Randolph Brooklyn Visited 2/22/2015 3.5 Forks

Randolph Brooklyn 104 S 4th St., Brooklyn, NY 11249

Randolph is becoming a small empire in NYC with two locations in the LES and now one in Brooklyn.  I had been to Randolph Beer in the city a few years ago and loved the low key vibe and the fact that they also had great drinks and food there, so when the one in Williamsburg opened, I was eager to check it out.

In true Williamsburg fashion, it's more hipster and honestly leans a bit too much on a post-college/millennial scene.  The one in the city had a more homey and comforting feel and this one was louder and bigger.  But it's one of the rarely places in Williamsburg that has bottomless boozy brunch - which we actually ended up not doing but it's just always good to know that it's an option if you want it.  The menu had a bunch of different items but it's mostly on the southern comfort side.  I ended up getting the fried chicken sandwich, Jenn got the breakfast nachos ($13) and Kristin got the egg white and veggie scramble ($12).  As I mentioned, they have a fantastic drink menu but none of us were particularly in the mood for pitchers of bloody mary's or mimosas, so Kristin and I got the hot cider ($14) which was great on such a cold morning.  The fried chicken sandwich was a buttermilk boneless fried chicken breast with slaw and served with waffle fries.  I'm not going to lie but I really got this dish for the waffle fries because they are one my favorite things in the world and a definite weak spot for me.  The fries were delicious, crispy and incredibly addictive.  The sandwich itself was good but the batter was a bit too thick for me as I tasted more batter than chicken.  But it went well with the fries - I just would have preferred a slightly juicier and more seasoned piece of chicken.  I didn't try Jenn or Krisitin's dish but they both mentioned that they liked it.  The breakfast nachos came with cheddar and jack cheese, baked eggs, beans, and ranchero sauce on top of chips (luckily Jenn and I had just both come from Pure Barre so we didn't feel so guilty).

The bar/restaurant only opens at noon but by the time we left around 1:30ish it was getting full of late waking locals.  It's definitely a fun/young place and if you're looking for a restarant in Williamsburg that does boozy brunch (the whole table has to do it), it's a good place to check out.   I still prefer the one in the city more but it's hard to justify going out there when there's one so close to where I live where I can still get those waffle fries.   Total bill:  $50/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

L & W Oyster Co. Visited 2/13/2015 3 Forks

L & W Oyster Co.  254 5th Ave., New York, NY 10001

I had walked past this place a few times in the past year and made a mental note to check it out one day because I do love a good oyster bar/restaurant.  Strangely enough, Holly and I always seem to end up at seafood restaurants when we meet for dinner and this was no exception.  Trying to get a reservation the day before Valentine's Day on Opentable seemed to be just as difficult as getting a reservation on Valentine's Day, so it was nice that I was able to snag a table for 3 on a Friday night here.

As the name indicates, this place is pretty much seafood focused and there are TONS of options. Unfortunately, no one at the table was in the mood and/or liked raw oysters but Holly and I did split the fried oyster tacos and the tuna ceviche ($15) to start and we also got a side of homemade cheddar cheese goldfish crackers ($4) to nibble on as well.   The fried oysters came in small hard shell tacos which is something you don't actually really see that often anymore.  I mean, think about it, when was the last time you had a hard shell taco?  The filling inside was good but I would have preferred a soft shell tortilla instead since it was fried food stuff inside a seemingly hard fried outside.  The tuna ceviche was served with a large heaping of avocado, Japanese seasoning and some grapefruit slices.  It was a pretty good dish but it actually could have been a bit cleaner and simpler without some of the seasoning on top of it.

For my main entree, I got the Lobster BLT ($26) which sounded amazing - lobster, bacon, arugula, tomato, pickled garlic and sriracha aioli.  It came on this giant buttery toasted Texas style toast and as much as it pains me to say this, it was almost too buttery.  There was so much bread and butter that it was hard for me to really taste the lobster in there, which should have been the main focus of the sandwich but it sadly wasn't.  It was definitely a lot of food but I feel like it didn't showcase the main ingredients very well.  I was also a bit disappointed that for $26 they served chips instead of fries or even a salad.  Chips kind of seemed like a cop out side dish but at least they were tasty chips.

Despite all this food that we had, Holly, Christine and I still had room for dessert.  We ended up ordering both a chocolate cake and a strawberry shortcake.  I had several bites of the strawberry one and it was light and a nice way to refresh my palate after eating a carb heavy entree.

All in all, the meal was fine but I felt like there was definite room for improvements.  I personally like my seafood to be a bit cleaner, lighter and more in its natural state.  Maybe my opinion might have been a bit different if I had gotten some food from the raw bar.  Total bill:  $80/pp with tax, tip and drinks.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Russ and Daughters Cafe Visited 2/10/2015 3.5 Forks

Russ and Daughters Cafe 127 Orchard St., New York, NY 10002

The Russ and Daughters store on Houston Street is a New York institution that been around forever and everyone knows that its THE place to get your smoked fish products and other Jewish delicatessens. I went there years ago to get a bagel and lox sandwich and it makes you realize what a real bagel, lox and cream cheese sandwich should taste like.  So I was super super excited when they opened a full blown restaurant so that you can sit down and try out a bunch of different dishes.

Allison and I went super early on a random Tuesday night and it was pretty empty.  The menu is full of what you would expect from a place like this:  latkes, pastrami, smoked fish, caviar, pickled herring, kugel, and blintzes.  If we had time, we probably would have ordered the entire menu but we were in kind of a hurry, so we opted for the stuffed cabbage (special for the night) and the classic board ($16) - we were going to order more but the waiter said that the cabbage was a huge dish so we figured we wouldn't push ourselves.  Turns out, the portions were on the small side instead and we totally should have ordered more.  The stuffed cabbage was filled with rice and barley and covered in a tomato sauce and served with a deliciously crisp baked potato and a small salad.  While the cabbage was tasty, it didn't have any ground meat in it, so it felt like it was missing a key flavor profile. The dish could have had a bit more seasoning to it since cabbage and rice on their own isn't very flavorful. Meanwhile The Classic board came with Nova smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red onion, capers and your choice of bagel, bialy, rye or pumpernickel - we opted for a toasted everything bagel. As expected the smoked salmon was fantastic - it was very thinly sliced and had a great consistency to it.  The tomato was incredibly ripe and juicy and I would have eaten an entire plate of that on my own.  The capers add a great salty kick to everything and at some point I was just popping them individually in my mouth.  The cream cheese actually tasted a bit more like goat cheese - it was very sweet and while it was good, I would have preferred your basic standard full fat cream cheese.  The one let down was the bagel - it was just ok.  There wasn't anything wrong with it, but there wasn't anything great about it either.   While I did enjoy the spread, I did think it was pretty expensive for what it was - essentially it's a deconstructed sandwich and I can't imagine walking into a bagel store, asking for lox and cream cheese and then paying $16 for it - even if it is delicious and good, it's just overpriced for what it is.  I would have preferred to have had more smoked salmon and no bread product instead.

Since the portions were so small, we ended up ordering the knishes ($8) as well.  A word of warning if you are going to get this dish:  the spicy mustard will go directly to your brain.  I'm not even joking - not knowing how full of horseradish it would be, I covered my knish in mustard and my brain almost shut down from it.  Again - good dish but small portion.

All and all, Russ and Daughters Cafe has a lot to offer and they clearly have done a great job with the cafe.  It looks like a great place to come to for breakfast or brunch as they also have a full egg section to the menu.   I just wish that their portions were a bit bigger and if you are going to get a board, maybe go with the bialy because let's be honest, the bread portion of that dish is really just the carrying vessel for the lox and tomato.  Total bill:  $25/pp with tax, tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Dimes Visited 2/7/2015 3.5 Forks

Dimes 143 Division St., New York, NY 10002

The cross section of Chinatown/Lower East Side seems to be the new hipster hot spot these days. There are tons of new restaurants popping up these days and Dimes is one that has gotten a lot of press these days.  I had actually tried to go to Dimes last year with my friend Nicole since she lives around the corner, but the place is literally the size of my kitchen and the wait was awful, so we left but I had bookmarked it as some place to return.

The appeal of Dimes is that it's like being in California - it's all healthy, clean, crunchy, granola type food but all in a good way.  The menu is full of salads and entrees with things like farro, quinoa, bulgar wheat, kale, and acai bowls (it's the only place I've seen acai outside of Brazil).   So you get the idea. I opted for the Summer Tacos ($8) because it was one of the rare items that had egg in it and it was brunch time, so I had to go with something that was more egg-y.  We also got the Love Toast ($6) for the table and I got a hot chai tea ($3.50).  The toast was essentially 2 pieces of wheat toast with housemade tahini, mint, honey and topped with raspberries.  I liked the combination of the tahini and honey - it was really filling and rich - it was kind of like having peanut butter and honey but slightly different with the tahini.  It's definitely something to think about as a substitute for my breads in the future.  Next came the summer tacos - luckily there were 2 of them but it didn't come with anything else on the plate.  Although I guess for $8, it makes sense that that's all you're going to get. At least they were some damn delicious tacos.  They are made with perfectly soft scrambled eggs, spicy mango salsa, tomatillo, cheddar cheese, avocado, hot sauce and cilantro.  The taco shell is a nice soft flour tortilla and all the flavors blend really well for each other.  It was a nice "healthy" breakfast - no meat, no carbs (except for the tortillas obviously) and not a lot of grease or oil to it. They were really quite fantastic and it made me think that I could go straight home and make my own breakfast tacos but I'm sure they wouldn't be as good.

The reason I don't give this place a higher rating is that it's really just a shitshow waiting for a table and then when you do sit down, it's a bit uncomfortably tight.  Luckily we had gotten one of the corner tables because we were a group of 3 but otherwise, everyone else seemed to be piled on top of each other.  It's just too small of the space to keep up with the demand.  The clientele is also a bit too hipster/model/too cool for school kind of vibe but I really can't complain when I do live in the epi-center of hipsterville.  I would definitely come back, maybe during an off hour when it's not so crowded.  If you're looking for some healthy, clean eating, Dimes is worth the trek and even if you're too lazy to wait, at least you can still walk around and grab some great food nearby in Chinatown. Total bill:  $20/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Via Carota Visited 2/6/2015 3 Forks

Via Carota 51 Grove St., New York, NY 10014

So this review might be a bit unfair because I had such high expectations for this place and while the food wasn't terrible, it just didn't floor me like the two other restaurants by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi (Buvette and I Sodi).  I Sodi is absolutely one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the city and often gets over-shadowed behind the big names such as Babbo and L'Artusi, but it is one of the best in the city.  So when they opened another Italian restaurant nearby, I was all for it. 

Lav and I met up around 6:30 on a Friday and we were one of the last people to get seated at a two top - after that the place definitely filled up and people were waiting a while at the bar.  The menu has several appetizers, lots of veggie small plates, a few pastas and then a few secondi dishes. We opted to start with the cauliflower gratin ($10) and the cabbage salad ($10) to start and I got the pappardelle pasta with ragu ($19) and Lav got the squash ($10) and pickled beets for her main ($10).  While this was an Italian restaurant, I was surprised that they only had 4 pastas on the menu and that they were all a bit on the heavy side - gnocchi with gorgonzola and a few others that I can't remember now - but I was surprised that there wasn't at least one lighter pasta dish on the menu.  

The 2 starters came out and I really enjoyed them.  The cauliflower gratin is pretty the same as the one they have at Buvette - it's rich, creamy and cheesy - what's not to like about that combination.  For some good counterbalance, the shredded cabbage was light yet tangy and served up with some toasted farro and served with shaved parmesan cheese.   While these weren't particularly innovative dishes, they got the meal off to a good start. 

My pappardelle looked and smelled good and it generally tasted pretty good too.  But the noodles were kind of stuck together and at some point I forgot that I was eating a pappardelle pasta and thought I was having a ravioli because the pasta was sticking into square pockets in between the ragu. The dish was not bad but I remember eating at I Sodi and thinking to myself that I was having an out of body eating experience. and I wasn't getting that vibe here.   Lav had a similar experience with her dishes - she liked them but wasn't really blown away by them - especially the squash dish that had a giant piece of smoked cheese on top of it.  We were hoping to redeem our meal with dessert - unfortunately I made the mistake of ordering the olive oil panna cotta ($8) - I actually didn't mind it because it had a nice dash of sea salt on the top but it was essentially olive oil pudding which isn't what you think of when you order Italian dessert.  To be fair, the dessert was exactly as advertised, I just wasn't thinking straight when I was ordering the dessert.  We saw a waiter walk by with some sweet chocolate looking dessert and asked what it was and he said it was the hazelnut semifreddo ($8) and immediately ordered one of those.  It was a much better dessert - a smooth chocolate base with a light fluffy creme fraiche top and toasted hazelnuts sprinkled on the inside.  This was clearly the best dessert to have and in fairness to the waitress she did say that this was her favorite dessert but I just wasn't sold on it because I'm not a huge hazelnut fan but this one worked well.

Overall, the meal was good but based on all the hype and expectation, it didn't really rise to the occasion and stand out from its predecessors.  Plus based on how much I spent on dinner, I felt like I could have gotten a better meal somewhere else for less.  But I should note that they make a mean Old Fashion ($14), it was probably one of the best Old Fashions I've had in a while.   Total bill:  $96/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Zutto Japanese American Pub Visited 2/3/2015 3.5 Forks

Zutto Japanese American Pub 77 Hudson St., New York, NY 10013

I had been wanting to go to Zutto since I went to the Mayanoki Sushi club a few years ago. Mayanoki is a "supper club" based around a man named Albert who was the head sushi chef at Zutto several years ago.  He had such a huge fan base that when he left 2 guys tracked him down and started a sushi club around him.  I love love love Mayanoki and the food Albert produces, so I thought it was only fair that I check out the original place he worked at. 

I was actually surprised to find that it wasn't really a sushi place but a Japanese Pub - they serve a variety of small plates, ramen and sushi.  Nancy and I went on one of the coldest days ever in NYC at 6pm and luckily they were still having some happy hour specials.  I snagged a Sapporo for $3 and then we proceed to order way too much food:  pork belly slides ($9), fried rock shrimp ($8), Buffalo Cauliflower wings ($6 - happy hour), Tribeca roll ($12), Maryland roll ($12) and the Negi Toro roll ($12) - we were so hungry that we actually considered ordering more food but we thought we would stick with this order first.  The small plates came out fast and furious - the rock shrimp and the pork belly sliders must have come out in under 10 minutes of ordering.  The rock shrimp was incredibly tasty - the shrimp was fried with a tempura batter and then smothered in spicy mayo and tobiko. They were very addictive but if you let them sit around and get cold, they start to be less tasty, especially as you get to the bottom of the bowl - so eat them quickly (there's a LOT of it) while you can.  The pork sliders were also fantastic - large fatty yet meaty pieces of pork belly in a perfectly fluffy soft bun with miso-mayo and lettuce.  If I could, I would have asked for less rock shrimp in the bowl and more pork buns for the table.  Next came the Buffalo cauliflower wings - we primarily got them because they sounded like an interesting alternative to the usual buffalo chicken wings.  They were pretty good and for any vegetarians who haven't tried making them before, definitely give it a try although I'll admit that I still like the chicken version better. 

On to the sushi - the plate came out with 4 rolls on it (we only ordered 3 rolls), with one looking very similar to a regular California Roll.  When I asked if this was our order, they said it was, they just randomly put a California roll on there by accident but that we wouldn't be charged for it.  Ok, I guess it's better to have more food than no food or the wrong order.  On to the sushi, so while it was good, I wasn't as blown away by the sushi as I was with Albert.  The Toro roll was quite good but any quality Toro roll should be.  The Tribeca roll consisted of spicy tuna, avocado, caviar and in the shape of a large triangle - so yeah, it was really just a larger version of a spicy tuna roll, which was fine but not insanely good.   The Maryland roll consisted of lump crab meat, avocado, caviar and tuna - again, it was a good roll but not mind blowing.  I usually don't like crab meat in rolls because I don't think crab meat really pairs well with rice and I think that's what got to me here.  If I hadn't known that Albert had previously worked here, I wouldn't have thought of this place as somewhere that had amazing sushi - maybe we just ordered the wrong rolls.  Strangely enough, we still had room for dessert (and also partly because the table of 3 guys next to us were having the most hilarious conversation ever about love/relationships/feelings and I wanted to stay and listen to more of it).  We got the mochi tempura ($10) which was fried red bean mochi with green tea ice cream.  It was actually quite tasty and not super sweet.  The mochi was a bit sticky to split among two people but overall as Asian dessert go, it's not a bad choice. 

All in all, I still really enjoyed my dinner at Zutto and there are still tons of other dishes I wanted to try like the ramen and maybe some sashimi instead of sushi.  I would have given it a higher rating if I didn't have such high expectations for the sushi.  But in any case, it's a fun, casual, affordable place in an part of the city (Tribeca) that doesn't always have a lot of these options.  Total bill:  $45/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Marta Visited 2/3/2015 4.5 Forks

Marta 29 E 29th St., New York, NY 10016

If you didn't think Danny Meyer could do it again, you were wrong.  The man who brought us everything from Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe, Blue Smoke, Maialino, and of course Shake Shack recently opened up Marta in the Martha Washington Hotel and as usual, it's spot on.  While I had heard great things about it, I had also read that it was hard to get a reservation and people were waiting forever for a table, so I kind of filed it away as a place to check out later after all the hype had died down.  But I happened to be at the hotel for a happy hour with some former work friends but I'm at the age where I can't go to a happy hour with no food anymore, so I left early in search of food.  As Borami and I were walking out of the hotel bar, we stopped by Marta just to inquire about the wait time.  Mind you this was 7pm on a Tuesday, but the place was still jammed packed.  But just our lucky 2 seats opened up at the bar and we snagged them right away. 

As we hungrily stared at the menu, the couple next to us were chowing down on these enormous looking pork ribs ($25).  We immediately decided that we wanted to have that as well but I felt guilty that we weren't also ordering a pizza since that was something they were known for here, so we ended up getting both the ribs and the cavolini pizza ($17).  The cavolini came with Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, pickled chili, and parmigiano (it was a white pizza - there is a whole section of pizza with sauce too).  The pizza crust was paper thin but the ingredients on top were fresh and delicious. We got this particular pizza because we thought it sounded the healthiest with all the vegetables on it and while I can't say I felt healthy from eating it - it was a fantastic light pizza that I really enjoyed. But the main attraction that I was waiting for was the herb rubbed pork ribs.  There were 4 ribs and they were like giant dinosaur bones.  It looked like we would never finish it but we polished them off rather quickly.  The meat was juicy and the herbs fragrant.  The meat fell off the bone pretty easily although Borami mentioned that she did have some more fatty pieces on her ribs than what she would normally like.  But it was the perfect dish to have after a few cocktails and glasses of wine.  

Luckily, since we were seated at the bar, we got a glimpse into the giant open kitchen and it was fun watching all the chefs at work.  One of them started chatting us up and asked what did we get, what did we like, etc - I later founded out that it was Nick Anderer, who is not only the executive chef at Marta but also at Maialino and that he also worked at Gramercy Tavern and Babbo before - so he really knows how to make some damn good food.  He was incredibly nice and I appreciated that seemed really interested in our opinion of the food.  Shockingly, we managed to save room for dessert and we got the olive oil affogato ($7) which was olive oil, honeycomb candy, vanilla gelato, kumquat and blood orange.  It was a nice refreshing dessert after the heavy pieces of meat we just had. 

All in all, I really enjoyed my dinner and experience there.  But of course, Danny Meyer doesn't often go wrong with what he creates (with maybe the exception of North End Grill).  I would definitely come back and try all of the other dishes we wanted to get but couldn't find room for:  scallops, meatballs, any of the red pizzas with meat on it, lamb shoulder and all of the sides.  Total bill:  $34/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Boulton and Watt Visited 2/1/2015 3.5 Forks

Boulton and Watt  5 Ave A, New York, NY 10009

Boulton and Watt is one of those places that I could have seen myself going to a lot in my 20's because it's right off the F train in the East Village/Lower East Side and the place was packed with people who seemed to have had a hard night the night before in the same neighborhood.  It's a pretty good place for a large group of people and there were 8 of us for brunch, so luckily they secured an entire long table for us.  It's pretty hard to find places in the city that will reserve that many for brunch so definitely keep this place in mind if you ever need to accommodate a large party.

The brunch menu is quite extensive - ranging from pancakes to grits to benedicts to big salads as well as an entire pickled section.  But the best thing about the brunch menu is the $5 brunch cocktails from 10-4pm (bloody mary's, mimosa or sangria).  We all indulged in several cocktails and I opted for the special benedict of the day which was pulled pork benedict on brioche bread.  While I wasn't really hung over from the night before, I was starving and a hearty pork breakfast sounded great.  When the benedict came out, it was a VERY heavy looking dish.  I mean, it's got heaps of sweet pulled pork covered with hollandaise sauce served with 2 very well poached eggs, so that when you cut into it, the yolk oozed perfectly on to everything.  At first I wasn't sure if I was going to be happy with it being on bread instead of an English muffin but based on all the food that was piled on top of it, the thick cut bread as a good choice.  It was a solid benedict but it was one that really sits heavy in your stomach afterwards.  I devoured the whole thing - which I actually kind of regretted later because I could have had half and had been just as satisfied and full.  The dish came with a side of roasted potatoes and they were a bit of a bust. Mine were all over cooked and a bit dried out but in all honesty, that was actually fine with me because the benedict was more than enough to deal with without having to force more carbs down my throat.

I give props to the waitress who was patient in dealing with such a large party with a smile on her face as well as having to deal with us ordering a new round of cocktails every 10 minutes.  While I don't necessarily see myself coming here often because it's not in the most convenient of locales for me, it's a pretty reasonably priced post-hang over, boozy brunch place that is well situated in the East Village.   Total bill:  $33/pp with tax, tip and several drinks.

Photo Credit:  Yelp