03.30.10
Posted in Latin, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Union Square, rated 6 to 6.5 at 01:08 by Dominique
137 4th Ave. & 13th St., 212-677-7300
Great for: Mexican in Union Square, eating standing up, well-executed meat
I thought the Boyfriend would be delighted I was willing to eat Mexican – he was fairly happy with the food here, just not the price. He feels Chipotle is a slightly better value. Considering they get Niman Ranch pork and other high-quality ingredients over there, I sort of agree. Dos Toros only specifies the source of its chicken. They do pack the tacos super full of meat but the tacos are quite tiny. And, of course, the waiting would drive me crazy. We got lucky and snagged seats and service immediately.
I tried all three tacos – carnitas (pork), pollo asado and carne asada. The shells are very crispy, though not after they’re overstuffed with the super juicy meat. Seriously, I could barely open my mouth wide enough. I really enjoyed them. The accompanying veggies are fresh and crispy. I’d say three tacos is ample; I probably would have been ok with just two. I was a little annoyed the guy didn’t tell me they charge extra for guacamole, and just slyly asked, “Would you like some guac?” B liked his steak quesadilla, which tasted a bit different from my steak taco, in a toasty nutty way. It was a good size, maybe a bit on the small side.
They make a big deal about doing a whole sustainable thing, which is a gimmick as far as I’m concerned, since it is merely smart business practice, but you can feel good about eating here. The place is tiny. You’ll almost certainly need to have your food to go. It might be nice before movies at the Regal, especially in the summer.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Our cost: $25 (3 tacos, 1 quesadilla, a mango Jarritos)
Noise level: loud
Chance of walking in: there is a curb outside that you can sit on, though I’d walk the extra few blocks to the park.
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09.07.09
Posted in American, Flatiron, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Union Square at 00:00 by Dominique
10 E.16th St. & Union Square West/5th Ave., 212-243-1616
Great for: lunch, eating around Union Square if everything else is full
My actor friend V, who’s been really helpful to me (thanks V!) suggested lunch one day around Union Square, and as much as I love Republic, I also wanted to branch out. I take my bloggerly duties quite seriously.
I couldn’t resist Uncle Red’s Addiction, which is just fried chicken. I didn’t find it quite as lovable as he did. There was a bit too much honey and skin. I did love the gravy and smashies, even the cauliflower and carrots, which were good with gravy. V thought his catfish sandwich was good, not amazing. It was very big at least.
We had a nice waitress, and the walls are interesting to read and look at, but I was a bit disappointed. I wonder if we should have ordered other things, although I suspect the fried chicken is a specialty from its name, and maybe it’s just not my style of food.
Rating: 6 / 10
Our cost: $35
Noise level: it’s not quiet
Chance of walking in: probably pretty good.
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07.21.08
Posted in Asian, Gramercy, Japanese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Union Square, rated 8 to 8.5 at 04:18 by Dominique
111 E.18th St. near Park Ave., 212-260-2020
Great for: cocktails, splurging on beef, meeting people for drinks in a lovely lounge
I met Blond Hedge Funder here for our second first date (long story), and had to wait about 20 minutes in the lounge because he got stuck in traffic. Fortunately for him it was a very pleasant place to pass the time, with lovely cocktails, a whole lounge area with couches besides the bar, and one waitress so friendly I started to think/hope she might be hitting on me. I hate to be the yucky presumptuous customer though, and didn’t follow up on that before BHF arrived finally.
Our first appetizer was the rock, a thinly sliced marinated New York strip on a hot stone. The slices were surprisingly thick – I was expecting carpaccio width, so that was nice. I enjoyed the quality of the meat and the yummy, spicy, salty sauce. We also tried the sakana carpaccio of three kinds of fish. The lean tuna in chef’s special sauce with black tobiko and fluke in ponzu sauce topped by spicy radish were good but nothing special. I really liked the soy-marinated salmon in garlic sauce with spicy tobiko.
Although a lot of the other apps looked good, we stopped there to save room for the 12 oz. Akaushi (a kind of Wagyu) ribeye which is marinated in togarashi (chili pepper) and comes with a generous helping of uni butter and satsumaimo pommes frites. I can’t recommend this dish enough. The meat was fantastic, soft yet perfectly charred outside with a delicious marinade highlighting its flavors. The fries were a bit like yam fries, which I usually dislike, but they were actually pretty decent with the sauce. I loved the creamy crazy uni butter too. I calculated (completely without basis, or even numbers) that sharing 12 ounces instead of eating the whole thing myself made it ok to spread the butter all over every piece of meat I ate. Even if that’s not true, I was so happy devouring it I’m sure it all evened out.
BHF also got some sashimi, two pieces to an order, of kanpachi (a Japanese amberjack or wild yellowtail), chutoro, wasabi tobiko, otoro, zuke (soy-marinated salmon) and hamachi. He also got some nigiri with unagi and ikura. I helped him finish the fish when I was able to tear my attention away from the ribeye, and it was all very good.
The drinks are quite as tasty as the food. The Japonais caipirinha was on the special cocktail menu that day – I don’t have a note for why it was special, it may have had an interesting fruit juice. As a proud science geek, I had to try the special cocktail with Moët and watermelon molecular foam. Watermelon and Champagne should be put together more often. The great thing about the foam is that it gives you fruit flavor without the actual pulpy fruit. I also liked the Moulin Rouge - fresh muddled strawberries, Bacardi, Navan (vanilla cognac) and lime juice.
The service was very nice. Our waiter always asked how things were and told us when things were about to come out. He had an uncanny sense for that, and it couldn’t have just been acute hearing, because I think I only wondered where the next dish was aloud once. I appreciated his patience very much, too. We took a really long time to order, since we were too busy talking for quite a while, and he checked on us just enough to remind us of what we should have been doing but not so much it felt like nagging. Everyone in general was nice and seemed more or less happy to be there. And as much as I try to go only to unreviewed restaurants for you, dear reader, I might have to be naughty and sneak off to Japonais again sometime soon.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $300 (3 cocktails, $72 ribeye)
Noise level: noisy but tables are spaciously placed which helps
Chance of walking in: medium, just because it’s so big with two floors.
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02.20.08
Posted in Asian, East Village, Japanese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Union Square, rated 4 to 5.5, small plates at 03:23 by Dominique
810 Broadway & 11/12th St., 212-388-1884
Great for: gyu-tataki, lovely Japanese decor, cheap food
It was a ridiculously cold night, and the Boyfriend and I were in Union Square at Barnes and Noble. We wanted to go somewhere low-key for dinner, and when we stepped outside we instantly decided it had to be very, very close by. We tried to go to Republic, which is basically kitty corner, but it was too packed. So we walked a bit farther through the freezing wind to Ariyoshi. I’m a big fan of tapas and related dishes in other cultures’ foods, so izakayas, which basically serve Japanese tapas and bar food, are right up my alley.
The menu is enormous. It’s like a diner menu, it’s so huge. They offer appetizers, sushi, teriyaki, yakitori, udon, rice bowls, etc. It’s a little overwhelming. We started with edamame and pork gyoza, which were impressively yummy. The gyu-tataki was seared beef slices topped by scallions – delicious, spicy and salty. Unfortunately, the meal went downhill from there. Next up was the yakitori combo. The menu doesn’t say, nor did the waitress know, what the skewers were going to be – pretty annoying. They turned out to be chicken meatballs, liver, pork fat (?), kidneys and chicken hearts. The only good one that we could even eat was the meatballs. Neither of us are much for non-muscle meats, but we can still tell when things are good even if we don’t like them and these were nothing to write home about.
The kalbi don with kimchi was tasty though the meat was clearly low-quality. There’s something about searching out little scraps of meat that is usually very satisfying in such dishes – chicken wings and spare ribs come to mind. Here there was just too much fat and gristle to go through. The kamo udon with duck, tofu, crunchies and scallions would have been good if the duck hadn’t been tough and strangely liver-tasting. The rest of the soup was pretty good, though.
Our favorite part of the meal may have been the decor of the restaurant. It’s really Japanese-looking, very soothing and zen, with blonde wood and what looks like rice paper. The Boyfriend said it reminded him strongly of Tokyo, where he lived for two months. Our service was ok, a bit slow and inattentive, but she got the job done. Basically the big dishes were uneven at best, while some of the appetizers were good. We were fairly disappointed. I am wondering if other people were too, because when I looked up “Ariyoshi” to find the exact address, I kept getting listings for an Ariyoshi in midtown. I called in mid-May 2008, though, and they still seem to be open.
Rating: 5.5 / 10
Our cost: $70 (no drinks or dessert)
Noise level: quiet
Chance of walking in: high.
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