Vice Versa Visited 7/27/2018 3.5 Forks

Vice Versa  325 W 51st St., New York, NY 10019

If you're wondering did I have two dinners in one night?  The answer is yes.  I had double booked myself but I didn't want to cancel either of my plans so I had the early dinner with Allison at Kyma and then headed over to a birthday dinner at Vice Versa for my friend Dan.  I was originally just going to go for "1 drink" but since it was his birthday, I ended up staying for the whole dinner and ordering yet another full meal.  Opps.  Needless to say, I did not feel the best the next day.

I've been here before to meet Dan for drinks and it's a classic Hell's Kitchen/Pre-Theater joint.  The clientele is a bit older but the crowd always feels like they are regulars here with the staff.  The nice thing is that it's never super crowded and everyone is super chill here (maybe too much so).  The menu here is traditional Italian with a nice line up of antipasti dishes, vegetables, lots of home made pastas and fish and meat dishes.  So there is truly something for everyone.  The table split the grilled calamari and some other appetizers and I got the spaghetti with crab ($25) because lord knows I needed another full meal at that point.  The calamari was fine, nothing really special.  But the crab pasta was delicious and not too fishy.  Since it was Dan's birthday, we got several desserts and the stand-out was the tiramisu.

Overall, it was a fun night because it was such a lower stress place where you could really relax and hang out with friends.  The food got the job done but what docked this place half a fork was the shaky and uneven service.   It just felt a bit disorganized.  If you're looking for a low key place in Midtown, it's worth a visit but I wouldn't necessarily go with you're in a hurry or don't have a ton of patience.  Total bill:  $110/pp with tax, tip and lots of drinks

Photo credit: Yelp

Wondee Siam Visited 5/26/2018 4 Forks

Wondee Siam 792 9th Ave., New York, NY 10019

Yes, yes, yes.  I could have sworn I had written a review of this place before because I've definitely been there a few times in the past but I guess I never did or it was before I started this blog.  In any case, I have a soft spot of this place.  If you every crave Thai food, Hell's Kitchen is a fantastic neighborhood for really solid authentic Thai restaurants.  Almost half of 9th Ave is lined with small, tasty and super affordable Thai joints.  I believe there is a Wondee Siam II not too far away but I prefer this original location 

My mom and I were originally going to Pure Thai Shophouse, but it was a 45 mins wait and we had show tickets, so we walked 1 block down and ducked in here.  We got really lucky because right after we sat down, there was an immediate wait.  The place is tiny - probably 6-7 tables total and only 2 tables fit more than 2 people.  The menu is your typical Thai mom and pop place but I noticed that 2 Thai people sitting next to us who clearly got the secret Thai menu - ha!  I knew they existed in every ethnic restaurant.  But it made me feel like we were in the right place if there were Thai folks ordering on the sly here.  I was totally fine that we got the Americanized menu because I was in total lame but satisfying pad thai kind of mood.   We got a papaya salad to start ($12) and I got a chicken pad thai ($14) while my mom got the Key Mao noodle ($14). 

Like any Thai place, the food comes out fast and furious which was good because we had 45 mins to order and eat.  The papaya salad was enormous - it could have been a meal in it of itself.  It was awesome - a plate piled high with shaved green papaya, peanuts, string bean, tomato, chili and lime juice.  It was the right amount of tartness and spiciness.  We pretty much polished off the whole thing which was a mistake because that practically left no room for our noodle dishes, which were also the size of our heads.  The pad thai was your standard pad thai but super flavorful and the noodles were the right texture.  I kept eating and eating, yet the plate of noodles never seemed to get smaller.   If we weren't in such a hurry, there looked like a lot of other authentic dishes to try.  The other table next to us ordered a whole red snapper which looked amazing - maybe next time.  It's the perfect place to go before a Broadway show - walking distance to most theaters and the service is super fast but nice at the same time.   Total bill:  $50 for 2 people with tax and tip. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Marshal Visited 3/13/2018 4 Forks

The Marshal  628 10th Ave., New York, NY 10036

While I go out to eat a lot in NYC, there are pockets of the city that I'm just not as familiar with and anything above 23rd street kind of falls in that camp.  So when I meet up with friends for dinner outside of that area, I depend on others to make a recommendation.  I met up with Aarti for a late dinner near her office and while 10th Ave is certainly starting to become more populated, it's still a bit of a walk from anything.  Luckily Aarti's office is in the area, so she knew of The Marshal and even made a reservation.  At first glance, you wouldn't think you'd need one, but I would recommend one since it is tiny and a few people did get turned away because it was so full.

The vibe of this place matches its size:  cozy, rustic, farm to table food.  It's a very hearty line up of appetizers and entrees - mac and cheese, slab of bacon, meatballs, roasted chicken and meatloaf to name a few.  For the vegetarians, they don't have any entrees that are vegetarian but they have over 12 different kinds of farmers market sides that you can combine and make into a very filling meal.  Upon the recommendation from the waitress, we got the Brussels Sprout Salad ($17) and I opted for the goat cheese and herb stuffed bone-in chicken breast ($26) and Aarti got a medley of 3 different sides ($24.50). 

We were originally wavering between the kale and Brussels sprout salad and the waitress insisted that the Brussels sprout salad was way better and boy was I glad she said it because it was amazing.  It was a mix of raw and roasted Brussels sprouts, tossed with focaccia, croutons, Caesar dressing and parmesan cheese - basically a Caesar salad but made with Brussels sprouts.  It was so delicious and I could totally see myself getting this on my own as a main entree with some roasted chicken thrown on top of it.   This salad is definitely worth coming back for.  Then came the chicken which was fabulous also - since it was on the bone it was very juicy and tender.  It came on a bed of rainbow chard and topped with pork lardon.  The only complaint I would have is that I couldn't really taste the goat cheese but maybe that's what also kept it moist as well.

Overall, it's a lovely intimate restaurant with a very solid line up of farm fresh food.  The location of this place makes it a bit hard for me to say it's a destination restaurant but if you're looking for a nice quiet place on the West Side, I would definitely put on your list.  Total bill:  $70/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bamboo 52 Visited 2/5/2016 3.5 Forks

Bamboo 52  344 W 52nd St., New York, NY 10019

So by no means is Bamboo 52 a destination restaurant nor is it a place if you are looking for authentic mind blowing sushi.  It's the kind of place that you hit up on your way out for the night and you need some food to coat your stomach before you start drinking but don't want to eat terrible food in the process.  I've most definitely had better sushi in my life but I've also had way worse sushi too.  It's most definitely one of those places that in the middle of the pack - but in a good way.   If you come with the right crowd, this place can be pretty fun and satisfying, especially since their happy hour is until 9pm.

I met up with a bunch of friends on a Friday night before we hit up the (in)famous Flaming Saddles - a gay rodeo bar in Hell's Kitchen.  Since we were such a large group, we thought it would be best to make a reservation somewhere but a lot of the more mom and pop places in the area don't take reservations or couldn't accommodate 9 of us.  Luckily, Bamboo 52 could and it's right around the corner from the bar.  It's kind of the perfect place for a large group because it's not stuffy and you can be kind of rowdy and no one will complain.  We had people walk in 45 minutes late to dinner and they let us wait around to order and we also kept ordering repeatedly - we kept our waitress very busy.

The menu is what you would expect of a neighborhood sushi joint - typical sushi rolls along with your line-up of crazy ones with mango and cream cheese.  We pretty much ordered a basic line up for stuff:  edamame, seaweed crisp (Amy was gun-ho on this one), spicy tuna roll, cajun tuna roll, rainbow roll, american dream roll, lovely roll and a few others.   I'm not going to go into detail of each roll but it's safe to say that they were all totally fine and tasty and we definitely cleaned our plates.  I did want to note that Mark did order some weird BBQ chicken roll - umm, what?!  It was literally BBQ chicken wrapped in rice and seaweed - it wasn't actually all that bad, just different.  I can actually see this place being a good local hang out if you lived around there and just wanted some basic sushi to nosh on and let your hair down at the same time.  Total bill:  $48/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

B side visited 12/21/2014 4 Forks

B Side Pizza and Wine   370 W. 51st Street, New York, NY 10019

I was totally caught off guard by this place.  I was struck by how similar it was to Roberta's and dare I say that it might be just as good?  Granted I was about half a bottle of wine in and then split another bottle at dinner but the quality of the food was really fantastic and the staff was awesome.

They have a fairly basic menu of great seasonal salads and appetizers and then about 11 different kinds of thin crust brick oven pizzas.  Everything sounded delicious and the ingredients sounded fresh and local.  Kevin and I started with the burrata ($15) and the black kale salad ($10) and then we split the Meat Packing pizza ($19) because it had the most amount of meat ingredients on one pie.  In retrospect we totally could have gotten another pizza and there were more enough to choose from - I probably would have chosen The Muscles From because it had shaved Brussels sprouts on it.

The burrata came out first and it was fantastic.  It was a giant piece of moist cheesey goodness with delicious pieces of braised beets, oranges, and topped with white balsamic and chopped herbs.  It was almost a perfect beet and burrata salad.  Next came the kale salad and it was also fantastic.  It was finely chopped kale with pickled dried apricots, mint, almonds and pecorino.  Again, a very tasty salad - clean tasting and didn't have any of the toughness that kale can have.   I could have eaten both salads on my own but then I probably wouldn't have had room for the pizza, which would have made me sad.  The Meat Packing consisted of exactly what you would think: 4 different kinds of meat - bacon, sausage, pancetta and speck along with tomatoes and mozzarella.  All on a thin brick oven crust and it was one of the best thin crust pizzas I've had in a while.  It was incredibly flavorful and the ingredients tasted fresh and balanced.  We devoured the food in a matter of minutes and I was this close to getting dessert but thought better of it.

I was pleasantly surprised by this fantastic place that's so close to Times Square.  It definitely rivals Roberta's and for those of you who don't feel like making the trek to Bushwick, this is a pretty decent substitute in the city.  Total bill with a bottle of wine:  $60/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Basera Indian Bistro Visited 10/24/2014 3 Forks

Basera Indian Bistro 745 9th Ave., New York, NY 10019

This is one of those reviews where the food and service are ranked so differently.  The food was delicious and extremely tasty, while the service was confusing and slow.  So in the end I had to rank in somewhere in the middle because both elements are important when dining out. 

It was the week of Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, so Aarti and I decided to get Indian food. We ended up at this place because they delivered to Aarti's office frequently for lunch and she had mentioned that the food was excellent but that she had never had a sit down meal there.  After doing a little bit of internet research to make sure it wasn't a scary take out place, I eagerly made my way up to Hell's Kitchen.  The place was rather empty when I first got there around 7:45 but it definitely started to fill up as the night progressed.  The menu is quite extensive but they have a great prix fixe deal where you could get at any time of the night:  one appetizer off the list,  a choice of almost any entree (seafood would cost you more) and your choice of roti or naan for $19.95.  Considering many of the entrees alone $14+, I thought this was a pretty good deal.  I started with the vegetable samosa to start and for my entree I got the Chicken Tikka Saag and garlic naan.  Aarti got the yellow daal for her entree and then we also got a side of the paneer makhani ($10.95) to share.   Our vegetable samosa came out quickly and they were your typical tasty veggie samosa.  Then this is where things started to go downhill.  After 20 minutes of waiting for our entrees, our waiter came back and was like "uh, so what did you order again?"  Bad sign.  We repeated our order to him and it was clear that either he put in the wrong order or just never put it in in the first place.  He apologized profusely but that didn't help the fact that we were starving and that now our food would take even longer to come out.  We both ordered a mango lassi to curb our hunger as we watched everyone else who had come in after us get their food.  Finally after almost 40 minutes of waiting our food comes out and I was ready to dive in head first.  We had also ordered a side of raita to go with our meal and alas that was missing from our order.  That took another 15-20 minutes for them to bring out and again, they were very apologetic about it, but I was starting to lose my cool.

But on to the food.  It's extremely satisfying and reminds me of how much I do love Indian food.  It was clear that the paneer was made with full fat cream and butter but that is why it was so incredibly delicious and addictive.  The saag was also quite good with the fresh spinach and chunks of tender chicken buried in it.   The naan was soft and pillowy and then briyani rice was a great combination with all the saucy food.  In the end, the food was worth waiting for and it totally hit the spot.  The great thing about Indian food is that it's usually a lot of food and we ended up taking home almost everything and it lasted another 2 meals for me.  In the end, the food totally made up for the fact that the service was more than lack luster and I appreciated that they were very apologetic and didn't charge us for the mango lassis but they do need to get their act together in order to me to ever rank them higher.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

ViV Visited 8/16/2014 3.5 Forks

ViV 717 9th Ave., New York, NY 10019

ViV is smack in the middle of Hell's Kitchen/Theater District and is among the sea of other mom and pop Thai places on 9th Ave.  ViV is a pretty solid and standard good Thai place that will most definitely satisfy your Thai craving.  I'll be honest, I would have never picked this place out if it wasn't for Michael's suggestion but I'm glad he did because it was a fun, quick and easy meal for a Saturday night.

The menu is your typical American style Thai food:  noodles, fried rice, stir fry and curry.   I love a good broad noodle so I was torn between getting the spicy khee-mao or the Sriracha noodle but then the more rational part of my brain took over and I remembered my awful spicy noodle experience when I was in Thailand and instead I totally wussed out and got the good ole standard Pad Thai with chicken ($11.95) and the table also split the edamame ($5) to start.  I should make a quick plug here for the specialty cocktails.  I got the Venus ($12) which was I can't remember what was exactly in it but there was vodka and chambord and it was super strong.  I made the mistake of having two and I was definitely feeling it by the time I got home later that night.

As for the food, everything was good - as you would expect from most of these Thai place on 9th Ave. It wasn't blow your socks off amazing but it was a very tasty and spot on pad thai.  The noodles were cooked well and it wasn't over sauced.  The sauce had the right amount of sweetness to it. I didn't try anyone else's dishes but both Anuja and Michael commented that they enjoyed their meal.

All in all, this is a cute and solid Thai place in a street crawling with other similar places.  I did like the decor here - it's a bit kitchy but it works for where it's located and with the overall feel of the place.  I would definitely recommend this place if you're near Times Square and looking for a quick, cheap place to eat before the theater as well just so you can avoid all the other awful places right on Broadway.  Total bill: $42/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Taboon Visited 4/4/2014 3.5 Forks

Taboon 773 10th Ave., New York, NY 10019

When my dad told me that he was coming to NYC for an Art Expo that was located on 12th Ave and 54th and wanted to me to find a restaurant nearby, I was really perplexed.  I mean besides being in a total waste land,  I couldn't even think of anything within a 5 block radius except the Gotham West Market and I didn't want to go there since it was a bit too casual.  I finally found out about Taboon on Opentable and luckily they had a 7:45pm reservation.  

The food here is Greek/Mediterranean which I love so I was excited to try it out.  I was and wasn't surprised by how crowded it was on a Friday.   I'm surprised because it's in such a removed area but also not surprised because if you live/work in that area, it's probably the best dinner option.  My one gripe about the menu is that everything was about $3-5 more expensive than it needed to be except for the dips.  But regardless the menu has a lot of delicious options.  To start we got the red snapper ceviche ($14), the crab meat salad ($14.50) and the sautéed calamari ($11) and then shared the lamb duo ($36) for an entree.  I was tempted to get a tzaziki dip for the bread but figured we had ordered enough food that we didn't need it.  While the bread was delicious, I definitely wished that I gotten the tzaziki because there was just something missing while we were eating the bread.  All the appetizers came out together and at first glance, while they looked great, they definitely looked small.   The ceviche was served chopped up and mixed together with lim juice, avocado, bulghur wheat, cucumber, shallots, cilantro and mint served on a romaine lettuce leaf and then topped with slices of radish.   When I think ceviche, I usually think they are chunks of fish marinated in lime juice not chopped up - while I wasn't a huge fan of this format, the flavor profile was still great.  Very refreshing and light but it was a bit difficult to really taste the fish because it was so cut up.  Next I moved on to the crab meat salad - this came with fresh crab meat, feta cheese, oregano, croutons, tomato and microgreens.   Again, nice fresh flavors but not sure if it really needed the feta cheese in it, but I'm never one to not eat feta on anything.  The calamari was sautéed with lemon oil and fresh herb salsa verde and served on a bed of arugula and cherry tomatoes.  As my dad said, it was a great dish but very small - it only came with 4 small pieces.  So while we had ordered 3 appetizers, I was still really hungry and totally ready for my entree.  The lamb was served two ways - as grilled lamb chops and as lamb meatballs and this was served on a bed of lentils and root vegetables. I'm not sure if they did this because they knew we were sharing but it was nice that there was 2 of each kind, so we didn't have to fight over who got what.  Again, these were also a bit on the smaller side as well but the root vegetables did help fill me up.  The lamb chop was delicious and grilled medium rare.  It fell off the bone and had a nice small amount of fat around it to keep the meat moist.  The meatball was also fabulous and juicy but flavored well with herbs and tasted just like a lamb kebab.

So while it sounded like we ordered a lot of food, I was still a bit hungry at the end of the meal.  Based on the waiter's recommendation, we ordered the date sponge cake ($10).  It was a date sponge cake soaking in rum and then topped with a date compote and English cream and fig reduction.  At first bite it was wonderful but as you start to take more bites of it, the intense sweetness really hits you.  It was to the point where I just really couldn't eat anymore of it because I was starting to feel sick from the sweetness.  All in all, I was glad that I found this place and if I was stuck all the way on the west side again, I would come back here if I needed a fancier establishment than Gotham West.  But do be aware that it's a bit pricey and the portions are on the small side.  Total bill:  $70/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Toloache Visited 8/20/13 3.5 Forks

Toloache 251 W 50th St (between Broadway & 8th Ave), New York, NY 10019

When I worked at LOGO several years ago, Toloache had just opened and I remembered it being really good but also expensive for the amount of food I got.  Fast forward 5 years and my experience was still the same.  The reason I even came here in the first place was because Manisha and I were going to a Broadway show and wanted to get something to eat before it started. 

I'm normally not a huge fan of eating in this area (although there are some good places in Hell's Kitchen) but I wasn't about to go to a show without eating.  I came up with a few suggestions and Manisha mentioned that she really liked Mexican food and this place had a 5:30 opening on Open Table, so we gave it a go.  The food here is higher end, sit down type of Mexican place (similar to a Dos Caminos setting).   I wasn't starving since I had a pretty filling lunch earlier in the day so the fact that the portion sizes were small was actually a good thing.  Even the waitress mentioned that the portion sizes here were tiny.  Manisha and I split an order of the traditional guacamole ($13) and I opted for the shrimp quesadilla ($13) and the sopa de tortilla ($9).  The guacamole was fresh (I could see the ladies behind us making it from a huge pile of avocados) with tomato, cilantro, and onion.  But for $13 it really should have been bigger than a small butter ramekin.  Our entree came out quickly there after.  I really appreciated this because we had told the hostess that we had a 7pm show to make and they clearly tried to accommodate us as best they could.  The soup was a tomato and guajilo base served with crispy strips of tortilla, slices of avocado and sprinkled with Chihuahua cheese.  This soup had definite heat to it.  It was like a very spicy tomato soup but I say this in the best way.  The tortilla, avocado and cheese gave it a nice Mexican touch to it.  My quesadilla came out and it looked more like a Mexican pizza than your traditional quesadilla.  It had chopped pieces of shrimp (it almost tasted like buffalo shrimp) with thinly sliced red onion, salsa, Chihuahua cheese, and a pineapple salad on top of a flatbread like base.  Unlike many quesadillas I've had before, it wasn't oozing with cheese and it was open faced.  Despite that, I did enjoy this quesadilla a lot.  The ingredients were high quality, fresh, and well balanced.  But again, size wise this was probably 4-5 bites max, so on a normal day I probably would have been starving after this dish.  Manisha got the tacos and they were also small in size but apparently big on taste.  We were done with our meal just in time for us to walk over to the theater and get seated before the curtain went up.  

All in all, the food here is tasty and better than the run of the mill stuff you would find near Times Square.  It's a great option for pre-theater eating but just don't go on an empty stomach or else you will find yourself probably out another $75-100 on top of the $100+ you spent on the show.  Total bill:  $49/pp with tax and tip and 1 margarita each. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Ippudo Westside Visited 8/8/2013 3 Forks

Ippoudo Westside  321 W 51st St., (between 9th Ave & 8th Ave), New York, NY 10019

I usually don't review other branches of previously reviewed restaurants unless things are materially different and so based on that I had to write this review for the new Westside opening of Ippudo.  Ippudo in the East Village is one of the most loved ramen places in the city.  The East Village branch consistently has 2+ hour waits but it's definitely worth the wait.  So I was super excited when they opened another branch in the city to give all of us another optioin.  I met Anuja, Amy and Kristen there on a rainy Thursday night and luckily there was no wait at 6:30pm.  Already a huge improvement!  The space was a bit bigger than the one in the East Village; there's a huge bar when you walk in and then a slightly larger open space behind there.  There's also a private upstairs room that is rumored to be a rotating pop-up space.  We were seated in the main open space and excited to order our ramen and pork buns.  All of us have been to the original one and already had our orders in mind.  But when we opened the menu this is where some of us were very disappointed.  You would think that the menu would be pretty similar to the other location but there were several items from the East Village menu that were missing from this menu.  Specifically, they were missing the only vegetarian ramen on the menu.  Both Amy and Anuja don't eat meat and were planning on ordering the wasabi shoyu ramen which is a soy and vegetable based broth.  We thought that maybe this was a mistake since the restaurant just opened so we asked our waiter about it.  He said that this branch's kitchen wasn't able to prepare the other kinds of ramen just yet. What?!?  That makes zero sense and of all the ramens you were not going to have the only vegetarian one seems like the wrong choice.  The waiter said "Well, you can have any of the other ramens, we can just not put the pork in there."  Umm - but the broth is still pork based sir.  Luckily both Anuja and Amy were trying to be flexible and agreed to go with the original version but with no pork.  Then when Anuja asked if she could get egg instead to make her meal a bit more robust the waiter said they can't do that and that she would still have to pay extra for it.  Umm - what again?  I get that restaurants have a P/L to adhere to and that's why they don't like substitutes.  But the fact that she's asking for a cheaper substitute, especially after they couldn't accommodate her original request just seemed like really bad customer service to me. 

The good news is that the actual food for meat lovers is still just as good and delicious.  Kristen and I split the pork buns ($9) which were the perfect combination of fat and meat and topped spicy sauce, mayo and lettuce.  Yum!  I got the Modern ramen ($14) with an egg ($2) which is the original broth topped with miso paste, slices of pork, cabbage, mushrooms, scallions and garlic oil.  It was salty goodness and I devoured not just the noodles but all of the broth too.  Comparing this experience to my recent take out one at Himawari, this has just confirmed my feeling that eating ramen hot and in the restaurant is the best way to do it.   

If you're a pork eater, you'll be totally fine here but if not, then I would recommend still visiting the East Village one for now.  While I usually focus more on the food than the service, their inability to be flexible and make the customers happy really irked me the wrong way.  There are so many places in the city that will bend over backwards to make their customers happy and I was surprised that they were not one of them.  By the time we left at 8pm, there was a substantial crowd waiting so if you are going to come here, still come early.  Total bill:  $43/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Kyotofu Visited 4/5/2013 4 Forks

Kyotofu 705 9th Ave. (between 48th St & 49th St), New York, NY 10019

Disclosure:  I have a work partnership with Kyotofu and was invited here for a work meeting

Kyotofu is mainly known for its Japanese desserts so I was actually surprised to discover that they have a real menu of non-dessert food as well.  Unlike what most people may think there is a lot of Japanese food that's not sushi or ramen and Kyotofu tries to showcase that here.  While Kyotofu does not have an extensive menu, there is a nice variety of hot/cold food selections to make a very robust meal. 

We started with the pulled pork sliders ($12), the Kyotofu mac and cheese ($12), and the Artisanal tofu ($10).  None of these dishes are what you would typically think of when you think of Japanese food and maybe they're not, but they were most definitely delicious.  The pork sliders were made with honey glazed berkshire pork and served with pickled slaw on the side.  It seemed more like a BBQ pork slider and it could have used a bit more pork in between the bread but that might have been because I was starving too.  The mac and cheese was made with gruyere cheese, truffle pate, shichimi, and panko crumbs. It was super cheese-y and the top was nice, toasty and crunchy thanks to the panko crust.  Despite its small size it was very filling and rich, so don't be fooled by the size when you first see it.  Next came the tofu, which is definitely the most "Asian" dish of the three.  It's a housemade tofu with 3 different sauces.  The tofu almost looks like a giant ball of mozzarella because it's white, shiny and served in a ball formation.  The tofu was extremely creamy and soft and very much on the silky side vs. the firm kind of tofu.  The tofu was super fresh tasting and you can definitely tell that it's made on in house.  On its own, the tofu doesn't have a lot of flavor but you should definitely drizzle on the different sauces to add more flavor.  I was a fan of the traditional soy sesame on the tofu the most and it was definitely a nice palate cleanser after the mac and cheese and pork sliders.

After all of appetizers, I was getting pretty full but I actually had my main entree to look forward to.  Even though I typically like to have a light lunch, I opted for the pork belly ($22) dish because well, I can never turn down a pork belly dish.  The pork was slow cooked in soy sauce and sake and served with a mixture of pickled cucumbers and purple shiso onigiri and a side of white rice.   I was originally a bit hesitant to go with the pork belly but the owner, Michael, talked it up and said it was delicious and not super heavy and he was right.  I mean, yes it's still pork belly at the end of the day so you can't really get around that but I honestly didn't feel full and gross after eating it.  The belly was very tender and soft and had a great mixture of fat and meat.  I was trying to not eat all of it because I was told to save room for dessert but I couldn't help myself and ate the entire dish.  It's really hard to get pork belly wrong but they did do a great job here with the dish.  Despite all of this food, I did manage to save a small space for dessert.  We had the warm chocolate mochi cake ($12) and the soymilk soft serve sundae ($9).  The chocolate cake was nice and soft but I really enjoyed the soymilk soft serve more.  It was a mixture of black sesame and vanilla flavors and served with some kind of crunchy topping to it.  You could tell that it was made from a milk base and not a cream base because it was less thick and creamy and had more of an ice-y texture.  But it made me feel like I was eating a somewhat healthier dessert even if I actually wasn't.

By the time I was done eating I had no desire to go back to the office.  I just wanted to curl up on a couch somewhere and take a nice nap (the 2 kinds of sake probably didn't help either).  All in all, I was very surprised at the non-dessert items mentioned here.  I don't think many people associate Kyotofu with restaurant like food since they're mostly known of their cookies and desserts through their other distribution channels, but its definitely worth checking out. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Totto Ramen Visited 5/14/2012 3 Forks

Totto Ramen 366 W 52nd St., (between 9th Ave & 8th Ave), New York, NY 10019

You'd think with my impending trip to Asia that I would lay off the Asian food, but instead I've had pho, sushi, bimbimbop, and dim sum in the past 4 days.  And now I've rounded off the food tour of Asia with a ramen dinner last night.  My good friend Neera was in town and she was coming from Long Island City, so I wanted to find a place that was easy to get to for all of us.  I ended up picking Totto Ramen since it was close to the E train and easy to get to for all of the dinner guests.

I knew that there would be a line but when I got there at 8:30pm, there was huge crowd that you could see a block away.  They have a self-sign in system and there were about 14 names ahead of us by then.  They also have a policy of only seating max 4 people at once.  There are only 2 tables that seat 4 people and the entire size of the rest of the restaurant is the size of a shoebox, so whatever your party size is, be prepared to wait but if you have 4 people be prepared to wait an especially long time.  In the end, we waited about an hour to get seated.  The inside of the restaurant transported me back to Japan with a very authentic look and feel and an all Japanese staff busily running around and yelling.


The menu has 6 different kinds of ramen, lots of topping options (corn, extra meat, scallion, bean sprout, avocado, egg, seaweed and spicy sesame oil),  and then there are a few specials on the board next to your table.  I chose the Totto Miso Ramen ($10.25) and the spicy tuna don ($6).  I clearly didn't need to order the tuna don but I am a sucker for anything that has raw fish on top of rice.  The tuna don was served with chopped tuna sashimi, onion, scallion, and flying fish roe in chefs special sauce served over rice, cucumber and kombu seaweed.  I didn't really see or taste the fish roe and there was this weird almost rice crispy like ingredient to the dish which definitely added an interesting texture and twist to the dish.  It was a bit hard to mix and eat the rice and sashimi together with chopsticks so that made the overall eating experience was a bit annoying but it was a nice way to start a meal.  Next came the ramen and it was steaming hot.  I literally felt like I was in a spa getting a steam facial.  The ramen was tender and I actually didn't think there was enough noodles in the bowl (although it could have been that I just ate really quickly).  The one thing that looked a bit different from other ramen I've had was this huge scoop of miso and ground pork on top of the noodles.  It kind of looked like pate and that was kind of weird to me and it didn't really taste like anything.  So I didn't really get the point of it.  There were two pieces of pork that looked a bit dry but upon biting into them were soft and tender and very tasty.  The rest of the bowl was served with a hardboiled egg, LOTS of scallion (almost too much), bean sprouts and onion.  While the ramen and broth were both good, I have to say that Ippudo's ramen is better.   It just didn't have the intense flavor and addictive nature of Ippudo's ramen (maybe that's actually better for my health?).  At Ippudo I practically lapped the broth but here, I just ate the noodles and didn't really touch the broth.  It could be because I had the tuna don before and wasn't as hungry.  I would come back here but definitely not if the wait is still an hour plus.  Total bill: $78 total for 4 people, includes 2 beers, 2 appetizers and 4 bowls of ramen.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Eatery Visited 5/5/2012 2.5 Forks

Eatery 798 9th Ave., (between 52nd St & 53rd St), New York, NY 10019

I know it's been a while since I've written here since I've been trying to be good with my food budget recently.  So I wished my first entry in two weeks could be a great one.  This is just eh. 

I often get asked "where should I go to eat?" and I usually have a few good suggestions.  But I realize that most of my suggestions are downtown or in Brooklyn.  So when my friend from high school asked for a suggestion of a nice-ish place in Hell's Kitchen I was actually stumped.  I know a few divey good Thai places like Pam's Real Thai, Wodee Siam, or Pure Thai Shophouse.  But that's all I got in that area.  Unfortunately we were supposed to have dinner at Print in the Ink48 Hotel but they screwed up our reservation so we were left walking around 9th Ave looking for a place to eat at 9pm on Saturday.  Somehow we ended up at Eatery which looked nice enough from the outside. 

From the outside I assumed that the menu would be all-American, it pretty much was with lots of salads, pasta and burgers.  But then it also had this weird Pan-Asian and Mexican vibe to it with dumplings, tofu stir-fry, and quesadillas.  Weird right? It's generally not a great sign when a restaurant has got an identity crisis.  In honor of Cino de Mayo they were offering a Mahi Mahi special with tostadas and a chipotle cream.  The waiter was raving about it so I decided go for it.  My friend got the quesadilla and the fish tacos while his friend got the burger.  Instead of bread, they offer you these Asian-like shrimp chips with sesame seeds.  It was actually pretty good and a nice alternative to bread.  The quesadilla came out first and was also pretty decent.  Nothing spectacular but the tortilla was nice and soft and the grilled chicken was juicy.  While I wasn't expecting the Mahi Mahi dish to be a real homage to Cinco de Mayo, I thought it would be more "Mexican".  Instead it was a decently cooked piece of fish on top of essentially what was a bunch of corn chips, lettuce and tomato.  The chipotle cream didn't have a lot of flavor to it and I would have preferred actual sour cream.  The dish was fine, it just seemed like something I probably could have made myself.  There wasn't a whole lot of finesse to the dish.   I took a look at my friend's fish tacos they also seemed to lack any real sophistication to it.  I'm not saying my food has to be fancy but it should at least look like something I can't re-create so easily at home.  When the waiter came around to offer dessert, we got convinced by his raving description of the fruit tart (I really need to learn that it's a waiter's job to convince people to order stuff they may not want).  The tart also wasn't very impressive.  The fruit it in was actually fresh and big but the custard in it was way too sweet.      


All in all, I wasn't super impressed with The Eatery food-wise.  But the decor is nicer than your usual Hell's Kitchen dive and the waitstaff was sweet.  Next time I'm in Hell's Kitchen I"ll probably still stick to the Thai hole in the walls.  Total price: $43/pp with tax, tip and cocktails. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Danji Visited 4/11/2011 3.75 Forks

Danji 346 W 52nd St., (between 8th Ave & 9th Ave), New York, NY 10019

Korean and tapas? In Hell's Kitchen? Who would have thought? Well that is the concept of Danji.  They have a "modern" twist to the menu and a "traditional" twist to the menu.  Everything on the menu is served small plate style which is usually the complete opposite of my usual Korean experiences.  Usually when I have Korean food in K-town it's in a glutinous BBQ style of eating.  The one downfall of this meal was that I was only with one other person and it's pretty hard to enjoy tapas style eating with only two people.

The waitress suggested that we get 5 dishes, which seemed to be a bit excessive and considering that each dish is ~$15, a bit steep as well.  We decided to get 4 dishes instead: 2 from the modern and 2 from the traditional side.  From the modern, we got the fried calamari and wasabi mayo and the bulgogi sliders.  From the traditional, we got the grilled pork belly with kimchi and tofu and the korean fried chicken.  The fried chicken and calamari came out pretty quickly after ordering.  When I first had Korean style fried chicken about 5 years ago, it was like having crack cocaine for the first time.  I was instantly smitten and couldn't stop eating them.  They were so addictive and Dan and I couldn't stop talking about it for days.  Danji's fried chicken did not have that effect.  While they were good, they just weren't as delicious as other chicken I've had before. Nancy made a comment that she thought that they were rather bony.  It did have the sweet and crispy element to Korean fried chicken that I loved but they just could have been a bit meatier.  I'm sure why the fried calamari was on the menu as it's not really a take on Korean food at all but I'm always a sucker for good calamari.  They were actually really really delicious.  They were perfectly and lightly battered with the right amount of crispness (almost a tempura-like texture). They were the least oily fried calamari I've ever had.  The wasabi mayo was a nice addition but it tasted exactly like the jar of wasabi mayo I have in my fridge from Trader Joe's. 

It then took a long time for the other two dishes to come out.  The bulgogi sliders came out next and while I knew there were only 2, it was still a bit shocking when you know you're paying $14 to see two very tiny sandwiches on a plate.  But they were some pretty good mini sandwiches.  The buns were brioche bread (although it was a bit too greasy on the top of the bread for some reason) and the meat was nicely marinated with a definite kick to it.  It's topped with scallion and cucumber for a nice cooling effect to the spice.  We then waited another 15 mins (at least) for our pork belly dish.  This was the one I was really looking forward to because I will sell my first born for good pork belly.  Unfortunately, this was the most disappointing dish of the night.  There was barely any pork belly and the best part of pork belly (which is the fat) was non-existent.  Instead it tasted like sauteed pork slices.  The dish was primarily kimchi which was a bummer because even though it was good kimchi, it's not worth the price of the dish. I did also really like the extra soft silkly tofu that came with the dish but it seemed a bit out of place with the rest of the meal.

The decor of the restaurant was very modern and sleek.  It was also pretty tiny, so I would definitely suggest you get there early.  I would come back with a larger group of people and try more dishes since I'm not sure if I tasted the full range of the menu with only 1 other person.  Total bill $29/pp including tax and tip.  

Pure Thai Shophouse Visited 1/7/11 4 Forks

Pure Thai Shophouse  766 9th Ave, (between 51st St & 52nd St), New York, NY 10019

 Ahh, the first review of the year turned out to be a good one.  I had read about Pure as part of the current trend of really good and authentic Thai restaurants (Kin Shop and Lotus of Siam as the other few).  The restaurant is in Hell's Kitchen which has tons of really great cheap Thai restaurants.  But unlike Kin Shop this place is not expensive and has more of a cute cozy noodle shop feel as opposed to a fancy upscale place.  
When I first walked in they greeted me with Sa-Wat-Dee which is hello in Thai and it immediately brought me back to Thailand.  Plus the fact that there was an open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant with giant pots of sauces really made me think of the street food in Thailand.  The menu there is simple yet there is a lot of variety.  It's mostly appetizers and then a bunch of stir-fry and noodle dishes.  I had a pretty hard time deciding what I wanted...they had a dish called Krabi noodles that I was so curious about since I was just in Krabi but there was a big disclaimer on the menu saying that it was NOT for the faint of heart and no returns were accepted.  Given my experience with spicy food in Thailand, I decided that probably wasn't for me.  Instead I chose the fried rice with lump crab meat ($10) and a fried egg ($2 extra) and Aarti got a broad noodle dish with tofu ($9) and we both got thai iced tea ($3.50/each).

The service was super friendly and fast.  The iced tea came out in these super cute mini vases with crushed ice and was pretty tasty but not too sweet.  Our main dishes came out and the portions were pretty generous.  While I didn't see a ton of crab at first, when I was trying to pick out a bite for Aarti to eat I started to realize that it was pretty mixed in there and I could definitely taste its subtlety.  I was worried that the fried egg wasn't runny inside but once I cut it open the yolk was very nice and runny and it immediately brought me back to the fried rice in Thailand that all had fried eggs on it. My first bite was great and thought it was definitely one of the better fried rice dishes I've had in the city.  It wasn't greasy at all and had a lot of great flavor to it.  Aarti said she liked her dish but that it had a slightly overwhelming citrus taste but the noodles looked very wet and saucy and the tofu pieces were quite large. 

There were tons of other dishes on the meal that I would love to try and the best part of the meal was that the total bill was $30.