Petulant Wino Visited 7/5/2014 4 Forks

Petulant Wino 739 Main Rd., Aquebogue, NY 11931

For our group dinner in Mattituck, we tried out a restaurant in a nearby town that Jenn had mentioned was relatively new.  Similar to my other dining experience in this part of Long Island, I found this place to be adorable and super cozy and homey.   In fact, the place really just looked like someone's house that was turned into a restaurant.  Since we were such a large group, they gave us our own private room upstairs which was great.  I think it was literally someone's bedroom because there was a built in closet in the corner.

The menu here is also very farm friendly with a variety of small and large plates.  With a group this large, we decided it would just be easier to order our own dishes rather than trying to split a bunch of dishes among 9 people.  The menu has got a little bit of everything:  small raw bar selection, meat and cheese plates, soups and salads, a variety of pastas, and then a bunch of seafood and meat based small and large plates.   I opted to go for the hierloom tomato salad ($10) and the pan roasted Long Island blackfish ($24).  I know that a tomato salad seems to basic but since we were literally in farmland, I figured that it must be a fantastic and fresh salad - which it was.  The tomatoes were ripe and juicy and served with a delicious burrata cheese, basil, basil aioli, and sea salt.  It's your classic summer salad and it was a great start to the meal.  After grilling for most of the weekend, I was excited to have some fish for dinner instead of meat, although I was a bit skeptical about this one because it was served with banana salsa.  I would have never envisioned banana and fish working together.  But it actually worked for this dish.  It was a fairly large piece of blackfish with a gentle sear of the skin on the outside and served with a Thai green curry, black rice and the banana salsa.  The fish was perfectly roasted and despite its name, it's really more of a firm white fish with a very mild taste to it.  It's very similar to a cod, sea bass or tilefish.  The banana salsa actually gave the dish some nice notes of sweetness to it without being too overpowering.   I also loved the presentation of the meal - it was very elegant but not in a snotty way.  Other people got the corn and watermelon salad, the shrimp special, the duck tacos and the pappardelle with lobster.   Everyone seemed pretty happy with their dishes across the board.

Overall, it was a great dinner in a lovely setting.  I loved that we got a private room (which in New York would most likely have cost us extra or forced us to order from a prix fixe menu) and that we were just able to enjoy ourselves as if we were in someone's home.  The food was inventive yet still pretty simple and it had a really nice local vibe.  The great news was that the same people who own the place are going to cater our friend's wedding, so I'm incredibly excited to see what kind of yummy food we'll be having in a few months.  Total bill:  $112/pp with tax, tip and tons of wine

Love Lane Kitchen Visited 7/5/2014 3 Forks

Love Lane Kitchen 240 Love Ln, Mattituck, NY 11952

Love Lane Kitchen is one of those places that has so much potential as it is the quintessential adorable North Fork restaurant.  If it just wasn't for the awful service we had, I could have seen myself giving this place 4 forks  A bunch of us were visiting Jenn and Eric at their gorgeous house in Mattituck and went out for brunch at what looked like the only local brunch spot.  The surrounding neighborhood is peaceful, calming and much more my speed than the craziness of the the other side of Long Island.   Everything about this part of town seems much more rustic and low key.

Love Lane Kitchen is a classic small town farm to table restaurant.  They have cute long wooden tables and lovely local flowers as centerpieces.  Unfortunately, since we were such a large party, they had to break us up into two different tables, which was fine.  But when  5 of us sat down at the larger table, I noticed that the hostess had seated different group of 4 right next to us.  I didn't understand why they couldn't seat our other group of 4 next to us.  Oh well.

In terms of the menu, all the dishes sounded like they used ingredients just picked from the local farm and many of the breakfast/brunch options sounded like your standard comfort dishes.  We had arrived right at the hour where you could either do breakfast or lunch and when I saw that they had a lobster roll on the lunch menu, I was immediately torn about what to order.  I decided to opt for the lobster roll since I was "on vacation" ($24) and I don't really eat it much in the city.  While they did have the specials listed on the chalkboard behind us, I was a bit annoyed that our waitress did nothing to talk about the specials unlike some of the other waitresses around us.  It would have been nice to at least have them described to us before making a decision. Anyways, it was fine since I knew I was getting the lobster roll and I know what a lobster roll is made of.  Then this is where things went down hill.  We must have waited almost 40 minutes for our food.  Tables who clearly came in after us were getting their food before us and our other friends who were sitting at another table got their food so far ahead of us that they had to leave because they couldn't sit at their table any longer.  We had flagged our waitress several times and she kept saying it was coming but I think they clearly forgot and instead of being apologetic about it, they kept deflecting.  Finally we got our food and I will say that the good thing was that lobster roll was very full of lobster - which is always a great thing.  But two comments that bothered me about the dish:  (1) there was way too much celery in it.  I was picking out tons of huge chunks of it and I just don't think you need any celery in a good lobster roll (2) they split the bun directly in half, so all the filling came spilling out.  Ideally, the bun should still stay intact on the bottom so that all the lobster filling can stay in place.  So it ended up being a really messy dish.  It wasn't a bad lobster roll but it also wasn't my favorite.

All in all, this place is still adorable and given the lack of much else in the area, I would still definitely go back.  It's possible that the service was just off on that particular day but after reading Yelp, it sounds like it might be a consistent flaw to the place - which is too bad.  Total bill:  $24/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Yuva Visited 7/2/2014 3.5 Forks

Yuva 230 E 58th St., New York, NY 10022

So I'll keep this review pretty short since it was a quick business lunch but I had to give a shout out.   I usually never eat in Midtown East and there's good reason for it.  It's just an awful part of the city that's mostly corporate offices and deli places.  It's kind of void of any real personality or character.  But nestled in between all of the buildings is a pretty decent Indian restaurant with a great Indian lunch buffet option.  I love myself a good Indian lunch buffet but it's hard to really indulge during the work week because it's so heavy and rich and time consuming. 

This one had a lot of great options from both the North and South Indian regions as well as a range of fan favorite dishes such as chicken tikka masala as well as some dish that were a bit more under the radar.   I tried a little bit of everything and it was all great - very flavorful, rich and spicy.  In true form, some of the dishes like the masala was a bit too heavy for lunch with its cream base but it was very tasty.   We also got a nice basked of naan, garlic naan and roti - all key to sop up all the yummy sauce sitting on the plate.  The place was chosen by my business colleague who was Indian and he seemed really excited about the food, so I have to think that if he found it acceptable then it is a pretty decent place.  We ended the meal with a nice round of gulab jamun - which is basically Indian donut holes soaking in a sweet syrup.  I was totally ready to crawl under my desk and take a long nap.  

I'm not sure how often I would find myself in this area for a meal, but if I were, I wouldn't mind coming back here for another lunch time escape.  Total bill:  $60 for 4 people with tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Old Stove Pub Visited 6/29/2014 4 Forks

Old Stove Pub 3516 Montauk Hwy, Bridgehampton, NY 11932

I was totally shocked when I read all these awful reviews about this place on Yelp that it made me wonder if I ate at a totally different place.  After reading a few more reviews, it sounds like there was management change in the past few years, but even so, unless I was totally delusional, I actually quite enjoyed my dinner there.  It might have been because we went really early and we opted for the very affordable prix fixe dinner whereas most of the negative reviews seemed to focus on how expensive it was, the bad steak and poor service.

Virginia, Christine and I stopped by this place on the way home from East Hampton knowing that we would get stuck in bad traffic on the way home.  Originally, I had assumed that this place would serve typical pub food like burgers and fries.  I mean it's called the Old Stove Pub from Christ sakes!  But lo and behold, it was actually Greek food.  Who knew?  During the summer, they have a great prix fixe deal of $29 that included a salad, appetizer, entree and dessert.  Considering most of the entrees are in the $25+ range, it's a great deal even if you can't eat all the food.  Instead of all of us getting the prix fixe meal, we opted to split one of the deals and then added on a few extras to round out the meal.  For the prix fix, we got the classic Greek Salad, the grape leaves, gyro entree with fries, and then added on the 3 dip combination ($18), the spanikopita ($14) and the saganaki ($11).  As you can see from the extras that we ordered, it can be pricey ordering individual dishes.

As I've mentioned many times before, I am a huge sucker for Greek food and I thought the food here was great with the exception of the saganaki - which I generally am not a huge fan of because if you let it sit for a while, it just gets hard, coagulated and just unappealing.  The Greek salad had tons of red, ripe fresh tomatoes, local cucumbers and a nice giant square of feta cheese.  Delicious.  The dips were your classic tzatziki (which I would slather on top of anything and everything), a roasted red pepper dip and an eggplant dip.  It was served with warm pita and it was fantastic.  The grape leaves were tasty and also a great add for the table.   Next I tried the spanikopita which had a nice flakey outside and a rich filling of spinach, onions and cheese.  Finally, I tried the gyro - which was served with a pita wrap but with all the other carb heavy things on the table and the fries that it came with, there was no way I was going to actually eat it like a gyro sandwich.  The couple of slices of meat I had was flavorful and it was topped with tons of tzatziki and red onion.  The fries were also thick and crispy and I couldn't stop eating them with the dips even though I really wanted to. 

In the end, we were so full that we just asked for the bill without even asking about the dessert that came with the prix fix meal.  The one fun thing about our meal was that it was the same time as the Greece World Cup game and it was a lot of fun to watch the staff and management be so into the game - and yes, plates were broken when they lost the game.  Judging from all the bad reviews I read on Yelp, it sounded like most people didn't order Greek food or maybe that was from before they changed management?  But in any case, I would just say, if you're in a Greek restaurant, it's probably best to stick to Greek food and you'll be fine.  Total bill:  $27/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Facebook

Bostwick's Chowder House Visited 6/28/2014 4 Forks

Bostwick's Chowder House 277 Pantigo Rd., East Hampton, NY 11937

Ahh, now this is what I was thinking of when I visited the Hamptons.  One of my favorite things in life is a seafood shack and this one did not disappoint.  It's still the Hamptons afterall, so it's not a total run down shack but it did have a rugged mom and pop feel to it.  The place was packed, so we waited in the lovely garden out back where they have a "drive up" window where you can order drinks and hang out. 

Once inside,  I was totally overwhelmed with my options: steamers, clams, raw bar, chowder, crab cakes, lobsters, fried everything, fish tacos made with poke, lobster tacos, and then of course every kind of seafood in roll formation - lobster, clam, oyster, crab, and flounder.  I literally thought my heart was going to explode with excitement.   What's even better is the total lack of formality here,  everything is served in paper and plastic plates and containers (yes - a bit wasteful for the environment) which I just prefer to the white table cloth environment.  After carefully evaluating my options, I decided on the lobster bisque ($7.95) and the girls and I split the steamers and I had to get the lobster roll with a side of potato salad.  

The bisque was quite nice although I'll be honest I wish it had more lobster in it (I mean, you can't ever have enough lobster), but it was a solid start to the meal.  Next came the steamers and it's been a while since I've had steamers and I forgot how much I enjoy them.  Although I get why they may not be everyone's cup of tea because of the sandiness and the texture, I was really happy with this dish.  They give you both a delicious bowl of butter and the hot broth to dip it in, which is the best part of the dish. 

Next came the lobster roll and it was a doozy. It was one of the fullest lobster rolls I've seen in a long time.  They most certainly did not skimp on the lobster meat here - it was packed to the brim.  It was the Maine type of roll with the mayo mixed in it.   It was fantastic with only a few comments.  I hate celery and there was too much of it in the mixture and secondly, it was a bit too chopped up.  I would have loved to had bigger chunks of lobster versus the chopped/shredded consistency here.  One of the great things about lobster is biting into a big juicy piece of the claw or tail but I'm not going to complain too much here since I really did enjoy the roll. 

Overall, I was a huge fan of this place - even though it is also a place apparently visited by celebrities.  I can see how it could be a local scene but it's a scene that I would most definitely welcome.   It's most definitely a place that I hope to come back to whenever I find my way back to the Hamptons.  As for the other dishes, they all looked wonderful, especially the tuna poke tacos.  I wish they offered a poke only dish but it only came in taco form which I think isn't the ideal way to serve poke, but I'm sure it was still delicious.  Total bill:  $49/pp tax and tip

Bay Kitchen Bar Visited 6/27/2014 2.5 Forks

Bay Kitchen Bar  39 Gann Rd., East Hampton, NY 11937

Even though the Hamptons isn't really my scene, I was incredibly excited to spend time with some friends, relax and most importantly eat great seafood.  I haven't spent a lot of time in the Hamptons, so I let my friends take the lead on all our dinner outings.  We arrived at Bay Kitchen pretty late (around 9:30) and despite that, the place was still kickin and super crowded.   We ended up waiting a while for a table but it was totally fine because we just hung out by the bar and had some yummy cocktails.   We were initially hoping to have gotten there for the sunset but clearly we missed that window - although I could tell that this place would be wonderful for a sunset cocktail due to its location right on the water. Oh well, next time!

The menu looked great - very seafood focused from a raw bar, crudo dishes, different ceviches, and a bunch of fish dishes.  They also have a whole section of meat and poultry as well.  We decided to start with the calamari ($18) and the meatballs ($12) because we were all starving and needed something in our stomachs.  I had my mind set on getting the lobster roll so I was incredibly bummed when the waitress told me they were out of it.  She then proceeded to tell us how they were also out of a bunch of specials.  I guess it was late in the night but seriously why even bother telling us that you have specials that you can't offer them to us.  So instead I opted for the mustard crusted Montauk tuna ($32) medium rare.  The girls got a bunch of stuff ranging from a cold half lobster, raw clams, chicken and scallops.

The calamari was chickpea crusted and then served with roasted garlic tomato salsa - it was a pretty good starter and it was nice and crispy.  I liked the use of the chickpea crust as it was lighter than your traditional breading on calamari.  The meatballs were tomato braised and made with sheep's milk and served with fava beans and lemon.  It was pretty moist and I loved the sauce on it but it was rather heavy for a starter.  Then this is where things turned for the worse.  We waited and waited and waited for our entrees that we were starting to think that maybe they forgot our food.  Finally our food arrived but even after that the glass of wine I ordered also took forever to arrive.  There's nothing more I hate then waiting for something like a glass of wine that should only take 5-10 minutes to show up.  As for my tuna, it was covered in a tomato vinaigrette and served with a variety of nicoise vegetables. Honestly, I just thought there was too much going on the plate.  The tuna itself was nicely medium rare but I generally like my fish dishes clean and not with so much stuff with it.  I would have preferred less sauce and steamed vegetables or lightly sauced vegetables.  I did clean my plate, so clearly I enjoyed it but I felt like I would have liked it a lot more if it was a simpler dish.

All in all, I could tell it was a lovely restaurant and the menu was great.  While my dish was fine, there was a bit too much going on with it for me to say that it was a fantastic tuna dish.  The service was really painfully slow, despite it being so late in the evening.  I could tell that this place would be a lovely place for a sunset cocktail - so maybe get there around 6-7 for a cocktail and then either be really patient for your food or check out another place afterwards (especially if you are hungry).  Total bill:  $63/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Battery Harris Visited 6/23/2014 3 Forks

Battery Harris 64 Frost St., Brooklyn, NY 11211

So I'll keep this review rather short since Battery Harris is really more of a bar than a restaurant.  Note, I'm also going to use the work "jerk" about 100 times in this review.  Paige and I had wanted to go there to watch the US vs. Portugal game on Sunday but all the tables were reserved and the only available space was near a tiny TV, so we left.   But I had put it on my mental list of places to come back to because of it's fantastic outdoor space. 

This place used to be the Brooklyn outpost of Lorely until it closed recently.  The new space was left relatively untouched from the previous tenants which was great since the outdoor beer garden was really perfect the way it was.  The food and drinks at Battery Harris have a Jamaican/Caribbean vibe to it, which is not something you really see much of in Williamsburg.  The menu has a lot of jerked food such as jerk wings, jerk pork buns, jerk calamari and jerk chicken and other interesting dishes like pulled oxtail hoagie and coconut curry mussels.  The night I was there they actually had a crawfish boil going on that night.  I opted for the jerk chicken sandwich ($14) which came with jerk dusted fries.  The sandwich is quite hefty - it was served with a lot of corriander slaw as well as slices of sweet plantains inside (which was a nice treat).  I usually expected jerk chicken to be more shredded with tons of sauce on it but this one was more like sliced chicken and it didn't have a lot of sauce on it.  I've been to Jamaica before and had amazing jerked chicken chock full of flavor and this one was not quite the same but not too bad for a casual night out.  The fries tasted like it had a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar on it, so it had a sweet angle to it vs. being a savory side dish.  

While my sandwich wasn't mind blowing, I liked the vibe and space of this place enough to definitely be up for coming back for drinks and obviously whenever there are drinks, there is always food involved.   I might even get the oxtail hoagie next time.  Total bill:  $32/pp with tax, tip and several beers

Photo Credit:  Yelp