Mercer Kitchen Visited 11/18/2014 3 Forks

Mercer Kitchen 99 Prince St., New York, NY 10012

It's been years since I have been to Mercer Kitchen and frankly I was surprised that it was even still in business given how quickly NYC restaurant fold.   But I went last week for a work dinner and I was shocked to see it bumpin and more crowded than ever.  I guess being smack in the middle of Soho really does re-enforce the concept of location, location, location.  I forget that this was one of Jean George's earlier restaurants in the city and while I enjoyed my meal here it was definitely not up to the same standards at ABC Kitchen or ABC Cocina.  

We were seated downstairs and there are tons of guys in suits having dinner there - which really surprised me.  I figured the Wall Street crowd would stick to the steak houses or even the likes of Carbone to really milk their corporate card.  It's not to say that Mercer isn't pricey but it never gave off that vibe of drawing in a lot of corporate clients.  In any case, the downstairs space is quite nice with a fabulous open kitchen concept.  I love being able to see a working kitchen and it also makes me feel like they are being extra careful in making my food knowing that everyone is watching them. Since this was a work dinner, we kind of went to town on the ordering.  We started with tuna spring roll, sea bass carpaccio, sashimi salmon, crispy squid, and a dozen oysters and clams.  Of all of these dishes, I liked the tuna spring roll the best as you could really taste the fresh whole chunk of tuna that was wrapped in soy wrapper.  The sea bass carpaccio was also tasty but the visual presentation of it swimming in a gallon of olive oil was incredibly unappealing to me but at least once you got to the fish, it was fresh and properly thinly sliced.  The sashimi salmon is their play on a crispy rice dish with the salmon sitting on a giant bed of flash fried rice with chipotle mayo and ponzu sauce.  It sounded great on paper and I've had many types of similar dishes before but for some reason this one just fell flat.  The rice was so incredibly heavy and it was all I could taste.  Some people at the table just picked off the salmon which I don't blame them for.  The crispy squid is just calamari and I thought it was a bit over battered and fried - also the presentation wasn't great as it was served with this gigantic bowl of sweet chili mayo that made you feel really awful for even eating the dish in the first place.   Lastly the raw bar - totally decent oysters and clams but I've had much better at places like Lobster Joint (RIP) and Maison Premiere.  

I was super stuffed from all the appetizers but no work dinner is complete without stuffing your face even more - especially in these times of reduced T&E.  I went with the tagine of steam black sea bass and a side of mashed potatoes.  My co-worker and I were just saying how while we both liked tagine, this probably wasn't the place to order it but I got suckered into it because I love black sea bass.  I will say at least the presentation on this dish was much better than the appetizers - they did their best to really make it look authentic by serving it in a traditional clay pot and serving it with couscous and carrots flavored with cumin, raisins and orange.  The sea bass was steamed well and was nice and flakey but when I think of tagines, I think of a hearty stew and this just didn't have that feel to it. Dare I say it actually seemed a bit watery and thin?  Don't get me wrong the fish was very good and after eating a bunch of fried appetizers, this was a welcome respite, it just didn't feel like a tagine except in presentation.  As for the mashed potatoes....oh my, liquid crack.  You could tell just by looking at it that it was probably made with 5-6 sticks of butter because the whiteness of the potato was completely covered by yellow buttery goodness.  Mashed potatoes are one of my greatest weaknesses and this just re-enforced my love for this incredibly unhealthy dish.  

I was ready to call it a night but then other people at the table wanted dessert, so out came the butterscotch pudding, sour cream cheesecake, caramelized banana cake and a warm chocolate cake.  I could only muster a few bites of the butterscotch pudding but it was a perfect pudding.  Sweet, smooth and delicious.  The cheesecake was also nice and creamy with a poached fig topping it.  I really wished that I had more room for the desserts because they were clearly the stars of the dinner. 

All in all, I had a lovely time at dinner and it was nice to see this place still getting solid business.  While it was a nice dinner because it decent quality food in a lovely setting, I probably wouldn't stop in for dinner on my own given how other great restaurants there are in NYC, including JG's other top notch restaurants just a quick cab ride away.  

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Five Leaves Visited 11/15/2014 4.5 Forks

Five Leaves 18 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222

I had been wanting to try Fives Leaves for a long time but was always afraid of the crowds and thought that it might be too painfully hipster for me.  Well, there were crowds of people and there were hipsters, but it was still amazingly delicious.  It was well worth the throngs of people and even the cold of sitting outside (more on that later).

I thought that by going at 11AM, Jenn, Eric and I would be safe but the place was jammed packed inside and outside (it was 40 degrees outside) and spilling out into the streets.  Luckily, the hostess said that if we wanted to sit outside, there was 1 table left, otherwise it was a 30-40 min wait.  We decided to take our chances and sit outside - unfortunately they didn't have any heat lamps to keep their customers warm, so we sat bundled up in our puffy coats and scarves to stay warm.  The menu is an eclectic mix of breakfast and lunch food - they had pancakes, scrambles, and oatmeal as well as arctic char, steam mussels, pot pie and their famous burger.  Everything sounded mouth watering.  Since it was before noon, I opted for an egg dish and got the Moroccan Scramble ($13) as did Eric and Jenn got the Ricotta Pancakes ($13) and we split an order of truffle fries ($8).   Since it was cold outside we decided to warm up with a mug of hot buttered rum which indeed very buttery and rum-y.

I was super excited when the food came out so that it could warm me up.  The Moroccan Scramble looked amazing - merguez sausage, scrambled eggs with spiced chickpeas, crushed avocado all on top of a piece of grilled sourdough and then topped with tons of cilantro.  Yum!  It was a very hearty dish and I loved the flavor of the spicy chickpeas with the avocado and eggs. I actually didn't think the dish really needed the sourdough bread at all - the eggs, sausage and avocado were enough on its own.  But it was easily one of the most innovative and tastiest brunch dishes that I've had in a really long time.  What really put things over the edge for me was the truffle fries.  This stuff is some serious crack-like addictive shit.  They were perfectly crispy fries with the right hint of truffle oil on them.  Truffle flavoring is incredibly strong and it's easily over used but it was just right here.  I'm glad we split them for the table because otherwise, I could have easily inhaled the entire order of them and that would be bad for my health.  I also had a bite of Jenn's pancakes and they were incredibly delicious - albeit a heavy breakfast dish.  It was 3 huge stacks and served with a giant dollop of honey butter and pieces of banana, blueberries and strawberries sprinkled on top of it.  It was a very decadent dish but the quintessential breakfast pancake dish.

All in all, I really loved everything about this place except for the sitting in the cold and the slightly slow service.  The inside is tiny so I can only imagine how long the waits are once it's impossible to sit outside anymore.  However, they do open at 8AM, so if you are a morning person, run don't walk here but even if you have to wait, it's worth doing so.  Total bill:  $38/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Ivan Ramen Visited 11/14/2014 4 Forks

Ivan Ramen 25 Clinton St., New York, NY 10002

Anuja and I had gone to the Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop at Gotham West earlier this year and enjoyed our meal there, so when Ivan opened a full service stand alone restaurant in the Lower East Side, we were intrigued. Luckily the menu here is quite different from the Slurp Shop which was great because I wasn't sure if I would have gone if  they had the same food. 

The menu is also slightly more extensive and expensive here.  It has around 9 appetizer-like dishes (bites, cold and crisp) as well as slightly larger hot dishes and finally 7 different ramen dishes.  I was starving so we started with the Tofu Coney Island ($11) and the Chinese Greens and Garlic ($7) and then I opted for the triple pork, triple garlic mazemen with and egg ($15 + $2) and Anuja got the veggie ramen with and egg ($14 + $2).  Yes the prices for the ramen was a bit high and I'm always a bit peeved when places charge you extra for egg but I guess this is what most ramen places do in NYC now.  I was a bit skeptical of the Tofu Coney Island because it was described as tofu with mushroom miso chili, yellow mustard and scallions.  I wasn't sure how tofu, yellow mustard and chili would taste together but you know what?  It tasted pretty f*ing good.  I can't explain it but all flavors really worked well together and we cleaned the entire plate.  The Chinese greens was a bunch of Chinese broccoli steams in a sweet soy pickle garlic sauce - the sauce was light but had a definite pickled garlic kick to it.  While I do enjoy a green stem every now and then, I would have appreciated more leafy greens to the dish.

Lastly, my ramen arrived.  The waiter had kindly reminded me that the mazemen ramen is a thick noodle with minimal broth - which I was ok with as long as the flavor profile tasted good.  Plus I really prefer thick chewy noodles vs. thin noodles swimming in broth.  The noodles were exactly how it was described - thick and chewy and delicious.  It does have a small base of tonkotsu broth at the bottom but unlike most other ramen, the broth isn't really the star here.  It's the noodles and the nice and fatty piece of pork it comes with.  True to its name it's also very garlicky - it really does hit you with each bite.  I was surprisingly full from the tofu and greens but I really pushed myself to finish this dish because I really enjoyed each bite.  Also true to ramen, the dish was very salty and I definitely got more than my fair share of sodium on this outing.  I didn't try the veggie ramen but it was a much more traditional ramen with more of a soupy broth to it.

All in all, I was glad I tried out this place despite it not being a traditional ramen place.  Apparently Ivan is quite popular in Tokyo despite being an outsider from Long Island.  If you're in the mood for the typical hot salty brothy ramen, I would still go to Ippudo instead but if you're in the mood for some ramen that's different but still tasty, definitely give Ivan Ramen a try.  Total bill:  $70 for 2 with tip, take and a glass of sake

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Iroha Japanese Restaurant Visited 11/13/2014 4 Forks

Iroha Japanese Restaurant 152 W 49th St., New York, NY 10019

I've been on a kick of really loving Japanese Izayaka type restaurants lately so when my friend Jeana was in town for work and told me that she was staying in the Times Square area, the only respectable type of restaurant I could think of going to up there was a Japanese izakaya.  Luckily there are several of them within walking distance of her hotel.  I had originally wanted to go to Sake Hagi Bar which people seem to love but when they told us it would be a 30 minute wait, we walked upstairs to Iroha which is owned by the same owners and claimed to serve the same menu.  It's less cozy and more impersonal but that was totally fine by us since they could seat us right away.  The place was full of Japanese businessmen and other local Asians which always seems to be a good sign. 

The menu is the typical overwhelming izakaya format - it goes on for pages and pages and luckily for anyone who doesn't know what something is, they have pictures for every dish on the menu.  Like I said, they've got everything: grilled food, fried food, sushi, sashimi, bento boxes, udon, soba, and curry. We started with the tempura appetizer ($8.50) and I opted for the sashimi mori ($28) and a spicy tuna roll ($6.50) while Jeana got the fried chicken bento box ($20).  The tempura came our first and for $8.50, there was tons of food.  3 pieces of shrimp and about 4-5 vegetable pieces.  They were lightly battered and perfectly crunchy and not overly greasy.  Next came my sashimi and it was one of the larger sashimi dishes I've gotten in a while and for a very reasonable price.  18 pieces in total - it consisted of salmon, tuna, white fish, yellowtail, octopus and mackerel.  At first I was a bit doubtful given the price/quantity ratio but the quality of the fish was very good.  I usually judge the freshness and quality of sashimi by whether or not I like the mackerel and octopus and I thought they were both fresh and clean and not too fishy or chewy.  It was actually a lot of food and I clearly didn't need the spicy tuna roll at all.  The roll itself was a good solid spicy tuna roll with more filing than rice which I really liked as I hate it when places pad rolls with a lot of rice on the outside.  I had a small bite of Jeana's fried chicken and it was salty and crispy exactly what a fried chicken should taste like.  The bento box was also a great deal as it came with the fried chicken, salad, shumai, California roll, and shrimp tempura.  

While the place didn't have the classy feel to Sakagura or the coziness of the Sake Hagi bar downstairs, if you are just looking for a really solid, very affordable and still very authentic Japanese place in the heart of what is probably the most touristy area of NYC, Iroha totally fits the bill.  What I also liked was that they let us stay and chat for almost another 1-2 hours without pushing us out the door. I felt a bit guilty about it but I kept eyeing the door to make sure that there wasn't a line of people waiting for a table.  But it was nice to be able to sit and catch up with an old friend and not feel pressured to leave.  I still want to check out the Sake bar downstairs, but if you are in a hurry and don't care about ambience, then heading upstairs to Iroha isn't such a bad deal either.  Total bill:  $43/pp with tip and tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Old Tbilisi Garden Visited 11/9/2014 3.5 Forks

Old Tbilisi Garden 174 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012

How often do you find yourself wondering "Hmm, I'm really in the mood for Georgian food?"  Yeah, I didn't think so.  By living in NYC, it's very rare for me to find a type of cuisine that I haven't tried yet at least once.  So when Aarti asked if I was interested in trying Georgian food (the Eastern European country and not the Peach State), I was intrigued.  I had never heard of Georgian food being something to write home about but when she showed me a picture of a baked bread dish covered in cheese and topped with an egg, I was down to try it. 

Surprisingly, the place was pretty crowded on a Sunday night.  The menu is a mix of what seemed like Russian and Middle Eastern food.  There was lots of baked bread dishes, slow cooked meats, stews and grilled meats.  Since we were lured in by the bread, we had to get the adjaruli khachapuri ($15) to start and Aarti got the Lobio ($18) and I got the Lula Kebab Lamb ($25).   Everything on the menu sounded great for a cold winter night - very heavy, warm and cozy.  Strangely Aarti's Lobio came out first - it's basically a stew of slow cooked kidney beans, onions, garlic, and seasoned with Georgian spices and served with pickled vegetables.  I didn't try the veggies but apparently they were extremely pickled and sour.  The bean stew tasted exactly how it sounds and was a good call on a cold night but they were a bit heavy handed in the salt.  Next came the bread dish - it was essentially a giant bread bowl with pipping hot cheese filled to the top and then topped with a poached egg.  And yes, it was every bit as heavy and delicious as it sounds, at least for the 1st few bites.  I tore off the ends of the bread and dipped it into the hot oozing cheese which tasted very similar to a mozzarella cheese.  It would be a good starter dish if you had like 5-6 people at the table, but with only 2 of us, it was hard to eat more than a few bites because it really is a very heavy dish.  Next I tried my kebabs. They were two HUGE sandwiches - large chunks of seasoned lamb wrapped in "skinny bread" and served with a home made satsebeli sauce (it's very similar to a marinara sauce but way more delicious).  It was pretty much a lamb sandwich and it was a ton of food - I ended up taking home an entire half which lasted me a whole other meal. 

All in all, I have to say that I enjoyed my 1st Georgian meal experience, although I can't really say it's food that I would crave to have again.  Since the portions are so large, I would recommend that you go with a lot of people to split up the dishes because Aarti and I had a lot of leftovers afterwards and well, it's not really the kind of food that is real tasty the next day.  Total bill:  $43/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Spotted Pig Visited 11/7/2014 3.5 Forks

The Spotted Pig 314 W 11th St., New York, NY 10014

Ahh - The Spotted Pig.  It was THE hot spot almost 10 years ago with celebs abound and rumors of a secret room.  So when I was craving a burger last week,  I figured that all the hype had died down and that it was safe to go back.   Apparently I was wrong.  Even after all this time, it was still as crazy as ever - with a wait time of 2 hours quoted to us at 7pm on a Friday.  Apparently it was so crowded that there was no where at the bar upstairs or downstairs to wait it out, so Holly and I high tailed it to the closest bar and drank our away our wait time.  Around 8:45pm, we made our way back to the restaurant just to check in and they told us it would be another 20 minutes. 

Finally after 4 glasses of wine and several cocktails between us, we sat down at a tiny table that was probably the size of a stamp.  Luckily we are good friends because we were practically sitting on top of each other - it would make for an awkward situation if you don't really want to get cozy with your dinner date.  

I was here with one food in mind - the famous burger ($21).   Since it was past 9pm, we were starving so we started with Devils on Horseback ($9) and the Burrata appetizer ($18) and Holly got the grilled skirt steak (#35).  As you can see, it's not a cheap endeavor, but I guess that's the price you pay for being in the cool club.  Devils on Horseback are essentially bacon wrapped dates - they were a good snack to pop in the mouth although I kind of wished that I gotten the deviled eggs just because I thought the dates were lacking in some salt although the bacon did help with.  Next came the burrata with grilled vegetables and it was delicious!  It was a really unique twist on burrata which is usually served with tomato and basil.  But this came as giant pieces on warm crostini and topped with delicious warm hen of the wood mushrooms and beans.  It was fantastic. 

Then came the burger.  It's famous for having it topped with a block of roquefort cheese (it's very similar to a blue cheese) and nothing else - no lettuce, tomato or onions.  And honestly, it works without all those other toppings because that cheese is super super strong.  I asked for my burger to be medium rare and it was perfectly pink in the middle and incredibly juicy and the bun was perfectly soft and was never soggy from the meat juices.  It was the ideal drunk burger.  But my big complaint with the dish was with the fries.  I really hate shoestring fries.  To me, they are a poor excuse for fries because they don't taste like anything.  I prefer a nice thick cut steak fry where you can really taste the crispy crunch but yet can still taste the potato.  It was a total let down to what's an otherwise excellent dish.

All in all, yes the burger is still fantastic (especially if you've had a few drinks in you) and the place is still as popular as ever.  But as I've gotten older, I've really grown tired of waiting 2-2.5 hours for a table - even when the food is tasty and worth the wait.  The wait + the shoestring fries are the reason why I didn't give it 4 forks, but if you haven't had the burger there before, do yourself a favor and just go really really early one day and enjoy it.  Total bill:  $150 for 2 with tax, tip and a few cocktails

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cherry Izakaya Visited 11/3/2014 3.5 Forks

Cherry Izakaya  138 N. 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211

It's always nice when friends actually move TO your neighborhood vs. move away from you, so I was thrilled when my friend Jenn and her husband Eric moved to Williamsburg.  It's great to be able to have random, impromptu dinners right down the street.  Jenn and I decided to hit up the new Japanese place that is a spin off of Cherry at the Dream Hotel in the Meat Packing District.

We went on a Tuesday night and it was fairly empty.  Despite being associated with the Dream Hotel, which is uber trendy, this place pretty low key.  They had a nice happy hour from 4-7pm, so I was able to squeeze in a glass of pinot noir for $6 before Jenn showed up.  We were quickly seated and at first glance the menu was very creative and was less like a traditional izakaya but more like one with a modern twist.  Everything sounded good so we asked the waitress what she thought was good and ended up going with many of her recommendations:  tuna tarts ($14), crispy almond shrimp ($10.50), foie gras gyozas ($9.5) and the omakase ($36).  Other things on the menu that sounded great were the tuna crispy rice, any of the meat skewers and ramen salad.  They did have a selection of sushi rolls but it was pretty limiting since this place was less a sushi place than a small plate place.

The tuna tarts came out first and they looked like little mini pizzas.  It was really thinly sliced raw tuna on a water cracker and then topped with truffle oil.  While I love anything with truffle oil and the tuna was fresh and great, there was something about it being a  basic water cracker that made it seem too homemade.  Maybe it's because I often eat those crackers at home with cheese and I feel like if I'm going to come to a restaurant and pay $14 for something it shouldn't remind me of something I eat at home often.  I probably would have preferred the tuna crispy rice instead.  The almond shrimp came out next and it was similar to a rock shrimp tempura dish with thinly sliced almonds and a cabbage slaw on the side.  It was good but the tempura batter was a bit too thick, so it was difficult to really get the taste of the shrimp underneath.  They weren't nearly as addictive as the ones at Koi. Next I tried the gyoza which was stuffed with foie gras and short rib and topped with plum sake glaze and sour cherries.  Sounds kind of funky right?  It actually wasn't that bad and the flavor all seemed to work together although I think I would have still preferred a traditional juicy pork gyoza (which they did not have on the menu).  Lastly, they brought out the omakase, which was a combination of sashimi and sushi.  Jenn and I had both seen the cute picture of it on their website (which I clearly lifted for this blog too) and were excited.  We got a mix of salmon, tuna, and some other white fish sushi and pieces of mackerel and sweet shrimp sashimi as well as a few cuts of other fish.  While it was certainly an adorable presentation, the balls of rice under the sushi was just too much rice and was very overwhelming and made each bite too filling.  The sashimi was good quality and fresh but since it was types of fish that weren't my favorite, I felt a bit let down.

Overall, it's definitely a nice addition to the neighborhood since, with the exception of Zenkichi, there really aren't very many nice Japanese places around.  Although it does look like a new izakaya opened not too far on Grand Street called Salt and Charcoal which might give this place a run for its money.   Total bill:  $63/pp with tip, tax and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Basera Indian Bistro Visited 10/24/2014 3 Forks

Basera Indian Bistro 745 9th Ave., New York, NY 10019

This is one of those reviews where the food and service are ranked so differently.  The food was delicious and extremely tasty, while the service was confusing and slow.  So in the end I had to rank in somewhere in the middle because both elements are important when dining out. 

It was the week of Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, so Aarti and I decided to get Indian food. We ended up at this place because they delivered to Aarti's office frequently for lunch and she had mentioned that the food was excellent but that she had never had a sit down meal there.  After doing a little bit of internet research to make sure it wasn't a scary take out place, I eagerly made my way up to Hell's Kitchen.  The place was rather empty when I first got there around 7:45 but it definitely started to fill up as the night progressed.  The menu is quite extensive but they have a great prix fixe deal where you could get at any time of the night:  one appetizer off the list,  a choice of almost any entree (seafood would cost you more) and your choice of roti or naan for $19.95.  Considering many of the entrees alone $14+, I thought this was a pretty good deal.  I started with the vegetable samosa to start and for my entree I got the Chicken Tikka Saag and garlic naan.  Aarti got the yellow daal for her entree and then we also got a side of the paneer makhani ($10.95) to share.   Our vegetable samosa came out quickly and they were your typical tasty veggie samosa.  Then this is where things started to go downhill.  After 20 minutes of waiting for our entrees, our waiter came back and was like "uh, so what did you order again?"  Bad sign.  We repeated our order to him and it was clear that either he put in the wrong order or just never put it in in the first place.  He apologized profusely but that didn't help the fact that we were starving and that now our food would take even longer to come out.  We both ordered a mango lassi to curb our hunger as we watched everyone else who had come in after us get their food.  Finally after almost 40 minutes of waiting our food comes out and I was ready to dive in head first.  We had also ordered a side of raita to go with our meal and alas that was missing from our order.  That took another 15-20 minutes for them to bring out and again, they were very apologetic about it, but I was starting to lose my cool.

But on to the food.  It's extremely satisfying and reminds me of how much I do love Indian food.  It was clear that the paneer was made with full fat cream and butter but that is why it was so incredibly delicious and addictive.  The saag was also quite good with the fresh spinach and chunks of tender chicken buried in it.   The naan was soft and pillowy and then briyani rice was a great combination with all the saucy food.  In the end, the food was worth waiting for and it totally hit the spot.  The great thing about Indian food is that it's usually a lot of food and we ended up taking home almost everything and it lasted another 2 meals for me.  In the end, the food totally made up for the fact that the service was more than lack luster and I appreciated that they were very apologetic and didn't charge us for the mango lassis but they do need to get their act together in order to me to ever rank them higher.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp