Aburiya Kinnosuke *** - Another suggestion by Grace. A solid isakaya place with a combo lunch better than your average bento. Housemade tofu soft, silky and fresh.
Jacques Torres ** - After J made the chocolate chip cookies from a Jacques Torres recipe, I was excited to try the original. Great chocolate chip cookies, though I thought that J's homemade version was better.
Little Owl ** - Good hearts of palm salad and juicy pork chop. Cute little place, though we get a lot of this style of food in SF.
Clinton Street Baking 0 - Disappointing. I'm not sure if we caught them on an off morning or maybe the second string crew, but the pancakes were very thick and cakey, my sunny side up egg whites were runny and the biscuit was dry. I would say that the food was ok bordering on bad.
Kefi ** - This place is felt like Manhattan's version of a huge suburban restaurant -- good for families, large, reasonably priced and loud enough to drown out the sound of screaming kids. With that said, a group of us had a good time here and everyone enjoyed their food. Delicious olive oil on the table, grassy and fruity -- good enough to make you fill up on bread before the meal. I particularly liked the Sheep's Milk Dumplings, Tomato, Pine Nuts, Spicy Lamb Sausage
and the Grilled Octopus starter.
The only miss was the meatball appetizer, it lacked texture and was overpowered by the sauce.
Tai Pan Bakery *** - Green Tea Custard Tarts.
Caracas ** - Venezuelan arepas. I wondered how these would differ from the Columbian arepas. They were stuff full of fillings like shredded beef, cheese, fried plantains. The arepa itself was a perfect wrapper for the fillings, toasted to a crisp and thin enough to let the fillings shine through.
Numero 28 *** Suggested by Carl. This pizza is the closest I've found to the pizza I ate in Naples. The pies I enjoyed in Naples were thin, had a minimal amount of toppings, a lightly blistered crust that was somewhat crispy on the outer edge, but a bit chewy and increasingly so toward the center of the pie. That pizza showcased its crust -- the tomato, bit of cheese and basil were more condiments than components. In my mind, it differs from the brick oven NY style pizza because it is not crispy and has far less cheese. Numero 28's is Naples style with more cheese. I think I prefer the crispier NY style, but I'd definitely come back to this place.
Sushi Yasuda **** - Omakase lunch here with two of my favorite eating
companions. This is their top choice for sushi anywhere in the world and now I have to agree. Sat in front of Yasuda-San who was friendly, gracious and served up the best sushi I've ever had. His rice is delicious, each piece of sushi expertly made and perfectly proportioned to leave you wanting more. After I mentioned something about hot dog eating contests, he snapped to attention, a huge grin came across his face and he started laughing. He proceeded to crack himself (and us) up as he shared stories of other interesting shows: a sausage eating contest between a man and a grizzly bear, a long jump contest between an olympic long jumper and a frisbee dog, and a foot race between man and zebra. I love this guy. (I can only assume that Yasuda-San gets Japanese direct tv?) Thanks to J and A for an unforgettable birthday lunch.OMS/B ** - Lunch take out shop. Rice balls, topped with good stuff. I'd grab something from here.
Dousoeur de Paris *** One of the reasons I'm not a pastry fan is that pastries are usually too sweet for my tastes. Dousoeur de Paris stands out by producing beautiful, flavorful and well balanced french pastries. Yay! I knew it could be done. My friends felt the items could have been sweeter, but I was happy. This would be my top pick for pastry for myself or for a gift. Too bad there's no space in the shop to sit and enjoy their offerings.
Amy's Bread - My dessert loving friends with sweet tooths love the cake here. I have to trust them on this because it was too sweet for me.
Ruby et Violette - Cute little cookie shop. I liked the butter pecan cookie.
Azuri *** delicious falafel pita. Fresh crispy falafel, soft pita, smooth hummus. Crunchy, nutty, spicy, creamy, tangy --good.
Kyotofu ** - Nothing to say about the non dessert food here, but the black sesame sweet tofu with hoji cha green tea syrup was worth the stop.
Company * - The pizza here is ok. The crust is California style, that is, medium thickness, a bit more on the bready side and overloaded with toppings. I can see other folks liking it. The menu reminded me of Mozza in LA, but the food is nowhere near as good.
Peter Luger *** I've never had the steak here. We went to the Brooklyn restaurant for a hamburger lunch on a Sunday. Grace's comments. The burger was around $10 and yes, make a reservation.
Momofuku Ko **** The lunch and dinner have somewhat blended together in my mind (though they are different), but this is the best place I've eaten in years. Definitely go for either lunch or dinner. The pairings are a must, they have an excellent sommalier. In addition to the 10 a.m. reservation attempt, you can check randomly during the day and might happen upon a cancellation. [Details coming soon on a separate post.]Perilla ** - To be fair, we ate a late night dinner here after having the epic Momofuku lunch. That was an impossible act to follow. With that in mind, the food here was fine except the edamame falafel, which were just completely wrong in texture and taste. The standout was the duck. I'd be happy to return to give it a fair shake.
Extra Virgin * - Warm pistachio crusted goat cheese salad with roasted beats and a very standard eggs benedict. I wish their bloody mary's were better. Ross's baked eggs looked better than my benedict. Good neighborhood people watching spot. I'd return for a lazy breakfast, if I lived close by.
Bespoke Chocolates **** - Pretzel covered sea salt caramels, peanut butter chocolates.
Babbo *** - Cannot remember the names of all the dishes: beef cheek ravioli, mint love letters, farro in a beet sauce, Florentine tripe, greens, sweet potato lunes, porchetta/suckling pig. Good sommalier. My favorite were the lamb's brain francobolli and the lamb's tongue. We also had three desserts all of which were devoured immediately because they were so delicious. Overall the entrees were good, but the desserts absolutely stole the show.
Dessert Truck *** - Warm molten chocolate cake with olive oil ganache hazelnuts and vanilla ice cream; Chocolate bread pudding with vanilla sauce. Still a bit sweet for my tastes, but enough salt to balance out the sweet chocolate.Artisanal ** - Cheese flights. Unusual Ones: Ibores (goat, Spain), Amarelo da beira baiza (goat/sheep, Portugal), Caerphilly Gorwydd (cow, Wales), Pairings: Guner Veltliner domaine wachau 07, Vovray Argilex Gautier Loire 06, Dolcetto d'alba ada nada Piedmont 07. Fromager's Select: Monte Enebro (goat, Spain), Pierre Robert (cow, France), Epoisses (cow, France), Pairings: Sancerre domaine la croix Loire 08, Chenin blanc mulderbosch South Africa 08, Tempranillo 'crianza' abando rioja 04. Italian Heritage: Robiola rochetta (sheep/cow), Fontima d'aosta (cow), Gorganzola cremificato (cow), Pairings: Soave 'vigneti de monteforte' santi Veneto 07, Chianti colli senesi tricciano Tuscany 07, Aglianico "donnakuna" de conciliis Salerno 06.
Szechuan Gourmet ** - Nice mapo tofu, dumplings, noodles. Not so sure about the eel hot pot, but would definitely return to try more of the menu.
Cho Dang Gol ** Tofu Doru Chige, huge enough that even Ross could not finish it! Nice panchan and fresh tofu, really enjoyed the mixed rice.
Stone Home Wine Bar *** - This is a cute little wine bar in Fort Greene. Nice flights of wine and the right food to accompany it. Good place for an evening of conversation with friends.
Assi Market Food Court * - I was meeting someone for lunch in Flushing. They parked here, so we went in. Assi is a Korean supermarket, with a hot food section in the back. It's too small to be a food court and there are only two counters. One for prepared foods and another for ordering soups and stews.
There were a few Korean families eating on the little stools there, but I'm not sure what the turnover rate is in terms of food freshness, so I stayed away from the prepared sashimi. The kalbi tang was fine.
Chickalicious Dessert Club ** - a take out place across from Chickalicious Dessert Bar. It was so hot we ate two of these green tea shave ice. It's finer than the one in the Flushing Mall, but more coarse than the ones in Oahu. The green tea was full flavored and I liked the azuki beans and ice cream -- perfect for a hot day.
Previous Post: NYC Trip Part I
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Key:
**** - Highly Recommended
*** - Recommended
** - Would Return
* - OK
0 - Would Not Return
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