Caracas Arepa Bar Visited 5/1/10 3.5 Forks

Caracas Arepa Bar 291 Grand St(between Roebling St & Havemeyer St),Brooklyn, NY 11211

I have been to this place many times both in the city and in brooklyn, and it's always been good. Arepas are something different than most types of food I've had and they are delicious. When we went on Saturday it was totally packed, but got a table inside pretty quickly (it was a 30 min wait for outside space). The decor is very rustic with lots of exposed wood.

The menu is very simple in that it's just arepas or empanadas with 1 or 2 platter dishes. They also have a bunch of sides which as guacamole & chips, a variety of plantains and rice & beans. Drink wise they have rum flights and beer. If you've never had an arepa, I would warn you that the size is very mis-leading. I would say 1 to 1 1/2 arepa per person. You'd think you could hammer down 2 but the flour tortilla expands and fills you up very quickly. We had the A6 (chicken and avocado mix) and then the A17 and A18, which was some fish mix and spicy pork mix respectively. My favorite is the A6, it's amazing with tons and tons of avocado. The other 2 were good with the pork definitely being spicy but the problem with them was that they are more "wet" in filling and that makes the arepa start to fall apart a bit and/or make more messy. Dan got a beer and rum shot to drink. The best part of this whole meal was that it was $29 for 2.

Hachi Asian Bistro Visited 4/30/10 2 Forks

Hachi 631 Grand St
(between Leonard St & Manhattan Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11211

Hachi gets 1 fork for the decor and 1 fork for the mojito but that's about it. I had read that it was the sister restaurant to Nana in Park Slope and I remember thinking it was decent, so I thought I'd give a new place a try. The decor was pretty "trendy" complete with DJ and a bunch of Buddha statues and funky black and white wallpaper and a nice small garden area.

I need to remember that anything that lists its menu as Pan-Asian or Asian Fusion should be avoided b/c you can't do all those things right. The menu it a mix of thai, japanese and other random asian foods...it had pad thai, curries and sushi. We were in the mood for sushi so we chose 3 different special rolls ($6.95/each). The service was really nice and I think they try hard but they need to step up the food quality if they want people to come back. My first pet peeve was that when the sushi came out, it was only 5 pieces per roll. Now I think 6-8 pieces are standard unless it is a huge roll, which these were not. Then when I took a bite of one of the rolls, it completely fell apart on me. The rice was not sticky at all and not of sushi quality, which I think led to the pieces coming undone so easily. The 2 redeeming parts of the meal were the edamame (they gave us a TON of them, almost the entire bag) and the mojito was pretty delicious (a bit sweet but it didn't ruin the drink). The total bill was around $20/pp and I'm glad it wasn't much more than that. I'm bummed this place wasn't good b/c I think Williamsburg needs more good asian/sushi places.

Flipster's Visited 4/25/10 2.5 Forks

Flipster's 444 9th St
(between 6th Ave & 7th Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11215

We were in the mood for burgers and Flipster's is the closest burger place to my apt. I've been there before and found it to be fine, so I was willing to give it another go.

I feel like the place is cursed as it has undergone several management changes. The place is laid out like a basic bar/restaurant, so it's pretty casual and laid back. As you can imagine, the main item on the menu is burgers...several varieties: regular, organic, bison, turkey, veggie, etc. The prices seem fine at first glance (~$8/burger for a regular burger) but then you realize that everything else is $1 extra, such as cheese, mushrooms, bacon, etc, so you're basic $8 burger becomes a $10 burger and it DOESN'T come with fries (which highly irritates me). Fries cost about $3-5 extra, which to me is a crime b/c who would get a burger without fries. We ordered 1 side of waffle fries ($5) to split and then 2 beers ($6) each.

I'll admit the burger was tasty and pretty decent as burgers. I got a cheeseburger with mushrooms (which was cold, so I think they just dumped it on the burger at the end instead of sautee'ing them) and Dan got the special burger, which was the chipotle burger, which was spicy and delivered as described. The waffle fries were good, but how can you really go wrong with waffle fries. But the fact that our bill was $40 and all we got were beers and burgers, that seemed a bit overpriced. I think I would suck it up and walk to Bonnie's on 5th next time.

Dumont Visited 4/24/10 1.5 Forks

Dumont 432 Union Ave,Brooklyn, NY 11206

DuMont is one of those places I really want to like. The outside patio area is almost nice enough to make me want to forget all the bad things about this place. Now I've been to DuMont before for dinner and while it was not mind-blowing, sometimes you just want a nice juicy burger or mac&cheese. I remember finding it slightly overpriced, but after looking at the brunch menu on-line, they looked affordable.

The brunch started out nice enough. We got a nice table outside and hot yummy donut holes right away. Then we waited...and waited...and waited, until I almost stood up and walked out. We had sat down for over 20 mins with no one coming to take our order, drink or food. People who were sitting across the restaurant who had come in after us were already getting their food and we hadn't even ordered. Our waitress was tending to other customers, but didn't once come over or make eye contact to say that she saw us. When we finally did order, I got the eggs benedict ($10) and white sangria ($9) in honor of Magda's. Dan got the eggs, grits, and chipotle sausage with a red sangria. So everything was fine until the table next to us, who not only sat down after us but ordered after us got their food first! I was so enraged and if I could have thought of a place nearby to eat at, I would have walked out at that point. But then our food came out pretty quickly afterwards. The food was fine. The eggs were runny and the potatoes were actually nice and crispy on the outside. While there were 2 eggs, it only came on 1 muffin, which I think is a cop-out. Dan thought his chipotle sausage was too oily and wasn't impressed with his meal overall. The sangria was also not that great, it didn't taste that strong and had a weird aftertaste, although dan pointed out that mine was an apricot flavor sangria, so that might have been it. Another thing that bothered me was that they didn't bring dan's coffee out til after everything else had come out. WTF?

The waitress was nice but mildly apologized for waiting but it wasn't enough for me. The total bill was $46, which was the same price we paid for our dinner at Umi Nom last night (granted we didn't order alcohol) and was much better experience overall. The the service wasn't an issue I might have given this place 2.5 Forks and consider going back, but at the very least I won't be back for brunch again.

Umi Nom Visited 4/23/10 3.5 Forks

Umi Nom 433 DeKalb Ave. (between Classon Ave & Taaffe Pl), Brooklyn, NY 11205

Finally, I ate at Umi Nom. After hearing about this place for a while and having loved it's Manhattan sister restaurant, Kuma Inn, I was happy to have eaten here. But (and this is a big but), the location leaves MUCH to be desired. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It's a few blocks from the G train stop, but that's not saying much. I'm not really familiar with the Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy/Pratt area and perhaps I am missing something but I could have really done without the location.

The inside of the restaurant was small, but nice. It had pretty exposed brick which had a small opening into the "open" kitchen. I wish they had blown out the opening even more so that we could get a full look at the chefs while they cooked. The concept and most of the menu is very similar to Kuma Inn. I had read that for 2 people 3 apps and 1 entree was sufficient. We asked our waitress what was the appropriate # of dishes to order and she said "1-2 dishes per person"...um, ok, so is our order ok? she then repeated "1-2 dishes per person", so we decided to order 4 apps instead. We order the manila clams (I had heard amazing things about it), the sliders, pork spare ribs, and spring rolls. Then she said "and for an entree?" -- we were so confused b/c didn't you just tell us to order 1-2 dishes?

Regardless, we stuck with our 4 app order. The first one that came out was the spring rolls. While they were good, they're just spring rolls, and it wouldn't have been something I ordered, but Dan wanted it, so I didn't object. Next came the clams and they were DELICIOUS! They are similar to the black bean sauteed clams that you usually get in chinese restaurants, but these were soaking in some sort of salty, buttery, spicy goodness. I basically wanted to drown myself in the broth. Instead, we poured it over our coconut rice (which at $3, wasn't really worth it. It was white rice with coconut juice poured over it. It was yummy, but for $3 for a small bowl, I'm not so sure...). The sliders were also great, 3 buns filled with beef, pork and hoisin sauce. The pork ribs were also very tasty, although some pieces were more falling off the bone than others. While 4 dishes was enough, I could have ordered much more. The couple next to us got some sort of crispy chicken lollipops and said they were worth the wait.

While I really enjoyed my meal, I wished their brooklyn location was in a more convenient location. Given that the LES location is probably just as close/far and there's more stuff around it, I might be inclined to stick with the city locale for now. Total bill was $46 with tax.

Do Hwa Visited 4/21/10 3 Forks

Do Hwa 55 Carmine St(between S 7th Ave & Bedford St), New York, NY 10014

This is my 2nd time here, but 1st time for dinner. The only real reason I ended up at dinner here was b/c VA had a 30% Blackboard Eats discount (thanks!). VA had such high praise for Blackboard Eats that I signed up the next day.

The were 4 of us for dinner, so we decided to split a bunch of dishes. You can sit at either a table with a BBQ set-up or a table with a regular set-up. We were seated at the one with the BBQ set up. But first we each started with cocktails. I got the Ginger Cocktail ($12), which tasted really good until I got to the bottom and then it was really thick and gooey. The other girls at the table got a tea kettle filled with unfiltered sake, which I thought was a cute idea. We started with potato pancakes (there were 2 of them) that was pretty small and I didn't think was that worth the $7. We then got the boiled kimchi/pork dumplings for $9. There were 5 of them and while they were fine, it wasn't anything that I couldn't just buy at the korean supermarket for $10 for a bag of 50 and make myself at home. We then split kimchi, chili pepper, scallion pancake for $9.50. This one was much bigger than the potato pancake and was actually very tasty with the right proportion of scallion. For an entree, we split the crispy chicken tenders ($17), which were indeed super crispy and tasty. It was in a sweet and sour sauce and while there was a crispy coating on it, it wasn't all batter, you could still taste the tender chicken underneath.

We then ended with 2 bbq'd meat, the typical bulgogi ($24) and a spicy pork belly ($21). At first I was worried that it wasn't going to be enough food, but by the time the bbq meats came out, I was starting to get full and there was tons of meat to bbq. It also came with lots of the typical small korean sides, but no bean sprouts! :( The meats were really delicious, but I guess it's hard to get marinated do-it-yourself meats wrong. The pork belly was not to fatty but had the right balance of meat and it went very well with the butter lettuce wraps. With the Blackboard discount, the total meal came out to be $32/pp, which is a pretty good deal considering all the food we had. Given the prices, I think unless you got individual entrees, the bbq is pretty expensive for small parties. If you're going to do bbq, you need at least 3-4 people to make it fun and worth it.

El Pollo Visited 4/19/10 2.5 Forks

El Pollo 291 5th Ave(between 1st St & 2nd St), Brooklyn, NY 11215

I have had great previous experiences with Peruvian food before at Pio Pio in the city and had read great reviews for this place. I figured I had walked past it so many times and the prices were pretty cheap that it was worth a try.

The main draw of Peruvian food is basically rotisserie chicken, rice and beans and this spicy green sauce. Unfortunately, I had already had a slice of pizza before this and Dan wasn't in the mood to split a chicken, so I had to order a 1/4 chicken for myself and he ordered the chicken avocado hero sandwich and a side of sweet plantains.

First off, the restaurant is really small and not really much in the way of decor but that's kind of what I expect from these types of chicken joints. There was only 1 other family there when we got there and they were wrapping up their meal, so I wasn't sure why it took so long for our food to come out. It might be b/c of delivery and pick up, but it still annoyed me.

When the food did come out, I was a bit disappointed with my chicken. I guess it's my fault for only getting 1/4, so they had to chop it up a bit but it just didn't seem as juicy as other chickens I've had. Certain parts were definitely juicy and showed the promise of what it could be, but overall, it just seemed like a regular piece of chicken. The rice and beans were good (kind of hard to mess that up) and the green sauce was OUT OF CONTROL spicy. Much spicier than any other green sauce I am used to but it's still like crack and you keep going back for more. Dan's sandwich tasted pretty good and he mentioned that the chicken was very tender. Although I give it 2.5 Forks, I would consider going back if I could get the whole chicken. The best part of the meal was it everything was only $19, you can't beat that, even if the meal wasn't stellar.