03.30.08
Posted in Asian, Chinese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Queens, rated 6 to 6.5 at 14:28 by Dominique
39-07 Prince St. & 39th St., Queens, 718-359-1601
Great for: numbing your mouth as pleasantly as possible, old-school Chinese (non-)service
I had to be in Flushing one day, and this was the only Queens restaurant I ever bothered to put on my list, because of a rapturous review in the New York Times a few years ago & some mentions here and there since then. (You’d better have a good reason for me to leave Manhattan if it doesn’t involve a plane.) Luckily the shop where I had to go was only two streets away. I figured I’d better try Spicy & Tasty now, since I would probably never be so conveniently close again. So I got some takeout.
[I generally do not review places if I don't sit down and eat, but as a Chinese girl who grew up eating proper Chinese food, I feel a little more qualified to judge a Szechuan restaurant than any of the Caucasian reviewers whose articles I've read. Plus they made such a damn fuss over it, and my father is Szechuan. Here's to you, Daddy.]
Dan dan noodles are medium width white noodles on a bed of spinach and sometimes ground meat, covered in soy sauce and hot oil. The dish always comes unmixed, so that you can choose how spicy you want it to be. They did a good job here – the noodles didn’t stick together too much, and there was a good ratio of meat and sauce to the rest. Yum.
I also got what they call shredded beef with spicy sauce, which has some cabbage and large scallions underneath enough hot oil and ma-la pepper to destroy all sensation in a mouth for quite some time. The beef isn’t really shredded; it comes in nice big chunks. I’m not sure that’s the right name for what I got – the English translation of the Chinese name sounds like “Water-Boiled Beef” to me. It’s a standard Szechuan dish and an easy test of how good the restaurant is. They did it quite well here. I had to add a lot of rice to stop my mouth from bursting into flame. I was also happy with the meat, which was better quality than usual.
So, everything was good. I didn’t find it amazing, though. If it were in Manhattan I’d definitely make trips, but since it’s over an hour away by train I’ll probably not get back there. It is definitely better than a lot of the crappy American joints in the city that make faux Chinese food, but it’s still just a cheap little place. It’s sad that what should be the normal standard is accounted amazing by American reviewers. And I’m disappointed that there aren’t more chefs trying to do really good Chinese (not fusion) cuisine. Maybe one day Chinese food will be considered as upscale as Japanese…
Rating: 6.5 / 10
My cost: $18
Noise level: quiet at 3pm on a Monday, probably pretty noisy when busy
Chance of walking in: good.
In New York magazine on 5/11/08, the founder of Grand Sichuan discusses the same issue of crappy Chinese food. He seems to be pretty hopeful about it.
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Posted in American, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 9 to 10 at 01:15 by Dominique
162 Orchard St. #G & Stanton/Rivington, 212-353-3570
Great for: romantic dinner (especially with a foodie), quick service, large parties, amazing food
This is one of my new favorite places. It was excellent food with really good service and little fuss. Plus, it’s a beautiful restaurant. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, as I love its nearby sister restaurant ápizz. They both have that combination of cool blond wood and inviting atmosphere plus wonderful cooking.
The Boyfriend and I were happy to start our meal with the crispy garlic (?)-flavored strips, which we had to ask the busboy to take away since we couldn’t stop eating them under our own power. The menu is divided into flatbreads, first course, second course and dessert, which I think might be a clever ruse to get diners to order an extra course of flatbread before the traditional app-entree-dessert. It worked on us – our waitress told us that if we got a flatbread to share and then our own dishes otherwise, it wouldn’t be too much food. It was certainly not a meal for the anorexic though. We went for the braised short ribs flatbread with marinated cherry tomatoes and sweet horseradish cream. I was very happy to find the bread wafer-thin. One of my pet peeves is sandwiches with thick bread – I try to avoid eating bread, & find myself tearing excess chunks out of sandwiches, pitas, etc. Here it was crispy, thin, and a perfect backdrop for the meat and vegetables. I even liked the tomatoes! (I generally hate their taste and texture.)
This yummy goodness was followed by crispy lobster empanadas stuffed with celery sticks with creamy cocktail sauce and yellowfin tartare with crispy tostones, guacamole and whipped red onion crème-fraîche. The empanadas were the only disappointment in the whole meal, because they were just good compared to the excellence of everything else. The tartare, on the other hand, was fantastic and Boyfriend almost smacked my hand because I kept sneaking little nibbles of it. We thought the combination of flavors and cuisines was creative, interesting and delicious.
For our main course I had the paella of Manila clams, mussels, black tiger shrimp, chicken, chorizo and carnaroli rice in a fresh white clear sauce that reminded me of the ocean. It was very simple and wonderful. All the seafood was fresh and the rice was that wonderful al dente texture that is just a joy to eat. Boyfriend’s sliced lamb tenderloin with mint crème-fraîche orzo and red onion-jalapeño relish was great, with lovely tender lamb. They were generous with the meat, too, which is always nice. The orzo sounded like it would taste strange but it turned out very well.
We had to skip dessert after all that food – in any case, our cocktails were enough sweetness for us. The purple passion mojito with passion fruit and blackberry, the Orchard martini of honey vodka and ginger with a splash of orange juice and the pomegranate bellini were all good. The last came in an absolutely gorgeous flute that, the hostess later told me, they buy a few blocks away. I’m sorry to say I’ve forgotten where – some place with Chef in the name, I think.
The dishes come out surprisingly fast for such a busy, good-sized restaurant. We had a 7pm reservation and the place was pretty much full when we got there, so the kitchen is definitely to be commended. The service is just as lovely as the food. We may have had an exceptionally good (and pretty) waitress, but everyone we interacted with went out of their way to be friendly or help us with things. Despite getting busy later, everyone we spoke to still had time to smile at us. I like the way it’s decorated too. It looks a bit Scandinavian, with the blond wood and dim lighting that are romantic without being sappy. I can’t wait to go back and try everything else on the menu.
Rating: 9 / 10
Our cost: $180 (2 cocktails each)
Noise level: noisy happy
Chance of walking in: low.
I think they change the menu a lot. I visited again in July 2009 with my friend DJ SWF and we managed to get completely different things from my last time. I couldn’t stop devouring the steak tartare flatbread with red onion, chives, Dijon potato cream and arugula – luckily she doesn’t eat meat. She thought her Mediterranean flatbread filled with hummus, edamame, baby lima beans, celery, frisée, lemon vinaigrette was terrific, and for a wonder I agreed with her. (I usually hate vegetarian food with a passion.) The celery was a nice contrast to the starchy veg.
Her drunken goat cheese salad with romaine hearts, cherry tomatoes, herb croutons and creamy red wine vinaigrette was also a lovely composition. The cheese is slightly spicy and didn’t taste drunk to us, but then we were well on the way to that state ourselves. I loved my shrimp ceviche – take note, Rayuela and Lima’s Taste. The shrimp, perfectly plump and cooked, was just tangy enough. I know it’s ceviche but the citrus taste has to have a limit, and they nailed it.
AW loved her lemon sole filet in white wine, citrus butter over a vegetable hash with pan juices. We were amazed, first that it came in two filets, and second that it was grilled to perfection. The wild crab pasta with tomatoes, peas, scallions, farfalle and pink cream sauce was fantastic, a nice balance between creamy and light. We enjoyed our $42 bottle of Trebbiano, lugana, ca’lojera as well. Still 9 / 10.
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03.23.08
Posted in Asian, Haute Cuisine, Japanese, Midtown East, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 00:00 by Dominique
845 UN Plaza (1st Ave.) & 47th St.., 212-964-7777
Great for: watching the kitchen, getting rid of excess cash, lethal cocktails, luxurious toilets
I like Megu in Tribeca very much so when a friend invited us along for Restaurant Week at the midtown branch, I was excited. I’m not sure why they need another Megu only halfway up the island from the other one, but I suppose there are a lot of uptown snobs who don’t come downtown. I can understand that – now that I live downtown, I think everything above 34th is like the North Pole.
They’ve got a beautiful black Swarovski crystal chandelier in the entrance, maybe to make up for the smaller ice Buddha inside (Tribeca has an enormous one). The hostesses seemed a bit disorganized, first taking us upstairs for cocktails and then downstairs to our table. One of them was also not pretty enough to justify such a bitchy attitude. [Why is it usually Asian girls who do that? Those Asian fetish guys must be turning their heads.] The drinks made up for it, though.
We added the sake pairing for $25 each, on top of $35 each for the Restaurant Week prix fixe. It turned out to be a good idea. Somehow each one complemented its course well, even though there were three choices for the savory ones. My starter of panko-fried scallops with black truffle oil and okaki asparagus was a little strong but very yummy. The Boyfriend’s shrimp cocktail was good, nothing special, though the spicy sauce was great.
The hosho yaki silver cod with miso juice, asparagus and lemon was delicious. My Kobe kagero steak flambéed with Hennessey accompanied by garlic chips was quite good, although it basically tasted like normal steak. It may have been a bit overcooked, I don’t know. The omakase six pieces of sushi plus a roll was better. Everything came with a bowl of tasty white miso soup.
Our desserts of green tea crepe were great, as was the mango sorbet with pieces of fruit that they brought for our gluten-allergic friend. The drinks were just as good – the Tokyo sunrise, made of shochu, mango liqueur, orange juice and a Campari float was orange-y but yummy. The best was the Japonais 75, of Hendrick’s gin, champagne and lemon. I couldn’t taste the alcohol but I sure could feel it afterwards.
My favorite part of the evening was the incredible Neorest toilets. They are marvels of engineering, with front and rear jets of air or water for cleansing, drying, pulsating, oscillating, etc. The seats were even self-warming. I played with it for a while, more from shock and curiosity than anything else. We should totally get more of those things over here.
One of the things they do well at both Megus is service. Everyone smiles (except the unjustifiably over-confident hostess), is friendly, and makes sure you have everything you need. They were really cool about substituting a non-gluten dessert. The sake pourings were generous, and our waiter was attentive without hovering. The only thing I didn’t like was the strange chant all the staff performed every time a new party came in, which was cute the first few times but kind of annoying later. It was a very theatrical way of notifying all staff that people were coming in, but unnecessary since the open plan allows everyone to see pretty much every part of the dining room. I know it’s the custom in Japan – it just felt overdone here.
I’m glad we were doing the (very cheap) prix fixe, because the meal wasn’t astounding enough to warrant how expensive it would have been at any time besides Restaurant Week. Considering how restaurants participate to get customers who wouldn’t ordinarily shell out so much money to try their food, I would expect this week to be the best they can do. It was pretty good, don’t get me wrong. Certainly good enough for business dinners and the like. But I’ll maintain my loyalty below 14th street at Megu downtown.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $330 for 4 people doing Restaurant Week prix fixe with sake pairing plus 2 cocktails
Noise level: decent
Chance of walking in: medium.
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03.06.08
Posted in Stowe, VT, rated 7 to 7.5 at 17:35 by Dominique
35 School St., Stowe, VT, 802-253-7006
Great for: crab cake, chocolate soufflé, New England experience, après-ski
After a tough day of snowboarding, the Boyfriend, our friend R and I were very much looking forward to dinner. I’d heard great things about this place; R remembered it fondly from his prior trip to Stowe, and there was a lot of positive feedback online. I also found out that they change the menu every Friday, which sounds interesting. We were there for the January 18-24 menu.
My crab cake appetizer with herb aïoli and grilled sweet onion was great. I’d had crab cake at the Whip the night before, but I was kind of on a crab thing, and I’m really glad I tried it here because it was even better. I demolished it pretty quickly before turning greedy eyes on the boys’ plates. The Boyfriend’s chicken enchiladas with pickled red onion and sour cream and R’s roasted asparagus with pecorino and red peppers were also very tasty. We were quite impressed with our starters.
Unfortunately, the mains were not quite as good. My lamb steak with paprika and cucumber raita was flavorful, but slightly dry and burned. The steel head trout in balsamic butter sauce with beluga lentils and spinach was a bit sweet, while the spinach was better than the tasteless lentils. The orange-glazed flounder with blood oranges and kalamata salad was also too sweet and somewhat blah. They were decent, but none of the dishes were as wonderful as the swooning reviews I’d read led us to believe.
I am happy to say that the baked chocolate soufflé was very good, so at least we had a good beginning and end to our meal. It was the best thing on the menu. The service was great too, just the right level of attentiveness for the casualness of the setting. To be fair, I think my palate has been spoiled by New York restaurants, so for the area this is a pretty good restaurant and certainly the best of the two that we tried in Stowe. And most of the reviews I could find online were full of adulation, so it’s possible that we caught them on an off-night.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $200 (2 drinks each)
Noise level: pretty quiet
Chance of walking in: medium.
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