Great NY Noodletown Visited 6/20/2105 3.5 Forks

Great NY Noodletown  8 Bowery, New York, NY 10013

Ahhh, Chinatown.  I have such a love/hate relationship with it.  One one hand, it's part of my culture and I love the food there.  On the other hand, it can be dirty, crazy and overwhelming.  Luckily when my mom is in town, I milk it for all it's worth and have her come along so that she can order for the two of us.  I had been to Great NY Noodletown years and years ago, but it's probably been over 5 years since I had been back.  It's one of those places that people like Anthony Bourdain used to visit back in the day and hasn't really changed much since. 

The place is pretty small and in typical Chinatown fashion, not the most sparkling clean of places and the waitstaff can be kind of sourly.  But it somehow feels homey to me.  The menu is extensive and cheap as hell.  It's a great place to go with lots of people because the portions are enormous and there's so much to choose from.  My mom and I split the shrimp wonton soup, 1/2 soy sauce chicken, and seafood chow fun noodles.  Despite it being 90+ degrees outside, the shrimp wonton soup really hit the spot.  It was super plumb and the wrapper was nice and thin.  I loved how the entire bite consisted of all shrimp and no filler or extra thick skin.  It was served in a very basic clean chicken broth with sesame oil and scallion base.  Fantastic.  Next I tried the soy sauce chicken and it was just like what I used to get as a kid.  The key with eating this chicken is that you've got to eat it fresh because that's when it's juiciest.   The meat is sweet and moist and the skin has got a slick deliciousness to it that only a roasted chicken hanging from a Chinese restaurant front can have. Lastly we had the seafood chow fun - now I love a good chow fun (broad noodle) and this one had a lot of potential but it was kind of all stuck together which was disappointing.  Also, there wasn't a great variety of seafood in it.  I think there was only like 1-2 pieces of shrimp and scallops in it.  It was more heavy on the squid and these giant uncut pieces of Chinese broccoli which they desperately needed to cut.   The dish was so large that we were able to take the rest of it home and have a complete dinner with it, so we essentially got 2 meals out of it.  I would say that anything you order here should be shared otherwise you will have a very hard time finishing it on your own.

Overall, I have a soft spot for places like this.  It's nothing fancy, in fact it's the complete opposite of fancy, the staff can be rude and loud, the decor slightly dirty and concerning but there's just something about it that screams comfort.  It doesn't hurt that the food is pretty solid (especially if you've had a few drinks in you) and very cheap.  If you haven't been to Chinatown before, it's definitely worth a spot at some point in your time in NYC.  Total bill:  $30 for two people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

   

The Loop Visited 6/16/2015 3 Forks

The Loop 173 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10003

I'll keep this review short and sweet since I'm about 7 reviews behind, but The Loop is your typical local sushi joint that has those crazy rolls with a millions ingredients so it isn't your super traditional or authentic sushi joint.  But sometimes you just want a giant roll with spicy mayo and 3 different kinds of fishes in it, right? 

Mabel and I strolled in on a random Tuesday and it was actually fairly crowded.  Unlike my last sushi meal at Hasaki where it's got a very traditional quiet decor with a sleek sushi bar as the focus point, this place was kind of like a loud messy frat house with no decor or ambience to speak of.  But if you're in the mood for something less serious and more casual, then places like The Loop work just fine. 

We started with sashimi salad ($13) and then got a bunch of rolls, which I sadly can't remember now except for the spicy scallop roll and a Bob Marley roll.  The sashimi salad is closer to a green salad with pieces of sashimi mixed in there - I enjoyed it as a way to eat both salad and veggie but Mabel thought it was a bit too fishy.  As for the rolls, they were all fine and your standard mom and pop sushi rolls.  Except for the spicy scallop, they were the kind of rolls that were "fusion-y" and had a bunch of different fish cuts shoved into a roll but they were still tasty enough. 

This is definitely the kind of place that one would go to if you were looking for something low key. The clientele definitely skews towards the younger like just out of college crowd but I could see if I lived nearby that I would do take out from here.  If you're looking for something more refined and traditional, take a walk further down towards 9th street to find the more "adult" sushi places.  Total bill:  $38/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Hasaki Visited 6/20/2015 4 Forks

Hasaki  210 E 9th St. Basement, New York, NY 10003

There are tons of sushi places on E. 9th street that if you don't look carefully, you'll walk right past. Hasaki is one of those places since it's on the basement level of a building and the only way you can tell that it's there is by the small menu that hung outside. I love the feeling of "hidden" restaurants, it makes you feel like you're in the know about something that no one else is.  But this place was super crowded on a Saturday night, so I'm guessing the cat is out of the bag. 

Despite walking in on a Saturday around 8pm, my mom and I only had to wait 15 minutes for a table. The place is relatively small and narrow but it did have a really nice sushi counter for those who want to sit there.  The menu is on the authentic Japanese side - they don't have large crazy rolls with mango, cream cheese or any of the sort.  It's all very classic basic sushi rolls.  My mom and I had wanted to start with the fish head appetizer but sadly they had already run out for the night, so we went with a standard veggie and shrimp tempura appetizer ($10).  For our entree, we went with the sushi and sashimi for 2 ($56) because I loved everything that the waitress had described was in the combination.  The tempura was great - light, crispy and not too oily.  My only compliant is that there was no sweet potato in the veggie selection.  What I thought was a sweet potato was actually a carrot. Boo!  On to the actual sushi.  The combination had a great selection of the "greatest hits" of sashimi - salmon, tuna, white tuna, and yellowtail.  For sushi they had ebi, toro, salmon roe and eel and then they also give each person a full california roll and spicy tuna roll.  I was actually pretty impressed with the amount of food per person and I really liked that they equally split everything so that you're not fighting with the other person for the last piece of your favorite fish.  I found all the fish to be very fresh and of great quality - I mean, it's not at the level of Tanoshi but it's also a step up from a place like Loop.  It just felt very authentic and simple - just the way good sushi should be.  I liked how the sushi and the rolls were not super heavy on the rice - it was just the right amount to fill you up but you also didn't feel like you were carbo-loading at the same time. 

What I also like about this place is that it's very affordable but you still felt like you were having a very quality meal.  Since I just had a blow-out omakase the night before, I wasn't going to do it again, but they start at a very reasonable $48 for sushi or $55 for sashimi here and it's something I would totally do here and sit at the counter for.  I'm a big fan of this place and would put it on my rotation of East Village sushi visits - especially if you are looking for something that's a bit fancier than the usual East Village noisy sushi place but that's not uber fancy or expensive like Sushi of Gari.  Total bill:  $80 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Juliana's Pizza Visited 6/17/2015 4.5 Forks

Juliana's Pizza  19 Old Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201

Despite living in NYC and having lived in Chicago before, pizza has never been a food that I've craved.  Don't get me wrong, I love a great slice, especially if I've had a couple of beers in me but I've always been more drawn to more ethnically inspired food.  However, every once in a while I have a really great pizza experience and it reminds me of how great pizza can be (I'm looking at you Roberta's).   I've got to say that I'm putting Juliana's right up there. 

I had heard about Juliana's from multiple people at how great it is and how much better it is compared to it's more famous next door neighbor Grimaldi's.  So when Vinita and I found ourselves in DUMBO for opera in the park without any food or snacks, we knew our first stop afterwards was to get pizza stat.  Although Juliana's is also pretty well known, it just never seems to draw the lines of Grimaldi's. While it was crowded, we were lucky enough to be able to get a seat right away.  In true New York style, the pizza here is all thin crust fire brick oven style.  Vinita, Meeta and I were literally about to gnaw our arms off so we ended up getting 1 large No.1 pizza ($30) and 1 small classic Margherita with pepperoni ($19) and a spinach salad with avocado and chickpeas ($14).   

The salad was a solid mixed green salad with a good tasty olive oil, reg wine vinegar and Dijon dressing.  It was just the healthy start that we needed before we completely gorged ourselves on pizza.  The special No. 1 pizza came with mozzarella, smoked cheese, pancetta, scallions, and white truffles in truffle oil.  Dear god - it was a stunning pizza.  While I usually prefer a red tomato sauce base, this was a truly fantastic white pizza.  The combination of all the ingredients was heavenly and it's rare to see scallions on pizza but I really loved the addition of it.  The pancetta was amazing salty goodness with the right balance of fat and meat on it.  I probably had about 3 slices in about a time span of 30 minutes.  I usually don't like nor eat the crust of pizza but this one was really quite tasty. It was thin but with a perfect crunch on the outside and soft on the inside.   It was quite possibly a perfect crust.  The classic margherita was also lip smacking delicious and the pepperoni was another kind of salty meaty goodness.  There's just something about a classic pepperoni pizza after a few glasses of wine that just feels so right.   In true Brooklyn fashion, we ended the night with homemade cannolis that was the perfect ending to the night.    

I rarely rave about pizza but there was just something about this night and the food here that just made me swoon.  I took the leftover pizza home and they were even great the next day.  I've always loved DUMBO, but knowing that I could hit up Juliana's as well the next time I'm here makes me even happier.  Total bill:  $49/pp with tax and tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Momofuku Ssam Visited 6/17/2015 4 Forks

Momofuku Ssam 207 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003

I'll be the first to say that I'm generally not a huge fan of David Chang.  I thought Momofuku Noodle bar (and it's fried chicken special) was overrated and I just find him generally to be over-hyped.  But my friend Neel has been raving about the lunch at Momokufu Ssam and I totally trust his judgement on food, so I was willing to let go of my bias and give it a shot. 

I have always been a big proponent of going to a hotspot during lunch time because it's usually less crowded and you can get the same food for a better deal.  This rule clearly applies here as I have walked past this place a million times for dinner and it's always been super crowded and unmanageable.  Neel and I went for lunch at exactly 11:30 and we were the 1st people there - it did start to get a bit crowded by noon but it was never jammed packed. 

Apparently one of Neel's favorite dishes ever is their spicy pork sausage and rice cakes, so we decided to split that as well as the broccoli salad and of course any meal at Momofuku isn't complete without getting the steamed buns.  As much as I hate to admit it, nobody except maybe Ippudo, does as good of a pork belly steamed bun as Momofuku.  It really is a work of art - the bun is soft and fluffy, the pork belly deliciously fatty and meaty and then it's topped with hoisin sauce, cucumbers and scallions.  It really is fantastic.  Next we tried the broccoli salad which was a chilled salad with smoked bluefish vinaigrette and crispy duck skin.  You could definitely taste the tang of the vinaigrette which was a very unique flavor.  It was a good dish to cut the heat of the next dish which was the spicy pork sausage with rice cakes.  It's a pretty generous portion so it's definitely shareable among 2 people.  I could tell without even tasting it that it was going to be incredibly spicy - you can see the it dripping with red hot sichuan peppercorns.  Somehow I managed to tolerate the heat and still enjoy the dish.  It was a little bit oily but overall it had really strong bold hit-you-in-the-face flavors.  I'm always a fan of a good rice cake and while Neel mentioned that they are usually more crispy on the outside, I still enjoyed their texture and chewiness.  I could see how any extra toasted-ness on the outside would have increased the dish by a few notches but overall I was impressed with how it turned out.

While I'm still not 100% convinced that I love all things Momofuku-related now, I do have to admit that I enjoyed my meal here greatly.  It might have been because it wasn't noisy and crowded and it was just an overall more pleasant experience than waiting in line for 2 hours, but the food was also pretty enjoyable too.  Although Neel did mention that he felt like the place may have been getting a bit too comfortable with themselves as they used to great offer off-menu specials but they didn't have any this time around and they kind of pared the menu down to their greatest hits.  In any case, their greatest hits were pretty damn great and I would say if you insist of hitting up a Momofuku establishment, lunch is definitely the way to go.  Total bill:  $39/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Meadowsweet Visited 6/15/2015 4.5 Forks

Meadowsweet  149 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Although I live in Williamsburg, there are definitely certain parts of the neighborhood that I don't spend as much time in as I would like to.  One section is South Williamsburg which is kind of home to the original Williamsburg food scene, such as Peter Luger's, Diner and Dressler.  Sadly, Dressler closed a while ago when the owner killed himself and the space has been re-born as Meadowsweet. Luckily, Meadowsweet continues the tradition of really classic but solid food.

I was lucky enough to go for my birthday -  although the place was generally pretty quiet even for a Monday night.   I met up with Virginia and we were both starving and decided to split a bunch of dishes even though this place isn't really a tapas small plate kind of place but so many things sounded so good to both of us that we just wanted to try it all.  We split the burrata wrapped in prosciutto, crispy baby artichokes, squid ink pasta, and the st. louis ribs.  It's a pretty random diverse menu but I would say the style is modern American.  The burrata wrapped in prosciutto sounds as amazing and delicious as it sounds.   The burrata was super fresh and creamy and was perfectly combined with the thinly sliced prosciutto as it added the hint of saltiness that any fresh cheese really needs.  It was seriously one of the best burrata dishes I've had in a while.  Next I tried the crispy baby artichokes which was supposed to be our "healthy" vegetable of the night.  It was served with shaved parmesan, and a creamy garlic dressing, so I wouldn't say it was really healthy as itt was tasty.  Next I moved on to the small portion of squid ink pasta - you could tell that it was very heavy on the butter in the sauce but that's what made it fantastic.  It came with bit of fresh crab meat in it which made it even more wonderful.  Lastly, I had the ribs.  You would think that a nice classy place like this wouldn't have great fall off the bone ribs but it did.  They had bourbon BBQ sauce on them but it was just the right about to make it moist but not too messy.  The meat literally fell clean off the bone - amazing.  It really rivaled most ribs I've had in a lot of more traditional BBQ places.  After these 4 dishes, we were still a little bit hungry so we topped our meal off with the smoked trout crepe.  I know, it's not a desert but it sounded different and interesting that we wanted to try it.  It was essentially smoked trout with apple, beet, frisee and horseradish wrapped in a very thin soft crepe.  I actually really enjoyed this dish and it had kind of this French feel to it with the smoked fish and crepe aspect to it.  I can see how it's not a dish that everyone would love but I felt like it was very well executed. 

Overall, my meal at Meadowsweet didn't disappoint - in fact I have to say that it really surprised me in how much I really enjoyed all the food there.  It was understated but really solid food - well seasoned, balanced and executed beautifully.  This was the same thing for their cocktails too - I had a negroni that was incredibly tasty and well done.  While this place has gotten tons of accolades, I feel like it's still a little bit of a hidden gem given all the hot spots that Williamsburg produces.  I would definitely add it to the list of places to check out if you are looking for something that is delicious but not hipster.  Total bill:  it was a birthday gift to me, so I didn't get to see the total bill

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tanoreen Visited 6/13/2015 4 Forks

Tanoreen 7523 3rd Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11209

Tanoreen has been on my list of places to try for seriously over 5 years.  I've heard nothing but great things about it (it's frequently touted as one of the best Middle Eastern places in the city) but what kept me from going there was the fact that it was in Bay Ridge and a good 45 mins -1 hour away.  So finally when I had a free Saturday, Aarti and I made the long trek on the R train to Bay Ridge to try it out.  It is a legit hour from the city, so definitely be prepared for that.  But once you're off the train, it's a quick 5 mins walk to the restaurant.

It was definitely much bigger than I expected and even though I know it's a well known restaurant, I was still surprised at how crowded it was.  Practically every table was taken by 7pm on a Saturday. Everything on the menu sounded great - it had all the classic staple Middle Eastern dishes and then some.  This would be a great place to go with a large group because there are so many great dishes to try that it's really hard to do with only 1 or 2 other people.  Aarti and I settled on hummus ($7), feta cheese salad ($9), and the cauliflower side ($8) while I opted for the grilled combo ($21) and Aarti got the vegetarian combo ($21).  While hummus may seem kind of boring to get in a restaurant, there really is nothing more delicious than a solid hummus with soft warm pita to start a meal.  This one was great - very creamy with the right mix of tahini, chick pea and olive oil.  Next I tried the feta salad which was a refreshing combination of feta, tomato, red onion, cucumber, lemon and olive oil. All the ingredients were super fresh and healthy tasting, although it almost seemed like a garnish dish rather than a salad.  But the star of the appetizers was the grilled cauliflower with tahini on it.  There's just something about grilled cauliflower that I really love, especially when it's slightly burned/charcoaled on the outside.  It was tender but still had a slight crunch to it.  Sadly, we were pretty full by this point even though we still hadn't touched or seen our entrees.

When our entrees did come out, we were both totally overwhelmed by it.  They were both literally the size of 2 giant plates.  One combo dish would have been enough to feed 2 people but the fact that we got 2 combo plates was just ridiculous.  We each took about 3-4 bites and really just couldn't eat any more.  For the record, my grilled combo came with kabob (ground lamb), chicken kabob, and shish kabob (marinated lamb) and a side of rice and salad.   Of the few bites that I took of the meat, it was fantastic and very well cooked.  I asked for most of it to be medium rare which is was and of the 3 meats, I was the biggest fan of the shish kabob.  As I mentioned I ended up taking 3/4 of it home and even the next day, it was a pretty hefty leftover meal and while the meat wasn't as tender as when it was served warm, it was still tasty.  At the end of the meal, even though it was my birthday, neither of us really had any room for dessert.

Overall, I'm super happy that I finally made it here.  While they do have sign outside their restaurant that says that it's the #1 Middle Eastern Restaurant in all of NYC, I'm not sure if it's truly #1 but it does came pretty darn close.  I just wish it was a bit closer to the city but I guess that part of their charm and how they keep their prices relatively affordable.  Total bill:  ~$120 with tax, tip and 2 drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp