Bun'ker Visited 7/26/2014 5 Forks

Bun'ker  46-63 Metropolitan Ave., Ridgewood, NY 11385

I know, it seems so crazy to give a tiny hipster whole in the hall of a place in the middle of an industrial wasteland 5 Forks.  While it wasn't an entirely flawless meal, I loved it enough and haven't given out a 5 fork review in a while, that I really thought now was the time. 

The one big drawback to this place is its location (and maybe the insane plethora of hipsters).  When I say it's in an industrial wasteland, I'm not even exaggerating - it's across the street from 2 scrap metal yards and next door to a Western Beef Market.  Without a car, it's extremely difficult to get to (it's about a mile walk from the closest subway stop).   However, despite its location, there was an hour long wait there and unfortunately there is no where to wait  except on one of their 2 benches.  Aarti also mentioned that when she gave our name to the host, he gave her an extremely sour puss look which was annoying.  But regardless once we sat down, we were all in heaven. 

Now this is definitely not a place for everyone.  The place is small (less than 25 seats) and the decor kind of reminds me of one of those cheap hole in the wall places you would find in SE Asia.  But honestly, that was the appeal to me.  As Will said, the only thing missing from it would be a dirty mangy dog running around and you would have thought you were in eating at one of those road side restaurants in Thailand or Vietnam.   Luckily, the food was just as good as what you would get in one of those road side stalls.  They have a seasonal menu and then they have a chalk board with a bunch of specials.  All of us were starving (plus I was with two big guys who came ready with their appetite) so we really went to town on the ordering.  For the table, we split the traditional banh xbo ($11) as well as the vegetarian version ($10), the summer rolls ($8), the crispy flounder banh mi ($12), the garlic tomato fried rice ($5) and the sauteed water spinach ($8).  Then after that we each all ordered our own thing.  I opted for the Suon Nuong Xa ($15), Aarti got the grilled eggplant and zucchini ($13), Will got the Ca Ri Ga ($16) and Kinney got the Grilled Lemongrass Black Angus Short Ribs ($16).  So yeah - we clearly over ordered but that was totally ok.  I should mention that I also got a Vietnamese Ice Coffee ($4) that was one of the most delicious drinks ever.  It wasn't like the usual kind I'm used to where you strain it into a cup with condensed milk at the bottom.  It was pre-mixed already but it was like crack cocaine - incredibly addictive and left you wanting to have 10 more of them. 

On to the actual food.  Everything was phenomenal and tasted fresh and home made.  The summer rolls had the right amount of shrimp, pork and vermicelli noodles in it and the side of peanut sauce was heavenly.   Next I moved on to the banh xbo which is a crispy crepe with shrimp, bacon, and bean sprouts which you then wrap in a lettuce leaf and dip into fish sauce.  It was super hot and tasted like it just came off the griddle.  The flavors just all worked really well together and the edges of the crepe were nice and crispy but the inside still had some moisture to it.  I honestly didn't taste too much bacon in it, just more of the bean sprouts than anything.  Next I took a bite of the crispy flounder banh mi (we split it 3 ways) and while it's definitely not your traditional banh mi, it had a great flavor profile to it.  It came with a pickled garlic tartar sauce, dill and scallion.  It a far cry from the original kind that has pate in it but I did really enjoy it and the bread was pillowy and just right.  Lastly I took a few pieces of the garlic tomato fried rice and sauteed water spinach and they were nice side dishes to add as supplements to our main dish.  Sadly but the time I got to my main dish, I was so full, all I could do was take 3 bites and I had to take the rest home.  There were 2 decent sized pork loins, served with a ton of white rice but the kicker was the fried egg on top.  Now this is where I  get a bit nit pickey - while the fried egg looked beautiful, it could have been a bit runnier in the yolk.  I like an oozing egg yolk but this one was close to being over cooked.  The only other dish I tried a bit of was Will's curry bobo chicken -  I dunked a piece of soft delicious roti into the curry and it was fantastic, full of spice and flavor.  

The only service hiccup was that Aarti's dish came out much later than ours - despite her getting just a vegetable dish.  Not sure if they forgot or what, but I do hate having to ask waitstaff repeatedly where someone's food is when everyone else at the table got theirs (this seems to be a running trend with me these days).  

All in all, we were all amazed by our meal.  It's been a long time where I have been truly wow'd by a meal that wasn't one of the nicer or fancier establishments.  It's places like theses that are much more my speed and what I am drawn to vs. 4 star restaurants (although don't get me wrong, I would never turn down a meal at a 4 star place).  This is place is definitely best to go with a lot of people so that you can try everything because you'll want to order everything when you are here.  I didn't think the prices were too unreasonable although a banh mi as a stand alone dish for $12 is a bit on the pricey side.  Again - order it and split it with 3 people while stuffing your face with summer rolls and papaya salad. 
It's almost tortuous knowing that this place is only a 10 minute drive from me yet it's a painful 30+ minute commute on a subway including walking.  But honestly, it is totally worth the pain and effort. Just do it and go.  You won't regret it.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

North River Lobster Company Visited 7/26/2014 3.5 Forks

North River Lobster Company Pier 81 (W 41st St @ 12th Ave), New York, NY

Let's be honest, if you're planning on going to the North River Lobster Company, you're mostly going because you can sit on this small, but nice boat while drinking buckets of beer for as long as you want.   It's a bonus that they have a menu but the food isn't really the star here.  But of course I had to check out the food while I was there anyways.  They have a pretty sweet sounding line up - a raw bar with oysters and clams, lobster rolls, lobster salad, full steam lobsters, New England Clam Chowder, peel and eat shrimp, fish tacos, shrimp po boys, as well as a basic burger and chicken sandwich.  They also have a cocktail menu of cute sounding cocktails - which are all served in those uber trendy mason jars. 

My first piece of advice is to get here early if you want a table upstairs in the sun.  Or be prepared to just stand and hoover over people for their table (that was my tactic).  There are 3 levels and the bottom two levels are indoors but who wants to be on a boat and be indoors? 

My second piece of advice is to just order as much as you can at once.  There is no waitstaff, you go up to the bar to order and they give you a number you put on your table.  The line can be very long, so either just get a bucket of beer ($28 for 5 beers) or be ok with waiting in line every time you want a drink.  Usually I am a total sucker for a lobster roll, but since I had been eating kind of poorly lately and I knew that I was going out to dinner only a few hours afterwards, I opted for the lobster cobb salad ($13) and Holly got the lobster roll ($18) and we split the fries ($5).  I kind of knew going into it that I would probably regret not getting the lobster roll and I was right.  While the salad was fine and there were several medium sized chunks of lobster in it, it just wasn't super flavorful and the greens were kind of wilty.  This is what I get for trying to be healthy and avoiding mayo and carbs.  Meanwhile, Holly's lobster roll looked lovely and delicious.  It was poached with a yuzu aioli and served on a brioche roll and served with a bag of chips.  For $18, it was surprisingly pretty stuffed full with lobster.  I was totally drooling over it by the time I reached the bottom of my light salad.  Holly mentioned that she really enjoyed it and she's had many a lobster meals with me before.  The fries were your standard thick bar fries.  Like I mentioned earlier, the best part of this experience is just being able to sit on the boat for free (well free meaning they don't charge you separately for the boat ride) for as long as you want and every hour they set sail for a quick 15 minute spin around the west side of the island.   Holly and I stayed on for about 3 sails and while it does get kind of repetitive after a while, it's just nice to be able to sit outside and for once imagine that you're not in the city.  The crowd is not a douchey as the one at the Frying Pan but I'm sure once word gets out, it'll be full with partying kids who couldn't make it to the Shore or to the Hamptons.  Total bill:  $70 for the food and bucket of beers

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Maialino Visited 7/20/2014 4.5 Forks

Maialino 2 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10010

Woah - this place literally came out of nowhere for me.  I knew it would be fairly good, probably on par with the other solid Italian places like L'Apicio or Dell'Anima, but I was extremely impressed with my meal here.  Everything from the service to the appetizer to the pasta and most importantly, the dessert was fantastic.   The waitress started off the meal by describing all the specials and they did indeed sound very special - especially the suckling pig entree.  I wasn't really in the mood for a pig meal but it really did sound delicious.  Instead, we opted to start the meal with the fried artichokes and lemon ($14) and I ordered the Fettuccine alla Bolognese ($23), my mom got the poached cod ($28) and Aarti got the Cacio e Pepe ($16) and we split a side order of the wax beans ($8).  

The fried artichokes were great - very crispy and slightly charred on the outside but still tender on the inside.   I'm usually not a huge artichoke fan but if they were all made like this, I would totally eat it all the time.  Next came the pasta and it smelled and looked amazing from the get go.  This one was served with a delicious pork ragu.  The sauce was a bit heavy for the summer but I couldn't stop eating this pasta.  Everything just worked really well with each other - the pasta, the sauce and the meat.  I didn't try Aarti's pasta but she mentioned that while it was good, she actually liked her pasta dish at Babbo more - which isn't really a slap in the face for the pasta but more of an observation.  She just thought that her pasta here was a tad too salty.  I also didn't get to try my mom's cod but she also said that it was really well done and enjoyed her meal throughly.  The one disappointing part of the meal was the wax beans.  They were overcooked and didn't have that crisp snap that I like with beans and it was also over salted.  This dish (along with Aarti's comment about her pasta) is probably the only reason this place didn't get the 5 forks.  

I was pretty full at this point but it's really hard to turn down dessert at an Italian restaurant.  And boy, was I so happy that I didn't turn down dessert here because the chocolate croissant bread pudding ($9) was f*ing mind blowing.  Hands down the best dessert I've had in a really long time.  I was a bit nervous that the croissant part would be dry or flakey but the whole thing was incredibly moist and amazing.  Everything about it was spot on and what dessert should be.  I probably should have mentioned that it also came with hazelnut gelato which was a fabulous complement to the dish.  All in all, I was really impressed with my meal here - even more so that my meal at Babbo.  Total bill:  $41/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Shun Lee Palace Visited 7/18/2014 2.5 Forks

Shun Lee Palace 155 E 55th St., New York, NY 10022

I'm not going to mince words here and even though this place is run by Chinese people, it really caters to the non-adventurous, boring, non-Asian tourists and local set of customers.  It's definitely not your Chinatown or Flushing establishment.  But the food is actually not really that bad.  It's just not super authentic and it's horrifically overpriced.  It's located in one of the most boring parts of NYC - Midtown East.  The decor is the cheesey, "fancy" kind and the environment is the type where the Chinese people get one menu and everyone else gets a different menu (this is actually really most Chinese restaurants). So either go with Chinese people to order for you or really know your Chinese food. 

The only reason I was there because some relatives were in town and it was kind of a middle ground for all of us.  By the time my mom and I got there, my mom's cousin had already started ordering from the Chinese menu.  I'll be honest and say that I don't know exactly what they ordered but we started with the Peking Duck ($50), a sauteed shrimp dish, sauteed pea shoot with garlic ($23), a Fujianese fried rice and a pork dish.  While the duck was good, they didn't really serve it in the traditional way that I'm used to.  They actually wrap a few pieces in the pancake for you like a mini burrito and then gave us 4 skinny leg pieces on a plate.  Usually, I prefer when they carve the duck in front of you and leave all the pieces for you to serve on your own with the pancake, scallion, and hoisin sauce seperate. I felt like they skimped on the duck by either not giving us the whole thing or it was the world's smallest duck.  The only plus was that the skin was nice and crispy. 

We then got served the rest of our dishes which also pretty small considering they were supposed to be family style.  Despite all my ragging on this place, the actual food was pretty decent.  The shrimp was cooked to the perfect tender and firm texture with this thick egg white sauce over it.   I really enjoyed it over a bed of white rice.  The fried rice dish wasn't really a typical fried rice as it has this gravy so thick over it, that we originally thought they forgot the rice (it was at the bottom).  It's an incredibly comforting and filling dish and I liked that unlike a traditional fried rice it wasn't very salty or greasy.  The sauteed pea shoot tops were great - always a fan favorite and it's really hard to get it wrong unless it's all stem and no leaves.   But this dish had a nice mix of the two.  The pork dish was similar to a shredded pork in black bean type dish.   Usually at this point of a Chinese family style meal, I'm bursting at the seams but I was still hungry here.  Sadly, the one type of food Asian people are not good at is dessert.  So funnily enough, they had cheesecake and tiramisu on their dessert menu as well as some standard Chinese ones like a fresh fruit plate and hot red bean mochi soup.  My mom wanted the tiramisu and it really tasted like a tiramisu that they got from a Costco - which is not a bad thing but not necessarily something I want to pay for at a Chinese restaurant.  

In true Chinese fashion there was a huge "fight" as to who would pay the bill and my mom's cousin won out, so I don't really know how much everything was but looking at the prices where most of the entrees were in the $20+ range, they easily spent over $200 on this meal - which I think is absolutely ridiculous.  You can easily have a more authentic and more affordable meal in other parts of the city but I do acknowledge that places like these exist for a reason and definitely serve a purpose - it's just not really a purpose that I would usually have.

Photo Credit:  10best.com

Esperanto Visited 7/15/2014 3.5 Forks

Esperanto 145 Ave C, New York, NY 10009

As part of the Farewell to Krush week, we went to dinner at Esperanto on a rainy Tuesday night.  I had heard about this place but never been and with my impending trip to Brazil, I was excited to try it out. The menu has a lot of classic Brazilian dishes such as Feijoada, chayote salad, ceviche, and chuelta.   We started off the night with some classic guacamole ($10) and fried yuca ($5).  The guacamole was your basic solid variety but the yuca fries were amazing.  Incredibly crispy and fried perfectly and served with a great aioli mayo.  It was so good that we promptly ordered another round of it as well as an order of the red snapper ceviche ($10) and the roasted mussels ($9).  I was torn on what to get for an entree (classic struggle of meat or fish) and opted for the moqueca ($18) which is a Brazilian stew with shrimp and snapper.  I was excited to try the ceviche but it was a pretty disappointing dish.  It was not very citrus-y and it had a ton of red and green peppers in it.  I'm not sure if that's the Brazilian way to do it, but I thought it took away from the overall flavor of the dish and the fish itself wasn't that impressive. Total bummer.  

Fortunately my main dish made up for the lacking ceviche.  The moqueca was a stew with coconut milk, ginger, cashew with shrimp and red snapper and served with a side of white rice.  It's essentially like a coconut curry and it was delicious.  I could have used more and larger pieces shrimp and snapper but the sauce part was good enough on its own.  I was loving taking spoonfuls of the rice covered in sauce on its own. 

While the food and atmosphere was classic South American, so was the service.  It was slow and confusing.  They totally forgot our roasted mussel appetizer which ended up being fine because we were all pretty full but they also totally forgot Krush's tuna dish.  We kept asking about it and it was obvious when all our food came out at the same time and hers came out 15 minutes later (it was just a medium rare tuna) that it was lost in the shuffle.  I guess I need to get used to the more "laid back" service when I'm in Brazil but I'm still totally excited for it.  Total bill:  $62/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Babbo Visited 7/11/2014 4 Forks

Babbo 110 Waverly Pl., New York, NY 10011

Ahh, Babbo.  It's one of the quintessential New York Italian restaurants that everyone talks about.  It used to be (and still is to some extent) one of the hardest reservations to get in New York City.  You used to have to call ahead months in advance as soon as their phone lines opened in hopes that you could get one of their coveted seats.  But now in this day in age of technology, you can actually book a reservation on Opentable.  But it was still much to my surprise that I actually found a reservation one a day Tuesday for that upcoming Saturday.  Granted it was at 5:30pm, but still I was totally shocked and had to double check that it was the real Babbo and not another restaurant that happened to have a similar name.

I was even more thrilled to secure the reservation because it was to celebrate Aarti's birthday and I was having a hard time finding a special place for her, but what better place to celebrate than Babbo?  It's located on a beautiful street in the West Village and it's got a very unassuming exterior.  Once inside, it's got a very old school New York restaurant feel and despite being in the West Village where almost every restaurant is pretty tiny, they actually had a very nice, bright and airy upstairs seating area - which is where we sat.  The menu is divided up into the tasting menu and the a la carte menu.  I was dying to try the pasta tasting menu but the whole table has to do it and upon looking at other people who were doing it, it was a lot of food.  So we opted to just go a la carte and try out a bunch of different things. We started with the classic caprese salad ($18), got side orders of the rapini ($10), the Babbo greens ($10), while Aarti got the Bucatini ($20), and Will and I split the Chianti stained pappardelle ($23) and the mint love letters ($20).   The caprese salad was exactly what you thought it would be - served with heirloom tomatoes and extremely fresh moist mozzarella di bufala.  It's the perfect summer "salad" and it was done just right here.  Next came the pastas and the side dishes.  At first when we got the Babbo greens (and forgive me I can't remember what kind of greens they were but they were more of a light watery green), we asked the waiter which of the green dishes this was and he casually said the rapini.  Two seconds later the rapini dish comes out and he was like "Uh- opps, I guess I was wrong about that!".  That's totally fine but I kind of expected that at a place like Babbo the waitstaff would be a bit more educated in the dishes.  He did a fine job when we were asking him questions about the menu while we were ordering so it was a bit weird that when the dishes actually came out that he seemed a bit flustered.  Rapini is basically the same as brocolini and it was served with roasted garlic while the Babbo greens were served with roasted shallots.  The consensus was the rapini was the better green of the two.  As for the pasta, I didn't get to try Aarti's bucatini but she mentioned that she was very happy with it.  I started with the pappardelle which was indeed very Chianti stained - it was like a deep purple ribbon pasta and served with wild boar ragu.  It was a pretty thick and heavy dish and I'm glad that I split it with someone else.  I did think that the pasta was a wee bit overcooked but overall it was much more of a good pasta for a cold winter day rather than a summery July day.  The mint lover letters were essentially thin ravioli like squares filled with a mint spicy lamb sausage filling.  It was definitely quite minty but not in an overpowering way.  I generally am not a huge of pocket like pasta because there's usually so few of them and they aren't as filling but since I was cutting this dish with the pappardelle, it wasn't a huge deal here.  It was definitely a unique dish and a nice summery pasta dish since it's not very heavy (doesn't come with a sauce on it) but it is still packed with lots of flavor.

Since we were celebrating a birthday, the dessert course was very important.  We ended up ordering 3 different ones and unfortunately the only ones I can remember now was the olive oil cake.  There was a chocolate cake like dessert and another fruit based dessert that we all agreed was our favorite of the night.  Sorry that I can't be more descriptive - this is what happens when I write a review almost 2 weeks later!

All in all, it was a very nice experience and as a New Yorker I'm glad to say that I finally ate at Babbo. It's definitely a New York classic and with so many high end Italian options, I can see why it's still a popular choice with both tourists and locals - although I do think there are a bunch of other places that give it a run for its money (I'm looking at you I Sodi and my soon to be review Maialino).  But if anyone else wants to go and try the pasta tasting menu, give me a call!  Total bill:  $260 for 3 people with tax tip and some wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cevich Visited 7/8/2014 3 Forks

Cevich  21 E 15th St., New York, NY 10003

I know what you're thinking...Take out ceviche?!  Isn't that kind of gross?  In all honesty, until I tried Cevich, I probably won't have totally disagreed with you.  The concept of having fresh fish be the center point of a fast food operation seems very counter intuitive.  While Cevich is most definitely not restaurant quality ceviche, it wasn't really bad and was a somewhat healthy alternative to real take out.   It's kind of like the Chipotle of ceviche - which isn't meant to be an insult since I do love Chipotle. 

While I've always been a huge fan of ceviche, after all my recent travels to South America, I've become even more in love with it this year.  I would eat it every day if I could.  But it's definitely not something you should get anywhere because of the type of ingredients used in it (namely the raw fish part).   So I was super curious about being able to have access to ceviche on the go whenever I wanted at Cevich. The menu here is broken down into a few concepts:  solo style, bowls, tacos and burritos.  I don't understand this craze of putting everything in a taco or burrito form and I wasn't about to find out about it here.  I decided to stick to a bowl which frankly isn't really that authentic since ceviche doesn't normally get served on a bed rice or or quinoa but it sounded like it would be a more filling meal.  You first start by choosing your base of either white fish, shrimp, salmon (extra $1.75) or you can get a mushroom medley (I have no idea what this is doing on the menu.  I mean you're at a CEVICHE take out place, if you don't eat fish, don't come here).  Then you choose the style of how you want your fish to be prepared.  While I am definitely an adventurous eater, I decided to take a pass on styles that involved mixing my fish with feta cheese or guava mint sauce.  I stuck with a more traditional style of white fish Ecuadorian style - roasted red pepper, tomato, avocado, red onion and cilantro on a bed of coconut rice ($13.50). 

It was pretty large and filling bowl, especially with the coconut rice.  The fish had a bit of tang and citrus flavor and there was lots of fish in the bowl vs. just being filled with the other ingredients which I appreciated.  I definitely thought that it was a decent healthy alternative to other more bad-for-you take out options such as eating a huge container of Thai or Chinese food  (not that I don't love them!).  If you go in with the expectation that you're not going to get authentic Peruvian ceviche but a solid take out option, you'll be pleasantly happy with your meal.   Oh and I would probably continue to stick with the basics and avoid getting a combo hat has mayo, pepper jack cheese or mango in it.  Total bill:  $16.33 with tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp