ABC Cocina Visited 8/28/13 4 Forks

ABC Cocina 38 E 19th St., (between Broadway & S Park Ave), New York, NY 10003

I have been trying to eat at ABC Cocina since the day it opened and it's been such a pain the ass to get a table there that I almost gave up the hunt.  The first time I tried to go they quoted me a 3 hour wait and then every time I've looked on Opentable it tells me that there are no open seats for the next 2 weeks.  But I was determined to eat there at some point since it's the sister restaurant to the beloved ABC Kitchen.  The space is in the old Pipa location inside the ABC Carpet store and they honestly didn't really change much of the decor, which is great because it's decorated with all this beautiful vintage ABC furniture and light fixtures.

Swaroopa and I decided to go there on a whim on a Wednesday night around 5:45.  We figured it was so early that there had to be something we could get as a walk in.  When we go there the entire restaurant was empty and they told us that they could only seat us at a table that they needed back in an hour.  That was a bit tight, so we opted to sit at the already crowded first-come-first-serve communal table where we could sit as long as we wanted to.  The menu concept here is similar to ABC Kitchen - fresh, organic, local ingredients in an American tapas format but it's got a hint of Latin American twist as there is a full taco section.  Swaroopa wasn't starving so we ordered the guacamole ($11) and cheese fondue ($14) to split and then I ordered the ham and cheese fritters ($10) and crispy fish tacos ($13) for myself.  I was a bit bummed that the guacamole wasn't the fresh spring pea version that everyone has been raving about but instead just a regular guacamole.  The guac was good, fresh, and smooth with just a few chunks of avocado but I would have loved to have experienced the pea version because I'm sure it would have been really tasty and unique.  We primarily got the cheese fondue because the group next to us got it and it looked gooey and amazing.  But when we ate it, neither of us were very impressed with it.  It was extremely heavy and the cheese they used seemed too strong and it had this sour tangy taste to it that was quite unappealing.  The waitress asked us what was wrong and we just said it was too heavy and not the right dish for us.  I appreciated that she took the time to ask us for our feedback and was very pleasant and not defensive about it.  I know cheese fondue is generally a heavy dish but this one just wasn't a winner in my book.  Luckily, I had the other 2 dishes to look forward to.  The ham and cheese fritters were nicely fried with a balanced and subtle combination of ham and cheese inside.  It was very similar to a croqueta where there isn't tons of obvious pieces of ham or cheese but more of the ham and cheese flavor to it.  The fritters themselves were pretty small, probably 1 or 2 bites max, so if you're sharing it with someone else, be prepared to not get full from this dish.  But the star of the night was the crispy fish tacos.  Good lord, these were AMAZING.  I am usually not a huge fan of small expensive fancy tacos because I feel like they are generally a rip off, but I am totally making an exception for this one.  Yes, they are small (maybe 2-3 bites max), yes they are expensive (there are only 2 of them for $13), yes they are fancy (it's served with spicy aioli mayo and cabbage chili pickle) but they are damn good.  The fish is a light battered, almost tempura-like but it's perfectly done so that it's not greasy or overly battered.  You can still taste the fresh fillet of white fish underneath and the combination with the spicy mayo and shredded nappa cabbage was fantastic.  I would come back here just for these tacos.  I was pretty full by this time, so I wasn't going to order more food.  But the girls next to me got the tomato salad which looked amazing.  They were the reddest, juciest tomatoes I had ever seen and I almost wanted to ask them if I could have a bite.  I would say besides the fish tacos, the way to order here would be to stick to any of the local seasonal vegetable dishes like the tomatoes, corn, beans, and peas.  You can actually piece together a pretty good vegetarian meal here without much difficulty.

By the time we were done eating, the place was completely packed to the gills, so I'm glad that we were able to get a seat at the communal table and didn't have to get  kicked out of an individual table.  My one compliant about the communal table is that it's tight seating - I was almost sitting on top of the girl next to me and it's very very loud.  I could barely hear Swaroopa at times and she was sitting right across from me.  Total bill:  $80/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Atrio Visited 8/27/13 3 Forks

Atrio 102 N End Ave (at Vesey St), New York, NY 10282

Although Atrio is the wine bar/restaurant in the Conrad Hotel across the street from my office, I haven't really been there for dinner because I know from past happy hour experiences it's really expensive and caters more to the Goldman crowd vs. the AXP crowd.  None the less, Cicily, Betsy and I met up for dinner and drinks there because it was so close to the office and didn't require much planning or walking.  

I will say that the layout and decor of the space is super modern, spacious and high end.  Betsy had been here numerous times before for lunch and as soon as we opened the menu she noticed that the lunch and dinner menu were slightly different.  She asked the waiter if they would kindly make some items from the lunch menu for us even though it was dinner.  Luckily they were extremely amenable and said it wouldn't be a problem.  So for starters, the three of us split the warm summer asparagus salad ($16) and the Maplebrook Farm Burrata ($14).  For entrees, Cicily got the orccchiette pasta ($24) and Betsy and I both got the lamb burger ($24) which was not of the dinner menu.  The warm summer asparagus was served with a soft poached egg, manchego gratin, and truffle pancetta dressing.  For a dish whose primary focus is the asparagus, I was a bit disappointed at the skinniness of the asparagus.  They were very thin and just seemed a bit lackluster.  I've gotten better asparagus on my own at Whole Foods.  But the poached egg and manchego were a nice touch to the dish and made it seem like a very multi-dimensional dish beyond just a bunch of asparagus.  Meanwhile the burrata dish was hands down the table's favorite dish of the night.  The soft  milky cheese was served with chopped cucumbers, delicious heirloom tomatoes, and a tangy balsamic dressing.  We wished we had ordered 2 more and were literally sopping up the dressing with bits of left over cheese with the bread at the table.  My one gripe about both dishes was that they were both pretty small in size and at $14 and $16 each I would have expected to get a pretty hearty salad.  At this point, we had one round of really strong (and expensive cocktails) and were ready for our mains.  Initially the lamb burger came out and it was just the burger with melted feta and spicy mayo.  Betsy and I were disappointed that it didn't come with any toppings like tomato, lettuce, pickles etc.  I kind of thought that since they don't really make this for dinner normally, maybe we were getting the abbreviated version.  But alas, our waiter just couldn't carry everything at once and out came a plate of bibb lettuce, sliced heirloom yellow and red tomatoes, red onion and pickles.  When you put them all together, it was one juicy killer burger.  I had my medium rare and it was definitely the right amount of pink inside.  This burger is very filling but yet I managed to finish the whole thing because I just really loved all the ingredients that made this burger.  It was very very heavy on the salt but since I was kind of buzzed it wasn't something that I really realized until I got home and downed almost 4 pints of water.  Although I really enjoyed the burger and think it is up there with the lamb burger at The Breslin, I did really regret eating the entire thing because it was just too much food for one person.  The dish came with fries that I honestly didn't really care for.  They were the very skinny kind and most of them were pretty dry and overcooked.  

By the time the bill came, I was nice and full and drunk. Our waiter was incredibly sweet and nice to us and I think he made our 2nd round of drinks really strong for us because I normally don't get that tipsy off just 2 cocktails.  While I enjoyed the burger and the burrata, what prevents me from really giving this place a stellar rating is the over inflated prices.  It's really just too much money to justify coming here unless you are on a corporate account.  But the service is top notch so I have to give them props for that. Total bill:  $90/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:   Yelp

Brandl Visited 8/24/13 3 Forks

Brandl 703 9th Ave., Belmar, NJ 07719

I have never been to the Jersey Shore before and like most people probably only know about it from the awful MTV show.  So I was never really dying to spend any time where most people spend their days fist pumping.  But when a B-school friend of mine invited me and a bunch of us down to her house in Spring Lake, I was actually pretty excited because it just seemed like something I should do at least once in my life.  I should say that Spring Lake is not the same area where they filmed the show and it was so much nicer and more peaceful than I pictured it.  I was surprised by how much I really liked it down there.  It was a gorgeous and lovely beach town. 

While most of the time we were being lazy bums and tanned by the pool, we did manage to go out to dinner Saturday night.  We had 7:30 reservations at Brandl and we got there about 10 minutes after our designated time but we figured it wouldn't be too big of a deal.  When we checked in with our hostess, she looked like she could really care less that we were there, so that was kind of annoying to deal with.  When she told us that our table wasn't ready yet, we asked how long it would be.  She looked like we had asked her some quantum physics question "I have no idea".  Now, mind you, this was not a huge restaurant and as a hostess I really do expect them to be trained to give an answer to that commonly asked question.  She mentioned that we could sit at the BYOB bar while we waited, which was fine since we had brought 7 bottles of wine with us.  So then we sit at the bar and then proceeded to be ignored for 15 minutes and then finally when they bring us wine glasses, they only brought enough for half of our party.  The hostess finally comes around and tells us that if we want to sit outside, a table will be ready soon.  As a follow-up, we ask how long it would be for a table inside and again, it's a deer caught in headlights look "Ummm, I don't know".  Awesome.  We didn't feel like waiting so we opted for the table outside, but honestly it was not ideal because there was a local band playing outside and it totally drowned out all of our conversations.  When we asked how long they would be playing for...you guessed it, "Uhh, I guess until the sun sets?".  

At this point we were a bit grumpy but doing ok with the wine.  When we did sit down, the waiter totally redeemed the experience from the clueless hostess.  He immediately apologized for the wait and even brought out complimentary calamari as a thank you.  Now that's great customer service.  While it was a nice gesture, the calamari was ok.  It was a bit greasy and the breading wasn't binded to the squid enough, so a few times I would grab a piece and the breading just fell off entirely.  The menu here is mostly seafood since it's located near the beach but it does also have a few delicious sounding chicken, duck, and lamb options.  As a seafood lover, I was torn between scallops, tuna, shrimp or lobster.  I ended up ordering the special salad of the day which was green zebra heirloom tomatoes, pea shoots, goat cheese with thick cuts of bacon and the signature dish of the restaurant the lazy lobster ($35).   The salad was exactly how it was described but I wish it was heavier on the greens instead of the bacon.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love me some thick cut bacon, but it didn't really feel like much of a salad but rather a bacon dish with some side vegetables sprinkled near it.   Then we waited and waited for our entrees.  Thank god for all the wine we had.  At this point, it was definitely after sunset and the band was still in full gear so clearly they had no idea how long they would be playing for.  Our entrees finally came out and I was very impressed with the presentation of the lazy lobster.  There were huge chunks of the tail and claw and I was ready to dive in.  The dish had a risotto base with bits of asparagus and then it was all poached with vanilla bean butter.  While I did appreciate the large pieces of lobster, I wasn't a huge fan of the vanilla bean flavoring.  It just didn't sit well with a seafood dish and besides that it was lacking any major seasoning.  I could have done with less to no vanilla bean and more dashes of basic salt and pepper.  

At the end of our meal, the waiter brings out 2 of their signatures souffles, again on the house as a thank you for being so patient.  I have to say I've never seen or heard of this level of graciousness before so I do really want to acknowledge that they went out of their way to do right by us.  There was one dark chocolate souffle and another white chocolate version with raspberries.  Even though I'm not a white chocolate person, I really enjoyed the white chocolate one because it had a nice light fruity touch to it and didn't taste like white chocolate at all.  The chocolate one was pretty heavy and more cake-like than souffle like.  All in all,  I really appreciated the effort they made to fix what was initially kind of a crappy welcome.  The food itself was fine but honestly definitely not the caliber of something you'd get in the city (especially at those prices).  Total bill:  $68/pp with tax and tip. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Toloache Visited 8/20/13 3.5 Forks

Toloache 251 W 50th St (between Broadway & 8th Ave), New York, NY 10019

When I worked at LOGO several years ago, Toloache had just opened and I remembered it being really good but also expensive for the amount of food I got.  Fast forward 5 years and my experience was still the same.  The reason I even came here in the first place was because Manisha and I were going to a Broadway show and wanted to get something to eat before it started. 

I'm normally not a huge fan of eating in this area (although there are some good places in Hell's Kitchen) but I wasn't about to go to a show without eating.  I came up with a few suggestions and Manisha mentioned that she really liked Mexican food and this place had a 5:30 opening on Open Table, so we gave it a go.  The food here is higher end, sit down type of Mexican place (similar to a Dos Caminos setting).   I wasn't starving since I had a pretty filling lunch earlier in the day so the fact that the portion sizes were small was actually a good thing.  Even the waitress mentioned that the portion sizes here were tiny.  Manisha and I split an order of the traditional guacamole ($13) and I opted for the shrimp quesadilla ($13) and the sopa de tortilla ($9).  The guacamole was fresh (I could see the ladies behind us making it from a huge pile of avocados) with tomato, cilantro, and onion.  But for $13 it really should have been bigger than a small butter ramekin.  Our entree came out quickly there after.  I really appreciated this because we had told the hostess that we had a 7pm show to make and they clearly tried to accommodate us as best they could.  The soup was a tomato and guajilo base served with crispy strips of tortilla, slices of avocado and sprinkled with Chihuahua cheese.  This soup had definite heat to it.  It was like a very spicy tomato soup but I say this in the best way.  The tortilla, avocado and cheese gave it a nice Mexican touch to it.  My quesadilla came out and it looked more like a Mexican pizza than your traditional quesadilla.  It had chopped pieces of shrimp (it almost tasted like buffalo shrimp) with thinly sliced red onion, salsa, Chihuahua cheese, and a pineapple salad on top of a flatbread like base.  Unlike many quesadillas I've had before, it wasn't oozing with cheese and it was open faced.  Despite that, I did enjoy this quesadilla a lot.  The ingredients were high quality, fresh, and well balanced.  But again, size wise this was probably 4-5 bites max, so on a normal day I probably would have been starving after this dish.  Manisha got the tacos and they were also small in size but apparently big on taste.  We were done with our meal just in time for us to walk over to the theater and get seated before the curtain went up.  

All in all, the food here is tasty and better than the run of the mill stuff you would find near Times Square.  It's a great option for pre-theater eating but just don't go on an empty stomach or else you will find yourself probably out another $75-100 on top of the $100+ you spent on the show.  Total bill:  $49/pp with tax and tip and 1 margarita each. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cinnamon Snail Visited 8/20/13 3.5 Forks

Cinnamon Snail   Locations Vary

I don't think that there has been this much hype about food truck in NYC since Korilla or Taim, so now that I have some more free time at work I decided to take a long lunch with Allison and Neel to check out the Cinnamon Snail food truck.  At first glance, there's nothing about Cinnamon Snail that I would really like.  It's one of those hippie dippie vegan, organic, raw places - so not my usual bag but it's gotten so many rave reviews that I was willing to wait out the line.  By the time we got there at 11:40 AM, there already was a line but it was definitely very manageable (by the time we left around 12:30 the line was around the block).  I will say that they did a good job at making the menu sound super appealing, even for none vegans.  They had a a bunch of delicious sounding breakfast options from pancakes, waffles, burritos and platters and great lunch options of tofu, tempeh and seitan sandwiches and burgers.  I opted to get the daily special which was a porcini mushroom lentil burger with garlic white bean puree, caramelized onions and arugula on a grilled herb focaccia ($10), the salted caramel dutch coca iced coffee ($3), and to top it off an organic vegan glazed donut ($2).   While there were tons of people, the wait to get my food wasn't too bad.  It was pretty easy to pass the time while sipping on the iced coffee.  It was incredibly sweet and delicious which is exactly how I like my coffee.  I don't know how they made it but it was one of the best sweet coffees I've had in a while.

On to the savory part of my meal.  My "burger" didn't really have the texture of a burger but it was more like a thick bean patty.  As a meat eater, I don't have any issue with a veggie burger concept wise but the issue I have with most vegetarian burgers is that they just don't have the robust texture of a real meat burger.  The best part of a burger is the juiciness and intense flavor of the meat and here while it was a fine and hearty patty but it just didn't have that special something something of a real burger.  I did really enjoy the herb focaccia bread though.  It was soft, pillowy and had the right balance of rosemary on it.  If I had ended my meal here, I would have said that I liked this food truck but wasn't overwhelmingly in love with it.  But where Cinnamon Snail really excels is in its sweets.  I saved the donut for an afternoon snack and as soon as I bit into I knew why people were rabid fans of this place.  It was a fantastic glazed donut and I wouldn't have even guessed that it was vegan.  It wasn't as light as a Krispy Kreme donut but that didn't make a difference to me.  It was sticky, sweet and even though it was organic and vegan I don't think it was really very healthy for me.

All in all, I would totally come back to the Cinnamon Snail truck and probably try out one of the tofu sandwiches instead of a burger.  But the real reason I would come here would be for the coffee and donuts.  Cops better watch out for this place.  Total bill:  $15

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bianca Restaurant Visited 8/16/2013 3 Forks

Bianca Restaurant 5 Bleecker St., (between Bowery & Elizabeth St), New York, NY 10012

Bianca is one of those super cute adorable restaurants that I've walked past tons of times on Bleecker Street, but had never actually eaten at.  So when Lav and I were looking for a place to go on a nice Friday afternoon, I suggested that we finally check this place out.  We got there at 5:30pm and we were literally the only people there.  What's cute about this place is that they have the doors open, so that even though there's no outdoor patio, we were exposed to the nice outdoors.  It was nice for a while but since it's on a street as busy as Bleecker and Bowery, it's not actually a very quiet and peaceful for very long - there were tons of ambulances, speeding cars and honking that it was kind of harsh on the ears after a while. 

The actual decor of the restaurant is definitely charming.  It looks like the inside of an Italian Grandma's house with lots of cuteness abound.  The menu is classic home-made Italian food and what was shocking about the menu was how affordable the prices were compared to the plethora of high-end, expensive Italian places in the city.  Although I usually poo-poo those types of  expensive Italian places, there are some dishes at those places like I Sodi, Scarpetta, or L'Apicio that are absolutely worth the price of entry.  I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that nothing on this menu was more than $15 and so I was ready to order anything on menu without feeling guilty.  We started with the fresh mozzarella and tomatoes ($12) and the lasagnette di verdure ($8.50) - we originally wanted to get the artichoke slices with parmigiano but they were out of it.  I was a little annoyed by that because we were literally the first people in the restaurant (so they couldn't have sold out of it) and we had ordered wine already, so for the waitress to not tell us that they were out of until we actually ordered kind of bothered me.  I was most excited for the mozzarella dish but wasn't really all that.  It was fresh but it didn't taste like the creamy burrata type of cheese that I usually look for at restaurants.  It was like the kind of mozzarella that I would get at my local cheese shop.  The tomatoes were red and ripe but for some reason they were cut as wedges and not slices, which made it difficult to eat with the cheese.  The tomatoes were fresh but again, not mind blowing and also seemed like the kind I could get at my local supermarket.  Luckily, the lasagnette was fantastic and definitely not like something I could get at a supermarket.  It's basically a lasagna made with strips of eggplant, zucchini, and tomato and incredibly delicious in a home-made way.  It was definitely the best dish of the night.  For my main entree, I got the tagliatelle alla Bolognese ($9.50) and Lav got the spaghetti al pomodoro ($9.50).  Usually what blows my mind at those higher priced Italian places is the fresh pasta.  While the pasta here was good, it didn't quite have that fresh home-made taste that I was hoping for.  Lav commented that she thought her pasta was a bit too al dente and when I tried it, I agreed that it could have been cooked for a bit longer. Both of our pasta were drowning in pasta sauce, which normally doesn't bother me too much because I always rather have more sauce than less but this was almost too much sauce.  To be clear, I did enjoy my pasta and for the price point, I definitely can't complain about it. But it's one of those dishes that makes me think that paying for pasta isn't always worth it because it tasted like a kind of pasta I could make at home.  Even though I was pretty full, I still opted to have dessert.  The couple next to us had the tiramisu and they mentioned that it was just ok, so that led us to order the tortino ($6.50) instead. The tortino was a chocolate mousse cake with a large helping of whip cream on the side.  It was a solid standard mousse that wasn't too sweet or overly chocolate-ly, so it worked for me but for someone who is a chocolate fiend, probably isn't enough for them. 

As we were about to leave I noticed how packed it was and filled with lots of couples on dates - I can totally see why people would come here on a date.  The food here is solid and you can have a pretty great affordable meal but know that it's definitely not on the same level of some of the other Italian places mentioned above.  Note, it's cash only.  Total bill:  $48/pp with tax, tip and bottle of wine

Photo Credit: Yelp

Upstate Visited 8/15/2013 4 Forks

Upstate 95 1st Ave., New York, NY 10003

In my ever long quest to find the best oyster happy hour, Janet and I decided to give Upstate a try and see if it was worth all the hype.  While it was packed with other oyster fanatics, Maison Premiere still wins hand down in my book.  But in terms of quaint seafood only bars, Upstate is a pretty strong contender.  For happy hour (5-7pm), you can get 6 oysters and 1 beer for $12.  While Maison has about 20 different oysters to choose from, Upstate has 4 to choose from and if you order them regularly they cost about $2-3 each.  Janet and I ordered a little bit of each of the happy hour specials.  They were good but they weren't as big and meaty as I would like them.  Some of them also had too much salt water inside of them too.  I would have ordered more but since Janet doesn't drink, it didn't make sense to keep ordering them because then I would be the only one downing the beers.  I prefer a more straight forward $1 happy hour pricing instead of a food and drink combo but I appreciate the sentiment. Instead, we ordered a bunch of appetizers to share:  squid salad on a bed of kale ($13), crab cakes ($12), and salmon tartare ($12).  The squid was grilled and charred and well seasoned.  I appreciated that the squid was grilled instead of the typical fried type in bars because it's just a cleaner more simple way to eat it.  While I liked the concept of the squid on a bed of kale, the kale was a bit soggy and bland.  Next, the crab cakes were the small mini kinds served on a bed of arugula.  The crab cakes didn't have much filler which is nice but it was a bit too heavy on the breadcrumbs on the outside that you couldn't really enjoy the crabmeat.  I guess since both Janet and I are from MD, we are extremely opinionated about our crab cakes and there really isn't anything better than an authentic no-filler, non breaded crab cake from our home state.  This was good but it was bursting with lump crab meat which is how I like my crab cakes.  As for the salmon tartare, Janet thought that it need more seasoning or soy sauce but I actually liked the clean flavor of it.  It's pretty much raw chopped salmon with some scallion and a hint of sesame oil - similar to something you would find at a sushi place.  If the meal had ended there, I probably would have given this place 3.5 forks.  But the thing with seafood is that it hardly fills you up.  While we were looking at the menu, we saw that the couple next to us had ordered the fettuccine with clams ($15) and we were totally sold.   This dish alone was 4 forks.  It was rich, intense and heavenly.  It's everything you shouldn't be eating if you are on a diet.  It's thick, heavy ribbons of fettuccine soaking in tons of garlic, butter and olive oil. The clams that came with it were meaty and tasty.  After swimming in all of this richness, the bar served us complimentary slices of whiskey cake - which is similar to a rum cake but with whiskey instead.  Who doesn't like free alcohol soaked cake?!

All in all, this is a unique solid seafood joint in the East Village.  They say that they don't have a freezer, so the food is super fresh and various every day, so you may not see the same thing if you are a repeat visitor.  Total bill: $49/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp