Saravana Bhavan Visited 6/4/2016 4 Forks

Saravana Bhavan  81 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10016

As an honorary Indian, I've always had a soft spot for Indian food but in particular South Indian food. Normally when most people think of Indian food, they think of rich heavy North Indian food but South Indian food is just as great if you know what to order.  It's all super veggie friendly but you don't even miss not having meat because the spices and flavor really hit you in the face.  

Aarti, Mabel and I had a Saturday fun day that started in Chinatown, lead us to  The Met and ended in Curry Hill.   How can you not love living in New York when you get spend a day full of culture and delicious ethnic food?  Whenever I have Indian, I just have Aarti order for me since I trust her taste. We ordered idly, pav bhaji, ghee masala dosa, and the vegetable biriyani. We were on the fence about ordering the biriyani but the waiter told us that it was only served on the weekends, so we figured that we should take advantage and try it out. 

We started with the idly - which if you don't know is steamed rice and lentil patties served with a variety chutney dips and sambar.  Delicious.  It's amazing how much spice one can pack into one small dish.  The sambar was so yummy that I was pretty much drinking it directly from the bowl. The biriyani is their version of vegetable fried rice - it was an ok dish, probably the weakest dish of the night but it was worth trying out.  Next came the dosa - which is a huge thin rice crepe filled with delicious buttery mashed potato.  I could have eaten the entire thing myself and then ordered another one too.  I also wanted to slather that mashed potato filling all over everything and stuff my face with it.  Next we tried the pav bhaji which is what Aarti calls the Indian version of the sloppy joe.  It's a super buttery hamburger bun served with vegetables cooked in a tomato gravy and served with raw red onions.  Again - it's amazing how much intense flavor and spice is packed into a small bite like this.  So so yummy - it's one of my favorite Indian snacks. 

Apparently this place is a famous South Indian chain but there are only a few locations in the US.  If you're looking for something different from heavy paneers and curries, definitely check this and other South Indian places out.  What's even better is that the food is not only delicious but super cheap. Total bill:  $24/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Emily Visited 5/29/2016 3.5 Forks

Emily  919 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11238

Ok, let's get this out of the way first.  Emily makes a god damn good burger - it's super moist and juicy and packed with a ton of flavor.   Make no mistake - if you get the burger, you will love it.  So why the 3.5 fork review?  It's unfathomable to me that this burger is almost $30 - well, $26 to be exact but when you factor in tax and tip, you're over $30.  How did we get to this point in life where a freakin burger costs $30?!

But I digress.  Emily has long been on my list of places to try but the horror stories of waiting 2+ hours isn't something I felt like dealing with much these days.  Luckily, Anuja and I were both in town for Memorial Day weekend and one of the bonuses of not having a house in the Hamptons is that the city clears out and places that normally would have long lines are much shorter.  Emily opens at 5pm and we got there around 5:30pm - the place was already packed but we were able to get 2 seats at the bar.  The menu consists of mostly pizza - red ones, white ones, pink (vodka sauce) ones and green (tomatillo) ones and of course the famous burger.  Anuja got one of the white pizzas ($22) while I got the burger.  Apparently they do run out of burgers if you don't get there early enough, so be warned. 

The food came out rather quickly and the burger was glorious looking - it was dry aged beef on a pretzel bun and covered with their special sauce, tons of caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese.  It's served with what Anuja and I called high end McDonald's fries (we mean that as a big compliment as they were incredibly addictive).  The burger is quite messy but the flavor profile was spot on.  I'm definitely happy that I tried it and maybe if an out-of-towner really wanted to try it, I would go back again but it's one of those things where I am happy enough to check the box and say that I've tried it.  The fries were skinny salty and if not careful, you can eat the entire tray of it before you know what hits you.  

I had a bite of Anuja's pizza and we both agreed that while it was good - we've both had better, especially at Roberta's.  It's a very similar to Roberta's in that it's a thin brick oven Neapolitan style pizza with fresh artisanal toppings.  But there's something about Roberta's that had a more positive impression on us or maybe we're just over this whole hipster pizza thing.

Is this place worth a visit? Yes.  Is it worth waiting 2 hours?  That I'm not sure about but if you find yourself looking for a place to try out over the summer and don't mind eating like a grandma at 5:30pm, then give it a try.  Total bill:  $36/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

La Sirena Visited 5/22/2016 2.5 Forks

La Sirena  Maritime Hotel, 88 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011

This review may seem a bit harsh but in retrospect, I expect a lot more from a Mario Batali restaurant especially when Lupa and Babbo continue to be excellent mainstays of NYC.  It might be that the restaurant space at the Maritime Hotel just has bad ju-ju.  In my time of living in NYC, it's undergone so many changes that I could never keep up with it.  

The brunch menu has a mix of brunch-y food (re: egg dishes) and lunch-y food (re: pasta).  It's always a hard choice to pick between the two type of meals but I went with the Nonna's fried egg with bottarga and ricotta ($16) and a side of sausage ($6) while Lav got two eggs any style ($15) and Lisa got the Tonnarelli Primavera ($23).  Honestly, to have a standard "2 eggs any style" dish at a nice Italian restaurant like this seems like kind of a cop out.   That's something I expect at a diner or IHOP but to have it at a place like this and charege $15 for it (it only comes with potatoes and toast) makes it seem like they were trying to fill the menu with another egg dish but couldn't think of any.  

My meal started with a bug in my water so maybe that's what threw me off for the rest of the meal.  I didn't really know what to expect from my dish but when it came out it was kind of underwhelming. It was almost like a frittata-like dish with fish roe and ricotta cheese mixed in it.  Only I didn't feel like I tasted a lot of the ricotta - it felt like I was just eating a really flat somewhat boring omelette that didn't have a lot of ingredients in it. Thank god I had the side of sausage to fill me up because otherwise, I would have been super hungry afterwards.  The sausage itself was fine - they were in a small link formation and didn't quite taste like they were homemade but they weren't terrible either.  I didn't try anyone's food but it all looked very basic and less an impressive as well. 

I will say that the waiter was really nice and they let us sit at the table way past when we finished our meal to chat and catch up, but then again there wasn't a huge line of people trying to get it.  Perhaps dinner is a better choice but I can't whole heartedly endorse this place for brunch given all the other places in the city that do a much better job of it. 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Sadelle's Visited 5/25/2016 3.5 Forks

Sadelle's  463 W Broadway, New York, NY 10012

The Major Food Group team has really become an incredible power house in NYC.  I was devastated when they closed Torrisi Italian Specialities but they have since opened up a slew of other really amazing restaurants such as Carbone, Parm, Santina, and Dirty French.  So when they opened up Sadelle's I had to check it out.  I had heard that in true Major Food Group style that the food was good but overpriced.  What else is new in New York City? 

Knowing that they were famous for their lox, I should have really gone for brunch instead of dinner but you live and learn.  I was there with Virginia and Julie on a hot sweltering day and it was relatively empty on a Wednesday night.  I'll give them props and say that the space is very beautiful with the candles and kind of old antique feel to it.  The dinner menu is a bit sparse - it's got a list of caviar, a handful of starters and 7 main dishes.  We started with the lox (because you would be an idiot to if you didn't) and the tuna tartare.  For entrees, Julie and I got the mustard salmon and Virginia got the cheeseburger.

Yes, the lox is fucking amazing here. Sliced super super thin - it's incredibly moist and almost tasted like sashimi to me.  We asked for gluten free bread for Virginia and it actually turned out to be amazing (maybe because of all the butter on it?!).  If all gluten free bread tasted like this, I would devour it in a heart beat.  This really made me wish I came here for brunch to get the lox tower with bagels and capers and tomatoes.  This was the absolute star of the night.  The tuna tartare is good but not as outstanding as the lox.  I realized later that I was eating a whole meal of salmon that night but I guess there's worse things in life.  The mustard salmon was served as 3 very thin filets lightly covered with a mustard/horseradish sauce with a large pile of frisee and confit potatoes.  Similar to the lox, the salmon was delicious - although the portions were on the small side.  The mustard and horseradish paired nicely with the fish and combined with the potatoes, it made for a lovely combination.  What I didn't love about the dish was the overabundance of frisee.  Frisee is actually my least favorite green - it feels like I'm eating nothing of substance and the texture just weirds me out.  While the dish was nice, for $26 I would have liked much more of it - I left still feeling hungry and like I could have made a similar salmon dish at home - two feelings that I hate after leaving a restaurant.   Julie and I did leave room for dessert and got the chocolate babka because how can you come to a fancy Jewish deli place and not get the chocolate babka?  As expected, it was rich, buttery with a hint of sugary crunch to it.   It made me want to go out and buy a loaf for home.

I would say that you should skip dinner and just come here for brunch instead.  Yes, it'll still be overpriced but at least you'll feel more like you're getting your money's worth with the lox than with dinner.  Total bill:  $65/pp (which ordinarily would be fine but there was no alcohol consumed so that seems a bit ridiculous)

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Wagamama Visited 5/17/2016 3.5 Forks

Wagamama   Jubilee Place, 45 Bank Street, Canary Wharf E14 5NY, United Kingdom

Ahhh, Wagamama.  There are a few staple chain restaurants that will always work in a pinch if you need something and Wagamama is definitely on that list.  Unfortunately they don't have one in NYC (although I heard a rumor there is one coming soon) yet but I have had it in Sydney and London before and always knew that it was a solid go-to if you really couldn't think of any place else to go. It's like the Spice or Republic equivalent in NYC.  It's fast, relatively cheap Asian noodles of all varieties - ramen, udon, curry, donburi, with a bunch of Asian appetizers.  I generally don't love it when restaurants cobble things together and call it  "Pan Asian" but in a more of a casual setting, who cares? 

I had spotted a Wagamama when I was running around the shopping mall under Canary Wharf.  I was determined to eat there before I left London since I needed a decent place to have lunch and over my dead body was I going to Pret a Manager again (twice is more than enough).  I ran into Wagamama and told them that I need to be in and out in less than 45 mins to catch a plane and they were great about it.  The hostess whisked me to corner of a communal table and had the waiter come over in less than 5 minutes.  I got the chicken ginger udon (who doesn't love a good udon dish?!) and a ginger beer - apparently I was on a ginger kick.   The food came out quickly and it was as expected - nothing mind blowing or terribley unique but after all the really not-so great food I had been having in London, it really hit the spot. It was basically udon noodles stir fried with ginger chicken, egg, chilies, beansprouts, and red onion.  But it was such a comforting dish at that moment and I was so happy while I was eating it.  I finally was able to take-in the fact that I was in London for the first time since I had gotten there.   It was nice to see all the hustle and bustle of the workers coming in for lunch - the area is the financial district of town so there were lots of people milling around and I kind of felt like a local having lunch during work.  Sadly I had to bust a move to the airport but I was happy to have ended my trip on a pretty satisfying note and I can't wait for the first Wagamama to open in NYC.  Total bill:  14 GBP

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rocket Canary Wharf Visited 5/16/2016 2 Forks

Rocket Canary Wharf   Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5RB, United Kingdom

Usually when I travel for work I get excited to try out some fun new restaurants in town that I ordinarily wouldn't get to try and put it on the corporate card.  Unfortunately this time, I was in London for such a short time and was visiting my new team that I let them pick a place.  To make things easy, we just went to a local restaurant across the street from the office.

The setting is lovely as they have a nice roof top with a view of the wharf.   Yelp categorized their food as "New American" and I guess it's 50% accurate - it's American with a British twist and I'm not saying that in a good way.  The menu was a random mish-mosh of things like lamb kofta, pizzas, surf and turf and of course fish and chips.  I started with the Thai Crab Cakes (7.5 GBP), which is hardly an American dish and settled on their "Famous" Rare Beef and Chip salad (18 GBP).  Please note this main dish was described as a salad - this will come into play later.

The crab cakes was definitely NOT up to my standards - it was mostly filler and not much of any real lump crab meat in it but to be fair it was described not as a MD crab cake but a make shift Thai version so I can't rag on them too much.  As for my entree - so remember how it was described as a salad?  Well I don't know how Brits categorize salads but this one was unlike any one I had seen before.   Granted it was described as having chips (aka fries) with it which I had assumed would be on the side of the salad but no, this had thick cut steak fries and thick cut medium well steak piled high on top of a teeny tiny bed of arugula and then drenched with a very heavy black bean dressing. It came with a side of mayo for the fries - how healthy.  I have no idea how this is considered a salad as it was possibly the most unhealthy thing I've ever seen.  If these were served individually (a steak with a side of salad and fries), it would have been a much better dish but put together and covered in what was essentially gravy was not doing it for me at all.  I ate most of the steak and some of fries but couldn't come close to finishing it.  I hate to say it but this meal totally re-enforced the stereotype of terrible British food.   It feels like their answer to everything is to throw "chips" on everything - good grief.

Luckily I was so jet lagged and tired that I didn't really care about dinner too much to be disappointed.  The culinary theme of this trip for me was to just eat so that I wouldn't pass out.  Total bill:  unknown since it was paid for by co-worker on corporate card

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Lokkanta Meze and Barbecue Visited 5/15/2016 4 Forks

Lokkanta Meze and Barbecue   31 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UA, United Kingdom

I was in London for less than 48 hours for work but since I was there I wanted to squeeze in some social time and take advantage of my time there.  I hadn't seen my friend Ingrid in quite some time so it was quite lovely catching up with her while I was there.  I don't really have a great sense of London geography but apparently I was on one side of town and she was on another, so we met in a place in the middle at Notting Hill (yes, that Notting Hill) for a tasty Turkish meal. 

Despite trying to be open minded about different cultures, I find the food in London to be really quite bad - it's so shocking given how international and urban the city is but in all the years that I've been there, I have yet to find another city with less culinary appeal than London.  Luckily, Lokkanta stepped it up a notch.  Ingrid found it on TripAdvisor and while it's definitely nothing fancy (it could double as sharma take out place in NYC but it does have a few tables inside), the food is quite flavorful and good.   They had a nice variety of hummus, falafel dishes, and grilled meat plates.  I started with the soup of the day (lentil soup) and got the grilled lamb dish (12 GBP) for my main.  I was prepared for the lentil soup to be just ok but I was starving which is why I ordered it and it was actually quite delicious.  It had a tomato base which was surprising but brought some good acidity and flavor to it.  It almost seemed more like a tomato barely soup than lentil - in any case, it was simple but well balanced soup that was quite enjoyable.  The grilled plate had tender pieces of lamb grilled over the BBQ topped with a tomato based yogurt sauce and drizzled with butter.  (I'm sensing a trend with all the tomato bases here).  It was a fairly large portion and combined with the bread, it was quite filling.  The sauce had a bit of an Indian feel to it with the buttery tomato yogurt base but it was great to sop it all up with lots of warm pita bread and lamb.  My only complaint was there was too much sauce on the plate - the dish was practically swimming in it and no matter how much bread or lamb I used to soak it up, it was just all over the place.  

Despite it not being a real fancy sit-down place, it actually was the perfect set-up for us because it was super casual and they let us sit there for 2+ hours talking without really bothering us.  While I've always had a strong preference for ethnic food, my experience this time in London proves that if you really want to have any sort of digestible meal in England, stick with the Indian/Middle Eastern track as it'll have the most flavor of anything you'll have there.  Total bill: 15.75 GBP

Photo Credit:  Yelp