02.16.11
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Lower East Side, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 00:18 by Dominique
198 Orchard & Houston Sts., unjustly closed by the SLA
Great for: interesting dishes, Taiwanese food on Four Loko, hanging out with Eddie Huang
I have many fond memories of Taiwanese xiao ye, the night market, from visiting Taipei as a baby foodie. Imagine my excitement when I heard Eddie Huang of Baohaus fame was opening a xiao ye right here in my neighborhood! As it turns out, his dishes were considerably amped up from the basic food I remember, but I like and respect his creativity.
My date and I started with the poontang potstickers, made of LaFrieda custom blend pork and napa cabbage. They’re good but not mind-blowing. I would have liked more spice. The name (and pretty much all the other dish names) was cute, though – I like a menu that makes me laugh.
Taiwan’s most famous minced duroc pork in 5 spice and soy sauce over rice with braised egg and pickled daikon was nice. The famous Cheeto fried chicken with chili orange marmalade dipping sauce was juicy, tender and perfectly cooked. The Cheeto dust is just sprinkled on top, not quite as integral to the dish as I expected. In both dishes I could wish for a little more spice.
My favorite thing was probably the corn with garlic, red pepper and unagi sauce. The sauce is to die for and the corn is very crispy.
I had to try some of their funny cocktails. The Milk Skywalker is a yummy, crazy, end-of-night type drink. You are probably only drinking it because you’re already hammered, despite knowing it will just fuck up your morning (at least). The Taiwan favorite apple sidra with vanilla and bourbon is slightly less insane. It tastes awesome, surprisingly – the vanilla is a lovely finishing touch. Both drinks came in nice generous glasses for $12.
The super friendly staff and the hip vibe made this a very cool little restaurant. Everything was black wood with red accents, super Asian without being cheesy. And it was really good for an area of drunkards. My understanding of why they had to shut down so fast was that Eddie did some unlimited Four Loko deal right before it got outlawed and the State Liquor Authority came down hard on them about it. It wasn’t really fair but you can still get some Taiwanese goodness over at Baohaus, a few streets away. And for regular dishes there is always Saint’s Alp Teahouse in the East Village.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $75 (3 small dishes, 1 medium, 2 cocktails)
Noise level: classic old-school Eddie music
Chance of walking in: sadly, nil. Why, SLA, why???
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02.08.11
Posted in Gramercy, Italian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 03:18 by Dominique
2 Lexington Ave. & 21st/22nd Sts. in the Gramercy Park Hotel, 212-777-2410
Great for: pasta, sophisticated nights out, dates
The Scholar/Mistress and I share many common interests, the foremost among which is amazing food. (Or maybe reading books. But you guys don’t care about that.) We were delighted to get a reservation to Maialino, which we’d both heard wonderful things about.
Our starter of crostone di fegato (chicken liver) and aged balsamic vinaigrette was great on large half-slices of bread. The balsamic was a nice peppery contrast to the creamy pâté.
For budgetary considerations we got two pastas to share as a main. My bucatini all’amatriciani with pecorino, spicy tomato and guanciale was delightful and spicy. It reminded me of when I’d first had the dish in Rome; this was just as good, with perfectly al dente and wiggly noodles. S/M’s agnolotti corn ravioli with sungolds and ricotta salata was also lovely. We liked the large pasta and all the flavors went together really well.
Surprisingly, one app, two pastas and a generous side of potatoes with rosemary is enough for two hungry girls! We still had a little room for dessert, of course. I went for the affogato, gelato in espresso, which was good but super bitter and delicious simultaneously. S/M ordered the absolutely lovely gianduja budino, a chocolate and hazelnut bread pudding. It was very large and wonderful, especially when we discovered the chocolate melted in the middle.
I’m so glad the hotel finally found a restaurant worthy of it that’s popular too. I definitely wish I could afford to come back often.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $90 (1 app, 2 pastas, 1 side, 2 desserts, 1 lavender mint tea)
Noise level: noisy
Chance of walking in: it might be ok, since the place is huge, but you should call.
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02.02.11
Posted in Asian, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5, SoHo, Southeast Asian at 03:52 by Dominique
177 Prince & Thompson/Sullivan Sts., 212-254-7337
Great for: duck mojito, dessert, cocktails, large parties, fucking in the bathroom
Feisty Brooklynite’s birthday party here turned out to be the same night as a tornado warning. That’s definitely a quick way to figure who really loves you. Since I live just across SoHo and she’s one of my best friends, I obviously showed up.
The panko coconut-crusted shrimp tasted overly of coconut, while the semolina fritters had nice chicken and shrimp inside. They could both be crispier. The calamari, on the other hand, is interestingly crunchy without breading. The duck mojito was the best appetizer I tasted. It doesn’t taste like a mojito at all, just vaguely Latin.
The Thai-latin BBQ scallop, prawn and salmon with mixed green salad, white chimichurri and sriracha was quite good. I wished for more than just one of each thing. The saffron paella with seafood in a banana leaf is incredibly awkward to eat – fuck leaves, we don’t live in trees any more – but pretty good. I liked the white sauce on top and could use more of it. The rice needed more flavor. Their pad thai is pretty good.
The sweet world dessert with chocolate volcano cake, créme brûleé and ice cream was far and away the best thing we put in our mouths all night. I wanted to roll around in it. The volcano is rich and decadent, while the créme brûleé is creamy heaven.
I liked all the cocktails we tried, and I especially recommend the chocolate cake shots. The bartender Nick, if he is still there, is both hot and nice. Our waitresses were either kind of deaf or stupid but they seemed to mean well.
The place is girl party central. They were annoying but the music is great. As are the bathrooms. You can see the entire dining room from inside but no one can see you, and my first thought was “Nice! Bathrooms to fuck in!” It’ll be really obvious what you’re doing, but on the plus side, some of the girls will probably dare each other to flash you. Yep, it’s a fun place overall.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $100 (2 apps, 2 mains, 1 huge dessert, 2 cocktails, 2 shots)
Noise level: noisy when there are girls
Chance of walking in: prob not too bad, there’s a lot of space.
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