2 Weeks in Amsterdam - Part 4 - Visited 6/16-6/29/2018 3.5 - 4 Forks

Pigs and Punch  Utrechtsestraat 30a, 1017 VN                                                                          3.5 Forks

Although I love BBQ, I can't say that I necessarily crave it when I'm traveling.  So I was surprised at how excited I was when a co-worker brought us to a BBQ joint in Amsterdam.  At first we were told there wasn't enough room for all of us, which made me want to go even more (the power of being told no), so when a few of us split off, we were able to snag a table downstairs for 4.  It's a pretty cool vibe inside - lots of dark wood paneling but not in an old stodgy way.  It's definitely more in a hipster way.

The menu is pretty similar to what you would see at an American BBQ place - pork belly, chicken wings, ribs, pulled work and others yummy meat stuff.  The thing with BBQ is that it's better to share than to eat your own - so I was super happy when my friend Sophia wanted to split the Pig Out for 2 (24.50 euros).  With all this meat, I had to get something green to eat so I also got the spring pea salad which was amazing and I highly recommend.  The Pig Out platter came with a lot of food - sausage, pork cheek, pork belly and pulled pork and it was served with jalapeño and BBQ sauce as well as mustard.  While I was impressed with the amount of food and that most of it was pretty true to American style BBQ, most of it was a bit too dry for my taste, especially the pork belly.   I didn't try the ribs but my co-workers mentioned that they were pretty good.   Obviously one doesn't come to Amsterdam for BBQ and while I wouldn't say this should be on your must-eat list if you're only in Amsterdam for a few days, but if you're here for an extended period of time, it's worth checking out. Plus at 24.50 euros for 2 people, it's a steal.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cafe Lotje  Johannes Vermeerstraat 52, 1071                                                                               4 Forks

This place was also recommended by a local co-worker and it was super packed with locals - so that's always a good sign.  In case you couldn't tell from my picture, the menu is primarily focused on steak, steak and more steak.  Be prepared to really have your heart stop and while they do have salads here, it's not a place if you're looking to be healthy.   But it is a keto dieter's dream with meat soaking in butter.

When in Amsterdam, you have to start with an order of bitterballs (5.25 euros) - these are a classic Dutch staple and deliciously addictive.  It's essentially a fried ball filled with meat and roux - it's very similar to a croquette in texture and flavor.  You can easily sit around and pop a bunch of them in your mouth while you wait for your food.  And wait you will here.  As my friend mentioned to me, Amsterdam is not known for its service.  It's not what you would call a hospitality focused country - our waiters were a bit surly, inattentive and generally annoyed with us (although I don't really blame them when it's a table of 10 people).  I didn't really know the difference in all the steak variations (and looking at the menu again, I'm still not sure), all I know is that I got a regular piece of steak done medium rare (18.95 euros).   When you get your steak, unlike in the US where they give you a sauce on the side, this one is soaking in it.  Like fully drenched in butter gravy.  You can feel your arteries clogging with every bite you take but it does keep the meat very moist and juicy.  We also split the beef carpaccio (11.25 euros) which came with arugula and truffle mayo.  It was thinly sliced with good flavor and after having that, I wished I got that as my main dish instead of a steak soaked in sauce.

Overall, it was a fun environment because it was full of lively locals and the food, while isn't life changing, is tasty, albeit a bit on the heavy side.  It's away from the city center, so it's a nice detour if you're looking for something different.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Mission BBQ Visited 12/22/2017 3 Forks

Mission BBQ  885 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852

I was intrigued to hear that a decent BBQ joint had opened up near my mom's house as I'm always a sucker for good BBQ.  I wasn't expecting much since it is the 'burbs but the Yelp reviews would make you feel like it was the 2nd coming.  I feel a bit snobby for saying this but I guess this is the difference between eating in the 'burbs and eating in an urban environment.  Similar to my beloved Fette Sau and Hometown BBQ, you order meat by the pound or in sandwich form.  But unlike my favorite BBQ places, they serve more basic cuts of meat (brisket, pulled pork, turkey, chicken and ribs) and it's got more of a fast food feel vs. a true BBQ joint.  But I was still excited to try it. 

I got the 2 meat sampler ($8.99) of brisket and pulled pork and a side of mac and cheese ($2.09).  The prices were quite shocking - even for the 'burbs.  They asked if I wanted the brisket moist or lean and I opted for moist. They call your name and you pick it up and bring it to your table - it was a pretty standard BBQ look and feel with sliced meat on brown paper on a tray.  They also give you a side of corn bread with your order.  What I liked best about this place is that each table has a 6-pack of different kinds of BBQ sauce that give you a feel of what it's like to eat BBQ in other important BBQ parts of the country like Memphis, Kansas City, Texas, the Carolinas, etc.  I love that idea.  I tried the brisket first and even though I had ordered it moist, it was more on the dry side.  In fact, it wasn't very moist at all.  It wasn't terrible but I had to slather Kansas City sauce on it to make it more wet.  I would have liked a bit more fat to it as well (that would have made it moist).  The pulled pork was better and it was a good heaping of it.  It still required sauce to make it more moist but less so.  The mac and cheese was the yummy ooey gooey Veleeta kind, which I truly love but I can't say it was a culinary wonder.  The corn bread was eh  - they didn't give you any butter or jam for it so it came off as kind of dry.  I would have preferred a nice parker roll to sop up any grease and make my own meat sandwich with any leftovers.  I didn't try Mike's ribs but they did look like they fell right off the bone. 

I will say that the service, while generally self-serve, was great.  The cashiers were all really friendly and manager walked around, asked how everyone was doing and if he could help clear tables.  It was a nice gesture and I appreciated it.  I don't mean to shit all over a place simply because it's in the 'burbs, but the difference in quality between a place like this and Hometown BBQ is pretty evident.  But for the 'burbs, it's not bad and I would come back to try a sandwich or two, just maybe not the brisket version.  I came home and felt super thirsty so I think they probably added a lot of salt to the meat.  I'll give huge props for the price point.  I can easily spend $40/pp at Fette Sau or Hometown BBQ but here the price was a very affordable $37 for 3 people!

Hometown BBQ Visited 7/1/2017 5 Forks

Hometown BBQ  454 Van Brunt St., Brooklyn, NY 11231

Dear Fette Sau - you know I love you very much but I may have found another lover and his name is Hometown BBQ.  I've had this place on my radar screen for a while but since it's in Red Hook, it's a bit of a trek to get to.  Plus so many of my friends are vegetarians that it's a bit difficult to convince them to haul ass all the way out there just so that they can only eat like 2 things on the menu.  But now that I've been there, I don't know how I can not not go to this place ever again. 

Red Hook has always been one of my favorite neighborhoods in Brooklyn because of its isolation and un-gentrified feel.  But because of that, it's  also a huge pain the ass to get to if you don't have a car.  Luckily there is a cool new ferry line you can take and it drops you off not too far from Hometown BBQ. The main upside for being in Red Hook is the space.  This place is huge and easily twice the size of Fett Sau, which has to deal with the constraints of Williamsburg real estate.  Dan and I strolled in at 4pm thinking it would be totally empty.  Umm - we were totally wrong.  The line was out the door and we waited 45 minutes to get to the front of the line.  Similar to Fette Sau, it's meat by the pound and you order at the counter where they slice and weight everything for you.  Luckily, with all the time you spend waiting in line, you have plenty of time to read the menu and plan over and over again what you're going to order.  I think we changed our minds about 10 times because EVERYTHING and I do mean everything sounded amazing.  Everyone around us clearly over ordered and I can totally understand why.  There was one guy who order a dozen ribs and like 2 pounds of meat all by himself - my kindred spirit.  They have it all here - brisket, pulled pork, pork and beef ribs, turkey, chicken, lamb, bacon, amazing sounding sandwiches, and even tastier sounding sides.   What Hometown has over Fette Sau are the sandwich options and better sides with mac and cheese and collard greens.  After changing our minds 50 times, we netted out on 1/2 lb turkey (for Dan), 1/2 pound brisket (for me), pork spare rib, 1/2 a chicken, 1/2 lb pulled pork and a small potato salad.   I really really wanted to Korean sticky ribs and mac and cheese but there was absolutely no way in hell we could have eaten all that food without needing an ambulance afterwards.

Most of the meat is non-sauced but they have 2 kinds of sauces at the table for you.  My first bite was of the brisket and it was heavenly.  Moist, fatty and meaty all at the same time.  The pulled pork was my next bite and it was also super delicious, especially with a bit of sweet BBQ sauce on it.  The pork rib was also fantastic with the meat easily falling off the bone.  The chicken was a juicy wood fired chicken with a Oaxacian marinade and a tangy salsa verde - this was Dan's favorite.  We really should have gotten a 1/4 chicken instead but hell, when in Rome....I was so full at this point that I actually never even got to the turkey sadly.  I want to give a shout out to the potato salad too - it was pretty much mashed up red potatoes with a hint of mayo - super addictive but I'm glad we only got a small.

There is also a killer Southern style bar with lots of beer and brown liquor options.  There's also a back room where apparently they have live music and other events.  In short, this place is perfect.  I regret that we didn't just over order (especially the Korean ribs which everyone seemed to have ordered) and bring food back but left over BBQ is generally not as good as when it's served fresh. Due to its location, I probably wont' be going there as often as I like, but that's probably a good thing because I might die of a premature heart attack if I went there as often as I would like.  Total bill:  $45/pp with tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Cannibal Visited 7/13/2016 4 Forks

The Cannibal  113 E 29th St., New York, NY 10016

Sorry - I know this picture is a bit grotesque but it is the sole reason why Vince, Laura and I went to The Cannibal.  As you can imagine, any place with a name like that is not going to be for the faint of heart or vegetarian.  For a place that calls for an intense food outing, the space is not very big.  In fact, we sat at at table outside and they literally shoved the 3 of us in a corner that was barely passable for 2 people.  I found that to be kind of annoying because there's no bigger buzz kill at dinner than when you're squeezed into a tiny space and unable to enjoy your meal. 

Space aside, the menu here is obviously focused on meat.  You can order a whole pig or lamb for the table if you order in advance.  However, our mission was to try the General Tsao's Pig Head ($85) which they said was for 2 but really it's more than enough food for 3 or 4 people.  We started with beef tartare ($15), tuna tartare ($16), chicharron ($7) and the potato salad ($8).  These sides dishes were merely palate cleansers to the main course.  I know it sounds weird but the tuna tartare was a bit too fishy for me.  The perfect raw fish dish shouldn't taste like fish but should be clean tasting and this missed the mark a bit.  On the other hand, the beef tartare was fabulous.  It came on a small crumpet with bearnaise sauce, herbs and crispy shallots and it was wonderful.  They were so easy to pop in your mouth one after another - it was a perfect appetizer.  The chicharron was ok - it's actually not really my favorite thing in general as I find them dry and tough - these were a bit like shrimp chips where they had some crispy puffiness to it but still not something I would write home about. 

And then came the star of the show.  It's really quite a sight to be seen and if you are squeamish about seeing an animal's full head - don't order this because it's literally the whole head including the eyeball, tongue and teeth.  It's covered in General Tsao's sauce and served with broccoli rabe and scallion salad and some moo shu pancakes in case you want to make it a wrap.  The first stab into the meat is amazing.  I recommend you go straight for the cheek and jowl area because that's where the meat is at its best - incredibly tender and juicy and the skin crispy yet fatty.  There are definite parts of the pig where there is too much fat but you can easily find and pair it a section of moist meat to make it worth your heart stopping while.  It's definitely an aggressive dish and it was more than enough food for all 3 of us.  There was actually no need for the potato salad as the broccoli rabe was enough of a "green" to make us feel like we weren't being total gluttons. 

The presentation is what's most impressive here.  I would post an "after" picture but I'll spare my veggie friends the gore of it all.  I left feeling uncomfortably full and slightly regretful of eating so much.  This is definitely an experience to be had at least once in your life but it's not one to make a habit out of.  

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Day 3 & 4 (Dec 8-9, 2014) 3.5-4 Forks

Fellini  Rua Gal Urquisa 104, Rio de Janeiro - 3.5 Forks

When people think of Brazilian food, they mostly think of the all-you-can eat steakhouses, but they are also very big into buffet style food.   Their buffets are usually the kind where you pay for the weight of your food which can be dangerous if your eyes are bigger than your stomach.  Fellini is located on this dark, quiet street in Leblon and the customers there are generally local families.  

You basically walk in, grab a plate, load up with whatever you want and then weigh it at the end.   You can go back as many times as you want and each time you weigh your plate, they give you a sticker with the price of each weigh so that when you check out, they know how much to ring you up for.  There is a fairly large variety of food here ranging from salad, sushi, pastas, meats, fish, seafood, fried food and dessert.  The ingredients seemed fresh and the food looked like it was constantly switched out and not like it had been sitting there for hours.  I went straight for the sushi - the Asian mentality of me was trying to figure out how to get the best bang for my buck.  I loaded up on sushi, poke and some sliced meat.  This is also a great place if you are traveling with vegetarians or have other dietary restrictions because there literally is a little bit of something for everyone.   My first round of food was $12 USD and I must say that the quality of the food was pretty good.  I was a big fan of the salmon poke (or it tasted a lot like poke since it was cubes of raw salmon with soy and sesame oil with scallions) and the sushi wasn't too bad either.  The cut of meat was fine - it was a bit well done for me, but you can't expect too much for buffet style meat.   In all honesty, I most likely could have (and should have) stopped eating here but I went back for a second round of poke and spent another $10 for no real reason.  

I wouldn't say this was a culinary highlight of my trip but I did like that it was a no frills, easy meal. Sometimes you just don't want to eat at a full service restaurant and for those occasions eating at Fellini is just right.  Total bill:  $22 USD

Photo Credit:  Tripadvisor

Porcao R. Barão da Torre, 218, Rio de Janeiro - 4 Forks

Ahh - yes.  A trip to Brazil wouldn't be complete without a visit to a Churrascaria/Rodizio des carnes. It's essentially an all-you-can-eat steakhouse and you must come hungry.  Lav and I came for lunch after visiting Sugar Loaf Mountain and I'm sad to say that I probably wasn't hungry enough for it but I made it work.  Unfortunately there is no lunch price, so it was a very expensive lunch and they also don't have a price for just the salad bar for vegetarians.  So Lav really took one for the team by coming here because she ended up paying a lot for the salad bar which really isn't worth it.  But for me, I was in pig and cow heaven.  I started with a caipirinha as an afternoon beverage and they make it table side for you and really see all the god damn delicious sugar that they put in there but it was one strong drink.  Next I headed to the salad bar and again, loaded up on sushi and sashimi here.  Despite being called a salad bar, the really had a lot of seafood based dishes, which sucked for Lav and honestly I was so focused on getting to the meat portion of my meal that I completely skipped over them.  The sashimi was actually very good and was a good palate cleanser for me in between bites of meat.  

On to the meat.  I've been to Churracaria's in New York before and they work the same way here. You have a card and if you want them to come over with the meat, you turn the side green.  If you're full, then turn it to the red side that says stop.  But since we were here for lunch and it was pretty empty, they kept pushing meat on me the whole time despite having it turned to red when I was trying to clean my plate.   The waiters come around with all sorts of mouth watering meat on a skewer and then they slice off generous portions on to your plate.  I must have eaten every cut of beef known to man and they were all pretty delicious and juicy.  They also had sausage and chicken (it was like fried chicken but not totally battered) but I would say that if you have limited stomach space, stick with the meat.   I was able to put away almost 2 full plates of meat and a few rounds of sashimi and that was all I could handle.  The cuts of meat were flavorful on their own as none of it needed any sauce to it.  With your meat, you can get sides of fries, tomatoes, shrimp and some other appetizers but to me that's all just filler for the main course. 

Annoyingly, dessert is extra.  Lav got a slice of cheesecake to top off her meal but I couldn't eat anymore food.  While this place is great for meat eaters, it's a definite bummer for vegetarians.  They should either offer a lower price for just the salad bar or include a price with dessert for them.  I left lunch feeling uncomfortably full but I'm still glad I went.  I'm sure the scene would have been totally different at night for dinner but lunch was a much calmer experience which was just fine with me as I rolled home drunk and full. Total bill:  $63/pp with drink and dessert

Photo Credit:  Yelp

El Born R. Bolivar, 17, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro - 3.5 Forks

So this is a bit of an unfair review because I barely ate anything there because I was in in a meat coma from my lunch at Porcao earlier in the day, so there's not much for me to review.  But from what little food and drink I had, it seemed like a very lovely place to grab some tapas and sit outside with a lovely cocktail.  The tricky thing is that also also pass around  random tapas while you eat and at first we weren't sure what was going on.  Was it complimentary?  Well the answer is no, they are not free.  They like to pass around different types of house tapas and if you are interested, they put it on your table and write it down on your bill.  Luckily the food is pretty good here, so when we grabbed some kind of potato dish, we weren't too upset.  For our main dishes, we got our usual order of potatoes bravas and a tortilla and both were solid dishes.  

The location of the restaurant is on a lively and fun strip in Copacabana.  After checking out this neighborhood, I'm glad we chose to say in Ipanema as it's not quite as touristy and crazy as Copacabana.  But this restaurant would be a fun place to check out on any other occasion, just not after I had eaten an entire cow for lunch.  Total bill:  $25/pp 

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

BellyQ Visited 5/15/2014 3 Forks

BellyQ 1400 W Randolph St., Chicago, IL 60607

A few years ago I had gone to Belly Shack with Deanna and really enjoyed my meal there.  While I'm not a huge fan of the Asian fusion craze, I thought the food there was really flavorful and fun.  So I was excited when Deanna mentioned that we should check out BellyQ which is a higher end version of Belly Shack with a BBQ twist to it - and it's located on the uber trendy Randolph Street.

We got there super early (6:15pm on a Thursday) so there was hardly anyone in the restaurant.  I was immediately taken by how huge the space was and I liked the industrial look and feel of the place. Since there was literally only 2 other people there, you'd think that it wouldn't be a problem getting served.  Apparently I was wrong.  We literally sat there for almost 15-20 mins before anyone came to take our order.  There were 2 different servers there and both thought the other person had our table, so as a result no one served us.  Finally one of the servers came to take my drink order but then the other waitress came and apologized for not realizing we fell under her section.  As I mentioned earlier, the food here is Asian fusion with a focus on BBQ.  I was torn between all the rib options:  pork ribs, beef ribs, short ribs and duck breast.  I finally decided to get the Smoke Beef Short Ribs ($23) because it came on a bed of braised mustard greens and brunt ends - it was really the brunt ends that sold me.  Deanna got the vegetarian hot pot ($17) and we also got a side of the smashed baby sweet potatoes ($7).    After we ordered, I realized I never got my cocktail, so I waited and waited and waited for it.  By the time our food came out, it still hadn't arrived but I was kind of over it so it didn't really matter too much.  But then all of a sudden our waitress was like "oh wait, the other waiter just told me you had ordered a drink! Sorry, it's coming now."  I mean there were like less than 10 people in the whole restaurant, so I don't understand how they could be this confused about our order.

Even so, I was still very excited for our meal.  When the ribs came out, they looked amazing and enough food for 2 people.  There were 4 very large ribs and I dove right in.  My first bite was...well disappointing.  So here is where I would like to caveat that I didn't say it was bad just not up to my (high) expectation.  To me there is a big difference between food that is disappointing and food that is just plain bad - these ribs fall into the 1st camp.  In retrospect, I probably should have ordered the pork ribs because when I think ribs, I usually envision meat falling off the bone easily and leaving a clean bone afterwards.  The meat did not fall off the bone at all here and I really had to work hard to get the meat off.  But as Deanna had mentioned to me, this is kind of what you get with beef ribs in general - it's just not the same experience as pork ribs.  Now the glaze and sauce on it was quite flavorful and was a nice mixture of Korean spices and BBQ sauce.  I was also a fan of the mustard greens it came with as well.  But after 2 ribs I couldn't eat anymore and had to take the rest home.  As for Deanna's dish, it sounded good on the menu:  soft tofu, root vegetables and a poached egg.  The waitress also commented on how delicious the rice pasta was on the bottom of the dish - which would have been great except they weren't in the dish.  We were wondering if it was missing something because at first look, it seemed like a giant bowl of soup with pieces of tofu and vegetables floating in it.  But it was missing the starch component, so it was a good thing that Deanna asked about the rice pasta.  The waitress apologized again and went back to the kitchen to have them bring out a side of it.  Once they were mixed into the dish everything was better, but it was just kind of ridiculous that they forgot one of the most important ingredients to the dish, especially after the waitress raved about it.  But what really saved this place from a bad review were the sweet potatoes.  OMG, they were like crack.  They were served with a sake maple glaze and they were just slightly overcooked/brunt with a crispy skin outside and they were amazing.  This dish totally saved the night.

By the end, I was pretty full and ready to call it a night.  But then the host/manager comes up to us and apologizes for the delayed cocktail and wanted to offer us complimentary dessert to make up for it.  Ok, I'll have to admit that was a nice touch but let's be honest there was a lot more wrong with our experience than just the late cocktail but I wasn't going to push my luck.  We couldn't decide which dessert to get so they graciously offered to give us both the vietnamese cinnamon donuts and a small taste of the peanut butter and jelly soft serve (usually $8 and $6).  The donuts were fantastic - perfectly fried balls of dough with just the right amount of cinnamon and sugar and served with a sweet vanilla soft serve.  Delicious.  I didn't quite "get" the peanut butter and jelly dessert because it was literally a bowl of crunchy peanut butter (although it was quite good) and a bowl of huckleberry jam.  It was a great combination but it just seemed weird getting them with nothing else.

All in all, I'm still glad I came to check this place out and I appreciate their attempt at "guest recovery" (that's what they listed on the receipt) but all the service mis-steps and the less than impressive ribs would make me think twice about coming back - especially on a street that it riddled with other options - although I might come back for the sweet potatoes.  Total bill:  $80 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Weber Grill Restaurant Visited 11/4/2013 3.5 Forks

Weber Grill Restaurant 539 N State St., Chicago, IL 60654

Although I've been to Chicago hundreds of times, I've never really spent that much time downtown. So when I ended up staying downtown near Michigan Ave. for work, I was actually at a loss of where to go for dinner.  My co-worker, Eric, suggested the Weber Grill since it was one of his favorite places to go when he's in town for work.   The restaurant is owned by the same family that owns the actual Weber grills that people have in their backyards and in true grill fashion, most everything on this menu is meat related.  I'll be honest, when I first walked in, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not.  It kind of reminded me of the big steak chains and I was expecting the food to be chain level quality. 

Luckily, it wasn't the quality of an Outback and I left feeling full and happy.  We got there pretty early (around 5:30pm) and the place was still empty but as the night went on, it got really crowded and I noticed that about 85% of the restaurant was older men.  So ladies, if you're looking for a guy over 40, this is your place!  The menu has about every kind of meat you are looking for:  steak, lamb chops, ribs, burgers, brisket, meat loaf, pulled pork, grilled chicken, grilled fish, grilled vegetables, rib eye, along with big salads and grilled fired pizzas.  It's really overwhelming.  Eric and I were both starving, so we split the onion curls ($6.50) to start and I got the BBQ combo with brisket and pulled pork with my choice of 2 sides of mac and cheese and garlic mashed potatoes ($18), while Eric got the combo with meatloaf and another meat (I think pulled pork? sorry it's been a week since I was there, so I don't really remember!).   I also ordered a small green salad ($4) because I felt like I had to eat some kind of greens.  The restaurant starts the meal with these yummy warm pretzel buns with whipped butter.  They were fantastic and I had to basically stop myself or else I would have ruined my entire meal.  The onion curls came out first and while I've never been to Outback, it's essentially what I envision a bloomin onion to be.  It's a ginormous plate of fried onions and served with chipotle mayo and BBQ sauce.  I had a couple of bites, but it didn't have the crispness or thickness of a real onion ring.  It was kind of like a bunch of shredded onion that wasn't really fried well.  I wasn't a huge fan so I was starting to get nervous about my main meal.  Next came the green salad and it was a totally basic and fine side garden salad.  The greens could have been a bit fresher but at this point I wasn't really expecting a farm to table-like experience but it filled my need for fresh vegetables.  Next the combo came out and I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  There was a very healthy portion of both the brisket and pork - maybe half a pound of each?  The brisket and pulled pork were moist and quite flavorful but not in an over seasoned way.  They both had a light coating of sweet BBQ sauce, which was great and it reminded me of how much I do like to have some sweet based BBQ sauce with my grilled meat vs. plain meat or a heavy cream sauce on top of it.  Unlike the pulled pork I had at Morgan's, it wasn't overly peppery which was refreshing.  While the food isn't like my favorite BBQ in the city, it was actually pretty darn tasty.  The mashed potatoes were super buttery and very whipped (isn't that the best kind?).  I had only 1-2 bites of the mac and cheese because by the time I got to it, I felt like I was going to burst.  There is so much food on that combo platter, it really could be for 2 people instead of one.  I was actually really sad that I couldn't bring it back to the hotel and eat it the next day because I had almost half a plate left.  But I just couldn't do it.   

All in all, I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised at my meal here.  Yes - it still wasn't a James Beard Award winning dinning establishment and it does still have a slight big Midwestern chain feel, but you know what? I was in the middle of tourist central in downtown Chicago and having walked past a TGI Friday's on the way here, I was more than happy with where we ended up.  Just make sure to go when you're super hungry or have a fridge in your hotel!  The price is also totally reasonable - almost scarily so with the 2 meat combo platter at only $18, that is something that I could see restaurants charging at least double in NYC.  Total bill:  ~$80ish with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Morgan's Barbecue Visited 11/1/2013 3 Forks

Morgan's Barbecue 267 Flatbush Ave, (between Prospect Pl & St Marks Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11217

My love for Fette Sau has been pretty well documented on this blog and although I'm not looking for a new love, I'm always open to trying and discovering new BBQ joints in the city.  After hearing that Morgan's was by the same people as the famous Franklin's BBQ in Austin, I was expecting to have a love affair with this place.  It turned out it was more of a one-night stand/fling vs. a full blown affair.  I enjoyed my meal, especially since it was a beautiful night outside, but I'll still stand by Fette Sau (and even Mighty Quinn's) as better BBQ. 

It's a beautiful space right on the corner of 6th Ave and Flatbush, so if you sit outside, you see a lot of car and people traffic.  There are a bunch of picnic tables outside, so if it's nice, I would definitely recommend getting a seat there.  Like Fette Sau, you order the meat by weight and the prices here are also very reasonable.  But unlike Fette Sau, there is table service, so you don't have to wait in an atrocious line and then battle throngs of people for a table.  It is a bit more civilized here, which I appreciated.  The menu here consists of your typical BBQ offerings:  brisket (fatty or lean), pulled pork, beef ribs, pork ribs, turkey, chicken and sausage (beef or pork), plus you can get most of the meats as a sandwich.  What I did like about this place more than Fette Sau was the side offerings, they had mac and cheese, collard greens, potato salad, baked potato, chili, green beans, and roasted corn.  It's really really hard to find a place that has great meat and great sides.  This place has great sides but honestly having great meat trumps that. 

We ordered the fatty brisket, pulled pork, pork ribs, pork sausage, mac and cheese and collard greens.  The food comes out pretty quickly and we were ready to dive in.  I started with the pulled pork first.  While the meat itself was moist and juicy it was waaaay too pepper-y.  It was almost overwhelming and I had to take each bite with some mac and cheese to counter act the intense black pepper taste.  Next I went for the brisket.  It was fatty but my issue here was that they only had 1 BBQ sauce on teh table and it was this sour vinegar based kind, so when I was eating the brisket, I really felt like I was missing that element of sauce to it.  It wasn't bad but wasn't mind blowing either.  The ribs weren't the fall off the bone kind, you did have to work at bit at it but I liked that it was a dry rub and not the super saucy kind that covers your face.  The biggest disappointment was probably the sausage.  As Cicily said, it reminded her of the Hillshire Farms kind.  It wasn't spicy and kind of had this rubbery texture to it.  Don't get me wrong, I still ate it, but it didn't taste like a sausage from a BBQ joint but sausage from a diner maybe.  Meanwhile, we both really enjoyed the sides.  The mac and cheese had the right balance of cheese and pasta (not too gooey or dry) and the collard greens were steamed and sauteed well.  There is a small side pop-up store next to Morgan's that's called the Elbow Room that just sold different kinds of mac and cheese and we were super curious to try that. 

As for the whisky/bar selection, they don't have the large selection that Fette Sau has and they don't even have a whisky menu.  When I asked to see one, she said they didn't have one but they could just bring something out.  Ummm - ok, but I'd like to know what I'm ordering first.  All in all, this place wasn't bad, in fact, I would come back if I was in the 'hood and have a sandwich and mac and cheese, but my heart and love still goes to Fette Sau first.  Cicily's take on this place was 3.5 for the sides and 2.5 for the meat - so we both kind of netted out in the 3 range.   Total bill:  $41/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mighty Quinn's Visited 2/1/2013 4.5 Forks

Mighty Quinn's Barbeque 103 2nd Ave., (between 7th St & 6th St), New York, NY 10003

Many of you know that my love for Fette Sau knows no bounds.  In fact, at one point I had joked that I would want to get married there and just have BBQ at my reception.  So far I've yet to find any BBQ in New York that is as good and as reasonably priced as Fette Sau until now.  Mighty Quinn's come very very close to being as good as Fette Sau and I would say that if you would rather stay in the city rather than go to Brooklyn, this is totally the place to be.

I met up with my good friends Cicily, Joe, and some other AXP folks for dinner here on a Friday night.  We got there at 7pm and it was crowded enough that we had to ask the staff to get extra chairs for us from the back but little did we know that it was going to get way more crowded later.  The set up is similar to Fette Sau where you order your food at the counter and seat yourself.  I like the funky decor at Fette Sau better vs. the more sterile look of Mighty Quinn's but that wasn't really a huge deal for me.  The menu here is pretty basic:  brisket, pulled pork, sausage, spare ribs, brontosaurus ribs, and half chicken.  Everything can be ordered on itself or as a sandwich.  We asked the guy behind the counter to give us everything and enough to feed 6 people.  I believe he ended up getting us 1 lb of everything except for the chicken which they were out of.  Price-wise, you can get everything as a single serving or by the pound.  The pricing here was very reasonable, ranging from $12/lb to $23 at the most.  Moving on to the sides.  This is where they don't really shine (although to be honest either does Fette Sau).  The options here were sweet potato casserole, cole slaw, baked beans, or pea salad (small $3, medium $5.75 and large $11.25).  None of these sides really spoke to us but we felt compelled to get something, so we got the baked beans.  Cicily complained to the staff about why they didn't have mac and cheese, to which they responded "We get that about 45 times a day."  Ha.  Then moving on to the drinks.  Again this is where there was some disappointment.  They only have beer, no whiskey.  I don't often drink whiskey but there's something about having BBQ that really makes me crave the brown stuff so that was kind of a bummer.  They do have growlers here ($20 per growler) and a nice selection of beers on tap, so it wasn't a total loss.  I didn't like that the beer/bar section was tied to the food line.  It would be nice if it were a separate area so that you don't have to wait in line just to get a beer.  Then we went to check out and it was a shock to learn that for 6 lbs of meat, 2 growlers, and 1 medium side the total was $25/pp.  Amazing.  I may have spent that much at other places (except for Fette Sau) for less than half the food.  The cashier was awesome and totally patient with the 3 of us fumbling around on how to pay for our meal and totally holding up the line.

We finally sat down and looked at our food.  It was completely insane how much food we had in front of us.  We all had to start with the brisket and the unanimous decision was that it kicked ass and was amazing.  Moist and flavorful and just awesome.  I thought it was light years better than the brisket at BrisketTown.  I then moved on to the brontosaurus rib.  It's essentially a beef rib the size of my foot and it was also fantastic.  Very juicy and fell completely off the bone cleanly.  I wished I had a picture of it because there was not a single piece of meat on that bone.  That to me is the sign of a perfect rib.  After that I had the spare ribs and that one was a bit tougher to eat and it had a slightly spicy flavor it it.  It was good but after having the brontosaurus rib, it just didn't compare.  I moved on to the sausage and it tasted more like a chorizo with a lot of heat to it.  I personally like the more traditional sausage at Fette Sau better but if you like your sausage more spicey than this one at Mighty Quinn's might be up your alley.  Lastly I had the pulled pork.  It was good but it was a bit too greasy for me and I think it would have been better in a sandwich formation instead of just served naked.  I didn't get to their custom BBQ sauce until later on in the meal but when I finally did, I really loved it.  It was more on the sweet side and went really well with the brisket.  I also had 1 bite of the baked beans and it was totally fine but nothing compared to the meats.  In the end, I was really really happy with my meal here and it is a serious and legit competitor to any of the country's top BBQ places.

By the time we finished our meal, the place was completely over flowing with people.  People were literally stalking tables like vultures and would pounce on anyone the moment they got up. When we left, these 2 groups almost got into a fight over our table, so be forewarned and get there early. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

BrisketTown Visited 11/16/2012 3.5 Forks

BrisketTown 359 Bedford Ave., (between 5th St & 4th St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

I was totally expecting to be wow'd by BrisketTown and to have it dethrone Fette Sau as my favorite BBQ place in Williamsburg.  It has been talked up to rave reviews in many of my favorite food blogs such as the New York Times, Eater, Gothamist, and Grub Street.  Even though I usually don't like to go to restaurants the first couple months of opening (they almost always need some time to work out the kinks), I just couldn't resist a new BBQ and had to go the first night it opened. 

Cicily and I met up at 6:30 right when they open up the line to non-pre-orders.  Over the summer, you were able to reserve your meat on line and then come into the restaurant to claim your meat.  Otherwise, the restaurant opens at 6pm and then is only open until when they run out of meat.  I was a bit worried that if we didn't get there early, we would be shut out but luckily it looks like they had enough meat that night until at least 9 or 10pm.  The restaurant is super super small, maybe about 8 or 9 tables max.  You walk up to the counter and there is basically one thing on the menu: brisket.  There are 2 cuts, either lean or fatty.  It's $25/lb and the super nice owner, Daniel, told us that for 2 people, he recommended about 1/3 to 1/2 a pound per person.  We decided to go for a mix of lean and fatty and got 1 lb total.  The only other things they serve there are potato salad ($4) and coleslaw ($4).  We went for the potato salad and a few slices of Texas white bread.  Now the issue with the seat yourself style of restaurants is that sometimes you can get your food and find that there is no where to sit.  I literally jumped on top of a group of people as they were leaving their seat.  Not my ideal way to enjoy a meal but when it comes to BBQ by the pound, it usually is easier to order yourself.  The food looked great and I was super excited to cut into it.  One problem.  There were no knives in the place.  Only plastic forks.  I ended up pulling most of the meat apart with my hands, which was fine, but a knife and some wet naps would have gone a long way here.  People around us were raving about the meat (the guy in front of us in line was already in line for 2nds) so I was ready to tear into it.  And you know what? It was good but my mind and stomach didn't explode from joy.  The lean meat was indeed lean and the fatty meat fatty (almost a bit too fatty - and not in the good kind of pork belly fatty) but the outside of the brisket had too much black pepper flavor for me - it was very in your face.  And while I know this may be sacrilege, I wanted some BBQ sauce to go with it.  It just seemed to be missing something that I couldn't put my finger on and I think it was the sauce.  While I appreciate that the pace was focused on one kind of meat that they did well, the reason I love Fette Sau is because not only can you get brisket but you can get ribs, pork belly, sausage and all kind of other delicious meats at the same time.  As they say, variety is the spice of life.  As for the potato salad, it was a nice side dish to help cut some of the meatiness of the main entree.  And the 1/2 lb per person was the perfect amount of food for 2 people as I was definitely more than full when we left.

For now the restaurant is BYOB which actually isn't so bad but it is nice to have some whiskey with your meat and it's a bit hard to go down to your local deli and buy a small size of whiskey.  So we opted for wine but a lot of people brought their own tall boys or 6 packs.  I will say that the waitstaff there was awesome (shout out to Alex for helping us in a wine bind) and really friendly.  Location-wise, it's a bit out of the way (it's in South Williamsburg - which I know is the new hot spot of Brooklyn so I guess it does make sense to be where all the action is these days).   Even though I thought the meat was good, I just didn't have the come to jesus moment I was expecting based on all the reviews.  But if you're a BBQ freak like me, I do think it's worth a try at least once.  To quote Cicily "It's good but I wouldn't go out of my way to come back here".  Knowing that Fette Sau is so much closer, I would tend to agree.  Total bill: $42.

Photo Credit: Free Williamsburg

The Cardinal Visited 8/25/2012 3.5 Forks

The Cardinal 234 E 4th St, (between Avenue A & Avenue B), NY 10009

I've had a major BBQ/Southern/Soul food kick these days.  Luckily my friend Cicily loves this kind of food as much as me, so I was excited that I had someone to try out The Cardinal last night with me.  The decor of the restaurant is much more cozy and cute bistro type vs. what you would expect from a BBQ hall.  The menu here is more of a set menu vs. places like Fette Sau or Hill Country where you order meat by the pound.  The BBQ here comes in a platter format with your choice of 3 kinds of meat (choose from ribs, brisket, hot links, or pulled pork) or if you're there with lots of people there is the President's platter or a bucket of fried chicken.  Even though I do love my BBQ, I opted for the Fried Chicken plate (1 thigh, 1 drumstick, 1 breast) and 2 sides (I got the mac and cheese and the fried green tomatoes) for $19 and Cicily got the BBQ plate for $23.   We did get the crab hush puppies to start ($10) based on the recommendation of the waitress.  I haven't had hush puppies in a long time but once I bit into these I remembered that unique cornmeal-y flavor.  The crab meat was mixed in with the cornmeal and then deep fried.  It tasted exactly how it sounds and it was served with ranch dressing.  It was good but pretty heavy tasting and 2 puppies (that actually sounds kind of gross saying it) was all I could take.  

When I first laid eyes on my fried chicken platter I was "sure" that I would definitely not be able to finish it.   Famous last words right? As soon as I cut into the chicken I could see how incredibly juicy the inside was.  I mean, it was to the point where juice actually splattered on my shirt as I was cutting into it.  And the skin was amazingly crispy and delicious.  It was light and flavorful and the skin had the right amount of fat on it.  It was so good that I finished all 3 pieces of chicken.  Sick.  I barely had room for the mac and cheese and friend green tomatoes.  The mac and cheese was like your classic homey mac and cheese, nothing fancy with 7 different kinds of cheeses and penne pasta, but it was yellow/orangey cheese with soft elbow macaroni.  And it was great.  Unfortunately I didn't love the fried green tomatoes.  That was the one side dish that I was looking forward to, but it just didn't have much flavor to it.  It was needed some more spices or something because it just didn't taste like much.  By the time I was done eating, I could barely move.  I could totally see this place as a great post-hangover brunch place.  While I didn't try the BBQ, Cicily said it was pretty good, although I think if you're serious about BBQ, you still can't beat Fette Sau.  But I haven't met a better place for fried chicken in the city just yet.  Just be prepared to have your heart stop and arteries clogged no matter what you order.  Total bill with: $51 with tax, tip and drinks. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Blue Smoke Visited 1/6/2012 TBD Forks

Blue Smoke 255 Vesey Street, New York, NY

I was lucky enough to have been invited to preview the new Blue Smoke across the street from my office before it officially opened to the public.  They wanted to invite people from various nearby companies to try it out so that they would consider it when entertaining clients.  I thought that this was a great idea and way to introduce a new place to the neighborhood. 

I went with a friend of mine after work on Friday and didn't really know what to expect.  The inside was mostly cleared out except for the booths so that waiter could pass around food and wine.  The room was filled with people who either worked for American Express or Goldman Sachs.  The decor of the restaurant was like an upscale BBQ joint (which is pretty much was Blue Smoke is).  It's got a nice dark wood Texas feel but the it wasn't too honky tonk either.  I started with a deviled egg and who doesn't like a deviled egg?! This one was really well done and there was lot of filling piled up high in the egg white.  Next I had the chicken liver mousse on toast and well, it was definitely tasted like chicken liver.  While I don't hate it, it has a very strong indescribable taste to it and I must have liked something about because I had about 3-4 of them.  Then they passed around oysters! I was pretty surprised that they did that and I didn't get the name of the exact type, but they were great and were served with a vinaigrette. I also tried the chipotle chicken wings and it kind of reminded me why I don't really like chicken wings.  It was just plain messy and hard to eat without looking like you have food smeared all over your face.  But the sauce had a definite kick to it that was almost a bit too much for me.

While I was eating, Danny Meyer came out to thank us for coming!  He mentioned that he had been doing these previews for the past few days and that the restaurant would be officially opening for dinner on Monday.  It wasn't that I was star struck, but I do respect the fact that he's been a pretty successful restauranteur in such a competitive market like New York.  Then we met the General Manager,  Joel Steiger who explained that the menu would be 75% the same as the Blue Smoke uptown and that they actually smoke their food on site in a smoker behind the restaurant.  Interesting. 

Next what I was waiting for finally came out, the ribs!! They had Texas style (dry rub), Kansas City style (sweeter and covered with sauce), and the Memphis style (leaner rib and also covered with sauce).  My personal favorite was the Texas one.  It was a nice big rib and the meat completely fell off the bone and it was the least messy rib to eat.  The Kansas City one was juicier and fattier and the Memphis one was indeed a leaner cut of rib, but there was something about the Texas that felt like a real piece of BBQ to me. 

Somehow I still had room for 2 pork belly slides (AMAZING) and cupcakes.  By the time I rolled out of there at 8:30, I was extremely full and my belly was very happy.  I'm really happy that they are finally rolling out some great restaurants by my office, but obviously this isn't the type of place I would go to for lunch every day.  I hope they end up offer a good happy hour deal because that would do really well given that everyone in the building is pretty sick of going to PJ Clarke constantly.  The only reason I'm not giving it an official rating is because I didn't pay for my meal and I didn't have an actual sit down meal.  I did get a peak at the menu that the menu looked great and I would have loved to have tried some of the sides during the preview.  The staff on site was great, super attentive and really nice.  We even left with a goodie box filled with a chocolate cupcake.  Welcome to the neighborhood, Blue Smoke!  

Photo Credit: Yelp