Kings County Imperial Visited 9/21/2015 2.5 Forks

Kings County Imperial 20 Skillman Ave., Williamsburg, NY 11211

So unlike The Clocktower review where I gave them 2.5 forks for just terrible overcooking of a beautiful steak, I'm giving Kings County Imperial 2.5 forks for just being really overpriced hipster Chinese food.  To me, Chinese food, even at it's best shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg and if it does, it should blow your fucking mind away.  And sadly the food doesn't here.  I guess I should have known better but it was worth a try since there are hardly any good non-scary-bars-in-window Chinese places around here. 

The place is owned by the same people at Stone Park Cafe in Park Slope (an old brunch favorite when I used to live there).  The menu here has a slight slant towards Sichuan food, so I was expecting it to be pretty hot and spicy but it really wasn't.  In fact Aarti had to ask for more hot sauce for the food (not that she wouldn't have done that anyways).  I will give them props for having a pretty great menu with lots of options - lots of veggies, noodles, fried rice, and stir fry options.  We split the double garlic eggplant ($9), sauteed pea shoots ($14), cold sesame noodles ($9), egg fried rice ($12), and for myself I got the chicken dumplings ($10) to cover my meat craving.  While the prices of these individual dishes aren't expensive, the portions were on the small side, especially when you pay the same prices in Chinatown and get x3 as much food.  

Everything thing here was just ok, nothing awe-inspiring, nothing seriously cravable or worth giving a shout out too.  I actually thought a lot of it was rather bland and they could have kicked it up several notches on the spice and flavor profiles.  Most Asian dumplings are made with pork in them and now I totally get why - there's more fat and flavor.  It just didn't taste the same to me with chicken in it - although I clearly could have just ordered the pork dumplings or pork shumai - my bad.  The cold sesame noodles technically had chili oil in it, but it didn't really taste like it did - it tasted more like regular cold peanut noodles with no heat.  

I may be a bit harsh on this place as the food wasn't terrible or inedible, but I just felt incredibly underwhelmed by everything.  I'm probably also biased in the sense that I've had some pretty amazing and authentic Chinese food before in my life and I have very high expectations when it comes to Asian food so it's probably unfair to lay those expectations on a place like this in Williamsburg.   On the plus side, it's a nice departure to the gross take out places in the neighborhood and if you're looking for something more upscale and can't be bothered to go into the city, this will do just fine.  But I would say that if you're looking for truly authentic Chinese food that will leave you full for days, this isn't it.  Total bill with tax, tip and wine:  $100 for 2

Photo Credit: Yelp

Clocktower Visited 9/16/2015 2.5 Forks

Clocktower   5 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10010

It actually pains me to write a terrible review for this place because I was so looking forward to this meal with my friend Vince but we both agreed that the experience was a miss.  To be fair, the service was excellent but when the food doesn't match up and since this is a food blog,  I have to lean more towards the food experience vs. the service. 

But let's start with the overall vibe - it's very British clubhouse chic.  It's located on the 2nd floor of the Edition Hotel and it just reeks of just old school executive stuffiness (I guess you kind of have to when the room rate is $500/night here) but on the plus side, it's fascinating people watching.   Luckily, the waitstaff was super warm and friendly -  unlike the reputation the Brits have (I kid, I kid!).  The menu is mostly seafood and meat focused - which works for me.  Vince and I started with the native lobster ($24), tuna tataki ($19) and dressed crab ($21) to start and then went totally baller and opted for the 40 day dry aged prime cote de boeuf 32 oz for 2 ($125).  

They start you with an addictive bread and butter plate that might have been the best thing I ate all night.  I've had good bread before, but this was out of control delicious and I could have easily eaten the entire thing myself if it wasn't 100% terrible for me.  The seafood appetizers followed quickly and were impressive at first glance - the native lobster was served chilled with mainly the tail meat and mixed with fennel, mussel and apple salad.  I personally don't mind mayo, but the apple salad part was covered in mayo and overwhelmed the fresh taste of the lobster.  Maybe I was used to the simple seafood I was eating in Montenegro/Croatia, but something about this dish too heavily.  We ordered the crab appetizer because it was described as having crispy uni on top.  The thing is, once you fry up uni, you really lose the characteristics of what makes uni so great.  To me, there's nothing better than the briny, creamy texture of uni but by deep frying it, lose that flavor and texture.  As for the tuna tataki, we agreed that this was the best seafood dish of the night as it was served relatively cleanly with cucumber, radish, avocado and ponzu sauce.  

But what I was most excited by was the main course.  It came out in grand fanfare as it's served with a green bean foie gras salad and potato gratin.  We had asked for the steak to be medium-rare, closer to rare and what came out was 100% well done - well done to the point that it was totally overcooked, dry and brown.  The first couple of bites weren't so bad and I didn't want to say anything because I've always had this complex about sending food back but I'm really glad Vince said something because it was truly not cooked well at all and at $125 there is no reason for that.  Luckily, the staff was extremely apologetic about it, didn't give us any trouble and immediately took it away with no questions asked.  I appreciated that they took full ownership of it.  While we waited, we nibbled on the salad and it was just way too greasy for me - mostly because of the foie gras but also it was served with a bone marrow jus.  The combination of foie gras and bone marrow is just too much to handle - even for this gluttonous eater. The potatoes were excellent and the best part of that dish - which is kind of sad when you're paying $125 for it.  They brought out another cote de boeuf and this time they went way on the extreme end - super super rare, to the point where I'm not even sure if parts of it were fully cooked.  I actually didn't mind it and like my steaks this way, but you could tell that they were overcompensating for the well done-ness of the previous steak.   If the steak had come out like this the first time, I would be writing a different review.  We had to cleanse our palate and got the strawberries and cream dessert ($14) which I really enjoyed - it was a lovely vanilla custard and olive oil cake with tiny fresh strawberries on it. 

When we asked for the bill, they continued to be apologetic about the steak and did an incredibly kind gesture of comping us for the steak.  I wasn't sure if it was because of Vince's Food and Wine connection - although he mentioned that he had actually gotten this reservation without mentioning that he worked at F&W. If that's the case, I'm even more impressed by the service.  

Although the meal was a bust, it was still a pleasant experience and the decor definitely transports to you a different time and place away from current New York standards.  I would say that based on the fantastic customer service, I would possibly consider coming back here but it'll probably be a long time before I do.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Montenegro Part 2 Visited 9/9-9/13 3-4 Forks

Ella's Restaurant Dobrota 85    3 Forks

In our last night in the Kotor/Dobrota area, we went to a local restaurant that our Airbnb host had mentioned to us.  It was a 5 mins walk and like many restaurants here, had a pretty waterfront view.   We got to sit in the lovely terrace upstairs where there weren't a lot of people, so it was nice and quiet (although a large group did file in after us). 

At this point, we knew the drill in terms of what to expect food wise - so I went with my standard seafood salad to start but then got the fish fillet which the waiter said was sole fish.  There was no mention of how it was prepared except that it was prepared "house style" but I'm not picky so I just rolled with it.  The seafood salad was similar to the other seafood salads I had been eating on the trip - fresh, simple and delicious.  As for my entree, what came out with a gigantic filet of fish that was breaded and covered in a heavy white cream sauce.  It was served with the favorite local side of sauteed spinach and boiled potatoes. The fish was actually quite tasty even with the sauce but at some point, the sauce was so heavy and filling that I had to scrap it off.  It was a bit like eating a large slightly healthier fish fillet sandwich at McDonald's but without the bread and cheese on it.  April had gotten another local dish that had been described as beef but what came out was a gigantic pork roll stuffed with prosciutto and cheese inside.   It was truly a unique dish that we hadn't really seen elsewhere on the trip. 

We hadn't had much dessert on this trip and we had been dying for some good baklava, so when this place said that they actually had it, we were so happy.  Unfortunately, the baklava wasn't very good here.  Even the waiter was like "it's a very sweet dessert" - which was an understatement because it was dripping in sugar water and was way too sweet for us.  Waa Waa. 

The food here wasn't spectacular but it definitely had a nice local feel to it and I left feeling overly full from my food.  Our waiter was nice enough but nothing stand outish.  Total bill with tip and wine:  $148 USD for 5 people

Photo Credit:  TripAdvisor

Il Brodetto Przno Obala 24, Przno 85315, Montenegro   3.5 Forks

After Kotor, we spent a night camping at Kamp Grab and while I'm not going to do a separate blog entry for them, I do want to give a big shout because we had a fantastic time white water rafting there and surprisingly the food was also really good.  It was made by the local camp chef and it was super hearty and very homemade.  Unlike most of the meals we had been having, the food leaned more towards heavy stews and meat but you could tell that it was all baked from scratch and made with love.  They actually had this homemade bread that was awesome and so good that I found myself carbo loading on it during our 1 night stay there. 

After our stay there, we made our way to our final stop on our trip which was the town of Przno - the beach part of our trip!  It was close to the party town of Budva, but still outside enough that we were on a quieter more sophisticated area.  After we checked into our Airbnb, we made our way to the main beach outside our apt.   There is a cute adorable strip of restaurants by the beach that lined the short path.  The vibe on the street felt very seaside Mediterrean and I loved it.   This place also came recommended by our host and it looked to be the most busy on the street. 

The atmosphere here was a bit nicer than the places in Kotor but not super stuffy.  The restaurant had a Greek feel to it with the stone streets and old world charm.  Instead of getting a seafood salad, I decided to opt for a straight octopus salad (12.50 euros).  I saw that they also had a sea urchin pasta  (16.50 euros) and I just had to get that because I hadn't really seen sea urchin on any of the menus so far and I love a good sea urchin dish.  

The octopus salad was enormous - it really is more of a sharing plate.  But I devoured the whole thing it was probably one of my favorite dishes on the trip.  It was just so fresh and simple and cooked perfectly well - it's something that I've been really craving since I've been back in the States and really miss.  Unfortunately, the sea urchin pasta wasn't quite as mind blowing.  I was excited because it was listed as a specialty of the house, but it was heavy spaghetti with more of a sea urchin paste/sauce.  There weren't any visual or obvious tongues of sea urchin in there.  I was a bit let down after the amazing octopus salad that this dish didn't knock it out of the park too.  Overall, it was still a lovely meal in a lively and adorable beach side town that I would recommend to others visiting this town.  Total bill with tip and wine:  $173 USD for 5 people


Aman Sveti Stefan  Sveti Stefan, Montenegro  4 Forks

Holy Jesus, if there was ever a more luxurious place in Croatia/Montenegro, then I don't know where else it could be.  This Aman Hotel is the epitome of exclusivity and elegance.  It's so private that the hotel sits on an island away from the main land and you are not allowed on the grounds unless you are a guest or make a reservation at the restaurant - you can't just randomly stroll in and take a look around.  To give you a sense of the how opulent it is there, we looked up the nightly rate here and it was $2,000/night - so even if we wanted to go all out and stay here for even 1 night, that was still way to much money.  

They have 2 restaurants but only 1 is open for lunch, The Piazza, so we made a 1pm reservation there.  You have to get escorted everywhere but for good reason, as the place is quite sprawling. When you walk in, your breath is taken away at how stunning it is - I might be overly gushy about this place because most of the Airbnbs that we stayed at, while nice, were definitely not luxurious.  

As you can imagine, the restaurant was gorgeous.  It was in this beautiful outdoor garden surrounded by the water.  The service was super attentive (almost too attentive) and helped guide us through the menu.  As expected in a place like this, the prices are exorbitant and quite shocking after all the relatively cheap meals we had been having.  To give you a point of reference, we got a bottle of wine that was 60 euros, which even by US standards, is more than I would usually pay for a bottle of wine at dinner at home.  Most of the wine we had been getting was closer to 12 euros.  But given how cheap most of this trip was, we felt justified in having one baller meal and if it was going to be anywhere in Croatia/Montenegro, it would be here. 

I got with lamb suvlaki and everyone else got these amazing looking pizzas - I know, it sounds kind of strange to go to a 5 star hotel and get pizza but they were delicious and much higher quality than the pizza we had been getting on our trip.  Most of the pizza we had been eating was like a solid high school cafeteria pizza (and I say that in the nicest way but I have a soft spot for it) but the one here was like going to an artisanal wood oven place in Brooklyn.  As for my lamb, it was presented beautifully on 2 hanging metal skewers and served with a yogurt dipping sauce and a Greek salad.  The lamb skewers were good although I wished that my meat was a bit more medium rare - it was closer to a medium/well done.  The Greek salad was super fresh - I just wished there was more of it as it was just a few bites.   The cucumber yogurt was good but a bit thin for me - I would have, ironically, liked a thicker Greek yogurt dipping sauce.  I had a bite of Jenn's pizza and it had a great thin crust to it and felt very high quality. 

Overall, this place is just stunning.  I've been lucky enough in my life to have traveled to a few luxury properties and this one has got to be in the top 5 in terms of physical beauty.  However, the downside of being in such a high end establishment is that the prices are downright ridiculous.  This was by far the most expensive meal we had on the entire trip at $390 USD with tip and wine for 5 people.  I've obviously spent way more in the States (in fact in the first week I came home, I was sadly dropping $70-80/pp on dinner for no good reason) but knowing how cheap the rest of the country is, it's still quite a shock to the system to be paying NYC type prices when you're in Eastern Europe. 

Blanche Obala 11, Przno Beach   3 Forks

Sniffle, last meal of the trip!  We ended at Blanche which was located towards the end of the sea/beachside street and it had stunning views that overlooked the beach.  It's was a beautiful walk over during sunset.   I could see this place being a super romantic place for a couple. 

Since it was our last meal of the trip and I hadn't actually gotten a whole fish, I felt like it was time to do it up.  Unfortunately, something was lost in translation because he showed us the whole fish (it was a branzino aka European sea bass) before serving it and I had told him I wanted him to keep the head on and leave it as is, but it was fileted by the time it got to the table.  The actual fish meat part was fine - nothing spectacular - but there were a ton of small bones in it.  It was to the point where I just accepted that I was going to be swallowing fish bones all night.  Luckily I was with the girls, so I wasn't too embarrassed to be pulling out bones from my mouth but it was starting to get really annoying.  I wished they had just given me the whole fish so that I could just maneuver it myself and find some pockets of goodness in the head of the fish. The fish was also served with grilled vegetables which were also just ok.  

Jenn had asked the waiter if they could linguine and clams and they said yes and again, something must have been lost in translation because she got mussels and pasta and she said it wasn't all that great.   We had thought about getting dessert but our waiter just never showed up.  Since we had to get up at 4AM the next day to catch our flight, we finally flagged him down to get a cheesecake to go, but it took forever.  The service was most definitely very "European" here - aka too slow for this New Yorker.   

Overall, this wasn't my favorite meal of the trip but it was just nice to spend time with the girls in a pretty setting on our last night out.  I'll have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by my food adventure in Croatia/Montenegro - I loved that it was very seafood and Mediterranean focused and that most of our food tasted fresh with no preservatives (in fact I felt like I lost weight on the trip with all the walking and healthy food).  My only comment would be that I wished that there was a bit more variety and spice to the food (I came home and immediately ordered Thai food) but in general it was a fantastic trip that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for something a bit off the beaten path. 

 Photo Credit:  TripAdvisor

Montenegro Part 1 Visited 9/8-9/9 3-4 Forks

Hotel Admiral Restoran Obala Marka Martinovića 82, Perast 85336, Montenegro    4 Forks

We left Dubrovnik early Tuesday and had a guide drive us into Montenegro and give us a very quick tour on our way to pick up our rental car in Tivat.  We stopped in the Bay of Kotor which was lovely and beautiful - very calming and peaceful compared to the hustle of Dubrovnik.   Our driver dropped us off in the small charming down of Perast which is right near the Bay.  The whole town can take you about 15-20 minutes to walk around but it was just such a nice departure from what we had been used to that we took our time walking around.  Don't get me wrong, there were tour groups there as well but they literally came and stopped by for 5 minutes and then were on their way.  We spent a good 2 hours here just relaxing (mostly drinking and eating) and taking in the beautiful scene.  

We stopped at the Hotel Admiral for what we thought was going to be some drinks but we ended up staying for more.  We sat right by the water soaked it all in.  The waiter was super kind (he told us he was Serbian and thanked the US for our help), much like the service in Croatia.  We had been told that people in Montenegro were not as nice as those in Croatia and so far that wasn't true (although it did prove true later).  Again, the menu is your standard seafood and pasta line up.  April and I inquired about the fresh fish (I mean, we were literally right on the water) but the waiter brought out this scary looking fish with angry teeth that even I, a pretty adventurous eater, had to take a pass on.  

Instead I opted for the seafood salad and a tomato soup.  Even though much of the food on the trip was the same, I loved that everywhere you went you could always get a fresh seafood or octopus salad and eat it as a main course - it's just not something you find very often in NYC.  

The tomato soup was just ok - it had a bit less flavor than the one Amy had in Taverna Otto and didn't taste quite as fresh.   However, I did love the seafood salad despite there being bits of the fake crab meat, which is something I usually don't love.  They made up for it with TONS of pieces of fresh octopus and mussels doused in red onions, garlic and lemon juice - very simple yet delicious.   Krush got the octopus salad and it looked amazing and April got a squid ink risotto that she really enjoyed.   Even though it's not a fancy place and the food on it's own wasn't unique or Michelin star worthy, there was just something about the combination of the physical beauty, kind service and simple food that I really enjoyed and savored at the moment.  Plus compared to some of the other meals we had in Montenegro, this was definitely a highlight.  

I'll be the first to say that when my friends suggested Montenegro as a destination I was a bit skeptical, but if you do the proper research, you'll find a some true gems in this country.  Total bill with wine and tip:  $130 USD for 4 people


Stari Mlini Ljuta b.b., Kotor 85330, Montenegro     3 Forks

There aren't a ton of "fancy" restaurants in Kotor but Stari Mlini seems to be the most well known. It used to be a 16th century water mill, so the scenery and surrounding decor is quite beautiful.  Even though we went at night, you could tell that it was a pretty and unique setting.  We sat near the water and it was a tad bit chilly.  Unlike at Panorama, where they already had blankets waiting for you, we had to ask if they had anything for us to wrap ourselves in, which luckily they did. 

Unlike our experience at the Hotel Admiral, the waitstaff here just wasn't as effusive or outgoing. April had asked about the fresh fish of the day and the waiter left in a huff and brought out the sad plate of fish and then proceeded to put his hand all over every single one of them.  There were 2 huge ones and then a pile of smaller ones, none of which seemed right for a single entree but he didn't say or explain what any of them were which was a bit frustrating.  Again, the menu here is similar to every other place we've been to with fresh local seafood from the Adriatic Sea being the main focus. We split the Greek Salad for the table and I got the squid stuffed with giant prawns.  Everyone else got some kind of seafood pasta or grilled seafood.  

The Greek Salad was fine although we all commented on how their version of feta cheese seems much closer to cream cheese than feta.  My dish was fairly large in size and as were the actual pieces of squid and it was jammed packed with lots of shrimp on the inside.  It was a pretty unique dish that I hadn't really had before and it was quite tasty from that stand point.  While I enjoyed my dish, I don't think most of the other girls really did.  Most of them found their dish to be mediocre at best. I'm giving this place 3 forks because I liked my actual dish and because the surrounding area is lovely but there are definitely improvements that can be made to make it a nicer experience when you're visiting Kotor.  Total bill with tip and wine:  162 Euros for 5 people

Photo Credit:  Kotor.Montenegro.Travel.com

Jet Ski  Somewhere along the water in Dobrota  3 Forks

I wasn't sure if I was actually going to write a review on this place since it was the most random meal we had on our trip but I figured it was worth a mention.  April, Krush, Amy and I were getting ready for our big hike up the fort and we knew we needed to get some breakfast before hand.  There aren't a lot of breakfast/brunch places like we have in the States, but we were totally fine with ducking into a local cafe and eating whatever they had on the menu. 

On the walk from our Airbnb to the Old Town, there are many waterfront cafes that line the streets. We picked one randomly and sat down.  It was mostly locals sitting around drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.  We noticed that no one was eating but they did have a breakfast menu so we ordered food anyways.  There isn't much on their breakfast menu - Amy and I both got the omelette (mine had ham it in and Amy's didn't) and Krush and April got the Jet Ski breakfast which had 3 large fried eggs, bacon and potatoes.  Throughout the morning, we were still literally the only people who ordered food and it felt like they must have gone out and farmed the eggs themselves because it must have taken over 40 minutes for our food to come out.  I did feel bad for our waitress since she was the only one working the entire space but we were dying of hunger at the end.  

We were all shocked at how legit and tasty our breakfast was.  The omelette was huge and had lots of cheese, ham and veggies inside - with veggies hat you would not think of to put in an omelette like zucchini and another kind of squash like veggies.  It was also served with sour cream - which turned out to be a delicious combination with the eggs.  It also came with a side of juicy, red, ripe sliced tomatoes.  I loved how fresh the tomatoes are in this country and love that it was served everywhere. While I enjoyed my dish, I longly looked at Krush and April's dish because their "bacon" looked aaaamazing.  It was closer to Canadian bacon in that it looked was super thick and fatty - it was much heftier than regular crispy bacon.  

Overall, the food hit the spot and definitely fueled us for our long hike up the fort.  If you do ever find yourself here, please do yourself a favor and check out the inside of the restaurant.  The place is apparently also a club/lounge at night and it's got this crazy spaceship like interior that you have to check out yourself to believe.  Total bill with tax:  $17 USD for 4 people

Photo Credit:  Facebook

Croatia Part 2 Visited 9/6-9/7 3-4 Forks

Lokrum Island - 3 Forks

Lokrum is a small island that is a 15 minute ferry ride away from Dubrovnik.  It's a nice half day trip to experience some peace and quiet and to get away from the crowds.  There isn't too much to do there except to walk around and hike up to a fort and maybe take a quick dip in the water (although be warned, there are no real beaches, it's all very rocky).  A cute fact about the island is that it is full of peacocks running around, so it's fun trying to catch a photo of them with their wings out.  After a fairly hot and strenuous hike, we decided we to have lunch on the island.  As you can imagine, there aren't many options - it's basically 1 "fancy" restaurant, 1 cafe/rest area and 1 casual pizza type place.  We opted for the casual pizza place which I sadly can't remember the name of - it might have been something as basic as A La Carte but that doesn't really sound right.  In any case, it's a lovely outdoor cafe amongst the peacocks - they can get a bit aggressive so watch out.  The menu was the typical line up for our trip:  pizza, pastas and some seafood.  I opted for the seafood tagliatelle and most of the girls got pizza.  Besides the peacocks, there were swarms of bees.  Bees, bees, bees.  It was becoming incredibly annoying and our adorable waiter tried to put burned coffee down to try to keep them away.  It didn't really work but we appreciated the sentiment.

As for the food, the pasta was what you expected.  A nice tomato base with some mussels, small shrimp and squid.  It was a perfectly fine dish and quite a lot of food but it definitely didn't rival any kind of pasta I had in Italy or even in some finer restaurants in NYC.  But the combination of sitting outside on an island with a chilled bottle of rose made it the right meal at the time.  Total bill with wine: 200 kn = ~$28/pp

Lokanda Peskarija Na ponti bb, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia  3.5 Forks

After spending the afternoon walking the walls in the Old Town, we decided to stick around the same area for dinner.  Unfortunately we weren't starving but what's good about being in a seafood heavy town is that for the most part, eating seafood won't weigh you down.  We had seen several restaurants that were serving giant pots of mussels and we decided that that's what we wanted.  There are several restaurants right by the port that have beautiful outside seating for groups of people, so we decided to saddle up to the one that looked the most busy. 

The menu here is almost 100% seafood, so if you aren't into it you're out of luck.  We split a pot of mussels (77 kn = ~$11 USD), shrimp (111 kn = ~$16 USD), a seafood risotto (88 kn = ~$12 USD), and a small salad (35 kn = ~$5 USD).  The small salad was fairly large and their salad are pretty similar to Greek salads in that they have lots of juicy red ripe tomatoes, red onion, olives and sometimes blocks of feta cheese.  I love that most of the salads here are dressed only with simple olive oil and red wine vinegar - none of that heavy creamed based dressing.  The pots of mussels were what you expected - steamed with garlic, lemon and some white wine.  They weren't all that big but there were a lot of them which made up for the size.  The shrimp came with the head on and were quite flavorful and juicy.  They were medium sized so there was enough meat to make peeling them worth while.  It was nice to have the risotto to help fill us up a bit and it had some more shrimp and squid in it.   The risotto itself was a bit on the runny side for me and had more sauce than I would have liked but it was good to have some carbs in the meal.

In addition to visions of having cute dinners on cobble stone streets, I also had dreams of seaside dining while eating fresh seafood and drinking chilled wine, so mission accomplished for both dreams.  It's these small things in life that make me happy,  I just wish there were more options like this in NYC.  Total bill with wine:  $84 for 4 people

Photo Credit:  TripAdvisor

Panorama Restaurant Cable Car Station, Dubrovnik 20000, Croatia  4 Forks

While we had several lovely meals in Dubrovnik, this one was my favorite which I was totally surprised by.  When we had checked into our Airbnb our host had left us coupons for this place (and it's sister restaurant) which I usually take as a bad sign.  There's just something slightly touristy and tacky about leaving coupons to entice customers to your restaurant.  But I couldn't have been so wrong.  

We tried to call the restaurant multiple times for a reservation but they kept telling us that they were full.  Undeterred, we decided to go anyways because we were going to go up the cable car anyways that night. The trip up the cable car is totally worth it - it's lovely and beautiful views, especially during sunset.  You get full spectacular views of the entire Old Town and the surrounding neighborhoods.  It's pretty romantic and a couple even got engaged up there while we were there. 

With Jenn's persistence, we were able to get on the waitlist and got a table within 30 minutes.  The first thing we noticed while we were there was that it was super windy and cold.  None of us were really that prepared but luckily the restaurant was prepared and had warm fleece blankets waiting for us at the table.  How cute is that?!   Our waiter was so adorable and sweet, we all took to him immediately.  I know it's primarily a tourist town but I've been really impressed at how kind everyone was to us there.  The menu had a meat and fish focus and I went with the meat special of the day,  the rib eye.  For starters, we got the grilled calamari and burrata to share.  Both were fantastic, especially the burrata which was very creamy and moist.  I ordered my steak medium rare and they did an awesome job of making it as close to rare was possible (it was pretty pink).  It was tender and sliced well.  It came with mashed potatoes and portobello mushrooms.  It was great mixing the combination of meat, buttery potatoes and mushroom with the juices of the meat.  We all still had room for dessert and got the cheesecake and chocolate cake which were both sweet and satisfying.  We also had two fantastic bottles of local red merlot that were fairly light in taste but went well with my steak. 

Overall, the menu was probably more American than most but that was fine given how much we enjoyed the food.  The stunning views and sincere service made it worth the trek up the cable car.  It was a lovely way to end our time in Dubrovnik.  While I'm glad I finally made it to Dubrovnik, I was surprised at how incredibly touristy it was.   Maybe it's the Game of Thrones effect but I'm not sure that I really need to come back to this part of Croatia again.  I would definitely be up for checking out the Northern part which I heard was stunning and beautiful as well.  Total bill with wine and our 10% discount:  1,535 kn = ~$219 USD for 4 people

Photo Credit:  TripAdvisor

Croatia Part 1 Visited 9/4-9/5 3.5-4 Forks

360 Dubrovnik Sv. Dominika bb, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia   3.5 Forks

Croatia has always been on my short list of places to visit, so I was super excited to finally make it down here with the girls recently.  We only had a week total to visit it and Montenegro, so we were limited to visiting just Dubrovnik this time around.  Since we were tight on time, we figured it was better to make a few dinner reservations in advance to make sure we were able to have some great meals while we were there.  I had read that 360 Dubrovnik had some of the best views of Old Town and that Bey and Jay-Z had visited this place when they visited , so I made a reservation (done easily enough by email) for us for the 1st night we were there.  

The restaurant is conveniently located within the Old City walls and true to it's name, has fantastic elevated views of the Old Town.  While Croatia itself is not fancy, the vibe here is high end fine dining.  Compared to most of the other places we ate on our vacation, the menu here is pretty classy and closer to fusion than traditional food.  We started with the Black Ravioli to share (180 kn = ~$26 USD) and I got the grilled octopus (240 kn = ~$34 USD) for my main.  As you can see from the prices, this place was fairly pricey, especially for Eastern Europe standards.  You're really paying for the beautiful view although the service was quite good and the food was high quality but it was still a bit overpriced.  The Black Ravioli was stuffed with sheep's curd and served with a cream of truffles.  The truffle cream was amazing and not too overpowering, it was a lovely way to start our vacation - we felt super luxurious and fancy having truffles on our first night out.   As for my octopus, it was a bit on the small side and it was served with lardo, cream of peas, a sweet and sour sauce and garlic croquettes.  The octopus was tender and paired nicely with the cream of peas.  While I don't usually get octopus in the States, I felt like I had to start my Mediterranean/Adriatic adventures with local seafood.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, but the overwhelming comment was that the portions were on the small side.  Jenn and Amy both got the scallops and there were only 3 medium sized pieces on the entire plate.  

Overall, this was a lovely introduction to our vacation and you definitely can't beat the views from this place.  This was quite a luxurious way to start our culinary adventure and while I definitely think the prices were too much, I rationalized it with the fact that we were on vacation and that the waiter was super adorable and worth the extra price.   Total bill with tip and wine:  ~$280 USD for 4 people

Photo Credit:  www.360dubrovnik.com 

Taverna Otto Ul. Nikole Tesle 8, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia   3.5 Forks

On our 1st full day here, it was sadly drizzling.  But we were waiting for Krush to fly in from SF that day plus we were all super jet lagged, so we decided to have a very lazy lunch while we killed some time.  Since we had just been to the Old City (and it was a bit of a walk from our Airbnb), we looked at some other places nearby.  We decided to explore the other part of Dubrovnik that was closer to the Lapad and Gruz area.  Taverna Otto is located across from the Old Port which was only a 15 minute walk from our Airbnb through a more local part of town.   From the pictures, we had thought there would be outdoor seating, but that was actually not the case.  The decor is a bit more like a cave or wine cellar.  It also was more casual than it looks in pictures as well - it had more of a cafe vibe in real life.  Despite having great reviews and being highly recommended by several guide books, there was no body in the restaurant when we arrived.  Given the decor, I assumed the menu would also be more lunch-y and casual but it turned out to be quite the opposite. The menu had a more upscale dinner theme with dishes like pork fillet, chicken breast, risotto and spare ribs on the menu.  It doesn't actually look like they have a different lunch and dinner menu. 

Despite that, we were totally flexible and luckily none of us were too picky and we were able to make it work.  Since we didn't have any food in the apartment and our dinner reservation wasn't until 8pm that night, I decided to just go big and get the pork fillet for lunch.   I thought that was a bit of a heavy dish to start and apparently so did the restaurant because the waiter said that they weren't ready to offer that dish just yet.  Oh well, so I moved on to the fish fillet (119 kn = ~$17 USD) instead.  I assumed it was an entree of fish and a side salad but instead it was actually a side with fish fillets on top of a salad.  Despite it not being what I expected, I have to say that the fish was cooked extremely well.  It was a fresh local white fish cooked with the skin on which was perfectly crispy with moist and tender meat.  It went really well with the arugula base (they call it rocket salad there) which was lightly dressed and came with potatoes, sun dried tomatoes and olives.  It turned out to be a surprising dish that I really enjoyed.  I could tell from my first 2 meals in Croatia that all of the ingredients here are locally sourced, very fresh, and not once did I feel like I was eating a lot of butter or food with preservatives.  It actually felt pretty healthy - gotta love the Mediterranean diet.  I tried a bite of Amy's gazpacho and of all the gazpachos we had on the trip (which was a lot) we all agreed that this was the best one of the trip - very flavorful, seasoned well and tasted like fresh ripe tomatoes.  This is an adorable place if you are looking for some respite from the crazy madness of Old Town but I would probably recommend it more for a casual dinner scene.  Total bill includes tip: $73 USD for 4 people

Photo Credit:  TripAdvisor

Taj Mahal Ul. Nikole Gučetića 2, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia  4 Forks

A few friends of mine had been in Dubrovnik the week before me, so I hit them up for any last minute recommendations and both of them had said that dinner at Taj Mahal was a must.  Of course, when I first saw the name I assumed it was Indian food (which I still thought was weird to go to Croatia to eat Indian food)  but turns out that it was actually Bosnian food (makes more sense).  I gotta say, I'm a pretty adventurous and diverse eater but I've never had Bosnian food before, so I was excited to see what it was all about.  Even our cab driver from the airport was like "oh, someone must have told you about that place.  It's very good!"

It's located on a quiet side street in Old Town and I was glad that my friends told me to make a reservation (again, easily done over email) because the place was jammed packed and had an hour+ wait when we got there.  This place was what I had envisioned when I was thinking about dinner in Dubrovnik - cute, quaint cobble stone street full of people enjoying good food and wine.  We waited a bit past our reservation time because we wanted to sit outside vs. inside - despite it being September and nighttime, the walls of the city somehow made it hot and humid because there wasn't a lot of air circulating around and we were all sweating.  The menu is extensive (it's at least 4 pages longs) and not surprisingly very heavily focused on meat (specifically veal) and weirdly enough cream cheese.  Our waitress was super sweet and pointed out a few of her favorite dishes and I went with one of her suggestions, the Dulbastije (110 kn = ~$15 USD),  and we also got a side of grilled mushrooms with cream cheese (60 kn = $8 USD).  I honestly had no idea what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised.  My dish was thinly pounded veal served in a cream sauce and cream cheese which I know sounds totally weird and gross but it wasn't.  It's obviously not what we think of in the US when I say cream cheese but it is still a white spreadable cheese version.  It was super delicious and in retrospect, a welcome reprieve from all of the similar seafood that we would soon be having.  It was a truly unique experience.  The one thing I was bummed about was that the menu said that my dish would come with a baked potato but instead it came with roasted ones - they were still good but other people's baked potatoes looked delicious and it got me craving one.  We had ordered the grilled mushrooms thinking they would be our "healthy" part of dinner but they were drizzled with the same cream cheese sauce on top of it, so it wasn't really very healthy for you in the end.  Overall, everyone else seemed to really enjoy their food.  April and Krush got some crazy dish that was rolled veal in a GIANT dough roll filled with mushroom and two types of cheese.  It was quite the sight. 

While the food was good and unique, what I really appreciated about this place was the genuine and sincere service.  We paid the bill without even looking at it.  It can be fairly complicated to review a bill with so many of us ordering plus it was in another language, so we just assumed whatever they gave us was correct.  We paid and were about to leave when the waitress comes chasing us down and tells us that we paid someone else's bill and that we overpaid (by a lot).  Sure enough, after looking at the bill, our total made no sense.  They kindly reversed the original bill and charged us the correct amount.  They were genuinely mortified and so incredibly apologetic about the mistake.  In a busy touristy part of town, they could have totally taken advantage of the situation and not mentioned a thing but they were so kind and nice about it that I just had to give this place 4 Forks - not to mention the fact that it was also my first (and probably only) positive experience with Bosnian food.  Total bill with tip and wine: $167 USD for 4 people
 

The Pasta Bowl Visited 8/29/2015 3 Forks

The Pasta Bowl  1852 W North Ave., Chicago, IL 60622

With a name like The Pasta Bowl, you can only expect one thing on the menu: Pasta.  This is a dieters nightmare as not only is there only pasta on the menu but the portions were huge and 80% of the sauces had cream in it.  So definitely don't come here when you're on a diet.  Unfortunately, I was recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning, so I wasn't really in the mood to go for a heavy meal but I still got the appeal of a place like The Pasta Bowl.  Even though I'm trying to cut out carbs, there's just nothing more comforting than a nice big bowl of pasta to coat your stomach. 

The decor and setting is very casual and family friendly.  It's definitely not a high-end Italian place like L'Artusi or Babbo where you would expect fresh homemade pasta - actually I'm 100% sure the pasta is not freshly made and came from a box, so just be prepared for that.  But in any case, it was still a very hard decision what to go with.  Since I was trying to be mindful of my sensitive stomach, I chose one of the few pastas that didn't have a heavy cream sauce:  capellini pomodoro with sliced chicken and Deanna, Soph and I split the spinach salad.   Deanna got the pesto pasta and Soph got the lobster ravioli.  The spinach salad was your standard run of the mill version with mushrooms, tomatoes, red onion and goat cheese topped with balsamic vinaigrette.  It was a bit too heavily dressed for me even with my sensitive stomach.  The pasta dishes are what you expect from the Midwest,  unnecessarily giant bowls of food.  My pasta came with a basic tomato sauce, basil, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.  The chicken was cut up into small pieces versus large slices and cooked together with everything.  It was a perfectly fine basic pasta dish but it was definitely something I could have totally made at home by myself and this is generally why I don't go for low-medium end Italian food when I eat out.   I will note that Soph's dish had a lot of pieces of ravioli - generally when you order ravioli you get like 3 pieces max but here she must have had at least 5-6 very large pieces.  

This is the kind of place where you come if you are too lazy to make food at home and you want something soothing and comforting.  If you're looking for high-end Italian food, this is not your place.  But if you looking for something casual, low key and will completely stuff you to the brim, then this is your place.  I should mention that this place is BYOB, so don't forget to bring something with you or there are a few places down the block that sell wine and beer.  Total bill:  Unknown, Deanna kindly paid for my birthday

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Kingsbury Street Cafe Visited 8/28/2015 4 Forks

Kingsburg Street Cafe  1523 N Kingsbury St., Chicago, IL 60642

When someone mentions the word "brunch", most people think of a lazy Saturday or Sunday.  I was in town for an extended period of time and met up with Nima on a lazy Friday and was craving brunch-y food.  I had read about this place in a Chicago Magazine and they had mentioned that their lemon pancake was one of the top 50 things to eat in Chicago and the pictures looked amazing.

This place is a true breakfast/lunch place as it's only open until 3pm, so definitely get there early. Luckily, it was pretty empty on a Friday afternoon.  The space itself is huge, airy with an artistic feel to it as it is apparently also a part-time gallery.  The menu is very brunch friendly with a full breakfast menu as well as a full lunch menu.  It was a true struggle to figure out what to eat because everything sounded great and when I looked around, everyone's dishes looked pretty good.  Ultimately, all 3 of us ended up getting the exact same dish, the Kingsbury Cafe Breakfast  - Deanna got it with vegan patties, Nima got it with bacon and I got it with turkey patties.  The dish itself was 2 eggs your choice, 2 roasted tomatoes, herb potatoes and a cheddar cheese scone - all for $11!  It was a ton of food and everything was fresh and very well made.  I got my eggs soft scrambled and they were delicious but you could tell that they were a lot of butter or cream in it which made it soft.  But regardless, I really enjoyed my eggs.  The roasted tomatoes were an interesting touch to the meal - you don't really see that a lot and to be honest, I prefer raw tomatoes because cooked tomatoes can be too soft and mushy - this one was close but they took it out of the oven right before it got to that point.  The potatoes were fine  - again, they were of the roasted variety.  I didn't really need them as part of the dish but it just seems wrong to not have potatoes with a breakfast dish.  The same can be said for the turkey patties - they were a little bit on the dry side and it could have used a bit more spice and flavor to it, but it would have been weird to not have a meat dish with the eggs.  But the real star of the show was the cheddar cheese scone.  Holy shit.  I actually had really low expectations for this as I'm not a huge scone fan and generally find them to be an uninteresting food item.  But this was less like a scone and more like a buttery, flakey delicious biscuit with cheddar cheese inside of it.  It was served with salty butter which just made the whole thing amazing.  I wasn't planning on eating the whole thing but I just couldn't stop myself and could have easily had another.

Overall, I was really pleased with my breakfast here.  It's a true breakfast joint but the lunch options also looked really good and I would definitely come back to try it out.  It's located in this weird street that has a strip club, a giant Whole Foods and the British School all on one block but if you get get over that, I would definitely recommend you check out their brunch and maybe even get their famous pancakes as I'm sure they would be fantastic.  Total bill:  $20/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp