Saigon Shack Visited 3/24/2011 3.5 Forks

Saigon Shack 114 MacDougal St., New York, NY 10012

 I generally stay away from pho places that aren't hole in the walls or in Chinatown, but for some reason I felt like this place could change my tune.  I mean, it's kind of nice to not to have to always trek to Chinatown for decent Vietnamese good, right?  This place didn't quite make me feel like I should abandon the trek just yet but it will do just fine if I happen to be in the area.  And to be honest, I should have known that trying a place this close to NYU would be hit or miss.


First, the general decor and ambiance of the place is much cleaner than your usual Vietnamese place.  It's got out about 5-6 small tables, 1 communal table and you can also eat at the bar.  What I liked about the menu is that they had a simple 1-page menu of bahn mi and pho and then a few other appetizers.  Sometimes it can be super overwhelming when you go to an Asian restaurant that has pages and pages of food.  Virginia and I both thought about getting a pho and sandwich but after seeing other people get the sandwich, I decided it was better to split a sandwich.  We got the classic bahn mi ($5) and spring rolls ($6) to split and each got the classic beef pho ($8) while Aarti got the papaya salad ($6) and cold sesame noodles ($6).  Now Aarti also loves a good veggie bahn mi but apparently she had come here before and had a horrible veggie sandwich experience, so that kind of put me on edge for our food.  The spring rolls came out piping hot and they were good but frankly it's pretty hard to get fried spring rolls wrong.  I didn't try Aartis' papaya salad and cold noodles but she said that they were much better than her first sandwich experience.  The noodles were the slippery glass noodles kind and came with shredded carrot and cucumber and looked pretty refreshing.  The pho came out and I liked the fact that the beef came out totally raw because that's the way I like my meat in a pho.  I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't enough noodle but in hindsight it was probably the right amount of noodle, I was just super hungry.  The broth was pretty decent, but probably could have used a bit more cinnamon/cilantro flavor.  It was a bit too clear but it wasn't overly greasy which some phos in Chinatown can be.  VA and I both put in a healthy amount of hoisin sauce, so that kind of made me think the broth was lacking something, but then again I always put hoisin sauce in my pho no matter where, so who knows what the hell it really means!  Another way I judge if the pho is good or not is if my clothes and hair smell like pho when I come home (I know, it's actually kind of gross when you sit and think about it).  But if it does, it means the flavors and smells of the broth was so strong that it just permeates you.  So it didn't surprise me that I only had a small hint of eau de pho when I came home given the clearness of the broth.  I did enjoy that there was a lot of beef in my pho.  Generally, a lot of places will go overboard on the noodles but then scrimp on the beef.  The scales were tipped in the other direction here, which you can't really complain about.  

What you can complain about is the bahn mi.  While I've definitely had worse, it wasn't all that impressive here.  The bread was nice and soft but there just didn't seem to be a whole lot of meat in there.  There was 1-2 thinly sliced pieces of ham but then a whole lot of carrot and daikon.  I'm not even sure I tasted any pate which is a major bummer. VA also wasn't hugely impressed either so it was a good thing we just split one.   

 The one small service issue that bothered me was that they kept coming around trying to take our plates even though we weren't necessarily finished.  It's not like there was a line out people waiting for our table.  But they were generally really nice there and when they put an extra Fiji water charge on our bill, they were really apologetic about removing it from our bill.  Note that this place is cash only, which is also another one of my huge pet peeves.  But given that the total bill for 3 people was $41 (without tip), I can't really complain too much about that. 

Bar Stuzzichini Visted3/22/2011 2.75 Forks

Bar Stuzzichini  928 Broadway, (between 21st St & 22nd St), New York, NY 10010

 So I didn't really have plans to end up at Bar Stuzzichini on a random Tuesday night but I happened to be visiting my friend Lav and it was right around her apartment.  I had heard about this place but had never really had a huge desire to try it out since I generally never really love going out for Italian (although some of the places I've been to lately have been changing my mind). 


We were both pretty exhausted and weren't looking for a huge meal, so I got the Orecchiette pasta ($17) and Lav got the fried artichokes ($8) and the eggplant croquettes ($8).  Our waiter kind of gave us this look of "Are you seriously not ordering more food?" and he kind of also gave us a similar look when we wanted to split a small carafe of wine ($13).  So I was kind of annoyed by that, mostly because the restaurant was kind of empty so he shouldn't have been so irritated considering he was still getting business from us on a slow day.  The food actually came out shockingly fast.  Probably less than 10 minutes after we ordered. 

The two appetizers that Lav got were tiny.  Now I know they are just appetizers, but there were only 2 small croquettes and there couldn't have been more than 5 tiny artichokes.  But despite that, both of these dishes were quite tasty and have a lot of flavor to them.  Meanwhile, my pasta dish was actually a pretty decent size  considering how small the appetizers were.  I was excited to get the orecchiette because I had it at Porsena and it was pretty good there.  This pasta dish could not compare to that one at all.  The pasta kind of tasted dry and it could have come from a box.  It didn't taste home made or fresh.  Even though I know this type of pasta doesn't come with sauce, there was definitely something missing from this dish.  I will say that the cauliflower was actually really good in this dish and I almost would have preferred to just have a bowl full of it instead. After our meal, our waiter kept telling us how amazing their dessert special was.  It was a cheesecake made with ricotta cheese and he said everyone was ordering it.  At first we were leaning towards the tiramisu but opted for this instead.  That was a mistake.  While it was good, it really tasted like a sweet egg omelet and not a creamy cheesecake.  So that move definitely put our waiter in the doghouse.  Something about him just made me feel like he was looking down at us because we didn't get a ton of food.  But lo and behold, for at little amount of food our total till was $78!  How the hell did that happen (well, the 2 carafes of white wine is what happened)  Next time, we are going to Shack Shake across the street.   

Flex Mussels Visited 3/21/2011 2.5 Forks

Flex Mussels 154 W 13th St., (between Avenue Of The Americas & 7th Ave), Manhattan, NY 10011

I have always loved mussels so when a restaurant says that they focus just on mussels I got excited.  Outside they advertise that between 5-7pm they offer all-you-can eat mussels if you sit at the bar, which is definitely something to think about.  My initial impression of the decor was that it was much more upscale and nicer than the seafood shack that I had envisioned with a name like Flex Mussels.  

The menu basically consists of 20 types of mussels in different kinds of broth which range from the classic white wine broth to the fancier ones lobster and shrimp broth.  They also offer other seafood dishes such as a lobster roll, grilled fish, fish and chips and an array of appetizers.  We started with the burnt fingers which was a fried appetizer that consists of shrimp (only 2 of them), calamari, and oysters (only 2 also).  The batter was actually pretty light and it wasn't overly greasy tasting which was nice.  I ordered the thai mussels ($18.50) which came with a curry, coconut, and lemongrass broth while Dan got the Mexican which came with chorizo sausage ($19.50).  We also got a side of old bay fries because you can't have mussels without fries! Meanwhile Dan's aunt got the crabcakes and his uncle got the fish and chips.  At first when the mussels came out I was impressed with the presentation.  It comes out in these large steel pots and it gets you all excited about your meal.  But then you look in and the mussels are actually pretty small and most of them were empty.  The type of mussels that I love are the giant plump New Zealand mussels you usually find in Thai restaurants.  These were pretty small and not plump at all.  But I will say that the broth was actually quite tasty and could have stood alone as a soup.  I didn't really try Dan's dish and took a bite of the crabcake and wasn't too impressed.  It has a very distinct celery seed taste and you could see chunks of carrot (WTF?!) in in.  As a total Maryland crabcake snob, I expect 100% crab and 0% filler.  And speaking of Maryland, the old bay seasoned fries were just mediocre.  The fries weren't anything to really write home about (although my experience might have been tainted considering I just came from PJ Clarke's where they have amazing fries) and the old bay didn't really add anything to them either. 

What really made dinner less than thrilling was the service.  There was only 1 waiter for the entire back section of the restaurant, which is pretty absurd.  So as you can imagine the service was slooooooooooow.  It took forever to get his attention to pay the bill and it just made for a very unnecessarily long dinner.  I would consider going here for the all you can eat deal but other than that, my overall impression was a solid meh.    

Zenkichi Visited 3/20/2011 4.5 Forks

Zenkichi 77 N 6th St., Brooklyn, NY 11230

 Zenkichi is one of those restaurants that has been on my list FOREVER.  I've actually booked reservations for this place several times but always end up canceling it in favor of something else.  But I am so glad I finally made it there because it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.  One of the reasons I finally pulled the trigger was because they had the Dine in Brooklyn deal of a 3-course meal for $25 which is a great deal considering the usual omakase is $55 (although it does come with 8 courses). 


When you first walk into the restaurant, it's totally dark and maze-like.  The booths are very private (they come with blinds to keep outsiders out) and tiny to the point where we were almost sitting on top of each other in our booth.  The booth comes with a buzzer at the table where you can call your waiter whenever you want.  They initially gave us the regular menu without the Dine In Brooklyn menu.  I hate asking for other menus because it kind of makes me feel like I am asking for something I shouldn't be.  Originally I thought that we would save a ton of money and get 2 Dine In Brooklyn tasting menus, but after thinking about it, by getting 1 regular tasting menu and 1 Dine in Brooklyn would let us try 11 different items on the menu.  At first our waiter was hesitant to do it because the "timing" would be off but he went and asked the chef and they were ok with it but they would have to charge us extra for the regular tasting menu ($65 instead of $55) and even though I was fine with it but I was also kind of annoyed about it.

Now to the food.  It was god damn amazing.  Everything was of the highest quality and so fresh it reminded me of the difference between a good meal and an amazing meal.  I'll list out each dish since we had so many.

Miso Soup - We started with miso soup, which was fine really, nothing amazing but I did like it had snow peas and cabbage which was something different instead of the usual tofu and seaweed. 

Chilled Plate (from the regular tasting menu): This came with the sashimi of the day (spanish mackerel), fresh scallop and broccoli rabe, marinated bamboo shoots and an octopus simmered in soy broth.  I honestly have never liked mackerel because it's usually so fishy so I was a bit disappointed when he told us the sashimi of the day was mackerel.  But it was seriously the most AMAZING piece of fish I've ever had.  It was so fresh and had no hint of fishiness to it.  I don't know how or why it's so different from every other mackerel I've had but I would have literally paid any amount of money for it.  The fresh scallop was also incredibly delicious and melt in your mouth.  I've never really like bamboo shoots and this dish didn't really change my mind.  The octopus was so different from any kind of octopus I've ever had too.  Usually it's really chewy and tasteless but this one almost tasted like meat.  There was no hint of the rubber-y taste I come to expect with octopus.


Sake Accompaniment (Dine In Brooklyn menu):  Ok, to be honest Dan and I thought they were talking about the alcoholic beverage so when these 3 little dishes came out we were a bit bewildered.  It was wasabi marinated jellyfish, seaweed, and lotus root.  Of the 3 I really like the wasabi jellyfish because the wasabi flavor really came through but the other two really had nothing special to them.


Zenkichi Salad (regular menu):  this was a lightly sesame dressed spinach and arugula salad with freshly made soft tofu.  The greens were great and I felt really healthy eating it. I thought the tofu was good and definitely fresh tasting but it's kind of hard to eat soft tofu with chopsticks.  I can see how some people are turned off by the tofu because it does have a creamy/slimey texture to it but I didn't mind it. 


Maguro Carpaccio (Dine In Brooklyn menu):  This was 8 pieces of fresh tuna covered in a yuzu sauce.  Amazing.  Enough said.


Tempura (regular menu): this came with baby corn, asparagus, and shrimp.  This was a good standard tempura dish and wasn't too oily which can usually be an issue with tempura.  Funny enough, I was just talking about how I really wanted asparagus tonight and lo and behold, there it was.  I was surprised at how thick and meaty the asparagus was since it's not really in season.  


Miso Cod (regular menu):  Miso cod is really a staple in any good Japanese restaurant and this place was no exception. It was perfectly flaky and tender and the miso gave it a nice flavor.  It was a bit small in size but given that we had so many other dishes, it wasn't too big of a deal.

Lamb Chop (regular menu):  The chop was a kind of small and was about 3 bites total between the two of us.  It was cooked medium rare and the meat came off the bone pretty easily and while it was good, of all the dishes, it was kind of at the bottom of my favorites.   


Rocksalt Chicken (Dine in Brooklyn menu):  This chicken was one of my favorite dishes of the night...mostly because it had probably the most fat in it.  I don't mean it in a bad way, but the chicken was extremely juicy.  It had the skin on, which gave it that deliciousness that comes with that layer of fat underneath the skin.  It was perfectly salted and it came with a green spicy/tangy side mixture.  The combination of the chicken, sauce and sticky rice was pretty god damn good.


Yellowtail Tartar (regular menu):  This was chopped up yellowtail served over sticky white rice.  It was good but too heavy on the rice.  I felt like it was 80% rice and 20% fish.  It would have been better if the fish was cut up into bigger cubes and obviously if there was more of it. 


Black Sesame Mousse (Dine In Brooklyn menu):  This was basically 2 large scoops of ice cream that tasted like red bean paste.  It was refreshing but different from any kind of ice cream I've had before. 


Walnut Chocolate Pudding (regular menu):  This actually seemed more like a mousse than the actual mousse we had.  It was very smooth and chocolaty with this ever so slight tinge of yogurt (?), although I don't really think there was any yogurt in it.  It might have come from the type of chocolate they used in the dish. 


The entire meal took almost 2 1/2 hours but it didn't really seem that long.  While the waiter was afraid that the timing would be off, it was actually all timed really well.  I'm glad we didn't get 2 of the same tasting menu since this really allowed us to try almost 1/2 of the menu.  Even though this is not a sushi place, all of the fish based dishes were simply the best and so fresh tasting.  I would highly recommend coming back and just ordering the fish dishes.  What was great about this meal was that it was fairly healthy and nothing was too oily or fatty.  So when we left, we were full but not to the point where we were really uncomfortable.  The ambiance is incredibly unique and I can see how it can be "romantic" but it was a bit cramped for us.  This is definitely a great place for a special night out.  Total bill with tax and tip $59/pp.

Mingalaba Visited 3/15/2011 4 Forks

Mingalaba 1213 Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame, CA

 I was in SF (ok, really I was in Burlingame, but close enough right?) for literally 24 hours and was lucky enough to be able to snag dinner with Neera and Levi while I was there.  While the idea of having dinner in SF was ideal, I was so tired from flying in that morning, that having dinner in Burlingame seemed like the best idea.

Luckily Neera had actually been to a good restaurant in the area so we didn't really have to do a lot of thinking or research.  By the time Neera came to pick me up at my hotel, I barely had one eye open but was excited for her suggestion of Burmese food.  Strangely enough, despite all my travels and eating, I have never had Burmese food.  I suspected it would be similar to Thai, India, and Cambodian food and it was.  We ended up at Mingalaba and it was surprisingly packed on a random rainy Tuesday night.  The menu was indeed very similar to Thai but also to Chinese (although I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that the place was run by Chinese people).  We ordered the tea leaf salad, string beans, spicy basil beef, and spicy asparagus chicken.  The tea leaf salad was unlike anything I have before: it comes out totally deconstructed with small piles of cabbage, dried shrimp, fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, split yellow peas, tomatoes and this mixture of tea leaves.  The waiter then mixes it all up for you at the table.  It was a really interesting combination of flavors and texture.  The peanuts, peas, cabbage, and sesame seeds gave it a nice crunch while the garlic really packed in much of the flavor.  I could see this being more of a dipping "sauce" than a salad but none the less, I had no real complaints about it.  Next came the 3 other dishes and surprisingly my favorite was the string beans.  They were so crispy and fresh tasting but maybe I liked it because it was covered in garlic too (thank god I was not on a date!).  But I could barely stop myself from eating them.  The other two dishes were also tasty but kind of reminded me or your typical Chinese or Thai chicken or beef dish. They were good, but kind of scrimped on the meat. There were more veggies on these dishes than chicken or beef, but the meat that was there was flavorful and the veggies were also crisp and delicious so it wasn't like the dish was lacking in goodness.

Overall, I enjoyed my first Burmese meal, although with the exception of the tea leaf salad, you could have told me we were in a typical Asian restaurant and I would have believed you.  Maybe next time I will order more "typical" Burmese dishes (although everything we ordered had a lovely lotus flower next to it indicating that they were Burmese specialties). Total bill including rice and 3 drinks was $72.

Hundred Acres Visited 3/13/2011 3.75 Forks

Hundred Acres 38 MacDougal St., New York, NY 10012

 With a name like Hundred Acres, how could they not be a cute brunch place? I had actually never heard of this place before but Aarti had mentioned that she had recently had a great meal there, so I was definitely down with trying it out.  It's owned by the same people as Five Points and Cookshop and you can tell that they are all related sibling restaurants.  It's got that local/organic/farm to table/cute American restaurant feel to it. 

The decor of the restaurant was very homey but yet the actual space was pretty big. We sat in the very bright atrium in the back of the restaurant and it kind of made me feel like I was at a wedding under a white tent.  The menu has a lot of great sounding brunch dishes from pancakes, donuts, biscuits, scrambles and poached eggs dishes.  I got the sausage and eggs ($15), Dan got the chiliquilas ($12), Aarti got the goat cheese bread pudding ($13) and Will got the pancakes ($11) with a side of jalapeno cheese grits ($6) and the table split the warm cream biscuits with homemade spreads ($7).  The biscuits came out first and it was 2 large fluffy-looking biscuits and one small slice of banana nut bread and then it came with sweet butter, apple butter and some kind of fruit jelly.  The biscuit was fine, I wasn't blown away by it. It was a bit dry on the outside and too crumbly but the inside was fine.  I didn't try the banana nut because I hate nuts, but it didn't look like anything special.  Meanwhile the actual homemade spreads and butter were delicious.  The apple butter literally tasted like smooth applesauce.  Our dishes came out shortly after wards.  My sausage and eggs were very beautifully plated, it was almost too fancy for brunch.  You could tell the sausage was homemade and it was flavored well and I was glad that they were fairly thick in size.  Now to the eggs...anyone who knows me or reads this blog frequently knows that I am very strict on my poached eggs and these were poached perfectly! As soon as you cut into them, the yolk was super runny but yet the whites still maintained their structure.  The few disappointing parts of my dish were that it was supposed to be on a bed of grits but there was barely any grits and the part that I did taste wasn't cheesey enough.  The dish also came topped with watercress, which I didn't eat but I did end up tasting a small leaf and it was so grassy tasting, I thought it was totally unnecessary on the dish.  The pork jus sauce also didn't add anything to the dish either, it just made everything too wet.  I tasted Dan's chilaquiles and it was fine, but it was a bit off with the pickled beets on top.  Will's pancake didn't come with syrup, which I thought was weird. I mean who eats pancakes without syrup?! And they looked a bit flat and non-fluffy and the fruit seemed like an after thought tossed on there.  But he said they tasted pretty decent. I didn't try the goat cheese bread pudding but it did look quite tasty.


Meanwhile, the service was a bit off.  Our waiter just didn't seem very interested in us and then when the bus boys came to take our plates, they kept asking if it was ok to take our plates when they were completely clean.  I am usually a bit annoyed by people who ask if they can take my plate when it is very obvious that there is nothing on there. But I guess it's just polite to ask just in case but I did find it weird.  Plus we had to ask about the side of grits as it didn't come out at the same time as our meal and later our waiter brought our check without asking us first which made it feel like they were rushing us out. Overall, it was a very cute place and I can see why it's a popular place for brunch but there were still a few kinks to work out. Our total bill was $100 with tip which is a bit high for just brunch without cocktails.

Yerba Buena Visited 3/5/2011 4 Forks

Yerba Buena  23 Ave. A, New York, NY 10009

For some reason whenever I have to think of a restaurant to go to for dinner, I can never think of anything!  I end up surfing the net for hours and deciding that everything on my ever growing list of new places to try are just not right for some reason.   So it was good that Aarti and I were able to agree to Yerba Buena rather quickly.  Luckily for us, it was a great pick.

 I agree with Immaculate Infatuation's assessment that at first glance the prices were a bit expensive and there weren't many veggie options for Aarti.  But she was able to order enough veggie side dishes to make a great meal and while the prices were high, the service and quality of the food did make up for it.  Even though it was 8pm on a Saturday and it was crowded, we didn't have to wait too long for a table despite the small size of the restaurant.  At first when the waitstaff took my coat, I was a bit annoyed because I hate coat check, but they actually just carried it to our table and put it behind our chair.  Nice touch.  Food wise, I ordered the Brazilian paella ($27) which came with shrimp, calms, calamari, crawfish, white fish, arroz verde and it's cooked in a coconut milk.  Aarti ordered the rice and beans ($7), the hearts of palm ($7) and the corn ($7) and we shared the guacamole ($10).  The guac was a bit small but it was tasty and the chips were nice and salty and crispy.  The waitress had told us that the hearts of palm look and taste like chicken tenders and I had no idea what she was talking about.  But you know what? It were breaded and fried and DID taste like chicken tenders.  It came with a fabulous spicy aoli mayo, which you all know is one of my favorite dipping sauces.  Aarti really liked the rest of her dishes, which was a great relief since most of the entrees were not veggie friendly.  I actually didn't love the corn that she got because it was the more Latin/South American corn which are really large nut tasting kernels and not the smaller, fresh, crisp kernels.

My paella came out and it was quite delicious.  You could really taste the coconut milk and there was plenty of seafood...at least 5 clams, 2 large crawfish, 2 very large and well cooked shrimp, and plenty of other okra, and white fish.  The one thing that I would have like was for it to have more rice.  There really wasn't enough rice (which was quite good because it was arroz verde so it's got this green cilantro flavor to it) to the point where it was just like a curry broth instead of a rice-heavy paella.  We were so full from our meal that we couldn't have any dessert, although there wasn't a lot that was screaming at me, but I'm sure that they would have been super tasty.  The total bill with 2 cocktails (apparently my mojito was called the Best mojito in NYC by the NYTimes) and without tip was $89.