08.13.10
Posted in Asian, Barbecue, Midtown Central, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 23:42 by Dominique
32 W.32nd St. & 5th/6th Aves., 212-947-8482
Great for: apps, good cheap Korean barbecue
There is lots of Korean bbq in New York. A great deal of it is mediocre and expensive, though, and especially in Koreatown, it’s hard to figure out which kind is which just by looking. I am here to tell you that Kom Tang hits the sweet spot in terms of being delicious and not breaking the bank. After years, I finally found the grail!
The man doo gui, fried beef dumplings, are terrific. The small hae mool pa jun, a seafood and vegetable pancake, is actually pretty big, and soft and scrumptious. There are a bunch of other appetizers and mains I would definitely go back for as well.
The meat comes in nice huge portions and the waiter cooks it for you. We tried the bul go gi sirloin and the kal bi sirloin tips, which were both delicious. The menu offers lots of other combinations that are also great deals. The tiny free plates are yummy as well. Next time you’re hammered after karaoke, any hour, any time, you know where to go.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $85 (2 beers, 2 apps, 2 plates meat)
Noise level: probably noisy when busy
Chance of walking in: pretty good. They’re open 24 hours.
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08.06.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 00:49 by Dominique
66 Bayard & Elizabeth/Mott Sts., 212-625-2359
Great for: dumplings of all kinds, especially guo tieh (potstickers)
I live near Vanessa’s and their four dumplings for $1, but sometimes I make the trek over here for juicy, crisp, slender potstickers. Only my parents make them better (though they grind their own meat, so that’s not quite a fair comparison). I have been known to eat a plate of ten all by myself!
Their xiao long bao and scallion pancakes are pretty good too. Both are a little thick and could use some more spice – only in comparison with Shanghai Café, though. In general Green Bo does everything quite well. I was delighted to find yummy nian gao (oval rice cakes) here, and if I could tear myself away from the dumplings I’d be able to try many of the other delicious-looking things I see every time I’m here.
Rating: 8 / 10
Our cost: $15
Noise level: it’s pretty loud during lunch
Chance of walking in: outside of peak hours, not too bad. Cash only.
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03.10.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, Southeast Asian, rated 6 to 6.5 at 17:04 by Dominique
141 Grand & Crosby/Lafayette Sts., 212-966-8916
Great for: um, not much
After very relaxing facials with my friend G, we wandered around looking for a non-brunch, non-Chinese lunch. We found it, but it wasn’t very satisfying. At least we had fun hanging out, though that’s because G is a dear and that’s par for the course with her.
We began with num tok grilled beef barbecue with onion, chili powder and lime juice. It was super lime-flavored, not medium rare as requested, and not bad. I think I prefer when citrus is provided on the side – it’s tough to get that exactly right for different people, and too much sourness is pretty much irreparable. The tom yum noodle soup with shrimp was better, but not spicy as promised. It was white people hot, I guess. There were nice noodles and the shrimps were very cooked.
Our chef special main of crispy scallops with sweet chili sauce was quite good. It was not as sweet as I feared it’d be, and the scallops were pretty well executed. The best were the sauceless ones, actually, though they could have been juicier.
The $2 Thai iced tea is a bizarre orange color, and not very sweet. I’m not sure if that’s what it’s supposed to be like – the few times I’ve had it before, it’s been pretty sweet. On the other hand, I am certain about our service, which left much to be desired. Considering they only had two other tables in a fairly large space to look after, the girls were very pissed off about serving us. They were glacially slow doing everything and really quite puzzlingly hostile. I was more pleased with the standard pan-Asian décor and the lovely track lights.
Rating: 6 / 10
Our cost: $40 (2 apps, 1 iced tea)
Noise level: fairly quiet
Chance of walking in: decent.
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03.09.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5, small plates at 00:22 by Dominique
100 Mott & Hester/Canal Sts., 212-966-3988
Great for: scallion pancakes, soup dumplings, crispy half duck, any Shanghai specialties
I am half Shanghainese on my mother’s side. When I was growing up, I thought that nian gao, scallion pancakes and juicy dumplings were totally normal things on a menu. After all, we had them every time we went out. It wasn’t until I had to forage for Chinese food on my own that I realized how difficult it is to find Shanghai food, well-made or otherwise.
These are the best scallion pancakes I have had in years, and I’ve had them in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Vancouver and San Francisco. They are fluffy and don’t even need sauce, which I can’t remember ever not needing. Somehow they are many-layered without being thick, and crispy without dripping with oil. My only wish is that they would have more than four per order. But at $1.75/order, that is not a problem.
The soup dumplings, also known as xiao long bao, are generally excellent. They are a little inconsistent with the thickness of the skin; one time, too thick, every other time, perfect. In any case, the flavor is to die for; most importantly, they always have lots of “soup.” In case you didn’t know, do not shove the whole dumpling in your mouth. Put it in a Chinese soup spoon, bite a little hole, and slurp out the juices. Add any sauces you may desire and nibble at the rest. If you eat it all in one bite, you will burn your tongue and/or throat and your friends will laugh at you while your eyes water in pain.
The only places in the city that compete with the quality of the soup dumplings are Shanghai Pavilion and Chinatown Brasserie. (Forget Joe’s Shanghai; it’s overpriced and for tourists who don’t know any better. Sorry to burst your bubble, tourists.) Plus, you get eight dumplings for $4.25, or with crab for $6.25. That is crazy cheap, not to mention crazy good.
The wonton noodle soup had very interesting, atypical wontons with giant chives, pork and shrimp in translucent skin instead of white. The noodles were the big fat white kind and the broth was a little too subtle, but still quite good. Maybe the noodles needed to be steeped longer – they were too big not to be flavored.
The waiters were fast and pretty polite, especially for a Chinese place. It’s quite big with standard Chinatown décor. This place is a godsend!
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $15
Noise level: quite noisy
Chance of walking in: not great, plus they’re always busy and close at 9pm most days.
The crispy half duck is also excellent. A juicy, crunchy delight bursting with flavor, it is a miracle at only $11.
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03.07.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 00:49 by Dominique
66 Mott & Canal/Bayard Sts., 212-334-0099
Great for: eating semi-late, noodles, large parties
We tried to go to Shanghai Café for more xiao long bao love, but they close ridiculously early. 9pm in New York City, really?!?! Fortunately, this place is open until 11 every day.
We had to get our soup dumpling fix somewhere – here, they were wrapped unusually, I think in regular dumpling skins. They weren’t very juicy either, but the flavor more than made up for all that.
The Boyfriend’s chicken chow mein (crispy noodles) was lovely, despite the odd flavor of the chicken. It might have been an end-of-the-day thing. Honestly, we almost didn’t care, the rest of it was so delicious. I loved my shrimp chow fun too. The chewy and tender noodles, plump juicy shrimp and tons of crisp scallion bits complemented each other very well. I wished a few more spices were involved, but overall it was terrific. Both dishes were big enough for two people.
I’d say this place well deserves all its hype. We are definitely trying the Peking duck next time. The only drawback is that it’s quite expensive unless you stick to noodles. There’s a lot of space, and the service was surprisingly courteous, though that could just be Chinese taking care of their own. Male Chinese waiters tend to be very nice to me. I really appreciated the uncluttered, non-crazy décor too.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $30
Noise level: probably noisy when full
Chance of walking in: not great.
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03.03.10
Posted in Asian, Japanese, Midtown East, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 17:10 by Dominique
213 E.45th St. & 3rd/2nd Aves., 212-867-5454
Great for: trying lots of small things, robata (grill) items
I have wanted to try this place since it opened and I heard terrific things about it. Finally, one lunchtime I got to go. Now I want to have dinner there too, especially since I didn’t get to try any robata things. Who knows when that’ll happen, though.
The amuse bouche of grilled octopus was terrific; meaty, not rubbery, and very unexpected at lunchtime (the fact that they served an amuse bouche, not the cephalopod itself). That is only the third time in my life I have unreservedly enjoyed octopus. To the kitchen: bravo!
P got organic teriyaki chicken over rice, which came in a nice, hefty, delicious portion. I was very hungry and did the lunch special where you can get two different things for only slightly more than the price of one. My grilled washu beef was delightful. (Washu is a hybridization of Kobe and Black Angus.) I rarely eat rice, but if you pour such tasty sauce on it I will be forced to happily eat all the saucy bits. I also really liked the salmon flakes with salmon roe over more rice. They clearly craft their dishes with care here, and it showed.
I was pretty full by this time, as you can imagine, when out came a complimentary tiny apple pie flute. I enjoyed my nibble of it, as I did the carafe of Otokoyama Kimoto sake. The service is deferential and extremely polite, as it is at most Japanese restaurants. This one certainly stays on my list.
Rating: 7.5 / 10, pending dinner visit
Our cost: $70 (lunch, 1 carafe sake)
Noise level: polite hum
Chance of walking in: maybe decent, but I’d probably call ahead.
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02.22.10
Posted in Asian, Greenwich Village, Japanese, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5, small plates at 23:56 by Dominique
11 Barrow St. & W.4th St., 212-675-7775
Great for: interesting little plates
I was supposed to audition for this show in the far West Village. They said I should watch it first to be sure I wasn’t offended by the religious mocking. I knew I wouldn’t be, but it’s always nice to see a free show. Except this one. The singing sucked ass, the story made no sense, and if the people had got up on stage and masturbated it would have been far less solipsistic and annoying. In any case, we ran away as soon as the show ended, to a place with redeeming qualities.
We both got the chashu ramen. A simple broth with just noodles, scallions, very thin pork slices and and radish bits, it’s pretty good. I give them props for doing something simply and well. $14 is a little expensive for what it is, though. We got more mileage out of the bottle of organic Sho Chiku Bai Nama.
Our service was nice and the place seems quite popular. There are lots of interesting little plates I’d try in a more adventurous mood.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Our cost: $55 (2 ramens, 1 bottle sake)
Noise level: depends how drunk the other patrons are
Chance of walking in: not good.
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Posted in Asian, Barbecue, Midtown Central, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 22:27 by Dominique
10 W.32nd St. & 5th/6th Aves., 212-594-4963
Great for: entrées, probably barbecue (everyone else had it)
This was a lucky spin of the Koreatown restaurant roulette wheel. We did not get barbecue this time, because I wasn’t sure the Boyfriend would like it – we’re slowly expanding his thoroughly American food horizons – but I would happily come back and try it.
There were lots of pickled vegetables in the small plates. The chawan mushi and tofu were the best. We enjoyed the giant pizza-roll-looking mandoo. They’re definitely a good value at that size.
His je yuk dubu kimchi, a boneless chicken breast in house sauce, was impressively tasty. It didn’t look like a whole breast’s worth of meat, and was a little odd, but we really liked it. The beef and seafood soondubu was also good. It was spicy and tasty and the tofu was silky, as proper soondubu should be. Much better than BCD Tofu House.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $55
Noise level: fairly quiet
Chance of walking in: good.
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02.16.10
Posted in Asian, New York City Neighborhoods, New York City Reviews, SoHo, Southeast Asian, rated 6 to 6.5 at 23:50 by Dominique
196 Elizabeth & Spring/Prince Sts., 212-925-3310
Great for: ginger fried chicken, hobo noodles, dates on a budget
Lovely Day is sort of a SoHo institution, so people were pretty upset when they closed for several months last year after fire damage. Fortunately, they managed to get back on their feet and their beloved ginger fried chicken was not lost.
That chicken is good and juicy, but they should make the pieces smaller so the flavoring gets to more of the meat. I love the accompanying aïoli, basically a spicy mayo. The kimono fried shrimp with sweet chili sauce was fine, not a standout. I wish it were spicier.
The Boyfriend’s pad thai with shrimp was pretty good. There was too much sweet fish sauce – it was better when doused in hot sauce. A Thai place really should have better pad thai. I was tempted by the special of Chilean sea bass but couldn’t pass up the chicken hobo noodles. It was satisfying, though the chicken could be moister. The best part was the addictive and lovely, soft but not sticky noodles.
The green tea ice cream was fine and so were the nice waiters. We liked the cute log cabin décor. The quaint and homey thing keeps the vibe low-key. The place was packed on a cold Wednesday at 10pm including every seat at the bar. I guess people are very happy it’s open again.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Our cost: $55 (one green tea ice cream, 2 non-alcoholic drinks)
Noise level: noisy but not too bad
Chance of walking in: they’re always packed. You can only make a reservation at lunch. They’re open until 11pm every day though.
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01.03.10
Posted in Asian, Chinese, New York City Reviews, Williamsburg at 22:08 by Dominique
208 Bedford Ave. & N.5th/6th Sts., 718-388-8898
Great for: everything, especially noodles, and it is not expensive at all
I usually only leave Manhattan for things that start with p: planes, poker and parties. In this case it was the bi-monthly Williamsburg Spelling Bee, which I suppose would go under prizes. I went on a lark with some British friends several months ago and won, and have been winning the local bees ever since. (There are also the NYC and Big Gay Bees.) This time I came in second. I could tell it wouldn’t be a good night when I spelled my first word, blintze, incorrectly. (Did you know it officially has an e? I was totally shocked too. In fact, Microsoft Word is giving it the red line right now.) But the winner spelled crazy words like emmeleia and pteridology correctly, so I wasn’t as upset with myself as I normally would have been. Plus I was meeting the New Boyfriend. He promised he’d move out of Brooklyn soon, which made me willing to explore it a bit while he lived there.
This restaurant is so good, I would seriously consider hopping a train for the two stops it takes from the Lower East Side just to have more of their noodley goodness. It’s better than a lot of the nearby places in Chinatown! We started with spicy wontons with peanut sauce, which are rather large and not terribly spicy. I thought it a tasty dish despite my dislike of peanut sauce.
He ordered chicken lo mein, which they got confused and served with beef instead. It didn’t matter – it was very, very good, with chewy, soft noodles and crunchy vegetables. I loved my terrific black pepper beef udon for basically the same reasons. The flavors and textures were perfectly balanced. It’s a lot harder to get it all right than it seems, and this jaded, spoiled Manhattanite was impressed. If he still lived in the neighborhood, we’d go back. As it is we might yet!
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $40 (1 app, 2 noodle entrees, 1 beer and 1 wine)
Noise level: not too noisy but still lively
Chance of walking in: not bad.
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