Frankel's Delicatessen Visited 12/15/2016 3.5 Forks

Frankel's Delicatessen     631 Manhattan Ave.,  Brooklyn, NY 11222

Having been in NYC for over 15 years, it's hard not to love a great Jewish deli.  I mean who doesn't love smoked fish on a bagel, matzo ball soup and pastrami sandwiches?  This hipster place opened up in Greenpoint not too long ago and got rave reviews for its pastrami and breakfast sandwiches so I had to check it out.  It's a fairly small place with only 2 tables and a few seats by the windowsill, so be prepared to wait for a seat or just take it home. 

The menu has a yummy line up of perfect hang over food but I decided to go with the speciality bagel combo #1 - pastrami salmon, dill, cucumber and scallion cream cheese ($12).  Mind you, while this says it's a combo - it doesn't actually come with anything else.  I got it with a toasted everything bagel and a side of fries ($4) to make it my own combo.  

The sandwich was a good size with a nice heaping of cream cheese and a decent helping of lox in there.  The pastrami salmon had a good bite to it - it definitely had the flavor profile of pastrami but in lox formation.  The combination with the cucumber and cream cheese is always a winner, although I wished it also came with tomato and capers but then I guess if I wanted that I should have just gotten a more traditional lox sandwich.   Everything was great about the sandwich except for the bagel! While I did ask for it to be toasted, it was way too hard and difficult to bite into it.  I personally like my bagels to be warm and fluffy not hard and crusty.  So that was a big disappointment.  The guy next to me got a traditional pastrami on rye and it looked freaking amazing.  This is what I get for not ordering what the place is famous for.  Next time.  Luckily the fries made up for the bad carb element to the meal.  The fries were god damn addictive - they are basically McDonald's fries - skinny, salty and you can't put them down.  The bag is definitely enough for 2 people to share so don't try to eat it all by yourself like I did or else you're feel really sick (like I did). 

Overall, it was still a nice hipster Jewish experience and it's great that it was only a 15 min walk from my house so that I don't have to trek into the city for food like this.  I would probably recommend not toasting your bagel or sticking to the traditional offerings like the pastrami if you're only going to come check this place out once.  Total bill:  $17

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tim Ho Wan Visited 12/14/2016 4 Forks

Tim Ho Wan  85 4th Ave., New York, NY 10003

The opening of Tim Ho Wan has been one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings in a while.  It's been touted as the world's cheapest Michelin starred restaurant (the original is in Hong Kong) mostly because it's all dim sum style.  The first US output opened in the East Village this past week to a insane frenzy.  Virginia and I managed to sweet talk our way into the friends and family soft opening before it was open to the general public on Friday.  This was all totally by accident.  I saw that they were done with construction so when VA and I had dinner plans during the week, I suggested that we give this place a try not knowing that it wasn't really open to the public yet. 

I got there late and VA texted me asking if I had made a reservation, which I hadn't (and they don't take them anyways).  So when I walked in she told me that we were likely not going to sit because everyone there was part of some private event.  But in true VA style, she managed to make friends with the hostess and with a little bit of waiting, we were seated at a table!  While this place is all dim sum, it's not like in Chinatown where they have push carts.  You order by the menu and they bring it to your table, which is totally fine with me because it actually allows you to get exactly what you want because sometimes with the push carts they don't always have what you want.  The prices were all in the $4.00-$5.50 range so totally reasonable.  The menu has the usual line up of traditional dim sum - there wasn't anything that I wanted that wasn't on there.  We ordered the roast pork buns, rice crepes with shrimp and minced meat, shu mai, hargow, turnip cake, sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf and chiu chow dumplings.  

Since it was still a soft opening, things were a bit chaotic but once the food came out, it was all good. We started with the roast pork buns, which usually I never order because they tend to be really heavy on the bread but these were really delicious.  The break was fluffy and soft and not too dense.  The pork was sweet and salty and roasted to perfection.  If every pork bun tasted like this, I would totally get them.  Next came the rice crepes - which is my favorite dim sum dish, I usually order 2 because I can eat an entire plate myself.  It was soft, moist and not too greasy or oily.  I still prefer the shrimp one to the meat one but they were both fantastic and really well done.  Next came with shu mai and har gow in the steamed bamboo baskets.  They were piping hot and super fresh.  This is what makes getting dim sum made to order vs. cart better because with the carts you never know how long the dishes have been sitting there for and many times the ones I've gotten can be cold and not very fresh tasting.  You can tell that these dumplings were delicately hand made and not some frozen shit thrown into a steamer.  The one dumpling I wasn't a huge fan of was the chiu chow but mostly because I didn't like the filling of water chestnuts and peanuts not because of how it was made.  The sticky rice was actually my favorite dish of the night - it was a very large portion and perfect texture of rice - sticky but still moist and filled with tender pork and Chinese sausage inside.  I was scrapping the bottom of the leaf to make sure that I got every single bite.   If there was one slightly disappointing dish of the night, it was the turnip cake.  It was a bit undercooked and soft - normally I like it a bit crunchy and slightly burned on the outside and this was missing that element but at least it wasn't super greasy which this dish can easily get.  

We decided to end the meal with a dessert, which I normally wouldn't recommend at a dim sum place because dessert is not Chinese people's strong suit.  But we decided to try to goji berry jello, which was just eh.  I don't particularly love goji berries and the jello didn't have ton of flavor to it but it was a bit of a refreshing palate cleanser.

But now comes the crazy part of the meal. We ask for the check and instead of getting a check we just got a survey and comment card.  Waaa??  Apparently the reason it was so crazy and why we technically shouldn't have been seated was because it was truly for friends and family and they weren't charging anyone for the night.  WTF?!?!  Amazing.  I would have easily paid but we literally had no idea how much these were, so we left a $20 tip.  I wish I could say these type of cool things happen to me all the time because I blog about food but it was literally by chance and circumstance.

Overall, this place is a hit and the food is way cleaner and fresher than the places in Chinatown.  But I had read that on opening day, people were waiting 2-3 hours to get seated which I would definitely not wait around for.  Definitely wait until things have died down a bit, but it's a fantastic addition to the dim sum world without having to trek to Chinatown or Queens.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tomoe Sushi Visited 12/13/2016 4.5 Forks

Tomoe Sushi  172 Thompson St., New York, NY 10012

Ahhh, Tomoe sushi - such an oldie but truly a goodie.  It's been a loooong time since I had been back but for some reason the place popped in my head on a random Tuesday night and I decided to treat myself to some sushi.  I had remembered it being one of those places where people waited in line before it even opened, so I wasn't sure how it was going to be when I got there at 7pm, but it was half empty when I arrived.  I hope that wasn't a sign of a decline in quality or popularity. 

I was seated immediately and the one bad thing about having dinner by yourself is that it's hard to share a bunch of things you like on the menu.  The service was a bit slow but it gave me time to digest what I wanted to order - the sophie's choice of sushi, do I get rolls or sashimi?  I usually don't get the sushi sashimi type combos but I had remember the sashimi was the shit here so I went for it ($40 for 10 pieces of sashimi, 5 pieces sushi and half a spicy tuna roll).  It came out fairly quickly and it was simply gorgeous.   Despite being a food blogger, I actually hate taking pictures of food at restaurants - I find it kind of annoying and stereotypical of Asians.  But I couldn't help myself here (although note, this picture above isn't the one I took).  The sushi here is extremely Instagram worthy. There was so much going on that I didn't know where to start.  There were cuts of almost every kind of fish you can imagine - salmon, tuna, yellowtail, octopus, botan, salmon roe, squid, a scoop of spicy tuna, egg, surf clam, and half a spicy tuna roll.  My mouth was watering at the the thought of eating all of this.  Each piece was fresh, simple and the cuts of sashimi were really big (almost too big - it could have been cut a bit smaller but I'm not really going to complain about it at all).  I really tried to savor each bite but I ended up chowing down on all of this in under an hour.  Being here on a quiet Tuesday night made me wonder why the hell I stopped coming here in the first place?

The food was plentiful and I was stuffed by the time I finished everything.  I toyed with the idea of getting a spicy scallop roll or a piece of uni but I had to draw the line - going out to eat for a random casual Tuesday night shouldn't run me $75, which is what would have happened if I ordered more food.  Instead, it cost me $50 which is definitely way more than what I would typically spend on take out or pick up but you know, sometimes you just need to do what makes you freaking happy, and for me it's spending it on really enjoyable food experiences.  The only bummer was that the service was pretty inattentive.  A heads up that it's cash or Amex only.   Total bill: $50 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Samesa Visited 12/12/2016 4.5 Forks

Samesa  495 Lorimer St., Brooklyn, NY 11211

I was beyond devastated when Meat Hook Sandwich closed down.  They served amazing sandwiches and despite the fact that the actual Meat Hook market opened up literally across the street from me, they weren't really serving many sandwiches there.  But luckily the new place that opened up in its place is equally as fantastic. 

The food here comes from the Sussman brothers - one worked at The Cleveland and the other at Mile End but the focus here is Middle Eastern food which is great because I LOVE Middle Eastern food and there isn't enough of it in the 'hood.  The menu includes pita wraps, plates and salads.  Everything sounded fantastic - I was having a really really hard time deciding between getting a grilled meat plate or a salad.  I was feeling healthy so I opted for the special crunchy salad + chicken ($13 for a large, which was REALLY large) - this was made with dinosaur kale, purple cabbage, sprouts, chickpeas, onion, and this amazingly delicious green goddess like dressing.  I got it as a take-out and the chicken shawarma was served in a separate container, so you can mix in as little or as much as you'd like - of course I mixed in all of it but there is so much chicken that you can save some and use it for another dish.  The chicken was amazing - it was juicy, tender with a bit of char on the outside (it was mostly dark meat) and had this mind blowing yogurt dressing on top of it.  When you mixed it in with the actual salad, it was heaven. I was getting so full but I couldn't stop myself from eating it.  I usually am not a fan of raw cabbage but there was something in the way this was shredded and mixed with the dressing that made it really tasty.   The only thing I would probably change would be the pita chips - I've never been a fan of croutons or things like that in my salad and the cabbage and onions were "crunch" enough to carry on the namesake.   There was so much food that I was able to split it into 2 meals which makes this a really great deal. 

The actual space of the place hasn't change much from when it was the Meat Hook Sandwich shop, the only difference is that they have pretty cool branding and the overall vibe is more relaxing and chill.  I am definitely super super excited to try out the rest of the dishes there - in fact, I am going to make my mission to go back and try at least 3 more dishes.  Hopefully they will stick around for while because the prices are super reasonable for such delicious take out food.  Total bill:  $13

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Leuca Visited 12/7/2016 4 Forks

Leuca  The William Vale Hotel, 111 North 12th St., Brooklyn, NY 11249

I was excited to try out Andrew Carmellini's first foray in Brooklyn since I've been a huge fan of his other restaurants in the city like Locanda Verde, Little Park, Bar Primi and The Dutch to name a few. He opened up this space in the new crazy William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg - you know the neighborhood has changed a bunch when there are not 1 but 2 incredibly swanky fancy pants hotels within spitting distance to each other. 

Vince, Anuja and I checked out the place on a random Wednesday night.  When we first walked in, the place was pretty empty (granted it was 6:45) so we weren't sure what to expect.  But as the night went on, it did get more and more crowded.  The decor is pretty cool - it had this funky cool kid but still old Italian feel to it.  The menu here is Southern Italian influenced - there's a variety of antipasti, wood fired pizza, pastas, and wood fired grilled entrees.  Of course whenever I go out to eat with Vince, it's quite the production.  We start with the sheep's milk ricotta ($13) because you can't go to an Andrew Carmellini restaurant and not order the ricotta, the tuna crudo ($16), the fire roasted cabbage ($14), the burrata mezzaluna ($19), and the spicy sea urchin spaghetti ($24) to share while Anuja got the sea bass ($31) and Vince and I decided to go all out and get the suckling pig ($72) because that's what we do when we go out to eat. 

The ricotta was served with hot honey and garlic and warm bread.  I'm always a sucker for ricotta spreads (especially the one at Locanda Verde) and this one was good but it was almost whipped too smoothly for my liking, if that makes any sense.  The garlic was a nice addition but it was a touch too much flavor as the beauty of ricotta is in the light mild simplicity of it.  Next we tried the tuna crudo and this was probably the top dish of the night.  It was light, fresh and drizzled with the right amount of olive oil and topped with chili and crispy farro.  Fantastic.  The other anti-pasti we ordered, fire roasted cabbage, was a surprising winner of the night too.  It came as a recommendation from the waiter and to be honest, we probably wouldn't have ordered it without him but we felt like we needed some kind of veggie for the night.  It was perfectly roasted with a bit of char on the outside and it had a caesar dressing flavor to it (complete with an anchovy on top) that made it quite hearty and filling. Who would have thought to roast cabbage and that it would be delicious too? 

So the night was off to a pretty good start.  We moved on to the pasta courses and one was great while the other was eh.  The burrata mezzaluna was pretty bland and not that memorable.  I guess burrata is best served as a stand alone cheese dish vs. cooked and filled in a pasta.  Luckily, the sea urchin pasta more than made up for it.  It was spaghetti tossed with a thick gooey sea urchin based sauce and had 2 lovely pieces of sea urchin on top of it.  It was a pretty heavy dish so I was glad that we all shared it but it was a definitely the star pasta dish of the night. 

Now, this is where most normal people would probably stop eating.  But not us.  After eating 5 dishes, the waiter wheeled out this enormous suckling pig head and leg to the table.  I'm not really sure what I was expecting but I definitely was NOT expecting the entire pig's head - snout and all.  I went for the more meaty leg portion first and the area right under the crispy skin was amazing.  Moist and delicious with the fat from the skin still attached to it.  The skin was a bit tough to chew on, so I didn't really partake in that, which was probably better for my health anyways.  But you know probably wasn't good for my health but was god damn amazing?  The pork cheek and jowl!  Anyone who is a true food lover knows that the meat in the cheek area is the best part of any animal (sorry to all my veggie friends).  You have to get in there and cut it up yourself but when you do, you're rewarded with the juicy tender meat underneath.  I did try to pick at some of the other parts of the pig and it had dried out a bit but I was so full at this point, that even if it wasn't dried out, I wouldn't have been able to eat anymore of the dish.  If you plan on ordering this dish, please know that it could easily feed 3 or maybe even 4 people.  It's definitely not for the faint of heart.

Yet somehow when the waiter came by to clear our table, we drunkly decided it would be a great idea to order dessert.  This is what happens when you're 2 bottles of wine and cocktail deep.  We got the Sophia Loren for Two ($15) because, again, the waiter raved about it.  It's essentially a fancy sundae with espresso gelato, chocolate sauce, caramel crumble, meringue, rum granita, whipped cream, all topped with an extra shot of espresso poured on top of it.  It tasted just as amazing as it sounds. Sweet jesus is it good but it definitely put us all over the edge for the night.

By the time we left, the place was bustling.  I was curious to see what the rest of the hotel looked like since it's quite a unique structure but I was too tired and drunk to make any effort to walk around but I've heard that the rooftop bar is quite nice.  While I had a lovely meal here, I still think Locanda Verde ranks as my top Andrew Carmellini restaurant since the pastas there are out of this world.  But don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly happy that he has a post out here in BK to call our own.  Total bill:  graciously covered as a client dinner

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sweetcatch Poke Visited 12/4/2016 4 Forks

Sweetcatch Poke  642 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10022

How much poke can one person eat? For me, the answer is never enough.  Seriously, the whole city could be filled with poke places on every corner and I still wouldn't ever get sick of it.  I had been reading about this place for a while since it was started by Top Chef alum Lee Anne Wong - she prides this place on being more authentic and traditional.  The original concept of this place was to have you order by the pound instead of the mix and match bowl style.  It sounds like they must have adjusted their business model because when I was there this afternoon, the very nice guy at the counter explained to the Chipotle style ordering to me - nowhere was there any mention of ordering by the pound (which I know is more traditional in Hawaii).  

The ordering is similar to all the other places:  you order a base of white or brown rice (I got brown), kale or mixed greens (I got kale), and then you choose from a variety of already mixed poke combinations (I got the garlic black pepper).   They had several great sounding combinations - there was of course the classic style, a firecracker version which had a creamy spicy sauce, and an aloha version which had coconut sauce in it, plus a variety of others.  Then you pick 3 toppings and I got the seaweed salad, edamame, and kelp noodles (which was pretty much like a seaweed salad again).  It's all packed in a very deep plastic bowl for $13.95.  

I was a bit surprised when I read a few Yelp reviews when they said the portions weren't very big because I felt like it was a TON of food and very filling.  My only complaint with how it was packed - it was all layered on top of each other, so my first couple of bites were all seaweed salad.  I had to really eat my way down before I could get a bite of both rice, poke and toppings mixed together.  As for the poke itself, it was tasty and did taste closer to the kind I had in Hawaii.  The fish was fresh and of high quality and it was marinated well with a LOT of flavor to it.  I was afraid the garlic black pepper sauce would be overwhelming but it wasn't really.  The only thing I would change is that the chunks of onion were way too big, they need to be smaller and thinner.  Another downside is the location - it's in freakin Midtown East.  The only reason I even went there was because I was already on the 6 train and it was only a 10 minute ride up there.  Unfortunately, the two other locations they are looking to open are also in Midtown which is kind of a bummer.  If they opened one downtown, I would definitely be here a lot more often.  Total bill:  $13.95

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Black Ant Visited 12/1/2016 4 Forks

Black Ant  60 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10003

I recently booked a trip to Mexico City, so I've been a bit obsessed lately with traditional Mexican food.  I remembered a friend telling me about Black Ant, so I was able to convince Holly to check it out with me Friday night.

This is no Tex Mex food where everything is dripping in cheese and sour cream.  It's the kind of place where they have gresshoppers and goat as their main forms of protein.  We started with the black ant guacamole ($13) - I had to ask what black ant salt was and it's exactly what you think it is, crushed up black ants mixed with salt.  I felt like we had to try something adventurous.  We also got a side of plantains ($10) and I got the lehcon ($26) and Holly got the octopus ($27).  We were really tempted to also get the fish tacos since they sounded amazing but our stomachs were way bigger than our eyes at this point and I'm glad we refrained.   I was kind of expecting to see a bunch of this black ant salt in the guacamole but it was honestly barely noticeable.  It was really just normal guacamole served with freshly made tortilla chips.  There was a hint of mango and pomegranate so I guess it wasn't 100% "normal" but it was a pretty solid dish.  The plantains were also great - served in a smokey mole sauce and sprinkled with melted cotija cheese.  It was a lovely way to start the meal.

The entrees were no different either.  We had a bit of a snafu when they gave Holly the wrong dish and honestly it was bit too dark and we were starting to get a bit to tipsy to recognize it right away. They gave her the duck dumplings and I tried a bite and we were both confused.  Luckily when we flagged down the waiter, he knew immediately that it was the wrong order and brought out the octopus right away.   As for my lechon - it was a big block of suckling pig deliciousness.  Juicy, flavorful and the meat fell apart instantly.  The also give you a side of fresh corn tortillas, which I would normally skip but for some reason decided to try and it was magical.  I have been trying to avoid eating so much meat because of my high cholesterol but it's dishes like this that make it really hard to give up. I had a bite of the octopus and it was super tender and tasty as well.

We got the churros ($10) to end the meal because, well, how can you not get churros?!?  They were sweet and crunchy - albeit a bit too crunchy.  They probably were fried a bit too long and could have been more fluffy as Holly noted.  But overall, it was a fantastic way to end the meal.

This meal got me super excited for my trip to Mexico City.  The only reason I didn't give it 4.5 forks was for the really slow service in the beginning and the fact that they had this really annoying blinking light near where we were sitting that almost made it seem like we were in a rave.  Luckily it was fixed but it was highly distracting.  However, after seeing this picture of what the fish tacos looked like, I would be more than happy to try this place out again soon.  A fair warning, the margaritas are really strong - you've been warned.  Total bill:  $85/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp