Strip House Visited 8/6/2018 4 Forks

Strip House  13 E 12th St., New York, NY 10003

One of my biggest clients was in town for a business review and since this was the first time I was meeting them, I felt like I had to take them to an over-the-top restaurant.  They're from Texas so it felt like the only right was to take them to a steak house.  I wanted to keep things close to downtown and since I had never been to the Strip House, it felt like the right time to go.

It's exactly what you would imagine of a typical old school steak house - it's dark, a bit stuffy, and lots of wood paneling.  The waiter was super friendly, very charming and talked us into really upgrading our meal (smart man).  The table split the shrimp cocktail, crab cake, creamed spinach, mashed potato and broccoli.  Most people got some kind of steak, while I split the special tomahawk dry aged steak for two with Farzana.  The shrimp cocktail was comically large - it was like they were on steroids but it was still tasty.  The crab cake was ok - again, it's hard for me to really be impressed with any crab cake outside of Maryland.  But the star of the show was clearly the meat.  The tomahawk was insanely large, beautifully pink and marbled in the middle.  It might scare some folks but I was in love with it.  Combine it with the delicious creamed spinach and mashed potato and I was in heaven.  I would usually not take meat home but there was so much of it that it felt wrong to leave it behind.  I had a full lunch the next day.  The broccoli was also a nice "healthy" touch if you need some greens.  Everyone was stuffed but we got suckered into (I told you our waiter was good)  the 24 layer chocolate cake.  As most of you know, I'm not a huge chocolate fan but this cake was pretty damn delicious.  It was legit 24 layers, moist and decadent but not overly heavy. 

Overall, it was a successful client meal and I was impressed with the quality of the steak even though it is a part of a larger chain (Landry's).  I would say that unless you're coming here on an expense account, you might be better off trying out other steak places in the city that are more reasonably priced.  I really burned a hole in my credit card and even my boss made a comment about it.  Opps. Total bill: $1,400 with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Flats Fix Taqueria Visited 5/11/2018 3 Forks

Flats Fix Taqueria  30 East 16th St., New York, NY 10003

I'll keep this review short and sweet since there's really not anything complicated about this place.  Allison and I were going to go to Blue Water Grill because she had these gift cards for Be Your Guest but sadly we were told they were no longer valid there.  Oh well, at least we were told before we sat down and ordered.  So we walked around Union Square to figure out where to go - we wanted something super casual (clearly the opposite of Blue Water Grill) and easy and Flats Fix fit that bill exactly.  It's a small super casual place right around the corner - we picked it mainly because it had outdoor seating but the table and chairs are a bit wobbly so I wouldn't say you will be super comfortable. 

This is not some authentic Mexican place where grandmothers are hand rolling the tortillas and the pork has been sitting and marinating all day.  It's almost closer to a Chiptole style meal except you're sitting down.  You can get 3 tacos for $13, so I got the shrimp, mushroom and chicken tacos.   They were all very passable and got the job done but they certainly were not on the level of the mind blowing tacos you will get in Mexico City - but I don't think that's what they set out to be anyways.  While the size of the tortilla is the same as most places since they don't pile on the meat and toppings, it feels a bit skimpier and not as satisfying.  The yellow rice and beans weren't that great but since the tacos are a bit on the smaller side, they help fill you up.  It's a decent enough place  (the shrimp taco was the stand out in my book) if you're Union Square and need an easy bite but having just been in Mexico City, it's hard for me to get my mind away from high standard tacos.  Total bill:  $31/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Thai Villa Visited 1/26/2018 3.5 Forks

Thai Villa 5 E 19th St, New York, NY 10003

In all my years of living in NYC, I had never heard of this place before.  So it was shocking when Holly and I tried to go on a Friday night and it was mobbed beyond belief.  You'd think a place this popular, I would have read about somehow.  Upon walking into the main room, I can see why it was so popular.  It is probably one of the most visually stunning restaurants I've seen.  It's got beautiful fixtures and furniture that you feel like you are really transformed to another place. 

The menu claims that they have rare and secret recipes from the Thai Royal Kitchen.  Umm - ok.  I doubt it but sure I can roll with it if they want.  The menu is divided up into 3 different sections, the classic section (your run of the mill pad thai), the privilege section (food served to royalty) and the chef's signature section.  So there are  plenty of dishes to choose from and the menu is actually quite overwhelming.  Since they claimed to have such a special menu, I figured it was worth choosing something from the privilege and/or chef's signature section.  We got the Ray Rai Nah Phu ($12) appetizer and I went with the Hor Mok Talay ($26) for my main meal.  The appetizer was described as minced shrimp with rice noodles and curry paste wrapped in a Betal leaf and topped with lump crab meat.  It was a very light dish and it tasted more like a lettuce cup with rice noodles lightly topped with curry flavoring.  It was interesting in presentation but I wasn't blown away by this.  I'd be shocked if this is something they actually serve to royalty?  As for my main dish, I got it purely because it said it was served in a coconut shell and I love anything served in a coconut.  It was a mix of shrimp, scallop, squid, salmon, crab meat, with curry paste and heart of palm.  It is indeed served in a coconut shell but beyond that it wasn't super impressive.  It was in a white coconut milk soup/curry base and that was honestly a bit distracting because it was hard to see what you were eating.  In my mind, I thought it was going to be more of a stir-fry type of dish but upon further research now it's described more as a Thai curry seafood custard - I wish I knew that in advance.  For me, seafood and custard aren't really two words I'd put together.  I question a bit the need for salmon in it as it seemed a bit out of place with the other types of seafood in there.  The one nice thing about it being served in a coconut shell was that after you finished everything inside, you can use a spoon to scrap out the coconut meat inside which was sweet and tasty. 

The table next to us got the Royal Pad Thai and it looked pretty cool since it was wrapped in an egg nest but I thought paying $21 for pad thai seemed a bit ridiculous. But after paying $26 for my dish, I wished that I had stuck with the royal pad thai option. While I may seem lukewarm on the food, it was definitely an interesting dining experience purely for the gorgeous decor.  But in every other way, it reminds me of a neighborhood mom and pop shop where the food comes out super fast and they try to get you out the door quickly.  They don't take reservations on Fridays and weekends, so be prepared to wait 45 mins to an hour, otherwise I'd try your luck on a weekday instead.  If you work near here they have a decent looking lunch special, so I'd maybe try that instead of trying to fight your way on a packed Friday or Saturday.  Total bill:  $52/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Vamos! Tacos and Tequilla Visited 10/22/2017 3 Forks

Vamos!  Tacos and Tequilla  348 1st Ave., New York, NY 10010

Vamos reminds me of the type of place a bunch of hungover 20-somethings go to on a Sunday afternoon.   While I wasn't super hungover, I was out until 3am the night before so honestly having Mexican breakfast food was right up my alley.  It's a fairly generic Mexican place in a also fairly generic street (1st Ave) but it probably suits the needs of the area well.  I was visiting Lily who moved to Stuytown a few months ago and since she had her adorable new cute puppy with her, we had to stick with a place that was nearby and had outdoor seating so that we could keep the dog close with us.

For that reason Vamos was the perfect choice.  As I mentioned, it's your classic post-college Mexican hangout with colorful banners and tons of drink specials.  The waitress tried to get us to commit to getting 5 margaritas and then the entree would be free.  Since we're old ladies (and I was already dealing with too many drinks the night before) the thought of having 5 margaritas on a Sunday afternoon was not the most enticing offer, so we passed on it.  But I could see how if you wanted to have a Sunday funday that would be a great deal.

The menu is as expected with standard Mexican fare - breakfast burritos, quesadillas, chorizo scramble, etc.  I opted for my usual Mexican breakfast choice of huevos rancheros.  In reality, most Mexican breakfast dishes are some yummy combination of eggs, guacamole, cheese, beans, salsa and rice and beans, so it's hard to really go wrong with any dish.  This one was fine - nothing good nothing bad.  It was what you would think you'd get at a place like this - kind of underwhelming but also gets the job done if you're looking for something to soak up any post-previous night activity.

1st Ave is kind of a no man's land but if you live nearby and need a quick Mexican fix, this place is fine.  It was nice that they had outdoor seating but other than that, you can definitely find more inventive and exciting Mexican places in the city.  Total bill:  $22/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Auntie Guan's Kitchen 108 Visited 10/16/2017 3.5 Forks

Auntie Guan's Kitchen 108 108 W 14th St., New York, NY 10011

I usually don't get Chinese food out of Chinatown or Queens but Aarti and I were in the New School/Union Square area and had just seen Ai Wei Wei speak, so we figured we'd keep with the Chinese theme going.  We were scrolling what was nearby and this place got decent reviews and was in walking distance - how I haven't noticed it before is so beyond me.  From the outside (and frankly inside), it's totally non-descript and it could fit in with any run of the mill Chinese place in Chinatown.  It was complete with a bunch of Chinese waiters and waitress who ignored you and could care less about you (I say this with total love and affection). 

Similar to a restaurant in Chinatown, the menu is about 10 pages long, has a bunch of pictures and has some questionable English translation.  They apparently specialize in Northern Chinese food and dumplings but you can pretty much find anything and everything on this menu.  Usually when Aarti and I come to a place like this we have our usual suspects:  vegetarian mao pao tofu ($10.99), sauteed pea shoot tops (an offensively priced $19.99) and a cold noodle dish, usually dan dan noodles ($9.99).  This is exactly what we got this time.  It's really hard to go wrong with sauteed pea shoots - all you do is throw a bucket of veggies with garlic and olive oil and you're done.  This is the first time I felt like this dish was missing something - this one actually needed more salt to it.  The dan dan noodles were also just ok but I felt like the noodles could have been chewier and now that I'm thinking about it, we probably should have gotten something like the cold sesame noodle instead.  As for the mao pao tofu, it's a classic comfort staple food and it hit the spot here.  There's just something about soft tofu in a spicy mix with white rice that's so delicious.  The menu had a bunch of other classic traditional Chinese dishes that I would have loved to try, but when food like this is served family style, it's really hard to go to crazy with two people.  

The service was pretty non existent - the food does come out super fast, you just never see your waiter again, despite the fact there was only 1 other couple dining the restaurant.  We had to flag our waiter down at every turn and they weren't the friendliest of the bunch, so I tried to whip out some Chinese every now and then.  This was definitely not the worst Chinese I've had nor was it the best.  Honestly, if I lived in the neighborhood, I could actually see myself coming here because it's a notch above those scary looking Chinese places on the street corner but it's not  Mr. Chow fancy - it's comforting and hits the spot if you've got a take out craving - just don't expect your mind to be blown.  Total bill:  $26/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

RAW MKT Visited 4/24/2017 4 Forks

RAW MKT  61 E 8th St., New York, NY 10003

Another day, another poke place opens up in NYC.  Seemingly overnight, the city has exploded with a million poke places around every corner.  Only a few years ago, no one had heard of it unless they went to Hawaii and now you can't go anywhere without seeing a "Coming Soon - Poke!" sign.  I love poke so I won't complain but I can totally see this fad dying out in a few years.  The type of poke places range from fancy high end poke (Blue Ribbon) to the more Chipotle style mix and match place (PokeSpot).  RAW MKT is somewhere in between those two kinds of places.  It's smack in the middle of NYU land and I wished this place existed when I went to school there.  The vibe here is very chill - it feels like they are going for a Hawaii/Cali low key vibe - even their branding feels like surfer dude typography. 

Unlike most places, RAW MKT does pre-marinate their fish which makes a huge difference from the plain fish that gets dumped into a huge bowl of rice and toppings and mixed together.  The overnight marinate really seeps into the fish and is what gives it real flavor - so that is a huge plus here.  Like most places, you pick a base from rice to zucchini noodles, a protein and then some toppings.  As I mentioned the fish is already pre-marinated and already comes mixed in a toppings.  I went for a small classic shoyu tuna bowl - the tuna was mixed in with scallion, sweet onion, radish sprouts, sesame seeds and a soy-sesame glaze.  I give it total props for being really close to a very authentic Hawaiian poke experience.  Unlike PokeSpot, their toppings here are fairly limited which is more authentic but after getting used to the long list of insane add-ons, it was kind of a letdown.  I settled on cucumber and masago ($0.99 extra which I didn't realize).  

The fish itself was lovely and marinated perfectly.  Mixed with the brown rice and toppings, I felt like I was eating something really healthy and fresh.  My two gripes were that the cucumbers were large and chunky - I would have preferred that they were sliced thin and the masago that I paid extra for seemed non-existent.  I'd skip the premium toppings and just load up on the free ones instead. It was a nice reprieve from the mass cafeteria style poke and I can see myself stopping by whenever I am in the 'hood.  Total bill:  $14.13

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Daily Provisions Visited 3/12/2017 5 Forks

Daily Provisions  103 E 19th St., New York, NY 10003

I normally wouldn't review a cafe/take out place but this isn't just any take out joint.  It's a Danny Meyer take out joint and like everything he touches, it's god damn amazing.  I seriously don't know how he does it.  I want to write him off as just another celebrity chef/owner but I really can't say that at all. I've given 4+ forks to almost every single place he opens and it's with complete cause - his food is amazing and even better is the hospitality of the places he owns.  You can't have anything but mad respect for this man.

I was taking a walk back from Core Fusion when I remember reading that this place had just opened not too far from class.  I was staving and decided to check it out on the way home and it was the best thing I did all week.  It's right next door to the new Union Square Cafe and seemed to be equally as crowded.  It's not a restaurant at all and while there are tables, most of the time you will have to stand and eat - which is totally worth it for this food.  The menu consists of pastries, breads and sandwiches - they also have morning menu and lunch/day menu, so be sure to check out the website for when the menu switches over if you have your heart set on a specific thing. I was struggling to choose between all of their sandwiches - seriously they all sounded delicious and if I had someone else with me, I would have loved to split 2 different kinds.  Ultimately, I ended up with my all time favorite - roast beef ($12) and a side of their homemade truffle chips ($2).  Luckily, I was able to snag a seat at the coffee bar which was great.

Upon first bite of this sandwich, I knew I was in love.  It was mouth watering rare roast beef piled high on a delicious soft kaiser roll with horseradish mayo, fried onions, muenster cheese and beets. Who knew beets would taste so good with mayo and roast beef?  The fried onions gave it a nice crunch as did the beets.  I honestly had to slow myself down otherwise I would have inhaled this thing in under 5 minutes.  You know it's a memorable sandwich when you can't stop thinking about it when you get home and are already planning for it after your next work out.  The rest of their sandwiches also sound amazing and apparently their pastries are to die for.

While it's kind of annoying that there isn't more room to sit and hang out, when the weather gets nice, it'll be so easy to take it to go and sit in Union Square.  I can't recommend this place enough and am already looking forward to trying out the rotisserie chicken sandwich next week and the broccoli melt the following week and the chicken milanese the week after that.  Total bill:  $16 with tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rolf's Bar and Restaurant Visited 2/2/2017 2.5 Forks

Rolf's Bar and Restaurant  281 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10010

Ahh Rolf's.  It's a New York institution that I've somehow avoided for 15 years but it felt like something I should cross off my list.  They're famous for their elaborate holiday decorations and if you try to go during the holiday it is an absolute madhouse.  Seriously, Holly and I tried to go at 6pm on a random December night and the line was wrapped around the corner.  But the secret is that they keep up these decorations until May, so unless you are die hard about needing to be there in December, you're much better off going after the holidays are over. 

This time around Holly and I went in early February and just like that, there was zero line to get it. When you walk in, you're "greeted" by a very gruff German dude who asked us if we had a reservation.  We said no and he said "you must have a reservation" - mind you the place was practically half empty so we were so confused.  We asked if we could make a reservation for right now (how does that even make any sense?!) and he then walked us to a booth.  So weird. The decorations are definitely very impressive.  It's super festive and you feel like you're trapped in some holiday wonderland (or horror house - depends on how you feel about dolls being strapped to walls). Not surprising, the menu is typical German food: schnitzel, pork chops, and lots of sausage dishes.  I opted for the bratwurst platter ($25) and Holly got the wiener schnitzel ($30).  It's definitely way overpriced for what is was but I guess you're paying for the holiday spirit. 

I was expecting the bratwurst to be grilled but instead it was boiled which is definitely not ideal since the best part of the sausage is the grill marks and smokiness of it.  Boiling sausage is reminds me of a wet sock - although it obviously tasted better than a wet sock.  If you mixed it all together with the mashed potato and sauerkraut, it was an edible bite.  The mashed potato was a bit watery and thin for my liking but again, if you mix everything together it's fine.  

As expected you don't come here for the food - you come here to take an Instagram worthy picture of the lights and decorations and for a few beers or glasses of mulled wine.  There are much much better places in the city if you want real German food but I'm still glad I went and got my holiday cheer on. Total bill:  $54/pp with tax and tip

Tim Ho Wan Visited 12/14/2016 4 Forks

Tim Ho Wan  85 4th Ave., New York, NY 10003

The opening of Tim Ho Wan has been one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings in a while.  It's been touted as the world's cheapest Michelin starred restaurant (the original is in Hong Kong) mostly because it's all dim sum style.  The first US output opened in the East Village this past week to a insane frenzy.  Virginia and I managed to sweet talk our way into the friends and family soft opening before it was open to the general public on Friday.  This was all totally by accident.  I saw that they were done with construction so when VA and I had dinner plans during the week, I suggested that we give this place a try not knowing that it wasn't really open to the public yet. 

I got there late and VA texted me asking if I had made a reservation, which I hadn't (and they don't take them anyways).  So when I walked in she told me that we were likely not going to sit because everyone there was part of some private event.  But in true VA style, she managed to make friends with the hostess and with a little bit of waiting, we were seated at a table!  While this place is all dim sum, it's not like in Chinatown where they have push carts.  You order by the menu and they bring it to your table, which is totally fine with me because it actually allows you to get exactly what you want because sometimes with the push carts they don't always have what you want.  The prices were all in the $4.00-$5.50 range so totally reasonable.  The menu has the usual line up of traditional dim sum - there wasn't anything that I wanted that wasn't on there.  We ordered the roast pork buns, rice crepes with shrimp and minced meat, shu mai, hargow, turnip cake, sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf and chiu chow dumplings.  

Since it was still a soft opening, things were a bit chaotic but once the food came out, it was all good. We started with the roast pork buns, which usually I never order because they tend to be really heavy on the bread but these were really delicious.  The break was fluffy and soft and not too dense.  The pork was sweet and salty and roasted to perfection.  If every pork bun tasted like this, I would totally get them.  Next came the rice crepes - which is my favorite dim sum dish, I usually order 2 because I can eat an entire plate myself.  It was soft, moist and not too greasy or oily.  I still prefer the shrimp one to the meat one but they were both fantastic and really well done.  Next came with shu mai and har gow in the steamed bamboo baskets.  They were piping hot and super fresh.  This is what makes getting dim sum made to order vs. cart better because with the carts you never know how long the dishes have been sitting there for and many times the ones I've gotten can be cold and not very fresh tasting.  You can tell that these dumplings were delicately hand made and not some frozen shit thrown into a steamer.  The one dumpling I wasn't a huge fan of was the chiu chow but mostly because I didn't like the filling of water chestnuts and peanuts not because of how it was made.  The sticky rice was actually my favorite dish of the night - it was a very large portion and perfect texture of rice - sticky but still moist and filled with tender pork and Chinese sausage inside.  I was scrapping the bottom of the leaf to make sure that I got every single bite.   If there was one slightly disappointing dish of the night, it was the turnip cake.  It was a bit undercooked and soft - normally I like it a bit crunchy and slightly burned on the outside and this was missing that element but at least it wasn't super greasy which this dish can easily get.  

We decided to end the meal with a dessert, which I normally wouldn't recommend at a dim sum place because dessert is not Chinese people's strong suit.  But we decided to try to goji berry jello, which was just eh.  I don't particularly love goji berries and the jello didn't have ton of flavor to it but it was a bit of a refreshing palate cleanser.

But now comes the crazy part of the meal. We ask for the check and instead of getting a check we just got a survey and comment card.  Waaa??  Apparently the reason it was so crazy and why we technically shouldn't have been seated was because it was truly for friends and family and they weren't charging anyone for the night.  WTF?!?!  Amazing.  I would have easily paid but we literally had no idea how much these were, so we left a $20 tip.  I wish I could say these type of cool things happen to me all the time because I blog about food but it was literally by chance and circumstance.

Overall, this place is a hit and the food is way cleaner and fresher than the places in Chinatown.  But I had read that on opening day, people were waiting 2-3 hours to get seated which I would definitely not wait around for.  Definitely wait until things have died down a bit, but it's a fantastic addition to the dim sum world without having to trek to Chinatown or Queens.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sugarfish Visited 11/20/2016 4 Forks

Sugarfish   33 E 20th St., New York, NY 10003

Oh, where do I begin with this review?  Amy, Anuja and I tried to go last Tuesday at 6:30pm and got promptly and kind of rudely turned away.  The hostess informed us that they were no longer accepting names on the waitlist.  WTF?  At 6:30pm on a Tuesday?? I knew this place was hot and super buzzed about, but that was just infuriating.   When we asked her what would be the best way to get on the waitlist, she said it was no longer possible and we should come around 4pm next time to put our names on the list.  Umm, sorry but we have jobs and can't leave in the middle of the day to put our names on a sushi list.  While I get it that they were booked and super popular, they really should find a way to better manage their operations and/or train their hostesses to deliver the news in a more palatable way. 

So instead, we came back on Sunday at 11:30am for lunch.  We thought we'd play it safe and come 30 mins before it opened and lo and behold, there were already 20 people in line when we got there. Craziness.  Luckily, we were able to get a seat in the first seating.  Unfortunately, Anuja spilled the entire bottle of soy sauce on herself when she sat down and not a single person came to help her.  We had to flag multiple people down to get her napkins and no one got her any water or other things to take care of it.  That was kind of disappointing and a sign of things to come. 

The menu here is a smidge confusing - they have a bunch of set/omakase options up top (Trust Me, Trust Me Lite and the Nozawa)  and then a handful of a la carte sushi options below.  At first, we were going to split a Nozawa and then add a few rolls but the waiter told us that typically the sets entrees are for 1 person each, not to share.  Um, ok, then that should have been made a bit clearer but I guess it made sense when you broke down how much was in each set.  So we each got a Trust Me ($33) and then added the daily special of the large bay scallop sushi ($7 for 2 pieces).  The Trust Me started with the edamame, which was your typical edamame served cold.  It was followed by tuna sashimi which was fantastic fresh red tuna served with a bit of soy sauce and scallions on top. Excellent quality and this was starting to make me forget about the lukewarm service.  Next came the albacore sushi and salmon sushi - both excellent.  What makes their sushi fantastic isn't just the high quality of the fish but the rice was the perfect temperature and texture.  Next came the yellowtail and halibut sushi - again both were melt in your mouth.   The set ended with a toro hand roll and a crab hand roll.  Both were warm and had the right ratio of rice to fish in it.  I could have eaten 5 of those hand rolls.   The bay scallop sushi was also amazing - a large raw scallop sitting perfectly on a bed of warm sushi rice.  Yum!  

And that was kind of the problem.  After all of those pieces, we were still hungry!  So we ordered the toro hand cut roll and the scallop roll.  Both were very simple rolls  - nothing more nothing less than high quality fish with a bit of rice and seaweed.  I liked the simplicity of the rolls and it really highlighted the quality of the fish.  On a service note,  during this ordering process Anuja had asked for some hot tea and it never came.  We finally flagged down a waitress and she said "oh, yeah we ran out of mugs.  Sorry!"  WTF?? how does a Japanese place run out of hot tea mugs an hour after they open?? And even so, it would have been nice of them to tell us that so that we were sitting around waiting for it.  

At the end of the day the food was great - absolutely no complaints at all and for the price point, very very reasonable and delicious.  Where they need to tightened things up is around service and logistics.  There is just no way a restaurant is run optimally by turning people away at 6:30pm.  Also the waitstaff, while very nice when you actually go their attention, needs to do a better job of actually providing quality hospitality to justify their no tipping policy.   That being said, I would still definitely come back again when things have died down a bit.  Total bill:  $57/pp tip was included

Photo Credit:  Yelp

TsuruTonTan Udon Noodle Brasserie Visited 11/12/2016 3.5 Forks

TsuruTonTan Udon Noodle Brasserie   21 E 16th St., New York, NY 10003

This is one of the rare 3.5 Fork reviews where I am actually really interested in coming back to.  My mediocre review doesn't have much to do with the quality of the food but with a mis-communication and annoying policy they have.  But now that I know what I'm getting myself into, I would gladly come back again.

While I've always liked ramen, I've actually secretly loved udon more.  It's chewier, heartier and just tastier to me than thin ramen noodles.  But there just has never really been as much of an udon craze as there has been with ramen.  Hopefully the introduction of this place will change things.  Mabel and I went on a Saturday night at 7pm fully expecting to wait for a bit.  When we got there, this nasty guy was screaming at the hostess and eventually called her a bitch several times while we all watched in horror.  I will never understand people who have to be that rude to someone.  I get it, the New York restaurant scene can be brutal and annoying but there is no need to be an asshole.   The wait was about 30 mins for us, which was totally fine.

The menu is extremely overwhelming.  In typical, izakaya fashion it's huge with lots of pictures and everything looked amazing.  They had hot udon, cold udon, donburi, appetizers, sushi, tempura, fried chicken, ribeye steak, and much much more.  It's sensory overload.  I got super excited and ordered the salmon sashimi and mushroom salad ($15) and the shrimp and vegetable tempura udon ($17) and Mabel got the uni udon ($24) and we shared an eel sushi roll.  When my salmon and mushroom salad came out, I was shocked at how large the portion was and then I was shocked even more to discover it wasn't a salad at all but a cold udon dish - there was an entire heaping of udon noodles underneath.

The waitress came over and was like "I probably should have warned you that the salad isn't really a salad but I thought you knew because it was under the cold udon section."  Umm, yeah, you should never assume and doesn't it seem weird that I would order 2 udon dishes?  Regardless I was going to chalk it up to me being careless and not reading the menu carefully.  The salmon and cold enoki and shiitake mushrooms on top were delicious and the noodles were thick, chewy and very fresh tasting. You could tell that they were hand made - I only wished I could have focused on the dish more but knowing I had a whole other udon dish coming made it hard.   I was only 1/2 done when my shrimp tempura udon came out - so I asked the busboy if he could pack up my cold udon since I clearly couldn't finish both dishes.  So he took my barely eaten dish away while I focused on the hot udon.  It was only after he took my food away did the waitress come out and say "oh sorry, we don't allow people to take their food home because the noodles aren't good afterwards.  Sorry!"  This is when I got pissed off. Had I known that in the beginning, I wouldn't have given it to the busboy and I would have forced myself to stay at the restaurant longer to finish as much as I could of both dishes.  Now, not only did I lose out of my cold dish, but I still had to pay for both of them! The right thing to do would have been for them to comp me  for the cold udon or just make an exception for me to take my cold noodles home.  After all, if they had warned me that it may be no good,  the onus is on me if I don't enjoy it as they told me in advance.

I will say that the tempura udon was delicious.  Great chewy noodles and the tempura was also fresh and not greasy tasting.  I really enjoyed the broth as well but I was still fuming from them taking away my previous dish.  Mabel's uni dish looked tasty but of course there is never enough uni to really make someone happy.

I left with mixed feelings - I loved my food and would definitely come back to try out the rest of the menu but I was pissed about this particular experience because of the inflexible policy.   But knowing is half the battle right?  Total bill:  $80/2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

PokeSpot Visited 9/20/201 4.5 Forks

PokeSpot 120 4th Ave., New York, NY 10003

Another day, another poke review.  Yes, this is how completely obsessed I am with it.  I have actually started to wonder if I will get mercury poisoning from all the raw fish I have been eating lately.  In any case, I had my eye on this place for a while because it’s right next to the L train in Union Square so it would easily be a go-to place for me if it is good.  I was worried that it would turn out to be a dud like the Whole Foods one  but I’m happy to report that I had an excellent experience.

Now to be transparent, I’m not sure if my experience was slightly tainted because the nice guy who took my order was so out of it and clearly ready to go home (to be fair, the door said they closed at 9:30 and I walked in at 9:40) just gave me everything I wanted without batting an eye.  I went to town on my bowl (it must have weighted like 2 lbs) and it was only $10.75. 

The concept here is the same as all other poke places – pick a base, pick a fish and pick some toppings.  Pretty straight forward.  Only here the portion was more than twice as much as East Coast Poke and there were twice as many toppings for the same price.  I had originally asked for the spicy miso option with brown rice which came with tuna, salmon, hijiki seaweed, kani salad, furikake, roasted seaweed, fish flakes, crispy onion and spicy miso sauce.   I also added kale (I know, it’s not very traditional but I am sadly obsessed with it), cilantro, green onion and masago.   It’s like the Chipotle of poke bowls.  I was in heaven. 

I found the ingredients to be very fresh and the entire dish was incredibly satisfying and filling.  To be fair, I know this is also not a traditional poke place (I know I’ve given other places shit for that) but there were enough yummy/healthy/Asian-type toppings that I didn’t really care at all.  The rice to topping ratio was heavily in favor of the toppings and that to me is what a good bowl of anything should be.  The base should just be there to supplement that meal but the star of the show should be the fish and other additions.   

Plus you can’t beat the price and amount of food you’re getting here.  Most other places hover around the $15 mark, which is totally fine by me since I would rather pay more for fresh fish than go cheap, but if you can get a great meal for an affordable price, then why not go with that options?   I will definitely be back here and can see it being a go to take out place for me even though it’s not even in Brooklyn.

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Taboonette Visited 6/10/2016 4 Forks

Taboonette  30 E 13th St., New York, NY 10003

I was meeting up with a colleague for lunch in Union Square and wanted something casual and easy but still tasty. Luckily, my favorite food blog, The Infatuation, has started putting together these "guides" or "listiscles" which seem to be all the rage these days with website (I'll be the first to admit that I'm a total sucker for them).  One of their top choices in the "Best Places to Eat around Union Square" guide was Taboonette - which I had never been to before, so I decided to check it out. 

It was indeed casual but it's less of a restaurant and more of a counter lunch place.  But that was actually totally fine because there are still a few communal tables for you to sit at.  The food here is Middle Eastern/Mediterranean - lots of kebabs, shawarma, and pitas.  There's a lot of variety and you can add on several extra delicious toppings like holoumi and hummus.  I went for the lamb kebab pan ($15) with avocado - a pan is basically the meal without the pita, like a burrito bowl at Chipotle.   We sat at the counter right by the kitchen which turned out to be a huge mistake because that's where people ended up waiting for their food and during the lunch time rush it got to be really annoying. But the food itself was great - the pan was stuffed to the brim with freshly chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, grilled eggplant with 3-4 nice sized lamb patties and covered in tahini sauce.  Yum. It was fresh tasting and incredibly filling.   I felt like I was eating something pretty healthy for lunch and it was nice to have it in a deconstructed way without the pita.  I love the idea of taking all the pita fillings and putting it in a "bowl" - I don't know why I haven't really seen this at other Mediterranean places since it's seems to easy and obvious. 

The place was super crowded from 12:30-1pm and I can see why.  If I worked near here or was just in the neighborhood looking for a quick but delicious bite to eat, I would definitely make this a top food pit stop.  Total bill:  $20 with extra avocado and a lemonade

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Nix Visited 4/1/2016 4 Forks

Nix  72 University Pl, New York, NY 10003

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

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

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

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Peacefood Cafe Visited 1/17/2016 3.5 Forks

Peacefood Cafe  41 E 11th St., New York, NY 10003

As most of my friends are vegetarians or vegans, I'm pretty used to and happy to eat at restaurants that cater to their dietary restrictions.  Although where I normally draw the line is with fake vegetarian meat - I'll eat any and all vegetables but fake meat just doesn't do it for me.  So it's kind of funny that I somehow got convinced to try fake meat here and actually enjoyed my dinner. 

The menu here is strictly vegan and definitely has that hippie dippie vibe that I generally find annoying.  But none the less, I was open to being more healthy, especially in this new year.  Mabel, Aarti and I split the fluffy quinoa salad ($12) and I got a un-chicken filet on a bed of mashed fava beans and a huge bed of roasted kale ($15).  The fluffy quinoa salad was served with baby greens, avocado, red peppers, raw corn, onions and obviously quinoa and then tossed with this delicious lime mustard vinaigrette.  It was quite a tasty and a really fantastic salad I must say.  It's a fairly large portion, so it's easily sharable with a few people but I could see myself ordering that on my own for a hearty lunch.  The salad was definitely the highlight of the meal, although the un-chicken wasn't too bad.  I don't really know what's in the un-chicken except that it's probably some kind of soy/plant based protein.  If you've ever eaten chicken before, you know that this doesn't look or taste like chicken very much.  It's not bad but it's definitely not an adequate meat substitute in my book.  But if you've never had meat or if it's been a really long time, I could see how it would be an acceptable substitution.  It was 2 fairly large and thinly pounded filets, so again, very large portions here.  The mashed fava beans had a sweetness to it and was very filling.  As for the boiled/roasted kale on top, it was just ok, I felt like they included it in there because it needed something green to the dish.  They could have chopped it up a bit because it was just a pile of large leafy greens that was hard to eat on it's own. 

While I'm an unbashed meat lover, I believe it is important to try to be healthy and have meals that have a plant based focus.  So I'm always open to trying new vegetarian and vegan places and for the most part they usually surprise me in how satisfying and filling they can be.  While there has been a trend these days of really high end vegetarian places like Semilla and Dirt Candy, I appreciate that you can get a fairly decently priced casual meal at a place like Peacefood where you're not just eating roasted carrots or a bed of lettuce.  Total bill:  $25/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp