The Pines Visited 3/8/2014 2.5 Forks

The Pines 284 3rd Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215

This review is going to sound a lot more harsh than it should be but in all honesty, I think the whole night just started off on a bad foot and it dragged through the entire meal.  A bunch of us were in the Gowanus area for a friend's housewarming party on 4th Ave and I had heard some many great things about The Pines that it only made sense for us to try it.  I mean, the likelihood of all or any of us being in that area soon is pretty slim to none so I jumped on making a reservation for us. 

I booked the reservation online 5 days in advance and on the day of they call to confirm my reservation - totally normal and ok.  They then call again 2 minutes before our 7pm reservation asking if we were indeed coming because they had a full house and had a wait list already - I was a bit annoyed but said I was around the corner and would be right in.   When I walk in the host says notices that my entire party was not with me - I mean, unless you are a couple, most people are not coming from the same place and it's off what is possibly the worst train area known to man, so yeah - we're not all here yet.  He then tells me that if they are not all here in 10 minutes they are giving our table away.  I look around and the place is half empty and I said that if that was the case, I wish they had said something to me when they called to confirm so that we all knew to be super prompt.  I was told that "you should know that, it's restaurant standard."  Um - I get that restaurants can't hold tables indefinitely but how am I to know that the restaurant was "sooo busy" that we couldn't have just waited it out?  Of course the subways are a mess, the girls all get lost and it was way past our 7pm reservation.  There aren't that many other options around, so I was worried that we might have to hoof it up to 5th ave for food.  Luckily, as a compromise the host said he could seat us at the bar if we wanted to - which is totally fine and honestly if that had been our original seating, it would have been fine and we could have avoided that whole snippy exchange to begin with. 

The vibe of this place is that trend that's hit Brooklyn like a tons of brick:  a slightly pretentious rustic old timey feel.  It reminded me of Vinegar Hill House but it wasn't as good.  Although I have nothing but total love for Brooklyn, I get why places like this turn people off to Brooklyn.  The menu changes seasonly and is based off of what ingredients are in for that season.  My original take was the the prices were way too high for the location and type of food it was:  $5 for a piece of cheese, appetizers were all $15+ and entrees $25+.  When did that become the norm for eating out?!  We decided to split the 2 cheeses (Moses Sleeper and Hudson Red), the cabbage appetizer ($16) and the carrots ($15) and I got the kelp spaghetti ($29) while Krush and Jill both got the duck leg ($29) and Amy got a pasta dish (exact name escapes me at the moment).  The cheeses were good (the Moses Sleeper was like a soft brie and the Hudson Red was a firmer cheese) but it was served with 1 quarter chunk of bread which was not enough for all of us and when we asked for more bread they tried to up sell us on the bread plate (yes, they don't offer you bread, you have to buy it) for $6.  We opted not to get it and they luckily brought us another chunk.  The cabbage was a purple cabbage with maitake mushrooms, cauliflower and boar belly (on the side for Amy).  The dish was a nice alternative to what you would think of boring cabbage but it was also so dark in the restaurant that it was really hard to tell what we were eating.  The carrots were whole carrots that looked like it was literally pulled directly out of the ground and served with buttermilk and pistachio - I'm not a huge carrot fan but this is was done well enough that I was willing to finish an entire stick of carrot.  It almost tasted like a potato in this weird way.  

Then we just waited and waited and waited for our entrees.  To the point that we asked where our food was.  It didn't help that most of us were hungry when we walked in and the appetizer portions just weren't enough to satisfy anyone.  Finally when our food comes out, its presented in a way that just told me that we weren't going to be full afterwards.  My pasta dish came with pieces of lobster, red chili, a poached egg and uni.  I didn't really see or taste any uni but the dish did have a think creamy consistency - so maybe that's where it was.  The dish was tasty but definitely not worth almost $30.  While I think Amy liked her pasta and both Jill and Krush finished their entire duck leg entree, I feel like the general consensus was that we were a bit underwhelmed and frankly just wanted to start the night over again.  

While the waitstaff was nice and I did kiss and make up with the host, the whole night just really started off poorly for us and it never recovered.  Although I try to extol the virtues of how amazing Brooklyn is, I don't think I did a good job convincing the girls of it this time.  Total bill:  $70/pp with drinks, tax and tip. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

The Clam Visited 3/3/2014 4.5 Forks

The Clam 420 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014

I am a huge lover of seafood so when there's a restaurant that's dedicated to seafood I'm totally there. Unsurprisingly, the menu at The Clam is focused on the clam.   When you think about it there's a lot of different ways to have clams, raw, steamed, fried or de-shelled in a pasta.  This place had all of those options and more.  And yes, if you don't like clams they also have non-clam options such as crabcakes, swordfish, and even chicken.  Nancy and I decided to split a the scallop crudo ($15), clam fried rice ($16), steam littlenecks ($14) and the creamed kale ($8).  If we had room I would have loved to have tried the fried belly clam sandwich but the waitress mentioned that this would be enough food and we were also leaving room for dessert. 

It was still relatively early in the night (6pm) so we were the only people in the restaurant for a while but it definitely started to fill up as the night went along.  They start you off with warm, fresh parker rolls that were buttery and delicious.  I could have eaten an entire pack of them.  The scallop crudo came out first and it was a lovely plate of 5 raw scallops with pear, hazelnuts, chives and lime on top it.  While I liked the flavors that the toppings gave the dish, it was a bit much and the taste of the actual scallop was a bit lost.  The cut of the scallop was thin so piling it up with heavy bits of hazelnuts and pear was too much.  Next they brought out all the rest of the dishes.  I tried the littlenecks first and oh my.  It was incredibly delicious and reminds of why I love steamed clams.  It was served with a garlic type bread and it was soaking in "natural broth" but it sure tasted like 10 sticks of butter instead.  The clams were all perfectly steamed, plumb and juicy.  If they had more of the parker rolls, it would have been the perfect vehicle to sop up all the broth.  Next I tried the clam fried rice.  It was a pretty large plate of fried rice with pork belly, snow peas, pickled onion and of course clams.  In true fried rice fashion it was kind of salty but in a good way.  The flavors all seemed to work really well with each other and I actually really liked it mixed with the creamed kale.  On to the kale - yes, it's technically a super food but when it's creamed like this (essentially it's creamed spinach but with kale instead), I'm pretty sure all the health benefits went out the door.  But it was fabulous and a different twist to a food that has become pretty trendy these days.

Even though we were pretty full, we managed to save some room for dessert and the waitress recommended the ice cream sandwich ($9) because it was already pre-cut into two pieces.  I do love a good ice cream sandwich and this one did not fail.  In fact, it may have been one of the best ice cream sandwiches I've had in a long time.  It was a soft but still firm gingerbread cookie with creme fraiche gelato and brown butter caramel drizzled on top of it.  The gelato tasted exactly like creme fraiche, so if you don't like a slightly sour taste this might not be for you, but I loved it.  The cookie was amazing, so soft yet still held the ice cream tightly and it had that perfect ginger bite to it.  I'm glad that they had cut it into 2 pieces because I could have easily eaten the entire thing myself.

By the time we left around 8, the place was totally jammed packed.  As we were finishing up, the chef Michael Price (he also owns Market Table) personally came out of the kitchen to thank us for coming - what a nice touch!  I thought that was really nice of him to get out of the kitchen and to interact with the customers.  I would totally come back and try the fried clam sandwich and the clam pasta - along with another ice cream sandwich!  Total bill:  $39/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sotto 13 Visited 3/2/2014 4 Forks

Sotto 13 140 W 13th St., New York, NY 10011

Years ago Aarti and I had this genius idea of wanting to open a brunch place that only served small plates.  We always struggled with the fact that sometimes you don't want an entire plate of pancakes or french toast as your main brunch dish but would like just a bite of it.  Wouldn't it be great if you could share a bunch of fun brunch dishes and try a little bit of everything?  Well, lo and behold, this is exactly what Sotto 13 is.  It's a great brunch place for a big group of people and gives everyone a chance to try tons of different fun dishes. 

Their menu is all small plates format - it's mostly brunch dishes like eggs in a variety of ways, french toast, potatoes, bacon and they also have non-brunch small plates like lasagna, meatballs, and scotch eggs.   They are also famous for their boozy brunch deal.  For $29 you get to pick 2 dishes and 1 side dish or 1 pizza and unlimited mimosas or bellinis for 1 1/2 hours.  If you plan on drinking more than 2 drinks, it's worth getting the boozy brunch.  Unlike most boozy brunch places that have watered down drinks, the drinks here are pretty decent and I even saw them pour entire bottles of cheap champagne into the pitcher so I knew I was definitely going to get a buzz from the meal.  Jenn and I were the only 2 at the table who decided to do the boozy brunch, so we decided to split the forger pizza, the french toast, poached tuscan egg, and a side of bacon.  The other girls split a variety of dishes from the kale salad, cacio e pepe eggs, french toast and some other dishes.  The service was a bit slow at first because almost every table there had more than 4 people and most people were drinking and wanting to get their glasses filled. 

But once the dishes started coming out, they kept coming.  The french toast sticks were nice and fluffy and were simply fantastic with the berry compote and syrup drenched all over it.  But the 3-4 bites I had was perfect and soon I moved on to another dish.  The bacon was nice and salty and a bit undercooked in the middle and crunchy on the ends - just the way I like my bacon.  The poached egg was a bit more difficult to share with someone because it's literally 1 poached egg on a piece of rosemary focaccia on a small plate.  We did our best to cut it in half and to share it but unless the egg is scrambled it's probably best to leave poached eggs to be eaten on its own.  The pizza was huge and definitely more than enough for 2 people if not more.  The forager was topped with wild mushrooms, ricotta, chives and truffle oil.  How can you not love a pizza topped with all that goodness?  The pizza is of the thin variety but the crust and dough held its own with all the toppings on it.  All the meanwhile, the wait staff is religiously topping off your giant goblet of bellinis.  

While I wouldn't say that this is the best or most innovative brunch food, it's definitely one of the most fun brunch places I've been to in a while.  The sharing concept is great and the boozy brunch is most definitely boozy.  I would definitely highly recommend this place if you have a large party and not so much if it's just you and one other person.  Total bill:  $38/pp with the boozy brunch option including tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp  

SD26 Visited 2/28/2014 3.5 Forks

SD26 19 E 26th St., New York, NY 10010

I usually am not a huge fan of Restaurant Week in NYC as I think they are usually not that great of a deal and most of the times restaurants don't have their A game on during that week.  But totally unbeknownst to me, the girls and I ended up at SD26 during Restaurant Week and it turned out to be not a bad experience. 

First, the decor of the place...it's a bit dated and cheesy.  It kind of reminds me of a place out of American Psycho.  When you walk in there this large bar area and then these weird private rooms to the side, then when you get to the hostess, you walk into this huge cavernous room.  I can't quite explain it but it just had this 80's feel to it.  They tried to jazz it up with a modern touch by having the drink/wine menu on an iPad but they were just heavy and bulky.  I’m not sure what the point of only having the drink menu on an iPad and not the entire menu is. 

I was surprised at how crowded it was given how easy it was to get a reservation on a Friday night but maybe with Restaurant Week it got booked up later in the week.  The restaurant week menu was 2 dishes and 1 dessert from a pretty extensive list of appetizers and entrees for $38.  That's a pretty great deal considering most of these dishes alone cost more than $20.   Since I love to eat, I opted for the Uovo with White Truffle Butter and the Beef Cheeks for my 2 dishes and the Baba al Rhum for dessert.  Yes - I chose two very heavy dishes but the Asian part of me really wanted to take maximum advantage of the deal.  I didn't know what to expect from the Uovo but I was told by my old VP that it was a must order.  When it came out, I was pretty surprised - it was one giant raviolo that took up the entire bowl.  Normally I would say that one piece of raviolo is ridiculous and a rip off but honestly this was so rich and heavy that one is more than enough.  When you cut into it, a delicious runny practically raw egg yolk oozes out of it as well as some soft ricotta cheese.  The truffle butter topping added a decadent touch but it did make me realize that I do prefer my pasta with a tomato based sauce as opposed to a butter sauce.  But the dish was still tasty and very luxurious.  The rest of the girls got the eggplant caponata which looked like a better starter dish since it looked a bit lighter and not as heavy.  We did have to wait a bit for our next dishes to come out which might not have been a bad thing.  My beef cheek was served on top of a bed of potato gnocchi and braised in red wine.  While it did cut pretty easily, it didn't have the tenderness I was expecting.  It was a little bit tough with more tendon/connective tissue than I was expecting.  My main issue with the dish was the gnocchi – they were a bit on the bland side and didn’t really pop in my mouth with flavor.  But don’t get me wrong, I finished the entire dish so clearly I didn’t have too much of an issue with it overall but after looking at Vivi’s spaghetti dish, I kind of wish I got a tomato based pasta dish instead of 2 butter based pasta dishes.

By the time I finished my 2^nd course, I was stuffed and if dessert didn’t come with the Restaurant Week deal I might have skipped it.  But I do love a good rum cake dessert and this one wasn’t bad.  While it didn’t look like it was soaking in alcohol, once you bit into it, it had a distinct rum taste to it.  I wished I had more room to finish it but I was just bursting at the seams that I had to leave half of it on the plate. 

All in all, it was a surprisingly positive experience for Restaurant Week given my general lack interest in it (at least for dinner – sometimes the lunch deals are pretty good, like the one at Nobu).  I wouldn’t necessarily put it in the same category as I Sodi or even Perla food wise although price wise it’s right up there with them.  It’a fun place for a group since they have several large tables which is why we were there.  Total bill:  $69/pp with drinks, tax and tip

  

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sushi Seki - Chelsea Visited 2/27/2014 2.5 Forks

Sushi Seki  208 W 23rd St., New York, NY 10011

It really kills me to write this review because I really really wanted to love this place.  It got rave reviews from one of my favorite food blogs, Immaculate Infatuation, so when Jeana said she wanted to get sushi I immediately thought to check out this place.  I wasn't sure what kind of sushi place it was: whether is on the higher end or one of those mid-range but still totally awesome local joints.  As soon as we walked in, I soon realized it was more on the higher end range but not to the level of a Sushi Nakawaza.

They had a walk-in table for us but told us that we need to give it up after an hour.  So we decided to eat at the bar (not the sushi bar but the actual alcohol bar) where they served the full menu as well.  The food on the menu here is in line with what you would find at a nicer sushi establishment - no fancy rolls or crazy sushi platters.  The food here is more of the clean, simple and straight forward.  We started the meal with the tempura ($12) and edamame ($5) and I opted for the chirashi ($29) and a spicy scallop roll ($6).  Jeana got a few rolls and wanted to order one piece of salmon sashimi - but this is where things got confusing.  The waitress said that she had to order a minimum of 2 pieces of sashimi or 1 pieces of sushi.  Huh? It didn't really make sense and I've never been to a place that had a minimum order requirement. Plus it was confusing because it listed the price as $5 but it wasn't clear if it was per piece (which seemed pretty pricey for 1 piece of sashimi) or for the 2 piece requirement.  In the end, Jeana just got the 2 pieces so that we could move on.  The edamame was your typical edamame although it was a bit overcooked for me.  I usually like them barely cooked with a lot of crisp and bite to it.  These were a bit soft and a touch soggy.  The tempura was great - lightly battered and served with a fantastic sweet shrimp, sweet potato, and squash.

I was super excited for my chirashi and when it came out, it looked like it had promise but upon closer inspection, it seemed really small and didn't have a lot of variety.  The two largest pieces in the dish were sadly the egg custards.  The salmon was the seared/smoked variety and not the mouth melting type of fresh raw fish I'm used to.  It's kind of the same way I felt about the other pieces of fish - they just seem to miss the element of rawness that I love about sashimi.  It's not that the fish was cook - it wasn't but the pieces just weren't that big or delicious.  And there just weren't that much of it.  The star of the dish was the rice, which was on a separate level and it has this good vinegar taste and it was topped with a smattering of salmon roe.  It's never a great sign when the best part of your meal is the rice.  I was also really excited for the spicy scallop roll because it got called out by several people on Yelp and it's probably my all time favorite roll ever.  But it just didn't taste like a scallop roll - it had a lot of crunch/bonito flakes but I just couldn't taste the scallop.  It could have been a spicy tuna or spicy salmon or any other spicy roll for all I know.  It wasn't an awful roll but not mind-blowing or really the stand-out that I was expecting.

All in all, it wasn't an bad experience but more of a let down.  I was really hoping to impress my friend with the caliber of sushi we have here in NYC but I don't think it really did a good job.  It kind of drove home the stereotypical overpriced, not impressed sushi experience that I wanted to avoid.  Total bill:  $102 for two with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Gee Whiz Diner Visited 2/25/2014 3 Forks

Gee Whiz Diner  295 Greenwich St., New York, NY 10007

There's not much to say here except it's your classic greasy not so spectacular diner in food, service and environment.  I will say that I do have a soft spot for diner food, although it's usually in the morning and/or after a night of drinking.  Lisa and I went for lunch during a work week mostly because I had never been here so I wanted to check it out.

In true diner fashion, the menu has a million and one dishes making it hard to decide what to get.  The funny thing is that because of its location, they have a "business man's lunch"section - it's basically an entree and it comes with a soup or salad and a drink.  I opted to go for a turkey burger with cheese and the beef barely soup with a diet coke ($11).  The soup was not very big, probably barely a full cup size. The soup itself a pretty standard soup with a pretty decent level of flavor and salt.  It was a good "appetizer" in anticipation of my turkey burger.  The turkey burger was a good size burger width wise but I could tell that it wasn't a fresh patty and was most likely frozen.  It didn't have too much juiciness, thickness or grilled flavor to it but it was very filling.  The main reason I didn't give this place less than 3 forks was due to the fries.  Damn, they were pretty good.  They were thick, crispy, salty and very very addictive.  It really helped with making the overall burger experience much more palatable because otherwise, if it was just the burger and soup, I definitely would have been wanting something else to complete the meal.

I know that most of the time people don't go to diners for quality food so I'm trying not to be too harsh here.  I also usually get a greasy omelette with homefries when I go to a diner - which is what Lisa got, so maybe next time I come here, I should stick to more breakfast-y type food.  Total bill:  $13/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp  

Johnny V Visited 2/23/2014 4 Forks

Johnny V 625 E Las Olas Blvd, Ft Lauderdale, FL 33301

On our last night in Fort Lauderdale, the girls and I decided to go out to a fancy pants dinner in the heart of Las Olas Blvd.  I had heard that the chef was on Top Chef so that made me even more excited, but upon further research he was on Iron Chef America - still not bad but not as big of a deal to me.  In any case, this place is a bit on the higher end of restaurants in Ft. Lauderdale - it's definitely not your regular beach bar hang out. 

Unfortunately we weren't able to get a table on the sidewalk and had to sit in the back, which was kind of dark and quiet but it ended up being fine.  The menu has a pretty big surf and turf feel to it with lots of seafood dishes, meat dishes and seafood and meat combination dishes.   Not much for vegetarians unless you just want to have a salad.  We opted to split the poke ($14), duck meatballs ($13) and the Thai bbq lamb ribs ($15).  Krush and I are both obsessed with poke and while this one was totally fine it wasn't the same as the kind you get in Hawaii (what is really?).  The duck meatballs were made with pesto, pine nuts and a demi glaze on top and served on a bed of portobello mash.  The were pretty flavorful and the mash added a nice touch to it to keep it moist.  The bbq ribs had a red curry vinaigrette coating and fell off the bone pretty nicely.  It was a bit too dry on the outside for me but that is probably due to the crushed pistachios on the outside of the ribs.  While it didn't seem like we ordered too many appetizers, we were all pretty full so that by the time our entrees came out, most of us could barely finish our meals.  I was torn between ordering the yellowtail snapper, surf and turf or the scallops - even though I love scallops I usually don't order them in restaurants because I find them totally overpriced but for some reason I was drawn to this one because it also came with beef short rib, truffle mashed potatoes and chilled lobster salad ($38).  How could I turn down scallops, short rib, mashed potatoes and lobster salad in one dish?!  I've come to expect scallop dishes in restaurants to be pretty sparse, so when my dish came out and there are one 2 pieces of scallop I wasn't surprised but still a bit disappointed.  But after eating the extremely rich and hearty dish, I now know why they only had 2 pieces - you won't be able to eat more than 2.   The scallops pieces were quite large and seared just right so that they weren't overcooked.  The dish was one giant decadent variation on surf and turf.  They used a particularly heavy hand of butter on the mashed potatoes (surprise surprise) which was a bit too much for me.  I was a bit let down by how small of a portion the lobster salad was  - it was a very tiny bite of cold lobster with a bit of mayo and celery but I'm guessing they probably would have charged more if they had a larger portion.  I would have been happier with more lobster and less short rib just to lighten up the dish a bit.  The other girls got surf and turf and mahi mahi dishes and they all looked delicious if not also very heavy and a bit overwhelming after all our cocktails and appetizers.

Johnny V's is definitely a nicer end establishment in what is essentially a beach town.  The prices were a bit high than what I would expect for Fort Lauderdale but the portions and ingredients used were large and top notch.   If it's possible, I would recommend trying to get a table outside on the sidewalk so that you can people watch because being put in the back room isn't quite as festive but if you're with a good group of people, it doesn't really matter so much.  Total bill:  $97/pp with drinks, tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp