Catch Visited 2/27/2012 3 Forks

Catch 21 9th Ave., (between Little W 12th St & 13th St), New York, NY 10014

To be fair about this review, I did really like most of the food at Catch and if it was based on food alone, I would have given it 4 Forks.  But what bumped it down as (A) WAY overpriced to the point where it's really just absurd and (B) the Meatpacking crowd was a bit too much, but hey that's expected, right?

The first tip that this place is truly a "Meatpacking" restaurant was the fact that the entrance is totally hidden.  You can easily walk past the entrance and the only reason I noticed it was because there was a "bouncer" outside but he was harmless.  Once you walk inside, you realize that the restaurant is actually on the 2nd floor and you have to take an elevator upstairs.  Once the doors open...oh yeah, you realize you're in the Meatpacking District.  Everyone is all dressed up and looking a bit too chi-chi or Euro-trash.  For some bizarre reason, there are 4 hostesses working the check-in desk but only 1 actually talks.  The actual seating area is very spacious and the overall decor was very nautical (complete with a steering wheel at each table).  Once we sat down and opened the menu, I nearly had a heart attack.  Sushi rolls averaged $16, appetizers were in the $15-$20 range, and entrees in the $30 range.  There was a ridiculous whole fish dish that was $78 and another that was $90. WTF? I mean you can get similar fresh seafood dishes in Chinatown for 1/4 of the price.  Obviously the drinks were expensive as well, in the $15-$18 range but there were a few cocktails and glasses of wine that were $20+.  Seriously?

Luckily, the food itself was good and that made the sting of the prices a bit less painful.  The meal started off with hot soft pretzels served with a mustard butter.  Amazing and we asked for another basket (which they forgot) because it was that good.  For dinner, we ordered littleneck clams from the raw bar, a special sushi roll called the South Beach Roll, crispy shrimp with mayo, flatbread with clams, baked calms, lobster mashed potato, and the scallop and cauliflower entree.    The littleneck clams and sushi roll came out first and they were both extremely fresh.  While the roll itself was really good (fresh crabmeat with avocado), the fact that there were only 5 pieces for $16 was a bit ridiculous.  The calms were super fresh and fishy (but in a good way) and came with cocktail sauce, horseradish and fresh lemons.  Next came the crispy shrimp, flatbead and baked clams.  Let me say for the record that the crispy shrimp was freaking amazing.  It was like rock shrimp tempura that was perfectly battered but then coated with a hot sauce that definitely had a kick to it.  I mean, this dish was perfection and totally worth the money.  The flatbread was tasty and had melted cheese topped with clams but it wasn't a show stopper dish.  It actually looked and tasted like something that I could make at home but obviously with some skill required.  The baked clams were stuffed with breading and drowning in delicious garlic butter (it was served with nice crusty bread that was used to sop up the butter) which is always a winning combination.  When our entree was served our waitress told us that it was the winning dish for Hung on Top Chef, so of course now that really sets high expectations!  There were 5 very large, plumb and firm scallops.  They were cooked perfectly and served with this intense cream sauce with roasted cauliflower, broccoli, and mushrooms.  I actually thought the sauce was a bit too rich (I mean you could taste the butter used in it) but that also could be because I was eating the lobster mashed potato with it, which itself had about 5 sticks of butter in it.  I will give a huge shout out for the mashed potato because I expecting specks of lobster but it had giant whole claws in there and totally worth the money because of it. 

At this point I was so full but yet was convinced to order dessert.  Since Christine gave up dessert for lent (good for you!), it was left to me and VA to eat the whole thing and I really just couldn't get more than a few mouthfuls down.  We got the banana split with 3 kinds of ice cream (cookie dough, hazelnut/chocolate and raspberry).  The bananas were caramelized and kind of eh, but the cookie dough ice cream was the best because not only did the ice cream taste like cookie dough but it was served cookie dough bottom.  Delicious.  The waitstaff was slammed on Yelp but our waitress was actually super nice and friendly.  You know you're in the Meatpacking District when things only get hopping after 11pm, meanwhile I was so full and could barely keep my eyes open when we left.  When we got the bill, we were prepared to spend a lot but it ended up being $97 per person! Ouch! Granted our alcohol bill was almost $100 itself.  But hey, you only live once right? Now I just have to eat ramen for the next few days to compensate.


Photo Credit: Yelp

Moustache Visited 2/25/2012 3.5 Forks

Moustache 90 Bedford St., (between Barrow St & Grove St), New York, NY 10014

I've actually been to Moustache several times over the years, but I have never blogged about it, so I am now!  I have always had good meals here and when I was having down day and hanging out at Aarti's apartment, I decided this was a good, close by option.

Despite being around for years, this place was still crowded on a Saturday night.  The few times I've been here before I've gotten the same thing, the leg of lamb sandwich ($11) because honestly it's just a tasty sandwich.  For the table, we got the hummus ($6) and the lentil salad ($6).  The weird thing was that the waitress asked if we wanted pita with our hummus.  Umm, yes?!  That sounds so ridiculous because how else would I otherwise eat my hummus? That's like going to Chinese restaurants and then asking if I want rice...of course I do! When the hummus did come out, the annoying thing was that it wasn't the usual soft pillowy pita but this blown up balloon like pita that was hard and crunchy.  It was fine but not what I preferred to eat my hummus with.  But the actual hummus itself was quite smooth and rich tasting.  The lentil salad came with bulghur and fried onion and it was a very hearty "salad"  that went well with the hummus.  My sandwich was yummy as usual.  The sandwich actually came as a pita wrap (which I started to tear apart and use to eat the hummus with) with onion, tomato, and a lemon mint mayo.  The flavors are all super Mediterranean and the lamb is really tender and not gamey tasting at all.  The only complaint would be that there's a LOT of onion so I wouldn't recommend it if you're on a date or something like that.  Aarti and Lav got the falafel plate ($11) and the moustache pizza ($12) which comes topped with roasted red pepper, onion, tomato, parsley, chili and mozzarella.  I didn't try either of their dishes but they both commented that it was good and that the falafel wasn't greasy or too oily.  This place is a solid go-to for Mediterranean/Middle Eastern food.   Head up is that it's cash only.  Total bill $27/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp      

Whitehall Visited 2/23/2012 4 Forks

Whitehall 19 Greenwich Ave., (between Charles St & 10th St), Manhattan, NY 10014

 So many times people ask me how do I come up with a list of places to go? To be honest, most of the times it's from reading blogs and magazines, but sometimes its my friends who pick a lot of the places I end up.  My friend Virginia knows just as much about great restaurants as I do and she's really great about just randomly setting up get togethers at new places.  So this past Thursday she organized a girls night out at Whitehall which has got the same vibe as the last place we went to, Highlands.  It's kind of gastro-pubby and they've got a great specialty cocktail list.  

We started the night with cocktails and they were great.  I tried the East Side which was essentially a mojito made with mint, cucumber, and gin and the No. 6 which was hot apply cider with cognac and "winter spices" and both were strong and tasty.  We were there at 6:30pm and the place was packed with people there for drinks and dinner.  We weren't able to get a reservation until 9pm, so it was a long night!  Since we were a pretty large group of girls there were only a few tables that could accommodate us and one table that the hostess had basically promised us was occupied by this group of over 2 1/2 hours.  As it started to get close to 9:00, we all started giving the table the evil eye.  Now I am the type of patron who, while doesn't like to be rushed, is very conscientious if there are other people waiting to sit and try not to dill-dally and these people were clearly could have cared less.  We finally did get to sit and we all ordered within 10 minutes because it was late and we were starving.  VA ordered the roasted brussel sprouts and mushy peas for the table and then we each ordered our own dishes.  I was torn between the roasted chicken and the burger...the waitress told me the burger was amazing and different from most burgers out there so I went with it.  The brussel sprouts were nicely roasted with the leaves pretty burned (but in good way) and the center still green, a bit crunchy and flavorful.  Everyone was a bit nervous about the mushy peas but they were actually pretty good.  It essentially tasted exactly like a falafel and it was topped with a nice mint yogurt.  When my burger came out I could immediately tell that it would be good but heart stopping.  As soon as I cut into it, I could see how super juicy it was and the reason it was different was because it was topped with caramelized onions, beets, butter lettuce and a fried egg.  Some people might be grossed out bit, but honestly it truly was a different burger than your standard pub burger and I really appreciated it.  The bun was also really soft and buttery so that's always a plus.  The burger also comes with a largest side of fries I've ever seen, which wasn't mentioned on the menu.  So if you get the burger, do NOT order any other sides unless you're starving.  I didn't try anyone else's food but everyone did say that they liked their meal.  All in all, it was a great night out and I love it when other people introduce me to new places because it kind of takes the pressure off of me! Total bill $44/pp with tip and tax. 

Photo Credit: Yelp     

Pulino's Visited 2/19/2012 3.5 Forks

Pulino's 282 Bowery, New York, NY 10012

So you know that old saying, don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry? I would say that same thing for when you are looking for a place to eat.  Lav and I had an awesome time at Juvenex Day Spa for 4 hours, but we were both starving by the time we left.  We had plans to go to Parm because last time we were there it was a 2 hour wait and went to Rubirosa instead.  We figured 5:30pm on a Sunday during a long weekend wouldn't be an issue.  Um, totally wrong.  There were people pouring on to the streets waiting for a table.  One guy even stormed out and screamed "This is bullshit!" and frankly, I don't blame him.  I mean, seriously, you can't even get a table at 5:30 on a SUNDAY??!  So we decided to scrap our plans and go to Cafe Habana instead and what do you know? Freaking line too!  I mean I'm not sure if it was a bunch of tourists but I was so confused by what was going on.  Don't real New Yorkers not eat until 10pm (and I totally get the irony of me trying to eat at 6pm myself)?  So finally we decide to go to Pulino's.  Neither of us had been before and luckily, they could seat us right away.  So it was kind of like eating at the B-grade Parm (both are Italian).

We were so hungry at that point that we didn't even wait for our waiter to tell us what the specials were and yelled our order at him immediately (after hearing the other waiter tell his customers what the specials were, I kind of wish we had waited to hear our waiter out).  We got the blistered green peppers with sea salt ($9), the eggplant parm appetizer ($13), burrata pizza ($20) and the baked ziti with meatballs ($18).   The peppers were good but they were a bit overcooked and too soft.  The eggplant parm appetizer was delicious.  The eggplant was nice and soft and there was an abundance of tomato sauce and cheese.  The bread that came with the dish was a nice thick piece of garlic bread which was amazing and actually my favorite part of the dish.   The pizza was a pretty large pie and if we weren't so hungry I would say that 2 people could totally split 1 pizza with some appetizers and be fine.  The burrata pizza was good but I wasn't wow'd by it as there wasn't as much cheese as I would have liked (it was much more saucy than anything else).  Like Rubirosa, the pizza here is also thin-crusted but the pizza at Rubirosa was much better as the crust was just tastier and held up better with wet ingredients on top of it.  The baked ziti was also good but I would have liked to have had more sauce and cheese.  With some bites, I was getting just the ziti with limited sauce.

To be honest, if we had stopped our meal here, I would have given this place 3 forks.  But what put it into the 3.5 range was the dessert.  We got the s'mores sundae and it was freaking awesome.  It was vanilla and chocolate gelato, with hot fudge, graham cracker crumble and a marshmallow cream. All the ingredients on their own were great, but if you get a bite that has all of the combined, it will blow your mind.  I especially loved the marshmallow cream...it reminded me of eating marshmallow fluff out of the jar when I was a kid.   All in all, the meal was good and totally hit the spot but again, I'm not sure if my perspective would have been different if I wasn't starving and annoyed by all the lines at the other places.  Total bill $57/pp.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Peep Visited 2/18/2012 3 Forks

Peep 177 Prince St., (between Thompson St & Sullivan St), New York, NY 10012

I haven't been to Peep in over 5 years and it really hasn't changed at all.  Aarti and I had a dinner date to get Thai food on Saturday but at the same time I was also shopping for a new laptop.  After years of being a PC girl, I decided that it might be time for a Mac since everyone I know loves them.  Plus I've been going through a pretty difficult time these days and decided that I needed a fresh start and try something different, so what better way than to get a Mac (and ps. I fucking LOVE it so far...granted I'm still trying to figure out how the heck to copy/paste).  So I ended up at the Apple store in Soho on Greene Street and Peep was a 5 minute walk away.  I believe Peep is related to the people who run SEA because the menu and price points are almost identical.

The inside is kind of like a club with neon pink lights and the bathroom is see-through with racy videos playing inside.  Of all the tables in the whole place, Aarti and I got the two top right next to the bathroom. Of course.  The menu at Peep is pretty robust with lots of choices but all pretty typical for a Thai place: noodles, fried rices, curries, stir-fries, whole fish, etc.  I had a craving for noodles and got the Face Towel Noodle ($12, please, I have NO IDEA why the hell it's called that) which is essentially a broad noodle with shrimp, squid, chicken, egg, basil,  and tomato chili paste.  Aarti got the sesame stir-fry ($11) and we split the steamed spinach dumplings ($6) and a side of steamed eggplant ($5).  Unlike my meal at Gramercy Tavern, the food here came out scarily fast.  The steamed dumplings must have literally come out 4 minutes after we ordered.  The dumplings were eh, not super fresh tasting and honestly the ones I get at the Asian grocery store tasted better.  Luckily my noodles were a bit better.  The dish was huge and there almost seemed like there were 5 pounds of noodles.  While the overall taste was fine, my issues with the dish were that there were only 2 pieces of shrimp (and they were very small and a bit dry), almost no squid and the chicken pieces were too big and slight overcooked.  I know I am making this dish sound not that great, but it suited my needs at the time and I really liked the sauce on the noodles.  I also tried the eggplant (I love the fact that they offer eggplant as a side dish option) and while the flavor of basil and chili paste came out loud and clear, the eggplant itself needed to be cooked a bit longer.

During any other day, I would have been a bit annoyed by the slow service, I actually appreciated it on this day because it gave me and Aarti the opportunity to have a leisurely meal for 2 1/2 hours.  The great thing about Thai places like this is the bill.  Total bill $23/pp.  Yay!

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Empellon Visited 2/12/2012 3 Forks

Empellon 230 W 4th St., (between S 7th Ave & 4 St), Manhattan, NY 10014

Empellon is more well known for its dinner menu but after looking at the brunch menu, I was intrigued to try it out on a Sunday afternoon.  To be honest, it was a perfectly fine brunch, just nothing totally mind blowing.  But after looking at the fish tacos that my neighbors had, I think dinner might have been a better option.  They did offer fish tacos on the brunch menu, but when there are eggs on a brunch menu, 9 times out of 10 that's what I'll get and who really wants to have fish tacos for brunch (please refrain from jokes here)?

Aarti and I started our brunch with guacamole, which I know is also not traditional brunch food, but when some place offers your avocados in the dead of winter, you take it!.  The guacamole was served with two kinds of salsa, one was a delicious Tomatillo-Chipotle and the other was Salsa Habañera which was just a bit too spicy for me. The actual guacamole was great and seasoned well but it was a whopping $12 for something that wasn't much bigger than 2 scoops of ice cream.  I will make a shout out for the chips that tasted like homemade tortilla chips and were super salty but in a good chip way.  For our main dishes, I ordered the Eggs Benedict with Refried Beans, Ham and Hollandaise and Aarti got the Chilaquiles with Roasted Maitake Mushrooms and a Sunny Side Egg.  Ever since the 2nd Street Cafe closed in Park Slope, I have been on the eternal search of the perfect classic eggs benedict.  I clearly should have known that I wouldn't really find it at a Mexican restaurant.  I just envisioned this dish to be served on toasted english muffin and covered in buttery hollandaise sauce.  To be fair, this benedict tasted fine and I applaud it for being different.  Instead of english muffins, it was served on challah bread and the ham was more like thin prosciutto slices than thick cut ham.  I appreciated the refried beans in it (and they were definitely quality beans, not your Taco bell variety) which put a different spin to the dish.  While many brunch places I've been to over poach their eggs, this place actually slightly under poached their eggs as the whites were still very running and not quite firm.  The challah bread added a sweet touch which was nice but again, I was just picturing this classic benedict dish based on the description and it just was not what I expected.  I didn't taste Aarti's dish but she did mention that it need more mushrooms in the dish.  And she also mentioned that the coffee was fabulous.

All in all, it was a perfectly fine brunch experience and the actual decor and ambiance was pretty nice and calming.  I can understand many of the Yelp reviews of it being over priced with small portions, but that's kind of what I expect with these fancier Mexican places.  Even for brunch I thought it was a bit overpriced considering neither of us ordered any cocktails.  $32/pp with tip and tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Gramercy Tavern Visited 2/11/2012 4.5 Forks

Gramercy Tavern 42 E 20th St., (between Broadway & S Park Ave), New York, NY 10003

Ahh, the legendary Gramercy Tavern.  I can't believe I've lived in New York for this long and haven't been there yet.  Granted I just ate in the front Tavern room and not in the back restaurant, it was still an amazing meal and I was this close to giving it 5 Forks.  The only reason I didn't is actually non-food related, I'll get to it later.

My dad was in town for the day, so I decided this was the right opportunity to check out this place.  They don't seat in the main room for lunch on the weekends and the seating in the tavern is first come, first serve.  They open at noon on the weekends and when I got there at 11:55AM, there was already a line about 10 people deep already.  Luckily, my dad got there early, so we were seated right away.  In terms of the menu, a word of warning that it is different than what they serve in the main room.  Even though I haven't eaten in the main room, the tavern food was more than fabulous and I can only image what the food in the main room is like.  We split the fish croquette and spinach salad ($12) and I got the red snapper with shiitake mushrooms and cauliflower ($22) while my dad got the sea bass with spaghetti squash, walmuts and sherry sauce ($22).  One of the many things I loved about Gramercy Tavern was that when I told the waitress that we would be splitting the fish croquette, they actually pre-split the dish into two separate dishes for us.  Now that's great attention to detail and very much appreciated.  The dish was amazing.  There were two croquettes per person and they were nice and fried on the outside and the inside was this perfect mashed mixture of fish (but not too fishy) and spices.  There actually wasn't a lot of spinach, more of a mixed green combination.  The greens were superbly dressed with a light dressing and then there was a surprisingly bed of spicy kimchi on the bottom of the bowl.  I know the whole thing might sound weird, but it just somehow worked really well.  After our appetizer, we did wait a bit for our main entrees and this is where I had to dock 1/2 a fork.  While I completely and totally understand that quality food shouldn't necessarily come out in 5 seconds, we did wait quite a while for our entrees.  While eating in the tavern, you do get a front view of the small open kitchen and I knew that there were only 2 chefs in the kitchen working the whole room, so I don't fault them, but it was a bit frustrating to wait over 30 minutes of the next meal to come out.

But when it did come out...oh my.  My red snapper dish was one of the best fish dishes I've had in a while.  I don't know what I was expecting but it was a fairly generous portion of perfectly pan roasted firm piece of red snapper covered in this amazing thick and flavorful sauce that shamefully I'm not 100% sure was in it.  But it was a delicious buttery tasting yellow sauce (who am I kidding, it was probably just all butter) that completely covered the fish and was served with pieces of cauliflower and mushrooms.  I wish there were more mushrooms but overall there wasn't a single thing that I would change about the dish.  Each bite was just as good as the one before.  I had a quick taste of the sea bass and that was also great with a very distinct sherry taste and the squash spaghetti was a great healthy touch.  Even though I was totally full, I had to have dessert, I mean how often am I going to eat here? I opted for the pumpkin butterscotch pudding with cinnamon whipped cream ($9).  It's like the dish was made for me since I have always been mad for butterscotch and pumpkin, so to combine the two almost sent me over the edge.  You could totally taste both the pumpkin flavor and the butterscotch flavor and neither overpowered the other.  The whipped cream was fresh and light and was equally addictive on its own.  It was served with a cinnamon pastry on top which I only ate half  for fear that my whole system might go into sugar overload.

The wait staff was impeccable...they constantly filled your water but not at an obnoxious way, took away my dirty plates at the right time and were just perfectly attentive without being in your face.  I will note that the whole meal took over two hours, which was just about 30 minutes too long for me.  We also had to wait a while to get the check, but I don't hold it totally against them.  I'm usually a bit suspicious of restaurants that are labeled "New York Institutions" but this place totally lives up to the hype.  Now I'm even more excited to try the actual restaurant.  Total bill $110 total with tip and tax.

Photo Credit: Yelp