Lobster Alive Visited 2/8/2016 4 Forks

Lobster Alive Wesley House, Bay Street, Bridgetown, Barbados

This was the first time in many many years that I hadn't gone on a beach vacation over MLK or President's Day weekend, so when a cheap vacation package to Barbados popped up on JetBlue during a random Feb weekend, my friend Janet and I jumped all over it.  I rarely visit the same vacation spot twice since there are so many places in the world to visit, but Ive made an exception for Barbados (and Hawaii).  Barbados is by far my favorite Caribbean island - it's close to NYC (less than 4 1/2 hours direct), has gorgeous beaches, and they really have quite a nice food scene outside of resort hotels.  I had been to Barbados back in 2011 and last year on my way to/from a cruise and I was more than happy to return.  This time around I wanted nothing more than to do nothing but lay in a hammock and read - which is exactly what I did. 

I had actually forgotten that it was going to be Chinese New Year while I was there, so I figured it was worth splurging and going for a nice dinner on the island.  There are actually tons of fine dining options on the island but what better way to celebrate the year of the monkey than with a big lobster dinner?  With that in mind, there was only one place to go:  Lobster Alive.  I tried to make a reservation online via their website but they never got it, so I had the hotel call to make a reservation. The place is pretty small, so I would recommend that you call ahead.  While this place will definitely cost you a pretty penny, it's not fancy at all.  It's on the beach and has a bit of a seafood shack vibe - there were people there in shorts and tank tops and some in nicer dresses, that's island life I guess.  

The menu actually has non-lobster items like steak, conch, and Greek salad but everything else has lobster in it.  And really, why bother coming here if you're not going to have lobster?  They have a large tank in the back filled with lobsters where you can watch them pull out your catch.  These are not your Maine lobster, obviously, but the spiny/rock lobster kind. These kinds also have large plumb tails but no large claws.    

For a starter, Janet got the lobster bisque ($17) and I got the lobster spring roll ($13) and for entrees we both went for the 680 g (1 1/2 lb) lobster ($67) which came with rice, salad.  I had a sip of the lobster bisque and it was very heavy on the rum and white wine flavor.   As for the spring roll, it was ok - a bit too greasy for me and there wasn't enough lobster (there never is).  But we were really there for the main show - not the appetizers.  There is a bit of a wait for the lobster as everyone there is ordering it and they are on island time here.  But when it finally arrived it's quite a vision.  

It's served on split in half with the shell still on and it's basically one big juicy tail.  They boil it in sea water and then finish on the grill.  They give you a sinful bowl of garlic butter to dip the meat in. Yum! The lobster is meaty and comes right out of the shell.  The meat isn't as sweet as a Maine lobster but it was still delicious none the less.  Being the seafood savage that I am, I also tore apart the body/head area and there is a little bit more meat in there but not a ton.  I would only recommend doing that if you're a skilled lobster eater/picker, otherwise it's too much work for not a lot of reward.  I did miss having nice big claws to crack through but after eating the rice and salad, I was pretty full by the end. 

While the prices of the place do shock you a bit, it is worth it if you are only going to have 1 or 2 big blow out meals on the island.  Janet and I stuck to more local places like Cuz's and the Fish Fry on the other days we were here, which cut down on costs, so spending $100+ a person didn't sting quite as much at the end but it is a pricey endeavor.  Total bill:  $196 for 2 people with tax, tip and 2 beers
  

Bamboo 52 Visited 2/5/2016 3.5 Forks

Bamboo 52  344 W 52nd St., New York, NY 10019

So by no means is Bamboo 52 a destination restaurant nor is it a place if you are looking for authentic mind blowing sushi.  It's the kind of place that you hit up on your way out for the night and you need some food to coat your stomach before you start drinking but don't want to eat terrible food in the process.  I've most definitely had better sushi in my life but I've also had way worse sushi too.  It's most definitely one of those places that in the middle of the pack - but in a good way.   If you come with the right crowd, this place can be pretty fun and satisfying, especially since their happy hour is until 9pm.

I met up with a bunch of friends on a Friday night before we hit up the (in)famous Flaming Saddles - a gay rodeo bar in Hell's Kitchen.  Since we were such a large group, we thought it would be best to make a reservation somewhere but a lot of the more mom and pop places in the area don't take reservations or couldn't accommodate 9 of us.  Luckily, Bamboo 52 could and it's right around the corner from the bar.  It's kind of the perfect place for a large group because it's not stuffy and you can be kind of rowdy and no one will complain.  We had people walk in 45 minutes late to dinner and they let us wait around to order and we also kept ordering repeatedly - we kept our waitress very busy.

The menu is what you would expect of a neighborhood sushi joint - typical sushi rolls along with your line-up of crazy ones with mango and cream cheese.  We pretty much ordered a basic line up for stuff:  edamame, seaweed crisp (Amy was gun-ho on this one), spicy tuna roll, cajun tuna roll, rainbow roll, american dream roll, lovely roll and a few others.   I'm not going to go into detail of each roll but it's safe to say that they were all totally fine and tasty and we definitely cleaned our plates.  I did want to note that Mark did order some weird BBQ chicken roll - umm, what?!  It was literally BBQ chicken wrapped in rice and seaweed - it wasn't actually all that bad, just different.  I can actually see this place being a good local hang out if you lived around there and just wanted some basic sushi to nosh on and let your hair down at the same time.  Total bill:  $48/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Au Cheval Visited 2/1/2016 4.5 Forks

Au Cheval  800 W Randolph S., Chicago, IL 60607

Fuuuck me.  Do you want a heart attack?  Do you want to literally feel full for days on end?  But do you also have a god damn delicious burger?  Then get your ass to Au Cheval.  This place has been on my list for a while and after my umpteenth trip to Chicago for work, I finally made it.  I "dragged" Eric here on a cold Monday night thinking there wouldn't a a long wait but even then it was an hour wait.  Luckily there are tons of nearby bars to duck into for a drink.  They will text you when your table is ready which is perfect in this "I don't like to talk on the phone" age. 

The decor is straight up, old school wooden panels, kind of like a old time-y saloon - it's super dark in there which is actually a good thing because no one should see what you look like when you're elbow deep in egg and meat juice.  While there actually several items on the menu to choose from, just do yourself a favor and order the cheeseburger - the single will be just fine because it's practically the size of a double and get it with the fried egg ($12.95).  Eric took it one step further and got bacon with it and we also decided to really do some damage to our health and got the crispy fries with mornay sauce, garlic aioli and another fried egg ($9.95).  Yes, the place reeks of burger but it really doesn't matter.  The yolk is perfect - super runny and delicious, the meat is super juicy and well seasoned and the bun was soft but not too chewy.  To me, it's right up there with Black Tap Burger as a really solid, gourmet yet not gourmet burger.  I really didn't want to eat all of it because I truly did think my heart would stop working at some point, but it was too good to stop.  It is a bite of a messy meal with the runny yolk and burger juice, so be prepared to go through a lot of napkins and to look like a hot mess if you're on a date (luckily, I wasn't).  On top of all that, the fries with the egg and mornay sauce was just so unnecessarily necessary to the meal.  The bacon on Eric's burger had the thickness of a small encyclopedia - I can't even imagine eating it everything else that was going on.   

I rolled out of this place slightly buzzed, very full and super happy.  It's definitely not a place I would go to often purely for health purposes but if you are in the mood for a really spot-on, non-fast food but not snotty burger, make this your first and only stop.  Total bill:  $60 for 2 with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Serai Visited 1/30/2016 3.5 Forks

Serai  2169 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647

When you think about SE Asian food, most people are familiar with Thai and Vietnamese food. Very few think of Malaysian or Indonesian food and there are even fewer of those types of restaurants around.  While I haven't been to Malaysia before, I can say that the food in Indonesia is good but definitely not as delicious as its more famous sibling countries. But when Deanna mentioned that this new Malaysian place opened up in her hood, it was definitely worth a try.

We had called earlier in the day to try to make reservations and they seemed to have taken our name, but when we called back later to confirm, the person on the line sounded confused and said that they didn't have our name anywhere and that the wait would be an hour.  We decided to wing it and go anyways. Strangely, as soon as we walk in, they seated us immediately.  WTF - what happened to the 1 hour wait?

My first impression was that this place was bi-polar.  It's split up into 2 rooms, one room is decorated with traditional SE Asian decor, while the other room is this weird modern set-up with terrible dressing room lighting.  Of course, we ended up sitting on the modern decor side next to the kitchen.

The menu has a nice array SE Asian food that you normally don't see:  curry laksa, mee goreng, and Hainanese chicken to name a few.  But it also has the usual suspects of pad thai, fried rice, claypot noodles, and chicken and broccoli.  We started with the gado-gado salad ($7.95) and I got the Nyonya curry chicken ($13.95) and Deanna got the mee goreng ($10.95).  The gado-gado salad is a Indonesian style "salad" which consisted of bean sprouts, jicama, cucumber, tofu, boiled egg, and a very heavy helping of peanut sauce.  Ok, it was basically just a giant plate of peanut sauce with some other stuff in it.  While I do love peanut sauce, I can't really say that this was any kind of healthy salad but it was unique and tasty.  After we got our salad, we then had to wait and wait and wait for our entrees.  Maybe this is what the guy on the phone meant when he said it was an hour wait - it wasn't to get seated but to get your food.  Luckily we weren't starving so when the food finally arrived we weren't hangry and crazed.  This curry is definitely different than a traditional Indian or Thai curry - it's got a sweetness to it that's probably from the coconut milk and cinnamon.  It was quite tasty and there was a nice mix of chicken breast and thigh as well as potatoes in there.  What I also like about food from this region is the inclusion of a fried egg and cucumber with the rice.  Such a delicious combination.  I have been trying to avoid white rice but when I do have it, it's like eating ice cream to me and then putting a fried egg on top of it?  Yum.

They don't have much in terms of dessert but I do want to give a shout out to their iced coffee ($3.25) - it was close to a Vietnamese style coffee (but served without the coffee infuser) and it was sweet and delicious.  Overall, it was a fine meal and I could see as a nice neighborhood hang, but the wait was a bit ridiculous and they should just knock down the wall that joins the 2 rooms together to make it one larger and cohesive space.   Total bill:  $23/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Whisk Visited 1/30/2016 3 Forks

Whisk  2018 W Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60622

I came across Whisk when it was mentioned in the Chicago edition of The Infatuation and was kind of a sucker for the name - I mean, how can a place called Whisk not be great for brunch?  Although I did think it was a bit strange that the menu had more of a Mexican flare than an American comfort food, it was totally ok - it seems like Mexican breakfasts are becoming all the rage now anyways.

Deanna and I headed over to Whisk right at prime brunch time and we were immediately told that it was 1 1/2 hour wait.  WTF? We decided to put our name down (or Diane as they spelled it) while we waited.  Unfortunately it was raining that day, so no one really wanted to wait outside and there weren't a whole lot of other brunch places close by (except for a diner next door which I was actually totally prepared to go to if the wait was really 1 1/2 hours).  We noticed that a lot of people started to leave, probably driven out by the rain and the wait.  We told ourselves we would wait up to 30 mins and see where we were on the list.  By the time 20 mins passed, they had blitzed through at least 10 names of people who weren't there.  We were finally seated around 40 mins at a 4 top (poor logistics in my opinion).  As I mentioned, the menu has a Mexican slant:  Mexican scramble, breakfast burrito, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros but they also have "regular" brunch items like biscuits and gravy, veggie omelets, a LOT of pancake options, hash options and several benedict options.  I was super torn but of course, I opted for the crab cake benedict ($13) because benedicts were only offered on the weekends.  Deanna got the veggie croissant ($12), which turned out to be the star of the show.

The restaurant was very crowded and the wait for the food was a bit long.  I know I keep telling myself that I should limit my crab cake intake to when I'm only in MD but there's just something about it that I can't say no to when I see it.  This one looked fine at first glance.  It was 2 spicy crab cakes served on English muffins, poached eggs and red pepper hollandaise sauce and a side of cheesy grits.  Of course I instantly cut through the egg to test the runny-ness of the yolk.  It was meh - overdone for me but it wasn't exactly a hard boiled egg, so not a total disaster.  The crab cake itself was also ok - there was definitely filler but it paired nicely with the red pepper sauce - but I've definitely had better. My big problem was with the dish was strangely the English muffin.  It was thin and hard and didn't have the soft nooks and crannies that I love from a Thomas' muffin.  The grits were also good but definitely not as cheesy as I've had at other places.  Another HUGE pet peeve I had was that their utensils sucked.  The knife was one of the dullest knives I've ever encountered that it was practically impossible to cut through the muffin...maybe it was the knife and not the muffin that sucked?  If I were judging this review on just my meal, I might have gone 2.5 folks because it was really meh.

However, Deanna's sandwich looked and tasted amazing.  It was a beautiful large buttery toasted croissant with American cheese, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and garlic aioli with 2 eggs inside the sandwich.  Classic delicious breakfast croissant.  The only thing it's missing is sprouts.  I had one look at it and wished I had gotten the version with meat in it.  It also came with a side of house potatoes that were fantastic - they tasted more like tater tots than roasted potatoes because they had a nice crunch on the outside.

Overall, this place was middle of the pack.  It's cute, the menu is solid and it's in a great neighborhood (Ukrainian Village) but I guess I just ordered the wrong thing.  Apparently they are pretty well known for their burgers, so it sounds like I should have gotten that or some kind of sandwich instead.   I should mention that it's BYOB here, so lots of people brought full bottles of champagne to make mimosas, which was neat and fun to watch.  Total bill:  $21.29/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cai Visited 1/30/2016 4 Forks

Cai  2100 S Archer Ave., Ste 2F, Chicago, IL 60616

I've been to Chicago so many times in the past 15 years that there are hardly any neighborhood or touristy things left to do.  But somehow, Chinatown has alluded me all these years (although Deanna did remind me that apparently we did go together once in college with our moms - clearly I blocked that out of my head). 

So finally we decided to cross this off both of our Chicago to-do lists on a nice Saturday afternoon. The Chinatown in Chicago is kind of out of the way and not near much - it's also waaay smaller than most urban Chinatowns but it's kind of nice to not have it be an overflowing chaotic mess like it is in NYC (although I do have a soft spot for the craziness of it all).  The Chinatown here is very manageable and you can probably get through all of it in an hour if you aren't doing too much window shopping.   But of course, no trip to Chinatown is complete without a dim sum outing.  Cai has been a few Chicago Chinatown lists, so this was our first stop. 

Like any typical dim sum restaurant, this one is a large, tacky, banquet hall with large tables.  Usually I would expect a dim sum place at noon on Saturday to be a complete mob scene, but it wasn't too bad here with only about a 15 minute wait.  It was nice that we didn't have to share a large communal table with others.  What's different about the service here is that instead of the usual push carts that come around most traditional dim sum places, here you order from a picture menu and then they bring it out to you.  While it kind of diminishes the fun and feel of dim sum, it's also kind of genius too.  There's no fighting over carts, you can get exactly what you want without waiting around for it and since it's not circling around on a cart for hours, the food comes out pipping hot.  The menu here was typical, it has everything you would normally get at a dim sum place.  Small dishes are $2.99, Medium $3.79,  Large $3.99, XL $4.00 and Special $5.25.  Most items on the menu are in the medium to large range. We ordered the har-gow, sticky rice in lotus leaf, pork and shrimp shumai, tapioca custard, pan fried bean curd with mixed vegetable, vegetable with tofu, golden corn pie, baked green chive puffs, and turnip cake.  Obviously the first 3 items were for me since they all had either pork or shrimp in it.  I gotta say, they were all quite delicious and tasted like they were just made in the kitchen.  I was very impressed with the quality of the food - none of it was anything particularly unique or sophisticated but just really solid.  Unfortunately a few of the dishes that we got that we thought were veggie friendly (corn pie and green chive puff) turned out to have shrimp in them.  The restaurant was very nice in taking them back and not charging us for it - which I greatly appreciated.   Of the veggie dishes, the vegetable with tofu was most definitely the best because it was wrapped in large broad rice noodles. It's the veggie version of my all time favorite dim sum dish: the shrimp roll (I didn't order it here because this one apparently had celery in it which I hate). 

Since we had to send 2 of the veggie dishes back, Deanna also ordered the mushroom and corn congee.  I should have known that the serving was be huge.  Unfortunately, by the time we got it, we were so full with our other dishes that we didn't really need to order it at all so we ended up taking home a lot of food.  The one dish that was kind of weird was the tapioca custard.  Neither of us have had it before and it was basically a giant gelatinous ball with a sweet custard center - it was kind of like eating a giant bland clear mochi ball.  It wasn't terrible but not particularly great either. 

Overall, I was fairly impressed with my experience here.  I can't say the service was super attentive but that's to be expected.  It was definitely a very pleasant and calm dim sum experience - which I know is a bit of the opposite of what you might actually want from dim sum - but the food was quality and worth the trek.  Total bill:  $21/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Izakaya Mita Visited 1/29/2016 4 Forks

Izakaya Mita  1960 N Damen Ave., Chicago, IL 60647

My 800th review - Good grief!  I honestly can't believe I've lasted this long writing about every single new restaurant that I've been to around the globe.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep it up but it's definitely been a fun ride so far. 

Luckily, for my 800th review, I'm writing a positive one!  I was back in Chicago for work and landed just in time for dinner on Friday.  Deanna and I decided to keep it local to Bucktown and I've always wanted to try this place that was right around the corner from her.   We walked in around 8ish, which I know is prime dinner time but apparently it was also Restaurant Week in Chicago and the place was packed.  The hostess told us there were no available seats all night because of Restaurant Week (no offense but I actually think the whole concept of Restaurant Week is kind of lame) but that we could fight it out for any seats at the bar.  While we were contemplating where to go next, 2 seats at the bar magically appeared.  Phew. 

As you can tell by the name, the menu here is Japanese small plates.  They have a fantastic menu with truly every kind of Japanese comfort food you can imagine.  We started the meal with:  sashimi salad ($12.50), kinoko itame ($8.50), yu dofu ($7.50), shishito peppers ($5.50), and assorted vegetable tempura ($5).  God, I really miss eating in Chicago when you see prices like this.  Yes, it's small plates but they are priced as they should be whereas in NYC, each of these plates could be over $10. Obviously the sashimi salad was just for me and I gotta say it was fucking amazing and I'm glad I didn't have to share it (sorry D!).  It was 6 really fresh and large cuts of tuna, yellowtail and salmon on a bed of mixed greens and a light vinaigrette dressing.  Clean, simple and a must-have in my book (if you eat fish).  Based on that, I was really excited for the rest of my meal.  The kinoko itame was warm mushrooms dish sauteed in butter and soy citrus sauce - essentially it's really just oyster mushroom drowning in butter - it was good but almost too heavy handed on the butter for me.  The shishito peppers were your typical salted blistered peppers - crunchy, peppery but not spicy at all. Next we tried the assorted vegetable tempura (there's actually an entire tempura section if you want to mix and match your own).  This veggie mix came with onion, kabocha squash, green beans, carrot and mushroom.  For $5, it was a LOT of veggies.  They were lightly battered and the right level of crispness and weren't soggy at all when you dipped it in the dipping sauce.  Lastly, we had the yu dofu, which was our least favorite dish of the night.  We had asked the waitress to recommend a good tofu dish and this was the one she pointed us too.  Unfortunately, it was pretty blah.  It was just pieces of firm tofu soaking in hot water and ponzu served with mushroom and scallion.  While I don't mind tofu, serving it in a literal hot water bath doesn't really do it any favors in terms of flavor.  I'll give it points for being a very clean dish but it kind of missed the mark for me. 

At this point, we're both 1 bottle of sake and beer in, so of course that lends to us ordering more food (which in hindsight was totally unnecessary).  I opted for the kara age ($7) and Deanna got the mushroom tempura ($5).  Kara age are bites of deep fried ginger marinated chicken - basically it's freaking chicken nuggets fried Asian style.  In true Asian form, they use dark meat, which is so juicy and delicious to me.  These bites were salty goodness and totally addictive.  I could see myself coming back here and ordering this with a cold beer and being really really happy.  The mushroom tempura was also a huge order of very large pieces of oyster mushrooms.  The caps on these mushrooms were kind of ridiculous - they were the size of the entire plate but it looked great none the less.   

Overall, I left happy, full and slightly tipsy - which are all good things on a brisk Chicago night. Deanna mentioned that it's normally not spilling over with people - so I guess Restaurant Week really does bring in a crowd?  If I lived near here, I could totally see myself coming back as a regular and sitting at the bar while I nibble on a bunch of affordable and tasty bites, but sadly I'll just have to wait for the next time I'm back in town.  Total bill for 2 people:  $128 with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp