Buttermilk Channel Visited 4/7/2012 3.5 Forks

Buttermilk Channel 524 Court St., (between Nelson St & Huntington St), Brooklyn, NY 11231

I had been to Buttermilk Channel many years ago when it first opened.  It didn't blow my mind but I thought that it was a solid joint.  Over the years it became more and more popular especially since famous people like Beyonce and Jay-Z have shown up multiple times. 


So I wasn't surprised when I showed up on a Saturday and the wait was quoted as 30-45 minutes.  Crazytown.  Luckily for us, a 2 top opened up at the bar in 15 minutes.  I ordered the breakfast scramble with house cured lox, green onion and cream cheese which came with hashbrown, toast, salad and your choice of juice, mimosa, bellini, or sparkling wine for $11, which is a pretty great deal.  I also ordered a side of bacon ($5) and the buttermilk biscuits ($4) which I split with my friend.  The scramble came out and it didn't look like what I was expecting.  The eggs were in a small bowl and the hashbrown was a small circular cut.  The eggs were moist and the combination of the green onion and salmon were great.  The cream cheese was really just used  for some light flavoring/texture as you couldn't really actually see the cream cheese in the dish.  I enjoyed the eggs a lot but unfortunately the hashbrown was overcooked and a bit burnt.  The side of bacon was huge, almost 5-6 slices in total.  Some were cooked perfectly crispy with some fat left on it and some were a bit overcooked and too dry but overall the bacon strips were a solid addition to my egg dish.   Meanwhile the biscuits were a bit on the heavy side.  They were very buttery and flakey...but almost too flakey.  The biscuits were so heavy that my friend and I could barely split just one together.   I was so full that I didn't eve get to try the toast or salad.


Overall, I still think Buttermilk Channel is a solid place to go for a meal.  But best brunch in Brooklyn and a 45 minute wait? Hmmm, not 100% sure on that.  However, the prices were super reasonable and it's in a great neighborhood of Brooklyn.  Total bill: $24/pp. 


Photo Credit: Yelp

Mary's Fish Camp Visited 4/7/2012 4 Forks

Mary's Fish Camp 64 Charles St., (between 4th St & Bleecker St), New York, NY 10014

Ahhh, Mary's Fish Camp.  This was one of the first "nice" restaurants that I went to when I first moved to NYC and this was the first place where I ever had a lobster roll.  This is also the place where I waited almost 2 hours for a table and was about to get seated when Gwynneth Paltrow walked in and got seated right in front of me (this is only 1 of the many reasons why I find her super annoying).   I've always had a soft spot for this restaurant yet hadn't been back in a really long time.  Not because it wasn't good but because there are a whole slew of similar seafood places that offer similar and equally tasty dishes: Pearl Oyster Bar, Mermaid Inn/Oyster Bar, Ed's Chowder House, Red Hook Lobster Pound, etc.

Holly and I decided to come back here since it was Good Friday and she needed a place that had good veggie or seafood options.  No slight to all my vegetarian friends, but if those are my two choices, I will easily take seafood.  I got to Mary's at 6:20pm, exactly 20 minutes after they opened and they were already packed and the waiting list was 45-60 minutes!  Basically, you have to get there right when it opens or be prepared to wait at least an hour plus.  The main reason is because the restaurant can only fit 25 people max.  So Holly and I went around the corner to get a drink and came back around 7pm.  When I walked in this group of 3 that had been there when I first walked in was still there.  They looked at me and said "yes, we're still here and only 2 people have left since you left to get your drink."  Luckily, that first round of seating was starting to finish up their meal and all of us were seated within the next 15-20 minutes.

We were seated at the bar and quite frankly, I didn't really need to look at the menu.  Let's be honest, I knew I was getting the lobster roll ($32) who was I kidding? I did contemplate some other options and their specials did sound and look good, but I almost never get to have lobster rolls these days so I had to indulge.  We also split the fried oysters and clams ($11).  When the waitress took our order, she said "ah, this is what everyone orders."  Ok, so we're not super original, but who cares?  The fried oysters and clams were great, very light breaded but for some reason it was a bit hard to tell which were the oysters and which were the clams.  It should be pretty easy to tell the difference, but the pieces of seafood weren't huge, so I just made a guess that the ones that were more round and circular were the oysters.  Next came the lobster rolls and it was fabulous.  There were large delicious chunks of lobster (mostly from the tail and a few cuts of the claw) and they were put in a seriously buttery hot dog bun.  I will say that if you don't like mayo, stay away from this dish because it was definitely heavy on the mayo (but I don't mind that).  The one negative I would say about this dish is the fries.  They were just too thin for me as I tend to like thick cut fries better.  They also put a TON of fries on the plate to mask the fact that you're paying $30+ for a kind of small main dish.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the lobster roll but I definitely didn't walk out of there super full.

I'm amazed at how crazy packed this place is after all these years.  It's still a great place to go if you are a seafood lover and if you have the patience of priest.  When we left, they were quoting 2+ hours, and yet people were still waiting.  Just pray that Gwynneth does walk in when you're about to be seated.  Total bill: $74/pp with tax, tip and 2 glasses of wine each

Photo Credit: Yelp

Gravy Visited 4/1/2012 3 Forks

Gravy 32 E 21st St., (between Park Ave S & Broadway), New York, NY 10010

When you hear a name like Gravy, you obviously assume that it's all about heart stopping Southern-soul food.  While there were some very Southern dishes such as crawfish benedict, and a shrimp po'boy, I was rather surprised that they delegated a lot of the more Southern traditional dishes to side dishes such as biscuits and gravy, grits, and fried green tomatoes.  You'd think these would be big front and center dishes or that they would serve their main dishes with grits instead of potatoes or fries.

I ordered the Tasso Benedict ($15) which was served with tasso ham, arugula, and a chipotle hollandaise sauce.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that I jump at any chance to order a benedict, so I was torn between the crawfish and tasso benedict and for some reason I just couldn't picture crawfish being a great mix with eggs.  When some of the other gals ordered their dishes, they were told their dishes came with sides of fries or potatoes so I had kind of assumed that my dish would too.  But sadly it did not.  It was just the bendict and for $15 I was kind of hoping it be a bit more than that.  If I had known, I might have ordered a side of fried green tomatoes.  The bendict itself was was completely drenched in hollandaise sauce and I never thought I would say that there was such thing as too much hollandaise sauce, but this was really bordering on too much.  The eggs themselves were very runny and when mixed with the sauce, it literally made me feel like I was drinking cholesterol.  The ham was extremely small and was barely a 1/4 of the size of the English muffin.  If there's going to be ham with a benedict, it should be big enough so that you have enough of it with every bite.  Here there was barely enough ham for 2 bites. The arugula was tossed haphazardly on the dish like an afterthought and it was sitting in so much sauce that it was kind of soggy at first bite.  I didn't get to try anyone else's dish but 2 girls got the duck sandwich and they commented on how much duck was in the sandwich and a few of the girls did comment on liking the potatoes and fries that came with their food.

I think if you're going to be a Southern restaurant, you might as well go all out and be a Southern-heart-stopping-gut-expanding restaurant, which Gravy was not.  The space itself is nice and spacious, so it was a good choice for our big group of 7.  They also had a great deal of $16 for an entree and a brunch cocktail.  Total bill: $21/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar Visited 3/30/2012 2.5 Forks

Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar 11 W 31st St., (between 5th Ave & Broadway), New York, NY 10001

Ayza is in this really weird part of the city.  It's not quite K-town and not quite Midtown.  But despite its random location it was pretty crowded on a late Friday night (maybe because it's near MSG).  This place is really mostly a dessert/martini bar but a bunch of us ended up there after drinking already, so we were starving for actual food.  Luckily they do have a selection of appetizers, salads, tartines, paninis and other entrees.  We ordered the artichoke dip ($7), angry chicken lollipops ($8) and white truffle pizza ($10) for the table and I got the smoked chicken panini ($11). 

The waitstaff was a little surly at first (forcing us to move tables when we just wanted to add one more person, repeatedly asking to take our menus when we hadn't finished ordering yet, and not giving us plates or utensils after repeated asks) but they ended up being sweet and nice at the end.  Of all the appetizers, I actually really did like the chicken lollipops.  They were these cute little chicken drum-stick like bites and the meat perfectly came off the bone.  Unlike chicken wings, there was a good amount of meat on the bones and you didn't have to work for your food.  I actually didn't try the dip but it seemed to do well with the other gals and the pizza was fine, nothing great.  The panini was also just ok, it tasted like something I probably could have made at home.  I will say that it was actually a pretty hefty-thick sandwich which was very filling, not something that you would think of when you order a panini at a wine bar.  The salad that came with the panini was too salty for me and had an overwhelming olive taste to it.

We then moved on to dessert and got chocolate covered strawberries ($9), the 20 layer creme cake brulee ($12) and the warm molten chocolate cake ($9).  For $9, I thought that there would be more than 2 strawberries, but that's all we got (although I will say that they were 2 very large strawberries) and that was pretty disappointing.  I'll be honest and say that I don't love chocolate covered strawberries in general but I did try a piece and the chocolate was just too thick and all I could taste was the chocolate and not the strawberry.  I was actually excited for the 20 layer cake and somehow envisioned it to be this giant extravagant dessert.  But it ended up tasting like a giant cream puff.  The 20 layers consisted of crepe batter and whipped cream, but they were very thin and the actual cake wasn't any thicker than a regular piece of cake.  Boo.  The molten cake was also very eh but then again I'm not really a chocolate cake person.  All in all, the place would be good for just the wine and martinis (there were tons of different kinds of chocolate martinis which was unique and interesting) but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it if you're looking for a real sit-down meal.  Total bill: $26/pp for food.

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Tucan and Lion Visited 3/28/2012 3 Forks

Tucan and Lion 342 E 6th St., (between 1st Ave & 2nd Ave), Manhattan, NY 10003

I am not going to lie, I mainly picked the Tucan and Lion for dinner because of its cute name.  It's located right in the heart of Curry Row on 6th street which is kind of a weird location for a place like this (i.e. doesn't serve Indian food or has a bunch of lights in the window).  The inside of this place is very light and airy and super cute.  The menu is a bunch of American (but with a light Asian influence) small plates and a few mains but I would say that most of the things are for sharing with other people. 


Jenn and Kristen decided to split a bunch of different items: meatballs ($9), beef short rib tacos ($14), drunken clams ($16), goat curry ($22), roasted brussels ($6) and a side of bao buns ($3).  The meatballs came out first and there were 5 of them in a curry dijon sauce topped with mirco cilantro greens.  They were quite tasty but they did fall apart a bit too easily.  They could have been bound tighter because a some point it was almost like I was eating ground beef on my plate.  Next came the short rib tacos which also had a curry flavor, queso fresco, pickled shallots and micro cilantro greens (they must be in season or something).  I actually really enjoyed it this dish, a lot of interesting flavors going on at once.  There was been a big wave of Korean inspired tacos, but this wasn't quite the same as the curry was more reminiscent of Indian or Thai flavors.   The next dish I tried was the clams and usually I really love clams but theses were just a bit too fishy tasting and the lemongrass flavoring was a bit too overpowering.  The clams were served with the bao buns but the buns were soaking by the time we got them and just tasted like soggy toast.  My biggest issue with the food up til now was with the bao buns.  The waitress talked them up and as an Asian when I hear bao buns, I expect fluffy white buns.  These were just like toasted pieces of bread.  Totally unimpressed with them.  Luckily the goat curry was a strong dish and it was very similar to a massaman curry with lots of potatoes (purple and white) and the goat was pretty tender with a slight hint of spice added to it.  It was served with 2 pieces of roti that were fine but there was just something kind of off about them.  It almost tasted like they were bought at Trader Joe's and not homemade.  The brussel sprouts were roasted with Chinese bacon and to be honest, WTF is Chinese bacon? I'm Chinese and don't think I've ever heard of Chinese bacon before.  But the dish was fine, nothing spectacular.


We did opt for the lime lime pie for dessert which actually came "deconstructed".  Meaning that it wasn't actually a pie, they just put some graham cracker crust on the bottom of a glass, then topped it with key lime pie flavor whipped cream.  Don't get me wrong, it was definitely tasty but I would have preferred something in a more solid form.  I'm not sure why every place now needs to get all fancy with their desserts. 


I do want to mention that the cocktails at this place were great and strong.  After 3 drinks, I was definitely feeling it on the way home on the subway.  I personally recommend The Lion which was a yummy ginger tasting cocktail.  The waitstaff is also super nice and friendly, so I really appreciated that.  All in all, this place was cute and I liked where they were going with their dishes, it's just that not all of them were home runs.  Total bill: $61/pp with tip and tax and a Scoutmob discount. 


Photo Credit: Yelp

Frankies Sputino Visited 3/24/2012 3 Forks

Frankies Sputino 570 Hudson St., (between 11th St & Perry St), Manhattan, NY 10014

There are 2 other branches of Frankies in NYC: one in Brooklyn and another one in the East Village and I had really liked both of those locations.  The food was great and the atmosphere was nice and homey.  So when the West Village branch opened not too far from Aarti's apt, I was definitely hoping that it would be similar to the other two locations. 

This one was just not the same.  First off, the place is much bigger than the other two locations which makes it less homey and comfortable feeling.  It was pretty crowded when we walked in at 7:30pm on a Saturday but we were able to get a seat in 20 minutes.  The other thing that bothered me about this place was that it was LOUD.  I mean I was literally screaming at Aarti and she was sitting 3 inches away from me.  But strangely enough I could hear every word of the table next to me and they were 3 of the douch-est guys I have ever laid eyes on, so that also kind of made dinner a not so fun experience. 

But on to the food.  The menu was actually a bit more limiting than I remembered it to be.  There were only 6 kinds of pasta but they did have a good variety of appetizers and crostini and antipasti.  Aarti and I shared the Bufala Mozzarella & Arugula ($13) and I got the Tagliatelli & Mushrooms with Mascarpone and Butter ($16) while Aarti got the Sweet Potato & Sage Ravioli in Parmesan Broth ($16).  The mozzarella was perfectly moist (ok, that actually sounds kind of dirty but I don't know how else to describe it) and the arugula was salty and heavily dressed with olive oil, but I wished that it came with some slices of tomato or basil.  We did have to wait a bit for the next round of food, which to me was a bit weird because pasta shouldn't take that long to make.  I generally enjoy a more tomato based pasta but I do love mushrooms which was why I chose the Tagliatelli.  The pasta itself was solid and you could clearly taste the butter in the sauce.  I wished that there were more mushrooms in it because the few that I had were really flavorful and cooked perfectly.  I did enjoy my dish but it wasn't mind blowing pasta.  It was a solid pasta dish but there's something about a butter sauce that just wasn't super impressive.  We also split a tiramisu ($9) which I thought was a bit too heavy on the ricotta and not enough of the spongey-cake to it.  I've definitely had better tiramisu else where.  All in all, it's a fine Italian restaurant and maybe it was the annoying table next to be that didn't make me love this place, but I just remember the other locations being a lot more endearing.  Total bill: $89 total without tip and tax. 

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Maison Premiere Visited 3/14/2012 4.5 Forks

Maison Premiere 298 Bedford Ave., (between Grand St & 1st St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

I normally don't review bars but I had to give a shout out to Maison Premiere because I had such an awesome happy hour experience.  Now there are tons of places in the city that have oyster happy hours, but they usually only have about 1 or 2 at most different kinds for $1 (usually Blue Point).  But at Maison Premiere, they have 20 different kinds of oysters all for $1 (normally they are $2.50-$3.25) from 4-7pm.  How can you beat that?

Van and I left work at 5pm on the dot to get there with enough time to enjoy as many oysters as possible.  We were shocked to see that by the time we got to the bar at 5:30pm it was totally packed to the brim.  We were told that we could stand by the bar but you can only order oysters if you're seated.  So we put our name down and we were told that it could be up to a 30 minute wait.  I was so bummed because it was eating into my oyster time.  But luckily, 2 seats at the bar opened up and we were seated within 5 minutes.

While I love oysters, I view them how I view wine.  I love it and I've had many different varieties before but to this day I still can't tell you the name of any specific type I like.  I've had so many different kinds of oysters but besides Blue Point, Malpeque and Kumamoto I couldn't tell you the name of any other oysters I love.  So Van and I decided to randomly pick about 10 different kinds (2 of each) to start with.  We tried to pick ones from both the east and west coast.   At first I thought we were nuts to order 20 at a time but when I looked around everyone else was getting as much if not more than us.  Maison also has a few other items on the menu: hot gumbo, shrimp cocktail, crab legs, raw clams, and sea bass ceviche ($14).  We ordered the ceviche as something different to try.  It does take a while for your oysters to arrive but we were sitting right in front of the poor 3 guys who must have shucked about 1,000 oysters while we were there so I wasn't too upset.  When our platter did come out, it was picture perfect.  They were served with fresh horseradish, cocktail sauce, lemon and a vinaigrette.  In an effort to help you understand what's what, the waiter does leave a piece of paper which tells you which oyster is which but after you start eating and placing the shells on top of each other, it gets hard to keep track.  As with my typical experience with oysters, some were awesome, and some were just ok.  Some had sand and bits of shell still in it, which I wasn't a huge fan of but overall, to get to try this many different oysters for $1/each was amazing.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as in love with the ceviche was I would have liked to have been.  I thought it was going to be served like they do in Latin America/Peurvian type places, but these were served on half clam shells and while it was fresh and not-fishy tasting at all, it just didn't taste like ceviche either.  There wasn't that tangy sour cilantro taste that you usually get.  I mean, it was better than most general seafood dishes I've had in NYC, but probably not worth $14.

The thing about oysters is that you're never really full.  So when the waiter came around asking how we were doing, it was only 6:30, so we decided to go for round 2.  This time we hit all the other types that we didn't try in the first round.  So we ended up ordering another 22 oysters. Oh boy.  But the end of happy hour, we had split 42 oysters and while we weren't full, we were most definitely oystered out.  While I know this wasn't really a restaurant per se, it would have been nice if they offered some bread before hand just to help fill us up.  I should also mention that this place is really a gorgeous bar to just hang out in.  It's got this old New Orleans style feel to it and they have a bunch of fun sounding cocktails and a large absinthe menu.  I would totally come back here in a heartbeat and if you want to try out the happy hour, just remember to get here as early as you can.  Total bill: $50/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Van Lu