Max Visited 5/2/2014 4 Forks

Max 740 Driggs Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211

One of my earliest memories of eating in the East Village was eating at Max and remembering how amazing the food was.  It was a long standing staple of the area until it recently closed and luckily for me has re-opened in Williamsburg.  I remember it being homey but satisfying comfort Italian food - not the snazzy high brow kind you find at L'Artusi or Scarpetta (which by the way, I both enjoyed as well). It looks like they kept the spirit of the old place alive because I really enjoyed the food at Max and it still had this comforting feel to the food. 

The menu is fairly standard and basic -  Paige and I started with the caprese salad ($11) and then we were both torn between 2 different pasta dishes, so we decided to split the spaghetti alla chitarra ($14) and the spaghetti del marinaio ($14).  As you can see from the prices, they are probably half the price of the pastas that you'd find else where but they were probably twice the amount of food and just as good.  But I'm jumping ahead of myself.  The caprese was actually just ok - it was four small lumps of fresh mozzarella but the plum tomatoes they served with it weren't all the juicy and they could have used more olive oil and salt to the whole dish.  So my initial impression of the place was a bit eh.  But then the pasta came out and my entire mind changed.  First, the size of the pasta was out of control.  One bowl is actually probably enough for 2 people, so the fact that we got 2 bowls was a bit overkill.  Plus they really pack in the amount of pasta in each bowl - they were full and brimming to the top with yummy goodness in them.  I tried the spaghetti alla chitarra first - which was spaghetti with lamb ragu and pecorino.  The pasta was thick and a bit on the chewy side but I really didn't mind that at all.  The ragu was good but heavy and I should note that there was a bunch of actual ragu but not a whole lot of actual sauce.  It was much more of a meaty thick sauce which is probably why I found the dish so filling.  Next I tried the spaghetti de marinaio - which is spaghetti made with squid ink and then topped with spicy tomato sauce and shrimp.  I was impressed with how many pieces of shrimp were served with this dish and they were of fairly decent and healthy size.  I was also a huge fan of this dish and really enjoyed the combination of the spicy tomato sauce with the squid ink pasta. 

Just when I thought I couldn't eat anymore, Paige and I decided that we had to get the tiramisu ($8) since Paige was on a mission to survey as many different tiramisu dishes as possible.  This one was served in a glass sundae cup instead of in a square but that didn't matter.  It was sweet, creamy and delicious.  It was the perfect way to end a great Italian meal.  I'm so excited that this place is in my 'hood and I hope to be a regular there in the future.  Total bill:  $60/pp with tax, tip and lots of wine

Photo Credit:  bedfordandbowery.com

China Blue Visited 5/2/2014 3.5 Forks

China Blue 135 Watts St, New York, NY 10013

Since Neel and I both love trying new restaurants, we try to make an effort to carve out fun 2 hour lunches on slow days at work every now and then.  A few months ago it was a fun outing to Yuji Ramen and this time we managed to sneak out to try China Blue - the new sister restaurant to Cafe China.  It's about a 20-25 minute walk from our building and luckily his lovely wife Sarah was able to join us too since she worked downtown too.  

It's in this very off-the-grid street in Tribeca and it's definitely not a place you would randomly stumble upon while walking around.  The decor inside is very much in line with the more industrial look and feel of Tribeca vs. the more home style decor of the one in Midtown.  Despite it being a random Friday, the place was packed because there was a office party in the main room, but they do have a separate room to the side.  The menu is focused more on Shanghai-nese style food.  One of the best reasons to go out to eat for lunch is that most places have a lunch menu that is much more affordable but still with great variety.  Neel, Sarah and I decided to split 3 different lunch specials (each special comes with choice of hot and sour soup, egg drop soup or an egg roll).  We opted for the spicy pork noodle ($11), the eggplant in garlic sauce ($11) and then we debated between the chicken and chive flower or the three cup chicken, so we asked the waiter which he would recommend.  He told us that the chicken and chive flower dish had no sauce or flavor - um, ok then why is that on the menu then? So clearly we went with the three cup chicken ($11).   We ended up trying out both soups and the egg roll since we got 3 individual lunch specials.  The soups were you standard Chinese style soups but still good and soothing.  The egg roll had a nice crispy and flaky outside and they gave us a dipping sauce that was very heavy on the vinegar but I didn't mind that at all.  They then brought out all of the lunch specials at once and I was so happy that we decided to split all of them so that we could all get a nice variety of dishes.  Each dish was actually pretty big for a lunch size so I definitely encourage going family style. The pork noodles was a very thick chewy noodle base with a spicy ground pork sauce.  I loved it even though it was a bit dense.  I definitely would not recommend someone eat the entire bowl by themselves unless they want to take a deep sleep nap afterwards.  The eggplant dish was also your typical eggplant dish - it was sauteed to the point where it was pretty mushy but in a good way and then covered in a heavy garlic sauce.  The three cup chicken was served with chunks of chicken rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, tons and tons of garlic and basil.  I was expecting it to pack in a bunch of flavor based on what the waiter told me and while it was definitely tasty, it didn't hit me in the face with any overwhelming bite of flavor.  It actually could have used a bit more something (maybe spice?) to it.  

All in all, it was a lovely extended lunch experience and while I could see that the dinner prices might be a bit high for Chinese food, the lunch specials were a pretty good deal considering that I easily spend more money at other places nearby (i.e. I had spent $21 for lunch at Wei West the day before).   I would definitely come back if I had time and try out some of the other lunch specials on the menu.  Total bill:  $15/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Taverna Kyclades Visited 4/30/2014 4.5 Forks

Taverna Kyclades  228 1st Ave., New York, NY 10009

Do you like octopus? No? Well it doesn't really matter because you should order here no matter what because it was seriously one of the best octopus dishes I've had ever.   In fact, everything here was top notch and incredibly authentic.  I have always been a huge lover of Greek food so when Taverna Kyclades - an Astoria staple - opened up in the East Village I was all over checking it out.

The decor of the place is kind of blah but the food more than makes up for it.  Everything on the menu sounded amazing - especially so if you like seafood.  Nancy and I decided to split a bunch of appetizers and started with the grilled octopus  ($18), spanakopita ($8), a variety of dips/spreads ($10) and a small Greek salad ($9).   Our food came out literally in under 5 minutes.  I'm not joking, it was kind of scary and that usually makes me question the food quality.  But I guess nothing that we ordered really takes a whole lot of preparation.  But it doesn't matter because everything was fantastic.  The "small" Greek salad was huge and could be a full meal on its own.  It had very little lettuce but TONS of red ripe beautiful wedges of tomato and a giant square of delicious feta cheese covered in olive oil.  Delicious. The dips they had (the only one I really knew what it was was the Tzatziki but there were 5 different kinds) were all fabulous but extremely heavy on the garlic and salt. It's served with a plate of nice and warm pita triangles and this also could have easily been a meal on its own as well.  The spanakopita was huge and delicious with a yummy mixture of spinach, leeks and feta in between flaky phylo layers.  The addition of the leeks was perfection and really made it stand out as opposed to it just being spinach.  But the star of the night was the grilled octopus.  I don't care if you don't like octopus or think it's gross, you must get it here.  First, they give you 2 huge pieces and when you bite into it, it's unlike any octopus you've ever had.  It's perfectly grilled and beyond tender and juicy.  When was the last time you could describe octopus like that?  We were so full at this point and had tons of leftovers but the restaurant offers everyone complimentary pieces of this flan/cake dessert - which was the perfect way to end the meal here. 

While I like the atmosphere at Pylos a bit more (it's gorgeous inside), the food here is just as good if not better.  Besides the food, the prices are extremely reasonable for the quality and quantity of the food. It's in a very convenient location for me (right off the L train) and if I find out that they do carry-out, I am pretty sure I know where I will be getting my dinner from now on a very frequent basis going forward.  Total bill:  $33/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Toro Visited 4/26/2014 4 Forks

Toro 85 10th Ave., New York, NY 10011

Holly and I spent an amusing afternoon at the auto show at the Javits Center and were starving by the time we left.  There's not much in the immediate area but just a short 15 minute walk down 10th Avenue gives you access to tons of really interesting and fun restaurants.  Toro is most well known for its location in Boston and they just opened one up here on the fringe of the Meat Packing district.  It's kind of hidden and the entrance is really on 15th street and 11th ave instead of 10th ave. Unfortunately we couldn't get a reservation but we walked in at 6:30 on the dot and we easily got a seat at the communal table which was great.   I always appreciate a restaurant that leaves tables open for walk-ins. 

The space here is beautiful and very airy.  It's got a modern vibe and fits right in with the Meat Packing area but it seemed a notch less pretentious than most of its peers in the neighborhood.  The menu is mostly tapas and a few paellas dishes as well.  The waitress recommended 2-4 dishes per person so we met in the middle and got 5 dishes.  The menu has your typical tapas dishes like tortilla Espanola and potatoes bravas but they also have more adventurous dishes that include uni, bone marrow, and tripe. We kind of decided on a mix of dishes:  Bocadillo de Erizos ($13), Tuna tartarte ($15), Maiz Asado con alioli y queso cotija ($10), braised lamb ($15) and the asparagus ($16).  The Bocadillo de Erizos is a small pressed sandwich with sea urchin, miso butter and pickled mustard seeds.  Amazing. You could definitely taste the sea urchin but it wasn't overwhelming or overpowering and it still had a nice creamy consistency to it.  I loved it.  The tuna tartare came in this funny sardine can and on the menu it said that it was served "with stuff that we really like."  So that actually turned out to be coconut milk and green curry flavoring - so yes it was stuff that I really liked.  It was delicious.  Next came the braised lamb and asparagus dishes.  The lamb meat fell cleanly off the bone and was a nice balance of meat and fat (although it could have been a smidge less fatty).  The asparagus was cooked nicely with the right amount of crunch to it and the actual vegetable was plumb and hearty - not some kind of wimpy, sad skinny stalk of asparagus you sometimes see in the grocery store.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it was covered with hot aioli and cured egg yolk - so yeah, that kind of made the dish pretty unhealthy but they were still nice additions to the dish.  Last came the grilled corn..  I expected it to be one corn on the cob but it was actually 2 large cobs cut in half and drenched in farmer's cheese, aioli and red chili pepper.  I mean I love that combination but it was literally way too much of the condiment on it - I would definitely not recommend ordering it if you are on a date because you'll most definitely get cheese all over your face.  But if you're in the comfort of good friends, then by all means go for it.  Of course we saved room for some dessert and since it's a Spanish place we had to get the churros - which were nice and warm sugary.  I just wish they gave us more than 3 sticks.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience here given it's trendy location and kind of lukewarm Yelp reviews.  Although it was tapas style, most of the dishes were actually pretty decently sized and I definitely left pretty full.   The menu's got great variety - so you'll find something for everyone there.  The table next to me got the bone marrow and beef cheeks and it looked fantastic, so I definitely want to order that the next time I'm there.  Total bill:  $78/pp with tax, tip and 2 drinks each

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Tanoshi Sushi Sake Bar Visited 4/22/2014 5 Forks

Tanoshi Sushi and Sake Bar 1372 York Ave., New York, NY 10021

Woah, I was completely caught off guard by this place.  I had read about Tanoshi in several blogs as being one of the top omakase in the cities despite not being incredibly fancy.  In fact, this place is the complete opposite of high end fancy pants sushi places.  It's pretty much a tiny hole in the wall far off on the East Side.  I would have never found out about this place on my own.  However, similar to Sushi Nakazawa, it's incredibly difficult to secure a reservation.  It used to be that you had to physically stop by the restaurant and put your name on a clipboard outside the restaurant to secure a slot.  But now they've upgraded to the 21st century and you can go online to make a reservation although I will say that you'll probably have to click through several dates to find an opening.

Luckily I was able to secure 2 seats on a random Tuesday night at 6pm.  They only have 3 time slots for the evening, so you better be on time or close to being on time.  When you walk in, you'll notice that there are only 10-12 seats and it's all at the sushi bar - which I love.  While it's omakase style they do have a wall that lists out separate appetizers that you can order individually.  We decided to start with the scallop sashimi ($12) because I'm obsessed with anything scallop related.  It comes out thinly sliced and it was heavenly.  Not super buttery but very very smooth, sweet and silky.  Then the omakase started.  The first piece was fluke - and they mention on the wall that all the sushi is served room temperature and with loose rice.   It was fantastic and served totally traditional style with no soy sauce and very little wasabi.   The quality of the fish was amazing and the rice was indeed loose and had the right touch of vinegar to it.   This first bite made me super excited for what was to come.  I'll spare you painful details of me and Janet swooning and tearing up over every single piece we ate but they were all mind blowing and it really puts into perspective what is high quality sushi and what is just ok sushi. The meal continued on with red snapper, wild king salmon, marinated big eye tuna, squid, albacore tuna, poached scallop, salmon roe, sea urchin with a raw quail egg, eel, then a trio of big eye tuna, king salmon and albacore tuna rolls, a small cup of miso soup and then the meal ended with a large delicious spicy tuna hand roll.   Everything was amazing and completely 5 fork worthy.  My favorite was obviously the sea urchin - just incredibly creamy and silky.  I could have eaten 5 more of those and then some.  Even thought it was a lot of food, we decided that we still wanted to try one more  appetizer so we opted for the king salmon carpaccio ($15) which was about 6 thin slices of slightly seared king salmon with yozu sauce on it.  Again, it was simply delightful and perfect.

Despite its awful location, this place is a genuine gem.  While I loved Sushi Nakazawa, this place is definitely much more my speed in terms of it just being much more low key and informal.  PLUS the best part of it all? It's only $60 per person.  Yes it's half the price of Sushi Nakazawa.  It's got to be one of the best deals ever for sushi in terms of quality and variety.  Another huge plus is that it's BYOB, so definitely bring your own wine or sake before heading over.  I truly loved every minute of my meal here and I hope it stays under the radar for a while, although I doubt that will happen.  Total bill:  $100/pp with tax and tip

Shin Yeh Visited 4/15/2014 4 Forks

Shin Yeh 5F, No. 11, Songshou Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Branch A11 Buildling) Taipei, Taiwan

For anyone who has read this blog for a while, you will know that I am a huge sucker for a good buffet.  Yes - I know it's kind of tacky and low brow but there's just something about it that I just love. What's even more enticing is an Asian buffet.  My mom and I had tried to go to Shin Yeh last year when I was in Taiwan but the timing just didn't work out, so luckily this time we were able to find time for it.  They have a regular lunch buffet from 11:30-2:30, a lightly reduced option for less money from 2:30-4:30 and then a dinner option.  We decided to go to the regular lunch option since the timing just worked better for us. 

What's great about this place is the variety of yummy and distincly Asian options.  There's a sushi bar where they make hand rolls, regular rolls, sushi and sashimi.  There's a cold seafood station with New Zealand green mussels and shrimp cocktail.  There's a warm station with shrimp and veggie tempura, fried eggplant and fish jaw.  They also had a carving station, soup station, salad bar and full dessert bar.  So it's almost impossible to not find something to eat here.  I was still recovering from the stomach flu but I was so excited at all the possibilities that I had to try almost everything they had.  While the sushi wasn't 5 star quality, it was just as good as a standard neighborhood joint.  I thought the mussels were fantastic - very plump and easy to eat.  The shrimp was of the sweet variety and still had the head on - but there wasn't much to suck out of it.  But what I loved the most of the fish jaw.  For those who don't eat whole fish often, the secret is that some of the best meat is in the head/cheek/jaw area.  In the US, if you go to a nice Japanese place and order the jaw, it can easily cost you $14+ a dish.  So clearly I went to town and had about 3 pieces here.  I was so stuffed from trying (and coming back for 2nds and 3rds) of all the savory foods that I couldn't manage the dessert bar.  I'm usually not a big fan of Asian dessert although I think the ones here were more Western style.  I finished my meal with some nice watermelon slices.   Oh and before I forget, this buffet also comes with unlimited red or white wine and what looked like shots of Chinese whiskey.  So totally easy to get wasted here too. 

While I was in town for a sad reason, I was glad that I was able to finally check this place out before I left.  It's a bit bittersweet to think that I may not return to Taiwan ever or at least in a long time and despite all my bitching and complaining, I can't deny that Taiwan has some of the world's best and cheapest food out there.   Total bill:  $50 for 2 people 

Photo Credit:  Tripadvisor

Harumi Sushi Visited 4/10/2014 Unable to Rate

Harumi Sushi 114 W Adams St., Ste C101, Phoenix, AZ 85003

So what's with the Unable to Rate deal you may ask.  Well, unfortunately a few hours after I had lunch here I felt really sick and got a bad case of the stomach flu for the next few days.  I wasn't feeling too great before I came here but things got really bad after I left here.  So obviously if I picked up something from some unwashed food here, I can't in good conscious give it a good rating.  However, where I'm torn is that I actually really liked the sushi here. 

But to back up a bit.  My first impression of this place was a bit iffy.  It's not really a restaurant but more cafeteria style where you order at a counter and then they bring it to your table - so it was just not something I was really expecting at a sushi place.  Also another interesting fact here is that they only use purple rice which they believe has added health benefits.  I decided to order the H3 roll ($13) which was spicy tuna, spicy salmon, spicy yellowtail, avocado, cucumber, tobiko, eel sauce and spicy mayo and the crazy roll ($9) which had fresh tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avocado and spicy sauce.  So both rolls were very similar but both sounded tasty to me.  I figured these were regular sized rolls, so I asked if they had a small house salad which I didn't see on the menu.  The waitress said they could put something together ($5) which I said ok.  In retrospect, I wish I hadn't ordered the "salad" because it was just shredded lettuce, some cucumber and sesame dressing on it.  The shredded lettuce just made it seem really low budget and cheap.  I didn't finish it and left room for the rolls.  When they came out I was shocked, only because there were so many pieces! Most places usually give you 6 or sometimes 8 pieces but this place gave you 10 fairly large pieces.  I couldn't believe it.  If I had known, I would have only gotten 1 roll because I ended up taking home over 8 pieces with me.  I was a bit skeptical of the purple rice, but it was totally fine and didn't taste too different.  I thought the rolls were innovative and very tasty and I was actually looking forward to having the rest of it for dinner.  Unfortunately that never happened and I ended up throwing it away because I was so sick. 

So sadly I feel like I can't rate this place properly.  I would say it's probably still worth checking out mostly because it's a different type of sushi but just go in with an open mind.  Total bill:  $36 with tax, tip and a soda

Photo Credit:  Yelp