Industry Kitchen Visited October 2018 2.5 Forks

Industry Kitchen  70 South St., New York, NY 10005

I know it's been an extremely long delay in between posts but I've been traveling a done and it's been difficult to keep up with the blog now.  I've been thinking of scaling back or changing how often I update it, but I'm going to try my best to at least get as many reviews in now.  As a result, the next batch of reviews might be more on the minimalist side - sorry!

Randomly, I ended up going to Industry Kitchen twice in a week but totally by accident.  The first time, I picked it for a  team lunch and the 2nd time a work client picked it for a work dinner.  I guess I'll start with the good part is that the views are lovely and it's right by the water near the South Street Seaport.   The area has really come back to life post-Sandy.

On to the bad part, the menu looks great but the execution of the food was not good.  For lunch I got a calamari salad ($17), which turned out to be 2 pieces of grilled squid on a bed of quinoa with some avocado.  While it was a super healthy meal, I kind of expected more from a salad.  I just left me feeling super underwhelmed and still hungry.  I ended up nibbling on some garlic bread which was drenched in some kind of sauce and fried potatoes that were also drenched in garlic ketchup.

The lunch was a meh experience and I probably wouldn't have wanted to go back again until literally the next day our client picked this place too.  I couldn't say no but the dinner meal also re-affirmed by suspicions.  I got the steak ($26) and it was incredibly heavy handed on the garlic and salt.  Plus the potatoes were super soggy and soaking in the meat juice - in a very unappealing way.

It's such a bummer because the location and view are great here (which is really what's keeping this place from getting an even lower fork rating) but I can't say that I would come back anytime soon after 2 straight bad experiences.

Photo Credit: Yelp

72 Hours in Florence, Italy Part 2, Visited 9/1 - 9/3/2018 2.5 - 4.5 Forks

All'Antico Vinaio  Via dei Neri 74R, 50122 Florence, Italy                                                         3 Forks

I'm so confused - this place gets super high reviews and the lines are ridiculously long so you would think it would be an amazing sandwich.  But honestly it was just ok.  The place is so famous that there are two of the exact same places across the street from each other to accommodate all the tourists - and yes, everyone in line is a tourist.  They're known for their giant sandwiches filled with local meats and cheeses and they all sound amazing.  There is a menu outside in Italian and English - there are only 5 sandwiches to choose from so it's pretty easy to figure out what you want quickly.  The great thing about the sandwich is that it's only 5 euros each which is a steal of the amount of food you're getting. 

The bad news is that I didn't think it warrants waiting in line like a dodo.  I got the Summer sandwich which is a traditional prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato and basil in between two huge pieces of focaccia bread the size of my head.  I will say that the tomatoes and basil were amazing - the best part of the sandwich.  The tomatoes were super ripe and juicy and the basil was incredibly fresh.  It makes you realize why Italians use so much of these delicious ingredients in their food.   Unfortunately, the prosciutto was super super salty and there was way too much bread.  I tried my best but in the end I ended up feeding the local birds a lot of my lunch.  It was worth the try and for 5 euros, I'd say it's definitely a good deal but I would just wait until there aren't a lot of people in line (not sure if that is ever the case?).

Casa Toscana  Via Giovanni Da Verrazzano 3R, 50122 Florence, Italy                                    4.5 Forks

This place is truly a hidden gem.  It was recommended by our Airbnb host and it did not disappoint.  Even though we made a reservation the place was completely empty, which I would normally think is a bad sign but it wasn't at all here.

The menu is described as true Tuscan food, so it's really simple and natural food.  Everything sounded amazing and we ordered a ton of food - so much so that our tiny Italian waitress literally said to us "You're ordering way too much food!"  No wonder everyone in Europe thinks Americans are fat.  But whatever, we were on vacation.  Everyone got a fresh salad to start, then we all split the rigatoni with sausage, spicy penne, beef stew pasta (because you just can't get enough pasta in Italy), vegetable risotto, meatballs in a fantastic red sauce, fava beans (which Tuscany is famous for), spinach (because we need something green) and last but not least the famous Bistecca Fiorentina (it's essentially a giant T-bone steak).   I felt like it wouldn't be right to be in Florence and not have the famous steak as least once. 

Everything was wonderful and the steak was perfectly cooked with giant salt crystals sprinkled on top of it.  The pastas were all wonderful and cooked perfectly al dente.  We washed everything down with a deeply flavorful Chianti - truly heaven.  Since there wasn't anyone else at the restaurant (except for this random couple who we couldn't figure out if they were on a date or having an affair with each other), we were able to hang out leisurely and really enjoy the whole dinner experience.  This place was even some of the folks' favorite restaurant of the trip...It wasn't my favorite but it was definitely highly ranked.   It's crazy to think that we had all of this incredible food for $31/pp.  Unheard of and if this place existed in NYC, I would definitely be a regular there. 

Forno Brunori  Borgo Pinti 16 R, 50121 Florence, Italy                                                           4.5 Forks

OBSESSION.  This place is truly one of a kind - it feels like one of those really authentic local bakeries that are slowly disappearing from the city.   While it's not really a bakery bakery where they sell cakes and pastries, instead they sell something much better.  It's these small heavenly mini breads topped with all kinds of savory toppings.  I'm not sure if the locals eat these for breakfast or a snack but we decided since we were on vacation we would eat mini pizzas for breakfast.  Ha!  

The toppings range from porcini mushrooms (my favorite), broccoli, tomato sauce and fresh mozz, red peppers, and sausage.  I can't remember but there was one topping that was not a fan favorite but overall, they were all incredible.  They're each $.60 so you can order one of everything and still not even break $5.  The bread is perfectly soft and the right amount of salty.   We got lucky and happened to have gone one morning when the adorable owner was taking a bunch out of the oven so they were super fresh. 

Definitely go there early because we were so addicted that we went the next day and they only had a few choices left.  As I mentioned the woman behind the counter is so sweet and while her English isn't perfect, she really tries hard to help you.  It's places like this that remind me why it's important to support local small businesses and to keep cities full of original stores and restaurants because it's truly what makes a city unique.  

Ristorante Natalino  Borgo Albizi 17R, 50122 Florence, Italy                                                  2.5 Forks

This was our one epic meal fail of our entire trip.   We had just came back from a day trip to Siena (I'll post about that later) and were exhausted.  It was late and we hadn't done any research nor in the mood to really look up places to eat.  So we picked what was honestly what just open for dinner at 10pm and within walking distance.  It's funny because usually there is a stereotype that Europeans eat really late and in many countries they do but in Florence it wasn't really the case.  A lot of places were closing for dinner by 10pm. 

As I started doing a bit of research for this review,  I was shocked at how many good reviews there were on this place on Yelp.  It reaffirms my belief that everything on there needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt because there is no way in hell I would give this place 4.5 starts.  I'll cut it some slack by saying that it was late and I'm sure the waitstaff was not thrilled to see us walk in.  But whatever, it's still their job to provide great service and food.

The food was panned by everyone in the group.  My spinach "salad" was literally a bunch of spinach that they dumped out of a box or bag into a bowl.  That's it.  No dressing, no squeeze of lemon, no other veggies, just a pile of naked spinach.  My actual meal of the meat lasagna was fine - nothing to write home about but not as bad as some of the group's other dishes.  Kinney's chicken was super dry and boring and Aarti was not a fan of the eggplant parm or the gnocchi.

I know that not every meal in Italy was going to be a winner so I can't be too bummed out but it did prove me wrong in the sense that I alway said that there are no bad meals in Italy.  Total bill:  $135 for 5 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

2 Weeks in Amsterdam - Part 3 - Visited 6/16-6/29/2018 2-4 Forks

The Commons  Wibautstraat 131 A, 1091 GL                                                                              3 Forks

Unfortunately, I didn't book my own hotel for my first trip to Amsterdam which was a super bummer because I ended up spending 2 weeks at a place called The Student Hotel.  At first I mis-read it as a student hostel and almost passed out but it wasn't too far from it.  Not to sound like a total snob but I feel that at this point in my life, I deserve to stay at places that are slightly nicer than a student hotel when I travel for work, but alas my company has a pretty low hotel cap rate.

I had just gotten back late from a weekend jaunt in Berlin and there was nothing really open in the hood.  Since this was a place catered more to kids, there was no room service.  I had to beg the restaurant to let me eat there since it was 10pm on a Sunday and they were very nice about it and let me order.  I quickly made a decision on the veggie pizza (9 euros) to speed up my order.  It said that their crust is made with sourdough so at least that was something interesting and different - and you know, it was!  The crust was thin and tasty and the veggie toppings were eggplant, olives and chili - not my favorite but at that hour I didn't really care.  There wasn't enough cheese to it which made it less of a good pizza experience for me.  It was fairly big pizza and you could definitely share it with someone else if you wanted to.

In the end, the meal was fine for someone who was tired and just wanted something quick to eat.  I would most definitely not rate this as a destination restaurant but if you're staying there, it's a fine on- site choice and because it's catered to students, the price is definitely very affordable.  Although your best option is to take a 5 min walk and try to get a seat at Rijsel - the only good thing about staying at this hotel.  Total bill: 12 euros

Photo Credit:  The Fork

Cafe Dauphin  Prins Bernhardplein 175 1097 BL                                                                     2.5 Forks

I'm sad to report that this was the worst meal of the trip.  I know it's hard finding a place within budget for a large team of people (there were about 20+ of us) and I don't know Amsterdam very well, so I certainly feel bad shitty on my co-worker who suggested it, but the meal was just bad.  Since it was a large party, we had a pre-fixe meal where you had to choose 1 of 3 entrees.  I can't remember what they were but the fact that I chose to get a hamburger in Europe, should be pretty indicative of how desperate I was.  I'll make this quick and say the burger was terrible and it's not because I'm being an American snob.  It was clearly a pre-grilled burger, which in of itself, isn't bad but the bun was so dry and inedible it made the whole thing taste bad.  The fries, which Amsterdam is known for, were like MacDonald fries, which are tasty but definitely nothing fancy.  Sadly everyone else was also not super into their food.  Again, even though I love food, I would hate to take on the responsibility to organize a large dinner with a tight budget so I'll give this place the benefit of the doubt that maybe if you just came on your own that it would be better?

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tokyo Ramen Takeichi  Vijzelstraat 135, 1017 HJ                                                                       4 Forks

Apparently ramen is now making its rounds in Amsterdam and a few co-workers mentioned that this was the best one in town.  It was only about a 5 min walk from the office and it was a nice break from the cafeteria food.  The place is pretty small but it was easy to get a seat, even at lunch time. 

Obviously the menu is all ramen here but what was most surprising is that all the ramen was chicken based - no pork on the menu at all.  That made me a bit weary if this was truly a good Japanese place but I have seen a few chicken ramen dishes before and I guess it's technically healthier for you.  They have all the same flavors of pork ramen:  shoyu, shio, miso, and spicy.   They also have 2 vegetarian versions which is nice.  I got the recommend nouko shoyu chicken ramen with an egg (14.70 euros) and the chicken karage (4.80 euro) which is essentially fried chicken.   The fried chicken dish came with 3 pieces, which was the perfect size for me.  They were super juicy, dark meat pieces and served with a garlic mayo-like sauce.   As for the chicken ramen, it was rich and creamy as advertised.   The broth and noodles were both delicious and while I still prefer a pork broth, this was pretty darn good.  It even felt a bit less saltier - so maybe it is good for me!  It's definitely worth a try if you have time or are just craving something that isn't related to french fries.   Total bill:  21 euros

Photo Credit: Yelp

Felice Visited 6/12/2018 2.5 Forks

Felice  15 Gold St., New York, NY 10038

I have been lucky enough to snag a new job at Booking.com and one of the first things my new boss told me was to go "bond" with my team aka have a team outing.  Luckily, my team is super into food (I already know I'm on a great team) so the easiest thing to do is to go have a team lunch.  Although I have worked downtown almost my entire career in NYC, I've never really worked in this specific part of the Financial District.  Despite it's not so pretty exterior, this part of the city has a LOT of lunch places given the high concentration of corporate offices. 

I asked my team to pick a spot for lunch since I didn't really know the area well and one of my managers chose this place since it was close to the office.  I had never heard of it and it's actually in the lobby of the Gild Hotel which I had never been to before but had heard of.  It's a pretty nice hotel for the area, although not at the caliber of The Beekman or Four Seasons nearby, but it's a cute boutique right in the middle of it all. 

The restaurant is Italian with a focus on Tuscan flavors.  While I love Italian food, it's hard to eat it for lunch because it's usually so heavy, so I opted for a salad.  They actually have a pretty good salad selection and I got the Carciofi ($17) which came with thinly sliced raw artichokes, arugula, shaved parm, hearts of palm, cherry tomatoes and Dijon mustard.  I added chicken as a protein and I was super excited because this is a combination of really yummy vegetables that you don't really see together too often.  The rest of my team got a combination of salads, pastas and other dishes.  

The salad was a pretty big size and my first few bites were wonderful.  I love the combination of the raw artichoke with the cheese and arugula, plus I felt super healthy eating it.  If I had given my review based on my first few bites, I would give it 4 forks hands down.  But what did this review in is that I was almost half way through my salad when I saw a huge bug in it - it made my stomach churn when I saw it.  I'm usually someone who can deal with a hair in my food or even a slightly dirty restaurant but when there is a full on bug in my salad, I do not stand for it.  Unfortunately, I had eaten most of my food before I saw it, so I didn't feel like I could send it back (although now thinking about it, I probably should).   Despite all this, I'm still willing to give this place another try but it was definitely not a very pleasant first impression, although the rest of my team seemed to really like their food and was in total food coma when we got back to the office.  Total bill:  $292 for 8 people

Photo Credit: Yelp

Raviolo Visited 2/24/2018 2.5 Forks

Raviolo  57 7th Ave S, New York, NY 10014

Sorry, I realize it's been a while since I've updated the blog!  Lots of things going on but the good thing about taking a long break between visiting a restaurant and updating the blog is that I have a lot of time to really think about my meal.  Raviolo was the February stop on the monthly rabbit habit date Anuja, Amy and I have (visiting veggie/seafood friendly restaurants).  It seemed like a super cute idea - pasta tapas concept and most of it in a ravioli format.  My rating is probably a bit harsh but upon further reflection, it just wasn't a meal I really enjoyed or would go back to unfortunately. 

When I walked in, it reeked of cleaning fluid.  I realize they had just cleaned off the table which is good thing but the odor was quite strong and off putting.  The staff was super nice and explained the menu - it was a laminated menu where you use a dry erase marker to indicate your order.  As I mentioned, it's mostly small (2-4 pieces) of ravioli dishes, buns, bun-boloni and then main entrees of pasta where you can also mix and match.  We started with 2 orders of the cocktail gamberi ($12) and another veggie type of ravioli (it's escaping my mind now which one it was - the one big downside of writing a review a month later), the cacio e pepe bun-boloni ($10) and I got the white carbonara ($15) pasta entree and Amy and Anuja split the pasta combo of green pesto and the black vongole ($18).  We also got their version of an aperol spritz which was the total highlight of the meal because it came with these fun lit up ice cubes. 

When I hear the word "ravioli" I usually envision a square or circular pasta with a pocket sealed with filling.  So when I thought we were getting a shrimp ravioli I pictured a ravioli filled with shrimp in it.  I guess I should have read the description more closely because it did say it was a "cocktail" and it was essentially a giant piece of shrimp cocktail with pasta dough wrapped around the outside.  It made no sense and while the shrimp itself was tasty the pasta was too doughy and too chewy.  The other ravioli dish we got was a traditional ravioli dish and it was fine but since it's not served in any sauce or broth, it was kind of meh.  The bun-boloni was an Asian style white steamed bun shoved with cacio e pepe, pecorino cheese and black pepper.  To me, the only thing you should ever put into between two steam buns is pork belly.  The bun was dry and the concept of the dish was a miss for me.

As for the main pasta dishes, they were fine but not mind blowing.  My carbonara was served with penne pasta and topped with guanicale, ricotta, fried onions and an egg yolk.  As with any carbonara dish, it was very heavy and since it had meat in it, I was the only one eating it and I was definitely uncomfortably full at the end.  I'm not a huge fan of carbonara on penne, I prefer it with a bucatini or other long noodle type pasta.  As for the pasta itself, while I don't think it came from a box, it didn't really taste like some old grandma was hand making it in the back either.  It tasted like a dish I could have made at home.  I didn't try the other pasta combo but the comment Amy and Anuja made was that they wished that there was a divider or something so that the two pastas didn't end up mixing together.  At one point the pesto and black spaghetti were all mixing around together and that made it a bit unappetizing.

While the concept of this place is cute, the execution of it needs to be tightened up.  With so many wonderful and delicious Italian places in the city, it's kind of hard to justify paying $50 for this kind of meal when I know I can spend a little bit more but get a much more authentic experience elsewhere.  Total bill: $50/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

DaDong Visited 2/11/2018 2.5 Forks

DaDong  3 Bryant Park, New York, NY 10036

Ok, I'll get straight to the point on this one.  It was a pretty big bummer.  After reading all the reviews, I kind of knew what to expect and it was exactly what everyone else wrote back.  Get the duck but skip everything else.  DaDong is a famous peking duck chain in China so when it opened here in NYC, Jen, Kevin and I had to try it as part of our duck club. 

The location should have been the first tip off that it would be a bit underwhelming - I mean it's in Bryant Park which isn't really known as a culinary wonderland.  It's pretty fancy pants which is fine but it was much more fine dining than I expected.  To me, the best Chinese food will always be more of a mom and pop hole in the wall kind of place.  I knew it was going to be expensive but the sticker shock of some of the prices was still pretty real - the whole duck was $98 and most of the larger entrees were in the $30+ range.  All of us had read the reviews before and knew that the non-duck dishes weren't anything to write home about but we still felt like we should try some of them so we got the mashed eggplant ($8), sea salt and lime seared waygu beef ($34), cold avocado noodles ($12), sauteed pea shoots ($16) and of course the whole duck. 

The mashed eggplant was super underwhelming - it was just eggplant puree on a wafer.  I've never seen this in any other Chinese restaurant and the portion was super tiny - like 1 bite person.  The waygu beef, while tender and melt in your mouth was offensively small for something over $30.  We could cut it into maybe 5 small pieces total.  I mean one person could have eaten the whole thing and still be hungry.  The cold noodles were bland and not memorable at all.  Luckily the pea shoots, as usual,  were delicious but it was a very small portion considering how much more you usually get at other Chinese restaurants.  Finally came the main attraction - the whole duck.  They don't carve it table side instead someone is carving it in the middle of the restaurant and they bring it over to you.  They give you all the usual accoutrements to eat the duck:  thin pancakes, sliced scallion, hoisin sauce, and sliced cucumber.  They even give you something different here with sugar, sliced cantaloupe, and these puffy buns to stuff them in.  They give you lots of skin, meat and the legs.  Was the duck good?  Yes it was pretty damn tasty and all the things they give you also make it work - for example, the pancake skin was nice and thin but not too thin that it can't hold everything in it.  Was it the best duck I've ever had? Probably not.  The duck here was very very lean, which I guess is good for you health wise but the best part of the duck is some of the fat that goes with it.  It wasn't dry but it was missing an element of moistness/slight greasy-ness that you come to expect and love when you eat duck. 

Since the food wasn't very filling, we left room for dessert and that was kind of eh too.  Nothing really spoke to us but we got the Chocolate Frost ($12) which was shattered pieces of chocolate leaves with some cherries but it turned out there were only 2 cherries on it.  I should have known not to order dessert because frankly Asians are not very well known or good at desserts.

Despite the overall disappointment, I'm glad I can say I went, crossed it off my list and will likely noy come again.  While the duck was tasty, it just wasn't worth the money and there are way cheaper, more authentic and better options in NYC.  I am curious how different the chains are in China as Kevin said they were quite good there so I'm curious if they will make tweaks to this as the resounding response by the culinary world has been pretty meh.  Total bill:  $119/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

36 Hours in Montreal Visited 12/30/2017-1/1/2018 4.5 - 2.5 Forks

Au Pied de Cochon  536 Avenue Duluth E, Montreal, QC H2L 1A9, Canada                         4.5 Forks

I have been wanting to go to Au Pied de Cochon for years.  I was in Montreal over 6 years ago but I wasn't able to get a reservation then and I've always had it on my mind since.  It was shockingly easy to get a reservation this time around and I was ready to royally indulge as they are famous for gluttony and excess.  Obviously the big thing here is foie gras and meat so if you're not interested in either, don't bother coming here but if you love both, you will be in for a treat. 

The decor was much more cozy than I expected - it had a very Quebecquois feel to it as it was heavy on the wood and even had flannel shirts hanging from the ceiling.   We ordered a bottle of wine and noodled over the menu - unfortunately, this is where is went downhill service wise.  Our original waiter said someone else would be with us shortly to review the specials since he seemed to be slammed with other table, so we waited and waited.  It took them 30 minutes to get someone to talk to us about the menu and then we waited again to place our order.  I knew service in Europe and the Caribbean was slow but apparently you've got to put Canada on that list too.  Luckily they redeemed themselves in a big way.  The GM (or so I assumed based on his behavior and interaction with everyone in the restaurant) came over and immediately gave us 2 expensive glasses of champagne and then also brought over these amazing freshly sliced pieces of saucisson that were moist yet still had the dry cured texture to it.  He said the pigs had been fed peanuts as their last meal and you could taste it in each bite which was so cool yet sad at the same time.  I was almost annoyed that we got it because it was so good but it was filling up space in my stomach for our actual meal.  As I mentioned the menu is extremely meat focused and the specials were no different.  Several of the specials sounded amazing but too much food for 2 people, so we settled on tartare temaki ($15 CAD), foie gras terrine ($25 CAD), duck in a can ($44 CAD) and mashed potatoes ($8.50 CAD).   The exchange rate was awesome, so everything was essential 20% cheaper when you converted it to USD.

The tartare was of the beef variety which was totally fine by me although it would have been nice to try a different meat since they have different versions sometimes.  It's served in a nori cone and an adorable raw quail egg that you pour into it.   Jesus, talk about melt in your mouth.  The nori was perfectly crisp and the tartare itself was fantastic.  I loved every bite of it and could have had 3 more cones.  This alone was worth the visit for me. 

Next came the foie gras terrine which was basically just a giant square of foie gras, complete with a huge layer of fat and toasted bread. But the best part of this dish was that it came with this out of control maple butter.  So sweet and delicious.  The combination of the sweet maple and foie gras on crunchy bread was truly decadent.  I was super bummed that we were in Montreal before sugar shack season (starts in Feb) and eating this maple butter made me even more sad because if the food in the sugar shack is anything like this butter,  I would die and go to heaven.   But as with any foie gras dish, it's really hard to eat too much of it without feeling a little bit guilty plus I was trying to save room for the duck in a can.  

The duck in a can is their most famous (and most gimmicky) dish.  I was on the fence if I wanted to order this because it felt like such a touristy thing to do but you know what? I'm a freakin tourist, so whatever.  It's essentially half a duck shoved in a can which they pour out in front of you table side on to a plate what has a smear of mashed potatoes and toast.  In addition to the duck, the can also includes foie gras (of course), cloves of roasted garlic, braised cabbage and some demi-glace.  Talk about gluttonous.  The presentation is eh but you're not really here for presentation.  We had also gotten a separate side of mashed potatoes which was genius and ridiculous at the same time.  The duck was nice and tender although it kind of felt like less than half a duck in there.  There was so much going on the plate that it was hard to really find the lobes of foie gras but after eating half a plate of it earlier, I wasn't too sad about it.  Now as for the mashed potatoes, they were amazing.  They were super buttery but it had this glue like texture which I'm not saying in a bad way just that it was thicker than a traditional mashed potato dish.  When the GM came by again to ask how we were doing, we asked what was in it and he said it's made with 25% cheese curd.   Well shit no wonder it was so good and gooey.  

At this point, I felt like I was going to burst and we had been drinking all day too, so there was no room for dessert which was a bummer.  While the night got off to a rocky start with the slow service, they definitely made up for it with the freebies, apologies and indulgent food.  I would say that if anyone wants to come here, it's worth going with a larger group so that you can try a bunch of different dishes or at least some of the larger format dishes that is really just impossible for 2 people.  This was definitely worth the 6 year wait but probably not much more than that! Total bill:  $94/pp with tax, tip and a nice bottle of wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Breizh Cafe  3991 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC H2W 1Y4, Canada                         4 Forks

Kevin and I were all set to get poutine for lunch on New Year's Eve but lo and behold the 2 places we went to were both sadly closed.  Since it was literally -10 degrees outside, we couldn't walk any further and ducked into this warm creperie as our back up plan.   It was not a bad back up plan at all. 

One of the things I love about Montreal is that it's still got a lot of French influence from the language to the culture to the food.  And what could be more French than crepes?  Despite majorly overeating the night before, I was pretty hungry by the time lunch rolled around.  They had a good lunch special which included soup, 1 savory crepe and 1 dessert crepe for $24 CAD.  How perfect - no need to decided between the savory or sweet.  The soup of the day was a creamy carrot puree which hit the spot on such a cold day.  For my savory crepe, I got the Nordique crepe which came with smoked salmon, swiss cheese, spinach and dill cream, all on a buckwheat crepe.  It was a really hearty dish and everything about the crepe was done right.  The batter wasn't too thick and there was the perfect amount of filling to crepe ratio.  I wanted to get a more breakfast-y one with egg and cheese but after last night's meal, I had to get something green to eat and eating fish felt healthy too.  While this was a pretty filling meal, I was super excited for my sweet crepe.  I went basic and got it with homemade red fruit jam which was basically raspberry jam.  So yummy and a nice compliment to the salty crepe version.

The waitress was super sweet and nice.  This was just a comfy place to warm up after being on the brink of hypothermia for the last hour.  It's definitely nothing extravagant but it had a nice homey feel to it and if I lived in the neighborhood, I could see myself coming here often on the weekends to relax, eat some crepes and read the paper.  Total bill:  $32/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Maison Publique  4720 Rue Marquette, Montreal, QC H2J 3Y6, Canada                                2.5 Forks

This review hurts to write a bit because it was our New Year's Eve dinner and I had scoured the internet looking for a good place to go.  This place was written up in several blogs as a top 10 restaurant in Montreal which is a big compliment.  I didn't want to go to some fancy prix fixe place so going to a local gastropub ordering a la carte sounded great. 

It was slightly off the beaten path which I usually like but it was kind of not near anything else which was fine for us but if you wanted to make a night out of it, I'm not sure there is much else to check out.  I had made a 9pm reservation and when we walked in, I was expecting a bit of a wait since it was NYE, but we still ended up standing around for quite a while.  It wasn't because they were super packed, it was simply because there was no one there to tell that we were here.  We told the bartender that we had a reservation and he completely ignored us.  This was the sign of things to come.

The menu is simply a board on the wall and it's all in French, so Kevin and I had to pull out the google translate a few times.  The waiter came and took our drink order but we weren't ready to order food just yet and asked him to come back.  By the time we got our drinks and he came by to take our order, it was almost 10pm. WTF?!  While we weren't in a super hurry to go anywhere, we had thought about checking out the fireworks by the river, which started at midnight.  When I made the 9pm reservation, I figured 3 hours was plenty of time to eat but apparently not. 

I got the oyster appetizer and Kevin got the Welsh Rarebit to start and then we would share the gnudi with deer ragu and lamb.  The waiter asked how we wanted our meal to come out and we said it didn't really matter - they could bring out the oyster and Rarebit as appetizers and the other two dishes as entrees or whatever came first.

The oyster was one large oyster that was chopped and then baked.  Even though it was only 1 oyster, it was a pretty hearty dish although maybe not for $14 CAD.  I tried a bit of Kevin's Welsh Rarebit and it was ok - it was giant Texas style toast covered in cheese, Worcestershire sauce and mustard.  It was fine but nothing mind blowing at all.  Then this is when things went totally south. Kevin asked for a beer menu, which they didn't have and the waiter wouldn't/couldn't just tell him the beers they had and told him to go up to the bar and look at the fridge instead.  Then when we asked about our entrees because it was past 11pm, the waiter had said if we wanted it sooner, we should have said something to him and he could have tried to expedite it but really, we shouldn't have to do that. 

The food finally came it was shocking that what we saw took over an hour to make.  Gnudi is a gnocchi like pasta that's shaped like a fluffy ball and stuffed with ricotta and semolina.  It's usually denser and chewier than gnocchi which it definitely was here.  It wasn't really mixed in well with the deer ragu and without it, it tasted kind of plain. But with it, it was a nice mixture - there just wasn't enough of the ragu to gnudi.  The lamb was nicely cooked medium rare but there wasn't a lot of garnish to it to really accentuate the dish.  It was a totally fine piece of meat but probably not worth the $30+ CAD.

We had originally really wanted dessert but we were afraid didn't have enough time, so when the lamb dish came out,  I asked them to bring a clementine tart right afterwards.  I wish we had more time to savor it because it was actually quite good.  It had a nice tang to it and it's such a different flavor to the usual tart. 

I felt a little bad because the waiter was trying to appease us but honestly there was nothing he could have really done to make up for it.  They did comp us for the beer and dessert which was nice and I appreciated that but it was an overall let down for a New Year's Eve meal.  The good news is that we still made it in time for the fireworks downtown by 10 minutes!  Total bill:  $63/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Talde Visited 8/30/2017 2.5 Forks

Talde  8 Erie St., Jersey City,  NJ 07302

There's been a lot of buzz around Jersey City as the new place to live and eat given how expensive everything else in Manhattan and Brooklyn have become.  Talde's original location is in Park Slope and I remember given it a scathing review but I had to actually go back and re-read to job my memory on why I hated it so much.  Yikes, I did not like it at all.  But when my VP was in town and suggested Talde in Jersey City, I was trying to keep an open mind that maybe it would be different at this location, plus I've never really eaten in Jersey City so I wanted to see what all the buzz was about. 

Umm, not to sound like an elitist but if this is one of the better restaurants in JC, I don't have a ton of high hopes for the area.  It is located on a bustling cute street in the neighborhood which seemed to be lots of fun.  The restaurant itself was open and spacious and nicely designed.  We got there on a Thursday night and they had a live band in front that was so loud that I could barely hear or understand the person standing 2 inches from me.  That was one of my first problems with this place - you're not a bar so why do you have deafening music playing?  We were a fairly large party (about 15 people) so we were seated at this long concrete slab in the middle of the restaurant.  Our waiter was very nice but when you have this big of a party, the waiter should try to take control of the situation otherwise it becomes chaos with ordering, which is what happened.  Everyone was confused, no one knew who was order for who and in the end we split up into 3 sections and had people from each part of the table ordered for their little area.  The menu overall isn't huge, it has about 5 noodle dishes and 5 entrees and a handful of appetizers and sides.  We asked the waiter how we should order and he said something crazy like 4 appetizers, 1 noodle, 1 entree and a side PER PERSON (turns out he wasn't entirely wrong).  We all thought that sounded crazy to order 6-7 dishes for person, so we ordered 4 total appetizers and 4 total noodle + entree + sides for our little corner of 5 people.  We got yuzu guacamole, edamame bao, pretzel pork and chive dumplings, spring rolls, chow fun, whole branzino, hanger steak, and blue crab fried rice. 

The waiter did warn us that the food will come out as it's ready but with this big of a group that's a huge mistake.  They should course it out otherwise only certain parts of the table will get food while others will be waiting around.  And that's exactly what happened.  We waited FOREVER for even just the appetizers to come out and they were so small for a group of 5 that we were splitting them into tiny pieces so that everybody could have something and not starve to death.  The descriptions of everything on the menu seemed a little off than what they were.  For example, the yuzu guacamole was really more crispy rice with some avocado spread on top.  Granted the menu did mention crispy rice, but the headline was guacamole and that's not how people expect to see guacamole.  The edamame bao was weird and again it did say on the menu that it was a falafel format but that was buried in the description.  When most people see edamame, I don't think they assume it's chopped up into a falafel.  As someone who loves chow fun, this one was not good.  First, it comes out all rolled up which is such a mistake because it gets sticky and dried out really quickly if it's not soaking in moisture.  I immediately tried to break it apart and drown it in the pork and mustard green base but it still ended up being really dry and hard to eat - good chow fun should be slippery and moist (that sounds kind of gross).  Where the food did redeem itself was with the branzino and blue crab fried rice.  The branzino was wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed with turmeric and tomato - nothing more delicious and Asian to me than steamed whole fish.  The fried rice was a good addition and not too greasy or salty and it had a nice generous helping of blue crab meat in it.  The other parts of the table ordered a bunch of other things like the chicken, short ribs and pork that got passed down and weren't too bad.  By the time everyone got their food and we ate it, we had probably been at the restaurant for almost 3+ hours.   It was an incredibly exhausting meal. 

While the last few courses did redeem this place a bit, the insane amount of time we had to wait for our food and the obnoxiously loud music made it really hard for me to like this place.  After re-reading my previous review, it doesn't look like too much has changed from my last experience. While I'm still interested in seeing what JC has to offer, I'm not sure if this is really the best first impression.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

48 Hours in Quebec City - Part 2 - Visited 8/25-8/27/2017 2.5 - 3.5 Forks

Cassis Monna & Filles 721, Chemin Royal, Saint-Pierre-de-l'Île d'Orléans                           3.5 Forks

If you have the time, I would recommend that you rent a car while you are in Quebec City so that you can explore some of the other sites that are a short drive away.  One of the places that's talked about a lot is Ile de Orleans, which is their version of wine country.  But let me be clear, it is absolutely nothing like Sonoma or Nappa but if you set your expectations a bit lower, there are a few nice places to check out here.  It's fairly rural and much more spread out than Holly and I anticipated, so I recommend that you stop by Cassis Monna first to grab a bite to eat as well as to a map to plot out your way around the area.

While Ile de Orleans may not be on the same level of other vineyard towns, Cassis Monna and Filles is definitely unique in its own sense in that it's mainly focused on the black currant.  They have an adorable restaurant and ice cream shop on the first floor as well as a tasting room and small artisanal store down below where you can buy bottles of wine.  There are several picnic benches out back where you can relax and take in the lovely view of the river as well.  It's such a lush and relaxing setting to be surrounded by.

I never really thought of black currant very much but it's delicious.  The tasting we did was great and the store is something you would find in Brooklyn - lots of jams and other mason jar preservatives that I seriously contemplated buying.  As expected, the menu in the restaurant focuses on the black currant.   You can get salad with black currant, quiche with black currant, sandwiches with a black currant jam or a pulled pork sandwich with black current wine in it.  Holly and I opted for the popcorn chicken with black currant honey ($8 CAD).  It's essentially fried chicken bites and lots fries on the side - so it was a lot of fried action.  They were salty and addictive and I couldn't stop popping them in my mouth.  I felt like a kid again eating chicken fingers or nuggets for lunch.  It was served with salad that had black currant dressing but it was a bit too sticky and sweet for me.  I would have preferred a basic oil/vinegar dressing but I guess that's not what you go at a place like this.

Overall, the food was basically bar food with a cute twist to it.  The food isn't amazing by any stretch but the surrounding area is a lovely respite from the all the tourists (and yes, there are plenty of tourists here too) and it's worth trying out some of the sweet delicious wines. It's 3 forks for the food but 4 forks for the scenery and overall cuteness.  Total bill:  $20/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Le Moine Echanson  585 Rue Saint-jean, Quebec City                                                             2.5 Forks

This review really breaks my heart because all the reviews online were so positive.  It's less of a full blown restaurant and more of a wine bar that serves tapas style food.  But the Yelp pictures and other blogs called it inventive and super creative.  Sadly when we went, it was a really suboptimal experience.  

As with most places in Quebec, the menu seemed to change daily based on what they have but for some reason the night we went they had practically nothing on the menu.  The menu looked a bit small to begin with but they only told us that they were out of 2 of the 4 entrees only after we sat down and ordered some wine.  When your menu only has 4 entrees and you're out of half of them, you should either say something before your guests sit down or go down to the market and figure something out asap.  It's not like we came at 11pm at night, we were there at 8pm on a Saturday when it should have been prime time but the place was barely full (should have been a sign) and the waiter had said that they had a unusually busy Friday so they were left with few options for Saturday.  That sounds like really poor planning to me.  

Similar to L'Affaire Est Ketchup, this place looks like its run by 3 guys in total but that's still not an excuse.  While it's mainly a wine bar, if you're going to have a food menu, you should ensure it's enough food to carry you through the night.  Since we had ordered wine we felt guilty getting up and leaving, so we ordered a few snacks to nibble on.  Unfortunately, we were so annoyed that nothing really sounded all that great.  I opted to get a half dozen oysters and then we also got the fried eggplant appetizer.  Holly asked if they had a meat and cheese plate since we saw it online and they said they could put something together (why not put that on the menu?!). 

I will say that the oysters were quite good and that's what carried this review.  I would have preferred them to have been chilled instead of at room temperature oysters but they were plump, briney and shucked well.  If I knew my night was going to consist of only oysters and wine, I probably would have had a much more favorable opinion of this place.  Next we got the fried eggplant which turned out to be steamed eggplant with no seasoning or flavor to it.  Even though I love eggplant, this was totally void of anything on it - a little soy sauce, sesame oil and scallion would have made a huge difference. What was even sadder was the meat and cheese plate - it only consisted of some sliced hard sausage and goat cheese with some soft bread.  It's hard to call it a plate when you only had 1 of each.  The waiter was really nice and kept asking us if we were ok but we felt really bad expressing any disappointment.  I wanted to give him some feedback but in the end, we just paid our bill and left.  

If expectations were set in the beginning that they didn't have much food, I probably would have had a much different opinion of our experience.  If you're looking for a funky organic wine bar, this is your place but if you're looking for a culinary wonderland, definitely ask before sitting down. Total bill:  $33/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sapristi  1001 Rue Saint-Jean, Quebec City                                                                                 3 Forks

Since our flight back to NYC wasn't until 3pm, we were able to squeeze in one more meal before we left and honestly, I wasn't all that jazzed about it.  It's not that the food in Quebec City was terrible (it wasn't), it just wasn't as exciting or innovative as I thought.  At the end of our 48 hours there, we didn't want many more fried food or frankly disappointing experiences.  We wanted something simple and reliable. What's more reliable than Italian food?

We went back to the Petite Champlain area an if you go even further down the steps toward the river there are several outdoor cafes with a nice view.  We ended up randomly picking this place based on Yelp feedback.  It was honestly a fine meal and like the rest of our trip, nothing incredible but a very solid option.  Unlike our last dinner, the menu here was quite extensive.  They had a wide variety of pizzas, pastas, salads, flatbreads and other entrees.  Since I had essentially eaten my weight in fries on this trip, I went for the beef tartare ($20 CAD) and a french onion soup ($8.50 CAD).

The french onion soup was tasty but over salted a bit and could have used more cheese (but then again, you can never have enough cheese).  The beer tartare was a nice respite from all the fried food and it was served with chopped up fillet of beef, shallots, dijon mustard and pine nuts along with some thin toasted bread.  I was disappointed by the lack of egg but eating this felt much cleaner and healthier than any of the food I had consumed in the past 36 hours which was pretty much cheese and fries.

The pastas and pizzas looked great and I would say those are probably their stronger suits - but there are literally tons of other restaurants that look and feel exactly the same as this place on the same side street.  I'm bummed that our culinary adventures stalled a bit on this city but it's still a lovely place to visit and everyone there was very friendly and kind.  I would recommend it as a relaxing weekend getaway from the city and hopefully as time goes by, there will be more going on in the food scene. Total bill:  $ 30/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bareli's By the Sea Visited 8/12/2017 2.5 Forks

Bareli's By the Sea  1505 Ocean Ave., Spring Lake, NJ 07762

Every summer, a good friend from B-school invites a few of us down to Spring Lake for a weekend of relaxation and unwinding.  It's such a nice reprieve from the city and while it's definitely got its fair share of giant homes, it has a much more relaxed feel than the Hamptons. 

This summer the weekend that my friends and I all went coincided with my friend Richelle's birthday, so Kristin booked a reservation at Bareli's on Saturday night.  The view is great as it's literally right by the water and the set-up is open and spacious.  We were running a bit late from our 7:30 reservation, so we called to let them know and the guy on the other end said it was no problem at all. Great!  We head over as fast as we can and get there by 7:50pm and the hostess there was clearly not the same person who answered the phone.  She looked at us with this deadpan look and told us our reservation was at 7:30, which we said we knew and that's why we called.  After a bit of discussion, she walked us to the back room and asked if we could wait at the bar while they cleared a table for us.  We had actually reserved a table outside but, hey we were late, so we couldn't really argue with that.  The table that was supposed to be ours was already cleared, they just needed to put silverware on it, which literally took them 20 minutes to do.  I know it's a busy Saturday night but it shouldn't take that long to set a table.  

We finally did sit down and it kind of all went downhill from there.  One caveat is that I will say our waiter was very nice and attentive.  I don't think any of the service issues were his fault but I'll get to that in a second.  The menu here is pretty standard sea-side Italian food.  Kind of what you would expect from and for a Jersey crowd.  We started with an order of the calamari ($13), watermelon salad and a penne ala grappa ($18) and then most of us ended up getting the scallops ($35) for our entree.  The starters were totally fine - nothing mind blowing but satisfying starters none the less.  I personally find watermelon feta salad to be really weird combination and this one seemed like a salad that someone threw together for a backyard BBQ.  There was just something missing from it.  Then we waited and waited and waited for our food.  We must have waited over 40 minutes for our food that even our waiter was embarrassed by it.  While he was very apologetic, in my opinion a good restaurant would offer something in return for the wait, either a round of drinks or some kind of appetizer because we were all ready to keel over in hunger.  Mind you, scallops should be one of THE fastest dishes to cook because they taken no more than 5-10 mins to sear on each side.  At this point, half the restaurant had cleared out and it was close to 10pm.  We finally got our food and it was one of those moments where you were like "this took 45 mins to make?".  I know the restaurant was busy and I can empathize but any wait past 30 mins for your food is quite ridiculous.  I'll give credit and say the dish had about 5 very large and firm pieces of scallop which was great but the side of veggies with it was a bit underwhelming considering the wait.

Since it was a birthday, we had to get a dessert (especially since they put giant sparklers in them).  We ended up getting a chocolate lava type cake which was fine but we were all really tired and slightly drunk by that point that we didn't really enjoy it all that much.

Part of me feels bad giving this place a low rating because the food wasn't terrible and our waiter was truly very apologetic but one of my biggest pet peeves is an egregious wait for food with no reparation.  Unless the food is truly outstanding, bad service always leaves a bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended).   If we had gotten our food on time, I probably would have netted out at a 3.5 fork rating anyways.  Total bill with drinks:  $100/pp with tax and tip

7 Days in the South of France - Part 2 2.5 - 4 Forks Visited 7/19-7/20/2017

Le Crillon 15 place Crillon, 84000 Avignon, France   2.5 Forks

Another French bistro, another order of beef tartare please!  Only unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of this one at all.  We had taken a lovely 1/2 day tour of Avignon, which is the closest big town from where we were staying.  There is an interesting papal palace and a few other cute sights around the city that made it worth a day trip.  We ended our tour in the middle of town where there were several traditional looking outdoor French cafes.  Since there were so many of us, we ended up picking Le Crillon since it could seats us outside and it had some semblance of an outdoor misting system since it was pretty hot outside.  It honestly looked exactly like the two other cafes right next to each other and all of them looked like they catered to the busy tourist crowds with roughly the same kind of menu.  

As expected the menu is typical French cafe food and since we were still binging on cheese and other heavy foods at the house, I went with the healthier meal of beef tartare again.  Sadly this one was not as good as the other one A la Maison.  Right off the bat you could see that the consistency of it was more on the mushy side.  I like my tartare to be more chopped or cubed in texture but this one just reminded me more of ground beef, which one I associated it with that, was a real turn off to me.  Plus it was missing the all important raw yolk!!  Who serves a beef tartare without the egg?!?  The overall flavor was kind of bland and boring as well.  Luckily it was served with fries and a salad that helped to fill my appetite.  

Given the craziness of the trip,  none of us really took the time to research where to eat after our tour so maybe this could have been avoided if we had planned in advance.  But it's really hard to plan with so many people involved and so many last minute changes.  While I didn't think my meal was awful, I was definitely not impressed by it, especially given how local of a dish it is.  

Nez   Place du Rouvis, 84190 Gigondas, France    4 Forks

If you ever have the chance to go to the South of France, I'm begging you to spend some time in Gigondas.  It is seriously the cutest town I've ever seen.  It's a tiny wine city that oozes charm.  One of the people there had mentioned that there are more wine stores and restaurants than there are people there.  It's like Napa or Sonoma but way cuter with their stone houses and blue shutters.  We had the great pleasure of getting a private wine cellar tour which was super fun.  Luckily the guide had asked us if we had any lunch plans and we stupidly said we'll just figure it out when we're done with our tour.  She looked at us like we were completely insane.  Apparently every place here is packed all the time, so you have to make a reservation.  The first place we wanted to try was all full, but their sister wine bar called Nez was free so we snagged a reservation there. 

I should caveat that it's really less of a restaurant but more of a wine bar that happens to serve some food.  The menu is tiny, so be prepared to only choose from 1-2 options.  Aside from that, the outdoor atmosphere is lovely.  It's a great place to relax and enjoy some wine and take in the sights.  They start you off with some small appetizers - one was a tabouleh plate, another was pig snout salad (it was very good and crunchy) and then a small serving of cheese.  It was a good light starter to the meal.  For my main I got the special of the day which was lemon risotto with chanterelle mushroom. Amazing!  It had an excellent consistency - firm but with a hint of softness to it.  It was very heavy on the lemon flavor - it almost tasted like they zested an entire lemon but that didn't really bother me too much.  The mushrooms were fabulous and a nice salty combination with the risotto.  It was definitely a heavy dish but not so heavy that you felt gross afterwards. It was also plated beautifully which was expected in such a lovely city.  

Although tiny, I was simply enamored with this city.  It screams cute European feel - it's almost a page out of Beauty and the Beast.    Obviously if you want to eat at some of the larger restaurants in town, its crucial to make a reservation in advance, although I have read that some places aren't even open for lunch.  While I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here, I will say that the limited menu was a bit of a turn off in the beginning but it all worked itself out.  Besides, if you can't find anything you like to eat you can always just order wine and cheese all day and still be a happy camper too.