Sushi D Visited 4/3/2018 3 Forks

Sushi D  207 Dekalb Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11205

I'll keep this review pretty short and sweet since Sushi D is your classic neighborhood mom and pop sushi joint.  There's no flash, no fuss and definitely nothing special about it but it's a nice quiet place to catch up with friends and have basic sushi.  It's not a destination place and there weren't a lot of people when Vinita and I were there but if I lived in the 'hood, I could see myself ordering take out here or stopping by for a lunch special.  

The one thing that was kind of odd that Vinita and I noticed was that there were very few rolls that had salmon in it.  They had your basic salmon avocado or salmon cucumber roll but most of the fancy rolls had lot of tempura action in it which I am not a huge fan of.  They also are the type of place that has rolls with mango or asparagus in it, which I'm also not a fan of.  We stuck to a few basic rolls as well as a soft shell crab appetizer and eggplant appetizer. One of the rolls came with this honey wasabi sauce which we asked for on the side since we were both very weary of it. 

As expected, everything was totally fine but not mind blowing.  The honey wasabi sauce was actually not bad tasting but I'm just not sure I would want it on my sushi as it tastes exactly how it sounds - sweet with a bit of kick to it.   It would have been nice if they had more rolls that had fresh fish in it instead of it being deep fried, which kind of leads me to wonder if there is general quality issue but I felt fine afterwards!  If you live in Clinton Hill and want to order in sushi on a rainy day, this is a totally your place or if you're looking for any traditional, fancy or heavy salmon focused, there are probably a ton of other sushi joints in BK to choose from.  Total bill:  $58/pp with tax, tip and sake

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Aita Visited 3/18/2017 3 Forks

Aita  132 Greene Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238

The last time we hung out, we accidentally ended up having multiple brunches in one day, so Amy, Anuja and I decided it would be fun to do it again but intentionally this time.   We decided to start with an Italian pasta outing and then end at Paulie Gee's just in time for when it to opened.  Anuja had mentioned she heard that the pasta at Aita was delicious because of a former Top Chef contestant from Italy working there  - so that seemed like a great place to start. It's in an adorable part of Clinton Hill and I could see it being a good neighborhood standby if I lived near by. 

We decided to meet for a late lunch around 3pm but unfortunately they were still serving their breakfast menu and not their lunch/dinner which looked much yummier.  Sine it was their breakfast menu, they only had 2 pastas and only one was vegetarian, so we defaulted to the fresh spaghetti ($13) as our pasta option (on their dinner menu they had several more exciting pasta choices like oxtail ravioli and spaghetti with octopus ragu).  We then split the holy scramble ($13) as an egg option and for dessert we split 1 pancake side ($4).  The fresh pasta was nicely done - fresh tomato sauce, shaved parm and topped with fresh basil.  It was pretty basic and simple - so no complaints but no raves either.  The holy scramble consisted of scrambled eggs, shrimp, roasted mushroom, kale and a side of greens.  It was an interesting combination that hit on your salty taste buds but the eggs were a bit overcooked and not as fluffy as I would like my scrambled eggs to be.  The reason we ordered it was because we saw another table order an egg dish and the eggs looked light, fluffy and beautiful. Ours did not quite match up.  As for the pancake side, it was the exactly the size and portion that we needed.  One small pancake - it had a crispy edge to it but it was soft on the inside and had some berries cooked on the inside.  I wish more places did a side of pancake because sometimes all you want is just 1 or two small sweet bites. 

While the food was totally fine (good but not mindblowing), the reason I gave it 3 forks instead of something higher was the service wasn't very good.  The waitress was inattentive and could have cared less about us.  She asked if we wanted any coffee and before we could answer her, she had already walked away.  When Amy joined us late, she did the same thing.  I get that she was the only one there but she wasn't apologetic about it nor interested in going above and beyond.  

If I lived nearby, I would definitely give this place another shot.  It's cute, the menu has solid items and the food isn't bad.  But since I don't live nearby, it's unlikely I'll make the trek back on the G train in the near future.  Total bill:  $15/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

  

Emily Visited 5/29/2016 3.5 Forks

Emily  919 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11238

Ok, let's get this out of the way first.  Emily makes a god damn good burger - it's super moist and juicy and packed with a ton of flavor.   Make no mistake - if you get the burger, you will love it.  So why the 3.5 fork review?  It's unfathomable to me that this burger is almost $30 - well, $26 to be exact but when you factor in tax and tip, you're over $30.  How did we get to this point in life where a freakin burger costs $30?!

But I digress.  Emily has long been on my list of places to try but the horror stories of waiting 2+ hours isn't something I felt like dealing with much these days.  Luckily, Anuja and I were both in town for Memorial Day weekend and one of the bonuses of not having a house in the Hamptons is that the city clears out and places that normally would have long lines are much shorter.  Emily opens at 5pm and we got there around 5:30pm - the place was already packed but we were able to get 2 seats at the bar.  The menu consists of mostly pizza - red ones, white ones, pink (vodka sauce) ones and green (tomatillo) ones and of course the famous burger.  Anuja got one of the white pizzas ($22) while I got the burger.  Apparently they do run out of burgers if you don't get there early enough, so be warned. 

The food came out rather quickly and the burger was glorious looking - it was dry aged beef on a pretzel bun and covered with their special sauce, tons of caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese.  It's served with what Anuja and I called high end McDonald's fries (we mean that as a big compliment as they were incredibly addictive).  The burger is quite messy but the flavor profile was spot on.  I'm definitely happy that I tried it and maybe if an out-of-towner really wanted to try it, I would go back again but it's one of those things where I am happy enough to check the box and say that I've tried it.  The fries were skinny salty and if not careful, you can eat the entire tray of it before you know what hits you.  

I had a bite of Anuja's pizza and we both agreed that while it was good - we've both had better, especially at Roberta's.  It's a very similar to Roberta's in that it's a thin brick oven Neapolitan style pizza with fresh artisanal toppings.  But there's something about Roberta's that had a more positive impression on us or maybe we're just over this whole hipster pizza thing.

Is this place worth a visit? Yes.  Is it worth waiting 2 hours?  That I'm not sure about but if you find yourself looking for a place to try out over the summer and don't mind eating like a grandma at 5:30pm, then give it a try.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Speedy Romeo Visited 6/21/2013 3.5 Forks

Speedy Romeo 376 Classon Ave., (between Greene Ave & Lafayette Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11238

I would have never put Speedy Romeo on my list if it wasn't for a major shout out by  one of my favorite food blogs, Immaculate Infatuation.  It's definitely not in a part of Brooklyn that I would normally think of and had a buddy who was game to give it a try.  Cicily and I were looking for something low key that was close to both of us...ok, this place isn't really near me at all, but it was easy to get to from work, close to Fort Greene and I was curious about it.  It is right next to the G train, so in reality it wasn't that hard to get home afterwards.

Speedy Romeo is on the border of Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy and to be honest there weren't a ton of other restaurants near it.  In fact, this place was definitely hopping and seemed like one of the few neighborhood joints in the area.  They don't have a liquor license, but they do serve wine, so the only summer cocktail they had was a strawberry puree with white wine ($10).  It was tasty and sweet, but it didn't really feel like there was much booze in it.  Just something to think about if you want a nice cocktail/beer at dinner.   As for the menu, it's got a ton of specialty thin crust pizzas (similar to Roberta's) and then they also have what I heard was a killer steak, burger, pork chop and whole fish.  We started with the crab cake appetizer ($16) which was served with a celery root remoulade and citrus salad.  It was a pretty decent size crab cake but the best part about it was that it was almost all crab meat, no filler - that impressed both me and Cicily (we're both tough to please when it comes to seafood).  At $16, it is a bit pricey but I would have been a lot more pissed off if it was more filler than crabmeat, so I wasn't so upset.  I was torn between ordering a pizza or a burger.  I figured a pizza was only slightly healthier, so I went for The Kind Brother ($16) and Cicily got The Saint Louie ($16).  The Kind Brother consists of large whole wild mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, sage and an almost-raw egg cracked on top.  Although it was a very thin wood oven crust, I was surprised at how well all the ingredients held up on it.  It was a solid pizza but the crust was a bit too wood oven flavored and hard for me and after 2 slices the flavor of the smoked mozzarella made the dish seem a bit heavy too.  I loved the raw egg touch, it's something you don't really see much in pizzas.  The Saint Louie was provel cheese, italian sausage, pepperoni, and pickled chilis.  Cicily commented that she also liked all the ingredients and inside parts of the pizza but wasn't a huge fan of the crust either.  Somehow, we managed to leave room for dessert and we got the chocolate cake ($9) which was actually more of a deconstructed s'more.  It was a very thick cake (seemed like it was a flourless base) covered in a melted marshmallow topping that had been nicely brunt on top and then had a bunch of chopped up grammar cracker crust surrounding it.  It was super decadent and rich in flavor.  As someone who doesn't love chocolate, I was strangely drawn to it.   While it may sound like we didn't enjoy our pizzas, it's quite contrary, we did, but given the location, neither of us were really sure if we would go super out of our way again.  But If I lived nearby, I would put it on rotation.   Total bill: $62/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Umi Nom Visited 4/23/10 3.5 Forks

Umi Nom 433 DeKalb Ave. (between Classon Ave & Taaffe Pl), Brooklyn, NY 11205

Finally, I ate at Umi Nom. After hearing about this place for a while and having loved it's Manhattan sister restaurant, Kuma Inn, I was happy to have eaten here. But (and this is a big but), the location leaves MUCH to be desired. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It's a few blocks from the G train stop, but that's not saying much. I'm not really familiar with the Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy/Pratt area and perhaps I am missing something but I could have really done without the location.

The inside of the restaurant was small, but nice. It had pretty exposed brick which had a small opening into the "open" kitchen. I wish they had blown out the opening even more so that we could get a full look at the chefs while they cooked. The concept and most of the menu is very similar to Kuma Inn. I had read that for 2 people 3 apps and 1 entree was sufficient. We asked our waitress what was the appropriate # of dishes to order and she said "1-2 dishes per person"...um, ok, so is our order ok? she then repeated "1-2 dishes per person", so we decided to order 4 apps instead. We order the manila clams (I had heard amazing things about it), the sliders, pork spare ribs, and spring rolls. Then she said "and for an entree?" -- we were so confused b/c didn't you just tell us to order 1-2 dishes?

Regardless, we stuck with our 4 app order. The first one that came out was the spring rolls. While they were good, they're just spring rolls, and it wouldn't have been something I ordered, but Dan wanted it, so I didn't object. Next came the clams and they were DELICIOUS! They are similar to the black bean sauteed clams that you usually get in chinese restaurants, but these were soaking in some sort of salty, buttery, spicy goodness. I basically wanted to drown myself in the broth. Instead, we poured it over our coconut rice (which at $3, wasn't really worth it. It was white rice with coconut juice poured over it. It was yummy, but for $3 for a small bowl, I'm not so sure...). The sliders were also great, 3 buns filled with beef, pork and hoisin sauce. The pork ribs were also very tasty, although some pieces were more falling off the bone than others. While 4 dishes was enough, I could have ordered much more. The couple next to us got some sort of crispy chicken lollipops and said they were worth the wait.

While I really enjoyed my meal, I wished their brooklyn location was in a more convenient location. Given that the LES location is probably just as close/far and there's more stuff around it, I might be inclined to stick with the city locale for now. Total bill was $46 with tax.