The Greek Visited 4/17/2016 3.5 Forks

The Greek  458 Greenwich St., New York, NY 10013

Aarti and I spent a lovely evening at the Tribeca Film Festival watching an episode of The Good Wife and seeing the cast and producers and were looking for a nice place to grab some dinner around the neighborhood.  I remember that one of my friends who lived in Tribeca had mentioned that The Greek was a great neighborhood joint.  I'm always a fan of Greek food, so we figure what the heck. Despite it being a random Sunday evening, the place was pretty packed. 

As you can imagine, the menu here is Greek food (duh).  There's so much to Greek food that I love and luckily, a lot of it is vegetarian friendly so it's easy to share a bunch of things.  We had a lot of difficulty narrowing down our choices and when we started the ordering the waitress was actually like "umm, are you really hungry? Because that's a lot of food!"  You know when the waitress says that, you've definitely ordered too much food.  So we ended up with the small spread sampler ($14), octopus salad ($12) for me, greek salad ($16), pites ($16), and oven baked potatos ($7).  We cut out the greek fries and the grapes leaves in case you were wondering what else we were thinking of ordering.  

The food came out all relatively quickly.  The spread sampler came with tzatziki (cucumber yogurt), tarama (fish roe), tirokafteri (feta cheese), and melitzanosalata (eggplant) dips with pita.  They were all great and flavorful.  The pita was sliced into thin slivers which was great for dipping but I would have preferred to just have the entire pita myself and to tear it up.  The greek salad was what you would think with lots of juicy ripened tomatoes, cucumbers, chunks of feta, on a bed of arugula with a splash of olive oil.  Greek salad is one of my all-time favorite salads and this one didn't disappoint although I would have liked a bit more feta in it but overall it was a solid salad.  The oven baked potatoes were potato wedges baked in the oven splashed with lemon and salt/pepper on it.  It was a nice summer-y dish - it didn't taste heavy or too carb-y.  

While most of the meal was extremely solid, 2 of the dishes were a bit of a disappointment. The octopus salad was very thinly sliced slivers of octopus in a citrus-like base.  They were sliced so thin that it was hard to tell that it was actually octopus that I was eating.  When eating octopus at a Greek restaurant, I prefer one large tender piece of tentacle.  The pites or phyllo pies were also a bit disappointing.  It came with one spinach version and one cheese version but they were both on the dry side and too heavy on the dough.  In retrospect, we should have gotten the Greek fries instead.

Overall, it's still a nice casual neighborhood joint that's a bit off the beaten path and clearly popular with locals.  It's cozy enough to be great for date night or just as a place to catch up with friends.  I looked at some of the dishes other tables got and the chicken and shrimp dishes looked great, so if you do go, I'd look to get few small dishes and maybe try a few of the main entrees.  Total bill:  $39/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Lilia Visited 4/16/2016 3 Forks

Lilia  567 Union Ave., Williamsburg, NY 11211

This is a hard review to write because I really really wanted to fall head over heels in love with Lilia and I think I still can but my first experience definitely could have been improved upon.   It's definitely got tons of buzz lately because of the 3 star NY Times review from Pete Wells and Missy Robbins is also an extremely well respected Italian chef who people were excited to see come back with her own shop.  

In terms of the good, the space is lovely - spacious, bright, airey and in a part of Williamsburg that's not quite on the craziness of Bedford but still on the corner of hip and happening.  It took me over a month to get a reservation but luckily I was able to get something on a Saturday night at 7pm.  I would strongly recommend reservations otherwise you'll be waiting until the cows come home for a table.  Unfortunately, even having a reservation doesn't guarantee you a seat at the time you wanted.  When we got there, they told us that they were running behind and they would come find us in a bit.  We waited about 25 minutes, for our table which actually didn't bother me too much but it was kind of an indication of things to come. 

Lav and I were starving and everything on the menu sounded great.  We went a bit crazy with the appetizers - cacio e peppe fritelle, housemade mozzarella, whole artichoke, and grilled ramps.  For entrees, I don't care what you do, you must get pasta.  I'm sure the fish and meats are delicious but you don't come to a restaurant like this without getting pasta.  Lav got the Malfadini and I got the Pappardelle.  It was surprising that they didn't serve bread before hand, so we had to actually order a side of bread, which if I wasn't hungry isn't a terrible idea because most people are trying to cut carbs out of their diet, but in this moment, it was kind of annoying. 

The cacio e peppe fritelle were basically fritters of balled up cacio e peppe - it's a nice idea and it was well battered and fried (meaning that they weren't overly covered in breadcrumbs or super fried).  I would have liked them to have been served with a marinara sauce or some other kind of dipping sauce to give it a bit of moisture.  Unfortunately, only I could eat the housemade mozzarella because it had bottarga on it (fish roe) and while I love fish roe, I'm not really sure that I loved it on mozzarella - it kind of overpowered the dish.  But the actual mozzarella was fantastic, especially with the delicious crusty garlic bread it was served on.   The grilled ramps were also just ok - ramps went though this huge resurgence lately but these didn't really taste like much beyond the fact that they were some kind of grilled vegetable - it could have been any other grilled green.  Finally the whole artichoke - I just didn't know how to eat it.  I needed the waitress to give me a tutorial on how to maneuver around it.  I just basically sucked on the leaves or in some cases, I ate the entire leaf - is that what's suppose to happen?  The actual meat and leaves were covered in garlic, mint, parm and breadcrumbs - all lovely flavors but it made it really messy to eat.  While I'm glad I tried it, I think I'll stick to just the heart part in my meals next time. 

But you don't come to this restaurant for the appetizers, you're here for the pasta.  Lav and I had a really hard time deciding which ones to get.  The waitress said that the malfadini was the most popular, so we had to get that and they were taking the pappardelle off the menu soon to replace it with something else soon, so I felt like I had to try it before it was gone.  The pappardelle was served with a veal bolognese porcini and nutmeg, which I was excited for because as most of you know, I love a good ragu and I love pappadelle pasta.  Now I will say that the pasta itself was fantastic - you could tell that it was definitely homemade and made with a LOT of love.  If I was reviewing simply on the quality of the pasta itself, I would give it 5 forks.  Unfortunately what I didn't realize was that there wasn't any red sauce, it was just ground up ragu - which I just wasn't a huge fan of, plus the nutmeg flavoring was also a bit overpowering.  If the pappardelle had a red sauce ragu, I probably would have inhaled the whole thing but I ended up only eating half of it.  I tried the malfadini (which is a a frilly flat noodle) which was served with pink peppercorns and parm and again, with no sauce on it, so it just didn't really speak to me.  It was very heavy on the peppercorn, which I wasn't a huge fan of.  So sadly, neither of the pasta dishes were home runs for us.  But the table next to us got the rigatoni which did have a red sauce it looked amazing, so I would definitely come back and try that. 

We saved room for dessert and opted for the olive oil cake and a dark chocolate cake as well.  I enjoyed the olive oil one more - especially the house made whipped cream on top.  The chocolate one was way too chocolate-y for me. 

While I'm sad to not give this place more forks, I am definitely open to coming back and trying different dishes.  I can tell that the food is of high quality and made with love and attention, it's just that we probably didn't order all the right dishes.  As for the service, our waitress was very nice but wasn't really attentive.  It took forever to order our food and once we got it, we never really saw her again. But judging from the crowdedness of the room, it was clear that she was managing a LOT of tables, so I can't entirely fault her for it.  I guess this is what happens when you run a restaurant that's fairly large but still trying to maintain a cozy Italian feel to it.  Total bill:  $97/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Lupa Visited 4/12/106 4.5 Forks

Lupa  170 Thompson St., New York, NY 10012

When I first moved to NYC over 15 years ago, Lupa was one of the first "fancy" Italian restaurants I had been to.  This was before the celebrity chef craze and I didn't even know who Mario Batali was, but I had heard that this was a terrific authentic Italian place downtown.  Now fast forward to when everyone and their mother wants to be a celeb chef and Mario is practically a household name, but Lupa still stands the test of time as being a really fantastic homey Italian place.  In fact, the day I was there, Mario was actually there in the restaurant (orange crocs and all).

I met up with my friend Gary who I hadn't seen in years for a long leisurely lunch before I started my new job.  Apparently Gary is a regular there, so he knew the GM and the bartender there.  We went on a Tuesday because that's apparently when they have a duck special.  But first, we started with prosciutto and salumi ($20).  The prosciutto was sliced perfectly paper thin with the right amount of fat to meat on there.  Delicious.  The salumi was also a great slice of meat - thicker and saltier but still wonderful.  After gorging on that, we split two kinds of pastas:  Cacio e Peppe ($16) and the Casarecce with short rib ragu ($19).  It was a nice balance of a non-red sauce and red sauce pasta. Both were simple yet perfectly executed in both texture and flavor.  But this did make me realize that I'm much more of a red sauce pasta kind of gal.  The short rib ragu was delicious - moist pieces of short rib cooked to perfection.  Honestly, we could have stopped eating there and I would have been a happy gal.  But we were here for the duck ($25), so the duck we got.  I didn't really think about what it would look like but I had expected it to be some kind of sliced version.  But instead we each got an entire fucking duck!  It was served whole bone-in with the skin on served extra crispy.  I was shocked by how much food it was.  It made me incredibly sad that I couldn't finish the entire thing but the parts that I did eat were incredible.  Juicy meat and crispy skin - what more could you ask for?  Duck can go bad easily but when it's done right, it's really a fantastic meat.

The only downside of the meal was the dessert.  You'd think that an Italian restaurant would have fantastic dessert and I probably should have skipped it anyways, but we got the chocolate-hazelnut Tartufo ($10) which was just ok.  I've never really loved tartufo but I was surprised at how skimpy the dessert menu was - not a tiramisu in sight!

Overall, this was a lovely reminder that some old stand-bys are still great.  The best part about going for a late lunch was that it was super quiet and easy to get a table.  The staff was incredibly friendly and warm to us (probably because Gary spends so much time there).  If you haven't been to Lupa in a while, I would definitely recommend revisiting it again soon.  Total bill:  ~$500 for 2 with tax, tip and lots of drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Savannah, GA Day 2 4/9/2016 3-4 Forks

22 Square Restaurant  14 Barnard St., Savannah, GA 31401      4 Forks

I rarely like hotel restaurants, especially for breakfast unless I'm traveling in Asia, but I gotta say, I was impressed with the food at the Andaz in Savannah.  In fact, it was really the only place I ate at over the weekend where I thought the food was was really good.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since it is inside an Andaz Hotel, which is definitely one of the nicer hotels in the city.

Luckily, Allison had Platinum status there and we were able to snag free breakfast while we were there.  Now I'm usually a huge sucker for a breakfast buffet no matter what the quality, but this one was actually particularly good.  It had a cozy farmer's market feel to it with the right amount of Southern flare.  Of course, they had a large vat of cheesey grits with a fixin bar - you could add bacon, scallion and more cheese to it.  What's not to love about that?! The grits were the right texture and flavor - it's just what I wanted from the South.  One day they had a great piece of salmon that was in between smoked and rare and another morning they had biscuits and mushroom gravy which was also delicious.  They also catered to some European tastes with meat and cheeses, which I also enjoyed.  They also had a lovely baked pastry selection which I tried to steer away from but they did look great.  Lastly they had a nice spread of locally picked fruits - strawberries, blackberries and others.  I liked how they kept out the bags of produce they got from the farmer's market by the Park - whether or not they actually got the food from there, I'm not sure but regardless it was a nice artisanal touch.

The food was good enough here that I actually looked forward to it the next day.  The staff was very pleasant and of course, the decor had an adorable Southern flare (hello mason jars!).  Even if you don't have Platinum status and find yourself staying here, I would definitely recommend that you give it a try at least once.  Plus, it's definitely one of the cheaper breakfast buffets I've seen in a while at $20/pp.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Wyld Dock Bar  2740 Livingston Ave, Savannah, GA 31406       3 Forks

This was the one restaurant that I was actually really excited about checking out in Savannah.  It's actually not in the city center but a quick 10-15 mins cab ride outside of downtown.  What sounded so cool about it was that it was on this marshland with a full fire pit and bocce ball court.  I will say that the decor was true to it's word.  The ambience is very peaceful and beautiful.  It's right on the water next to this beautiful marsh area and it's super quiet and peaceful.

It's a large space with a lovely outdoor deck that is perfect for a lazy afternoon outing.  I heard that they also have live music there at night and I could totally see that fitting in perfectly.  So in terms of setting, this place gets 4 Forks.  Unfortunately where it misses the mark a bit was the food.  As one would expect, the menu is fairly seafood focused with fish tacos, grilled fish, fish and grits, etc, etc. They also had alcoholic sushies and other yummy sounding cocktails.  Their slushie of the day was a painkiller, which I'm not a huge fan of unless I'm in the Virgin Islands, so I opted for a classic Southern Old Fashion drink - I will say they definitely know how to make a good Old Fashion in the South.  For food, I got the crab chowder ($7) and Allison and I split the fish tacos ($10) and the grilled lemongrass and ginger fish ($17) which was red snapper.

The chowder was not really a chowder in my book.  When I hear chowder, I expect a thick hearty base and this was super runny and thin.  I would have expected large chunks of crab and maybe potato but instead if was very heavy on the leeks and croutons instead.  It was also very heavy handed with the brown butter and bacon, which usually I have no problem eating but in a soup, it wasn't my favorite thing.  As for the fish tacos, they were just ok.  It had some cilantro, onion and spicy poblano sauce but nothing really wow'd me about it.  The shells were a bit hardened (not soft at all) and it was just missing something - it's was basically they took grilled fish and wrapped it in a soft taco shell without much thought.   I've obviously had much better options elsewhere.  As for the grilled fish, again, it felt like kind it was a 2nd thought.  It was served on a bed of lentils and greens - very uninspiring.  The fish was way too gingery and there wasn't any sauce or anything really binding it to the lentils or greens.  Again, it was an ok dish - looked like something I could have whipped up at home myself.

Luckily, we both left room for dessert and we each got a chipwich ($6) - for me the gold standard is either the old school kind with the soft cookie and chips all around or the Trader Joe one.  This one didn't quite stand up to either of them.  The cookie was a bit on the hard side and there were no extra chips.  While it wasn't a terrible dessert by any means, it's hard to measure up to a childhood favorite.

Overall, while the food was a bit disappointing, the overall experience was lovely.  It was nice to get away from the main touristy center and be surrounded by peaceful water.  I could see this place being fun when the fire pit is roaring and there is a live band playing in the background with a few drinks in hand.  Given the somewhat limited options in Savannah, even if you aren't going to get the best meal of your life here, it's still worth checking out.  Total bill: $46 for 2 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Savannah, GA Day 1 Visited 4/8/2016 3 and 3.5 Forks

The Olde Pink House Restaurant  

23 Abercorn St., 

Savannah, GA 31401    3.5 Forks

I took a quick long weekend jaunt to Savannah before I started my new job.  While Savannah hasn't necessarily been one of my top places to visit, I'm glad I went as it's a quick 2 hour plane ride and it's definitely quite a change from being in NYC.  It's as pretty as people say it is - dripping Spanish moss everywhere, cute squares and friendly people.  Unfortunately, the food scene isn't as spot on as it is in it's competing sisters of the South, New Orleans and Charleston.  I would say that overall, the food is good in this city but not spectacular. 

One of the restaurants that came up on every food list of Savannah was The Olde Pink House - it's exactly what you would think of in terms of a typical Southern restaurant.  Old mansion dripping with charm and elegance.  Allison and I didn't actually have reservations but we strolled in around 2pm and were easily able to get a seat.  It's very old school there with waiters in bowties and formal wear.  While there isn't a formal dress code, I felt a bit out of place in my jeans and flip flops.  The menu here is typical Southern fare - lots of fried food, grits, collard greens, etc.  We had a dinner reservation for later that night only 5 hours later, so I decided that I wasn't going to do a full blown lunch and I got the crab cakes which came with fried green tomatoes and fries.  Allison got the arugula salad with salmon - one of the few healthy choices on the menu.  The crab cake was nicely stacked between 2 fried green tomatoes which were lightly battered in corn meal and fried.  While it was a nice dish and the crab cake was fairly full of legit meat, as someone who's had the best crab cakes in MD, these didn't quite measure up but I guess few do.  Allison mentioned that her salad was also good but nothing mind blowing.  

Overall, this place is a lovely quintessential charming Southern restaurant.  You should go for the ambience even if it's albeit a bit toursity.  Total bill:  $21/pp with tax and tip

The Grey 

109 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, 

Savannah, GA 31401    3 Forks

The only reservation I made while visiting Savannah was at The Grey.  It was mentioned in Eater as a top restaurant in Savannah - they were especially wow'd by the design of the place.  It's located in an old Greyhound bus depot (hence the name) and it is quite lovely in there.  It's got an Art Deco vibe but with a modern twist.  The menu is New American with a focus on meat and seafood.  We split the country pasta ($16), the fisherman's stew ($28) and a side of roasted sweet potato ($8).  While I didn't necessarily regret my order, I did see the guy next to me get the pork shank which looked AMAZING - it was basically a giant leg of meat.  

The country pasta was a small bowl of pasta, rock shrimp, tomato and botarga.  While it was tasty and I love anything with rock shrimp, the portion was small and it could have used a bit more heat.  It was essentially tossed with some olive oil and salt and not much else.  The same can be said for the strew as well - but for $28, I expected a large pot of seafood but it was a fairly small bowl of monkfish, clams, mussels, tomato and saffron.  When I hear the word "stew", I envision something hearty and chunky. This was like a few pieces of seafood tossed into a bowl with not much broth or base to it.  While I enjoyed the saffron flavor, the overall dish was a bit of a let down given how much it was. The roasted sweet potato was exactly what you would think it would be - a roasted sweet potato.  

I agree with Eater that the decor was lovely and they make a great cocktail.  I can see this as a nice place to grab a few cocktails and snacks - but if you do want to stay for dinner, I would probably steer you towards the meat dishes.  Total bill:  $39/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Pocha 32 Visited 4/6/2016 3.5 Forks

Pocha 32  15 W 32nd St., 2nd Fl., New York, NY 10001

If you've never been to Koreatown, I highly recommend you check out Pocha 32 first as it is the embodiment of everything that is awesome about K-town.  The location is a bit hard to find - it's on the 2nd floor of a nondescript building.  But when you do find it, it's crazy.  The inside is like a weird spaceship - it's got green fishnets hanging from the ceiling and chopstick wrappers all over the wall. It's dark and got christmas lights all over the place - it's definitely got a fun late night vibe to it.  I've never been to Korea but some of the reviews I read about this place mentioned that it's super authentic to what you would find in Seoul.

The menu is all over the place - it's pages and pages long with all sort of of soup/stews, stir fried dishes, grilled dishes, fried dishes, noodle dishes, rice dishes, and then other random side dishes.  We got the Boodae Jungol ($30), the grilled BBQ beef ($27) and the fried chicken ($24), while Amy got a veggie bibimpop ($14).  But the star of the show was the watermelon soju ($30) - this is their famous drink of a half cut watermelon filled with soju, watermelon puree, and sprite.  It honestly tastes like fruit punch and even though we drank the entire thing, I didn't feel drunk at all but it's definitely a fun drink to have.

The food was all pretty traditional and authentic.  The boodae jungol is a dish made famous during the Korean war when people didn't have a lot of ingredients to make dinner so they just threw whatever they had into a stew - this one had kimchi, spam, cut up hot dogs, pork, ramen noodles, rice cakes, mushrooms, and associated veggies in a spicy broth and then covered with cheese on top.  Yes - you read that all correctly, these ingredients were all in 1 giant bubbly dish.  It's crazy and not as weird or gross as it sounds.  It was just hard to eat because there was so much going on in the dish. But if you aren't afraid to try weird dishes, this is a fun one to try although I wouldn't necessarily say it's a culinary wonder.  The grilled beef was good - it was served on a net grill with some vegetables but I actually thought it was a bit cold?  It wasn't sizzling as I would expect it to be - it was almost like they had grilled a bunch of meat in the back and put it on the net when we ordered it.  The fried chicken was good but but we got the non-spicy kind and it could have used a bit of heat to it as the regular version was a bit bland.  It did also come with fries, which were surprisingly crispy and delicious.

Overall, it was a really fun outing and I've heard that late at night there are huge lines to get it.  While we were there, someone had a birthday and they turn down the lights and blared super loud Happy Birthday music, which seems like the appropriate thing here.  While the food isn't necessarily out of this world, the decor and experience are.  Total bill:  $41 with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Nix Visited 4/1/2016 4 Forks

Nix  72 University Pl, New York, NY 10003

Ugh - I have really gotten into this terrible habit of not writing my reviews until weeks later. Apologies for some of these half-assed reviews - it kind of defeats the purpose of me writing these! In any case, I was at Nix a few weeks ago with Mabel and Aarti - it's another super popular vegetarian friendly restaurants in the city by the owners of the fabulous Narcissa and Dovetail.  If you try to go on OpenTable to find an opening, you'll probably get nothing but Mabel actually called the restaurant (who does that these days?!) and was able to score a reservation during primetime Friday night - 7pm. 

It's located smack in the middle Union Square and I swear this place has turned over a bunch of times in the last few years.  I wonder why a restaurant never sticks.  But I think this one might stick.  The menu here is divided up into small, light and bold dishes - think of them as small bites, appetizer and main entrees.  Again - everything here is veggie and almost vegan friendly too.  We started with the kale salad ($14) because that's what people do now and then we got the cauliflower tempura ($16), tofu skin pockets ($15) and the Shitake cacio e pepe ($18).   The kale salad was a really well done shredded dinosaur kale salad with roasted sunchokes - while it wasn't anything that I haven't had before, it was really well dressed and a hearty salad.  It's the kind of salad that makes you really like eating kale.  Big fan of it. As for the entrees, I'm going to be honest and say that I can't remember the details very well except for the cauliflower tempura - I'm not sure if that means the other dishes weren't that good or I'm really losing my memory but at the very least I can recall that the cauliflower dish was excellent.  It was lightly battered cauliflower with a buffalo-like sauce on it and then you put it in a white steamed bao and add pickles to it.  I have to say that the bao was very on point and as good as the ones I've had in several Chinese restaurants.  Super soft and pillowy.  While it's not an adequate substitute for a pork belly bun, it was surprisingly filling and tasty.  The tofu skin dish was similar to an enchilada dish with butternut squash and a tomatillo salsa on top of it.  While the cacio e pepe dish had a delicious polenta base to it, that I used the steamed bao to sop it up with. 

The dishes, while good, were a bit on the light side, so we had room to share a dessert.  We opted for the maple custard ($11) with cream and it was amazing.  It tasted EXACTLY like what you think a maple custard would taste like.  It was definitely a winner.  Similar to my recent veggie friend meals at Semilla and Avant Garden, it shows that you can have a creative and fulfilling non-meat dinner in the city.  The 2 downsides I would say are that the portions are on the small side, so I did leave a bit hungry and the acoustics are terrible in there - it's so freakin loud that I had to yell just to get the girls to hear me.  Total bill:  $32/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp