Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter Visited 10/18/2012 3 Forks

Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter 94 Ave C., New York, NY 10009

I was so excited to try this place because it's been written up in a lot of blogs as having great fried chicken and other heart stopping food.  While the food wasn't bad (more on that later), something went awry with the fryer and Jenn and Kristen and I literally waited over 30 minutes for our food, and waiting that long for food kind of soured me to the whole dinner (even though they were very polite about it and I'm sure they were stressing out about it too).

The restaurant itself is very casual and small.  There are about 4 tables and then 4-5 seats at the bar.  You order at the counter and they then bring your food to you, so there's no waitstaff or any formal dining experience.  I ordered the fried chicken dinner ($11.50) which came with 3 pieces of chicken, a biscuit and a side salad.  Kristen had mentioned that our friend Mike said the portions were small and that it would be worth getting a side, so I also ordered the mac and cheese ($4.50).   Jenn also got the fried chicken dinner and Kristen got the buffalo chicken sandwich and a side of grits.  And then we waited and waited until the point Jenn mentioned that we all might be on the verge of turning into the Incredible Hulk if we didn't get fed soon.  Finally the guy behind the counter comes over and apologizes that something went wrong with the fryer and that they were working as hard as they could to get the chicken out.  But in the meantime, would we be interested in a free side of chicken pot pie? Umm, yes please!  Sadly, I didn't think the pie was all that jazz.  The crust could have been flakier and more buttery and I usually expect the inside of pot pies to be very hearty but this was very soupy and thin.  You could actually barely eat it any of it with a fork.  But I did appreciate that they tried to do something nice for us.  Finally, after what seemed like 10 years, the chicken comes out.  You could tell it was just from the fryer too and it smelled delicious.  The first cut into the chicken was great.  Super moist and very juicy.  I was a big fan so far.  Every subsequent bite was also pretty good but my one compliant would be that there was too much fried skin.  I like a nice thin crispy skin, but some parts of the chicken had too much batter and friedness to it.  However, I did think it was a solid fried chicken dish.  I also really enjoyed the biscuit and thought it was pillowy and made with buttery goodness.  As for the salad, I could have totally done without it.  It was overdressed with a honey mustard dressing and it was just a bunch of lettuce and nothing else. 

I really could have ended the meal there as there was plenty of chicken to go around and the biscuit was very filling.  I had no business eating a side of mac and cheese on top of it.  I didn't finish the mac and cheese and to be honest, it wasn't very good.  It was dry and there wasn't an ounce of gooey-ness to it. Very disappointing.  I also tried Kristen's grits and there was an overwhelming spring onion taste to it.  I mean, I really like spring onions but this was just out of control.  I felt like I had bitten into a giant spring onion and could barely taste the grits.

I  liked the concept of the place and would be interested in trying other things on the menu (heard good things about the catfish), but I would definitely avoid any sides in the future.  I would come back but maybe just not immediately.  Total bill: $19 with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Rosemary's Enoteca and Trattoria Visited 10/13/2012 4 Forks

Rosemary's Enoteca and Trattoria 18 Greenwich Ave., (between Charles St & 10th St), New York, NY 10011

I had been wanting to try Rosemary's for a while but there was always a ridiculous long line full of douche-y looking guys and high maintenance girls, so I've been avoiding it for a while.  But Cicily and I both wanted an early Saturday night dinner, so I had hoped that Rosemary's would be pretty empty that early in the evening.  Oh but I was wrong. The place was completely packed to the brim and the host said it would be an hour wait.  I reluctantly put my name down but was already racking my brain of where else we could eat nearby.  All of a sudden, 10 minutes later my phone rings and they told me my table was ready.  Success!  I run in only to find out that they don't seat incomplete parties so they had to give my table up (the host rudely told me "what did you think I was going to do with it?").  Ugh, luckily 10 minutes later Cicily shows up and they were able to accommodate us rather quickly. 

The restaurant has a rooftop farm, so many of their ingredients are literally farm to table.  The left hand side was more small plates to share and then the right hand side was bigger sized dishes.  We decided to split the housemade mozzarella ($10) and the rosemary foccacia with sea salt ($5).  For entrees, I ordered the cavatelli with oxtail ragu ($14) and Cicily got the orecchiette with sausage ($14).  Drink wise, what's great about the wine list is that they have tons upon tons of options of $40/bottle.  We opted for a bottle of pinot nero which was perfect for the night.  The mozzarella came out topped with tons of olive oil and fresh basil.  The cheese itself was amazing!! So fresh and delicious with just the right hint of salt.  It was paired perfectly with the warm crunchy but soft foccacia bread.  I wish there was a bit more basil on the cheese but none the less the dish was a fantastic start to dinner.  Our pasta dishes came out next and while the serving size was a bit on the small size, it was more than made up with taste.  My pasta was perfectly done (just a bit al dente) and there was a heaping of moist oxtail ragu on top of it.  Cicily had mentioned that her pasta was delicious and that she could have had another bowl of it.  I have to say that compared to all the other Italian hotspots in the West Village, the prices here for their pastas were extremely reasonable and I think much better tasting.   None of the pastas were in the $20+ range which many of the more high end places have started to trend towards.  It's really quite ridiculous when to stop to think about how places charge $20+ for pasta.  But for $14, I, too, could have had another entire bowl of my pasta.  

Given the smaller size of the pasta we both had room for dessert.  Cicily got the vanilla gelato ($5) and I got the tiramisu ($8).  I can only speak for the tiramisu which was wonderful.  It came in this small cute maison like jar where you could see each perfect layer of cream and cake.  I will say that I wish it had a bit more hint of espresso in the cake part but otherwise, it was a great way to end the meal. 

But the time we left dinner around 8:30, there were so many people in the front area you'd think it was the only restaurant in town.  While I most definitely loved the food, I had to dock it 1/2 fork for the slightly obnoxious atmosphere.  Besides just being way too crowded, it was also incredibly loud inside.  It's not really the place to go if you're looking for a nice quiet dinner with someone, but despite that I would still brave the crowds and go back for more pasta please! Total bill: $62/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Talde Visited 10/11/2012 2 Forks

Talde 369 7th Ave., (between 6th Ave & 5th Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11215

I haven't been back to Park Slope to try a new restaurant in a while.  It's not because I don't love the area, I still do, but it's just not as convenient to get to as it used to be.  But I had heard so much about Talde and have a love for Top Chef, I finally got around to going last week.  I had really high hopes for it and thought that it would be one of those places that I would be extremely jealous that it opened after I moved from Park Slope.  Sadly I was totally not impressed and miss places like Yamato or Beet more.

The waiter told us that everything was meant to be shared so Nancy and I ordered the following: Pretzel Pork & Chive Dumplings with spicy mustard ($8), Crispy Oyster & Bacon Pad Thai ($16), Char Siu Smoked Pork Shoulder ($18) and the #369 side which brussels sprouts and green sambal ($7).  I was excited that everything was Asian but with a slight twist to it.  The dumplings came out first and I wasn't really sure how the pretzel would be incorporated into the dish and to be honest I'm still not 100% sure.  I guess the skin of the dumpling was thicker and a bit browner than normal dumpling skin? But similar to a pretzel, one bite into the dumpling and I felt like I was biting into a bowl of salt.  The skin was so salty that I could barely taste anything else.  Then I dipped it into the mustard sauce and I don't know if there was something wrong with it or what, but the sauce just tasted awful.  Really sour and off.  Normally I love a spicy mustard sauce but I just couldn't bring myself to dip anymore of the dumplings in there.  Next they brought out the other 3 dishes.  The pork was cooked medium rare and had a touch of smokey flavoring that was great.  It was probably my favorite dish of the night...that is until I ate the last piece that was remaining on the plate.  It was kind of like the butt end of the shouler and it was also super salty and chewy.  If I hadn't eaten that last bite, I would have raved about it a lot more, but that last linger bite kind of made me turn on the dish.  The pad thai was served with 4 bites of crispy oysters which I didn't think added to the dish at all.  The noodles itself were cooked fine but the bacon flavoring yet again made the whole dish super salty.  I would have preferred a more basic simple pad thai from a local Thai place compared to this.  As for the brussels sprouts they were drowning in the green sambal.  The sprouts that were more lightly covered in the sambal tasted better but the majority of the sprouts were literally soaking sambal that made it difficult to taste the actual vegetable.  For dessert, we decided to try the halo-halo which was essentially shaved ice with coconut, lychee, mango and then covered with captain crunch cereal.  It was definitely different and refershing but honestly the fact that I paid money for shaved ice topped with cereal is a bit crazy when you think about it.

I don't mean to totally dog on the food as I've had much worse, but it was all just so super underwhelming and in the light of all the hyped up trendy Asian places such as Mission Chinese and Yunnan Kitchen, Talde just doesn't stack up.  But I will say that the service was very attentive and friendly and I did see Dale from Top Chef working in the restaurant, which just makes me feel even sadder that I had to give this place a bad review.  Total bill: $40/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Raymi Visited 10/2/2012 4 Forks

Raymi 43 W 24th St., (between Broadway & S Park Ave), New York, NY 10010

I had some initial reservations about trying out Raymi since I had an ok experience at his other restaurant Zengo a few years ago.  But I was willing to give his new restaurant another try since I do love a good ceviche and frankly because it was in a convenient location to meet up with a friend of mine.  When I got to the restaurant they told me that they were still undergoing a soft opening.  Frankly, I've never really truly understood what that means.  I mean I guess it means you still have time to change things if they aren't working out.  But I feel like you only have one chance to make a first impression, so if I eat there during your soft opening and it sucks, I don't really care that it's a soft opening or not.  But luckily for Raymi the food did not suck.

I got to the restaurant early so I sat at the bar while I waited for Kristen.  The bartender was super super friendly and really nice and chatty.  When Kristen came to dinner, we decided that it would be easier to eat at the bar rather than close out my tab and try to find a table.  While the food is not tapas style, we decided to split a bunch of appetizers so that we could try out a lot of different dishes (I've always been a big fan of lots of appetizers rather than 1 big plate.  I had always said that if I ever got married I would only have a long cocktail hour with passed h'orderves and no sit down dinner).  We decided to get the salmon ceviche ($15), the special fish collar ($18), the grilled octopus and calamari ($14), the corn empanada ($12), and the chicken skewer ($11). The salmon ceviche was essentially cubes of raw salmon served with ginger, wontons, sesame seeds and peanuts in a tangy citrus marinate.  The bartender recommended that we eat it with a spoon so that we could get a bit of the everything in one bite which was totally the right call.  I would have preferred it to be a bit more sour and tangy as it had more of a sweet ginger taste to it, but overall I still enjoyed the dish.  I wouldn't say that it was the most authentic of ceviches but unless there's something not fresh about the fish, I am just a huge sucker for raw fish in any form.  Next came the fish collar and I apologize but I can't remember what kind of fish it was.  I know it wasn't yelllowtail, tuna or salmon.  Maybe sea bass?  In anycase, one of my favorite Japanese dishes is yellowtail collar.  The meat in fish collar is so tender and since the collar bone is pretty big, you can usually avoid any small bones.  This collar was fried and then served up.  Of course I can never say no to fried food, but I would have liked this dish to have been steamed or baked instead of fried.  I would have also liked the collar to be bigger considering it was $18 but the meat was still tender and enjoyable.   Next came the 3 other dishes: chicken skewer, corn empanada and grilled octopus and calamari.  The chicken skewer was served with a bbq glaze and ginger scallion sauce and I was through impressed with how juicy the chicken was.  I usually find chicken skewers to be dry but this was fantastic and the glaze and sauce added quite a punch to the dish.  The corn empanadas were fried with mozzarella cheese inside and topped with cilantro and chimichurri.  It was a nice solid dish that really filled me up.  As for the grilled octopus and calamari, I'm gonna be honest and say I don't remember a lot about this dish, not because it was bad but because I was 3 drinks in and things were starting to get just a bit hazy.  I do recall the octopus and calamari being cooked right and not too chewy which is always a good sign. 

The good news was that it was all night happy hour and on Tuesdays they also served pig ears, tails and ribs as well as a whole suckling pig.  We didn't try any of it, but the bartender could not stop raving about the entire experience.  I would be interested in trying it if other people are.    I was thoroughly stuffed by the time we left dinner and left feeling really satisfied with all my food.  While I don't love the location very much and I did think the prices were about $3-4 more than what they should be, I really did enjoy my night there a lot.  Total bill $68/pp.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Battersby Visited 9/29/2012 3.5 Forks

Battersby 255 Smith St., (between Douglass St & Degraw St), Brooklyn, NY 11231

There always tons of hot "It" restaurants lists in New York and Battersby in Brooklyn seems to be on every single one of these lists lately.  So of course I had to check it out.  After careful research, I read that like every other hot restaurant in town that is the size of my bathroom and doesn't really take reservations for small parties, you need to get to Battersby right when it opens if you want to avoid getting angry and be told you have a 2+ hour wait.  So Aarti and I decided to meet at 4:30 and walk around the area first.  When I got there are 4:30pm, lo and behold, there already was 1 person patiently standing in line.  Seriously, is this what we've come down to now? Waiting in line for dinner at 4:30?!  Regardless, we came back to the restaurant at 5:20 (10 minutes before it opens) and there were already 10 people in line.  Sheesh.  We anxiously waited to see if we would make the cut and luckily we did get a nice seat outside in the back patio.

I'll get into the food in a bit (which was excellent) but there were just some things preceding my meal that bumped the fork rating down a bit, besides the ridiculous wait outside.  First, when we were seated (and mind you there were only 5 other tables seated before us), the hostess told us that we wouldn't be able to see a food menu for a bit because they only have 1-2 menus and that other people were using them first.  Umm, what?!? How does that even make any sense? Why can't they print more menus? Or if it's a timing thing with the kitchen, I'd still rather see the menu but have you tell me that the food will come out later.  Luckily, we were able to order from the cocktail menu first.  Second,  we waited and waited to get the food menu and then waited and waited to actually order our food.  I wasn't sure why it would take someone so long to order and pass the menus on because there are only 11 items on the entire menu.  It takes about 2 minutes to read the whole thing.  In any case, Aarti and I started with the crisp Kale Salad with Green Papaya, Radish, Peanuts ($12), I also got the Corn Chowder with New Potato, Smoked Bacon, Peekytoe Crab ($15).  For entrees, Aarti got the Roasted Broccoli Pecorino Toscano, Lemon, Arugula ($12) and the Market Green Ravioli with Baby Vegetables, Brown Butter ($19) while I got the Berkshire Pork Belly with Coco Beans, Aji Dulce Peppers ($27).

Before the food came out, they served us this fresh from the oven delicious rosemary focaccia bread with a ricotta cheese spread.  We could not stop eating the bread and that's probably why we walked out of dinner feeling like someone had stuffed us like turkeys.   But the bread was amazing.  Warm, soft, pillowy with a hit of crunch on the outside.  Then they delivered a complimentary small plate of chicken liver crostini with a button mushroom on top.  It was pretty good, the liver wasn't too grainy and the bite size was just enough to whet my appetite for real food.  I had heard a lot of great things about the kale salad and they weren't wrong.  It was fabulous.  There was a layer of crispy baked kale and then the bottom had finely shredded fresh kale with green papaya and then topped with radishes and peanuts.  It was incredibly refreshing and light and probably one of the best kale dishes I've had in a long time.   For my chowder, it was one of those fancy soups where they place all the ingredients in the bowl first and then they pour the soup base separately in front of you.  The chowder was creamy and you could indeed taste and see all the cubes of potato, bacon and crab meat in there.  But it was more thin than I expect a chowder to be.  When I hear chowder, I have visions of really thick and hearty dish.  This was more of an actual soup except it was a cream base.  In hindsight, with all the bread I ate and the heavy pork belly dish that I ordered, I probably didn't need to have ordered another rich dish.  Oh well.  Next came the pork belly dish.  I will say that the quality and presentation of this dish was 4 to 4.5 forks.  The pork belly was delicious and cooked to perfection.  It wasn't too fatty where I felt like I would be clogging my arteries while I ate my food, but it did have the perfect layer of fat and crispy skin on the outside that made my mouth and stomach very happy.  The layers of meat was also cooked exactly how pork belly should be cooked: moist and juicy.  My one small complaint would be that the beans that came with the dish, while very good, made the dish too heavy.  The beans were similar in taste and texture to baked beans (though not as sweet) and combining that with a hearty meat dish made the whole dish a bit too rich for me.

I should note that they do have a 7 course tasting menu and I did see several people get it and the food did look amazing.  It almost seemed like the food wouldn't stop coming out for them. The couple next to us got it and they hadn't even gotten to dessert by the time we left.  All in all, the quality and presentation of the food was definitely top notch, no complaints there.  My only gripe was all the pre-seating drama and the waiting before hand.  I'm not sure if the hype will all die out, at which point I would be happy to come back but not if I have to get in line at 4:30 on a Saturday again.  Total bill: $71/pp with tax tip and a drink.

Photo Credit: Bon Appetit

Perla Visited 9/29/2012 4 Forks

Perla 24 Minetta Ln., New York, NY 10012

High end Italian restaurants in the West Village have been all the rage these past few years.  There's L'Artusi, Dell'Anima, Spasso, and Morandi just to name a few.  Perla comes by way of the people behind Joseph Leonard, Jeffrey's Grocery and Fedora, so I knew that it has to be at least a pretty good place to eat.  Perla is tucked away on Minetta Lane and has a first come first serve policy.  I was a bit nervous that Holly and I would end up waiting 2 hours on a Friday night, but luckily we literally got the last 2 top in the restaurant.  The table was about the size of a peanut and Holly and I were sitting at the end of the row of tables but I didn't care, it was better than having to wait until 9 or 10pm for a table. 

The first thing I noticed was that the place was definitely hopping.  There was a constant flow of people but it was never so crowded and loud that you felt claustrophobic.  While the menu has a definite Italian slant (it does change often), almost every dish had a slight adventurous flare to it too.  For appetizers they had crispy pig ears, veal tongue, and snail just to mention a few.  Holly and I were feeling a bit adventurous and decided that we would go with the snail with red wine and crispy duck neck ($15) to start.  For entrees, I was so torn because so many things sounded great.  I was initially leaning towards the black tagliatelle with skate and sea urchin ($27), the spaghetti with rock shrimp, sweet tomato and basil ($25)  or the pork cheeks with polenta ($27).  The waitress asked me how hungry I was and I said I was pretty hungry (when am I not?), so she recommend the pork cheeks because it was a heartier dish and she mentioned that the pasta dishes would most likely be on the menu for a bit while the pork cheeks wouldn't be.  Sold on the pork cheeks!  I am such a sucker when someones tells me if something is only available for a limited time only (even if it isn't true).  Holly got the lamb breast and neck with shiso peppers and buttermilk crema ($24) --- as our waitress said, there was a lot of necking at our dinner (drum roll please!).  

It's been a while since I've had snail but since I love slimey/chewy things like oysters, clams, and squid, I wasn't worried that I wouldn't like it.  They were served out of their shell and soaked in a red wine sauce and topped with thin shreds of crispy duck necks, which Holly mentioned kind of looked like fried onions.  The snails were cooked just right and weren't too tough or chewy.  The red wine sauce was a bit overpowering but then at some point I did find myself sopping up my bread with the sauce, so clearly I did like it. The dish had a nice earthy but elegant feel feel to it.  Next came our main entrees and I was pleasantly surprised at how many pieces of pork cheeks there were.  There were 3 very large pieces on top of a thin layer of creamy polenta and served with some kale and roasted squash.  I've had beef cheek before but never pork cheeks.  These cheeks were delicious.  While they looked like little medallions of meat, it had more of a pulled shoulder consistency.  They had given me a sharp knife to cut into the dish, but you really could have cut it with a butter knife because that's how soft and tender it was.  The combination with the soft polenta and kale was fabulous.  As the waitress had mentioned, it was indeed a hearty meal.  Almost a bit too hearty though.  Even though it's almost October, it was still pretty humid and muggy outside and the dish felt more appropriate for a cold winter's meal.  I had a taste of Holly's lamb dish with yogurt sauce and she had the same impression that I had about my dish.  It was good but very heavy and given the weather outside, it was a bit difficult to eat an entire plate full of heavy meat.  Although I don't regret my order at all, I did see someone get served the spaghetti with rock shrimp and it looked amazing.  For that dish alone, I totally want to come back and try a pasta dish. 

By the time we left the restaurant, it was definitely wall to wall packed with people.  So I would definitely advise to get there early if you can.  I do want to acknowledge our waitress was so incredibly helpful and actually was able to describe every dish we had a question with.  That to me shows me that the staff is well trained and highly educated on the menu.  I also liked that she wasn't afraid to voice her opinion about what's good and what dishes she liked better than others.  I hate waiters/waitresses who either don't know anything about the menu or can't offer an honest opinion when asked.  It's a bit difficult for me to compare this head to head with the other Italian places in the neighborhood because I didn't have pasta, but that's why I've got to come again and try it out.  Total bill: $84/pp with tax, tip and several glasses of wine.

Photo Credit: Tasting Table

Qi Visited 9/27/2012 3.5 Forks

Qi 31 W 14th St., (between Avenue Of The Americas & 5th Ave), New York, NY 10011

I have passed by Qi a million times but have never eaten there.  It's centrally located right in Union Square and from the outside it's got this funky clubby vibe to it.  So you might think it's one of those over-priced, too cool for school Asian places, but behind the facade the food is really more of your basic, standard Americanized Thai place.  The huge menu has your spring rolls, dumplings, pad thai, fried rice, curries, sauteed entries, and strangely enough Indochine sandwiches (I have no idea what those really are).  I had dinner with Mabel, another Asian friend of mine, and you'd think between the two of us, we would be ordering the more "adventurous" foods.  But no, we both had major cravings for your standard pad thai and fried rice.  How lame are we? :)  

So we split the green papaya salad ($5.50), the chicken pad thai ($9) and shrimp Asian fried rice ($9).  Yes, those prices are accurate.   It's that kind of Thai place where everything is pretty much under $15.  The most expensive item on the menu was the sea bass that was $18.  It's also the kind of place where the food comes out in under 10 minutes.  Before Mabel and I could even catch up on what we did this week, all our dishes came out.  While I do like getting my food in a reasonable amount of time, sometimes getting it this quickly can be a bit frightening.  Another thing to note was that the portions were huge.  I was glad that I was splitting everything with Mabel, otherwise I would have been eating a giant vat of pad thai for hours.  The pad thai was your good basic noodle dish.  It really hit the spot because I had been craving pad thai for a while.  The noodles were sauced well (not too dry, not too sauce-y) and there was plenty of chicken in there to make it a very hearty dish.  The fried rice was also your basic fried rice with egg, scallion, tomatoes, and carrots.  The shrimp was surprisingly plumb and actually tasted like they might be fresh.  I just wish that it was like the fried rices I got in Thailand where it had a fried egg on top.  I much prefer those kinds of fried rice dishes with the runny yolk on top but those are hard to find in the city.  It's not that hard to do but I've only seen it in the more authentic Thai places.  The green papaya salad was like most other green papaya salads I've had with nice crunch and tang to it.  It wasn't super spicy like some salads I've gotten before but it did have a mild bit of heat to it.  My one complaint about it would be that they put it on a huge bed of lettuce and I would have liked it if the entire bowl was filled with the salad instead of the filler.  But for $5.50 I can't really complaint too much. 

The service here was fast and furious.  Before we knew it we had our check in front of us.  We may have ordered, gotten our food, eaten and paid in under an hour.  Crazy.  But the meal was totally what Mabel and I were in the mood for and definitely filled our craving.  I give it 3.5 forks not because the food was so amazing and high quality, but more because the prices were incredibly reasonable, the food is pretty good considering how scary fast it comes out, and the location is perfect.  Plus the decor is trendy enough that when you're eating there, you actually kind of feel like you're eating somewhere fun as opposed to some of the more standard/drab mom and pop places.  Total bill: $17/pp. 

Photo Credit: Yelp