Torrisi Italian Specialties Visited 12/22/10 5 Forks

Torrisi Italian Specialties  250 Mulberry St, (between Spring St & Prince St), Manhattan, NY 10012

 Instead of giving each other x-mas gifts, Dan and I usually treat ourselves to a nice, semi-expensive dinner each year.  Torrisi was the perfect place and probably one of the best x-mas meals we've ever had.  The place is a deli by day and at night they have a set prix-fixe menu at $50 person.  They post the menu on the chalkboard outside and there are no substitutions allowed.  Since they do not take reservations, I had read that people generally start lining up at 5:30pm to be one of the first people seated (they open at 6pm).  Dan and I got there at 5:30 and there was not a single person in line (this could be due to the fact that it was a Weds and it was freezing cold outside).  The hostess came and took our names at 5:45pm and told us to come back close to 6.  We were promptly seated inside and I understood why on a crowded night the wait can be up to 2 hours.  The place is tiny with at most 8 tables inside. 
As soon as we sat down, I checked out the menu for the night.  It started with a 4 course anti-pasta course: mozzarella and toasted garlic bread, followed by roasted brussel sprouts with jingle bell peppers, seafood salad, and liver pate served with soft pretzel bread.  They were all small in size but made up for it in taste.  You can never go wrong with mozzarella cheese and as someone who hates brussel sprouts, these were roasted to perfection and didn't even taste like a brussel sprout at all.  The seafood salad was like a ceviche with raw scallops marinated in onion and lime juice.  You could definitely tell that the scallops were fresh and not frozen.  Surprisingly, I liked the liver pate with pretzel bread the most.  The pate was extremely smooth (I've had grainy pate which makes the whole experience gross) and it came with a side of sauteed red onions which were reduced in red wine and the bread was so freakin soft that I could have eaten an entire basked of them.  
The anti-pasta course was followed by a linguine and clams with tobacco flakes.  I thought that the flakes would have been overpowering but there was just the right amount of flakes to give off some heat but it didn't ruin the dish.  The only choice you have for the night is either fish or chicken for the main entree. I got the yellowtail sole with black truffle mushrooms and Dan go the Devil's chicken with Evan's yogurt.  While I enjoyed my fish (it was two fillets baked with breadcrumbs on top of it), Dan's chicken was out of this world.  The waiter even commented that it was going to be a very talked about dish in the future.  It was beyond moist and juicy and the red paprika like dusting really kicked it up a notch.  It was probably best chicken dish I have had in years.  I should mention that we had opted for the $25/pp wine pairing with our meal and by this time we were about 4 glasses of wine deep.  All the wines selected for the meals were amazing. I am normally not a white wine drinker but they brought out this Ecole No. 41 that was practically tasted like water (but in a good way).  It went down waaay to smoothly.  They were pretty generous with their pours and they even re-filled our glasses at times.  The meal ends with a dish of homemade pastries, which initially sounds kind of lame, but they were the best damn pastries I've had in a while.  They were all piping warm and there was two of each kind, so you didn't have to fight over them.  They had a popover with cream filling, a rainbow type cake that tasted like marzipan, mini cheesecakes, and cookies with a chocolate-kiss like filling.  It was the perfect finish to the meal.  
What also made the whole experience great was the waitstaff.  The busboys are essentially the waitstaff and they were extremely knowledgeable about all the dishes and the wine list.  I love that they get the opportunity to be really involved with restaurant beyond just taking our plates away.  The whole meal set us back about $200 with tip and tax, which in NYC isn't totally expensive but it's still a nice chunk of change, but it was worth every penny and for what you get, it's probably worth a whole lot more.  

Le Comptoir Visited 12/19/10 4 Forks

Le Comptoir 251 Grand St, (between Driggs Ave & Roebling St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

 I haven't been to France in quite a while but being in Le Comptoir made me feel like I was in a cute cafe somewhere in Paris.  The entire waitstaff there is French and their accents were so freaking cute, to the point where I wanted to try to converse with them in my horrendously poor french (I wouldn't recommend trying to do this).  You enter the restaurant and there is a large relaxing seating/eating with large couches to the right where you can just sit and hang out with a drink or they will also serve you food there as well.  
The brunch menu had about 7-8 items and were all reasonably priced under $14.  I got the croque madam ($12) and Dan got the special benedict of the day which was lobster and crab ($14).   As we were waiting for our meal, you can see the chef making everything to order so you know it's fresh.  The croque madam came out and it was huge and came with a great side salad of mixed greens in a light white dressing.  The actual sandwich was perfectly toasted on super soft but crispy on the outside bread and covered with gruyere cheese and ham.  The egg on top was perfectly fried with a runny yoke.  As I start eating at more and more restaurants for brunch, it makes me realize how right Tom Colicchio is about making a perfect egg.  I am a Top Chef addict and they always have a challenge where they make the contestants make an egg dish.  Although it sounds easy enough, he always says how hard to make a perfect egg dish and he is totally right.  I can't even count the number of brunch places that I have been to that serve terrible eggs (especially of the poached style). I know judge every brunch place on how they poach their egg and based on that forms my decision if I would come back.  I had a bite of Dan's benedict and it was amazing as well.  The hollandise sauce was perfect...it wasn't too strong but had enough flavor to make you want to lick the entire plate.  The lobster/crab mixture underneath was cold, but it didn't really matter since the rest of the dish was perfectly warm.  The only downside was that the potatoes that came with that dish were slightly undercooked and too crunchy.
The service there was great and super friendly.  Even the chef came out to make sure that our food was good.  My own gripe about the place was that it was cash only.  But given that our total bill came out to $31, it wasn't too hard to pay with cash. 

6th Street Kitchen Visited 12/17/10 4 Forks

6th Street Kitchen  507 E 6th St, (between Avenue A & Avenue B),New York, NY 10009

 I was afraid to suggest a restaurant this time around because I had been having a streak of crappy restaurants.  Although 6th Street had been on my list for a bit, I didn't want to suggest it, but then Aarti also independently suggested it, so I felt like we had to go.  I had actually been to this place years ago when it was called OG, so I definitely got a sense of familiarity when I walked in.  The menu here is American tapas food, which reminds me a lot of Traif, one of my favorite restaurants in Brooklyn.  The waiter was super nice and friendly and made our eating experience very pleasant.  He informed us that from 6-7pm it's Happy Hour for sliders:  the chorizo sliders are $2 each.  Although it seemed like there weren't a ton of options, the items we got more than made us happy and full.  Our waiter suggested that we order 2 dishes each, so we got the beet salad, the mushroom risotto, fish tacos and 2 sliders.  I'm generally not a huge fan of beets but this one was done well as it was topped with lots of fresh dry herbs and goat cheese.  Next the fish tacos came out and they were AMAZING.  There were 2 of them and the fish was very lightly, but perfectly breaded.  It was more tempura style and you could definitely taste the fish through the tempura batter.  It was topped with delicious aioli mayo and red cabbage.  Although I usually think 2 tacos aren't enough, this was extremely filling and light tasting.  The mushroom risotto came out next and was creamy and had nice chunks of cremini mushrooms.  The chorizo sliders were great and super filling.  They came on a potato slider with a very generous chorizo patty and cheese.  It was really juicy with a right amount of spice.  You can also order a regular entree of sliders for $12, but to only have 2 for $4 was perfect if not almost too much.  The only dish that I didn't love was the dessert.  We were going to get the chocolate cake but our waiter told us that the rocky road ice cream sandwich was better.  So we got it and it's basically 2 giant ginger/chocolate chip cookies with rocky road ice cream in between.  I thought that the cookie was too hard and it was hard to split in half.  We ended up just eating the ice cream and cookie separately, which kind of defeated the purpose to getting it as a sandwich.  Our total bill for 2 people was $47, which I thought was a pretty good deal considering all the different dishes we got and how full we were when we left. I would love to come back here and try other small plates. 

Centrico Visited 12/16/10 3 Forks

Centrico  211 W Broadway, New York, NY 10013

 I had been to Centrico before for a friend's birthday a few years ago and I remember it being ok and expensive.  I should have kept that in mind when I went again.  My co-workers and I had a holiday party next door at Vino Vino (which was super cute) but we didn't really have dinner, so a bunch of us decided to go next door to Centrico.  It's claim to fame is that the chef is Aaron Sanchez, who is on a bunch of Food Network shows.  The theme of the restaurant is high-end fancy Latin Food.  I kind of put Mexican/Latin food in the same category of Asian food where I actually usually like it in more cheap-ish/dirty/hole-in-the-wall places.  


I ordered the Mahi Mahi special with cilantro lime sauce since it sounded mildly "healthy".  Everyone else got the steak, which I did really want to, but since I was pretty much diagnosed with high cholesterol, I steered clear of it.  When my fish came out, it was a bit lackluster in presentation.   The fish was a bit on the small cut end and the cilantro lime sauce came in a dish that had about half an onion cut up in it.  Then it had a side of arugula, which didn't have enough dressing or anything else to it.  The fish itself tasted fine, if not a bit over cooked.  Usually when I order fish I expect a thick cut with lots of meat, but this one was flat and slightly overcooked.  Luckily, my director had ordered a side of beans and rice and it was really good, so I would just combine the fish and rice and beans together to make it a more hearty meal.  The steak that everyone ordered did look really good and there was a LOT of it.  Of course you now have to take this entire post with a grain of salt as it was after 4 glasses of wine, so it may have clouded my judgment a bit.  Total bill was $45/person without tip.   

BAD (Breakfast All Day) Visited 12/12/10 1.5 Forks

BAD 131 Grand St, (between Berry St & Rodney St),Williamsburg, NY 11211

When a restaurant's initials are B.A.D, you should probably take that as a sign that the food is bad.  This place was actually beyond bad.  The menu wasn't as extensive as one would think when you're full restaurant name is breakfast all day and they gave us as a xerox copy, not even a real menu.  I ordered the Eggs Firenze ($9), which sounded like it was supposed to be a spinach benedict dish.  The description said that it was 2 poached eggs on an english muffin with spinach and hollandaise sauce and it came with a side of homefries, grits or regular fries and toast.  I had asked for homefries and wheat toast. Dan got the breakfast burrito ($8.50) and a cup of coffee.  Let's just say that the coffee was the best part of the meal.  First, we waited forever for our food despite being practically the only people in the place.  When I got my food I could tell immediately that it would not be good.  At first glance the eggs definitely didn't look poached and when I cut into them, they were essentially hard boiled.  There was about 1/2 a teaspoon of hollandaise sauce and instead of it being on an english muffin, they just put the 2 eggs on the wheat toast that was pretty much burned.  The side of homefries was very small and it was mostly peppers and onions.  Dan's burrito didn't even come wrapped.  They put all the ingredients on a giant tortilla wrap and left it open.  Needless to say, Dan had a tough time eating it as a burrito.  Luckily his dish was so big that I ate 1/4 of it because I could barely finish my food.  When it came time to get the check that also took a long time.  The only good thing out of this meal was that the total bill came to $20, which I think is still too much.

Sapporo Haru Visited 12/11/10 4 Forks

Sapporo Haru  622 Manhattan Ave, (between Driggs Ave & Nassau Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11222

Ok, this place isn't fancy and isn't on the level as other 4 Forks restaurants I've been to, but it just really hit the spot at the right time.  My neighborhood is pretty lacking in terms of good affordable neighborhood sushi.  There are a few places on Bedford that are good, but for some reason this place just really impressed me.  They let you have unlimited free hot sake if you order more than $10, which clearly is never a problem for me and Dan.  We started with the edamame ($3.95) and I personally like them slightly undercooked and crunchy, which these were.  And they practically gave us an entire bag of them, so it felt like I was getting my money's worth, whereas usually I feel like it's a rip off to pay $4 for something that I know costs $1.50-$2 a bag.  Dan thought that they tasted funny like they had boiled it in water that was mixed with something else.  I didn't taste it, but he couldn't finish them because of it. 

The overall menu here is beyond extensive.  They have about 18 different sushi entrees, 36 different rolls and then 28 different chef's special rolls.  I know that this isn't the sign of a authentic true sushi place, but those places, while amazing and definitely make for an amazing eating experience, are generally too expensive for just a regular night out.  We had the sashimi appetizer ($9.95), which I thought was a great deal because you get 3 pieces of salmon, 3 pieces of tuna, 3 pieces of white tuna, and 3 pieces of mackerel.  This is sometimes the same number of pieces you get for a sashimi entree in some places. All the pieces of fish tasted fresh and satisfied my sashimi craving.  We then ordered the scallop roll ($6.95), new york roll ($8.95), and the birthday roll ($8.95).  I really enjoyed all the rolls and they were all very affordable, even the special rolls.  The scallop roll came with a large chunk of scallop (it wasn't cut up and mixed with mayo) with yummy spicy mayo layered inside.  The New York roll was larger than your average roll size and came with spicy tuna, crab, avocado, and a special white seaweed wrapped on the outside.  They claim the crab was Maryland crab, but I definitely didn't taste the "maryland" crab, but the overall roll was quite delicious.  Then the birthday roll was tuna, salmon, yellowtail with 3 types of tobiko on the outside.  This roll was totally fine as well, but nothing extremely special.  There were 6-8 rolls and due to the size of the New York roll, we were definitely full at the end.  We wanted to take advantage of the unlimited hot sake, but we just felt like we had no more room for anything.  I really wished this places was closer (although in the summertime, I would be more likely to walk here than in the cold) and I would totally eat here all the time. There are so many other things on the menu that I would try. It's a great deal and really hits the spot.  Total bill without tip for two people $42.     

Le Da Nang Visited 12/10/10 3 Forks

Le Da Nang  75 2nd Ave, (between 4th St & 5th St), New York, NY 10003

This place used to be Sea Thai, which was one of the first thai restaurants I had been to when I moved to New York and it was a pretty damn good place to eat too.  When I heard it was closed, I was pretty sad, but then it became Le Da Nang, which is supposed to be a Vietnamese restaurant.  I thought I would give it a try since I love Vietnamese food and the location is pretty convenient.  The inside is pretty much the same as SEA except it's a bit brighter inside.  I think it may also still be owned by the people of SEA because the menu tacked up outside made a mention of SEA opening in Las Vegas. 

When I opened the menu I was a bit disappointed to discover that it wasn't really Vietnamese.  It had a few Vietnamese options, but it was mixed in with Thai dishes such as pad thai, stir fried dishes and fried rice.  There was only one pho and bun option.  I decided to order the Ocean Combo ($15) from the specialty section hoping it would be more authentic.  Aarti ordered a spicy noodle with tofu ($10) and we split the veggie spring rolls ($4) and since it was before 7pm, all cocktails were half off (sweet!), so we each got a martini.  The spring rolls were fine, although when I ordered I was thinking of summer rolls instead.  I generally like the non-fried rolls better and they generally seem more healthy.  The main dishes came out pretty quickly and my dish was not exactly what I was thinking.  It was covered in a lot of sauce and it didn't have a huge amount of seafood in it.  There was about 3 smallish shrimp, 2-3 scallops and 2-3 pieces of fried pieces of white fish.  It was supposed to have mixed veggies in it but it was more heavy on garlic and onions, which tasted fine at the time but left a slightly harsh taste afterwards.  I didn't try Aarti's dish but it looked like a pretty decent standard noodle dish.  We also split the warm chocolate cake ($6) for dessert.  It came topped with green tea ice cream, which I loved, but the actual cake part was only ok.  While the food wasn't amazing (even to the neighborhood thai standard), the service was good and they were very nice that they let us sit in the restaurant and chat for 3 hours without really bothering us. Total bill with tip was $53.