Toro Visited 4/26/2014 4 Forks

Toro 85 10th Ave., New York, NY 10011

Holly and I spent an amusing afternoon at the auto show at the Javits Center and were starving by the time we left.  There's not much in the immediate area but just a short 15 minute walk down 10th Avenue gives you access to tons of really interesting and fun restaurants.  Toro is most well known for its location in Boston and they just opened one up here on the fringe of the Meat Packing district.  It's kind of hidden and the entrance is really on 15th street and 11th ave instead of 10th ave. Unfortunately we couldn't get a reservation but we walked in at 6:30 on the dot and we easily got a seat at the communal table which was great.   I always appreciate a restaurant that leaves tables open for walk-ins. 

The space here is beautiful and very airy.  It's got a modern vibe and fits right in with the Meat Packing area but it seemed a notch less pretentious than most of its peers in the neighborhood.  The menu is mostly tapas and a few paellas dishes as well.  The waitress recommended 2-4 dishes per person so we met in the middle and got 5 dishes.  The menu has your typical tapas dishes like tortilla Espanola and potatoes bravas but they also have more adventurous dishes that include uni, bone marrow, and tripe. We kind of decided on a mix of dishes:  Bocadillo de Erizos ($13), Tuna tartarte ($15), Maiz Asado con alioli y queso cotija ($10), braised lamb ($15) and the asparagus ($16).  The Bocadillo de Erizos is a small pressed sandwich with sea urchin, miso butter and pickled mustard seeds.  Amazing. You could definitely taste the sea urchin but it wasn't overwhelming or overpowering and it still had a nice creamy consistency to it.  I loved it.  The tuna tartare came in this funny sardine can and on the menu it said that it was served "with stuff that we really like."  So that actually turned out to be coconut milk and green curry flavoring - so yes it was stuff that I really liked.  It was delicious.  Next came the braised lamb and asparagus dishes.  The lamb meat fell cleanly off the bone and was a nice balance of meat and fat (although it could have been a smidge less fatty).  The asparagus was cooked nicely with the right amount of crunch to it and the actual vegetable was plumb and hearty - not some kind of wimpy, sad skinny stalk of asparagus you sometimes see in the grocery store.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it was covered with hot aioli and cured egg yolk - so yeah, that kind of made the dish pretty unhealthy but they were still nice additions to the dish.  Last came the grilled corn..  I expected it to be one corn on the cob but it was actually 2 large cobs cut in half and drenched in farmer's cheese, aioli and red chili pepper.  I mean I love that combination but it was literally way too much of the condiment on it - I would definitely not recommend ordering it if you are on a date because you'll most definitely get cheese all over your face.  But if you're in the comfort of good friends, then by all means go for it.  Of course we saved room for some dessert and since it's a Spanish place we had to get the churros - which were nice and warm sugary.  I just wish they gave us more than 3 sticks.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience here given it's trendy location and kind of lukewarm Yelp reviews.  Although it was tapas style, most of the dishes were actually pretty decently sized and I definitely left pretty full.   The menu's got great variety - so you'll find something for everyone there.  The table next to me got the bone marrow and beef cheeks and it looked fantastic, so I definitely want to order that the next time I'm there.  Total bill:  $78/pp with tax, tip and 2 drinks each

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tanoshi Sushi Sake Bar Visited 4/22/2014 5 Forks

Tanoshi Sushi and Sake Bar 1372 York Ave., New York, NY 10021

Woah, I was completely caught off guard by this place.  I had read about Tanoshi in several blogs as being one of the top omakase in the cities despite not being incredibly fancy.  In fact, this place is the complete opposite of high end fancy pants sushi places.  It's pretty much a tiny hole in the wall far off on the East Side.  I would have never found out about this place on my own.  However, similar to Sushi Nakazawa, it's incredibly difficult to secure a reservation.  It used to be that you had to physically stop by the restaurant and put your name on a clipboard outside the restaurant to secure a slot.  But now they've upgraded to the 21st century and you can go online to make a reservation although I will say that you'll probably have to click through several dates to find an opening.

Luckily I was able to secure 2 seats on a random Tuesday night at 6pm.  They only have 3 time slots for the evening, so you better be on time or close to being on time.  When you walk in, you'll notice that there are only 10-12 seats and it's all at the sushi bar - which I love.  While it's omakase style they do have a wall that lists out separate appetizers that you can order individually.  We decided to start with the scallop sashimi ($12) because I'm obsessed with anything scallop related.  It comes out thinly sliced and it was heavenly.  Not super buttery but very very smooth, sweet and silky.  Then the omakase started.  The first piece was fluke - and they mention on the wall that all the sushi is served room temperature and with loose rice.   It was fantastic and served totally traditional style with no soy sauce and very little wasabi.   The quality of the fish was amazing and the rice was indeed loose and had the right touch of vinegar to it.   This first bite made me super excited for what was to come.  I'll spare you painful details of me and Janet swooning and tearing up over every single piece we ate but they were all mind blowing and it really puts into perspective what is high quality sushi and what is just ok sushi. The meal continued on with red snapper, wild king salmon, marinated big eye tuna, squid, albacore tuna, poached scallop, salmon roe, sea urchin with a raw quail egg, eel, then a trio of big eye tuna, king salmon and albacore tuna rolls, a small cup of miso soup and then the meal ended with a large delicious spicy tuna hand roll.   Everything was amazing and completely 5 fork worthy.  My favorite was obviously the sea urchin - just incredibly creamy and silky.  I could have eaten 5 more of those and then some.  Even thought it was a lot of food, we decided that we still wanted to try one more  appetizer so we opted for the king salmon carpaccio ($15) which was about 6 thin slices of slightly seared king salmon with yozu sauce on it.  Again, it was simply delightful and perfect.

Despite its awful location, this place is a genuine gem.  While I loved Sushi Nakazawa, this place is definitely much more my speed in terms of it just being much more low key and informal.  PLUS the best part of it all? It's only $60 per person.  Yes it's half the price of Sushi Nakazawa.  It's got to be one of the best deals ever for sushi in terms of quality and variety.  Another huge plus is that it's BYOB, so definitely bring your own wine or sake before heading over.  I truly loved every minute of my meal here and I hope it stays under the radar for a while, although I doubt that will happen.  Total bill:  $100/pp with tax and tip

Shin Yeh Visited 4/15/2014 4 Forks

Shin Yeh 5F, No. 11, Songshou Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Branch A11 Buildling) Taipei, Taiwan

For anyone who has read this blog for a while, you will know that I am a huge sucker for a good buffet.  Yes - I know it's kind of tacky and low brow but there's just something about it that I just love. What's even more enticing is an Asian buffet.  My mom and I had tried to go to Shin Yeh last year when I was in Taiwan but the timing just didn't work out, so luckily this time we were able to find time for it.  They have a regular lunch buffet from 11:30-2:30, a lightly reduced option for less money from 2:30-4:30 and then a dinner option.  We decided to go to the regular lunch option since the timing just worked better for us. 

What's great about this place is the variety of yummy and distincly Asian options.  There's a sushi bar where they make hand rolls, regular rolls, sushi and sashimi.  There's a cold seafood station with New Zealand green mussels and shrimp cocktail.  There's a warm station with shrimp and veggie tempura, fried eggplant and fish jaw.  They also had a carving station, soup station, salad bar and full dessert bar.  So it's almost impossible to not find something to eat here.  I was still recovering from the stomach flu but I was so excited at all the possibilities that I had to try almost everything they had.  While the sushi wasn't 5 star quality, it was just as good as a standard neighborhood joint.  I thought the mussels were fantastic - very plump and easy to eat.  The shrimp was of the sweet variety and still had the head on - but there wasn't much to suck out of it.  But what I loved the most of the fish jaw.  For those who don't eat whole fish often, the secret is that some of the best meat is in the head/cheek/jaw area.  In the US, if you go to a nice Japanese place and order the jaw, it can easily cost you $14+ a dish.  So clearly I went to town and had about 3 pieces here.  I was so stuffed from trying (and coming back for 2nds and 3rds) of all the savory foods that I couldn't manage the dessert bar.  I'm usually not a big fan of Asian dessert although I think the ones here were more Western style.  I finished my meal with some nice watermelon slices.   Oh and before I forget, this buffet also comes with unlimited red or white wine and what looked like shots of Chinese whiskey.  So totally easy to get wasted here too. 

While I was in town for a sad reason, I was glad that I was able to finally check this place out before I left.  It's a bit bittersweet to think that I may not return to Taiwan ever or at least in a long time and despite all my bitching and complaining, I can't deny that Taiwan has some of the world's best and cheapest food out there.   Total bill:  $50 for 2 people 

Photo Credit:  Tripadvisor

Harumi Sushi Visited 4/10/2014 Unable to Rate

Harumi Sushi 114 W Adams St., Ste C101, Phoenix, AZ 85003

So what's with the Unable to Rate deal you may ask.  Well, unfortunately a few hours after I had lunch here I felt really sick and got a bad case of the stomach flu for the next few days.  I wasn't feeling too great before I came here but things got really bad after I left here.  So obviously if I picked up something from some unwashed food here, I can't in good conscious give it a good rating.  However, where I'm torn is that I actually really liked the sushi here. 

But to back up a bit.  My first impression of this place was a bit iffy.  It's not really a restaurant but more cafeteria style where you order at a counter and then they bring it to your table - so it was just not something I was really expecting at a sushi place.  Also another interesting fact here is that they only use purple rice which they believe has added health benefits.  I decided to order the H3 roll ($13) which was spicy tuna, spicy salmon, spicy yellowtail, avocado, cucumber, tobiko, eel sauce and spicy mayo and the crazy roll ($9) which had fresh tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avocado and spicy sauce.  So both rolls were very similar but both sounded tasty to me.  I figured these were regular sized rolls, so I asked if they had a small house salad which I didn't see on the menu.  The waitress said they could put something together ($5) which I said ok.  In retrospect, I wish I hadn't ordered the "salad" because it was just shredded lettuce, some cucumber and sesame dressing on it.  The shredded lettuce just made it seem really low budget and cheap.  I didn't finish it and left room for the rolls.  When they came out I was shocked, only because there were so many pieces! Most places usually give you 6 or sometimes 8 pieces but this place gave you 10 fairly large pieces.  I couldn't believe it.  If I had known, I would have only gotten 1 roll because I ended up taking home over 8 pieces with me.  I was a bit skeptical of the purple rice, but it was totally fine and didn't taste too different.  I thought the rolls were innovative and very tasty and I was actually looking forward to having the rest of it for dinner.  Unfortunately that never happened and I ended up throwing it away because I was so sick. 

So sadly I feel like I can't rate this place properly.  I would say it's probably still worth checking out mostly because it's a different type of sushi but just go in with an open mind.  Total bill:  $36 with tax, tip and a soda

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Gallo Blanco Visited 4/9/2014 2 Forks

Gallo Blanco 401 W Clarendon Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85013

I was excited to try another Mexican place in Phoenix and I was even more jazzed when Michael's friend mentioned that this place served one of his favorite sandwiches, the naco torta - which was described as a sandwich grilled rib eye with a fried egg and avocado.  Yum! 

The restaurant is actually inside the Clarendon Hotel and it was totally hoppin when we arrived on a random Wednesday night.  We had originally asked the waitress if we could sit outside and she said it would be a 5 minute wait.  Ok, no biggie.  So we wait and we then calls us over and walks us to our table - which was inside.  We had to stop and remind her that we wanted to sit outside and she was like "oh, yeah, sorry!".  That should have been our first clue that the service was going to be off that night.  Then we notice all the commotion at the tables next to us and the waiter and other stuff apologizing profusely.  That should have been our other clue.  Then we waited and waited and waited until finally someone comes over to take our drink order.  Then we waited and waited and waited for our drinks to actually show up and Michael comments on how they are now half the size they used to be before.  I start to notice that the table next to us is quite agitated because their waiter was MIA and they then proceed to walk over to the serving station, get a pitcher of water and re-fill their own glasses.  Clearly, it was just a really bad service night.  Even though this place is known of tacos, I decided to get that yummy sounding sandwich ($10) that Carlos had mentioned plus a small mixed green salad ($5) and we split a guacamole for the table ($6.50).

Usually I say that guacamole is really hard to get wrong but this one wasn't all that great.  It was very lumpy and had large chunks of citrus fruit it in that I thought was a bit weird.  Plus it was missing salt to it.  While I ate it, I can't say that it was a great guacamole.  The salad was pretty decent although it might have been too heavily dressed for my liking.  As for the sandwich, it had such potential but it was a letdown.  First, the bun was way to bread-y and big.  Even though I'm not afraid of carbs at all, I had to just stop eating the bun as some point because it was just too much carbs.  The rib eye was also too chopped up and it was hard to hold together all the pieces of meat.  By having it so cut up, it really allowed the meat to dry out quickly and it wasn't as moist or juicy as I would have liked.  Plus I felt like they skimped on the avocado.  The slices were too small, at least in relation to the huge bun.  At this point I wished I had ordered the fish tacos instead.  I did like the fried egg component but it wasn't enough to really make the sandwich a winner in my book.

Maybe it was an off night for this place or maybe it was a sign of things to come but the overall experience that night wasn't a great one.  I can see how it could have been a great place and I liked how everything sounded on the menu but the execution of the food and the service were just not on point that night.  Total bill:  $30/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Thai Basil Signature Visited 4/9/2014 3 Forks

Thai Basil Signature 114 W Adams St, Ste 104, Phoenix, AZ 85003

Day two of my conference and I was having a hankering for Asian food and luckily stumbled upon this Thai place randomly while looking for another restaurant.  I have always had a soft spot for Thai lunch specials in NYC, so I was curious if a Thai place in Phoenix would have the same deal.  And sure enough they did.  This place is smack in the middle of downtown Phoenix so it was full of people on their lunch break and a few of us from the conference. 

Their menu has the usual line-up for Thai dishes:  pad thai, curries, fried rice, drunken noodles, etc. You get a spring roll and soup included in your meal as well.  While I usually would just go for a pad thai, I was in the mood for a broad flat noodle and got the spicy noodles with shrimp ($9.95) and a thai ice tea.  I chose that dish over the drunken noodle because it had all the same vegetables as the drunken noodle but it also had bean sprouts too which I love.  I guess I didn't read the menu too carefully because I soon discovered that the spicy noodle was a pan fried skinny noodle and not the wide noodle kind.  Opps, that was my bad.  They first serve you a clear vegetable soup, which honestly with the heat I would have preferred a salad instead but it was totally fine.  The noodle and spring roll came out on the same plate and it was a pretty good sized dish of noodles.  I had asked for medium spicy but it still had a big kick to it.  Again, it was totally my fault for not reading the menu more carefully but I was disappointed that it was the wide noodle but it was totally fine with the skinny noodles.  It was really just your basic standard spicy noodle dish.  Nothing bad nothing great.  It got the job done in terms of filling me up and satisfying my craving.  The shrimp were decent sized and cooked well and the vegetables were aplenty on the dish.  

All in all, I'm glad I found this place and it was a nice affordable lunch option compared to my almost $30 Pizza Bianco experience the other day.  Next time I'll just learn to read the menu more carefully or just stick with a pad thai option.  Total bill:  $15 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Geisha A Go Go Visited 4/8/2014 3.5 Forks

Geisha A Go Go   7150 E 6th Ave., Scottsdale, AZ 85250

Who doesn't love a good happy hour? So I was pretty psyched when Michael suggested this place that was walking distance from my hotel and right in the middle of downtown Scottsdale for happy hour here (3-7pm).   During this time, all appetizers, house maki, sake bombs, specialty drinks and seasonal wine/sake are half off.  Yes, this place is cheesy, it also kind of sexualizes Asians and is most definitely not a purist type of sushi place but hey, I just took it in stride.

I wasn't sure what house maki meant and was worried that it was going to be a choice of like 3 blah rolls but it was a choice of over 15 different kinds of rolls ranging from your basic california roll to soft shell crab roll.  They did have a list of really insane specialty rolls (with totally ridiculous names like Geisha Lips and Harajuku Lover - did I also mention this place is also a karaoke place too?)  but since they weren't a part of happy hour I didn't even bother to look at them.  I opted for the rainbow roll (regularly $10.75) and the spicy yellowtail roll (regularly $6.50) while Michael got the edamame (regularly $4), the  chicken lettuce wrap (regularly $10) and the gyoza (regularly $7).   There was also a very long list of good sounding appetizers to choose from so if I ever come back here, I would totally mix it up and order some sushi and some appetizers to make it a full on meal.   We also managed to sneak in two rounds of the Kinki Kooler (regularly $9) before happy hour closed.  The Kinki Kooler was Stoli Strawberry, fresh slices of kiwi, lime and soda - it basically tasted like candy.  I'm not even sure how much alcohol was in it but it was a fun refreshing drink for a hot afternoon.  I was a bit weary of the sushi but honestly they were surprisingly good.  The spicy yellowtail was the chopped up version (no spicy mayo on the top) and the rainbow roll was just as good as any basic sushi place in NYC.  I didn't try Michael's food (except for the edamame which were totally fine - well boiled in that they still had some crunch to it and salted well) but they looked like good snackies for happy hour.  The lettuce wrap was a make-your-own version where they give you all the ingredients and a plate of lettuce and you wrap as little or as much filling as you want.

All in all, despite the incredibly cheesy vibe and name of the food and drinks, this place is a super fun place to go for happy hour.  Obviously it's not on the level of a Sushi Nakazawa or even a Yama but at half price, you absolutely can't go wrong here.  Total price:  $42 for 2 people including drinks, tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp