10.25.10
Posted in Asian, Barbecue, Japanese, Lower East Side, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 00:30 by Dominique
198 Orchard and Houston Sts. [already closed, sadly]
Great for: hibachi, of course
The dreaded NYC hibachi curse has struck again. I was so happy when I noticed this place opened up by my house, and devastated when I realized after several unanswered phone calls that they had closed in a few short months. I guess this is a bit of a useless review, but at least I can memorialize them. Cheap, delicious and nearby – I’m gutted they didn’t make it.
The then-Boyfriend and I liked the edamame, though $4 was a little much for it. The tempura appetizer with two giant shrimp and five large vegetable slices was crisp, light, wonderful and only $6.95. (Maybe that’s why they went out of business.) I am so tired of Japanese restaurants that charge an arm and a leg for maybe one shrimp, one sad little broccoli spear and a mushroom or slice of taro. This app was a big step in the right direction.
I was delighted with my hibachi entrée of filet mignon plus shrimp with fried rice and side of broccoli. The beef was not super tender but everything was very flavorful and I could tell they didn’t just drown it all in butter, which is usually why hibachi tastes so awesome. I was surprised to get four broccoli pieces for $4, especially considering the entire entrée was only $11.95. He got filet mignon plus teriyaki chicken, which was absolutely fantastic. I wish I’d been able to have it again so I could figure out how to make it myself. The mango ice cream was also great and enormous, to boot.
Not only did JC have mostly cheap, very tasty food, the décor was nice and restrained. Benihana could learn something from them. There was a sushi bar in front and they made the hibachi things in the kitchen. My impression, admittedly from just one visit, is that maybe they didn’t think through their pricing very well. Some things were oddly expensive, while others were strangely cheap. I am not sure I could buy filet mignon raw at Whole Foods for $11.95/pound, let alone cooked and with shrimp and fried rice. The location was good for foot traffic and random walk-ins, so I don’t think that was it. Anyway, I am very sad they closed. I really wanted to support them and it’s too bad I didn’t get the chance to do so more than once.
Rating: 8.5 / 10 (extra .5 for being super cheap and really good)
Our cost: $$45 (15% off)
Noise level: quiet
Chance of walking in: will never happen again. *sob*
Permalink
09.05.10
Posted in Asian, East Village, Japanese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 01:43 by Dominique
210 E.9th St. & 3rd/2nd Aves., 212-473-3327
Great for: civilized sushi/sashimi in college kid-filled East Village
I read about this place in the New York Diet section of NY Magazine and got really excited to try it. I’d say it’s almost as good as I expected, but more expensive, especially for the area.
The three of us started with the tempura app of two shrimp, one broccoli and one eggplant. It was pretty crispy with nice sauce, though I wish $10 bought a bit more. I guess the giant shrimp is costly. They have a heavy hand with the miso in its soup, which is consequently only ok. On the other hand, salad with carrot ginger sauce is lovely.
The sushi and sashimi for two is great. It comes with fairly standard fish; 16 pieces of super fresh sashimi, 8 lovely pieces of sushi and 2 small rolls all for $40. It’s probably the best deal on the menu. We rounded out dinner with 2 more pieces of salmon sushi and a large scoop of delicious green tea ice cream.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $90
Noise level: quiet, but it’s popular
Chance of walking in: not terrible, open ’til at least 11 every night.
Permalink
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 00:38 by Dominique
1 Doyers St. & Bowery, 212-791-1817
Great for: noodles, nian gao
My friend G loves to organize little food outings in Chinatown, which is great because I live nearby and tend not to eat there. This time there were five of us. We took ample advantage of the sharing possibilities.
The fried pork dumplings, while not very crisp, were tasty. The steamed pork dumplings are both juicy and large; a good deal. The chicken and vegetable steamed dumplings are delicious too. I loved the chicken and vegetable rice cakes (nian gao), which were lovely narrow oval cakes in a nice gooey sauce.
You have a choice between hand-peeled and knife-peeled noodles in soup or sautéed, with various proteins. We chose fish meatballs, roast duck, egg with vegetable, and beef. The soup comes with a lot of spinach, scallions and pickled mustard greens. I was impressed by the quality of the duck and beef considering the very low prices. Overall, the hand-peeled noodles are skillfully executed, super thin and elastic. The knife-peeled look great and are that perfect mixture of chewy and tender, best described by the Chinese word qq (cue cue). It’s like al dente to the 4th power.
The people who work here are quite nice and they cook quickly. I have had trouble finishing this review because every time I sit down to write it, I want more of their food! (Haven’t had time to get down there yet.) I recommend either kind of noodle with anything.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: cheap (I think it was about $45 for 5 people, but must have been too stuffed with noodles to take note)
Noise level: not bad, place is small
Chance of walking in: there aren’t many seats but it’s pretty out of the way, so maybe not too bad.
Permalink
08.13.10
Posted in Asian, Barbecue, Midtown Central, New York City, 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.
Permalink
08.06.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, 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
My cost: $15. Cash only.
Noise level: it’s pretty loud during lunch
Chance of walking in: outside of peak hours, not too bad.
Permalink
03.10.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5, Southeast Asian 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.
Permalink
03.09.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, 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 restaurant 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.
Permalink
03.07.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, 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.
Permalink
03.03.10
Posted in Asian, Japanese, Midtown East, New York City, 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.
Permalink
02.22.10
Posted in Asian, Greenwich Village, Japanese, New York City, 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.
Permalink
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
