Augustino's Visited 8/7/2015 4 Forks

Augustino's 1104 Washington St., Hoboken, NJ 07030

Shockingly, this will be my 2nd post about a restaurant in Hoboken in less than a month!  I was on the other side of the river visiting 2 friends of mine on a Friday night.  I originally stopped by the beer garden and had a lovely giant pretzel and then strolled over to Pier 13 which is a surprisingly nice outdoor bar.  I can see how the crowd can be on the douchey side but there were also families there as well. so it was a nice mix  But it was close to 10pm and neither Holly nor I had had a real meal despite downing 3-4 beers, so we needed dinner stat. 

We decided to walk on Washington Street, which is the main strip in town, towards the PATH and stop by any place that would take us that late at night.  Most of Hoboken is full of bars or grills but it is Jersey after all, so of course there are a good number of Italian places.  Holly had mentioned that Augustino's was one of the best Italian restaurants in the 'hood and that it often takes forever to get a reservation.  I guess the key here is to stroll in at 10:30pm on a Friday because we had no problem getting a table.  

The menu is pretty classic Italian with pasta, chicken, veal, and seafood options.  There are about 6 different choices in each section and they all sounded amazing.  Since it was late at night, I figured I would try to get something lighter and opted for the shrimp marinara ($27.50) and Holly got the veal milanese ($21.50).  The shrimp marinara came with shrimp, clams, and mussels on top of linguine.   The dish came out pipping hot and I was initially very impressed with the amount of seafood in there. In fact, there was so much of it that I wasn't even sure if there was any pasta in there.  The pieces of shrimp were huge and cooked to the right temperature.  It had an element of crisp firm crunch to it that I love with big shrimp.  The clams and mussels were also well cooked although the mussels were a bit on the small side.  There wasn't a ton of linguine but it was probably the right amount given all the seafood in the dish.  It was a very solid old school Italian dish - nothing like any of the more modern Italian places in the city.  I didn't try the veal but it was two huge pieces that probably could have fed 2 people on its own.  It was served with a nice fresh looking mixed green salad on top.

As you can imagine, the service there was what you would expect of an old school Italian place. They were very warm and friendly and a bit over affectionate with us - lots of "sweetie baby" talk and these were from women!  The place isn't very big, so I can see why it's hard to get a table and given that most other places in the hood are more bar/grill, this is a nice more adult setting for dinner.  It almost reminded me of being in my beloved old school Italian part of Williamsburg.  I think I'll still stick to my side of the river but nice knowing this exists over there.  Total bill:  $75 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp  

Brennan's of Houston Visited 8/5/2015 4 Forks

Brennan's of Houston  3300 Smith St., Houston, TX 77006

Once a year I go to hot humid Houston in August to see some clients and I've always been surprised at how decent the food is there.  Of course when you think Texas you think either steak of Tex Mex. I've always wanted to go to a down and dirty Tex Mex place but it doesn't seem quite right for work, so we always end up at the nicer steak houses.  This time my client recommended Brennan's and everyone from the hotel staff to the cab driver said that we were in for a very nice experience. 

I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't this.  First off, the restaurant is gorgeous, straight out of the old charming South, but it had a much more New Orleans feel than Texas one. Apparently this place had burned down many years ago but they re-built it and it was really quite lovely and elegant.  Definitely dress up when you are here because you will look super out of place in jeans and a t-shirt.  When you walk in, the entire staff lines the hallway and is overly accommodating but not in a creepy way.   You can just tell that they were trained to provide the upmost attention to detail and customer service.  The menu here is straight creole and cajun inspired stuff - which is basically a lot of yummy spicy seafood goodness.  I opted for the shrimp and okra gumbo to start and then got the dover fish special of the day because it came with a topping of lump crab meat.   Everyone else at the table either got the fish special or the steak special because that also came with crab meat on top - I could definitely get used to eating like this.

The gumbo came with the shrimp and rice served in a bowl and then the waiter poured the hot gumbo on top of it.  It was fantastic - not too spicy but it had definite cajun flare and the shrimp and okra were both cooked really well.  While I'm not from the South (ok, fine, technically Maryland is the South but let's be real, it's not really), I have always had a soft spot for really good gumbo and this really hit the spot.   Next they served a full filet of dover sole, deboned a the table and then topped with a heaping pile of lump crab meat.  I mean what the hell is there not to like here? It came with some asparagus which were a bit on the wimpy side, but who comes to Texas to eat vegetables?!  I did find a few tiny bones in my fish but as someone who has grown up eating whole fish her whole life, that didn't really bother me that much.  The crab was full-on all meat, no filler and it paired nicely with the mild dover filet to give a wonderful seafood flavor combination.  

Of course, when I'm at a client dinner, I look to be incredibly indulgent with my entire meal, so we went to town and ordered 4 different desserts:  their famous banana fosters, pecan pie, strawberry shortcake and peach cobbler.  When in Texas, you have to do everything big and extravagant.  They come to the table flambe the banana fosters in front of you which is always a nice spectacle.  I haven't had this dish in a long time and it's always a good sweet favorite of mine.  One of the clients chose the peach cobbler and we all agreed that it wasn't a great dessert.  Clearly they had put in the ice cream when the filling was pipping hot because by the time it arrive at our table, the ice cream was totally melted and in a messy puddle.  Plus the cobbler didn't have much crust or crumble to it at all, so that was a fail.  I had chosen the strawberry shortcake dessert and it was a doozy.  It was a huge portion with lots of whipped cream and sweetened strawberries.  What I like about these kind of desserts is that it's not overwhelming sweet but you still get a rush of sugar.  I didn't get a chance to try the pecan pie which was fine with me because it's not something I was super excited by.

Overall, this was a classic over indulgent client dinner.  Luckily, they are really great, Texas nice people and it was a very enjoyable dinner.  I was surprised to see such New Orleans style food in Houston but I guess this just goes to show you that I still have a lot to learn about the food scene in different parts of the country.  Total price: Unknown, I didn't get to grab the check!

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bar Americain Visited 8/2/2015 3.5 Forks

Bar Americain  152 W 52nd St., New York, NY 10019

I'll be honest and say that despite being a huge food lover and fan of all things related to food, I'm not a huge fan of celebrity chefs.  They've really sky rocketed to fame in the past few years and now have huge followings from their shows on Bravo or Food Network.  I totally get why people are into them and some of them are very easy on the eyes and have great talent, but in general I've kind of always thought of them as having huge egos and being more interested in increasing their brand and fame than anything else.   I respect the more low key ones who don't mind using them fame in to advance their food passion but once you start schilling for stuff like Taco Bell or I Cana't Believe It's not Butter, then I can't help but be skeptical.  So that's why I've always shied away from places that are tied to big name celeb chefs, but my good friend Vivi was in town and staying Midtown and wanted to grab brunch Sunday morning.  I don't really equate good brunch with Midtown, so I was having a hard time finding a decent place for us to eat, so when she said that she made a reservation for us at Bar Americain, I decided to go for it since I couldn't really come up with a better alternative.  Bar Americain is part of the Bobby Flay empire and he's probably one of the earlier celeb chefs out there.  I've never been to any of his restaurants before (although I have heard very good things about his newest place, Gato) so I figured what the hell.

Unlike his more casual Tex-Mex place, Mesa Grill (which closed several years ago), Bar Americain is closer to a brasserie style restaurant.  It's a bit higher end than what I would usually like to go for in a brunch setting but the food still sounded tasty.  We were the first people there at 11:30 and it never really ever got crowded the whole time we were there.  The menu reflects the decor - they had a full on raw bar for brunch and then their nicer twists on typical brunch food such as a ratatouille and goat cheese omelette.  I opted for The Preakness Benedict ($25) and we split a side of hash browns ($9) and beignets ($14) for the table.   We didn't know that they give you a huge bread basket assortment in the beginning, otherwise we probably wouldn't have ordered the beignets, but it was actually for the best because the beignets didn't actually come out for a long time so it was good to have the bread basket to nosh on first.

The Preakness Benedict was 2 Maryland crabcakes with poached eggs on top and Old Bay holliandaise  sauce and a salad.  I gotta say that I was pretty impressed with the quality of the dish. The eggs were poached well, nice and runny, and the crabcakes, while small, were of very decent quality.  I appreciated that it didn't come on a English Muffin like benedicts typically do because it really lets you enjoy the crabcake without any extra bread or carbs.  The only thing that I didn't love on the plate was the salad.  It was overdressed and had some bitters in there that I didn't really enjoy at all.  The potatoes were more like smashed potatoes, but they were a good carb compliment.   We were all so busy enjoying our meal that we didn't realize that our beignets never come out.  Our waiter was very apologetic about it and said that they would take a while.  Since Vivi had a plane to catch later, we were tempted to just cancel the order but they finally came out after they had already cleared our plates.  They were pipping hot and there were only 3 of them, which I thought was a bit ridiculous for $14.  But the actual beignets themselves were nice and fluffy and sweet with a nice coating of powered sugar on them.  They were served with these adorable jars of jam and I particularly liked the huckleberry one.

I have to give a shout out to our waiter who was super friendly and nice.  He had told us that the bar wouldn't be open until noon but as soon as it turned 12pm, he had Erik's bloody mary ready and waiting.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my dish but that still doesn't really change how I feel about celebrity chefs.  I'm not entirely sure what Bobby Flay has to do with this place besides probably lending his name and maybe having some influence on the menu.  I'd say that if you are ever stuck in Midtown and have to get brunch and don't mind spending way more than you need to on brunch, then definitely check out Bar Americain.  It's just might surprise you as it did me. Total bill:  unknown, kindly paid for by my friends

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Upland Visited 8/1/2015 4.5 Forks

Upland 345 Park Ave South, New York, NY 10010

Upland has gotten tons of rave reviews lately but I can never get a dinner reservation there, so when my dad decided to come to town, I figured brunch might be easier to get a table - and it was.   It was still pretty crowded but I was able to get a table at 12pm with no problem.  

The minute I walked in, the service was great - very nice and attentive.  I don't know want it was, but it just felt very comfortable and inviting in there.  The brunch menu ranges from egg dishes to pizzas to pastas and sandwiches.  I was incredibly tempted to get the burger because it comes with fucking avocado but in an attempt to be a bit healthier, I went for the Spanish frittata ($14) and couldn't resist a side of sausage ($8) because I'm just a glutton for punishment.  My dad got the little gem salad ($14) and also got a side of sausage which turned out to be a bad idea because each order came with 2 ginormous links that neither of us could finish, so just a warning that the side order is more than enough for 2 or even 3 people.  The food came our relatively quickly and from a presentation perspective, it was very beautifully plated.  My frittata was covered in roasted garlic mayo and chives and it was just picture perfect.  Typically when I've had frittatas before, it's been at a Spanish tapas place and it's usually served cold or chilled.  The frittata here was on the warm side which was not what I expected but it was still delicious mostly because of the garlic mayo.  It was a very large portion and combined with the huge sausage serving,  I had hit my limit half way through.  The sausage was fantastic - perfectly cooked and had a tasty spice blend in it that really made it stand out from other generic pork sausages I've had before.  I didn't try the gem salad, but it was quite a beautiful and large salad.  It was served with sliced peaches, goat cheese, spiced cashews, and peppercorn and it's been the first time in a while that I've actually been jealous of someone else's dish. I had thoughts of coming back and sitting at the bar eating this salad by myself on a hot summer day. 

Even though I was totally full, I always have room for dessert and this is where I was pleasantly surprised. I generally don't get dessert at brunch but the strawberries and cream panna cotta ($10) sounded really good so I couldn't resist.  It was one of the best desserts I've had in a while - really hit the spot on in terms of tasting exactly like what it sounds like which would be -  strawberries and cream with a hint of elderflower.  The strawberries looked to be locally picked and where those giant scary genetically grown ones you see in the grocery store.  They were small, sweet and delicious.  I'm not a fan of really heavy sweets so luckily this was quite the opposite - it was light and really for me the ideal summer dessert.  Loved it. 

While I can't pinpoint what it is that I exactly loved about this place, I just know that I really enjoyed everything about it:  the friendly approachable service, the bright happy decor, and terrific food.  I saw a bunch of people get the burger and it looked amazing and the table next to us got the pancakes and they were picture perfect pancakes.  Hopefully I can get a reservation for dinner one day and check out that menu, but for the time being, I absolutely don't mind still going for brunch again. Total bill:  $84 for 2 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Fuku Visited 7/31/2015 4 Forks

Fuku  163 1st Ave., New York, NY 10003

Over the years, I've definitely been pretty critical of David Chang.  I wasn't a huge fan of his Noodle Bar but I've started to turn a corner a bit after a solid outing at Ssam bar.  So when he jumped on the fried chicken sandwich bandwagon, I wasn't 100% sure I would to get sucked into the hype but I figured it was still worth a fun lunch trip to see my friend Neel. 

Fuku is located in the old Monofuku Ko space, so it's tiny.  It's not a sit down place - you place your order with the host as soon as you walk in, she gives you a number and then you have about 10 places to stand around to eat your food.  Neel and I saddled up to the bar and watched as they deep fried chicken and fries like mad men.  I've always known kitchen/restaurant life is hard, but it's definitely not fun being squished in a space that's no bigger than my bathroom frying chicken in 100 degree heat.  The one annoying thing was that the beeper for the frier kept going off every 10-15 mins and it was piercing loud, so that was a bit annoying.

The menu here is pretty small, I mean you're coming here for the chicken sandwich so that else is there really to think about?  I got the combo which included the sandwich, fries and a drink for $12, which is actually a pretty good deal once you see how much food it is.   But I've spent way more on lunch in my own work building.

The food comes out fairly quickly and extremely hot.  The sandwich is a monster - a HUGE piece of chicken that is spilling out of the potato bun.  There was so much of it, that they had to double layer the chicken on top of each other.   I was in such a rush to order that I didn't stop to really read the menu, so I got my sandwich plain but you can order it with shredded daikon on it which I should have done.  The sandwich comes with pickles and you can add hot sauce to it, but it really could have benefited from addition of more veggies on it to moisten it up a bit.  It's not to say that the chicken was dry - it was actually incredibly juicy once you bit into it, but it's just such a monstrous piece of fried goodness, that no matter what, you need to cut it with some lettuce or obviously, the daikon that they offer.   The chicken was seasoned well and it really took everything for me to finish the whole thing.  I loved that it was very true to the chicken which meant more focus on the meat and less breading and fried skin on it.  As for the fries - don't get them alone, you must split them with someone else otherwise it's too much fried food for one person's heart to take.  They were large thick cut fries with old bay seasoning sprinkled on it and they were delicious but I ended up taking all of mine home and eating them later.

I haven't had the Shake Shack fried chicken sandwich but I hear that it gives this one a run for it's money.  While I wouldn't recommend eating this more than once every other month, it's definitely something you should check out before the chicken craze dies down and this place is transformed into some other hipster pop-up.  Total bill:  $13 with tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Bin 14 Visited 7/21/2015 3.5 Forks

Bin 14 1314 Washington St, Hoboken, NJ 07030

Despite having a several good friends who live in Hoboken, I rarely venture over that way.  Even though I discovered that it can take only 30 mins (on a really good day) to get there, I always seem to meet up with my friends in the city or BK.  But what lured me here on a random Tuesday night was that the movie theater offers $6 movies on Tuesdays all day!  So Allison, Steve and I went to go check out Trainwreck (I heart Amy Schumer and you should definitely go see it) but first Allison and I had dinner at Bin 14.  While the south part of Hoboken is what most people think of when they think of Hoboken (busy bars, right out of college kids, etc, etc), the North part is much nicer, a bit calmer and more adult. 

Bin 14 brings a bit of that maturity to the hood since it's a quiet wine bar which serves tapas food. Allison mentioned that they can be a bit snotty at times but they were pretty well behaved when we were there.  I wasn't starving but since we were going to a 2 hour movie, it was probably better to eat some non-popcorn/candy food first.  Like I mentioned, the menu is a bunch of small plates and then a few entree sized dishes.  We decided to split the tomato, basil and balsamic mozzarella ($9), beet salad ($9), rock shrimp with polenta ($10), and charred octopus ($10).  They actually have a whole section on mozzarella and they all sounded great.  This one was closer to your basic order but it was solid and delicious.   It's pretty hard to mess up a great piece of cheese with tomato and basil.   Next I tried the beet salad and it was also a nice hard to mess up dish. It came with blood orange, pistachio, pickled fennel and mint - so all the right accents to a beet dish. Next I tried the shrimp dish which was the one I was most excited by.  It was described as rock shrimp with polenta, pecorino and chili. Unfortunately, it really tasted more like a very heavy grit dish with bits of cut up slightly over cooked shrimp.   Usually when I hear rock shrimp, I envision it in it's whole form (I mean it's not very big to begin with) that's' either fried or lightly tempura style, so I wasn't used to in this form.  But the dish overall was too oily and greasy for me and the polenta was too runny - I generally like polenta to be a bit firmer in texture.  Lastly I tried the charred octopus and this made up for the not to great shrimp dish.  It was one long tentacle but charred very well - it wasn't too rubbery or dry.  It was nicely done. Given that these were all small plates, we were still a little bit hungry so we split the roasted cauliflower with garlic and chickpeas ($8).  Nothing really special about it but it felt like a nice healthy way to round out the meal. 

I can see how if you lived in the area, this would be a nice, low key place to grab a glass of wine and hang out.  They definitely had a lot of variety on the menu and if I did come back, I would have loved to have tried some of their pizzas or pastas but in an effort to cut down on carbs, I didn't try them this time around.  If you're going to the movie theater down the block, this could make for a cute dinner/movie combo - plus I will say that it's definitely a more reasonably priced tapas place compared to the city.  Total bill:  $60 for 2 people with tax and tip 

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Dirty French Visited 7/11/2015 3.5 Forks

Dirty French  Ludlow Hotel, 180 Ludlow St., New York, NY 10002

Dirty French is the latest in the slew of restaurants from the Major Food Group - they also produced Carbone, Torrisi (RIP), Parm, Santina and ZZ's Clam bar.  Clearly you can see that I've been a fan of theirs since I've visited about every single one of them and for the most part, loved them all.  So of course I had to try their latest opening, Dirty French.  It's located in the Ludlow Hotel and if you've lived in NYC long enough, you're kind of sad at how much this part of the LES has changed.  When I first moved here, it was still gritty and seedy but now it's full of luxury condos and now a super expensive hipster hotel.  I'm generally not a fan of hotel restaurants and I actually didn't know that this was in a hotel until we showed up but it was too late to back out. 

Despite having an 8pm reservation on a Saturday, the place wasn't super packed yet but since it's the LES, the restaurant was fully hopping until almost 11pm when we left.  The vibe is most definitely edgy and trendy and since I was in jeans, tank top and flip flops, I didn't really felt like I fit in too much but luckily no one made me feel weird about it.  At first glance of the menu, my initial reaction was that it was overpriced for what it was.  Most entrees were over $30 which is seriously ridiculous. Random funny story, my menu had different prices than Kristen's and the waiter told me that I had an "older" menu, which I thought was very weird. 

I ordered the beet salad to start and then Mark and I split the hanger steak and country ribs together. They brought out this amazingly delicious warm bread that was more like a naan or flat bread with this creamy herb flavored butter.  It was heaven and might have actually been my favorite part of the meal.  I was trying to restrain from eating the entire plate of it.  The beet salad was actually a very substantial portion complete with red and golden beets and paired with cashews and super strong stinky roquefort cheese.  There was so much of it that I was having a hard time finishing it but I really enjoyed it.  Krush had ordered the mussels for the table and I had a bite of it and the broth was delicious with bites of crab in it.  As for the main entrees, the hanger steak was perfectly cooked, for me means it was practically black and blue.  It was super medium rare and melt in your mouth.  Mark and I both loved it but my only compliant was that the pepper coating on the outside was too heavy and salty.  The same can be said for the country ribs (pork).  There were 3 giant pieces and they were also covered in a heavy handed pepper spice blend.  It was a bit overwhelming for me to eat both kinds of meat with this much seasoning on it.  Luckily the quality of both meats were excellent and the rib, while not 100% fall off the bone, did easily pull away with a few cuts of the knife.   There were also some side dishes for the table:  pomme frites and haricot verts but they were so far from me and I was so full that I didn't even try them.  Given how full everyone was at dinner, I'm not sure how or why we ended up ordering dessert.  We got an order of beignets and a lemon tarte.  The lemon tarte was more like a key lime pie but in a good way.  It was super sour and tart which is how I prefer my desserts.  The beignet was nice and fluffy and served with a giant helping of caramel sauce.  

After a long day of eating and drinking and then more eating and drinking, I was totally ready to go home even though this place was hopping by the time we finished our meal at 11pm.  We also had a celeb sighting while eating - Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade showed up around 10pm for dinner.  They are an incredibly stylish looking couple.  Overall this is a super fun place to go if you're looking for a girls night out and really want to do it up.  If it wasn't for the high prices and heavy handed seasoning, I probably would have given it 4 forks or higher but it's hard to justify that when I'm not 100% sure I would run back to this place any time soon - not because I had a bad time, but because there are lots of other Major Food Group places that I would go back to first before coming here.  Total bill:  $108/pp with tax, tip and lots of drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp