The Vegetarian New Yorker

Croissant notes

2009-12-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

These are from a while ago.

Pret a Manger: good shatter, nice and soft, warm, decent-good chocolate, tasty overall, little lacking ina wholeness of buttery flavor. 6.5

Amai Tea House (now closed, sadly) - flaky on the outside, a little spongy on the inside, almost as if there were a touch of pastry cream. Both the dough and chocolate were very savory. A touch greasy. 6

Claude Patisserie - flaky on outside, a little too thick/bready on inside. Also lacking in flavor. Not a great fan of the chocolate used. But warm. 5.5

Madeleine - choc croissant light, partially flaky. Pleasant. Choc good. Choc-almond is much denser, more brioche-like, tasty thick pastry cream-like filling. Good. 7/7

Petrossian - superflaky, mod greasy on bottom, excellent choc, wonderful buttery flavor, made me want to finish it. 8.5

Tisserie chocolate almond: like Madeleine. Not flaky - a little soft. Avg ingredients incl chocolate but overall effect quite tasty. Powdered sugar + choc + flour always good combo. 7.

Locanda Verde

2009-05-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

Locanda Verde, located at 377 Greenwich St. in Tribeca, is the latest incarnation of a Robert Deniro-owned restaurant formerly known as Ago. When the name was changed, the chef was as well, and Andrew Carmellini, formerly known for his superlative work at A Voce, took over. The prices dropped too.

When I visited LV, it was filled -- even on a Tuesday evening. The restaurant sports a contemporary but woody atmosphere, and the servers and hostesses were without exception friendly and charming.

The food was delicious. The appetizer bread, a sort of pizza focaccia, was crusy, earthy, and had a delicious covering of melted cheese on top. It was served room temperature, and its thick fluffy dough and heartiness made me ask for another.

My main course was a pasta course, a malfagliatti, which was cooked in a pesto sauce with parmesan. The pasta, the pesto, the accompanying pine nuts, and the parmesan were all excellent. No missteps here, except for the fact that the portion was too small. There is no way you could eat just that portion and be full.

So I also had a side of broccoli cooked in olive oil and gratings of cheese. Also fantastic. The broccoli was perfectly cooked, the garlicky spices delectable.

Finally, and certainly no slouch, was dessert. I got a panna cotta with strawberry and rhubarb on the side. The panna cotta -- and I'm usually not such a fan -- was like an incredible cozy vanilla pudding. The strawberry and rhubarb were fresh and complemented it. They were accessorized with a small chocolate biscuit, also baked with excellent technique. The dessert as a whole was scrumptious, although, again, perhaps too small. Though given health issues maybe that's a good thing!

All in all, the reinveted restaurant at the corner of Greenwich and N. Moore is a warm and very human creation, with a menu that conveys the charm, personality, and culinary acumen of its creators.

Stars: 5/5

Num Pang

2009-03-23T13:48:00.001-07:00

Num Pang is a new Cambrodian sandwich shop that jsut opened on 12th St. between 5th Ave. and University Pl. It's a spin-off from Malaysian restaurant Kampuchea on the lower east side. I ordered their sole vegetarian sandwich, a scrumptious grilled cauliflower and eggplant that is a spiritual cousin to banh mi. Moderately spicy (and the spice level can be increased with the little pods of Sriracha they'll give you for hot sauce), tender eggplant, slightly chewier on the cauliflower, and good, warm sandwich bread (though perhaps this is the sandwich's weak point all said and done) -- this sandwich is a clear winner.

Stars: 4/5

Crema

2009-03-17T08:31:00.001-07:00

Cream is a relatively high-end Mexican restaurant in Chelsea, on w 17th st. between 6th and 7th. I loved the look inside, especially its bathrooms, which had a natural motif -- pebbles were layered in the washbasin, and the water drained into them, and pebbles were also embedded into the bathroom floor.

I ordered a vegetarian "royale" platter (as opposed to the regular veg. platter, which came with fewer things), which came with a bunch of things:

* yuca fries - which were thick and garlicky and tasty, though perhaps a touch undercooked
* a truffle empanada, quite tasty, although the empanada was baked rather than fried - this is not my preference usually
* black beans and rice - both quite good though not standout. The rice was not the usual red Mexican rice.
* grilled vegetables - good
* a potato enchilada - this was excellent, small and fat and tasty

Overal the foods had a set of earthy tastes and textures, and were accompanied by a small "shot" of an extremely spicy and tasty salsa.

Well that's all I remember. I think the food as a whole was good, although perhaps expensive for what it was. I personally am much more excited by the thought of a more traditional Mexican restaurant with awesome guacamole and salsa than I am by this kind of fusion high-end Mexican, so I don't think it's on my list of revisits, but it's good to know that the cuisine is being pushed.

Stars: 4/5

Zero Otto Nove

2009-03-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Arthur Ave is of course the "Little Italy" of the Bronx, if you will, and unlike Little Italy, it still retains a relatively untouristy character. Small, active Italian grocery stores and old-school restaurants line the streets. Zero Otto Nove departs a little from this ideal, at least in its interior, which is a beautiful, high-ceilinged space backed by a fresco of a picturesque Italian town.

ZON is an Italian place known for its pizza, and the pizza is what we tried there. I had a margherita, while friends tried a quattro formaggio and a caprese (this latter had arugula, among other things). The crust was was wonderful, perfectly in-between chewiness and crispness, and the sauce and cheese were delicious and fresh. The cheese was from the highly-renowned mozzarella maker Casa Della Mozzarella. All in all, this was a highly recommended pizzeria, and properly so.

Stars: 5/5

Keep checking My Favorite Restaurants

2009-03-12T02:11:00.001-07:00

Keep checking my favorite restaurant list, since I update it more often than I post new posts to the blog :-). Today I compiled a list of eleven guaranteed blow-your-mind NYC food experiences...

Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop

2009-03-04T10:30:00.001-08:00

Eisenberg's is a jewish deli and a veritable institution. Its sits on 5th Ave. between 22nd and 23rd, and a friendly guy mans the place and infuses it with his attitude - jokey and casual. I ordered an egg salad sandwich, a chocolate egg cream, and onion rings (a gluttonous meal!). The egg salad was creamy and simple, pure in its eggy tastes and perfect smooth texture. The bread was good but could have been better. The onion rings were also tasty, and I especially liked the fact that the onion inside was cooked such that biting into the ring I didn't drag the whole onion out. The onion took well to the bite, in other words. The chocolate egg cream was excellent, with a great balance between chocolate, milk, and seltzer. Finally, a chocolate chip cookie with a hint of espresso made a great dessert. Its medium-size and dense texture reminded me a little bit of my favorite chocolate chip cookie -- the one at Chocolate Bar.

Stars: 4/5

San Marzano pizza

2009-02-20T23:27:00.001-08:00

San Marzano pizzeria is a newish pizza place on the lower east side, at the corner of Clinton and Rivington. It has a simple, homey atmosphere with a takeout counter right up front and a menu prominently displayed on the board behind the counter.

SM has both pizzas and calzones. I opted for the former, and got a pomodoro (fresh mozzarella, vine-ripened tomatoes, garlic, basil, parsley), and half of that with caramelized onions and roasted peppers. The pie came out thin, but with a nice, slightly smoky twang to the crust. The crust was partway between crisp and fluffy, and was delicious, though perhaps a hair too dry. The cheese and ingredients were both delectable, with the tomato-cheese-garlic combination reminding me a little bit of the pizza at either Sally's or Pepe's in New Haven -- I can't remember which!

Anyway, really delicious, and a top contender for some of the best pizza in New York.

Stars: 5/5

Dessert Truck - Molten Chocolate Cake - EAT NOW

2009-02-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

I had the molten chocolate cake with pistachios at the Dessert Truck this evening and it was simply out of this world. A rich, hot puddle of molten chocolate oozes from the velvety embrace of a thin layer of chocolate cake. As you eat it, they swoon into each other, and are tricked out with just a bit of an edge by salty roasted pistachios. Just unbelievably good. Fantastic. You must seek this dessert out immediately if you have any love for warmth, chocolate, and cake.

Delhi Heights

2009-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Delhi Heights is an Indian restaurant located in the highly Indian Queens area of Jackson Heights. Like many of its counterparts in places like Edison, NJ, it feqtatures a very long menu with South Indian, North Indian, and Indo-Chinese specialties. The ambiance is that of a fairly standard relatively inexpensive sit-down place. They offered a buffet, but we opted to go a la carte.

We started with a fried cauliflower Manchurian, an Indo-Chinese dish whose rendition was decent but nothing special. It is ultimately hard to screw up a dish like this, whose combination of a tasty vegetable, oil, and spices left it reasonably good. But the dough in which it was fried could have been fresher, and the cauliflower crunchier. We also got a papri chaat -- a dish with yogurt, sweet and spicy sauces, pieces of boiled potato, and crunchy pieces of fried dough all mixed into a melange. It was fine, but the yogurt was a bit excessive and the whole felt heavy and not really worth in taste the price in heaviness.

For a main course, we got a lentil dish ("Dal Delhi Heights"), and also a "paneer bhurji" dish made with Indian cheese. We also got some naan for accompaniment. The dal dish disappointed despite the extensive overnight preparation required to make it. The paneer dish was pretty tasty but nothing I would go back for. The naan was also fine but very standard.

Overall the restaurant was an extremely average restaurant, and not the extraordinary place many reviews have made it out to be.

Stars: 3/5

Dirt Candy

2009-02-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

I had dinner at Dirt Candy in the East Village recently, and it was a wonderful and organic-y experience. Dirt Candy is a relatively small space with reasonable but not great ambience, tucked into a niche on e 9th st. They are a very new operation, have few tables, and, because they're so popular, practically speaking require a reservation to get a table. You can get one on opentable.

To start with, their bread is outstanding, which is not surprising considering its provenance: it's from Sullivan St. bakery. Its memorable chewiness and floury goodness is an example of the excellent DC strives for.

I ordered jalapeno hush puppies as a starter, and they are deep fried balls of dough with japalenos in them. Unlike most deep fried foods, these were not heavy. They were light but at the same time crunchy and had the deep fried goodness you would expect. The lightness and complete lack of after-taste in the batter along with nice accent of the jalapenos made for a great start. They were served with a maple butter that was a little hard for my taste but beautifully cut the mild spice.

My main course was a tofu ragout on greens. The greens were beautiful and varied, the dish came out a vivid verdant shade. The website claims this is cooked in a keffir lime "beurre blanc," or butter sauce, and that's precisely how it tasted. The vegetables were cooked to perfection, and had a beautiful crunch, though not too much. The taste was understated but highly satisfying.

Overall, this is a superb vegetarian restaurant that takes seriously its mission of making great food that just happens to be vegetarian.

Stars: 5/5

Brunch at Dovetail

2009-02-13T21:23:00.001-08:00

I had brunch at Dovetail, a restaurant on the upper west side. They do a prix-fixe menu with automatic starters and desserts, and you pick a main course. Their food, in a nutshell, is kind of expensive, and while good, is not startingly good. That's all I really have to say.

Stars: 3/5

Second Stop, Bespoke Chocolates

2009-02-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Second Stop:

Second Stop is an idiosyncratic and delightful new coffee shop in Williamsburg (524 Lorimer), close to the Lorimer stop off the L line. Full of tables surfaced with hammered copper and an old-style coke machine front as a bathroom door, SS has plenty of charm. Its Stumptown coffee is also particularly good, especially its "bees' knees" honey lattes and its definitely addictive doughnut muffins, coated as they are with granulated sugar and a slightly-crunchy, slightly melt-in-your-mouth texture. The only downside is that it's only been open a few weeks and it's already quite popular. Seating can be at a premium.

Stars: 5/5

Bespoke Chocolates:

This new chocolatier in the East Village off of 1st St. between the Bowery and 2nd Ave has only a small selection of chocolates so far, but they are superb. I tried an espresso milk chocolate truffle, with a semi-soft coffee filling on the inside. Its rich milk chocolate was mild and not cloying, and complemented the coffee taste very well. The Southampton tea truffles are large and beautiful and have a subtle tea flavor that blends in beautifully with the dark chocolate. Finally, the single origin dark chocolate truffle was probably my favorite. This chocolate confection was rich, soft, intense, and clearly fresh, and its dusting of cocoa powder made the experience just a little magical.

Stars: 5/5

Momofuku Milk Bar: Seriously Not Good

2009-01-29T17:40:00.001-08:00

This is the much-hyped bakery by Momofuku's creator, David Chang, and it sits in a prominent location east of Union Square, at 13th St. and 2nd Ave.

I've been here three times now and I've really tried to like it each time and each time I haven't. They somehow manage to mangle desserts that SHOULD taste great. Crack pie was TOO much butter! Compost cookie went down like a brick. Cereal milk is tasty for a reason -- because it comes at the end of a bowl of subtler cereal; by itself it's just too strong. Yudge. Candy bar pie picked the wrong types of candy bars to emulate -- the caramel tastes cheap. The soft serves are a bit better but still too much (and I say this as someone who usually likes too much). The pistachio flavor was too salty and bizarre when it existed, the chocolate malt that they serve now too malty. The root beer float flavor is too icy, and the orange julius tastes literally like frozen orange juice. Their cakes apparently are no better -- I tried the one with yellow cake crumbs and it was cold, with the cake hard, the frosting bland, and the overall cake tasting like a supermarket cake or worse, but for much more money.

Unfortunately, this is a place that is just plain bad.

Stars: 1/5

Ben's Grandma Slice

2008-11-11T11:41:00.001-08:00

I went to the Ben's pizzeria at the corner of Macdougal and W 3rd and had a grandma slice. This large, doughy, slice with plenty of cheese, tomatoes, and garlic is not the height of gourmet-ness. Not unbelievably high quality ingredients here. But it's addictive and tasty and makes me want to go back and eat it again. That's high praise in my book.

Stars: 4/5

Magnolia's, Sweet Revenge

2008-11-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

Magnolia's:

I tried Magnolia's on the upper west side. I'd of course heard a lot about it but hadn't actually ried it, even though I've tried a lot of other cupcakeries. Shockingly bad. Wow. The frosting tasted authentically chalky -- way too much confectioners' sugar is all I can surmise. Yudge.

Stars: 1/5

Sweet Revenge:

I recently tried this new bakery in village on Carmine. First, its cupcakes look beautiful, with carefully styled frosting and streaks of colored food gel in it. Second, they are quite tasty. I had the crimson, which had creamcheese frosting, a raspberry theme, and raspberries baked into the middle. They serve it to you in a cup, and give you a flat wooden spoon to eat it with. Excellent.

Stars: 4/5

Andre's Hungarian Pastry Shop, Cafe Noi

2008-11-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

Andre's:

This rustic little Hungarian coffee shop has a sense of warmth and charm that is great all by itself. It has table service, but I decided to just grab one of these plastic-wrapped pastries and go. For only $1.50, these takeout-only items are a bargain. I got one of their kugelhopf slices (also known as babka). It was a big hunk of sweet bread with a crispy crust, which teeth tear into to reveal golden sugar and raisins. Delectable.

Stars: 5/5

Cafe Noi:

This is a pretty simple coffee shop with a tasty danish. Tat's all that I had. And it was good!

Stars: 4/5

Ronnybrook, Five Points, Abraco, Square Meal, Dhaba

2008-11-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

Bunch of quick updates.

Ronnybrook Milk Bar in Chelsea Market - fantastic breakfast food items and shakes (not too thick, delicious...try the blueberry)

Stars: 5/5

Five Points - excellent brunch. Try the churros with Mexican hot chocolate, and the mac and cheese.

Stars: 5/5

Abraco - very nice simple entrees, mainly because they use excellent olive-oiley bread. Try their french onion soup (vegetarian!) and their focaccia sandwiches. Also, their frittatas are creamy and nice. And their coffee is delicious.

Stars: 5/5

Square meal - delicious upper east side place with very nice cheese scones to start. I had an excellent grilled cheese (they grill it in olive oil). I'm docking it a little for their relative dearth of vegetarian options.

Stars: 4/5

Dhaba - decent new Indian food joint on Lex between 27 and 28 by the makers of Chola. I had a pani puri which was a little lacking in the sugar element and a channa bhatura where the channa was a little dry.

Stars: 3/5

Scarpetta

2008-08-14T07:24:00.001-07:00

I went to Scott Conant's Scarpetta last night, located on W 14th between 8th and 9th, closer to 9th. It's received a lot of good press in recent weeks, with The Times giving it three stars.

Scarpetta gives the impression of a trendy bar setting juxtaposed against the white-washed brick walls of a old New York warehouse. Rows of exposed filament lightbulbs stand encased within glass boxes hanging from the ceiling. I saw something similar to this style at Macondo as well, and I get the feeling it's a popular look these days.

My bread basket was introduced as having salami in it, so I told the waiter I was vegetarian, and he brought me back a vegetarian version of the bread basket. The breads were decent but did not have the immense flavor or amazing addictive quality that the best breads have. The spreads were interesting, however. A mascarpone-butter was light and enjoyable. An eggplant spread was ok, and a citrus olive oil was fresh-tasting.

For my dishes, I ordered a polenta with a fricasee of truffled mushrooms. The mushrooms were in a light sauce in a separate stainless-steel pot, and the waiter poured some of them poured over the polenta. The polenta itself was creamy and tasty, and the mushrooms were cooked well. Well done for what it was, but ultimately kind of bland.

This was my basic complaint with the famous spaghetti pomodoro as well. It comes in a light basil sauce. In my opinion, the fat spaghetti could have been cooked a touch less. The simple red sauce was so light it didn't have adequate savor. A little red pepper gave it its only bite. Again, decent comfort food, but I kept eating hoping for some greater satisfaction, and I didn't get it. Basically, too bland. Olive oil and pasta is of course not going to taste bad, but it did not wow me.

The service at Scarpetta was professional and courteous, the prices decent but not great, and the room filled with 20-40 yr old yuppies. Overall, like L'Impero before it, a nice place (though much hipper than L'I), but not one which I'm excited about revisiting.

Stars: 3/5

Red Hook Eats: Soccer Fields, Steve's Key Lime Pies, Baked

2008-08-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

I went to Red Hook over the weekend and explored some of its famous culinary destinations.

Soccer field vendors:
The ballfields had the famous crowds, and the food was tasty. I had an excellent Chilean cheese empanada -- though how could one really go wrong with deep fried dough and cheese? It did have a delicious very spicy salsa, though. Cheese pupusas were similarly tasty, though the vegetable ones lacking cheese were a little too dry for my taste. Though they're good, they are not worth an hour's wait, though.

Stars: 4/5

Steve's Key Lime Pies

Steve's KLP are located in a quaint corner near the water with catchy kitschy signs and an boat-turned-garden near the entrance to its location. The key lime pie is highly limey and tasty, but the real star is the swingle, which is a 4" pie dipped in chocolate and frozen. Fantastic.

Stars: 5/5 on the strength of the swingle

Baked

Baked is a famous bakery that extends its reach over all New York now through various distributors, like Cafe Royale in the W. Village. I tasted a salty caramel-chocolate cake, a peanut butter whoopie pie, and a chocolate chip cookie. The frosting on the cake and whoopie pie were too hard, something later explained by a server who told us that the cakes had come out of the refrigerator not much earlier. This is not really a good excuse, but it's something of an explanation. In any case, I found the frosting too buttery for my taste. On the cake, the cake was too clumped together and not fine-grained enough.

However, the chocolate chip cookie was marvellous. Of the thicker, well-cooked variety, it had a nice toasty outside and a crumbly-to-soft interior. The chocolate was of high quality, and the overall cookie experience was in the "best" league of the city - not surprising since one of my other top choices, Chocolate Bar, used to be co-owned by the owner of Baked. And Chocolate Bar carries many goods from Jacques Torres, who makes my third favorite chocolate chip cookie. So there are links to be found here...

Stars: 4/5 (for the cookie)

Da Andrea

2008-08-03T21:52:00.001-07:00

After all the applause Da Andrea gets on CH, I decided to try out this W. Village restaurant. My tri-color salad was kind of bland, and, unforgivably, my penne pasta was seriously undercooked, definitely beyond "al dente" and into "al rigid." The sauce was nothing great either. My servers were nice and the bread decent, but that's about all the good stuff I can say about this place.

Stars: 2/5

Subtle Tea

2008-07-30T11:05:00.001-07:00

I had an ice tea at Subtle Tea the other day. Subtle Tea is located at Madison just north of 30th. It has a large array of teas, and I got to taste for free one of their chai lattes. You can add things to their lattes, and I sampled one to which they had added peanut butter. Fantastic.

I had a chocolate chai, which was refreshing and kind of addictive.

Stars: 4/5

WD-50

2008-07-30T11:02:00.001-07:00

I went to WD-50 the other night. In short, the mains were strange but interesting. Nothing I would go back for, except perhaps my eggs florentine (everyone else had the eggs benedict) which had two perfectly gelatinous yolks with a piece of crisped spinach sticking out of it. They went very well indeed with the fried hollandaise sauce sitting in neat cubes near them. The textures were interesting, and the tastes interacted really well together in my mouth.

The desserts were really stealing the show here, though. From the jasmine custard dessert with a sublime banana sorbet and pockets of caramel touched with earl gray powder to chocolate "packets" that look like ketchup packets, to be eaten with yuzu ice cream cubes, the desserts matched form with substance, and looked interesting and tasted great.

Stars: 3/5 for the main courses, 5/5 for the desserts

Macondo

2008-07-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Macondo is a spot in the lower-east side that I would describe as island-hip. Filled with finished-unfinished wood tables, concrete floors, transparent-filament bulbs enclosed in large glass globes, and open to the street, the pan-Latin upscale eatery evokes a feeling of staying at an island resort, but a design-savvy one.

Service was cheerful and reasonably prompt. The backless stools, though, are not best suited for comfort. Maybe they wanted to encourage a little intensity.

As far as the food, it's a tapas style system, and that goes for their excellent drinks (all of one of which I tried). Their cocktail list is inventive and extensive, and I had an avocado mezcal drink that tasted like a really well-balanced margarita, with a center of heavy soft slush.

For food, we had several items. Vegetarian arepas filled with spinach, goat cheese, onions, and tomatoes were served not in the sandwich version you might expect at the Caracas arepas bar, but instead as thick slices of arepa on a bed of salad. These were good but a little bready. Cheese croquettes were decent but came a little lukewarm. A mixed green "Quisqueya" salad with asparagus, almonds, and mixed greens was also good but nothing special. Perhaps the best entrees were the patatas bravas, which came nicely cooked in hearty cuts and with a tasty chili sauce (though they could have been a little more generous with the sauce) and the "Setas" vegetarian flatbread, with onions, mushrooms, membrillo, cheese, and pistachio. I enjoyed the dark nuttiness and complexity of the flatbread.

Overall, the food here was above average, and the cocktail I had was excellent, but you would really come here for the excellent atmosphere and an interesting menu that gives you access to a lot of Latin cuisine (including Spanish cuisine) in a small place.

Stars: 4/5

Sacco slices of pizza

2008-07-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Sacco is a slice joint in Midtown West, on 9th ave. just north of 54th. It serves delicious slices particularly notable for the high stretchiness of the dough, the tastiness of the cheese, and the delicious-lookingness of the appearance. I did like the sauce too, but I felt it might have been a little bit too dark in taste, and so it reminded me just a little bit too much of Prego spaghetti sauce.

Stars: 4/5

Prune for Brunch

2008-07-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

I had the famous brunch at Prune the other day. Since I went on a Saturday, it was not too crowded, and I got a seat (albeit at the bar) immediately.

Prune is a fairly-ordinary looking place, though not without charm. I ordered a glass of "almond milk," a substance derived from blending water with crushed almonds. It was mild and pleasant. I ordered stewed chickpeas with poached eggs for my main course. The chickpeas, made with tomatoes, were overall good but a little too vinegary for my taste. Also, I thought the portions overall a little small.

While I enjoyed brunch at Prune, it did not strike me as particularly special.

Stars: 3/5

La Esquina Cafe

2008-07-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

La Esquina has been a trendy club in Soho for a while now. I ate recently at the attached cafe, which is less trendy, but also does not require reservations. I simply had their chile relleno, which is filled with little cheese and a lot of pumpkin. It's fine, but nothing special. The rice and beans served along with it could have been more exciting as well.

Stars: 3/5

Totonno's Coney Island

2008-07-14T10:37:00.001-07:00

The Totonno's on Coney Island is considered one of the truly great old-school Manhattan pizzerias, and for historical value is in the same league as Di Fara's, Grimaldi's, and Patsy's in East Harlam (notwithstanding that this Patsy's pizza is above-average but not great).

Totonno's is located on Neptune Ave., a few streets away from the hustle and bustle of the Coney Island boardwalk, in a very spartan old-fashioned pizza restaurant. Decor is not emphasized.

We got a large pizza, half-plain and and half with peppers and onions. The basic consistency of the dough is satisfyingly chewy. The cheese was a little non-descript in flavor for my taste, but it was still good. The tomato sauce was mild but pleasant. This is a pizza that goes down easy and can stand eating over and over again. This is not an intensely pleasurable, decadent experience. It's more like a laid-back friend whose company at lunchtime is consistently enjoyable.

Stars: 4/5

The Chocolate Room

2008-07-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Chocolate Room is an incredible chocolate-centered dessert cafe which serves cakes, cookies, ice cream, shakes, hot chocolate, and the like in a sleek if somewhat cramped Cobble Hill space (this is their second location; their first is in Park Slope). We started with a Valrhona chocolat sorbet, which was soft, served just at the right temperature, and had beautiful floral chocolate notes.

I tasted a small, thick, round, soft chocolate walnut cookie, which was moist and tasty. For a main course, we had a brownie sundae, probably the best of its type I have ever had. The brownie, which was warm and light, seemed an ethereal expression of chocolate that melded perfectly with the denser hot fudge beneath it, the cool refreshing vanilla ice cream above it, and the crowning, luscious whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. All five layers together were a transporting sonata, a meditation on chocolate, cream, eggs, texture, and temperature that was transcendent.

That finished up the "meal," but there is so much more I want to try there. Perhaps the hot chocolate made with Guittard and bourbon vanilla, or the milkshakes, or the tantalizing-looking chocolate cake. But it is without a doubt that this place rocks.

Stars: 5/5

Alloro

2008-07-08T22:49:00.001-07:00

I was excited to try Alloro, the new green-clad Italian restaurant in the Upper East Side, because I love Cacio e Pepe, its older sibling in the East Village, so much. Alloro is currently hidden behind a little construction, but forgiven that flaw, I was greeted with a snazzy green interior, replete with ruined-decadence chandeliers. The chairs are green, the floor is green, the walls are green. Even the proprietress's necklace is green.

This snazzy interior held a lot of great food. The bread was quite reminiscent of CeP. It's a little tough and heavy on the crust, while the interior softness seems all too insubstantial. It's kind of addictive. It came with a nice sundried tomato dipping sauce, nice and oily.

For appetizers, we ordered an spinach salad with toasted almonds and an immaculate balsamic vinegar. We also had an eggplant Parmesan, "traditional and revisited." This interesting dish consisted on one side of an eggplant Parmesan complete with heavy red sauce, eggplant tenderly cooked and the cheesiness just right. On the other side, a delectably chewy fried mozzarella was topped with a creamed eggplant a little suggestive of a baba ganouj, but somehow fluffier. It was topped by a small delicious Parmesan cracker.

Second courses consisted of a fusilli and a cannelloni. The chewy and fresh fusilli came in an arugula pesto that hit just the right notes of bitter and salty, and lay under a cloud of parmesan emulsion. The cannelloni (supposedly crispy, but actually unfortunately not so crispy) ensconced ricotta and mozzarella and lay in red sauce. Both dishes were moderately creative, in ways that enhanced rather than detracted from the flavor and texture of their dishes.

Dessert was a watermelon ice topped with a white chocolate mousse, and a bavarian cream. The mousse had a consistency a little bit like mascarpone, interrupted with chunks of white chocolate. The bavarian cream was colored dark and flavored of blueberries. It sat in a little pool of stark red wild berries and a berry sauce, and was topped with a lemon liqueur foam. Both desserts hit the mark really well.

The service was reasonable, and the price is right. Overall, the dinner was superb. In terms of craveability, my most important criterion, this is my favorite Italian in New York City right now.

Stars: 5/5

Alidoro

2008-07-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

Alidoro Soho is a venerable sandwich shop whose ownership changed last year. It's a small place, with no frills, ordering at the counter, no utensils, no plates, and no glasses of water(only bottles).

It serves up craftsman-quality Italian sandiwches, each with its own name. They are all served cold, and tend to have three or four ingredients: often a cheese and/or meat, a couple of vegetables, and possibly some dressing.

I ordered a Valentino sandwich on white bread, which comes with smoked mozzarella, artichokes, sweet red peppers, and arugula. I added m bel paese cheese (a mild creamy cheese) and dressing, which is a variety of a balsalmic dressing.

The sandwich was excellent. It was prepared with care, and every ingredient tasted fresh and of high quality. The bread was properly crusty and delectable. The cheese was smoked and delicious. The red peppers were delicate and, yes, sweet, and the artichokes were fresh and marinated to a texture that yielded but not too quickly. The dressing was good, too, but perhaps a just a little much in the context of the other ingredients. That's my fault, though, since I added it onto the recipe.

Perhaps my only fault with the sandwiches is that while they are perfect for what they are, they really are awfully simple and perhaps a little lacking in spice. Also, they seemed a little small and not so filling.

All in all, though, an excellent shop.

Stars: 4/5

Batch

2008-07-04T21:15:00.001-07:00

Batch is a West Village bakery started by the pastry chef, Pichet Ong, who started P*ong, the restaurant next door to Batch. P*ong specializes in integrating sweet flavors into otherwise-savory dishes.

Batch is a more straight sweet affair. I ordered a few different things. A chocolate chip cookie was crispy on the outside, but a too dry on the inside. A vietnamese coffee cake, made with condensed milk vietnamese coffee, was similarly a little too dry. A strawberry rice pudding was mild and aromatic but not sweet enough. A ginger cookie was unimpressive.

The dessert I really enjoyed and the clear standout of the group was the carrot salted caramel cupcake. Here the frosting was deliciously dense and multi-layered in flavor, while the cake's drier carrot-nature added a nice contrast.

Batch is not bad, but other than the cupcake I tried, it is nothing special.

Stars: 3/5

Quick impressions: Sfoglia, Aquavit revisited, apizz

2008-07-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sfoglia: Tasty but fairly forgettable Italian food served in a small, memorable rustic setting. I liked it, but not immensely, and was not pleased by the price. Stars: 3/5

Aquavit revisited: As excellent as ever. The goat cheese salad and salsify noodles are standouts, as was the rhubarb tasting, complete with spoon made out of rhubarb. The ambience is a stark and transporting Scandinavian and the service is attentive. Stars: 5/5

apizz: This lower-east side joint is recommended by so many Chowhounds for a reason. A sweet open kitchen constitutes the heart of the room, and the whole thing speaks elegant yet casual. A truffle oil flatbread pizza was delectable and the best dish we ate, and my mushroom risotto was excellent as well (though perhaps not as good as my friend's sage butter and pumpkin ravioli). I also loved the bread served with a wonderful marinara. A spinach salad was good but could have used more variety in texture. Stars: 5/5

Blue Hill

2008-06-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

We had dinner at Blue Hill a few weeks ago. This restaurant, which also operates a farm and restaurant in Westchester, from which it sources many of its vegetables and meat, reminded me of a simple country meal artistically elevated in excellence. It's actually not simple at all, but that's its spirit.

The meal started with some delicious bread that my fellow diners and I kept gobbling down. The bread slid down right good with the addition of some soft-as-a-kiss fresh butter from a dairy farm (though not Blue Hill's). The bread was warm, and cut open with a knife and butter-stuffed was excellent.

An amuse bouche was fresh radish, still on a small stalk, and hung bulb-down in precious stands. These were fantastic radishes, crisp and vivid with the deliciousness of vegetable youth.

We had four courses, but I've forgotten one of them (though I remember liking it). The first course I remember was a beautiful asparagus salad, with slender white asparagus and a kind of pea puree or something like that on the plate. Beautiful ramps decorated the plate. The next course I recall was an incredible vegetarian farro, again in a medley of vegetable purees and touched with parmesan. The freshness of the vegetables was apparent. What I liked about it was the perfect texture of the farro, the bursting-with-flavor zest of the sauce, and an elegant presentation. It was characteristic of the dishes at Blue Hill -- elegant yet colorful both in taste and appearance. Dessert for me was a lovely chocolate bread pudding with banana ice cream. They went together surprisingly well.

Throughout service was professional and unobtrusive. All in all, Blue Hill was a first-class gourmet experience for vegetarians.

Stars: 5/5

My favorite restaurants

2008-06-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

I want to keep a very informal track of my favorite restaurants -- the ones that I actually crave and want to revisit here. I suppose in some sense these are the true 5-stars! These are the places I would take visitors without hesitation for really delightful food.

Eleven guaranteed blow-your-mind NYC food experiences:
Molten chocolate cake at the dessert truck
Shroomburger at Shake Shack
Pizza at Grimaldi's, well-done
Black and white milkshake at Stand
Red velvet cupcake at Buttercup Bakery
Sicilian slice at Artichoke
Chocolate croissant at Brasserie Cognac
Original sour cream apple walnut pie at Little Pie Co., warmed, served a la mode
Paneer Kati Roll at Kati Roll Co.
Honey latte at Second Stop

Brunch:
Clinton St. Baking Co. (for pancakes especially, also muffins) (LES)
The Smith (french toast, mac and cheese) (EV)
Jane (french toast) (WV)
Stanton Social (everything, esp. bomboloni) (LES)
Farm at Adderley (french toast, everything)
Buttermilk Channel (pecan french toast)
August (cast-iron dishes) (WV)
Sarabeth's (fresh muffins) (multiple locations)
Bocca Lupo (Brooklyn)
Telepan (bread basket) (UWS)

Five Points (bread basket, chocolate stuff, egg dishes) (EV)

Ronnybrook Milk Bar (cast iron eggs, croissant egg sandwich, roasted potatoes with garlic and butter, milkshakes) (Chelsea)
Moto (Williamsburg...delicious pancakes, donuts)
Taste (UES)
Corner Bakery (UES)
Olea (french toast, fresh chocolate croissants)
iCi (french toast)

Chocolates: Pierre Marcolini, Maison du Chocolat, Bespoke Chocolates, Kee's, Mondel's, Neuhaus, Martine's, Bespoke Chocolate (EV), Teuscher for champaign truffles (UES)
Chocolate Chip Cookies: Chocolate Bar, Jacques Torres, Baked, Petrossian's Cafe, David Burke and Donatella at Bloomingdale's
Brownie: Fat Witch, David Burke and Donatella at Bloomingdale's
Hot Chocolate: Dessert Truck, Grom (also try their affogato)
Chocolate Bread Pudding: Dessert Truck, Russ & Daughters (chocolate bagel pudding)
Chocolate Cake: Two Little Red Hens
Chocolate Gelato: Il Laboratorio di Gelato
Chocolate Sorbet: The Chocolate Room (Brooklyn)
Chocolate croissant: David Burke and Donatella at Bloomingdale's, Petrossian's Cafe, Bouley, Brasserie Cognac, Eli's (UES), Tarallucci e Vino
Chocolate milkshake (or milkshakes generally): Stand, Ronnybrook Milk Bar, Shake Shack
Iced Chocolate: Chocolate Bar

Chocolate Dumpling: Rickshaw Dumpling Bar
Molten Chocolate Cake: Dessert Truck

Ice Cream/Gelato:
Il Laboratorio di Gelato
Shake Shack
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory
Stand
Grom
Otto (for the olive oil gelato)
Mr. Softee (sometimes it hits the spot)

Ronnybrook Milk Bar (blueberry milkshake is awesome)

Baked Goods:
Croissants - David Burke & Donatella at Bloomingdales, Petrossian's Cafe, Bouley, Brasserie Cognac, Almondine, La Tropezienne, Madeleine, Tarallucci e Vino
Cupcakes - Kumquat Bakery (Brooklyn - only at flea right now or else visit Korean restaurant Do Hwa in Manhattan), Sugar Sweet Sunshine (LES - pumpkin), Buttercup Bakery (midtown east - red velvet especially), Sweet Revenge (WV - red velvet especially, chocolate was just ok), Crumbs (certain flavors, like Baba Booey), Eleni's (peanut butter)
Apple Pie: Little Pie Co. (only hell's kitchen location - get the original apple pie)
Other pies: Grey Dog Coffee
Bomboloni: Sullivan St. Bakery, Dessert Truck, Grandaisy, Almondine
Bread: Sullivan St. Bakery, Almondine
Brunch coffee cakes, etc. - Telepan
Scones - Clinton St. Baking Co., Alice's Teacup

Red Velvet Cake - Smooch (it's in Brooklyn, and the cake's vegan too, but tastes amazing!), Buttercup
Cheesecake: Imported lemon-ricotta cheesecake from Bedford Cheese Shop
Hungarian Pastries (try the kugelhopf): Andre's Hungarian Bakery
Vegan - Babycakes, Cakelove, the place that makes desserts for Smooch (Ft Greene) and Curly's (EV) - try the vegan red velvet

Churros - Five Points
Doughnuts - Peter Pan, Doughnut Plant (some of their donuts, like their chocolate thing)
Macarons: Dessert Truck, Cafe Macaron (midtown), Maison du Chocolat, Tafu (midtown)
Coconut Macaroons: Baked (Red Hook or outlets)
Muffins - Second Stop (Williamsburg - try donut muffins)
Misc - Russ & Daughters (try the chocolate babka and the bagel pudding)
Cookies - for choc chip see chocolate section; otherwise Something Sweet (EV) has delicious hard cookies; Baked (Red Hook or served at Cafe Royale in WV) for its chocolate-covered coconut macaroons
Rice pudding - Rice to Riches
Cake - Busy bee cake at Black Hound (EV, which otherwise has some mediocre stuff); Mississippi Mud cake at Little Pie Co, tiramisu at Obika
Japanese: Minamoto Kitchoan (midtown - try red bean cake), Tafu
Key lime pie: Steve's Key Lime Pies (Red Hook)
Cannoli & other italian desserts - Ricotta stand at Brooklyn flea, Villabate (Bensonhurst), Rocco's on Bleecker

Sit-down Desserts:
Midscale dessert parlors: Chocolate Room (Park Slope & Court St) - brownie sundae, Serendipity's (good ice cream concoctions, frozen hot chocolate)
Innovative but still tasty - WD-50, Graffiti
Vegan: Kyotofu
Other: Chikalicious (EV) - beautiful, though portions are small, Gramercy Tavern, Perry St (try their pudding)

Sandwiches:
Banh Mi Saigon Bakery
Abraco for their sandwich of the day
Shake Shack for their vegetarian "burger" (two portabello mushrooms around a block of muenster cheese - and the whole thing's deepfried)
Num Pang - cauliflower and eggplant
Barnyard - vegetarian sandwiches
Obika - fresh mozzarella
Nha Troi - banh mi

Salad:
Chop't
The side salads at Square Meal are excellent

Italian:
Locanda Verde (Tribeca)
Cacio e Pepe (EV) - esp. the signature cacio e pepe dish
Alloro (UES)
apizz (LES)
Perbacco (EV)
Supper (EV)
Celeste (UWS)
Obika - must try their fresh mozzarella dishes, tiramisu (Midtown East)
Spotted Pig - genuinely excellent gnudi, but it is a small portion and expensive for that
Bar Pitti (WV) - great salads and pasta
Tre - wonderful dishes and plating for reasonable prices. try the pasta primavera if they have it, and the tiramisu. (LES)
La Lanterna di Vittorio - beautiful garden in the back, delicious food, reasonable prices (WV)

American:
Westville
Shake Shack

Indian:
Cheap Gujurati: Gujurati Newsstand (but nonexistent service) at 6th and 37th
Somewhat less cheap Gujurati: Vatan
Standard N. Indian: Polash (Spanish Harlem!), Banjara (EV)
Standard N. Indian & S. Indian, somewhat upscale: Chola (Midtown East)
N. Indian upscale, good but not extraordinary flavors: Tamarind
Indian fusion: Graffiti (EV), Vermilion (Midtown East) (Indian-Latin)
S. Indian: Tiffin Wallah (28th and Lex) and Tamil Nadu Bhavan (same area)
Kathi Roll: Kati Roll Co. (Village, Midtown), Grill 44 (near 44th and 3rd), Bombay Frankie (near Columbia on Amsterdam)

Coffee & Tea:
St's Alp Tea House (EV and Williamsburg) - amazing bubble tea (try the taro green tea) and a delicious toast with condensed milk
Gimme! Coffee (Nolita)
Ninth Street Espresso (EV, Chelsea Market)
Joe the Art of Coffee (Union Sq, Grand Central)

Abraco (EV)
Kaffe 1668 (Tribeca)
Espresso 77 (Jackson Heights)
Second Stop (Williamsburg)
Zibetto (Midtown West)
Via Quadronno (UES)

Street Carts:

El Rey del Sabor (60th and 3rd, Mexican)
Dessert Truck
Treats Truck
Jianetto's Pizza Truck
Dosa Man (wash sq park)

Latin:
Caracas Arepa Bar

Macondo (only above-avg Latin American street food - but not an easy category to find) (LES)

Middle Eastern:
Taim
Hummus Place
Akdeniz
Maoz Falafel

Bagels:
Murray's Bagels
Ess-a-bagel
Kossar's Bialys
Absolute Bagels (esp. the mini-bagels)

Pizza:

Old-School New York: Grimaldi's (Brooklyn), John's on Bleecker, San Marzano (Clinton and Rivington), Di Fara (Midwood in Brooklyn), Patsy's East Harlem (only the sit-down operation, not the by the slice part)

Italian-style: Franny's (Brooklyn), Gnocco (EV), Company (Chelsea), Tonda (EV), Keste (WV), Motorino (Brooklyn)

Square: Lazzara's (38th b/t 7th and 8th), L&B Spumoni, Adrienne's (Financial District), Maffei (Chelsea), Ben's (Soho and Village) grandma slice, Artichoke (14th between 1st and 2nd)

Pizza by the Slice:
Sullivan St. Bakery (roman-style pizza served room temperature, not normal slices)
Grandaisy (split off from Sullivan St. Bakery)
Maffei (Chelsea)
Sacco (Midtown West)
That place in Williamsburg
Grandaisy (Sullivan's split-off sister restaurant; try the fennel pizza)

Greek:
Avra (Midtown East)
Pylos (EV)
Kefi (UWS)

Mexican:
Chavella's (Prospect Heights)
Mexicana Mama (W. Village)

Bonita (Brooklyn in Ft. Greene)
La Superior (Williamsburg)
Tacos Matamoros (Sunset Park)
Tulcingo del Valle (midtown west)
Nouveau-American:
Blue Hill
Craft
Dirt Candy (vegetarian, and amazing)
Eleven Madison Park (but tell them you're vegetarian in advance...the mashed potatoes were outstanding, as was their fritatta when they used to have a brunch)
Per Se
Perry St (W. Village)
Buttermilk Channel (Carroll Gardens)

Scandinavian:
Aquavit

Tapas (incl. int'l tapas):
Alta
Stanton Social

Thai:
Sripraphai (Queens)
Isle Thai (W. Village)
Bodhi Tree (E. Village)

Cocktails:
Pegu Club
Pravda
Buddha Bar
Freeman's

Flatiron Lounge

Turkish:

Turkish Kitchen (Murray Hill)

Ali Baba (Murray Hill)

Beyoglu (UES)

Vegan/Vegetarian:

Pure Food and Wine (just for kicks - they're super-creative)

Gobo (WV)
Dirt Candy (EV)

African:

Madiba (Ft. Greene)

Awash (E. Village)

Cool ambience:
Vinegar Hill House
Buttermilk Channel
Per Se
Aquavit
Pranna
Freeman's
Buddakan
SEA (Brooklyn)
Alloro

Riposo 46

2008-06-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Riposo 46 is a little bar in Hell's Kitchen that also serves some small plates. We had a wine and cheese plate there as well as as some of their flatbread pizzas. The wine and cheese plate was fairly standard, while the flatbread pizzas came out a little soggy and after what seemed like a long time. All in all highly standard cuisine without anything really interesting or new to commend it. Not bad, but certainly not worth a visit for the food. The bar itself is fairly cute, though, and it would be a nice place to meet a date for a drink or two, perhaps with a snack.

Stars: 2/5 (based on the food)

Pampano

2008-06-07T22:32:00.001-07:00

Pampano, like Dos Caminos, represents a relatively higher-end Mexican restaurant in Midtown East. While the atmosphere on their outside patio was nice, I cannot say great things about the food, which seemed tired. The guacamole lacked zing, and the vegetarian chile rellenos I had seemed overly tangy and without any real compelling flavor. I was disappointed, especially given the prices.

Stars: 2/5

Dos Caminos

2008-06-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

I tried the Dos Caminos in Midtown recently, and found it good but not great. The guacamole, for which it is rightly lauded, is excellent and addictive. My huevos rancheros, though, were a little too heavy, and globbed on egg on cheese in a heavy-handed way. I'm not saying that the final result wasn't tasty, but it wasn't inventive or too visually appealing. In addition, the normal ranchero sauce includes bacon, so the substitute was a salsa verde that was probably not as good. In fact, only the salsa verde is vegetarian: both the ranchero and the mole have some kind of meat stock. So that's disappointing.

Otherwise, the Dos Caminos ambience is nice, especially if you can sit outside. Service was relatively prompt.

Stars: 3/5

Cibo

2008-06-07T22:28:00.001-07:00

Cibo on 2nd and 41st has an nice, elegant prix-fixe menu. I enjoyed the bread basket, which had a tasty corn muffin and a moist banana bread. I also liked my french toast, which was not remarkable but was good. The ambience is clean and quiet, and the service is prompt.

Stars: 4/5

Monkeytown

2008-06-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

My impression of Monkeytown is skewed due to it being the side of a bachelor party, and tipsiness interferes with memory. Monkeytown is a kind of hip, gothic sort of restaurant and performance space in Williamsburg. There are two rooms. The front room is dominated by what looks like a giant paper-mache spider-like chandelier. It is dark and funky.

The back room, also funky, is where performances are held. Four sofas line the walls, and, for our dinner, a photographic presentation was displayed on the walls, Porn for Creative Souls, though the show (and whether it is even photographic) changes from night to night. Call ahead.

We enjoyed the show, which acted as a fascinating conversation piece while we drank our bizarre but highly distinctive cocktails, like a Raul Quincy, which consists of essentially alcholic jalapeno juice, or a Green Screw, which tasted an awful lot like liquorice (unsurprising since its key ingredient, sambuca, consists of aniseed, which is a common ingredient in liquorice). Eating on sofas is admittedly not the easiest thing, though. They're low, they don't give much back support, and the tables don't give you a lot of space. Just a warning.

We also ate enjoyed our creative food. For vegetarian options, we enjoyed a buffalo tofu which was perhaps a little bit too tofu-like and fell a little flat on flavor. Grilled romaine hearts did better and were more balanced. Three cheese chile rellenos were better still, and certainly more interesting with the accompaniment of a pomegranate-almond sauce. Not wholly satisyfing -- certainly not as good as the chile rellenos as a place like Mexicana Mama -- but good, especially given the fun performance art.

Monkeytown is a unique and pleasing place if you want to amuse the mind and inspire the soul all while eating and drinking slightly strange but nevertheless satisfying food.

Stars: 4/5

The Farm on Adderley

2008-06-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

I had brunch at The Farm on Adderley, a trendy place in Park Slope that has received much praise for its use of local and farm-fresh ingredients (the term for fans of these is "locavore" apparently :)). Anyhow, it's a great place, with an open feel and a beautiful backyard with graffiti-art decorating the walls of this outdoor space. Large comfortable chairs give you a sense of tranquility.

I had a scrambled eggs over swiss chard, brioche, parmesan, and home fries, which I devoured. I thought the portion might be a touch small, but I guess that might actually be a plus in today's health-conscious age. Fortunately, I also ordered a brioche toast with goat butter and maple sugar, which turned out to be crunchy and delicious, so I did not go hungry!

This is a satisfying establishment that really fits into its surroundings and feels at home with the families and young people that alike frequent it. Our waiter had a hangover and consequently forgot an order of ours, but we forgave him given the circumstances.

Stars: 4/5

Clinton St. Cafe

2008-06-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

I had brunch recently at this little cafe in Brooklyn Heights in a charming little backyard. I had a tasty vegetarian croque monsieur (two eggs on top of a piece of fried bread in a cheese sauce). My friend had french toast, cut into an elegant heap. Not much more to say, buthte quality of the food was good, and the prices were right. Quite a nice brunch place in the neighborhood.

Stars: 4/5

Akdeniz

2008-05-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

Akdeniz is a lovely, inexpensive, few-frilled Turkish restaurant at W. 46th between 5th and 6th. It came with a high recommendation from a Turkish acquaintance. It delivered on its promise.

I had an addictive loaf of Turkish bread, which is chewy and in its being served in long broad strips that have to be torn, reminded me somehow a little of focaccia. I ordered just two dishes: lebni, a yogurt, walnut, and dill dip, and falafel. The lebni was fantastic, combining the cooling power of fresh, thick fage-like yogurt with a subtle crunch of walnut and a hint of edgy sourness. I wanted to eat every drop of it off the plate. The falafel was good, but not as great as the lebni. Several thick falafels were served with a tahini sauce. Overall, the whole dish was a little too mild for my liking. It was still good, however. The bread and lebni alone made this restaurant return-worthy in my opinion, and merits it a recommendation.

Stars: 4/5

Avra

2008-05-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

Avra was one of the first places I ate at in New York. I remember having a delightful Sunday brunch there a few years ago, a brunch filled with honey and vanilla wafting through the air on a bed of Greek french toast. I have dreams of oregano fries and Greek-spiced eggs and a lively atmosphere that introduced me to the everywhereness of great New York food.

So it was with some trepidation and some excitement that I went back to Avra for lunch and sampled their more workaday Greek cuisine. It turns out they haven't missed a beat.

Starting with their wholesome Greek bread served with a dipping sauce a little reminiscent of a thin hummus, just about everything was quite tasty. We started with cooked lima beans -- the weakest dish served, because to my taste they were somewhat overcooked -- and moved on to a wonderfully chewy Greek oven-baked cheese. We then tried immensely garlicky (in a good way) zucchini chips served with a cool yogurt dipping sauce. For my main course, I had a delicately-cooked Greek pasta in a fresh tomato sauce and feta cheese. Oregano fries were crisp and as attractive as I remembered them.

Perhaps my only hesitation (though it is one of Avra's charms) is that this food is not particularly fancy, and could easily have been served at a much humbler restaurant. But what you get here is good, well-seasoned and adeptly cooked food in a nice atmosphere and with solid service.

Portions were generous, and prices, if not cheap, are reasonable for a beautiful and lively place in midtown. It's filled with people doing business lunches on the weekdays, and would be the perfect place for a laidback yet elegant dining experience.

Stars: 4/5

Fiamma

2008-05-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

Fiamma is an Italian restaurant in Soho, on Spring St. between Sullivan and Sixth Ave. After you enter and your coats are taken, an elevator takes you to the elegant second floor of the restaurant, filled with curvaciously fluted vases and decanters and snazzy Italian artwork on the walls. A quiet atmosphere pervades the place.

Food was often pretty but unfortunately disappointing in taste. I had a vegetarian tasting. My first course was a white asparagus whose pecorino and mint foam accompaniments did not form a cohesive whole. My second course was a set of fried mozarella and squash blossoms with marinara. These were deep-fried in a batter. The marinara was rich and delicate, with onion accenting and giving texture. But the blossoms themselves did not have the crunchy shell they should have. They tasted like they had sat a little too long, and the oil had sogged up the batter. The third course was a tagliatelle with ricotta inside. The ricotta filling was dense and lemony, but it was just too heavy and simply did not taste that great. My final course was a simple "vegetable dish" that the chef had prepared, full of spring greens (I had called ahead and indicated that there would be vegetarians in the group). This was crunchy and tasted decent, but was hardly anything special. It felt a lot like the hot version of a salad. Dessert was a strange chocolate cake layered on pistachio shortbread and topped with a scoop of basil gelato. Again, not a combination that worked all that well. Though it was inventive.

My companions who ate meat-based dishes had similar reactions, though there were one or two dishes they liked.

Servers had a good attitude, but they also messed up twice, in delivering the wrong courses and in charging us for a bottle of wine they should not have (they corrected it when it was pointed out).

Overall, this is not a restaurant that I'd recommend, given the very high prices and the decidedly shrug-inducing (or worse, perplexing) flavor of the food.

Stars: 2/5

Ilili

2008-05-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Ilili is a new Lebanese spot on 5th between 27th and 28th. Sleek wooden lines forming boxes on the ceiling and dark red drapes in the front give Ilili a sleek modern feel. The menu is meant to be shared and structured that way, and has plenty of vegetarian options. Unfortunately, the food is only good, not spectacular.

I'll give quick summaries of the many dishes I tried:

Pita bread - a little too tough for my taste, but warm and otherwise reasonably tasty
Hummus - Good but slightly too sour, and I'd prefer it served warm ala Hummus Place
Baba Ghanouj - competent but somehow not compelling
Warm eggplant - a tasty, tangy take on eggplant, cross sections of eggplant are served with a tomato-based sauce. This dish had a nice texture, and again, shows this restaurant's tendency towards sourness. But overall it was tasty and had me going back to seconds.
Salad with palm - this was a very plain salad, and the palm was good.
Brussels sprouts -- Here Brussels sprouts were cooked with fig puree, walnut, and mint. Tasty, but not as good as the sprouts at Alta. The sauce detracted from the crispness of sprouts that can be so pleasing.
Duck egg with kashkashar cheese - The duck egg is not fertilized. This is an excellent dish, the standout of the table. It's listed under the "meat" section but is actually vegetarian. The dense texture of the egg and cheese meld together seamlessly and have a pleasingly bite and savor.
Falafel - These were a bit dry and did not come with nearly enough Tahini sauce.
Cheese rolls - These spring rolls with a blend of feta and kashkashal cheese was tender on the outside and had a pleasing saltiness on the inside. A moderate winner.

Overall, the service was elegant and the decor enjoyable, but the food only above-average. A qualified recommendation.

Stars: 3/5

Yakitori Totto

2008-05-11T00:55:00.001-07:00

Yakitori Totto is a snazzy Japanese restaurant on W. 55th between Broadway and 8th. On the 2nd floor of the building, Yakitori is of modest size, but has a cool private room with wooden door that does not reach the ceiling, an open kitchen that acts as a bar, and nice if not 100%-fluent service.

We ordered a few different vegetarian things. Wontons with cheese in them were like high-quality mozzarella sticks, except that they used some kind of cheese more akin to swiss. These were tender and tasty. A cold udon noodles with dipping sauce was clear and refreshing. Roasted eggplants were creamy; yams were crispy but seemed perhaps a little undercooked. Green peppers were slightly spicy and had a nice flavor. The sake we ordered with the meal was decent and cheap.

Overall, a very nice atmosphere, and good food. I look forward to trying more Japanese food and expanding my culinary outlook.

Stars: 4/5

Bocca Lupo

2008-05-11T00:52:00.001-07:00

Tried Bocca Lupo on Henry St. t Warren in brooklyn Heights today for brunch. Absolutely delicious. This charming trattoria stands on a corner, its sides mostly windows, cheerfully facing the world. Delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice, excellent bruschetta (I tried two flavors: fava bean and asparagus), a clean and elegant sunnyside eggs dish with asparagus and pecorino, and two great desserts in the form of a nutella and banana panino with whipped cream and an amaretto bread pudding with raspberries and mascarpone made for a superb brunch. Every dish was well-conceived, well-cooked, and used top-notch ingredients. And the prices were not unreasonable. Highly recommended.

Stars: 5/5

Croissants at La Tropezienne and Samba in East Harlem

2008-05-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly good croissants at La Tropezienne in East Harlem at 110th and 1st -- though it's bread, macarons, and eclairs all left something to be desired (the last the most -- it was kind of mushy). But the pain au chocolat was actually quite excellent: flaky, buttery, and delicious, with pretty decent chocolate.

Stars: 5/5 (for the chocolate croissants) and 3/5 for everything else

Bad croissants at La Tropezienne's E. Harlem neighbor, Samba Bakery. This French bakery's almond croissant was heavy and soggy from the almond filling, and the filling didn't taste that gret either. Bad stuff.

Stars: 1/5

Patsy's East Harlem

2008-05-09T13:23:00.001-07:00

Patsy's East Harlem is the original Patsy's, and it exists a series of stores on a block of 1st Avenue between 117th and 118th. I firs twandered ionto the sit-down store, but when I wanted slices, I was directed to the slice pick-up place three doors down.

The slice joint is tiny, just large enough to stand in, basically. I ordered two plain slices -- that's all they had -- and got two slices with tender crusts, slightly runny cheese, and light, bright sauce. I liked the crust, and the cheese was decent, but the sauce was a a little too underspiced for my preference. Good pizza, but definitely not great, and not a destination pizza. Just another slice joint.

Stars: 3/5

Almondine

2008-05-08T20:07:00.001-07:00

I'd heard a lot of great things about the baked goods at Almondine, a little bakery in Dumbo on Water St across from Jacques Torres chocolate. It can be annoyingly hard to find. I was glad when I finally stopped by, though. The pain au chocolat was excellent -- close to, but not quite as good as the excellent chocolate croissant at Petrossian's Cafe. Its main problem was that it yielded just a little too easily for my preference. The mini-baguette I sampled was similarly very high-quality, if just a little too tough for my pleasure. I also tried a creme brulee that was high on flavor but was a little too thick and heavy for my liking. Overall, though, this is no question an excellent French bakery and a star in its class.

Stars: 4/5

Luzzo's

2008-05-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

Luzzo's is a rough-hewn Italian pizza and pasta place at 14th and 1st ave. Craggy walls and craggy service reflect a rustic cuisine and a sensibility that takes pride in the humble roots of, for instance, pizza.

And pizza is what Luzzo's is known for. To prepare for it, I ordered a pinenut and greens salad, which came with a balsalmic vinegar dressing that was a touch too strong, though the cooked ricotta cheese ball on top was a nice touch. The pizza I ordered came with parmesan, mozarella, and cherry tomatoes. While the ingredients and crust were generally good, the crust was a bit too chewy. More problematically, there just wasn't enough spice or oomph in either the sauce or the cheese. The whole pizza was way too bland -- even on the salt I think they skimped. This is a pity, because I had high hopes for this place. And at the prices they charge -- $18 for a 12" pizza -- this cannot be justified. For pure Neapolitan pizza, Una Pizza Napoletana and L'Asso are better bets.

Nevertheless, it looks like Manhattan's best pizza overall remains square slices: at Lazzara's and Sullivan St. Bakery (with Adrienne's, Maffei's, Pizza Pala, and Adrienne's coming in as decent runners-up).

Stars: 3/5

Trattoria L'Incontro

2008-05-07T14:02:00.001-07:00

Trattoria L'Incontro is a giant Italian restaurant off of Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria, which, despite its bulk, maintains its gourmet chops. The atmosphere is light and airy, with high ceilings. Families and groups congregate at many of the tables. Room after room opens up as you walk through the place. Overall the atmosphere is fairly casual and inexpensive. The decor is not particularly inventive.

Food was tasty and an excellent value. The bread basket was a scrumptious beginning, and I especially liked the warm pieces of focaccio that looked and tasted a lot like Indian naan bread. The bread came with a tapenade made from sundried tomatoes. An appetizer of sauteed mushrooms was tender but a little underspiced, but my eggplant parmesan entree was well-cooked, simple, amply loaded with cheese, and satisfying. This is traditional red-sauce cooking, but it is done very well.

Stars: 4/5

Despana

2008-05-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Despana, on Broome just west of Cleveland Place in Soho, is a small Spanish gourmet grocer and deli which also sells sandwiches and Spanish pastries. I went there to try their vegetarian sandwich, sandwich -- a bocadillo on Sullivan St. bakery ciabatta, and filled with mixed greens, white asparagus, tomatoes, olives, aioli, and, for an extra $0.50 (the sandwich is normally $8.00), some manchego cheese.

Unfortunately, this sandwich did not do it for me. The ingredients were not bold enough or flavorful enough to make it go beyond the sum of its somewhat humdrum parts. The bread was good, but I already knew that.

I also had churros and hot chocolate for dessert. These are two small churros, each about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of a normal churro you might buy at a concession stand. They are also much denser and chewier. I found them good but not bursting with flavor. I liked the hot chocolate all right, but it is clearly not a ganache-based hot chocolate -- it used cocoa powder, and did not seem to have been completely mixed (I got a couple of "bits" of cocoa or something in it).

Nevertheless, the grocery part of Despana impresses me a lot more. They take the time to put in small samples of several of their products, including varieties of honey, vinegar, olive oil, and Spanish salsa, that you can taste on small tearings of bread they thoughtfully provide. These were without exception tasty products. That's where Despana has focused its attention, and it shows.

Stars: 3/5

Falai

2008-05-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

I went to the original outpost of the now three-chain franchise of this popular high-end Italian restaurant recently. My impressions of it were of a kind of high-end, casual with an glinting edge bistro that gave me an impression of Europe. Mostly middle-aged couples sat at tables and enjoyed the food. Somehow they struck me as the types of people who had heard Falai was "a good restaurant" and were going there for that reason than for the food per se. Though I could just be projecting.

Anyhow, the service was excellent, if slightly fawning. I ordered a buffalo ricotta flan, with pine nuts, cauliflower, and a candied apple to start. This was bland and unsatisfying, and the ingredients did not mesh into a coherent dish.

My second course, a papardelle with trumpet royale mushroom ragu, was considerably better. A nice, hearty, slightly nutty taste to that made me want to keep eating. A side of fig puree provided a touch of sweetness that cut the savor of the ragu and added a tasty complexity to the dish. The presentation of the dish was fairly plain, though, and I couldn't help but think that though I enjoyed this dish, it is not a dish that showed culinary magnificence.

Dessert, though, was something else. Falai's passionfruit souffle is ultralight, airty, subtly fruity, and has sugar coating the walls of the souffle that remind me of candyshops and childhood. This was a really topnotch souffle, no question about it.

Overall, except for that souffle, though, Falai strikes a note of indifference in me, and while it certainly isn't bad, it didn't win a place in my heart.

Rating: 3/5

Bar Veloce

2008-05-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

Had a glass of wine and a panini at this cool-looking, narrow bar in the East Village. It's a great spot for crowd-watching, with a mirror at the bar so you can see everyone around you without looking around.The panini - an arugula and cheese sandwich I got -- was just average, but the wine was good and the atmosphere relatively fun, if not particularly comfortable.

Rating: 3/5

Cafe Sabarsky

2008-05-02T23:02:00.001-07:00

Cafe Sabarsky is the Viennese cafe inside the Neue Gallery on the Upper East Side. The beautiful wood-paneled room is nearly as it was in 1914 when the mansion in which it was the dining room was constructed. A piano player taps softly in the background as you sip your Weiner Melange (cappucino, basically) on beautiful white porcelain and much on your Viennese pastry. I ordered apfelstrudel (an apple pastry with raisins in it) and sachertorte (gingerbread-tasting cake with apricot filling and a chocolate coating on top). The pastries tasted fresh and authentic -- not too sweet, but quite honest to their original cuisines. Cafe Sabarsky uses quality ingredients. This is a wonderful and relaxing place to spend an afternoon.

Rating: 4/5

Gujarati newsstand place

2008-05-02T22:59:00.001-07:00

The Gujarati lunch counter located in the former newsstand is indeed excellent. I went there, and for $8 (not $6 anymore like the link reports), you get plenty of food: two generous helpings of curry, rice, several chapatis (tortillas, essentially), Indian pickle, and a small Gujarati sweet. The curries were a nicely spicy, crunchy where appropriate, oily in a good way, and basically homemade-tasting. The rice and chapatis also tasted simple and good and homemade. This is basically excellent Indian cafeteria food. It's not served prettily: everything's plastic and the surroundings are dingy. Nor is the food the height of elegance or cleanliness in presentation. Nor is this food super-complex or innovative. But the taste is there. And ultimately that's what matters.

Rating: 4/5

Casa Mono

2008-05-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Casa Mono is Mario Batali's tapas bar at the corner of 17th and Irving Pl., in Gramercy. It's a dark and cozy little tavern with the kitchen at the bar, and the waitstaff bustling in the narrow isles to serve their patrons.

Strong, pungent (and tasty) flavors: that's what I took away from my Casa Mono experience. Admittedly, the ensalada mono combined bitter greens with chopped sweet pimiento almonds and slices of a mealy cheese and turned out to be refreshing and slightly sweet. However, ramps were a smooth bitter cut by romesco sauce, and had an addictive, tender-but-chewy texture. Pimiento peppers were oil-soaked and piquant, slightly bitter, addictive, and impressive. Dessert was crema catalan: a kind of slightly thinner creme brulee burnt properly on top, leaving the the cream itself served mostly cool -- as it should be served.

Service was polite and formal, but went out of its way to be accommodating. I sat at the bar, and got to watch the kitchen the whole time, which was a treat. Wine was tasty but expensive ($15 for a cuarto of a wine that goes for $13/bottle).

One caution for vegetarians: they smear the grill with some kind of chicken or duck fat. I have to shrug and just deal with it, because god knows what they do at most restaurants. But if you're particular, you should beware.

Stars: 4/5

L'Asso

2008-04-30T11:04:00.001-07:00

Tried a nice Margherita D.O.C. at this Soho establishment the other day. The pizza crust of this authentic Neopolitan pie was tender and slightly chewy, the sauce mild and slightly bright, the cheese tasty. This is a very simple dish, done reasonably well. I think I prefer Una Pizza Napoletana's version, and *definitely* prefer Franny's, but this is a tasty pizza, and I enjoyed it.

Stars: 4/5

Pegu Club

2008-04-27T11:02:00.001-07:00

An acquintance and I tried Pegu Club in Soho the other night. On the 2nd floor of a building off W. Houston, it's dark, elegant, and kind of mysterious. Low tables, couches and chairs line the restaurant. I ordered a Pegu Club cocktail: gin, lime juice, an orange liqueur, and bitters. This is a profoundly balanced and masterfully made drink. Apparently the Earl Grey MarTEAni, "made with Earl Grey-infused gin, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and raw egg white" is even better. I'll go back soon and try it.

Stars: 5/5

Piadina: Disappointing

2008-04-27T09:10:00.001-07:00

I had dinner at Piadina, a small restaurant for which I had high hopes, since it locates itself on W. 10th St. between 5th and 6th, across the street from Alta, a tapas place I love. The restaurants is effectively split into two portions, with the outer separate from the inner by a narrow corridor adjoining the kitchen. We sat in the inner portion. Here, the ambience is charming and a little rustic, with candles covered with semi-translucent paper wrappers exposed brick, black and white pictures, and lights strung on strings.

For an appetizer, we ordered Piadina, which they call flatbread, and comes in what looks a whole lot like a quesadilla. The flavors of the tomato and cheese inside were good, but not good enough to overcome the fact that the dish was served lukewarm in parts, and downright cold in others.

This was not a trend to stop there, either. Our pastas -- one, a rigatoni with eggplant and the other, a ricotta and arugula ravioli, were also solid in flavor, but served lukewarm. The pasta was a little excessively chewy as well.

So overall Piadina was a letdown, especially given that it has good recipes and a nice atmosphere, but due to disorganization or laziness, cannot serve the food fresh and hot.

Stars: 2/5

A Milkshake at The Stand

2008-04-27T09:03:00.001-07:00

The Stand: I had a quick black and white milkshake here, sad that I could not try the toasted marshmallow milkshake it was famous for, because most marshmallows are made from gelatin -- anathema to a vegetarian. So, sigh, I had to compromise and go for a combination of vanilla and chocolate gelato, and experience an incredible milkshake.

The Stand uses il laboratorio gelato, so I'm not surprised it's so good, but you can taste thick, melt-in-your-mouth semi-solid blobs of gelato flow into your mouth as you drink this milkshake. The chocolate and vanilla flavors are weave together and the sweetness is ecstatic, not excessive. A great milkshake by any standard.

Stars: 5/5

Perry St for Brunch;

2008-04-27T07:54:00.001-07:00

Perry St: This simple minimalist Jean-Georges restaurant is on the eponymous street, right around the corner from a building full of condos. As I came in, I saw the sparse area, filled with elegant lamps and quietly chattering people, the muted light of a Saturday morning further dimmed by the kind of window shades that look like television static.

When I sat down and got my menu, I was at first skeptical -- it seemed to have few traditional brunch entrees, and the menu was fairly sparse for vegetarians compared to a lot of brunch restaurants.

But my concern was misplaced. The pricing system at Perry St. works by offering two plates plus dessert for $24, with each additional plate for $12. I was offered a choice of wine or cocktail, too, but instead I opted for the -- gasp -- $8 glass of grape juice.

Grape juice? This is no ordinary grape juice. For someone whose last glass of grape juice was Welch, this was a complete revelation. My first glass was a Navarro 2005 Gewurtzheimer grape juice. It's a white grape juice, and it is like ambrosia. It has an amazing fruity, honeyed taste that's mild and clear and light. Later on in the meal I tried the Pinot Noir red grape juice from the same vineyard, and it was even fruitier, with a greater boldness and darkness and depth, though both are phenomenal (in fact, the white is my favorite).

For entrees, I had a tomato soup and a ginger rice bowl. The tomato soup was carefully poured tableside into a porcelain bowl in which a bottom layer of cumin oil was patiently pooled. The resulting soup was homey and slightly tart, with an exotic cumin turn every few sipfuls. The soup was served with a simple strip of grilled sourdough with white cheddar sprinkled on top. The sourdough was crisp initially but turned chewy in the mouth, and worked well to present a contrasting texture to the soup.

The other entree was truly memorable: the ginger rice bowl. This small, exquisitely prepared bowl of Japanese Nashiki rice, gently spiced with ginger (definitely no sting here), each grain delicately separate from the rest and begging to be savored individually, was served with a complement of graceful scallions, a mayonnaise-like emulsion of sriracha with a hit of spicy heat, and an astonishing poached egg, served in a deep fried batter, with a luscious yellow yolk spilling out onto the rice when pierced. The whole thing was amazing in look and taste. Indeed, that was true for the entire meal.

Finally, the dessert kept up the trend of quality. I chose a chocolate pudding, which came served as a multi-layer dessert. Unsweetened whip cream, at just the right soft, smooth texture, covered the chocolate pudding (a chocolate pot-de-creme in reality? probably.), which was a semisweet mixture. The pudding in turn hid a simple chocolate cake at bottom. In one corner of the dessert bowl were piled a small heap of candied violets, which looked nothing more to me than tiny fruity pebbles, which smeared a blue trail behind them as I ate them.

Perry St. is calm and zenlike in its devotion to great tasting food that is pleasing to the eye. Service was similarly professional. Highly recommended.

Stars: 5/5

Reviews: Galanga; Grom

2008-04-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Galanga is a small Thai place off of 6th Ave. on W. 4th St. It was narrow and a little cramped. We ordered a vegetarian spring roll, a papaya salad, a red curry, a pineapple fried rice, and a tofu with broccoli in garlic sauce.

Everything was tasty and light, not greasy. The best dish was probably the pineapple fried rice, with the chunks of pineapple adding just a little sweetness to the nuts and complementing the spices of the rice. The papaya salad was also delicious, although I generally have been a huge fan of papaya salads ever since eating my first one at a street fair in Manhattan a few weeks ago.

The service isn't all that great, with the waitresses barely making any response to your requests, even when they understand them and comply with them. Nor are the waitresses particularly friendly. But for decent prices and good food, that can be forgiven.

Stars: 4/5

Grom, the italian gelato places with roots in Italy, recently opened a second branch, this time in the West Village. I visited there recently, and tasted four flavors: vanilla, hazelnut ("nocciola"), extra noir (dark chocolate), and torroncino (had some kind of nougat in it).

First off, the storefront itself is picturesque, standing there on the corner of the W. 6th and Carmine, two sides open to the night air and the public. The gelato comes in stainless steel tubs that elegantly conceal the cold creamy sweetness within. The line snakes around the side of the store on the sidewalk and ends at the register, where you buy a size -- not a set of flavors. Then you take your receipt and THEN you get your gelato.

The gelatos were uniformly high-quality in ingredients, though not all the flavors were equally delectable. The torroncino was the standout, having a mellow, creamy flavor with just enough crunch in the nougats for variety and pleasure. The vanilla and hazelnut were both tasty, though both were perhaps a little milder than I like. The extra noir really did fulfill its promise and tasted just like an ice-cream-ized version of the valhrona dark chocolate from whence it originates. It has the dark bitterness that dark chocolate has, and that's how you want your ice cream, you'll like it. For me, it looked great but I just haven't developed the taste to love such dark, dark chocolate.

Stars: 4/5

A Walk through Astoria

2008-04-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've been walking through Astoria recently, and jotting down real quick observations of restaurants that I've sampled across the way. Here are some quick observations:

On Steinway:

El Basurero - columbian restaurant with outlandish decor - bicycles hanging from the ceiling, carnival-esque. Had a cheese bunuelo there, but it wasn't very good.

On Broadway:

Brooklyn Bagel -- had a raisin and wheat bagel here that was very dry. Ugh.

Omonia cafe -- Nice. This Italian bakery had a tasty little rum-soaked sponge cake sandwich filled in with custard. It was soft and moist and alcoholicky -- tasty.

Mundo -- this slightly wacky and small argentinian-turkish joint is filled with paintings that somehow look a little like picasso in 5th grade or something. Anyway, I tried their "signature dish," a set of lettuce wraps with a kind of thick lentil paste with cracked wheat and lemon. This was highly delicious and addictive.

Parisi bakery -- Had an onion roll here, but it was a little hard and dry.

Pao de queijo -- I was a touch skeptical of this little Brazilian bakery just off of Broadway on 30th st. But I tried one of their sugared cornball pastries ("docinho de milho"), and it was a burst of rich, melt-in-my-mouth sweetness! Wonderful! I also had a chewy chocolate ball, filled with a cooked condensed-milk substance ("brigadeiro"), which was also very good. I hope to try their savory stuff sometime soon.

Sac's place -- I had a slice of pizza at this pizza place. I liked the way the slices had sauce and cheese strewn over them, almost in a homemade fashion. And actually, I liked the slices -- but they did remind me a lot of a better kind of homemade pizza, almost like a really much-better version of the kind of white bread pizza a kid might make and heat in the toaster oven. The crust was tender, and the sauce was mild.

On 21st:

Roti boti -- tried a roti from this small Indian buffet, along with a little of their okra curry. Both were competent, but nothing to write home about.

On Dittmars:

La Guli - tried a cannoli at this bakery. All in all, not bad, but the vanilla filling was too rich and dense for me (and I have a pretty high tolerance for rich and dense). Also, the cannoli shells were not quite crunchy enough for me, which is not surprising since they are prefilled with the cream.

Oleput - visited this bar & tried a chocolate chip cookie. Not bad, but it was a shortbread kind of cookie. I don't really like my chocolate chip cookies made out of shortbread. But it was a neat environment, filled with interesting books and mementos, and it would be a fun place to spend some time.

Wonderful Graffiti Dinner

2008-04-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

I had a dinner at Graffiti, and it was wonderful. Graffiti is a sort of Indian-influenced tapas restaurant in the East Village. Entering it, the large stonework representation of Ganesh, the Indian elephant God, catched your eye to the right. The long, narrow, small restaurant is decorated with small mirrors with employees' names written on them, Indian stone and woodwork, and plenty of sticky notes that mention menu items & prices. The whole place is slightly zany, slightly exotic, idiosyncratic, and a find.

The menu is not huge, but they definitely accomodate vegetarians quite well - the chef & owner, who is very charming and was wandering through, greeting (and serving) everyone, helped me with my food and wine selections. I asked for his recommendations for a multi-course meal.

I first got a mango paneer appetizer, which hinted of an Indian mango pickle used in the cooking of the paneer. The paneer was tender, and was served with narrow strips of naan bread scented with cumin, and which were deliciously crunchy.

My second course was a vegetable dumpling dish -- this is normally a meat dish, but the kitchen has a vegetable alternative on request. The dumplings (think tibetan momo-style dumplings) were served with crisp semolina noodle bits (a typical Indian ingredient, though usually in chaat-style snack dishes), and, in a nod to the chef's history in pastry, a touch of grapefruit confit. The spice of the vegetables & the gluten of the wrapper, the crispness of the semolina, and the sweetness of the grapefruit all came together in a surprising and smile-inducing dish.

My third course was a special: an asparagus pizza made with a fried paratha bread with grilled asparagus and wasabi peas. The wasabi peas gave the dish a subtle twist and unexpected crunch. The paratha bread flaked off like puff pastry and melted in my mouth. The asparagus was cooked till tender, and the entree was addictive.

My fourth course was eggplant, beautifully tender and stuffed in between two pieces of Indian paratha bread (not fried like the last course), in a kind of small sandwich. It was accompanied by a lentil soup heavily spiced with mustard seed.

My final -- dessert -- course was a cranberry apple crumble served with black pepper ice cream. I was skeptical of the black pepper ice cream, but it did, as the chef promised, cut right through the sweetness of the crumble, and lend a refreshing contrast to it.

All through the meal I also had a lot of great wine -- the wine list is full of low-tannin wines that are all delightful, from a clean, simple German elbing roter rose to a glass of sherry to finish the night. Well, almost finish the night -- I really finished with a glass of kashmiri tea that had an incredible, sweet almond flavor to it. Amazing.

The warmth of the restaurant, the delightful and innovative cuisine, and the charming owner all the made this dinner a highly memorable treat.

Stars: 5/5

Elettaria

2008-04-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

I went to Elettaria the other night, on W 8th St. between 5th and 6th, just past Macdougal. Its chef describes it as American cuisine influenced by, among other things, Indian spices. The space is a rectangular, with low ceilings made from aged wooden planks, which gives it a homey feeling. At the end of the restaurant opposite the entrance door is the open kitchen, where the chefs prepare the food in a graceful ensemble process. Red velvet curtains frame the staircase leading down to the bathrooms and 2nd kitchen. A large bunch of white flowers and other small mementos pepper the rest of the space, which is filled with small tables, each pretty close to its neighbors.

The menu here is not gigantic -- a handful of appetizers and slightly fewer entrees. I ordered a cocktail off their menu called "8th wonder," which was a bourbon infused with chai and a couple of other ingredients. It was strong and spicy -- not entirely to my taste, but then I need my drinks girly. The complimentary bread was a naan dusted with sea salt, which was chewy, slightly sweet, and delicious.

I ordered a "rice cake" appetizer, which is inspired by the South Indian "iddli" dish. The small rice cakes were ensconced in lentils, tomato, ginger, and garlic. Everything was cooked to the right tenderness, and the combination of the soft rice cakes, the slightly more crunchy vegetables, and the tender lentils made this a delicate and aromatic appetizer.

The entree was a lot more disappointing. I ordered the "mattar paneer" -- in quotes because this dish is actually ricotta malfatti with peas, carrots, and fried onions. The accompaniments were fine, but the malfatti itself was heavy, dense, and kind of flavorless. A poor showing.

Finally, for dessert I got the anglicized "fried milk doughnuts" -- Elettaria's take on the Indian "gulab jamun." They served the doughnuts without the traditional accompanying syrup and instead sided it with a quenelle of chai-flavored gelato. The sweetness of the doughnuts was cut nicely by the cool moist spice of the gelato. The doughnuts could have been more tender, though.

All in all, as much as I wanted to like Elettaria, I was disappointed by it. 1 good dish, 1 mediocrity, and 1 bad dish do not a great meal make. And the prices are not particularly cheap, either. I hope this place grows into itself and becomes more refined over time, but for right now, I can't recommend it.

Stars: 2/5

Isabella's Oven; Boi to Go

2008-04-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

Isabella's Oven is a pizza joint that opened up last year in the lower east side, on Grand near Essex St. It's a small and simple place, unremarkable except for the small chandelier hung on the ceiling, a reminder that this place strives for something different. Unfortunately, it does not really succeed. I ordered a pizza that was half "margherita" and half "primavera." The primavera side just had a brunch of fresh olives and cherry tomatoes just strewn on the pizza like a salad. They did not integrate well, and the pizza taste and texture ended up getting overwhelmed. On the margherita side, the pizza was better, but not by too much. The sauce was very bland and the cheese just ok. The crust was the best part, being slightly chewy and toothsome, but it did not redeem the whole. On the whole, the pizza is below-average.

Stars: 2/5

Boi to Go is a vietnamese sandwich shop in Midtown on Lexington between 42nd and 43rd. You can either order a sandwich or a wrap, with a variety of based (pork, beef, vegetable) and sauces (mint curry, etc.), or one of the banh mi sandwiches. It took me several minutes with the guy behind the counter and with the proprietress of the restaurant before they understood my request for a vegetarian version of a banh mi, and they finally concluded that what I should get was a vegetarian sandwich with the banh mi sauces.

It worked, though, and the sandwich ended up tasting quite good. Cilantro, tomatoes, avocado, pickled vegetables, soy and chili sauces, sweet and savory and spicy and crunchy.

This is not a sandwich that ascends to the same heights that Saigon Banh Mi Bakery sandwiches in Chinatown do, but it's still pretty good. It's not quite as cheap as SBMB either -- actully, about twice the price at $8 instead of $4.50. But all in all, still a very tasty midtown lunch.

Stars: 4/5

Williamsburg: La Bonita Bakery, Falafel Chula

2008-04-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

La Bonita Bakery is a ninnocuous-looking bakery at hte corner of Grand Union in Williamsburg. It looks like one of many similar bakeries all across New York, filled with cabinets full of pastries that may or may have been sitting there since last May. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try, and had an alfajore, a Chilean/Peruvian crumbly pastry that sandwiches "manjar," or dulce de leche -- essentially a caramelly concoction produced by cooking condensed milk -- between sides of short, cookie-style dough. The dough turned out to be buttery and rich, the manjar sweet and pleasantly exotic. Delightful!

Stars: 4/5 (if I'd tried more this would go higher. though the ambience does leave something to be desired)

Falafel Chula is also on Union Ave, a small joint between Metropolitan and Devoe. This narrow middle eastern establishment, owned by Egyptians, has a short kitchen up front. I ordered the "falafel chula," which was a standard falafel sandwich. This was good but not particularly great falafel. The falafel balls themselves were fresh and had a multi-layered flavor to them. The rest of the salads and sauces, though, were merely good, and didn't come together as well as I might have liked.

Stars: 3/5

Artisanal for Brunch

2008-04-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

I'd been to Artisanal, the cheese-oriented restaurant on Park between 32nd and 33rd once before for dinner. Then I had gougeres (small balls of bread stuffed with cheese), and a pasta dish, both of which had been good but relatively forgettable.

Recently I decided to try Artisanal out for brunch and see if it did better there than for dinner. Artisanal at brunch on a weekend is bustling in a large windowed space. White tablecloths, a large clock above the bar, and an impression of light and motion are what define the space for me.

I ordered ricotta crepes and an eggs en cocotte dish. The crepes came lukewarm if that, and tasted bland. The only accompaniment was a drizzle of sauce around the crepes that simply wasn't enough to flavor the crepes with. The main dish was equally disappointing: eggs en cocotte is a baked egg dish in cast iron. It came with spinach and mushrooms. Unfortunately, they undersalted the egg, and moreover, simply weren't creative with it. My egg was boring.

Service was also decidedly mediocre. Not that it was (entirely) my waiter's fault: he was clearly harried. But when it came difficult to get someone's attention, I knew there was a problem.

Artisanal is a well-known restaurant with a devoted following. Unfortunately, it looks like it's starting to rest on its laurels and letting itself decline. What a pity.

Stars: 3/5

Bellavitae; Al di La

2008-04-13T20:27:00.001-07:00

Bellavitae

This is a little neighborhood hideaway on Minetta Lane, a quaint offshoot of the fun stretch of Macdougal St. between Bleecker and W. 3rd in the Village. The ambience is casual and a little homey, with a little trattoria-like flair, yellow wallpaper and wooden floors. We had crostini with gorgonzola and chestnut honey. The crostini came out warm, heavy, and spongy. A tasty dish -- though I guess I'm not a huge fan of gorgonzola so I would have preferred a different cheese (though I should have thought of that before I ordered, huh!). And perhaps I would have preferred the bread to retain its structure instead of sogging down. But it was still tasty. We also got a cauliflower dish with pinoli and currants. The cauliflower was cut up into small pieces, bypassing a usual difficulty with roasted cauliflower often being large and unwieldy. The bite-sized cauliflower petals blended crunchily with the other two ingredients. For the entree, I ordered a pasta cacio e pepe, which is a pasta similar to a spaghetti in a cheese sauce with a little black pepper. This rendition is not as good as the dish at Cacio e Pepe in the East Village, but then neither is Lupa's. CeP really should be eaten at CeP. Bellavitae's pasta was aromatic and likeable, but was perhaps slightly hard. Service was friendly and professional.

Stars: 4/5

Al di La

I went to this famed Park Slope Italian eatery, where I sat not at the main restaurant but at the Al di La wine bar around the corner from the main restaurant. That's because I didn't want to have to wait for the main restaurant to give me a table. The wine bar is small and charming, with little arches separating its small entry room from the also-small dining room. Small inverted test-tube lights with exposed filaments (filaments seem to be all the rage right now) compliment candlelight for a vision source.

I was trying to decide between a beet ravioli and a swiss chard/ricotta/egg gnocchi. My charming waitress persuaded me to have both, and, to separate the duo ("to cleanse the palate," she suggested) with a salad. So I did just that, ordering the ravioli, asking for a spring greens salad as an intermission, and then springing for the gnocchi as act 2. The ravioli skin was delightfully thin on roughly-pureed beet with a dark and memorable color. The sauce of the pasta was simple -- a butter sauce, touched with a shaving of Parmesan. This was a simple, subtle dish, and that seems to be Al di La's style. The salad was excellent -- probably the best thing I had.The salad consisted of all kinds of interesting and tasty green vegetables: asparagus, snow peas, peas, string beans, and more, arranged in a deeply verdant depth and dressed in sherry vinaigrette, but not too much. Everything was fresh, crunchy, and refreshing. The bread and butter were excellent too, by the way, with the bread having a beautiful crunch and soft, wholesome inner dough, and the butter being hard but creamy and happily sharp. The bread comes from Royal Bakery in Brooklyn while the butter is standard unsalted French-style (i.e. higher-fat) butter. The final course was the chard/egg/ricotta gnocchi, came in an earthy and richly aromatic brown butter and sage sauce. The gnocchi themselves were slightly disappointing: they seemed a little dull and bitter for my taste, and didn't have the sparkle that the salad had. Finally, dessert was a trio of gelati - cherry almond, fennel, and coffee hazelnut, all of which were excellent (though perhaps the flavors were not quite as complex as I might have hoped) and satisfying. Throughout, service was attentive, friendly, and professional.

Overall, I'd have to say that my meal at Al di La was tasty and satisfying, but did not rise to the godlike levels that I expected. I liked it, but I didn't fall in love.

Stars: 4/5

Jianetto's Pizza Truck

2008-04-11T10:15:00.001-07:00

Went to this place a few weeks ago and had some of their midtownlunch-made-famous slices of pizza. It's big, with much sauce and little cheese. The crust had a satisfying oily crunchy-sponginess and the sauce was piquant. What I didn't like was how very fast the slice got cold (I don't think it had been heated long enough in the oven), and the feeling that they had skimped on cheese to save money. This is an enjoyable slice, though, and for a good price.

Stars: 4/5

Quick reviews: Blackhound, Chikalicious

2008-04-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

I had tried Blackhound, a cake-oriented bakery, on 2nd Ave. and 14th St. once before and been disappointed. Today I decided to give it one more chance, and stopped in to order a miniature rum cake. These tiny balls were filled with rum-soaked chocolate cake and dipped in an outer coating of chocolate. How can you screw that up, right? Unfortunately, they somehow did. The small ball of what should have been deliciousness turned out leaden and chewy in a boring way. The chocolate did not synchronize well with the alcohol flavor and the whole thing was a bust. Too bad, really.

Stars: 2/5

I also recently tried the express pudding edition of Chikalicious, on 10th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves. I ordered the vanilla custard, and quickly got a warm vanilla sauce into which a steamed apple pudding was steeped. Overall, this was mediocre. The custard sauce was sweet but forgettable, and the mild apple pudding was the same. Not really worth the calories.

Stars: 2/5

Artichoke: Great new pizza place on 14th

2008-04-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

I went to Artichoke, a new pizza place featured on Eating in Translation & (the late) Slice New York recently, and really enjoyed my experience. Artichoke is located at 328 E. 14th, between 1st and 2nd Ave.

It caught me by surprise how small the place is. It's almost a takeout joint. Nevertheless, it has a kind of happy disheveledness about it.

I had a gigantic slice of artichoke & spinach pizza, which was indeed warm and creamy and rich. Though I think the pizza is crafted very well and is a highly-memorable slice, I like things a bit tangier than creamed artichoke-and-spinach, so I can't say it's my favorite pizza. But it was very good. And, I found I liked it even better after it had cooled down a bit. I could taste the intricate spice mixture more clearly.

The sicilian slice was excellent, too, and more to my taste. I loved the sauce, the cheese, and the texture.

The crust of both slices was crunchy and bold and hearty - superb. This is not surprising, since possibly the best thing I ate at the restaurant was a free hunk they gave me of some still warm, just-made bread with some Pummace olive oil on it. The many-layered crunch and folds of the outside, the soft inside, the wholesome aromas... this was first-class bread. I could easily have devoured it alone and been content.

And of course the proprietors were really friendly. This is a great, fun place.

Stars: 4/5

The Vegetarian New Yorker http://vegny.blogspot.com/

Quick reports: Freeman's, Babycakes, Birdbath, Isle Thai, Milk & Cookies, Jack's Stir Brew, Primitivo Osteria

2008-03-21T15:13:00.001-07:00

Freeman's - This trendy LES hunting-lodge lookalike occupies a memorable cul-de-sac at the end of Freeman's Alley between Christie's and Rivington. My friend and I were lucky in that we did not have to wait for a table (admittedly, this was on a Tuesday night around 10 pm). We ordered an artichoke dip which came with toasted bread and was delicious. My entree was a good but not special macaroni and cheese. For a drink, my friend and I both ordered French 75s -- cocktails which champaigne in them and which tasted like excellent fizzy lemonades. Delicious. Stars: 4/5

Birdbath: This W. Village cookie house, owned by the same folks that own City Bakery, has tempting stacks of cookies in wooden shelving. I tried the City Bakery chocolate chip cookies at this establishment. Why, might you ask, would I do this, since I had tried them once before and found them just decent? I wanted to give them a second chance. But I found their taste somewhat commercial and unimpressive. Stars: 3/5

Isle Thai - I had a cheap thai lunch special at this near-John's-pizza-on-Bleecker place. A nice starter salad and a tasty curry made for perfectly solid and satisfying if not amazingly complex thai food. Stars: 4/5

Milk & Cookies - this West Village bakery temtped me in with its name and with its heavenly aroma when I got inside. Unfortunately, the chocolate chip cookie which I got did not live up to the billing. It was clearly an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, and did not have enough chocolate in it. It also tasted a bit dry. Stars: 2/5 (although I feel like some of the other cookies might be a lot better, and I thought their option of a "design your own cookie" cookie was pretty cool)

Jack's Stir Brew Coffee - Another W. Village dealie, this 27-Zagat rated coffeehouse with black and white pictures of what look to me like its owner and family and friends up on the wall is cheerful and feels like home. I ordered "happy jack" latte with cinnamon and honey, which was mild and slightly spiced and relaxing. I also got one of Aunt Rose's chocolate chip cookies, which came warm right out of the oven (because they had run out; I had to wait 15 minutes for the privilege) and tasted delicious. The edges were slightly crispy and inside seemed like brown sugar, and a little bit the texture of a warm apple sauce. This is a very good cookie, and a great place. Stars: 5/5

Primitivo Osteria: This Italian west of Union Square on 14th is fairly mediocre in ambiance and execution. Mediocre appetizers in the form of bruschetta and artichokes with gruyere cheese (the artichokes were fairly heavily and cooked somewhat artlessly), a mediocre entree in the form of a basil pesto pasta that completely lacked kick and possibly salt, and mediocre desserts (my tres leches cake was pretty forgettable), and the fact that the food took forever to get there... Stars: 1/5

Quick reports: Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Latin Clinton Restaurant, Cocoa Bar, Babycakes, Roasting Plant

2008-03-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

Sugar Sweet Sunshine: I tried the pumpkin cupcake there previously and really liked it. This time, though, I tried the pistachio, which had a buttercream frosting on it that was far too buttery. Really disappointing.

Clinton Latin Restaurant: Decent but unremarkable mexican/latin food. I had huevos rancheros, which were served with a large mound of rice and beans and a ton of cheese covering them. The actual eggs were on some fried tortillas that were kind of leathery.

Cocoa Bar (on the lower east side): I tried the white hot chocolate here, which tasted a lot like warm milk with white cocoa in it. Not bad, not great. Decent.

Babycakes: I tried the red velvet cupcake, which is gluten- and dairy-free, at this vegan bakery. It was tasty, though the various flavorings gave it a hint of a bitter flavor that gave away its ingredients. The frosting was dense and tasty, though, and the cake itself was kind of addictive. This is a tasty cupcake.

Franny's: Perfect Pizza, Excellent Meal

2008-03-12T22:13:00.001-07:00

Had dinner at Franny's in Prospect Heights. It's located in a simple but elegant space, with the kitchen visible at the end of the long rectangular restaurant, and a cartoon-like painting of a city section on one wall.

The wait here, I've heard, can be notoriously long, but I came early, and on a weeknight, and I was seated immediately. I ordered potato croquettes to start, and a pizza with provolone piccante and onions.

The potato croquettes are small balls of mashed potatoes flashed fried in bread crumbs from Sullivan St. Bakery, and dusted with parmesan cheese. The SSB reference caught me when I heard my waitress describe the croquettes; I'm in love with SSB's pizza, so I figured these croquettes had to be good. And indeed they were. They were pretty much as good as you might expect garlic mashed potatoes in crispy little balls to be. They are not, to be honest, addictingly good, or amazingly good, but I'm willing to admit they're probably as good as what they are can be.

The pizza, however, is on another level entirely. This is definitely one of the top pizzas I've ever eaten: a just rival to Di Fara's in Midwood, better than Grimaldi's in DUMBO, and significantly better than Lucali's to my taste. First of all, the pizza on the plate is essentially individual-sized if you're at all hungry, and came on an ordinary plate looking vital and gorgeous.

Slicing the pizza up myself was fun, and biting into it even more so. The immediate impression I had was that I might be in love with this pizza. The crust is soft and yet has the stretch -- has the life in it -- that makes it feel that it has been lovingly hand-tossed and worked on. The soft yieldingness as you bite into it, the slight toughness as you chew it, and again the softness as it dissolves: that's a great pizza crust.

The cheese was, appropriately, piquant, and aromatic, and the onions juicy and sweet. The sauce was brilliantly tomatoey and spiced, and showcased a hint of bittersweetness that was both gourmet and comfort food at once. All these things came together in a pizza that's a work of art. Needless to say, I devoured it.

For dessert, I decided on an almond gelato, made right at the store, that was another work of art. Generously apportioned into a small bowl, the gelato was run through with streaks of roasted and caramelized almonds, with a hint of salt that cut through the thin sweetness of the gelato. The gelato was not super-creamy, but almost reminded me a little bit of a sorbet. It had a wholeness to its flavors that spoke of top-notch ingredients.

Croquettes, pizza, and ice cream: this is not the Atkins diet. Nor is it particularly cheap for all that. But this is a meal that was easily worth it, both in dollars and in calories. It's among New York's best, no doubt about it.

Stars: 5/5

Rheon Cafe: Pretty bad croissant

2008-03-12T13:26:00.001-07:00

Had an almond croissant, and it was pretty chewy, and smelled a little like toffee. Pretty bad.

Stars: 2/5

Kee's Chocolate: A NYC Original, but a Bit Uneven

2008-03-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Kee's Chocolate

I visited this chocolatier with a most artist-like in SoHo. The long wide, rectangular room, is broad and mostly emtpy, and seems geared to focus the visitor's attention nearly reverentially at a small cabinet filled with a few varieties of chocolate truffles. I ordered the pistachio and the creme brulee truffles, and also decided to try a fennel macaron.

The pistachio was excellent, both visually and taste-wise. The small ball of white chocolate and nuts was coasted with pistachio bits on the outside, and was smooth, creamy, and, above all, balanced in flavor. Harmonious and fresh, it seemed like a simple and seamless melding of natural and man-made construct.

The creme brulee, apparently the most popular flavor, was a little mixed. I popped the whole thing into my mouth as the nice lady at the counter told me to do -- and as I bit in was rewarded with a gush of a milky, sweet but slightly sour liquid. It went well with the crunch of the chocolate beneath it, but I wasn't sure I liked the brulee filling overall. It reminded me just a little of buttermilk. On the other hand, I can't quite say I disliked it either.

The macaron was another draw. Though the fennel filling was surprisingly tasty, the cookie itself was too chewy for my taste. It didn't melt in my mouth, and eating it a felt a bit too much like work.

Stars: 4/5

Banh Mi Saigon Bakery: A Crowd- and Wallet-Pleaser

2008-03-12T11:31:00.001-07:00

Banh Mi Saigon Bakery is a delightful, spare deli-looking Vietnamese restaurant, really more a takeout counter with a few benches nearby, near the corner of Mott and Hester Streets in Chinatown. In a notable bit of space-saving bricolage, the bakery is simply square at the end of a small corridor full of counters displaying jewelry for sale.

The restaurant has only ten options for sandwiches, which are nearly its entire menu. I ordered #6, the Buddhist sandwich, and an ice coffee. The sandwich came big in two thick baguette cuts which were stuffed to the gills with mushrooms, kimchi-style pickled vegetables, and marinated cuts of tofu. Intermingled with it were what tasted like a chili mayonnaise and another, more piquant hot sauce. The cold of vegetables, the spice of the sauces, the warmth of the tofu, the heartiness of the baguette -- this was a world of variety, taste, texture, and all for $4.50 -- a $4.50 sandwich that could serve two for lunch!

This is clearly one of Manhattan's great lunch deals, and a superb sandwich, period.

Stars: 5/5

Aurora: Merely Mediocre

2008-03-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

Aurora in Williamsburg is a contemporary Italian restaurant in Williamsburg that has a somewhat trendy feel to it. The main restaurant has an adjoining glass-ceilinged backyard space, much liek taht of August in the West Village. We ordered three salads: beet, pear, and endive, and all were excellent, especially the pear, which had been candied and was now fleshy, tender, and heavy with juice and spices. My entree, a gnocchi in sage and butter, was considerably more disappointing: it was heavy and chewy, and not particularly bursting with flavor. Desserts were decent, not great. A ricotta pie was crumbly and reminded me a lot of a fruitcake. A chocolate-pear dessert did not quite succeed and reminded me most of the filling of a fig newton in taste and texture. I had high hopes for Aurora given the reviews, but in the end this was just another acceptable Italian restaurant.

Stars: 3/5

Alta Review: An incredible and atmospheric tapas home

2008-03-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

Had dinner at Alta recently on a weekday night. It's located on E. 10th st. between 5th and 6th, on a gorgeous block full of beautiful old homes and tree-lined sidewalks. At one point on the street, a tree twists its root up the wall of one building in a haunting melding of city and nature.
Alta's atmosphere fits the mysterious and hidden theme perfectly. Tucked into a small storefront, it turns out to be much larger inside, but its size cannot be seen all at once. The restaurant inside is structured like a home with multiple levels. I was ushered past a narrow bar area, through the kitchen, and into a nook with just a few other tables. Orange creme walls reminded me of Spain. I later saw other spaces for tables outside the kitchen on the same level in a square surrounding a balcony that looked upon another area of tables below. Wooden trusses crisscrossed the ceiling. This is a very atmospheric place.

Anyway, enough about that and on to the food. Alta is a tapas place, and a really excellent one for vegetarians like me. I ended up ordering a brussel sprout salad, a mozarella appetizer, a "truffle surprise" in phyllo dough, and a flatbread, mushroom, and cheese concoction. Dishes came as they were made.

All were excellent, especially the brussel sprout salad, which actually had no thread-like sprouts in it at all. Instead, it was the actual hard nutty green vegetable itself, slightly warm, combined with fuji apples, crème fraiche, and pistachio nuts. Aromatic and downright addictive.
The smoked mozarella came in a fried dough and was served with a tangy balsamic tomato sauce that gave just the right craveable quality to the dish.

The flatbread was also quite good, though perhaps the least distinguished of the bunch. The bread itself was a little leathery, though still basically quite tasty.

The truffle surprise was enclosed in a deep fried phyllo dough sacks that were wonderfully flaky.

The surprise (you still have to taste it to really get it, so I'm not ruining much) was a super-creamy truffle concoction inside.

Dessert was another tapas-style set of brown butter crepes filled with caramelized bananas, lemon curd, and sweet and salty macadamia nuts. It was simple, not TOO filling, and very satisfying. The crepes were cold and the bananas were lukewarm and so the whole thing had a "snack" quality to it that was in tune with the rest of the goods.

Alta serves creative food that nevertheless hits the spot and makes you want more. I highly recommend it.

Stars: 5/5

August for Brunch

2008-02-24T14:39:00.000-08:00

I had been to August once before for dinner, but had to leave since they did not have any vegetarian entrees. I went recently for brunch, however, and their selection was much better. August is located in the West Village, on Bleecker St., and has a pretty glass-enclosed backyard with faded walls and an air of faux-age about it.

Service was brisk but efficient. I ordered an egg dish, "eggs en cocette," with roman tomatoes and mozarella. It arrive din a small cast iron pan, as a kind of egg casserole with the above ingredients. Quite tasty. The toast used high-quality, thick Italian bread. I also ordered "swiss potatoes" -- oven-cooked hash browns, also in the cast iron. Tasty stuff.

None of this was mindblowing, but it was all competent, and in a nice setting. I wouldn't hesitate to come back.

Stars: 4/5

Lupa: Good But a Little Awkward

2008-02-24T14:28:00.001-08:00

Lupa is one of those restaurants which i thought had generally well-executed food, but it wasn't food that really hit the spot for me. I could appreciate it as well-cooked, reasonably well-thought-out food, but I don't really have much of a craving to go back. The restaurant is distinguished by incadenscent lights in soft round spheres, brickwork, and a livelier "front half" contrasted to a more discerning and quiet back half, separated by a short corridor. I sat at the "communal table" near the front, and though I chose to sit at the end -- my own fault -- I found the chair quite cramped, as it was nearly pressed against the radiator behind it.

Lupa's bread- basket was unusual and likeable - it consisted of two tall squares of cakelike bread, slightly sweet, with a slightly bitter-earthy aftertaste, served with an extra-virgin olive oil.

I ordered an escarole salad to start, and one immediate problem cropped up when it got to me: its size. It looked clearly enough for two, and it was weighed down with cheese like cows were going out of style. That seemed kind of artless. The escarole itself was fresh, though some of its tastiest spices seemed trapped at the very bottom, and the whole thing did not seem well-mixed or well-blended.

My second course was a bavette pasta cacio e pepe -- with cheese and peppercorns. I've tried and enjoyed an outstanding version of this dish at the eponymous East Village restaurant. Lupa's version was homey and refined, a suave cousin of macaroni and cheese, and artistic looking in its simple cheesiness and its white bowl -- and it was quite good. But it was not as solidly satisfying as the other.

Lupa's "tartufo" dessert consists of a scoop of hazelnut gelato dipped in chocolate. From the makers of Otto's gelato, I'm not surprised that this was quite a successful dessert. The gelato was nutty and very flavorful, and the chocolate shell was high-quality ganache. It was a happy finish to my meal.

Service throughout was serviceable but not incredible. Lupa is a place that is reasonably priced and looks reasonably inviting and has reasonably good food. But I didn't find it outstanding or craveable.

Stars: 4/5

Self Assured A Voce Meal Leaves an Impression

2008-02-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

When you enter A Voce in the evening, you immediately get the sense that there is a deft mixture of several atmospheres here. On the one side is the warmth and hospitality of the traditional Italian restaurant, on another the buzz and chatter of a restaurant in vogue and with acoutrements to match, and on yet another the well-coiffed mannerisms of an elegant fine dining establishment.

The restaurant is warm, with tones of brown and grey, and strikingly long strands of wooden sticks hung on strands in alcoves along the restaurant's main wall. Warm incandescent light, soon to be banned, floods the atmosphere. The hostess took my coat and bag, and seemed friendly and confident. That's the tone of the whole restaurant.

I sat down, and ordered a glass of red wine. Service at A Voce is attentive, extremely so. I never had to wait more than a few moments before I got what I wanted, and an array of servers trained to watch you keeps it that way.

I ordered the sheep's milk ricotta appetizer, and a tortellini di zucca. The ricotta appetizer is a set of grilled italian bread served with a bowl brimming with a fresh, white, soft, mild, and spreadable cheese. The darkly grilled bread in contrast with the white cheese and the browns and grays of the bowl and table and the dramatic lighting all made for a very professional presentation. The bread itself was chewy and mild, and the cheese was subtle. The dish knew exactly what it wanted, and it got it -- it was striking and showed the elements perfect in simplicity. On the other hand, did I want a little salt, a little more spice? I did. So it was an excellent appetizer which accomplished its aim, but it's an aim that was just a little too bland for me. I still enjoyed it.

The tortellini was another piece of artistry. The color of the tiny bits of candied orange, the wistful flutterings of parmesan, and the clearly handcrafted pasta all came together. The earth-toned pasta seemed so natural to the environment around it. The zucca inside was sweet and soft and burst with natural freshness. This was a simple flavor, but the spices accented it and made it a great dish. I have to say this dish was slightly too sweet for me, but this is a subtle matter.

Finally, I ended with a baba rum. This rum-drenched cake came with a vanilla creme around the middle and top and was served with a citrus grapefruit salad on the side. This was a formidably complex array of flavors, and they went surprisingly well together. When the cake was served, my server poured aged rum over it. The sweetness of the moist cake, the slight aftertaste-edge of the rum, the soft comfort of the vanilla creme, and the light tartness of the citrus salad all danced against each other. This was a really great dessert. Again, artistry.

I left completely satisfied with A Voce. This is a restaurant that knows itself, what it wants to serve, how it wants to look and feel, and how it wants to treat its patrons. It is a high-end experience that is absolutely worth the money.

Stars: 5/5

Maoz Falafel at Union Square

2008-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Maoz Falafel on Union Square East is apparently an offshoot of a European chain of the same name. The basic idea idea is that they give you the pita and falafel for a sandwich (assuming that's what you ordered, as I did), fill it up with one of three basic ingredients (hummus, feta, or eggplant), add in falafel, and then YOU add in the condiments. The condiments come in a little salad bar, and included pickle, sauteed carrots, a broccoli and cauliflower mixture, classic falafel-style purple cabbage, and a set of several "salsas" and yogurt and tahini sauces.

It's a fun way to put together a dish, although I made the rookie mistake of putting way too much into my sandwich and getting full about 2/3 of my way through the sandwich. Unfortunate, because this is a tasty sandwich. The falafel has a nice blend of spices and is not too dry. The place itself has a very small seating area and is a little drafty due to the door opening a lot. Other than that, though, it's great. I think it might be my second-favorite falafel after Taim at this point.

Stars: 4/5

The Hot Chocolate at City Bakery

2008-01-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

It's certainly super-thick (so thick that it conceals after 5-10 mins into a near-pudding), and looks delicious, it tastes very mediocre. The chocolate is flat and lacks those nice complex flavor notes that define great chocolate. Disappointing.

Tulcingo del Valle

2008-01-29T08:58:00.001-08:00

I went to Tulcingo del valle, a homey little Mexican restaurant in Hell's Kitchen on 10th ave between 46th and 47th, the other day. The place has a deli-like, home-cooked, and family-run atmosphere. You order your food at the counter, and one of the workers delivers it to one of the very few tables located in the front of the store. A refrigerator section full of drinks has third-world favorites like Maaza (a mango juice drink) and the place also carries cookies and the like that are mainly sold in Mexico.

I ordered a Chile Relleno, and I first got chips and salsa. The chips were thin, tough, and crispy: not the giant, almost fluffy restaurant-style chips you see at a lot of places, but honest-to-goodness corn tortillas boiled alive in oil. And angry about it. But tasty.

The salsa was thin and a touch spicy. I personally prefer a chunkier salsa, but this was nice and authentic, no doubt.

The chille relleno itself was a giant couple of chiles fried in a batter. The batter was tender from the sauces that was poured on, and the whole thing was spicy and tasted a little of egg in the batter. Inside the chile was of course a cheese mixture, part melted, part powdered. The rice and beans accompanying were tasty but nothing special. The relleno was clearly the star of the meal.

This is a tasty, down-to-eart Mexican restaurant. It is reasonably cheap -- I paid $11 for my chile relleno plate, and, while not particularly healthy, will certainly fill you up. Indeed, I think with moderation the plate could serve two. I like Tulcingo, and intend to return.

Stars: 4/5

Bomboloni at the Dessert Truck

2008-01-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

They're warm, deliciously rough from sugar on the outside, and filled with light, springy dough and hot cream on the inside. Yum. Another win for the Dessert Truck on University and 8th.

Lucali: Good, not Great Pizza

2008-01-23T21:44:00.001-08:00

So I schlepped over to Carroll Gardens to have pizza with a friend at Lucali. This is a place that has gotten a lot of hype for having incredible pizza. Its main chef apparently studied Di Fara fastidiously before trying to imitate him in the artisan style -- Mark makes each pizza himself. And his devotion shows: he personally asked us whether we had enjoyed our pizza at the end of the night.

And it was good pizza. This is a thin-crust pizza, with the crust charred and crunchy. I personally enjoyed the crust quite a bit. The sauce, though, I found to be a little dim in flavor: not that it didn't have flavor, but it was a touch too sour for me. The cheese was decent but didn't have the addictive quality that the cheese, at, say, Grimaldi's has.

The restaurant itself is warmed by beautiful incadescent lamps and candles, and the service is friendly, though the wait was long -- 45 minutes. This was good pizza, but not as tasty to my palate as many others in New York (e.g. Di Fara's, Grimaldi's, or Patsy's).

Stars: 4/5

Jacques Torres Chocolate

2008-01-21T19:01:00.001-08:00

After Grimaldi's, today, my friend and I got absolutely gluttonous and decided to check out the nearby DUMBO edition of Jacques Torres' chocolate shop. We split a Wicked hot chocolate, which is a hot chocolate with a bit of a chili pepper kick, and JT's French Kiss cookies (essentially chocolate chunk, except that the chunks are a little flatter and spread out more through the cookie).

The hot chocolate was tasty, but, to my mind: 1) too thin, and 2) not sweet enough. The chocolate itself was good. For this kind of not-as-sweet, "more civilized" version of hot chocolate, I would prefer La Maison du Chocolat. Though to both I would easily prefer the Dessert Truck's more sinfully sweet beverage of the same kind.

The chocolate chip cookies -- excuse me, french kiss -- was tasty. Large, flat, a little crispy, dense, and with a high chocolate-to-flour ratio, this is a decadent, buttery cookie that has a solid consistency. It is dark and rich. Let's call it a very good cookie, though it did not have the transcendental quality of the very best kind of cookie, in my humble opinion.

Stars: 4/5

Grimaldi's: Some Great New York Pizza

2008-01-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

Today is the 2nd time I've been to the famous Grimaldi's pizzeria. I got there by way of trying to make it first to Di Fara's, which was closed, and then to Franny's, which was also closed (I thought I had called ahead but I made a mistake), and then to L&B Spumoni, which for some weird reason Google Maps placed in downtown Brooklyn instead of in Bay Ridge. Finally my starved friend and I landed on the hospitable foothills of the Brooklyn Bridge and begged Father Grimaldi for mercy. And it was given us.

The pizza in this packed place is superb, my 2nd favorite after Di Fara's. We were lucky and did not face a line, perhaps because we arrived late. The place is super-cramped, but the prices are reasonable and the pizza is fantastic. We ordered a large, well-done pie with half mushrooms and peppers. The only problem with the pizza was that, as even Di Fara's slices are sometimes wont to be, a little soggy near the front edge of the slices. Other than that, though, the slices are simply addictive. The dough is fresh, chewy, warm, and slightly sweet. The sauce is sparingly ladled onto the dough, but the simple sweetness of the tomatoes peeks through, and whatever spice combination they use is just about perfection. The buffalo mozzarella has real flavor, unlike the mozzarella at many places, and the peppers and mushrooms were super-fresh and spoke of summer abundance and ripeness. They clearly were sauteed or cooked properly before being laid onto this pizza.

This is some great New York food. Just fantastic.

Stars: 5/5

Shake Shack: Perfect as Ever

2008-01-20T05:46:00.001-08:00

Went to Shake Shack yesterday for "brunch." This famous burger joint in Madison Square Park was nearly line-less, and it took me but a few minutes to get my shroomburger (a deep-fried mushroom treated as a burger), fries, and a concrete (frozen custard sundae) with caramel and pieces of apple pie in it. Everything was just wonderful. The shroomburger is easily the best "veggie burger" I've ever tasted, by a mile. The crisp outside reveals a melty interior, like they had somehow gotten the mushroom inside to talk to a movie star it had a crush on. The fries were crisp, but somehow had a substantiality and heft that a lot of crisp fries lack. The only downside was the shape, which reminded me way too much of cafeteria fries (they were of the thick rectangular stype with wedges pressed in). The concrete was divine: SS's frozen custard is certainly excellent and soft, and the caramel and pie took it to another level...

This is another amazing Danny Meyer place. I love all his restaurants: Tabla, Eleven Madison Park, and Shake Shack.

Stars: 5/5

Moustache: Pretty decent Middle Eastern food

2008-01-20T05:37:00.000-08:00

Went to Moustache last night, a small middle eastern restaurant at 10th between 1st and Ave A. It has fairly sparse decor, and reasonably good but not great food. We ordered hummus and pita, a "pitza" with roasted red bell peppers, tomato, onion, parseley, chili and fresh mozzarella and a falafel plate. The hummus was good but it didn't have the depth that the hummus at a place like Hummus Place has. The fresh pita they served with it, though, was delicious, and went all too fast. The pitza was tasty, fresh, tangy, and fairly healthy for a pizza-like dish. The falafel was good, too, but the accompanying condiments were mainly a standard salad. Nothing like what you would get in a good falafel sandwich (maybe we should have ordered that instead of the plate). Anyway, decent food at a reasonable price.

Stars: 3/5

Disastrous Dinner at Salaam Bombay

2008-01-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

Had dinner this evening at Salaam Bombay, a Tribeca establishment at the corner of Reade and Greenwich. The restaurant tries to be exotic and enticing, with embroidered cloth hanging from the ceilings and oddly elegant Indian music chiming through the air. It had a strange tackiness throughout, though -- its bathrooms featured beautiful washbasins but a grungy bottle of soap; the ceilings had the cloth but behind them were lots of fire sprinklers not too well hidden. And, unfortunately, the restaurant's service was lax and its food really bad.

Let me start quickly with the service. The server asked me if I knew what I wanted within about 2 minutes of my having gotten the menu. When I asked him for another minute, he essentially hovered within 5 feet of my table for that minute. Admittedly, this was at 10:15 and there were few other patrons, but still. This was intrusive. When dishes came, there was no explanation -- not even an "enjoy." They were simply served silenly. This might be some people's interpretation of super-refined service, but it isn't mine.

The food, meanwhile, was really the epitome of over-Americanized stuff. The dahi puri (small crisp very-thin fried flour puffs filled with a combination of lentils, yogurt, and mint sauce) was sour and had an odd spice profile that did NOT sing on my tastebuds. I also made the mistake of ordering a vegetarian thali for my entree -- a mixed plate containing several vegetable items, rice, dessert, and that came with poori bread.

Every single item on the plate, each presented in a separate little bowl, was bad. A lentil cake included as an appetizer was simply very boring. The okra and the "korma" that was a kind of sweet-spicy soup were undersalted and bland. The malai kofta (vegetable dumplings) was sweet and the dumpling tasted a little stale. The eggplant was tough and did not taste good. The lentils were mushy and lacking in flavor. The carrots and peas on the rice were undercooked, as was the rice itself. The pooris (supposed to be large puffy fried bread) were flat, undercooked, and tasteless. Even the dessert -- the dessert! -- was somehow mismanaged, and tasted sour.

How a restaurant created so many failures amazes me, but I think this is their idea of what Americans liked. Plus, on a different note, everyone looked unhappy at this place, starting with what seemed to be the female proprietress or head manager. Everyone looked dour and beat. I wonder if that had anything to do with the quality of the food.

Anyway, avoid this place like the plague.

Stars: 1/5

Caracas Arepa Bar: Fun, Tasty, and Cramped

2008-01-18T14:01:00.001-08:00

Caracas Arepa Bar is one of the restaurant incarnations of the stereotypical Manhattan apartment: it's a closet, but it's charming and it's in a great location. CAB is a Venezeulan restaurant located in the East Village, and when we got there it was packed with a bunch of 20- and 30-somethings, snacking on delicious looking and smelling latin food of all shapes and sizes. A couple of waiters in colorful, bohemian attire (e.g. giant sneakers with different colored laces) managed the crowds. Tables are stacked about as close together as you can get while still being stacked horizontally instead of vertically. The place sports a metallic ceiling, one wall with a mural of a peasant girl, and another with a tiny shrine to the Virgin Mary and what seems like important historical Venezuelan historical figures.
The menu features lots of interesting items of Venezeulan cuisine, with a heavy focus on South American staples: plaintains, corn, different kinds of cheeses. My vegetarian palate found plenty of choice.
We ended up ordering some "yoyos" - deep fried balls of sweet plaintain limned on the inside with a mild white cheese. They looked entertainingly dark and mysterious, and were served with an equally mysterious dark sauce that could have been soy sauce, but was actually a sweet, molasses-based concoction.
I also ordered a cheese arepa, and, in a stunning display of boring choice, also ordered an empanada version of the same thing. The arepa was essentially a corn tortilla pocket filled on the inside with this cheese. It disappointed me slightly that neither the cheese nor the tortilla was not hot, but this might have been intentional. In any case, the cheese was very flavorful and almost a little too juicy: as I bit into it, squirts of cheese-juice shot out of the sandwich and onto my face, the table, or anywhere else it would be annoying for it to go. The tortilla itself was hearty and fresh too.
The empanada, which was just a deep-fried arepa, was also satisfying, although less so. Maybe it's because I'm used to flour-based empanadas, but the corn just seemed a touch too chewy and heavy for my taste. I still liked it, but it just didn't seem quite as wonderful as the arepa. I love melted cheese, but even the melted cheese didn't taste as good as it should have, somehow. I think the arepa was clearly the superior dish.
Dessert was a thick chocolate mousse with cookies layered in between. The chocolate itself was rich and delightful, but the cookies in between were a little disappointing. They should have added crunch and texture, but they became soggy in the mousse and added little or nothing.
Overall, this is a beautiful, charming little restaurant with excellent food and prices. You should be prepared for a wait, but that, like the lack of space, is part of the charm.

Stars: 4/5

Felidia's: Great Food Marred By Rudeness

2008-01-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

My friends and I went to Felidia's recently for lunch. It's got a kind of cozy, if slightly stuffy atmosphere: yellow walls, warm red lamps.

Appetizer bread was decent and served with three varieties of a chickpea dip, of which the pesto was the best.

I ended up ordering a beet salad with goat cheese that turned out to be beautifully laid out and delicious. Pieces of apple complemented the beet perfectly, and the spread on a wide square plate was highly artistic and colorful.

My main course was a pear-and-cheese ravioli that I had eaten once before and which was also excellent. Fruit and cheese accented each other just as well in the delicate ravioli skin as they did in the beet salad. Gourmet but also simple and addictive, this was the best kind of high-end pasta.

My dessert was a small scoop of almond gelato wedged between two meringue cookies, on a bed of crepes filled with a lemony pastry cream. Also excellent. The cookies were soft and melted in my mouth. The gelato was aromatic and full-bodied. Pieces of candied fruit in the gelato added extra texture, crunch, and taste.

The food was great. What was not so great was the service. For one thing, when I asked about vegetarian options, the waiter seemed to be singularly unhelpful. I had to extract information about each of the entrees I was interested in myself (it felt like pulling teeth), and he suggested no flexibility or accommodation in any of the dishes I asked about that had meat. Neither did he voluntarily point to other dishes that I might be interested in, or try to paint any of the vegetarian dishes as particularly appealing (the vegetables and polenta: "just vegetables spread flat"). He simply wasn't very helpful -- it showed in his attitude.

Then, when the check came, and the four of us wanted to split the check three ways by what we had ordered (three of us had ordered a $29.50 prix-fixe, and I had ordered a la carte at a higher price), the captain on duty simply refused. "We can't do that." It obviously was not beyond their capabilities -- he was simply being rude or lazy or both.

It also bothered me -- though this was as much my fault as anyone's -- that they had charged me $50 for my three courses, and yet the combination of plates I had gotten: appetizer, main course, and dessert mirrored what someone with the prix-fixe would have gotten. My 1st and 2nd course were both "first course" options on the prix-fixe. I feel like the waiter could have suggested my getting an extra 1st course option as a 2nd course. But he didn't. Yes, I realize this was not his "obligation." But it would have generated a lot of goodwill.

The rude and unhelpful service makes this a restaurant I will not go to again on my dime.

Stars: 3/5

Wonderful brunch at Stanton Social

2008-01-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

Had brunch at Stanton Social this past Sunday. The restaurant itself had a 30-minute wait, so my friend and I sat at the upstairs bar instead. I've been to SS, a trendy, modern restaurant/bar/lounge, at night. It has excellent mixed drinks and a lively atmosphere. At brunch time, it is far more relaxed and comfortable. Perfect for catching up from a last night filled with excess...

The brunch menu itself has great variety, with dishes like an apple-and-brie quesadilla and an egg bruschetta dish. I went for a huevos rancheros dish, which ended up look like three elegantly-presented soft tacos filled with eggs, cheese, black bean spread, and salsa. It was taty though not transcendent. My friend ate the beautiful-looking, if a little small, bruschetta entree. We also ordered doughnuts (really brown doughnut holes), which came out piping fresh and hot, and were rolled in white sugar and served with a caramel dipping sauce. Delicious. I also ordered a refreshing pomegranate-peach bellini.

Service was fine but our server was a little overworked. Prices are pretty reasonable, with entrees costing in the $10 range. It's an easy choice to come here again.

Stars: 4/5

Quick Reviews: Ruben's Empanadas; Almond Croissants from Rive-Gauche; Tollhouse Blondies from Mother Fortune; La Maison Hot Chocolate

2008-01-12T23:44:00.001-08:00

Ruben's Empanadas: tried a vegetarian chili empanada from this little institution in the East Village. The empanada shell was dry and thick and the filling inside tasted like it could have been frozen food heated up (doesn't mean it's inedible, just at a pretty low level). Not very good.

I tried the next two items from a Dean and Deluca store:

Almond croissants from rive-gauche: doesn't taste much like a croissant should. No shatter effect, too chewy, not enough flakiness. But the almond filling is delicious.

Tollhouse blondies from Mother Fortune: this is more like a big square chunk of poundcake (flavored butterscotch maybe?) and with chocolate chips dotted through it. Good, I guess. Not really a blondie.

I also tried the hot chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat. This is a very civilized drink. I like the midlness, the purity of its chocolate flavor. But it isn't sweet enough, or thick enough for my taste. Very good for what it is, but not really my cup of chocolate.