08.07.10
Posted in American, Italian, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5 at 02:31 by Dominique
84 Stanton & Allen/Orchard Sts., 212-982-8895
Great for: pork meatballs, spicy meat sauce, cream sauce, bread, ice cream, destroying your hearing
I had an exhausting and strange audition – the weekend ones are always the worst – and my reward was to go try this place. Fortunately I had a wonderful book to read, so the noise didn’t bother me much. I highly recommend Leo Babauta’s Power of Less. Sadly, I can’t recommend the Meatball Shop anywhere near as wholeheartedly, but they do some things well.
There’s no mix-and-match option, so I ended up ordering 5 different meatballs as sliders. That was the only way I could try all of them (I didn’t bother with the veggie ball, that’s just dumb). They’re quite small for $3 – they’d fit comfortably in my tiny curled-up palm. You get a cool laminated menu to write your order on, since there are many permutations of sauces, meats and sandwich formats. I didn’t have stomach space to try any of the sides. You can get up to four of the same meatball on a sandwich as well.
My favorite was the pork in spicy meat (pork) sauce. The pork itself was flavorful, moist and spicy, and the sauce helped it along. I also quite liked the juicy special of tandoori lamb in tomato sauce. It had a good combination of spices.
The chicken in parmesan cream was tasty, not amazing, and soft. It scares me when chicken is very soft. I loved the cream, which definitely had some cool spices in there. I was a bit sorry I got the salmon in parmesan cream. Not as tasty or moist as I’d hoped, I definitely did not need more than one. I tired of it halfway through. Good thing I ordered it with the cream sauce.
The worst was the beef in tomato sauce. It was bland and had lots of gristle, unlike all the others. Shocking, that such a standard meatball was so underwhelming.
Whatever each bun was, brioche or something, it was terrific; fluffy and tasty without competing with the meat. And you guys know I don’t eat bread. Sometimes there isn’t enough sauce but that’s ok, the bread is good all by itself.
I’d heard a lot about the ginger snap ice cream sandwich. Since I was being a dutiful blogging piglet anyway I figured I’d go the distance. The ginger snaps were pretty good but ultimately they are still messy, bready sweets. I preferred the caramel ice cream. The sandwich is fairly difficult to eat – I found it best to nibble one side at a time so as not to squeeze out all the ice cream. For $4 it was a pretty good deal.
Service is nice, but scatterbrained and slow. It’s very likely that was because they just opened and were swamped from day one, so I didn’t mind being patient. I finished my book, though. The décor is colonial/crazy American Gothic. I have never seen so many black and white pictures of loony old people. I probably won’t again, as this place is very overpriced for being only decent, and insanely packed all the time. Only two meatballs of six offered are good – not a very good success rate. I’ll give them this, though; it’s a cool gimmick and they seem to be raking it in at the moment.
Rating: 6 / 10
My cost: $25 (5 sliders and an ice cream sandwich)
Noise level: noisy as hell; the music is loud rock and the people are just as bad
Chance of walking in: bad. But at least they’re open late (noon until 2am Sunday to Wednesday, 4am other days) and have many seats so you have a lot of chances to try.
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01.03.10
Posted in Asian, Japanese, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 21:53 by Dominique
245 Eldridge St. & Houston/Stanton Sts., 212-358-7773
Great for: a quiet meal in that random Milk & Honey part of the LES, sushi
It was a sushi kind of Sunday, and after some Blackberry consultation, the New Boyfriend and I settled on this place. Our starter of furikake-dusted calamari with nori, sesame seeds and lime aïoli was pretty good, but not that impressive. The calamari could have been less rubbery and the aïoli was a bit distracting; it needed more spice and less citrus.
I was happier with my sushi sashimi combo. The tuna, salmon and hamachi sushi were well executed, as were the good-size pieces of salmon, tuna, shrimp and yellowtail nigiri. The spicy tuna maki were small and nice. Our favorite thing of the meal was the creative and spicy yellowfin tuna roll with Thai basil.
In a word, the meal was nice. So was our service, mostly. Initially we were the only patrons, and asked them to switch the channel to poker. We sat facing the TV and discussing the action. Then two guys came in and unasked, the owner changed back to baseball. Which the guys, who weren’t even facing the TV, ignored. Poker might be a slightly odd request but I found the switching back quite rude. I’m not deducting points for that; it was just a weird footnote to an otherwise pleasant dinner.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $65 (1 app, 1 combo, 2 rolls)
Noise level: quiet, but it was empty
Chance of walking in: good.
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Posted in Asian, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Southeast Asian, rated 6 to 6.5, small plates at 21:48 by Dominique
113 Ludlow & Rivington/Delancey, 212-353-8866
Great for: sharing lots of small dishes, easily impressed out-of-towners
One of my favorite girlfriends organized a girls’ night one Saturday. I’d been here before so I wasn’t too excited about the food, but fortunately her presence makes up for quite a lot. The last time I was here the company was also better than the food, which is only middling anyway, so it is not the place to take a foodie. Unless they like everything sweet.
We had to wait a very long while for the people at our reserved table to clear out, for which inconvenience we were given free edamame with lemon butter and salt. It was really good. It sustained me through our first dish of pickled vegetables, which was kind of like being tasered with a pickle. In my mind, even when a dish is “pickled [something],” it ought to still have some balance. I shouldn’t be fighting to keep my eyes open.
Fortunately the scallops with bacon, kalamansi and sake were much better. They also were a little sour, but a nice size and overall pretty tasty. So was the pork tonkatsu with watercress salad and lime butter. I found the meat a tad dry and the sauce a little sweet, while the lime butter was nice. I did not, of course, eat the mushrooms with baby bamboo, though the bamboo was decent.
The langoustines special in panko with wasabi tobiko aïoli was the best dish we had. The aïoli is addictive – the shellfish was good too. I enjoyed the sautéed Chinese sausage with super-hot Thai chili-lime sauce, which offset well the sweetness of the meat. The tofu with Thai basil and wood ear mushrooms in spicy soy mirin was not good. Too sweet, and just blah all around. I didn’t care for the seared ahi tuna in Thai chili-miso vinaigrette either.
We finished things off with the dessert tasting. The Thai chili chocolate ice cream (for an avowedly Filipino restaurant, they really like those Thai spices) was fine, as were the black plum sorbet and fried plantains. The lemongrass panna cotta was the best.
The service partly makes up for the mediocrity of the food. They are very attentive, and it was nice of them to mitigate the annoyance of waiting 45 minutes with unsolicited edamame. On the other hand, we were shocked to be charged corkage for our two bottles of sake; we tried to empirically figure out if that’s standard, and couldn’t remember details of past byob dinners well enough to come to a consensus, but basically it was surprising to be charged for twist-open bottles.
I can’t tell you why this place gets so much hype. Both visits I was in parties of 4 that ordered a good cross-section of the menu, and had an okay meal that rose to pretty good at best. I might have liked it better if I liked sweet flavors in food, and I think that might be a Filipino idiosyncrasy, but I am not a fan. Another annoyance is that everything is kind of expensive. Nothing is under $7, and most is considerably more. Not even the vegetarian dishes. Really? On the Lower East Side? The food definitely didn’t earn its price tags.
Rating: 6 / 10
Our cost: $130 (just food, they’re byob with small corkage fees)
Noise level: a bit noisy, not bad
Chance of walking in: not great. You can reserve for **parties of 4 or more.
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11.18.09
Posted in American, Barbecue, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 13:06 by Dominique
192 Orchard & E. Houston Sts., 212-253-6280
Great for: fried chicken, ribs, everything really
I love food. (Obviously.) However, I also have to be thin for my careers. I try to use my obsessive love of food as motivation nowadays – so whenever I have a craving for something, I require myself to nail an audition, book a job, or perform well before I can have it. This cuts down on impulsive yummy fattening food, plus I burn some energy working hard to earn it. I think in this case I had a couple successful auditions and ribs and fried chicken were my treat.
I got the fried chicken dinner with French fries and potato salad (which they forgot). It is three big pieces of chicken with lovely crunchy spicy skin. I wished that much of the fat or thick skin had been taken off but it was very good. The fries were great too. Being a greedy little piglet, I also got a half rack of ribs that were literally fall-off-the-bone tender. There was lots of fat, and the ribs were well spiced with a wet and dry rub. They definitely gave me ideas for next time I make ribs at home! I wish Georgia’s weren’t so expensive so I could have more.
The restaurant itself is quite small, with seven deuces and four counter stools. I got takeout because I wanted to watch tv too. You cannot make substitutions and they only take cash. It’s cheap for NYC – I’m still in sticker shock over how much lunch at Hill Country was – but not very cheap compared to 4 dumplings for $1 a few blocks over. (Vanessa’s Dumplings ftw!) The employees are very friendly, notwithstanding the ancient shotgun hanging on one wall.
Rating: 8 / 10
My cost: $25 (I kind of ordered 2 dinners)
Noise level: fairly quiet
Chance of walking in: probably not very good on busy nights.
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08.25.09
Posted in Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Northern European, rated 6 to 6.5 at 04:11 by Dominique
49 Clinton & Stanton/Rivington Sts., 212-614-3234
Great for: good solid English food, a taste of home for Brit expats, late night food
I was trying very hard to qualify for the World Series of Poker through Pokerstars freerolls (obviously, I did not make it this year) but I couldn’t miss my friend L’s birthday either. I made it through round 1 quickly and was puzzled to find myself sitting alone at a table with all the chips for round 2, but figured I’d lucked into a free pass to the final round. It was also way past time to leave for dinner so I jumped into a cab. This is why I forgot my BlackBerry and had to take notes with my camera.
We were all delighted to see the eminently reasonable $28 3-course prix fixe menu including one glass of prosecco or rosé. I didn’t actually love anything on it or want dessert, so I ordered from the regular menu, but it definitely helped to keep costs down. Those Brits do love their vino! (I was staying sober until I won the tournament.)
I tried most of the savory dishes on the prix fixe menu, since there were about 16 of us and we ended up getting everything.
The chicken from this walnut chicken salad with celery leaves, Granny Smith apples and mixed lettuce was a bit bland. The greens are nice, though I’d prefer that it have no fruit. The new season asparagus with poached egg and candied lemon as well as the rocket salad with manchego, pear and pine nuts looked good and reportedly tasted good as well.
I really liked the rich country-style pâté with red onion marmalade and toasted bread. There was a lot of bread and the onions were a little too sweet though.
I found my main course of toad in the hole pretty good. The sausage was a bit bland and the onions were way too sweet as in the marmalade, but I liked the bready stuff and mashed potatoes a lot. I think the English Ex’s mother made it slightly better.
The butternut pumpkin risotto with basil pistou (French pesto) and parmesan would have been yummy if I liked any form of pumpkin.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to try any of the well-received burger. Looks nice, doesn’t it?
As did the pan-fried mackerel with green olives, celery and raisin.
The prosecco, rosé, Champagne and wines are reasonably priced and quite good. They were working on their late-night liquor license (probably have it by now) and are open ’til about 2am on weekends. The owner himself often helps wait tables and everyone is very nice.
It’s an unpretentious pub with decent food and a fun atmosphere. We went soon after they opened, so I expect they have worked out some of the kinks. It’s a lovely place to start the night and linger. As for me, I had to dash the minute I finished my entrée but I certainly had ample wine to drown my sorrows when I came back later.
[When I got home an hour later the tournament said I'd been sitting out too long. I tried to salvage the situation but they didn't know why I'd been alone in the first place so I was probably the victim of a computer glitch. Terribly disappointing, that and the many other times I battled impossible odds to win a round, only to be eliminated eventually. Once I had one small blind left against three other people - I trounced them all in thirty minutes. Didn't carry over to the next round.]
Rating: 6.5 / 10
My cost: $30 (no drinks)
Noise level: quite loud
Chance of walking in: it might get pretty slammed as people find out about it.
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08.23.09
Posted in American, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, eclectic, rated 9 to 10 at 01:22 by Dominique
120 Essex St. Stall 16 & Delancey (enter from door on corner, next to cheese shop), 212-924-5160
Great for: quirky but delicious food, interesting conversation, après-shopping eats
I was terrified of eating here, as I’ve heard about Kenny’s legendary temper and read firsthand accounts of people being cursed or chucked out. But as a fledgling restaurant critic it’s my duty to go and review food… so I plucked up my courage and ventured in one sunny day. I’m not sure if I was wearing my sling (from the shoulder-shattering incident) – in fact, I don’t think I was – but Kenny and his son were lovely to me. I even committed the idiotic faux pas of asking for suggestions from the bewilderingly enormous menu in 10-point font on double-sided legal paper and they scolded “WHAT?!” but laughed and said cute girls are allowed to ask questions. I don’t know why I forgot you’re not supposed to. I was so nervous I even dropped my phone. Anyway, they quickly put me at ease and we chatted away for the next hour.
I got way too much food. The sliders with cheese and pickles would have been enough by themselves, but then I wouldn’t have experienced the ecstasy that is the fried potato salad. You know when meat is marinated and juicy and tender and you just want to keep on biting into it? That’s how the burgers were, with a great contrast in the pickles. I got mozzarella with the fried potato salad instead of the regular blue cheese and it was just wonderful. The potato chunks were small enough that I didn’t tire of eating them, and crispy and flavorful to boot. I ate sooo much.
I only wish I could eat there more often! It’s a bit expensive, but definitely worth the money. All the dishes are quite large, as well. Most sandwiches are about $15 and the skillets are over $20. It’s not a very big place (though I like how it feels like a homey kitchen), they stop accepting new orders around 2, and are only open weekdays and Saturdays, so it takes some determination to get there unless you’re technically jobless like me. Plus, if you act fake or snobby or are ridiculously picky about food (vegans seem to be especially reviled) or annoy Kenny in some way, he’ll probably refuse to serve you. So be real. And nice-looking apparently helps.
Rating: 9 / 10
Cost: $20 (this is not a cheapie lunch place)
Noise level: however loud Kenny has to yell to the kitchen
Chance of walking in: might be ok after the lunch rush – they don’t do dinner any more.
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08.05.09
Posted in Asian, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Southeast Asian, rated 6 to 6.5 at 02:10 by Dominique
85 Orchard & Broome/Grand Sts., 212-226-3700
Great for: upscale pho without weird cuts of meat, sandwich takeout (you can’t have the pho to go)
[Sorry for the hiatus. Poker has been taking up most of my time when I'm actually on the computer, plus I've been taking classes and I'm in a soon-upcoming play. But in an effort at discipline, I've banned myself from online poker until I'm caught up here. Also I'm catching fuck-all for cards so this should save me some money and grief. At least I'm still winning in live games. And cooking is going well.]
I was sad Elyssa Dido closed, but this place is pretty good too. For some reason, the night before I had a craving for pho, but they aren’t open on Mondays. Fortunately for my readers I was able to wait until the next night.
I got the last dish of goi cuon, a salad roll with shrimp, greens, herbs and peanut sauce. It was light and pretty good, though the shrimp were a bit dry. I liked the sauce, which is surprising because I usually hate peanut anything. My pho bo with cinnamon cloves, star anise, brisket, eye round and optional meatballs was decent. The thin-sliced meat was very nice. I was happy that it was all meat I could eat – I know, I know, I’m a bad Chinese girl for hating tendon and other offal-type things, but it’s just so yucky to me. I found the broth tasty and the noodles a little too thin.
It’s a really narrow space, so you’re pretty much guaranteed a wait at peak hours. It’s also hot, and expensive for what it is (especially considering dirt-cheap fantastic Vietnamese places are a few blocks away in Chinatown), so even though it’s around the corner from me, I doubt I’ll become a regular.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Cost: $20
Noise level: it’s a small space, so depends on the people
Chance of walking in: probably not good for now, since it’s new.
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07.14.09
Posted in American, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5 at 02:04 by Dominique
61 Hester & Ludlow Sts., 212-477-2427
Great for: if you’re on the Lower East Side shopping and it’s an odd (non-peak) hour
My friend S is great. The whole time I was recovering from my shoulder injury she checked on me almost every day and made time for lunch with me quite often. This was one of those days. We were lucky we both had stuff to do until about 3 pm, so we avoided the whole lunch rush.
Her big plate of tuna salad with greens and toast was pretty good. My mac and fontina cheese with black forest ham was actually with penne and also decent. I liked the lightness of the cheese, but I can’t call the dish very memorable. The small size is definitely enough for one hungry person.
They’ve got a rustic wooden theme going on with the décor. We had a nice waitress. I hear they’re packed on weekends for brunch – not sure why, from the food we had, but it is a cute little place.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Our cost: $30 (lunch, no drinks)
Noise level: probably not too bad
Chance of walking in: not good during brunch.
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04.19.09
Posted in Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, Northern European, rated 7 to 7.5 at 16:02 by Dominique
79 Orchard & Broome/Grand Sts., 212-219-9545
Great for: Reuben sandwich, snacking
My very good friend S came over to take care of me, since I was essentially one-armed after my snowboarding accident. I guess all the Percocet made me dopey, because when I went to let her in, I closed my door and locked us out. While we waited for another friend to bring my spare set of keys, we decided to get some food. I vaguely remembered hearing about this fantastic little Austrian place near me and we managed to find it.
When I told the waitress I wanted to try their liptauer, she suggested getting the pretzel appetizer which came with that and some other spreads. They were all delicious and the liptauer was lighter than I expected from something made of cheese. The pretzel itself was lovely, too, and I have never previously liked any pretzels.
My “Katja’s Ruben” [sic] sandwich was fantastic, a combination of pork belly, cabbage, cheese, pickles and mustard. The bread had been fried in butter and the whole thing was enormous. I took half of it home! The pork belly was very fatty with a rind, but it was easy to separate the meat out. I loved the cabbage and pickles. The only thing I disliked was the purple cole slaw, which seemed to have apple cubes in it. I think if you like cole slaw it might be ok though.
S liked her broiled trout on spinach with fingerling potatoes, though she could have used more spinach to counteract the abundance of butter. The decent side of brussels sprouts improved with liberal pepper and mustard.
We had a very nice waitress and the chef was friendly too. The small narrow space is utilized very well and doesn’t feel cramped. The décor is minimalist but homey. They have many beers (which I don’t drink) and cocktails (which I was on too much Percocet to drink). It’s kind of a hidden gem but that stretch of Orchard Street has a lot of other good restaurants. Definitely go before everyone finds out about it.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $45 (1 app, 2 entrees, 1 side, no drinks)
Noise level: music loud, people pretty quiet
Chance of walking in: not too bad now but hurry, it’s small and the food is very tasty.
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04.02.09
Posted in Asian, Japanese, Lower East Side, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 17:06 by Dominique
252 Broome & Orchard/Ludlow Sts., 212-979-0989
Great for: special rolls, tuna amazing roll, good sushi near Chinatown
My snowboarding friend M (from the Fat Hippo post) ended up asking me out. Something about shared thrills, I guess. :)
He loves Jin and I live practically next door to it, so it was the obvious choice one cold Monday. To start, we got the mini Japanese pizza, salmon slices, spicy sauce and jalapeño on a rice cake, which was enjoyable though I’d have liked a smaller rice cake. It was a bit hard to share because they just cut the rice and then draped the salmon on top, but that gave me a good excuse to “accidentally” take extra sashimi.
The tuna amazing roll is everything its name suggests. It’s a fantastic concoction of spicy tuna, white tuna tempura, black pepper tuna, avocado and scallion that I can only describe as genius. The black pepper, especially, lifts it considerably above ordinary. The tempura somehow integrates seamlessly – the whole thing just goes together wonderfully. We kind of wanted to order another one but the waiter told us about a special tuna and yellowtail jalapeño roll that sounded great, and was. I could have done with less avocado but then I always can. I didn’t mind it, actually; I think it helped balance the spiciness of the peppers. All the special rolls are generously sized and come eight pieces each, so we just got one more little thing. The agedashi tofu with bonito flakes and scallions was super hot; the outside nice, though the inside needed a bit of flavor.
I’ve been here a couple other times, too. The regular rolls are fine, not as big or delicious as the specials. I like their selection of sakes; fiscally reasonable as well as tasty. The staff are actually Chinese, but attentive and nice. I think they did a good job with the décor, the music is always chill and fun and it’s rarely crowded. Plus it’s open until 12 on Fridays and Saturdays (as of April 2009). They’re definitely getting another visit soon.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $55 (1 tall beer, 2 apps, 2 special rolls)
Noise level: good
Chance of walking in: not too bad.
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