The Cardinal Visited 8/25/2012 3.5 Forks

The Cardinal 234 E 4th St, (between Avenue A & Avenue B), NY 10009

I've had a major BBQ/Southern/Soul food kick these days.  Luckily my friend Cicily loves this kind of food as much as me, so I was excited that I had someone to try out The Cardinal last night with me.  The decor of the restaurant is much more cozy and cute bistro type vs. what you would expect from a BBQ hall.  The menu here is more of a set menu vs. places like Fette Sau or Hill Country where you order meat by the pound.  The BBQ here comes in a platter format with your choice of 3 kinds of meat (choose from ribs, brisket, hot links, or pulled pork) or if you're there with lots of people there is the President's platter or a bucket of fried chicken.  Even though I do love my BBQ, I opted for the Fried Chicken plate (1 thigh, 1 drumstick, 1 breast) and 2 sides (I got the mac and cheese and the fried green tomatoes) for $19 and Cicily got the BBQ plate for $23.   We did get the crab hush puppies to start ($10) based on the recommendation of the waitress.  I haven't had hush puppies in a long time but once I bit into these I remembered that unique cornmeal-y flavor.  The crab meat was mixed in with the cornmeal and then deep fried.  It tasted exactly how it sounds and it was served with ranch dressing.  It was good but pretty heavy tasting and 2 puppies (that actually sounds kind of gross saying it) was all I could take.  

When I first laid eyes on my fried chicken platter I was "sure" that I would definitely not be able to finish it.   Famous last words right? As soon as I cut into the chicken I could see how incredibly juicy the inside was.  I mean, it was to the point where juice actually splattered on my shirt as I was cutting into it.  And the skin was amazingly crispy and delicious.  It was light and flavorful and the skin had the right amount of fat on it.  It was so good that I finished all 3 pieces of chicken.  Sick.  I barely had room for the mac and cheese and friend green tomatoes.  The mac and cheese was like your classic homey mac and cheese, nothing fancy with 7 different kinds of cheeses and penne pasta, but it was yellow/orangey cheese with soft elbow macaroni.  And it was great.  Unfortunately I didn't love the fried green tomatoes.  That was the one side dish that I was looking forward to, but it just didn't have much flavor to it.  It was needed some more spices or something because it just didn't taste like much.  By the time I was done eating, I could barely move.  I could totally see this place as a great post-hangover brunch place.  While I didn't try the BBQ, Cicily said it was pretty good, although I think if you're serious about BBQ, you still can't beat Fette Sau.  But I haven't met a better place for fried chicken in the city just yet.  Just be prepared to have your heart stop and arteries clogged no matter what you order.  Total bill with: $51 with tax, tip and drinks. 

Photo Credit: Yelp

Marche du Sud Visited 8/25/2012 2.5 Forks

Marche du Sud 1136 1st Ave, New York, NY 10065

Normally I would never find myself up by this area (all the way on the east side in the 60's), but a friend of mine who lives on Roosevelt Island was having a baby shower and this was right off the tram.  I will say that the 2.5 rating doesn't really reflect what I thought of the decor and space of the restaurant.  My friend's sister had reserved the entire back room which had this beautiful open feeling with tons of windows surrounding the room.  It was the perfect room for a baby shower because it was totally closed off from the rest of the restaurant and big enough for all of us to walk around and mingle but small enough that it felt cozy.  The meal started with a bunch of french pizzas, which were very thin crusted pizzas with no tomato sauce.  They did come with sauteed onions, creme fraiche, and gruyere cheese.  Although they are not like your usual Italian pizzas, they were tasty and light.  Unlike my rant about how I like pasta with tomato sauce, these pizzas didn't feel lacking without the tomato sauce and I had about 3-4 slices because they weren't so heavy and I was starving.  For the main entrees, we got to pick from a long line of dishes from risotto, burgers, omelettes, waffles, and salads.  I figured since it was a brunch, I ordered the L’Omelette Parisienne ($12) which is an omelette with wild mushrooms, french ham & gruyère cheese.  In an attempt to be healthy, I asked for it to come with egg whites instead.  I'm not sure if that's where I went wrong but when the omelette came out, it was a bit underwhelming.   It was pretty small and thin and looked like something I could make at home.  The salad that came with it was also just ok, a bit overdressed.  I don't mean to make it sound like my food was awful because it wasn't.  It just felt like food that I could make at home with my friends and not at a nicer French restaurant.  I took a look at the other food and the presentation of the other dishes and they also looked underwhelming as well.  But despite all of this, this was a lovely place to have a small gathering like a baby shower.  

Photo Credit: Yelp

Dell'Anima Visited 8/24/2012 3.5 Forks

Dell'Anima 38 8th Ave, (between Jane St & West 4th St), New York, NY 10014

Dell'Anima falls in the category of L'Artusi, Scarpetta, and Spasso of high end Italian restaurants that are sweeping the West Village.  As many of you probably know, I have a love/hate relationship with Italian food.  I mean I love Italian food (who doesn't?), but I have this mentality that I shouldn't be paying $20 for pasta.  So when Lav told me she was meeting a friend at Dell'Anima and that I should join them, I was excited to give it a try because I've heard great things about it but unsure if the food would actually be mind blowing.

We started off sharing the heirloom tomato salad with ricotta, plums, walnuts, citrus zest, and saba ($15) and the roasted summer squash bruschette ($5).  I was super excited for the salad because I love heirloom tomatoes but Lav had mentioned that she had it last time and it was just ok and unfortunately, it was just ok again.  It was underseasoned and tasted a bit bland.  Don't get me wrong, I love my food to taste clean and simple, but it could have used a pinch of salt or some basil to kick it up a notch.  And there wasn't enough ricotta with the dish.  The summer squash bruschette was more of a spread and they gave us 4 beautifully crusty toasted pieces of bread to go with it.  It was creamy but still had some small chunks of squash.  I would have loved to have tried a few more other spreads instead of the salad.  

When it came time to order our mains, I thought I remembered really liking pappardelle pasta, so I got the pappardelle integrale with oyster mushrooms, scallion, pecorino romano ($17) while Lav and Aarti both got the bucatini alla arrabbitata with calabrian chilies, tomato, parmesan breadcrumbs ($16).  While I did really like my pasta (clearly since I demolished the whole thing), I didn't love it.  I did like the thick, long ribbon shape of the pasta but I kind of wished it came in more separate strands like a spaghetti or fettiucini.  It was a bit too oily for me and I've come to realize that I really like pastas with tomato sauces/ragu better.  This pasta was dressed with just oil and most of the flavor came from the mushrooms (of which there was a lot of, which I really appreciated) but I just missed the combination of tomato with pasta.  This was confirmed when I had a bite of Lav's pasta (for those of you who are curious bucatini is like spaghetti but with a hollow inside) and it was delicious and very spicy.  So mental note for me next time, stick with bolognese or ragu sauce next time.  I do want to give a shout out that our waitress was super nice and very knowledgeable about the menu and wine list (she helped us pick out an amazing bottle of rose).  Dell'Anima also has a meatless Monday special and even though I'm a meat lover, I would definitely come back to give it a try.  Total bill: $54/pp with tax and tip and 1 bottle of wine. 

Photo Credit: Yelp 

Reynard's Visited 8/19/2012 3.5 Forks

Reynard's 80 Wythe Ave, (between 12th St & 11th St), New York, NY 11211

As if Williamsburg doesn't have enough of a stigma of being hipster central, the opening of The Wythe Hotel has most definitely put it over the edge.  The hotel is in the more northern part of the 'Burg and it so painfully hip that it's kind of hard to even look at.  But for some reason the hipness didn't bother me and the place kind of grew on me throughout the meal. 

After reading some not to great reviews on Yelp and based on my own preconceived notions of the place, I was totally prepared to not like this place.  But you know what? I actually really enjoyed my meal and had a great time.  I guess it serves me right for being so judgy!  I thought the industrial chic decor really fit in well with the overall vibe of the hotel and really made you feel like you were in somewhere "edgy".  In general the restaurant look reminded me of being in a bright, airy French bistro.  When we first sat down,  the waiter asked if we wanted still or sparkling water and I said "tap is fine".  But he quickly explained that they filter and bottle all their own water and that both are free, so we got 1 bottle of still and 1 bottle of sparkling.  While it's a bit pretentious, it was a nice touch.  I was a bit nervous about the menu at first because when I had looked on-line there wasn't a lot of options on the menu.  But luckily when we got there, they had a few more options to choose from.  Aarti got the heirloom tomato, ricotta, and toast dish ($11) and I got the sausage and egg sandwich ($12).  I know that sausage and egg sandwich sounds really boring, but it was actually a delicious, hearty sandwich that was pretty unique.  It was served on a soft brioche bun, jammed packed with 2 giant juicy sausage patties and covered with tons of extremely gooey gruyere cheese and topped with arugula and onions.  It was pretty much like a high-end breakfast burger and it was so much better than a typical sausage, egg and cheese bagel sandwich from a bodega.  It came with a side of fries and aioli mayo, both of which were fine.  The fries could have been a bit crispier as they were a bit soggier than I would like but I could barely eat them after demolishing my sandwich.  Given how heart stopping the sandwich was, it might have been healthier for the dish to come with a side salad instead.  I didn't get a chance to try Aarti's dish but she did comment that she really enjoyed it.  

I would definitely come back here for brunch or even dinner although I can only imagine this place would be a total scene late at night.  If being in a uber-hip restaurant complete with hipster waiters will bother you, then maybe Reynard's isn't for you.  But the hipness is pretty harmless and not anymore blatant than other nearby bars and restaurants.  Total bill: $17/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Wythe Hotel

CO-OP Food and Drink Visited 8/18/2012 3 Forks

CO-OP Food and Drink 107 Rivington St., (between Ludlow St & Essex St), New York, NY 10002

You would think that I had learned my lesson after my dinner at Empellon Cucina on Monday and not eat to the point of wanting to puke.  But oh no.  I did it yet again.  I ended up at CO-OP on Saturday night to celebrate dinner for one of my friend's (Richelle) and since CO-OP is one of those places where  you share a bunch of plates, we ordered about 1,000 items from the menu and I felt awful later.  The menu here is a bit weird/eclectic.  It's got some Asian influence (duck buns, sushi, sashimi) and then some American style type food (sliders, scallops, mac and cheese) and then throw in some meatballs and poutine.  Since there were so many people, we ordered a bunch of different things for the table to share.  We started with the Mini Ceviche Tacos with Aji Amarillo Sauce, Mango-Avocado Salsa ($12), Chicken Satay ($14), and Spicy Tuna on Crispy Rice ($14).   The tacos were soft tacos filled with pork and pretty tasty and a good starter bite.  The chicken satay was extremely heavy on the peanut sauce, which made it be bit too sweet for me but at least the chicken was moist and tender.  The spicy tuna was a nice little rectangle of tuna on top of a bed of crispy rice.  It was surprisingly delicious and I could have had 3-4 more of them.  We then followed up with CO-OP  roll ($18) and the Soft Shell crab roll.  The CO-OP roll had spicy tuna inside and then topped with rock shrimp tempura on top of it, which was a nice combination of fish and shrimp.  The soft shell crab was ok, it was one of those sushi rolls where the rolls were too big and hard to eat in one bite.  I thought the crab was a bit salty and I just generally prefer raw fish in my sushi rolls then cooked food or tempura.  After the sushi, the peking duck steamed buns ($15), the black cod in butter lettuce ($16) and spaghetti and meatballs ($17) rolled out.  This is the point in the meal where I started to feel super stuffed and hitting a wall.  But I kept chugging along.  The steamed buns were a disappointment.  They were definitely not worth $15 at all and compared to the Momofuku buns I just had the other day, it was light years different.  The buns totally stuck to the bottom of the steamer, to the point where I don't think anyone got an intact bun.  So it's hard to have the full steamed bun experience when the bread has totally disintegrated in front of you.  Then the one I got didn't have any hoisin sauce in it, just the duck and some pickled cucumber.  The duck itself was ok, there was no skin or fat to it, so without the sauce it was a bit dry.  Knowing that you can get much higher quality bun for 1/4 of the price in Chinatown definitely makes these buns even less appealing.  Luckily, the black cod wrapped in butter lettuce was a much more successful dish.  The cod was covered in a miso glaze and the fish was nice and tender but my one complaint would be that the pieces of lettuce were too big for the fish.  While I do love butter lettuce, when it's 3 times the size of the fish, it kind of overwhelms the cod which should be the star of the dish.  By the time I got to the spaghetti and meatballs I could barely move.  The noodles were made from lo mein and were in a sweet chili sauce with a chicken meatball.  I did like the meatball a lot and the noodles were fine but again, I had reached the point in the meal where I could have had the best dish ever and I probably wouldn't have noticed because I was too busy being full.  After these two dishes, out came the mac and cheese ($18) and the diver scallops ($28).  For me, it's really hard to get mac and cheese wrong, especially when it comes with truffle oil.  This dish was decadent and super super rich but yummy at the same time.  As with my meal at Empellon, I wished I had saved room for the scallops.  This one came with a black mushroom puree, which honestly made the dish look really unappetizing.  Unless it's squid ink, I'm not a huge fan of having my dish covered in black sauce.  The scallops were pretty huge and served with nicely cooked asparagus (they were cooked enough to not be raw but had a great crunch to them).   We finally finished the meal with a giant red velvet cupcake, which I thought was a bit on the dry side and should have had cream cheese frosting instead of plain vanilla.  To be honest, I went in to dinner thinking I would hate it based on a lot of negative Yelp reviews.  But I was actually ok with the place.  I totally see where most people are coming from in that it's overly trendy for no reason and the price most definitely are not justified.  But this is the type of place that's great for birthdays which was why I was there.  The total bill was $1,033 (so roughly $110/pp with tax and tip)!  

Photo Credit: Yelp  

Empellon Cocina Visited 8/13/2012 3 Forks

Empellon Cocina 105 1st Ave., (between 6th St & 7th St ), New York, NY 10003

After a long day of eating at a client meeting, we ended up going out to eat with them at 6pm to Empellon Cocina.  It's not that I wasn't excited to go out to eat, but I was so full from eating all day that I just couldn't bring myself to eat a full meal so quickly afterwards.  But I couldn't say no to a business dinner.

I had been to Empellon in the West Village and thought it was ok, so to be honest I wasn't 100% excited to try the East Village version, but hey, you never know, right?  The concept here is very similar to Empellon, fancy small Mexican plates.  You won't find giant burritos or enchiladas here.  Since we were a huge group, we told the waitress to just order whatever she liked for us (yes, it was that kind of dinner).  We started with the Guacamole, Masa Crisps, Pistachios ($12).  The pistachios gave it a nice twist on your regular guacamole.  We then tried chips with 7 different kinds of salsa ($3 per salsa):  Sikil Pak (the mildest salsa - zero heat, came with pumpkin seeds), smoked cashew (very smoky with a hint of chipotle), salsa borracha (I don't think I tried this one), tomatillo chipotle (the tomatillo flavor was subtle but the heat does hit you afterwards), salsa de arbol (also didn't try) and the spiciest of them all, the salsa habanera (many people had tears in their eyes after trying this).   After the salsas came the Roasted Carrots, Mole Poblano, Yogurt, Watercress.  Honestly I am not a huge fan of carrots, but this one was pretty darn good.  The carrots looked very rustic, almost like they were just pulled out of the ground and they were roasted to the point where it was soft but not mushy and I thought the yogurt was a great touch.  Next up was the Swordfish Ceviche, Herbs,
Salsa Veracruz ($15).  Normally I don't think of swordfish as a ceviche and this seemed less of a ceviche than sashimi to me.  When I think of ceviche, I think of it marinating in lime and cilantro but this one was served on a plate and didn't really have any acidity to it.  It was fine because I like raw fish but it wasn't a wow plate.  After this dish, we had the Mezcal Cured Ocean Trout, Cream
Cheese, Roe, Sal de Gusanos ($18).  Even though it was trout it was orange and looked exactly like salmon.  I loved it because it felt like I was eating salmon sashimi or even lox with the cream cheese garnish.  

At this point, I was so full but the food kept coming out.  Next was the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, Black Bean Vermicelli ($18).  I usually love Hen of the Woods Mushroom, but this dish didn't do it for me.  It might have been because by the time the dish got to me, there wasn't a lot of either the mushroom or vermicelli on the plate.  I just got the remnants/ends and didn't get the full experience of the dish.  After this dish, we had the Melted Tetilla Cheese, Lobster, Tortillas ($19).  This was the dish that I was most excited by mostly because it had lobster in it.  The tortillas were great, super thin but sturdy enough to hold all the cheese.  But the actual cheese and lobster mixture was too heavy on the cheese that I felt like I was just eating a cheese quesadilla.  I mean, I know lobster is expensive but I really had to dig for the lobster in that plate.  At this point, I really felt like I couldn't eat anymore and then all of a sudden the Tongue Sopes, Refried Beans, Salsa de Arbol ($11) appeared in front of me.  I really was so full at this point that even if you had put my favorite food in front of me, I would have said no.  This dish was like a mini tart filled with meat and beans, except that the meat is tongue.  It really didn't gross me out nor did I think it was weird, but I was just so maxed out that I took one bite and had to stop eating.  You think the food would stop there or at least we would go straight to dessert.  But no.  Out comes the Maine Diver Scallops, Surryano Ham, Chilaquiles ($19).  Now I am not one to say no to scallops because I love them to death, so I had to try at least 1 of them and it was delicious.  I will say that for $19, you would expect several scallops on the dish but this dish only had 3 scallops on the plate.  Thank god I wasn't paying for dinner.   I was especially happy I wasn't paying for dinner when I saw the Grilled Wagyu Flat Iron Steak, Creamed Corn, Tamal Fries ($45) and Pork Belly Pibil, Pickled Red Onions, Achiote Mustard ($36) roll out.  I really really wished that I had room for these 2 dishes but I literally felt like I was going to explode.  I did have 1 same piece of the wagyu steak and it was fabulous.  It was perfectly red and rare in the middle and if I had room I would have demolished that plate.  It broke my heart when we couldn't finish the dish and the waitress took away an almost full plate of food.  The pork was on the other end of the table, so I didn't get to try it.  But several people at the end of the table were screaming at how inedible it was because it was pure fat.  Now I know that pork belly should have some good percentage of fat on it but by the looks of it, it looked to be almost all fat and really turned people off.  Finally, 3hours later and 6,000 calories later we were done with dinner.  Just as I thought we were going to get to go home, someone made a comment how we didn't order dessert.  Oh my god. I just wanted to get home and lay on the couch.  But I couldn't be rude.  So I stayed for dessert but didn't even try any of it.

All in all, these kinds of gluttonous dinners are great every now and then.  I have no clue how much the bill was but I can only imagine that it was $500+ given that we had 2 of everything above (except for the steak and pork belly).  Similar to what I thought about the West Village Empelllon, the food was way more expensive than it needed to be and the dishes too small.  But if you have the budget for it, it's worth trying out at least once.

Photo Credit: Yelp 
 
 

Laut Visited 8/12/2012 3 Forks

Laut 15 E 17th St, (between 5th Ave & W Union Sq), New York, NY 10003

I went to Laut years and years ago and always kind of had it in my mind as a good go to SE Asian place, but somehow never returned until last weekend.  Laut is one of the few places in the city that serves Malaysian and Indonesian food (in addition to some standard Thai dishes).  Having been to Bali recently I felt tempted to order a Mee Goreng or Nasi Goreng.  But after remembering that I had eaten those two dishes for 2 weeks straight not too long ago, I decided to stick with a simple Thai style noodle dish.  Laut has tons of noodle options: thin noodles, wide noodles, glass noodles, and egg noodles, but I settled for my usual wide flat noodle dish.  I got the Char Kueh Teow with chicken ($13) which is essentially a flat broad noodles with chives, bean sprouts, eggs and soy sauce with home made chili sauce.  In reality, most of the noodle dishes on the menu sound very similar except that there are one or two different ingredients.  For an appetizer, the group split the small bites combo ($13) which came with the shrimp puff, veggie spring roll and dumpling fritters.  You could really just call it a plate of fried food.  In all honesty, they all kind of tasted and looked the same except that one had shrimp, one had veggies and another had chicken in it.  After eating all that fried food, I kind of wished we ordered something "healthier" like steamed dumplings or the rice crepe.

Similar to most Thai places, the noodles came out pretty quickly afterwards and it was your good standard noodle fare.  It hit the spot in the right place but I wouldn't say that it was a wow dish that I would urge you to try immediately.  It's just a good standard staple dish, that's it.  Apparently this place has a Michelin star, which kind of boggles my mind because I would have never seen here.  I'm not saying it bad at all, but Michelin rated?!  Maybe I need to come back and try a lot more dishes.  There are a lot of other entrees and options that you don't see in a Thai/SE Asian places, so I would encourage anyone who comes here to perhaps not order a pad thai or like me a basic wide noodle dish (unless that's what you really want) and try a different type of SE Asian dish.  It's in a convenient location, so if you ever do find yourself in Union Square and need a quick/simple Asian rush, Laut is a good choice.  Total bill: $19/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp