt clean and simple and was exactly what I needed after my heavy dinner from the night before.  It's definitely something I would love to have again.   Since we were being so "healthy", Allison and I decided it would be ok to order multiple desserts.  So we got both a crepe AND a waffle.  

Luckily, they have mini waffles and we got the mini fruit waffle and the banana and chocolate crepe. The mini waffle was the perfect size for what I was looking for and I loved all the sweet and sour red fruits they have in Colombia.  The crepe was also tasty but it was a bit too chocholate-ly for me.  All in all, despite this place being a chain restaurant, I really enjoyed my meal and it was a nice reprieve from all the typical seafood and meat in South America.   Total bill:  $20/pp 

Carmen Visited 5/30/2014 3 Forks

Carmen inside the Anandá Boutique Hotel - Calle de Cuartel #36-77 

Not to be confused with my previous review of Restaurante El Carmen, Carmen is a high end 
restaurant located inside a fancy boutique hotel in Cartagena.  It was recommended to us by my co-worker who had just been to Cartagena a few weeks before me and it was rated as the #1 restaurant in Cartagena on Tripadvisor as well.  So it must be pretty good, right? 

I generally am not a huge fan of hotel restaurants because I don't normally find them to be authentic and they're usually overpriced - and honestly, Carmen wasn't all that different.  It is indeed in a very lovely boutique hotel with a lovely open air courtyard setting.  It's quite romantic - so not really what I was looking for but hey, there are worse things in life, right?

The menu is not really a very traditional Colombian but don't get me wrong because everything did sound very tasty.  It seems much more like American creative/fusion.  While South America is pretty well known for its love affair with beef, I hadn't really had any beef up until this point - I had been focusing on eating as much fresh seafood as possible.  So I finally got my red meat fill here with the beef tenderloin ($25) and Allison got the shrimp taco appetizer ($15) and the crab duo ($17.50).  

The beef itself was totally fine - they were sliced into several medallion like pieces and on a bed of extremely buttery potato puree and also served with braised swiss chard.  It was a solid beef dish but given how famous South America is for their beef I was kind of expecting more from it.  I thought the beef was going to be like butter and melt in my mouth but I still had to do some cutting and chewing.  I had a bite of the shrimp tacos and they were pretty good - the shrimp had a sweet chili glaze and it was served with seaweed aioli, scallion and kimchi on it.  

While we were ordering the waiter had raved about the crab duo, so I was excited to try it.  It was crab served two ways:  one was like a traditional crab cake and the other was a crispy crab claw.  As someone who is a crab connoisseur, I have a high expectation of how my crab is and one of my biggest pet peeves is when crab cake has too much filler.  Unfortunately, the crab cake and the crab claws both had too much filler and breading for me and I couldn't really taste the fresh crab.   

While I did enjoy my meal, the place felt a bit too bougie/fancy for me.  It's not to say that I don't appreciate the finer foods in life, but I didn't really get why this place was rated the #1 restaurant in Cartagena.  It's a lovely place for cocktails, so I would recommend hitting up this place first for some drinks and then going elsewhere for some more local food and at cheaper prices.  Total bill:  $43/pp

Restaurante El Carmen Visited 5/29/2014 3.5 Forks

Restaurante El Carmen  Calle 106 # 89 - 52 Las Flores , 057 Barranquilla

We ended up at Restaurante El Carmen kind of by accident.  We were on our 4+ hour journey from Cartagena to Tayrona and our driver asked us if we wanted to stop for lunch at some point.  We did and he said that if we wanted to have seafood that we should stop in Barranquilla, which is kind of half way between Cartagena and Tayrona.  It's definitely more of the "real" Colombia and void of any tourists at all.  Apparently it's also where Shakira was from, so who knew?

To be honest, if you need directions here I would have no idea what to tell you.  Once our driver got off the main road, we took a bunch of small dirt roads until we ended up by the water and saw several open air restaurants.  I was pretty happy that our driver directed here because we would have otherwise never have found this place.  It was pretty cute and like your typical beach hut restaurant with multiple levels and not a window in sight.  We originally sat upstairs to sit near the water but it got to be so windy that we had to move closer in.  The menu here is your typical Colombia/Caribbean fare which is fish, rice and plantains.  I opted for the whole red snapper (fried) and served with salad, dirty coconut rice and plantains.   Allison got the same type of food but instead of the whole fish she got the grilled fillet version.  Luckily for us, there was this woman who was walking around the restaurant with giant avocados - I actually originally thought they were something else so I kind of brushed her off at first, but once I realized what she was saying, I jumped on the opportunity ($1.50 for 1 avocado - which you can see in the background of the picture below).

I am a huge lover of fish in the whole form and this fish was no different.  It was actually a pretty big fish (for one person) and the skin of deep fried to give it a salty crispy outside but the meat inside was nice and tender.  The salad was kind of lame with some shredded lettuce and tomato, so I'm glad we had the avocado to add to it.  The fried plantains were you typically fried goodness.  While I did enjoy the rice and the hint of coconut in it, I've had better coconut rice elsewhere.  But overall, it's a lovely seaside meal and if you need a break during the 4 hour drive, it's a nice place to stop for a meal and to get a sense of the real Colombia.  They definitely don't speak any English here given it's remote location, so definitely be prepared to do a lot of pointing and nodding.  Total bill:  $63 for 4 people.

La Cevicheria Visited 5/29/2014 3 Forks

La Cevicheria Calle Stuart 7, Cartagena, Colombia

La Cevicheria was made famous after Anthony Bourdain visited while shooting his show there in 2008.  They are clearly very proud of this fact because his picture is plastered all over the walls and on their menu.  While I do respect and love Mr. Bourdain, I'm afraid that his presence most likely led to this place being overrun by tourists, the restaurant jacking up their prices and possibly causing a decline in quality.  None the less, it was still a fine dinner, it just didn't blow my mind as I was expecting it to.  

We decided to check this place out not just because it was recommend by a friend but also because it was literally next door to our hotel (the amazing Sofitel Legends - talk about 5 star experience).  So after a long day hiking and then driving 4 hours back from Tayrona, it was an easy decision to have dinner so close to home.  I will say that it's a cute establishment and actually looks more like a Greek/Mediterranean place rather than a Colombian one.  I had high hopes for the food in Cartagena based on all the amazing food I had in Bogota.  But since Cartagena has a higher tourist population, my general opinion is that the food was definitely less exciting here than in Bogota.   

True to its name, La Cevicheria is all about the ceviche and seafood.  We had heard that the portions were rather big here, so we decided to split just two dishes.  We went for our usual ceviche and grilled seafood combination.  Despite all the different and funky kinds of ceviche they had, we opted for the classic Peruvian style (~$21) and the sizzling grilled seafood platter (~$33).  As you can see the prices are much higher than what we had experienced in Bogota and frankly were boarding on NYC prices. 

The ceviche was a bit different in that it wasn't sitting in a pool of lime/acidic juices.  It looked like it had already been soaking and then they took it out and piled all of the fish on top of each other.  It was served with these giant chips that had a guacamole like spread on it.  While it was definitely a good dish, it was definitely not in my top 5 ceviche experiences - especially at that price point.  Next came the sizzling seafood platter. 

I will say that it was very impressive at first glance and upon digging through the dish there was a TON of food on it.  We weren't able to finish it and I was bummed that we left a bunch of food on the plate. There was a good variety of fish, shrimp, octopus, squid, a whole lobster and 1 crab - so a pretty impressive spread.  The best part of the dish was the highly addictive butter/honey mustard/garlic sauce - you could dunk anything it in and make everything taste delicious. 

So while I was glad I tried this place out and I'm sure it was probably a different place 6 years ago when Anthony Bourdain first went there, I wasn't uber impressed with the overall experience.  If you are staying at the Sofitel, it's probably still worth checking out since it's so close but in terms of my overall Colombia experience, it wasn't in my top 3 meals.  Total bill:  $32/pp with tax and tip

Abasto Visited 5/26/2014 5 Forks

Abasto Carrera 6 # 119B-52, Bogotá, Colombia

Waa, did I just give a place in Bogota 5 forks?!  Yes, I did.  I'm utterly in love with this place and not just because Frank Bruni raved about this place too.  It's just seems so genuine and down to earth and a place that I just want to make my own.  It's located in the Usaquen area that I had talked about in my previous blog post.  It's got this fabulous rustic, farm to table feel to it and what's even better is that the whole place is own and run by all female chefs. There is a cute market in the back room and a lovely upper level that looks like it would be great for parties. 

The menu is all in Spanish and from what I could tell from the ingredients listed, most of the food was very local and fresh.   Again there was a lot of pointing and guessing when we ordered but we ended up with a fabulous meal.  I went with the "sopa de mar" - which I knew roughly translated to seafood soup (~$11 USD) and the "mixto antipastos" - which I assumed meant mixed antipasta plate (~$8 USD) and Allison got the quinoa salad (~$10 USD). 

The seafood soup came out first and it smelled like heaven - or rather like red coconut curry soup.  I had seen the chefs in the open kitchen grinding fresh coconut - so I assume that is what was put in it but the smell and taste of it was utterly amazing.  The seafood consisted of shrimp, fish, octopus, and squid and they were all incredibly fresh and cooked to just the right texture.  Normally I don't consider soup in itself a full meal but this was most definitely worth of standing on its own as a full meal with all the hearty seafood in it.   Next up was the most perfect meat, cheese and grilled vegetable platter I've ever had.

How beautiful is this plate of food?  It was all sliced and prepared in their back deli and everything was amazing.  It had a huge variety of cheeses (there was definitely goat cheese, fresh mozzarella and a manchego like cheese), meats (thinly sliced salami and proscuitto) and a wonderful selection of grilled vegetables  all drizzled with olive oil (zucchini, roasted red peppers, eggplant, full tomatoes, onions and mushrooms).  This was simply perfect.   And the final piece de resistance to the meal was dessert. 

They are famous for the red fruit crumble (~$5.50 USD) and it's no wonder everyone raves about it.  It was completely addictive and delicious.  It's a warm crumble with a bunch of red fruit berries inside and then topped with a dollop of homemade vanilla ice cream.  Clearly the reason for its wonderfulness was all the butter in it, but the crumble part itself was crisp and baked to perfection.   Allison and I easily polished off the whole thing despite the fact that I had just had a heavy cream based chowder and eaten my way through almost the entire charcuterie plate.  Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to try Allison's quinoa salad but it also looked beautiful and very fresh and healthy - it seemed like such a California type dish, not something I would associate with Colombian food but still a nice surprise. 

We left more than happy and full after this meal.  While my restaurant experience in Bogota was relatively limited, I have to say that I was definitely blown away by this place and can see why Frank Bruni listed it as a place that really puts Bogota on the culinary map.  Please check this place out if you are ever in Bogota - you won't regret it.  Total bill:  $45 USD for 2 people with tax, tip and drinks. 

La Plaza De Andres Visited 5/26/2014 4 Forks

La Plaza De Andres Carrera 7 No. 115-60, Bogota, Colombia

The one place that every single person told me to check out while in Bogota was this crazy experiential dinner place called Andres Carnes Des Res - which is in Chia, a 45 minute drive outside of Bogota. Unfortunately, Allison and I didn't really have time to check it out, but luckily we randomly stumbled upon this super fun and adorable "food court" (for lack of a better word) in the Hacienda Santa Barbara mall which was across the street from our hotel and which I later found out by the same people as Andres Carnes.  We were originally only using the mall as a short cut to get to our hotel and found this gem.  It's amazing and is the kind of place that I absolutely eat up.  I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure how authentic it is since it is a food court in a mall, but everything there was South American cuisine (so no Panda Express, Pizza or food like that), all the menus were in Spanish and there were tons of locals eating there.  There are a bunch of different food "stalls" with food ranging from ceviches, arepas, empanadas and juice bars.   I was totally overwhelmed by the options and by the fact that I couldn't really understand any of the menus except for a few select words. 

Allison wanted to get a plantain dish and despite every effort to try to translate it and even going as far as showing them an actual plantain, she did finally get to order a dish that had plantain in it.  

What we didn't expect was that it would look like this - a giant fried plantain with cheese and a sweet sauce poured on top of it.   I had a bite of it and it was good and quite unique - it's was a bit heavy and starchy (obviously since it's a giant plantain!) but if you like plantains, you'll be in heaven. 

Meanwhile, I saw the word arepa  it was followed by "de choclo" which I had no idea what that meant) on one of the food stall menus and in my limited experience with South American food, I knew that I loved apreas here in NYC, so why not try it in Colombia?  So apparently the kind that I like are the Venezuelan kind because those are the white and fluffy "buns" and then stuffed with savory fillings like chicken, pork and guacamole.   The Colombian kind is more like a sweeter, thicker crepe version and apparently "de choclo" just means it's stuffed with lots and lots of gooey cheese.  It was tasty but it was on the heavy and dense side and I could only finish about half of the dish ($4.50 USD).  

Luckily, I also got a classic ceviche dish ($6.50) from another food stall to offset all that heaviness.   Despite being much cheaper and from a food court, it was actually quite delicious and just as good as the one served at La Mar last night.  It had lots of giant cuts of tilapia and plenty of red onion and lime juice.  

There was tons of other food options that looked amazing and interesting but I just didn't have the stomach capacity to try it all.  But it was a fun place and knowing that it's by the same guy as Andres De Res, I'm definitely bummed that I missed out on that other experience but thankful that I got to experience something of his.  

La Mar Cebicheria Visited 5/25/2014 4 Forks

La Mar Cebicheria Calle 119b no.6-01. Usaquén. Bogotá, Colombia

Ah Colombia - so many people recently asked me why I would want to go on vacation to Colombia and honestly my answer would be why not?  It's no longer the drug filled scary place that most of us think of and honestly it's slowly becoming a culinary hot spot  After a long and stressful journey to Bogota and then an adventure packed 1st day, I was so happy to finally sit down at a real restaurant to get my eat on.  La Mar is located in the heart of the Usaquen area which is a lovely old plaza/square area close to our hotel that is filled with cute cafes, restaurants and bars.  Allison and I are both obsessed with ceviche, so we decided that this would be the perfect place for our 1st official meal in Colombia.  

It's a huge restaurant inside and their menu is just as large as the space.  It is quite possibly one of the largest menus I've ever seen - I even tried to take a picture of it but it couldn't all fit into one frame. Obviously the main dishes here are ceviche-related and good god, I have never seen so many different variations on the dish in my life.   In addition to ceviche, they had tons of different kinds of dishes all laced with seafood in them.  I was in heaven.   We opted to go for the classic and mixto ceviche and then the grilled sizzling seafood platter.  Even though there is English on the menu, the waiters don't really speak any English, so there was a lot of pointing and nodding that went on. 

The classic ceviche was fantastic and in true classic form is only had fish (white fish) in it.  It was incredibly tangy, acidic, sour and had nice chunks of fresh white fish in it and in true South American style it was served with these large toasted corn kernels.  Delicious.  The mixto was similar but instead of just fish, it had fresh shrimp and octopus in it.  As for the sizzling platter - it was basically all the seafood of the mixto ceviche except it was on a sizzling platter and drenched in lemon butter.   I loved that it was all seafood - nothing else, no rice, no vegetables, just pure goodness of the sea. 

I later found out that this is actually a chain with locations in SF, Lima, Miami, and Sau Paulo.  Not that all chains are necessarily a bad thing but I was secretly hoping that this was some local gem.  But that's ok, I still enjoyed myself and it was a great reprieve from the horrible start to my vacation.  Total bill:  $70 USD for 2 people.   

Cafe El Presidente Visited 5/23/2014 3 Forks

Cafe El Presidente 30 W 24th St., New York, NY 10010

Lav and I ended up here right before a torrential downpour, so for better or for worse we were going to be stuck at Cafe El Presidente for a while.  It's from the same people as the Tacombi which is a cute fun Mexican place in Soho.  The decor and set up here is fairly similar to Tacombi with a few adorable looking "stalls" -  even though it is sit down service and you order with a waitress.  The menu here mainly consists of a variety of tacos - they have fish, carne asada, carnitas, pollo, and a pork and pineapple taco platters.  Plus they have a few "specialty" tacos and then a bunch of typical side dishes like guacamole and rice and beans.  

We started with the guacamole ($11.49), I got the carnitas platter ($12.95) and Lav got a single swiss chard and poblano pepper taco ($2.95) and the esquites ($3.95).  Price-wise, except for the guacamole, everything was priced fairly cheaply.  The guacamole is served with homemade chips which were a bit thick and heavy for me.  I tend to like lighter, thinner chips so that it doesn't weigh me down.  The actual guacamole itself was pretty good - very smooth and creamy and it had a bit of heat and kick to it.  It was a good starter dish and solid appetizer.  The taco platter comes with 4 tacos to the plate and the tacos were piled high with slow roasted pork, onion and cilantro on it.  It was a relatively authentic and clean taco with no sour cream or cheese in sight.  The small corn tortillas held up the pork well and were nice and warm.  4 was the perfect number of tacos for me - I actually could have been perfectly happy with 3, so the 4th one kind of put me over the edge.  Unfortunately the reason for the more lukewarm review was based on the fact that Lav did not like her swiss chard and poblano pepper taco at all.  She said there was no flavor or taste to it and that it felt like the mixture was plopped on to the tortillas with no thought or love put into it.  The saving grace was that she did enjoy the esquites (that's essentially grilled corn in a cup with cheese and chipotle mayo).

It's definitely not your typical cheesy sombrero wearing margarita drinking Mexican place with burritos and fajitas on the menu,  but it was a cute enough place that it doesn't really matter.  While my mind wasn't blown nor do I think it's necessarily a place I am clamoring to return to, I would stop in for a aqua fresca or grilled corn if I was in the hood.  Total bill:  $23/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp