Souvlaki GR Visited 8/28/2017 4 Forks

Souvlaki GR  116 Stanton St., New York, NY 10002

I had been wanting to go to Souvlaki GR for a while purely because of how adorable it looked from the outside.  It's a stark contrast to all the other drab NYC buildings in the area although it does have a bit of a Disney-fied feel to it.  But on a rainy day in August, stepping into this blue and white delight was exactly what I needed.  The inside also has the same blue and white decor and if you've ever been to Greece before, it does transport you back there. 

Like most other Greek places in the city, this one is quite laid back and casual.  The host was really nice and let me sit at a table and wait for 30 minutes without giving me grief for it. The menu is a classic line up of dips, pitas, and lamb dishes.  As I've mentioned many times before, Greek food is such an underrated cuisine and it's definitely one that I could eat all the time.  We started with the tzatziki dip ($7.50) and the Greek salad ($13.5) because that's just what you do in a Greek restaurant. As for my main, I was struggling between the octopus and some kind of pita dish but in the end the lamb pita ($8.75) won out.  As you can see the prices were super reasonable for a really healthy and hearty meal.  To me, it's hard to get the basics of Greek food wrong because a lot of it is food in its natural state with a lot of olive oil, lemon and herbs on it.  Everything was simple but flavorful.  It was a nice change of pace from the heavy/fried food I had been eating in Quebec although they also had Greek fries which I would have ordinarily ordered if I wasn't totally fried out.

In the end, it the perfect casual and affordable place to catch up with friends.  It's not loud (clearly I'm old), serves solid food and they don't rush you out despite it being quite busy.  Since I don't live off the F train anymore coming to the LES is kind of a pain (although they have a Midtown location too but that's even more of a pain) but I would definitely put this on the list of places to return to, especially if you're missing the beautiful white and blue vibes of Greece.  While you don't get the same blue water view, you can at least close your eyes and imagine yourself away from the city for just a few hours.  Total bill:  $28/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Freemans Visited 7/1/2017 3.5 Forks

Freemans  Freeman Alley, New York, NY 10002

Back in the day, Freemans was THE cool place to eat in the city.  It's tucked away in this random alley way in the LES and it just oozed funky, cool, hipness to it.  Fast forward, 13 years later (yes, it's been that long) and it's still adorable but now there are so many places like it in the city but with much better food.  Don't get me wrong, my food was fine but that was just it - it was fine. 

Despite Resy telling me they only had an 11:30am opening, when Dan and I got there, there were still lots of tables available throughout our meal and they say that they happily accept walk-ins, so I would roll the dice and try to walk-in instead.  Like I said, the decor is still rustic chic with a hipster taxidermy vibe.  The menu also remains cozy, hearty comfort food - with a bunch of egg dishes, including a full English breakfast option.  I was trying to be healthy and opted for the egg white omelet ($14) but then threw it all away by also getting a side of sausage ($8). Dan got the baked eggs skillet shakshuka ($14).  The food came out relatively quickly which was kind of surprising.  My omelet came with roasted broccoli, cheddar cheese and a side salad.  Everything about it was totally fine - it tasted exactly like an egg white omelet that I can make at home myself. One of my biggest pet peeves is eating or paying for food in a restaurant that I could easily prepare at home.  The sausage links were also fine - honestly it didn't taste homemade and again I could have just gotten some links at a high end grocery store and had just as good of an experience.  I had a bite of the shakshuka and it was good but unlike an omelet it's a bit harder to make baked eggs at home, so I'll give this dish a bit more props.

We were literally done with our entire meal in less than 40 mins from sit down to getting the check.  I know that shouldn't be a deal breaker but when I'm eating at a place like this, I would prefer it to be a more drawn out enjoyable experience.  Luckily we had a pretty packed day in front of us, so it wasn't a big deal but my memory of this place was a lot higher than what it turned out to be this time around. That being said, it was still a cute place to take out of towners but hopefully they will step up their food because there is way too much competition in the NYC brunch space to stay mediocre.  Total bill:  $30/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp 

Rebelle Visited 3/30/2016 4.5 Forks

Rebelle  218 Bowery, New York, NY 10012

I have 2 words for you here: Veal Porterhouse.  Yes, it pains me beyond belief to think of what I am actually eating but it's fucking out of this world.  It's a nightly verbal special - so if they don't mention it, please ask them about it.  It's 23 ounces of rare deliciousness that has been basted with thyme, garlic, and butter (lots of it) and is served sitting in its own veal jus. But before I get to it, I should back up a bit. 

Vince and I were there was part of our usual "business" get togethers and we always pick a baller place to conduct business.  Vince had heard about Rebelle's veal porterhouse situation and he didn't have to convince me twice to check it out.  The space is sparse and has this very Scandinavian feel to it.  It's kind of cold and modern but the service was still warm and friendly.  The menu is very composed and sophisticated - I wouldn't say that this place is really for everyone since there aren't any "traditional" dishes on the menu.  We started the meal with the fluke ($16) appetizer and the scallop ($18) and then had the veal porterhouse for 2 as our main entree ($90).  Honestly, you can get away with just ordering the veal and you'll still walk out super full but the appetizers were equally fantastic. 

The fluke was incredible, such a simple and clean dish. Beautifully thick cut pieces of raw fish topped with brown butter, caper and lemon - perfection. Next we had the scallop - there were 2 of them topped with uni and turnip and sitting in squid ink.  I only got this dish because of the uni and the combination of it with the squid ink and scallop was great.  

As for the main attraction, they roll the dish out in a hot sizzling pan and the veal has already been sliced for you and is served with a TON of potatoes that have been roasting the veal jus as well. Luckily, they also serve a side salad with the dish, which at first seems weird but it was 100% necessary to cut through all the fat you are eating.  The veal is super tender and is roasted to perfection.  My only complaint is that there was actually too much food - it was really hard to finish all of it and I didn't even touch the potatoes because the thought of eating starch soaking in veal jus was just too much for me to handle. I was actually uncomfortably full afterwards - so much so that I couldn't even consider dessert. 

While I really enjoyed every aspect of my meal and it was super creative yet balanced at the same time, this is definitely not an every day kind of restaurant.  It was very close to a 5 fork meal yet - it was just lacking in the coziness or warmth that I really makes me gaga over a place.  But that should definitely not dissuade any of you from putting it on your list - especially if the veal is available that night.

Photo Credit:  Eater.com 

Wassail Visited 10/30/2015 3 Forks

Wassail  162 Orchard St., New York, NY 10002

There has been a recent influx lately of vegetarian forward/friendly restaurants these days - which even as a meat eater I don't really mind because good food is good food.  Plus it makes it much easier when you do dine out with vegetarian friends.  Lav, Lisa and I met at Wassail which is a cider bar and vegetarian friendly place run by the same people of Queens Kickshaw in Astoria.   I'm not really a huge fan of cider (I find it too sweet) but luckily they do also have other beverages on the beverage menu.  As for the food, it's not your usual vegetarian flare, it's pretty avant garde and high concept.  If you get there before 7, you can order the veggie burger which is what I got.  Even though in my mind I knew this was a vegetarian place I still thought it was going to be a meat burger for some reason - turns out it was a veggie burger but that is totally ok with me.  As for the rest of the dishes, Lav and Lisa got the special of the day (unfortunately I can't remember now what was in it), the sourdough bread ($8), the eggplant ($14), jalepeno fritters ($10), squash ($18) and the cruciferous ($18) dish.  

The burger is a bit on the small side (compared to the giant meat burgers you usually get) but it was still quite hearty with a very smokey cheese taste to it.  It also came with a ton of onions which I think helped to add to the flavor of the burger as veggie burgers can sometimes be kind of flavorless. While it was a pretty hefty meal, the consistency of the burger still had that slightly bean-y/ thin texture that most veggie burgers had but as I said there's enough of it that you still get very full from it.  It was served with a side of the jalepeno fritters which actually seemed more like small fried pieces of gouda with a small hint of spice and heat to it.   I didn't really try much of the other dishes because the burger was so filling but I had a bite of the squash which was sweet and tender and was a nice reminder that fall is now there.   I did also have a bite of the sourdough bread which was very doughy and chewy and was a great vehicle to take in the salty creamy butter.  The waitress had said this was the best sourdough bread she's had and while I really liked it, I'm not sure if it's the best I've had in my life but I would recommend it as a way to fill up on the food here.  Lav and Lisa had mentioned that the rest of the dishes were fine but not mind blowing and that they were a bit disappointed in the portion sizes given that each one was over $15.  The presentation and preparation of the food seemed a bit too "forward" in that it seemed much more overdone and complicated than it needed to be and on the small side.  

The dishes were small enough that we still had room for dessert and this is where it was a quite a let down.  We got the buttermilk cornbread dessert ($10) and the consistency of the cornbread was just to mealy and wasn't very pleasant.  The dish just wasn't sweet or frankly all that good. 

I appreciate what they are trying to do here and present vegetarian food that goes beyond side dishes and roasted vegetables.  I would say that you're best bet would be to sit at the bar, get the burger since it's only available until 7, throw back some jalepeno fritters and enjoy some cider.  Total bill:  $66/person with tax, tip and drinks

Wildair Visited 10/13/2015 4 Forks

Wildair 142 Orchard St., New York, NY 10002

I have two words for you:  beef tartare.  Neel and I got this dish on a whim as we were really just here to catch up over 1 glass of wine and some nibbles but we were both blown away at how amazing this one dish was and it's solely responsible for the 4 forks here.  This place is less of a full blown restaurant (the menu consists of a handful of small plates) and more like a cute wine offshoot of Contra which is next door.

I met Neel here since he was a huge fan of their wine list and sommelier - I'm not a real oenophile but I do appreciate a good wine when I taste it and I liked how this place had a very large selection of really unique wines (they are more along the lines of organic/biodynamic wines).  We both couldn't stay very long but it's hard to go out and have wine without some snacks so we got the littleneck clams and a fava bean dish.  Of the two, the littleneck clam dish was my favorite.  It wasn't what I was expecting at all - it was pieces of freshly picked clams on top of toast with spinach and lardo.  It was incredibly unique and creative but yet still tasted incredible. We had actually asked for the check already when we both looked at each other and agreed in unison that we couldn't leave without trying the beef tartare.  I can see how some people are squeamish about eating raw cubes of beef but I swear to god, this dish will change your mind.  The beef is melt in your mouth and it's topped with smoked cheddar and mounds of fresh horseradish and crunchy chestnut for texture.  It's truly a fantastic dish and probably one of the best beef tartare dishes I've had in a really long time.  While I haven't been to Contra (it's been on my list for a while), if the food and wine at Wildair is any indication, it'll be quite spectacular meal.  Total bill:  $43/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Dirty French Visited 7/11/2015 3.5 Forks

Dirty French  Ludlow Hotel, 180 Ludlow St., New York, NY 10002

Dirty French is the latest in the slew of restaurants from the Major Food Group - they also produced Carbone, Torrisi (RIP), Parm, Santina and ZZ's Clam bar.  Clearly you can see that I've been a fan of theirs since I've visited about every single one of them and for the most part, loved them all.  So of course I had to try their latest opening, Dirty French.  It's located in the Ludlow Hotel and if you've lived in NYC long enough, you're kind of sad at how much this part of the LES has changed.  When I first moved here, it was still gritty and seedy but now it's full of luxury condos and now a super expensive hipster hotel.  I'm generally not a fan of hotel restaurants and I actually didn't know that this was in a hotel until we showed up but it was too late to back out. 

Despite having an 8pm reservation on a Saturday, the place wasn't super packed yet but since it's the LES, the restaurant was fully hopping until almost 11pm when we left.  The vibe is most definitely edgy and trendy and since I was in jeans, tank top and flip flops, I didn't really felt like I fit in too much but luckily no one made me feel weird about it.  At first glance of the menu, my initial reaction was that it was overpriced for what it was.  Most entrees were over $30 which is seriously ridiculous. Random funny story, my menu had different prices than Kristen's and the waiter told me that I had an "older" menu, which I thought was very weird. 

I ordered the beet salad to start and then Mark and I split the hanger steak and country ribs together. They brought out this amazingly delicious warm bread that was more like a naan or flat bread with this creamy herb flavored butter.  It was heaven and might have actually been my favorite part of the meal.  I was trying to restrain from eating the entire plate of it.  The beet salad was actually a very substantial portion complete with red and golden beets and paired with cashews and super strong stinky roquefort cheese.  There was so much of it that I was having a hard time finishing it but I really enjoyed it.  Krush had ordered the mussels for the table and I had a bite of it and the broth was delicious with bites of crab in it.  As for the main entrees, the hanger steak was perfectly cooked, for me means it was practically black and blue.  It was super medium rare and melt in your mouth.  Mark and I both loved it but my only compliant was that the pepper coating on the outside was too heavy and salty.  The same can be said for the country ribs (pork).  There were 3 giant pieces and they were also covered in a heavy handed pepper spice blend.  It was a bit overwhelming for me to eat both kinds of meat with this much seasoning on it.  Luckily the quality of both meats were excellent and the rib, while not 100% fall off the bone, did easily pull away with a few cuts of the knife.   There were also some side dishes for the table:  pomme frites and haricot verts but they were so far from me and I was so full that I didn't even try them.  Given how full everyone was at dinner, I'm not sure how or why we ended up ordering dessert.  We got an order of beignets and a lemon tarte.  The lemon tarte was more like a key lime pie but in a good way.  It was super sour and tart which is how I prefer my desserts.  The beignet was nice and fluffy and served with a giant helping of caramel sauce.  

After a long day of eating and drinking and then more eating and drinking, I was totally ready to go home even though this place was hopping by the time we finished our meal at 11pm.  We also had a celeb sighting while eating - Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade showed up around 10pm for dinner.  They are an incredibly stylish looking couple.  Overall this is a super fun place to go if you're looking for a girls night out and really want to do it up.  If it wasn't for the high prices and heavy handed seasoning, I probably would have given it 4 forks or higher but it's hard to justify that when I'm not 100% sure I would run back to this place any time soon - not because I had a bad time, but because there are lots of other Major Food Group places that I would go back to first before coming here.  Total bill:  $108/pp with tax, tip and lots of drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sauce Visited 6/27/2015 3 Forks

Sauce 78-84 Rivington St., New York, NY 10002

Sauce is one of those places that I have passed a million times in the LES but it has somehow never topped my list of places to try even though it's by the same owners of Frank, Supper and Lil' Frankies - all very solid legacy Italian places in the East Village.  I ended up here on a pouring Saturday night to celebrate Will's 40th birthday party with some friends, although I did notice that the overall crowd was definitely much younger than 40 (it's probably because of it's location).  

I liked that we had a sort-of private space in the back room (it wasn't totally closed off but we were able to get a large table in the back corner) and that it was a prix-fixe family style meal complete with a 2 hour all-you-can drink beer and wine concept (game on!).  The menu started off with garlic bread and roasted stuffed peppers with farro, mushroom and sage.  I was trying to limit my intake of carbs, so I didn't try the garlic bread (I know, sacrilege!) but I had a bite of the stuff peppers and honestly, I'm not a huge fan of farro because I think it can be pretty bland.  But it is a very healthy and filling grain dish, so I get why they added it here.  Next we had a stacked salad which came with arugula, endive, radicchio, beefsteak tomatos and buffalo mozzarella.  It was a pretty tasty salad but mostly because it was heavy dressed with lots and lots of lemon and olive oil.   We then had 6 different main dishes to share:  filette with handmade ricotta cavatelli, bolognese pappardelle, meatballs, egg poached in gravy with peas, broccoli rabe with toasted garlic and soft parmigiano polenta.  We also got served something off menu of hot italian sausage which was a nice surprise.  It was a lot of food and it was super overwhelming because they just brought all of it out at once and shoved the plates where ever they could find room on the table.   It would have been nice if they could have paced the dishes out more but I think we were only allowed to stay for a few hours, so I get why they kind served everything at once.   I went straight for the meatballs and they were quite good and very saucy which was great.  I must have had at least 2 or 3 of them.  Next I tried the bolognese pasta which is usually my go-to pasta in any Italian place if there's nothing else that speaks to me.  It was fine but it reminded me of the type of pasta I probably could have made on my own at home - which has always been my gripe about mediocre Italian food in the city.  I simply don't like paying for simple pasta dishes that anyone can cook up in their kitchen - it's gotta really wow me in order for me to want to pay good  money for it.   It was the same thing that i felt about the cavatelli pasta - there wasn't a wow factor and it needed a bit more seasoning.  None of us were really sure what to make of the egg dish - I had never had a random egg dish with sauce and peas before and I wasn't really sure how to eat it.  With all the carbs on the table, it was a nice change up to have the broccoli rabe which was super garlic-y and tasty.   Overall, most of the pasta dishes were good but seemed closer to the kind of decent Italian food you can make on your own.  

Since it was a birthday, we had to have dessert and this is where I thought Sauce redeemed itself a bit.  The tiramisu was great - nice and sweet and as usual, always a crowd pleaser at dinner. There was also a heavy chocolate cake that I didn't really try because by this point, I was so stuffed that I couldn't try anymore things but it looked like a very rich heavy dark cake. 

Overall,  the sep up and overall idea of this family style prix-fixe dinner is a great one for large groups.  It makes it easy to not have to decide what to order and there was definitely something for everyone at the table whether you are a meat lover or vegetarian.  This place isn't on the level of a I Sodi or Perla but then again you're also paying a much bigger premium at those places and they have a much more up scale vibe to it.  I would say go here if you're looking for a fun low key outing with friends (or just looking to mingle with a younger crowd) but don't go in expecting Babbo type food. Total bill:  unknown since it was pre-arranged

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Russ and Daughters Cafe Visited 2/10/2015 3.5 Forks

Russ and Daughters Cafe 127 Orchard St., New York, NY 10002

The Russ and Daughters store on Houston Street is a New York institution that been around forever and everyone knows that its THE place to get your smoked fish products and other Jewish delicatessens. I went there years ago to get a bagel and lox sandwich and it makes you realize what a real bagel, lox and cream cheese sandwich should taste like.  So I was super super excited when they opened a full blown restaurant so that you can sit down and try out a bunch of different dishes.

Allison and I went super early on a random Tuesday night and it was pretty empty.  The menu is full of what you would expect from a place like this:  latkes, pastrami, smoked fish, caviar, pickled herring, kugel, and blintzes.  If we had time, we probably would have ordered the entire menu but we were in kind of a hurry, so we opted for the stuffed cabbage (special for the night) and the classic board ($16) - we were going to order more but the waiter said that the cabbage was a huge dish so we figured we wouldn't push ourselves.  Turns out, the portions were on the small side instead and we totally should have ordered more.  The stuffed cabbage was filled with rice and barley and covered in a tomato sauce and served with a deliciously crisp baked potato and a small salad.  While the cabbage was tasty, it didn't have any ground meat in it, so it felt like it was missing a key flavor profile. The dish could have had a bit more seasoning to it since cabbage and rice on their own isn't very flavorful. Meanwhile The Classic board came with Nova smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red onion, capers and your choice of bagel, bialy, rye or pumpernickel - we opted for a toasted everything bagel. As expected the smoked salmon was fantastic - it was very thinly sliced and had a great consistency to it.  The tomato was incredibly ripe and juicy and I would have eaten an entire plate of that on my own.  The capers add a great salty kick to everything and at some point I was just popping them individually in my mouth.  The cream cheese actually tasted a bit more like goat cheese - it was very sweet and while it was good, I would have preferred your basic standard full fat cream cheese.  The one let down was the bagel - it was just ok.  There wasn't anything wrong with it, but there wasn't anything great about it either.   While I did enjoy the spread, I did think it was pretty expensive for what it was - essentially it's a deconstructed sandwich and I can't imagine walking into a bagel store, asking for lox and cream cheese and then paying $16 for it - even if it is delicious and good, it's just overpriced for what it is.  I would have preferred to have had more smoked salmon and no bread product instead.

Since the portions were so small, we ended up ordering the knishes ($8) as well.  A word of warning if you are going to get this dish:  the spicy mustard will go directly to your brain.  I'm not even joking - not knowing how full of horseradish it would be, I covered my knish in mustard and my brain almost shut down from it.  Again - good dish but small portion.

All and all, Russ and Daughters Cafe has a lot to offer and they clearly have done a great job with the cafe.  It looks like a great place to come to for breakfast or brunch as they also have a full egg section to the menu.   I just wish that their portions were a bit bigger and if you are going to get a board, maybe go with the bialy because let's be honest, the bread portion of that dish is really just the carrying vessel for the lox and tomato.  Total bill:  $25/pp with tax, tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Dimes Visited 2/7/2015 3.5 Forks

Dimes 143 Division St., New York, NY 10002

The cross section of Chinatown/Lower East Side seems to be the new hipster hot spot these days. There are tons of new restaurants popping up these days and Dimes is one that has gotten a lot of press these days.  I had actually tried to go to Dimes last year with my friend Nicole since she lives around the corner, but the place is literally the size of my kitchen and the wait was awful, so we left but I had bookmarked it as some place to return.

The appeal of Dimes is that it's like being in California - it's all healthy, clean, crunchy, granola type food but all in a good way.  The menu is full of salads and entrees with things like farro, quinoa, bulgar wheat, kale, and acai bowls (it's the only place I've seen acai outside of Brazil).   So you get the idea. I opted for the Summer Tacos ($8) because it was one of the rare items that had egg in it and it was brunch time, so I had to go with something that was more egg-y.  We also got the Love Toast ($6) for the table and I got a hot chai tea ($3.50).  The toast was essentially 2 pieces of wheat toast with housemade tahini, mint, honey and topped with raspberries.  I liked the combination of the tahini and honey - it was really filling and rich - it was kind of like having peanut butter and honey but slightly different with the tahini.  It's definitely something to think about as a substitute for my breads in the future.  Next came the summer tacos - luckily there were 2 of them but it didn't come with anything else on the plate.  Although I guess for $8, it makes sense that that's all you're going to get. At least they were some damn delicious tacos.  They are made with perfectly soft scrambled eggs, spicy mango salsa, tomatillo, cheddar cheese, avocado, hot sauce and cilantro.  The taco shell is a nice soft flour tortilla and all the flavors blend really well for each other.  It was a nice "healthy" breakfast - no meat, no carbs (except for the tortillas obviously) and not a lot of grease or oil to it. They were really quite fantastic and it made me think that I could go straight home and make my own breakfast tacos but I'm sure they wouldn't be as good.

The reason I don't give this place a higher rating is that it's really just a shitshow waiting for a table and then when you do sit down, it's a bit uncomfortably tight.  Luckily we had gotten one of the corner tables because we were a group of 3 but otherwise, everyone else seemed to be piled on top of each other.  It's just too small of the space to keep up with the demand.  The clientele is also a bit too hipster/model/too cool for school kind of vibe but I really can't complain when I do live in the epi-center of hipsterville.  I would definitely come back, maybe during an off hour when it's not so crowded.  If you're looking for some healthy, clean eating, Dimes is worth the trek and even if you're too lazy to wait, at least you can still walk around and grab some great food nearby in Chinatown. Total bill:  $20/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Boulton and Watt Visited 2/1/2015 3.5 Forks

Boulton and Watt  5 Ave A, New York, NY 10009

Boulton and Watt is one of those places that I could have seen myself going to a lot in my 20's because it's right off the F train in the East Village/Lower East Side and the place was packed with people who seemed to have had a hard night the night before in the same neighborhood.  It's a pretty good place for a large group of people and there were 8 of us for brunch, so luckily they secured an entire long table for us.  It's pretty hard to find places in the city that will reserve that many for brunch so definitely keep this place in mind if you ever need to accommodate a large party.

The brunch menu is quite extensive - ranging from pancakes to grits to benedicts to big salads as well as an entire pickled section.  But the best thing about the brunch menu is the $5 brunch cocktails from 10-4pm (bloody mary's, mimosa or sangria).  We all indulged in several cocktails and I opted for the special benedict of the day which was pulled pork benedict on brioche bread.  While I wasn't really hung over from the night before, I was starving and a hearty pork breakfast sounded great.  When the benedict came out, it was a VERY heavy looking dish.  I mean, it's got heaps of sweet pulled pork covered with hollandaise sauce served with 2 very well poached eggs, so that when you cut into it, the yolk oozed perfectly on to everything.  At first I wasn't sure if I was going to be happy with it being on bread instead of an English muffin but based on all the food that was piled on top of it, the thick cut bread as a good choice.  It was a solid benedict but it was one that really sits heavy in your stomach afterwards.  I devoured the whole thing - which I actually kind of regretted later because I could have had half and had been just as satisfied and full.  The dish came with a side of roasted potatoes and they were a bit of a bust. Mine were all over cooked and a bit dried out but in all honesty, that was actually fine with me because the benedict was more than enough to deal with without having to force more carbs down my throat.

I give props to the waitress who was patient in dealing with such a large party with a smile on her face as well as having to deal with us ordering a new round of cocktails every 10 minutes.  While I don't necessarily see myself coming here often because it's not in the most convenient of locales for me, it's a pretty reasonably priced post-hang over, boozy brunch place that is well situated in the East Village.   Total bill:  $33/pp with tax, tip and several drinks.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Ivan Ramen Visited 11/14/2014 4 Forks

Ivan Ramen 25 Clinton St., New York, NY 10002

Anuja and I had gone to the Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop at Gotham West earlier this year and enjoyed our meal there, so when Ivan opened a full service stand alone restaurant in the Lower East Side, we were intrigued. Luckily the menu here is quite different from the Slurp Shop which was great because I wasn't sure if I would have gone if  they had the same food. 

The menu is also slightly more extensive and expensive here.  It has around 9 appetizer-like dishes (bites, cold and crisp) as well as slightly larger hot dishes and finally 7 different ramen dishes.  I was starving so we started with the Tofu Coney Island ($11) and the Chinese Greens and Garlic ($7) and then I opted for the triple pork, triple garlic mazemen with and egg ($15 + $2) and Anuja got the veggie ramen with and egg ($14 + $2).  Yes the prices for the ramen was a bit high and I'm always a bit peeved when places charge you extra for egg but I guess this is what most ramen places do in NYC now.  I was a bit skeptical of the Tofu Coney Island because it was described as tofu with mushroom miso chili, yellow mustard and scallions.  I wasn't sure how tofu, yellow mustard and chili would taste together but you know what?  It tasted pretty f*ing good.  I can't explain it but all flavors really worked well together and we cleaned the entire plate.  The Chinese greens was a bunch of Chinese broccoli steams in a sweet soy pickle garlic sauce - the sauce was light but had a definite pickled garlic kick to it.  While I do enjoy a green stem every now and then, I would have appreciated more leafy greens to the dish.

Lastly, my ramen arrived.  The waiter had kindly reminded me that the mazemen ramen is a thick noodle with minimal broth - which I was ok with as long as the flavor profile tasted good.  Plus I really prefer thick chewy noodles vs. thin noodles swimming in broth.  The noodles were exactly how it was described - thick and chewy and delicious.  It does have a small base of tonkotsu broth at the bottom but unlike most other ramen, the broth isn't really the star here.  It's the noodles and the nice and fatty piece of pork it comes with.  True to its name it's also very garlicky - it really does hit you with each bite.  I was surprisingly full from the tofu and greens but I really pushed myself to finish this dish because I really enjoyed each bite.  Also true to ramen, the dish was very salty and I definitely got more than my fair share of sodium on this outing.  I didn't try the veggie ramen but it was a much more traditional ramen with more of a soupy broth to it.

All in all, I was glad I tried out this place despite it not being a traditional ramen place.  Apparently Ivan is quite popular in Tokyo despite being an outsider from Long Island.  If you're in the mood for the typical hot salty brothy ramen, I would still go to Ippudo instead but if you're in the mood for some ramen that's different but still tasty, definitely give Ivan Ramen a try.  Total bill:  $70 for 2 with tip, take and a glass of sake

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Skal Visited 8/29/2014 2.5 Forks

Skal 37 Canal St., New York, NY 10002

I was actually pretty excited when my friend Nicole mentioned that she wanted to try out this Icelandic restaurant near her apartment.  Ever since I visited Iceland last year, I have a soft spot for anything related to that area - ponies, sweaters, and even their food.  It's definitely not a cuisine that's very popular even in a diverse city like New York, but it has slowly started to make its way to America. 

We got a seat at one of the tables outside on a lovely Friday night.  The menu, as you can imagine, is fairly limited with about 6 appetizer dishes and and 6 entrees.  Based on my experience from visiting the country there last year, none of the dishes were particularly Icelandic - only the Arctic Char sounded remotely like it would be something you could find in Iceland.  Nicole had warned me before hand that a friend had told her that the portions would be very small and expensive, so I was bracing myself for a somewhat typical high brow NYC experience.  Based on that kind of feedback, you'd think this place would offer something like bread or something else to start the meal but we got none of that.  We were debating what to get as a starter and we were feeling a bit adventurous and decided on the raw beef appetizer ($15) - which is really just a bad name for beef tartare.  I was hemming and hawing between getting a fish or meat dish and resolved the dilemma by getting the diver scallops and pork belly ($25) dish while Nicole got the Char ($24).  Our raw beef came out and it was your standard beef tartare but without a raw egg on top.  It was served pretty finely chopped with littleneck clams and trout roe with toasted bread.  For those of you who get grossed out by raw meat, I get it, but this really didn't taste like what you would think.  It was a nicely done tartare albeit a pretty small serving for $15.

Then this is where things start to fall apart.  We waited over 45 minutes for our food with no apologies from our waitress or the owner who had been milling around the front of the house.  We chased down our waitress several times and instead of taking responsibility for it,  she looked like a scared little mouse and would mumble something and then run away from us.  To me, good customer service would be for her to say "I'm sorry this is taking so long, let me go and check on it for you" and then possibly offering up a free dessert or even going as far as comping one of our entrees for the long wait.  Tables who clearly came after us were getting served left and right and by the time we got our entrees, it was past 10:30 (we sat down at about 9pm) and we were both about to offer up the table $50 for their food.  Luckily when the food finally came, it was actually good but we were still pretty frustrated by the whole experience.  I will say that my dish was plated beautifully.  The diver scallops were a nice firm texture and were a pretty decent size.  The pork belly was a bit on the fatty side but the combination of the pork, scallop and sweet corn was a surprisingly balanced profile.  But as Nicole said, neither of our dishes seemed very Icelandic - more new American.  Since we were so hungry, we had finished our dishes in less than 15 minutes.  When the waitress came out and asked if we wanted dessert but without comping any of it, we took a pass.

It's not that I necessarily wanted free food, but more of a recognition that we were experiencing some poor customer service.  I expect a good restaurant, whether high end or a small shop, to do the right thing by their customers and we didn't get it here.   Total bill:  $41/pp with tip and tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

WD-50 Visited 6/20/2014 3 Forks

wd-50 50 Clinton St., New York, NY 10002

It seems rather appropriate that my 600th review is for the legendary restaurant wd-50.  While I didn't plan for it to be that way, I did finally make it here because of the news that they were the latest victims of ridiculously high rent and closing at the end of November.  There was no way I could let this place close without me getting in a review.  While I can't say it lived up to my high expectations, I'm still glad I made it here before it closed its doors. 

Before we actually made it to the restaurant, Holly, Janet and I had kind of decided that we would do the smaller tasting menu (6 courses at $95), since the full one was 12 courses and $155 without wine pairing and that seemed a bit extreme.  But of course, once you get there, you feel like there's no point in coming here without getting the full experience.   I'm incredibly upset that I forgot to take the print out they gave us with the menu description, so I apologize if this review is a bit lacking, since, let's be honest, it's a bit difficult to remember all 12 dishes over 2 weeks after I ate there.  But I'll give it my best try.  

I had been expecting the meal to be full of Wylie's famous molecular gastronomy tricks with lots of foam, steam and weirdness.  The first dish seemed to fit that bill, it was an oyster with its "shell", preserved lemon, snow pea and hazelnut.  I put the word shell in quotations because it was an edible shell, so not the actual one.  The actual oyster was quite briny and fishy, but that didn't really bother me too much.  It was a bit of a mental block to get into eating the shell but it good first introduction to the world of Wylie.  The next dish was my favorite of the night:  egg yolk, potato stuffed ravioli with caviar.  Oh my, this was absolutely delicious and it was then that I realized what I don't like about tasting menus.  While it's awesome to get to try a bunch of different things, everything is only 1-2 bites, so when you find a dish that you actually like, you're so bummed out that there isn't more.  And that's exactly how I felt about this dish.  I felt teased by only have 1 small bite...I wanted 20 more of them.  Next course was a cold soup of avocado, English pea, and peakytoe crab meat.  It was smooth and creamy and the crab was excellent but in general, I'm not a huge fan of gazpacho or cold soups.   The 4th course was charred chicken liver with injera and melon.  While I usually don't mind chicken liver, it's not really my favorite thing in the world and it was no different here.  It was exactly what you would think good chicken liver should taste like. 

The next dish was a shrimp and grits with pickled jalapeno and it tasted exactly how it sounds.  It was a solid dish but there wasn't anything super molecular gastronomy about it.    Dish six was probably my least favorite of the night, it was bloodless sausage.  It was designed to look like a blood sausage but instead it was made with flour, beets (to give it color) and forbidden rice.  It was just really dry and flavorless and I probably would have preferred a real blood sausage at that point.  Next was the black bass with parsnip, pickled ginger, nori and mustard.  Again a good solid dish but nothing crazy about in presentation or taste to it.  The next two dishes were the protein dishes of the night - a milk braised pork collar with fried sunchokes and a cured duck breast with curds-n-whey and sweet potato. I really enjoyed both dishes, especially the crispy sunchokes.  Again - solid dishes and both were incredibly moist and tender but also pretty small bites.  We finished the meal with four different desserts:  a sheet of rhubarb flavored ice, an apple tart with pomegranate, and pistachio (our favorite dish), an ovaltine cake with cardamom and sheep's milk   and lastly bites of cookie dough and root beer chews (the cookie dough was great but the chew was just weird but I guess that was what I was looking for!).  

Despite the fact that they were all pretty small bites, I was full by the end of the meal - which was great considering how expensive the meal was.  The service was impeccable, although almost a bit too attentive.  They changed our silverware after every dish, even if we hadn't even used them.  In the end, I'm definitely glad I went to this legendary restaurant and I do hope that it re-opens somewhere else, but for all the hype and price tag for it, I'm not necessarily dying to go back.  Total bill:  $284/pp with tax, tip and a few drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mercadito Visited 6/11/2014 2.5 Forks

Mercadito 179 Ave B, New York, NY 10009

I had been to Mercadito years ago and remembered it being super tiny, hot and just ok.  Fast forward to 2014 and honestly not much has changed.  It's still tiny, it's still hot and muggy inside and the food is still ok.  I will say that it's a lively place with some pretty strong margaritas, which is a good offset to the mediocre tacos.  But another good thing is that on Tuesday it's Taco Tuesdays so instead of 4 tacos for $14.50 it's 2 tacos for $5.  

I was torn between the sauteed fish or the beer battered fish tacos, but I opted for the sauteed version to be "healthy" and then also got the carne one as well.  The table split an order of the guacamole ($13.50) and the pico de tres elote ($5.50).  The guacamole was ok - it was too chunky and not creamy enough for me.  It felt like they forgot to mash up the avocados before putting it in the bowl.  The tacos themselves were also ok...they were definitely a bit lack luster presentation wise.  They just looked a bit sloppy but taste wise they were fine nothing to really write home about.  They were your basic tacos that got the job done if you were hungry but they lacked the quality of a place like ABC Cocina or the originality of a Tacqueria Lower East Side.  The elotes was a corn dish of hominy and mixed with yellow and white corn with pico de gallo.  Again, a standard corn dish but I wasn't getting that biting fresh feeling from it, plus I find hominy a bit dry and boring to eat. 

All in all, it was a standard meal but the Tuesday Taco special does make it at least worth a try while downing margaritas on a lazy Tuesday.  As for the service, it was definitely a bit lacking.  Jill had to order a margarita about 1,000 times and when I had asked for my 2nd one, it took forever to come out that by the time it arrived everyone had already finished their food and drink so I had to chug it which I wasn't really happy about.  Total bill:  $44/pp with tax, tip and drink

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mission Cantina Visited 2/8/2014 4 Forks

Mission Cantina 172 Orchard St (b/t Houston St & Stanton St), New York, NY 10002

This was a tough review because it's not quite a solid 4 forks but a bit above a 3.5 - it's one of those 3.75 reviews but since I did away with the quarter fork ratings, I'm just going to round up here to be nice. Mission Catina is the Mexican love child of Danny Bowien - owner of the wildly popular Mission Chinese.  I was thinking my experience would be similar to my experience at Mission Chinese in that I would have to wait for 2+ hours, so I was mentally prepared and had a small snack before heading over at 7:30pm on a Saturday night.  Surprisingly the wait was only 1 an hour and with so many bars in the LES area, it's absolutely no problem to kill time at any of the neighboring watering holes.  As luck would have it, just as Lav and I were getting our 1st batch of drinks they called us saying that there was two seats at the "bar" if we wanted it.  I had seen the space when I gave my name and the bar is not a real bar, it's literally 2 seats jammed into this small section by the kitchen.  We took a pass and said we would wait for table while we sipped on our drinks. 

In an exactly an hour, they called and we headed over only to find that the table wasn't ready but that the group had been given the bill and our hostess was trying to give them the stink eye to leave.  The place is fairly small with less than 20 seats total so I was kind of annoyed that the table didn't recognize all the people waiting for a table.  By the time we sat down, Lav and I were starving and slight tipsy, so we were ready to order.  I should note that they don't have liquor license so they just have beer and soju.  I opted for the Como la flor cocktail which was soju with grapefruit and lambrusco - two of my favorite things - but honestly this drink was not that great.  I didn't even finish it.  For starters, we shared the creamed masa, fresh queso oaxaca, and the cebolitas preparades.  Then we each ordered two kinds of tacos:  Lav got the pumpkin and the winter squash tacos and I got the pork cheeks and fish tacos.   The creamed masa was delicious and served with beer braised collard greens which were a great addition to the bowl.  It was sprinkled with queso cheese on top and it was a nice warm bowl of goodness on a cold crappy day.  Lav wasn't a huge fan of the fresh oaxaca queso dish while I was a bit indifferent to it.  It wasn't awful but wasn't their strongest dish.  It was kind of like fresh string cheese with olive oil it.  It could have used a touch of salt to it.  As for the cebolitas, I wasn't sure what to expect but it was great.  It's basically char-grilled spring onions with butter and citron.  It tasted like it came fresh off the grill and it really enjoyed the smokey grilled flavor to it.  I didn't think I would like spring onions cooked like this but I guess throw anything on the grill with butter and what's not to like?  On to the tacos - fair warning, they are small and you only get two of them.  But I was pretty full at this point, that I was having a hard time finishing the ones that I got.  I'll start with with fish tacos - they were fantastic.  Not quite the same level of the ones I am obsessed with at ABC Cocina but they are pretty damn good.  They are made with skate wing tempura (perfectly battered) and then covered with avocado, crema and a hot sauce they really hits you in the back of your throat.  I appreciated that they used two homemade corn tortillas to really hold the whole thing together.  It was really a great 5-6 bites. I was also a fan of the pork cheeks tacos as well.  The cheek was incredibly tender and pretty much fell apart at first touch.  It was served with peppers and cabbage on top  of it.  My main problem with this dish was that they only put 1 layer of tortilla and the wetness of the meat juices seeped through the 1 layer and pretty made it impossible to pick it up or hold the thing together.  It turned out to be fine because I skipped the tortilla and went Atkins style and just ate the pork.  I only had a small bite of the squash taco and I thought it could have used a bit more heat or seasoning - it was lacking just a bit in flavor.   Even though I was pretty full and warm from my drinks, I was prepared to go for dessert but sadly they don't offer any. 

All in all, I was totally glad I tried it despite my usual disdain for super hyped up places.  It's smack in the middle of the LES and the perfect slightly nicer drunk food than a slice of pizza if you happen to be searching for some post-drinking food.  It's a a fun place to check out and might even be more fun with a larger party so that you can try all the different kinds of tacos (I would have liked to have tried the cumin lamb, carnitas, octopus, and mushroom) or get the whole rotisserie chicken to split.   They just really need to get a damn liquor license!  Total bill with drinks:  $43/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp