Hugo and Sons Visited 1/21/2017 3.5 Forks

Hugo and Sons 367 7th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215

It's been a long time since I've lived in Park Slope but it still has a soft spot in my heart as the first place I lived in NYC.  It was always a cute yuppie place to live but it's definitely gotten more and more yuppified since I left.  There are still some restaurants that I recognize but in general the neighborhood is definitely different than when I lived there. 

I met up with Virgina, her mom and Joanna for a nice low key brunch on Saturday.  This place was fairly quiet and empty, which was nice and easy for us to catch up.  The decor was family friendly and full of sun light which was great.  The brunch menu has your usual brunch suspects:  eggs benedict, omelettes, french toast, and the ever so popular avocado toast as well as a nice line up of thin crust pizzas (apparently the menu for dinner is more focused on Italian food).  I got the eggs benedict ($15), VA and Joanna kind of made their own breakfast by piecing together eggs, avocado and bacon side dishes and her mom got the Mina pizza ($18).  The eggs benedict was described as being on foccacia bread so I shouldn't have been all that surprised when I saw the dish but in my mind it's really hard to call yourself an eggs benedict dish if you're not on an English muffin.  The foccacia was soft and tasted fine but it just wasn't the same.  The eggs were poached nicely which is the most important part of the dish.  The bacon was a bit overdone and dare I say too crispy and dry? Usually an eggs benedict dish is super filling and hearty but this was on the small side and left me still hungry.  The homefries that came with it did help and they were mixed well with peppers and onions.  The dish was a perfectly fine brunch dish, I wish there was more of it.  The pizza that VA's mom got looked really good and it kind of made me wish that I got that instead.  Everyone else also got the green juice, which was pre-made already but apparently it was really tasty and refreshing - I got a grapefruit juice instead since the green juice had celery in it - gross. 

Overall, it was a totally lovely, casual brunch in what's clearly a neighborhood joint.  I definitely wouldn't say it's a destination brunch place at all but if I still lived in the neighborhood, I could see myself coming here more often.  I want to give a shout out to the waiter who was super nice and didn't say anything to us as we lingered around a bit after we paid the check.  Total bill:  $30/pp with tax, tip and juices

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Barano Visited 1/18/2017 4 Forks

Barano  26 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11249

I'm giving this place 4 forks not just because I had a solid meal there but in hopes that it generates some buzz for this place.  Neel, Caitlin and I were the only people in the entire restaurant for pretty much the whole night we were there, which was great for us but made us all feel a bit sad for the staff there.  The location leaves a bit to be desired as it's attached to a blah looking luxury condo building and it's all the way at the end of Broadway in Williamsburg, which is honestly not that accessible by public transportation.  So the only people I could see coming here would be neighborhood folks or people willing to Uber it from elsewhere but if you're in the mood for a solid Italian place that isn't super crowded, this place is worth a look. 

I chose this place mostly because it's manned by the former chef at Rubirosa, one of my favorite pizza places in the city (looking back at that review, I would have totally up'd it to at least 4.5 forks now).  The menu here consists of a cheese and meat section, small plates, pizza, pasta, and a bunch of wood fired meats and fishes.  We ordered a little bit of everything:  meatballs ($16), octopus ($16), little gem lettuce ($14), clam pizza ($21), and the americano pizza ($19).  They started us with some fabulous strips of warm bread served with pesto and marinara dipping sauce - it was a bit like pizza crust but better.  The small plates all came out at the same time, which was fine by us since we were all starving but I might have coursed them out a bit in other situations.  The meatballs were 3 huge sized ones made with 21-day dry aged beef and herb ricotta.  They were moist, fabulous and covered nicely in a red sauce that I sopped up with bits of warm bread left over.  The octopus was also very solid - it was one very large and tender tentacle that was the right amount of chew.  I could have done without the faro, celery, pesto base underneath as it didn't really add much to the dish.

Then came the pizza - they came with giant pizza scissors but instead of cutting the pizza into slices for us, the waitress just left them there for us to cut ourselves.  Not a huge deal but with no other people in the whole restaurant, I thought it would have been a nice touch if she had offered to cut it for us.  We came to dinner hell bent on getting the clam pizza but we also wanted a red pie, so the waitress recommended the Americano which had pepperoni, tomato, shishito peppers and roasted garlic.  Both were good, solid pizzas if not a bit on the salty side.  The clam pizza was served with the clam in the shell which I thought was a bit odd but it was paired nicely with the garlic, mozzarella and breadcrumbs.  The Americano was like a typical red sauce pizza and I would have actually liked to have had more of the shishito peppers to bring out the unique flavor of it.

We somehow left room for dessert and got the baba rum and torta caprese.  The baba rum was my favorite of the two, with it's rum soaked cake covered in vanilla mascarpone and fresh berries.  It was a nice refreshing taste on the plate after the saltiness of the pizzas.  I'm not a huge chocolate fan so the torta, which was a fine raw dark chocolate almond tart was only eh to me.

Overall, everything was spot on and we had a enjoyable time there.  We were all complaining about the shit show that is the NYC restaurant scene where you often have to wait 2+ hours or weeks to get a reservation at the latest hot spot,  so it was nice to have dinner in a low key casual place that ins't necessarily a take out joint.  I'll admit that I still like the clam pizza at Pasquale Jones a lot more but it's also $6 more and impossible to get a reservation there unless you show up right when it opens. The pizza at Rubirosa is also a notch above the pizza here but the stars of the show here for me were the small plates.  We were hoping that as the night progressed more people would show up but it never did.  I'm not quite sure about the longevity of this place but I'm glad I tried it out while I could. Total bill: $78/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hot Pot Central Visited 1/12/2017 3 Forks

Hot Pot Central  188 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003

One of my all time favorite Chinese "cuisines" is hot pot.  It's comforting, easy and so delicious. Most of the places in Chinatown like 99 Favor Taste are the All You Can Eat variety and while the quality of the food isn't bad, it's also not 5 star either.  But it's always satisfying and filling.  Janet and I decided to check out a new place that was in the East Village on one of the hottest days (in the 60's) in January.  Hot pot is best when it's nice and chilly outside but oh well.

It was completely empty when we got there at 6:30 on a Thursday but it slowly started to fill up afterwards.  We were surprised when we opened the menu to learn that this was NOT all-you-can-eat and you had to order each individual ingredient which can add up when you were expecting to go-to town with the ordering.  Plus they charge you separately for the broth.  WTF - how can you eat hot pot without broth??  They have a few combinations that seemed reasonable so we got the beef combo with came with 2 types of meat, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, tofu, spinach, your choice of dumplings and a salad.  We also got a side of fish balls ($8) and rice noodles because it's impossible to eat hot pot without them. 

For some reason when they said dumplings, I thought that they would be cooked already but they were hand made raw dumplings that you put in the hot pot - cute but unexpected and frankly I would have preferred to not had the dumplings or salad and had choice of two other ingredients.  The salad that came with the combo was totally unnecessary and really just random because most Asians don't really eat salad.  The ingredients were definitely of high quality - especially the beef.  It was nice and red and you can tell not the usual frozen kind that they just throw at you in an AYCE situation.  The fish balls were also not frozen and definitely fresh and hand made.  Since they weren't frozen, it had a different texture than the usual kind we're used to - I didn't mind it but Janet wasn't a huge fan of it. While we were disappointed that we couldn't keep ordering, we were actually pretty full by the time we finished everything and probably wouldn't have ended up ordering much more anyways.  The best part of the entire meal was the broth at the end after it's had all the veggies and meat soaking in there for a while.  I could have drank it by the bowl full. 

Overall, it was a totally fine experience and I can see why they charge a bit more because the quality and freshness of the ingredients are a bit better.  But it wasn't that much better or mind blowing that I would stop going to Favor Taste or any of the other AYCE places.  The whole point of hot pot is to over-indulge and enjoy yourself and it's kind of hard to do when you're paying a higher price or an experience that you know you can get for cheaper 15 minutes away.   Plus I don't know if it's because it's not in Chinatown and didn't have that slightly seedy Chinatown flare to it, but it seemed to cater more to non-Asians in a way that made it not so authentic.  Total bill:  $45/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Loring Place Visited 1/8/2017 3 Forks

Loring Place  21 West 8th St., New York, NY 10011

It's about time Dan Kluger got his own restaurant.  The famed chef of ABC Kitchen and ABC Cocina finally opened his own place in the West Village to much fanfare.  Unfortunately, it's located kind of on this terrible street in the city - W. 8th Street - the street I say where restaurants (and shops) go to die.  It's just not in a very prominent or visible street despite being close to both the West and Greenwich Village.  I don't know what it is with the location - maybe it's cursed?  The only time I could get was a 5:30pm reservation on a Sunday, which turned out to be fine because I could still get home early enough to chill and relax before the work week starts. 

The atmosphere was similar to ABC Kitchen but a bit dimmer and without all the ABC Carpet Store accents.  The menu is seasonal and local with a slight focus on vegetables but there are still plenty of meat and fish dishes to choose from, especially in the wood grilled section.  Our waiter was super nice but way overly attentive to the point where it was making me a little uncomfortable - it's like he would linger at our table for 1 or 2 minutes too long. But he did make several good recommendations such as the baked ricotta and the date pizza.  We decided to go with his recommendation and started with the baked ricotta ($11), the grilled broccoli ($13), the whole wheat pasta ($16) and the data pizza ($17).   We also got one additional vegetable dish but for the life of me I can't remember what it was...so clearly it wasn't that good!

The baked ricotta was served with roasted kabocha and grilled sourdough bread.  It was quite tasty and sweet but then again any kind of baked cheese served with warm and toasty bread is always a winner in my book.  Next we tried the grilled broccoli and to be honest, it was ok.  It served with orange, kohlrabi and a mint pistachio dressing.  It didn't have much of a wow factor and tasted just like how it was described - grilled broccoli which in it of itself is not that exciting.  Luckily the entrees were a bit better.  The whole wheat pasta was a simple pasta with spinach, parmesan, basil and chilies.  It was literally something I could make at home but (note to self - steal this recipe) but despite that it was a solid pasta dish - just not something I would necessarily go out and pay $16 for. 

Surprisingly the big winner of the night was the date pizza - the waiter was totally right about it.  I was a bit skeptical because I'm not a huge fan of dates but there was just something about the combination of sweet dates and melted mozzarella, bacon and radicchio that really worked all together.  It was a fantastic sweet and salty mixture that pleased the taste buds enormously.   I guess it's kind of like a deconstructed date wrapped in bacon but put in a pizza format.  

I was surprisingly stuffed at this point but we left some room for dessert and got the cookie box ($14).  A cookie box is never my first choice but Lav was super interested in getting it and some of the cookies like the mini black and white ones were quite lovely.  

I want to give a shout out on their cocktails - they are fantastic.  Smooth, sweet and very very easy to drink.  Very dangerous.  Overall, it was a a perfectly fine experience but definitely not on par with either ABC Kitchen or ABC Cocina.  It's not like the food sucked but it somehow was missing something that I can't put my finger on.  I wouldn't discourage someone from checking this place out (the date pizza is amazing) but don't go expecting the same caliber of his other joints.  Maybe it is the curse of being on W. 8th street.  Total bill:  $85/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu's Kitchen Visited 1/7/2017 2.5 Forks

Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu's Kitchen   401 6th Ave., New York, NY 10014

This was my first great disappointment of 2017.  I had read a lot about this place and the menu looked incredible online but I left feeling so underwhelmed by my experience there.  It's a shame because the space itself is quite beautiful - it looks like a high end flower shop or Anthropologie - definitely not what you would think of in a Chinese restaurant. 

Despite it being a super snowy day, it was still really hard to get a reservation but there was a cancellation at 8:30 that I was able to snag on a Saturday.  As I mentioned, the space is lovely but very un-traditional.  The menu borders on authentic vs. super non-authentic.  It's got dishes like wood ear mushrooms, dan dan noodles and soup buns which are very traditional but then it's got other dishes like sweet and sour meatballs, sake marinated foie gras, and organic cauliflower with smoked ham that's very fusion-esque.  We opted to start with roasted vegetable with avocado ($16), the eight spice crispy tofu ($10), the dan dan noodles ($8), the mixed mushroom with black pepper noodles ($18) and I got the claypot dumplings ($12) based on the very enthusiastic recommendation of our waiter.  We also got a pot of tea because I mean it's a noodle and tea house and we already got the noodles, how could we not get tea too? 

The roasted vegetables and avocado and crispy tofu came out first.  It was basically a plate of roasted sweet potato and other root vegetables with slices of avocado and cilantro.  It was a perfectly fine dish but it was in no way Chinese at all.  I don't think Chinese people ever really use avocado in traditional cooking.  It felt like a dish I could get at any local farm to table place.  The crispy tofu was bits of soft tofu cubes lightly fried and tossed with five spice.  It was honestly a bit underwhelming - while it was easy enough to pop a bunch of these in your mouth at once, there wasn't anything super satisfying about them. 

Next came the clay pot dumplings that the waiter was really excited by.  Unfortunately since it had pork in it, I had to eat the whole dish myself which I normally wouldn't mind but this was actually a pretty hefty dish to eat on my own because there were so many dumplings and then a heap of noodles underneath.  I assumed that they would be regular dumplings with a nice thin wrapper but this was wrapped in a heavy egg crepe (which to be fair, was called out in the menu, I just didn't notice) that I honestly wasn't down with.  It felt like I was eating 5 mini omelets on my own.  I will say that the noodles and broth was delicious and the best part for the dish - I would have rather had just that without the dumplings.

Next came the dan dan noodles and holy shit was it spicy.  I know this dish is supposed to be spicy but this was to the point it was inedible.  We had to order a side of white rice to counter balance the insane chili oil spice that was covering the noodles.  I'm definitely not a puss when it comes to spicy food but this was just not doing it for me.  The noodles themselves were also not super impressive - they were thin and dry.  When eating dan dan or any kind of dry noodle dish, I prefer them to be thick and chewy.  Luckily the mushroom noodles that came next were not spicy at all, so we ended up mixing the two noodles together which made the dan dan much easier to digest.  But similar to the dan dan, the noodles for the mushroom noodles were thin and dry and not really tasty.  The mushroom mix was a combination of porcini, white and white beech mushrooms - none of which are particularly Chinese except for the last one.   Aarti was a fan of the mushroom mix but I wasn't really, it just didn't really wow me. 

The last thing I should note was the tea.  It was served in what must have been the world's smallest tea pot.  Seriously the waiter must have re-filled it about 10 times for us because it was so damn small.  In a legit Chinese place, you should get a giant tea pot that should last you several cups.  This may have held 1/2 a cup at most.  Well, at least the tea was good.

Overall, I was super bummed about this place.  It's physically beautiful and the menu has a lot of promise but it wasn't executed in a way that really impressed me.  If you're going to be traditional, then be traditional but don't try to mix it with what was essentially New American food.  If you want good Chinese comfort food, I'd recommend you skip out on this place and head over to Grand Sichuan.  Total bill:  $47/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Whitman's Visited 1/7/2017 3.5 Forks

Whitman's  406 E 9th St., New York, NY 10009

After our first brunch at Superiority Burger, Anuja, Amy and I were unfortunately still hungry.  There wasn't much left on the menu there and we were really craving fries, so we ventured next door to Whitman's to fill our fries craving.  This place is the ultimate burger/sandwich place, so they must have good fries right? 

Yes, they definitely hit the spot.  It's a cute cozy place if you're looking for something casual and low key.  They have a pretty extensive menu of all types of burgers and sandwiches and you can put almost any topping on them too.  Since we had literally just had a burger, Anuja and I split the grilled cheese and fries ($9) since having a 2nd burger seemed egregious but only having fries didn't seem like enough food.  Amy got the Brussels Sprout salad ($7) because she's good like that and knew that having something healthy was better for her.  

This was a nice way to "top off" our last meal.  The grilled cheese was on a thick white Pullman bread with melted gruyere, cheddar and American cheese - yum!  But the bread was a bit soggy in the middle but with that much cheese I can see why.  The fries were great - crunchy and salty,  which would have been perfect with the veggie burger earlier.  Amy said her salad was great and it did look really healthy and lightly dressed.  I wouldn't say that anything we had was super mind blowing but there was nothing wrong with anything we ate either.

The price point is great here and it was a nice snowy weather get away for comfort food.  I would like to return to have a real burger to take advantage of what they are really known for.  Total bill:  $20/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Superiority Burger Visited 1/7/2017 3.5 Forks

Superiority Burger  430 E 9th St., New York, NY 10009

One of the big trends of 2016 was the emergence of veggie forward/vegan food.  Vegetarianism and veganism is obviously not new but there was an emergence of restaurants in NYC that focused just on vegetables - By Chloe, Nix, Avant Garden and Ladybird just to name a few.  So it makes sense that those on the veggie train would try to create the ultimate veggie burger.  Momofuku Nishi tried to do it in the most innovative way by actually making it bleed, but I don't think that's necessary to make a really good veggie burger. 

Superiority Burger has gotten a ton of buzz as being one the best veggie burgers around, so I checked it out during my monthly Rabbit Habit date with Anuja and Amy.  First, this place is not a restaurant, it's really more of a take-out joint with 4 tiny seats.  Be prepared to wait or just grab it to go and sit in the park if it's nice outside.  The menu is really limited:  veggie burger, large veggie burger, sloppy joe type sandwich, broccoli salad, and romaine salad.  I was really bummed that they didn't have fries on the menu (they're vegetarian right?!?!) but I guess it's healthier that way.  In any case, I got the regular veggie burger ($6) and the tahini romaine salad ($6).  If you are hungry I would strongly recommend you get the large burger, it's only $3 more and you'll be a lot more satisfied in the end, trust me. 

The burger is topped with toasted munster cheese, lettuce, tomato, and pickle all on a soft potato bun. If it sounds like the making of a great burger, it was.  It reminded more of a falafel burger in terms of consistency and texture.  It definitely wasn't trying to be a meat substitute but I liked that it also wasn't some kind of nasty bean burger that many veggie restaurants try to do.  It was a solid burger that I would most definitely have again but it was just really too small if you're hungry.  This is where I really missed having fries as that would have definitely filled me up.  The salad was tasty with the tahini ranch dressing but I'm generally not a huge fan of romaine.  The salad was described as having cauliflower and sneaky avocado - the avocado was very sneaky as you could barely see or taste any of it in the salad which was a bummer.  I had a bite of the broccoli salad and that was much better in my opinion.  It had a slight charred taste and it was topped with red chili, cilantro and cashew. 

The menu here apparently changes (not the burger but the salads and sides) and a couple came in after us who were clearly friends with the owner and they got to order an off menu pastrami sandwich which looked great, so either be friends with the owners or wait a few months for new items to appear. 

Overall, it was definitely one of the better veggie burgers I've had in a while.  But the lack of fries made me feel like my meal wasn't really complete.  If I lived in the East Village or found myself walking around the hood, I would definitely stop by but I'm not sure if I would necessarily go out of my way from BK to have it again.  Anuja and I had debated if we wanted to split yet another burger because that's how hungry we still were but instead he opted to have a 2nd brunch at next door.  More to come on that meal....Total bill:  $13/pp

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Emmett's Visited 12/31/2017 3.5 Forks

Emmett's  50 Macdougal St., New York, NY 10012

Despite all my years in NYC, I've always been a Chicago deep dish pizza gal at heart.  There's just something so comforting and glutenous about it but I've never really dared to get it outside of Chicago.  It's really hard to fathom any deep dish place outside of Lou Malnati's or Gino's being good.  When I'm in NYC I have no problem indulging in thin crust (or even Detroit style pizza at Emmy's Squared) pizza at all.  But when I heard that a deep dish pizza place opened up in NYC, I was curious to see how it stacked up. 

I didn't have any real plans on NYE, so having pizza and wine with my friend Kevin at Emmett's sounded like the perfect low key activity.  The place is very small - only about 8 tables and they don't take reservations, but luckily on NYE it wasn't that nuts.  I was able to snag a 2 top at 9pm with no problem but all the tables were taken throughout the night.  If you don't like deep dish, you can also get thin crust here (but why would you??) as well as Chicago style hot dogs.  We went for a medium pie with mushroom, green peppers and sausage ($22 for the pizza, $4 for the sausage and $2/per veggie).  Similar to the pizza in Chicago, you have to wait a bit for the pizza to be made and served up but with a full bottle of wine in front of us, it wasn't a big deal.

When the pizza came out, it looked pretty authentic - it had the right thickness and texture to it. When the waitress cut into it, I noticed that the cheese wasn't a gooey as I would have liked it and it was a definitely oversauced.  Once we cut into the pie, everything just kind of oozed out and lost all structure to it.  The crust didn't quite hold up well to all the sauce and ingredients and by the time I got to the 3rd slice, the crust was a bit damp and didn't have the buttery cornmeal consistency that a good deep dish usually has.  However, taste-wise the pizza in was pretty good and I can't complain about the effort made to make it as traditional of a deep dish as possible.  It still didn't add up to the real deal in my book - but in NYC, I'm not sure if there would be a place that would.

The place was perfect for NYE - nice and cozy and the cute French waiter gave us all a free glass of champagne at midnight as we all walked outside to watch the Empire State Building change colors. Despite it not being 100% authentic in my book (it's like 85%),  if I ever did crave deep dish, I would go back again since there is probably no other deep dish pizza place in the city.  Total bill:  $95/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp