Veselka Visited 2/6/10 2.75 Forks

Veselka 144 2nd Ave New York, NY 10003

This is one of those restaurants that I have seen a million times while living in nyc, but never have eaten at. I had heard that it was a New York landmark of sorts, so I was curious as to what the food was actually like. Dan and I had originally decided to get ramen but Ippudo had an hour 1/2 wait at 10pm on a Saturday (only in New York folks). After walking around a bit, we settled on Veselka b/c it was close by. The inside was like a basic dinner with counter-top and table service. We were seated within 15 minutes. The menu was quite overwhelming with lots of Ukrainian and other ethnic choices. I figured, since I am in a Ukrainian restaurant, I should eat what they specialize in. While I was tempted to order pierogis, I opted for the meat stuffed cabbage ($12.95) which came with 2 sides (I chose mashed potato and a garden salad). Dan order the special pierogi of the day (short ribs - he got them fried with apple sauce. Personally, I like them boiled with a side of sour cream) ($11.95). The garden salad was actually really good. It came with this delicious sweet dill dressing.

When the meat stuffed cabbage came, i thought it could have fed 2. There were 2 big pieces covered in a very flavorful mushroom sauce (tasted very much like thanksgiving gravy). The potatoes could have used a bit more salt or butter, but it's probably better that they didn't. The meat was mixed with rice, which made the meal even more filling. I finished 1 1/2 pieces and had to call it a day. I thought Dan's pierogis were ok...making them fried was just too much, but they were definitely filled the the brim with meat. Next time I go, I would be interested in trying their goat cheese or cheddar pierogis. Total bill came out to $28 for the 2 of us. Not bad considering how random and last minute it was.

Holy Basil Visited 2/5/10 3 Forks

Holy Basil 149 2nd Ave, New York

When I first moved to New York, almost 10 years ago now (!), Holy Basil was one of the first thai restaurants that I had been to. I've been back only a handful of times, mostly because there are just too many cheap/good thai places in NYC. Randomly, Aarti and I decided to take her brother and sister-in-law there for dinner. It's on the 2nd floor of the building that now houses the defunct Telephone bar. The inside is actually quite nice and sleeker looking that your average loud, noisy, cheap thai place like Spice or Sea. While it was definitely packed to the rim on a Friday night, we were all still able to hear each other without having to yell. As soon as I started looking at the menu, I remembered why I don't come here as much. While the food is very good, the prices also reflect the slightly more upscale look to this place. I got a lychee martini ($11), that was extremely strong and my usual chicken pad thai ($11). The pad thai was pretty good; wet and saucy. We had split the veggie spring rolls to start and while they were fine, a few of the pieces were apparently very cold. I ended up spending $27 for my meal, which isn't too bad but when you think of how you can get the exact same meal somewhere else, it is a bit expensive. But at least the food is great and the ambiance is enjoyable.

Tokyo Bay Sushi - Visited 2/1/10 3 Forks

Tokyo Bay 183 Duane St (at Greenwich St)

This place is small and fairly boring looking, but I thought the food was pretty good. We went right after work, so that place was pretty empty. They didn't have a spicy roll combo so instead I had a spicy scallop roll, spicy tuna and spicy salmon (all around $5.50-$6). I liked that there was very little rice on the outside, which allowed for more of the fish to come through. There are usually 2 types of spicy rolls: 1 where they use large chunks of fish with spicy mayo/sauce and another where the fish is chopped up, almost like tar-tar style. I prefer the rolls the first way and that's how they were here. While they were pretty good, and actually pretty filling, considering how little rice there was, I did think $6 for a basic spicy roll was a bit much, especially considering the neighborhood. I think they would do well with having a spicy roll combo. All in all, I would go again if I was in the mood for sushi by work.

Wombat - Visited 1/30/10 - 3 Forks

Wombat 613 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY


Dan was craving some sort of meat/burger product and we had originally decided to go to Pop's until we heard that it was more of a late night, burger stand place. So we decided to check out the Wombat, which is on the part of Grand street that is still a bit "sketchy" but definitely up-and-coming. It's an Australian bar with a small restaurant in the back. Dan went with the Australian Burger ($8.50 + $2.00 for the fried egg), which was a lamb burger with beets. I had the turkey burger with cheese ($8.50 + $2.00 cheese). I gotta say, it was pretty tasty. They did not just pull out some frozen turkey burger patty and throw it on the grill. You can tel that it was formed from ground turkey with some seasonings in the meat. It was pretty big and very filling, but of course I ate the whole thing. The fries were delicious and crispy but a bit too salty, which I think they meant to do. The turkey burger came with a pretty good wasabi mayo that I dipped my fries in. They had a nice line-up of micro-brews, I got the Six Point Black Wheat ($6). My only complaint was that my hands and clothes kind of smelled of the food afterwards, which was kind of annoying.

Fort Defiance - Visited 1/30/10 - 2 Forks

Fort Defiance 365 Van Brunt Street (corner of Dikeman) Brooklyn, NY 1123

This place has been getting a lot of great press lately and I was eager to check it out. I love Red Hook and usually like places that are a bit off the beaten path. We went for brunch on a Saturday afternoon around 12:30pm. The place is cute from the outside and inside it's pretty small, maybe 8-10 tables, with some seating at the bar. The place claims to be New Orleans style food, so I was excited to try the Muffelatta sandwich, which is a New Orleans classic. I should have asked what was in the sandwich first and I painfully later learned that it was covered in olive paste, which I hate! The sandwich was decent sized ($10) but from what I heard, in New Orleans they are gigantic. The bread was nice and soft and the meats and cheeses were fine, but I just couldn't get over the olive taste. Dan got the Savannah ($11), which sounded great on paper: biscuits, eggs, gravy and small piece of fried chicken. I just had a small bite, so I couldn't really properly assess the meal, but Dan claimed it completely lacked flavor and was something that he could probably make at home. He also left feeling hungry, which usually doesn't happen with him. The coffee was individually ground and brewed ($2.50), so there were no re-fills, which I generally don't like when you're having breakfast/brunch. I'm not sure what all the hub-bub was about...although I think the cocktails get most of the buzz and they did sound good, but the food was a bit of a disappointment.

JPan Sushi - Ordered in 1/29/10 - 3.25 Forks

Jpan 287 5th ave.  Brooklyn, NY 11215

JPan is another in a long line of reasonably priced, decent quality sushi joints in Park Slope. I generally like this place as I think it's good value for what you are getting and they take AmEx. Dan and I had remembered that the last time we ordered, it was a lot of food, but for some reason, we did not learn from our mistake this time. We ordered the Japanese Veggie Spring rolls (standard fried spring roll fare) $4.50, a Spicy Roll Combo with miso soup ($15) and an additional Yellow River Roll ($12). When we got the food, it looked like it was enough for 3-4 people. The Spicy roll combo came with spicy tuna, salmon, and crunchy triple fish roll. The triple fish roll was enormous and too big to fit in one bite. The other 2 rolls were slightly more normal sized, but I thought it had a bit too much rice on the outside. Then there was the Yellow River Roll...normally, rolls come in 6 or 8, this one came in 12 pieces! And they were also huge and difficult to eat in 1 bite. I was a bit disappointed in this roll as I think there wasn't enough fish and in fact one of the pieces had no fish at all! It was just a bunch of rice..I think it's probably the end piece, but they shouldn't have put it in there if there's nothing in it! All in all the total bill was $34.30 and we were completely stuffed at the end. It's definitely more "American" style, big pieces of sushi, but not a bad value in the end.

Bohdi Tree - Visited 1/21/10 - 3 Forks

Bohdi Tree 58 3rd Ave. (Btwn 10th & 11th St)

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled upon Bohdi Tree in the first place, but for some reason I really like it there. It's not fancy and it's located near NYU, which I generally am not a fan of. There is definitely a good contingent of students because of it's great value. It's like many of the other cheap good Thai places in New York, but it's decorated nicely and I'm strangely hooked on the Garlic Noodle there. If you get there early, they have a pre-fixe special of an appetizer and choice of noodle/curry for $12, which seems like a great deal...and it is, but if you ordered it separately, the noodles would be $9 and the appetizer would be $5, so you're only saving $2, but hey, I'll take the $2 in this recession. I got the steamed dumplings in peanut sauce, which were very peanut-y and hit the spot. The Garlic noodles are made with large flat noodles that are very saucy and moist. Strangely, they either weren't super garlic-y or else they were and I had no idea I smelled like garlic the whole night. The veggies were cooked right, the right amount of crunch to my string beans. Vid had the curry, which looked a bit oily, but she said it was pretty tasty. Only downside is that they don't take AmEx. I think it's one of those places that is a good, cheap place to catch up with friends near union square.