09.06.09
Posted in American, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5, seafood, SoHo at 16:35 by Dominique
290 Hudson & Spring Sts., 212-989-6410 [now closed]
Great for: sustainable seafood, far West SoHo food
It’s so much fun going to new restaurants… Especially when they turn out to be good. It’s nice that this one uses sustainable seafood without making a big deal of it. And my date with (another) Bar Owner went pretty well.
My kampachi crudo with Meyer lemon, lardo and melon was great. I didn’t really eat the melon, but it made sense to have it there. If I liked sweets with my savory food it would be a nice contrast to the tartness of the lemon and the salt of the meat. His wild striped bass sashimi with cherry, fennel, thyme and black garlic was also good, although I can see why bass is not as popular in sashimi – the texture takes a little getting used to.
I enjoyed my crispy branzino on romesco with fennel confit and black olive. And the vegetables weren’t too salty – I find that’s a problem with olives sometimes. He liked his spanish mackerel with baby turnips, green beans and lemon too. Both dishes were well-executed and the fish was nicely tender inside. Our side of escarole with poached egg and anchovy was interesting, and I found the leaves less bitter than expected.
I would definitely recommend the Bridgehampton cocktail – you can’t go wrong with Grey Goose, elderflower liqueur and rose water. His West Hampton was also pretty good. I would have liked it more if it didn’t have cucumber in it. Our waiter attentive and although I wasn’t blown away by the restaurant overall, it’s a stellar addition to the neighborhood and the quality of food and service after just opening augurs well for them.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $145 (2 cocktails)
Noise level: quiet
Chance of walking in: decent. [Sadly, they've closed already.]
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10.23.08
Posted in Latin, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5, seafood, small plates, West Village at 17:04 by Dominique
[Sorry it's been so long. Between my full-time lawyer project and starring in an upcoming off-off-Broadway musical, I'm pretty swamped. I promise I'll try to keep up better - the backlog is currently about 20 restaurants long.]
122 Christopher & Bedford Sts., 212-242-0010
Great for: papas rellenas, shrimp in bacon
The English girl gang I run with sometimes (ok fine, it’s just a bunch of English girls plus an Aussie, me and another American) wanted to get ceviche again. Fortunately this time was better than Rayuela. I still didn’t love the ceviche, which I think maybe I just don’t enjoy. Citrus has never been high on my list.
The papas rellena, deep-fried mashed potato balls stuffed with beef, raisins and olives, were huge and better than they sound. They’re creamy and decadent, as well as covered in red onion slices. Delicious, as are the shrimp wrapped in bacon with spicy Peruvian dip under more red onions. That was probably my favorite thing all night. The sauce is green and creamy and the bacon crisp. The shrimp could be a tad more tender but the whole thing is still delicious. Just so you know, you get five decent-sized shrimp in one dish. You probably want at least two servings.
For a main I got the ceviche caliente, consisting of giant sea scallops and fresh shrimp grilled in spicy sauce over fried yucca (which I changed to rice). It was pretty good but had a very strong, sour, citrus taste. It could have been cooked less, too. I preferred the shrimp; the scallops were a tiny bit gritty and set my teeth on edge somehow. Some of the others let me try their entrees. The aji chicken is a bit bland and dry, but overall not bad. I found the lamb hearty in its very dark sauce.
The sangria was tasty and not too heavy. The service, on the other hand, left a bit of initiative and sense of urgency to be desired. Plus they forgot my tiradito, although it was fine because I was so full from the app and ceviche. I generally liked the Latinized pop songs they played. Not so much the scary movie on the flat screen in a random place on one wall. I kept getting distracted from my conversations by the horrors unfolding across from me. In general, the apps are better than anything else, and you should stick with those and sangria.
Rating: 7.0 / 10
Our cost: $470 (8 people, 1 app and 1 ceviche/entree each, with a few pitchers of sangria; apps are $7-16, ceviches $14-17, entrees pretty reasonable though)
Noise level: not bad
Chance of walking in: good.
The service is really abysmal. The girls wanted to come back a year later, and I just got the bacon-wrapped shrimp and papa rellena, which were still good. I had to speak Spanish to the waiter and tell him everything three times, though.
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09.25.08
Posted in Alphabet City, Asian, East Village, fusion, Japanese, Latin, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5, seafood at 17:50 by Dominique
509 6th St. & Ave. A, 212-529-5200
Great for: chupe, lazy people who want to go clubbing after dinner
This is another ceviche place, but fortunately it’s not as bad as Rayuela. Midtown Hedge Funder and I started with the grande ceviche tasting. What that entails isn’t listed on the menu – plus I bet it’s not always the same – so all I can say is that there was lots of tuna, some crab, fried oysters and other assorted raw fish covered in a ton of sauce, all a bit sour but passable.
My favorite thing was the chupe, a shrimp bisque with corn, edamame and egg in creamy panca-oregano broth. The corn actually came on its cob in the soup so it was a bit difficult to eat. Despite tomato halves, the soup was delicious; a savory, not too creamy, very umami delight. I almost forgot to share.
The volcano roll with shrimp, octopus, fluke, hamachi, crab, avocado, cucumber and spicy tobiko mayo was just ok. It had lots of sauce-laden stuff in the middle, didn’t taste that spicy, and seemed similar to a California roll. The rainbow roll, ambitiously loaded with hamachi, salmon, tuna, fluke and crab ceviche, was also soggy, and maybe had too much avocado. Personally I would prefer no avocado in anything ever. I mean, except guacamole. I think even if you like avocado you would consider this too much, though. We also had an interesting construction called causa. It’s a napoleon that looks like a big biscuit of shrimp, crabmeat ceviche, avocado, spicy potato layers and spicy mayo. It was the best of our main dishes. There was too much potato but the inside was pretty good.
Kion’s flirtini with Stoli Razberi and champagne is tasty, as is the Plymouth gin martini. MHF had a Gougenheim malbec that he liked as well. The service was extremely slow for a while, partially made up for by the waiters’ considerateness. I enjoyed the decor. It’s kind of eccentric but I think all the textured, colored glass is pretty. It’s a nice place to have a few cocktails or a birthday party – if you must eat something, get the chupe.
Rating: 6.5
Our cost: $130 (2 cocktails, 1 glass of wine)
Noise level: quiet, but downstairs turns into a club/party space (only weekends I think)
Chance of walking in: pretty good.
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05.24.08
Posted in American, Japanese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5, seafood, SoHo at 05:02 by Dominique
142 Mercer St. & Prince St., 212-431-7676
Great for: sushi, interesting ’80s music, a lovely quiet place to relax after SoHo shopping
I was so busy last week with my friends, Sunday was the first night I could have a date. I was at Balthazar Thursday night with my friend S and this German guy D basically told me I was gorgeous and please would I have dinner with him before he went back to Germany. I told him he could have Sunday. I calculated from his stories that D must be over twice my age, but it was nothing serious, just a good way to dip my toe in the water. The Ex-Boyfriend and I spent so much time together, I almost forgot how dating works.
D asked me to meet him at Balthazar in honor of our initial acquaintance. He didn’t seem to understand that you must make reservations in this town. I figured 9pm on a Sunday wouldn’t be too bad, but I was very wrong. When I walked in at 9:05 he hadn’t even thought to put his name down with the hostess, as I found out after wasting another 20 minutes sipping my cocktail. Long story short, at 9:30 the wait was 1.5 hours. I firmly suggested we go somewhere else. Which is how we ended up at Lure just in time to order before the kitchen closed at 10.
D loves seafood, so we got the medium plateau from the raw bar, consisting of 6 oysters, 4 shrimps, 5 clams, 2 Jonah crab claws (instead of the stone crab claws they’d run out of) and seafood salad for $58. It was good. The shellfish were not as tender as they could be but overall it was pretty decent. The salad in the center was ceviche-sour. The cocktail and mustard sauces were tasty. I liked the yellowtail carpaccio with apple cubes, alfalfa (?) and green pepper cubes much more. It was bizarrely good. I would never think to combine those things and I am glad someone else did.
The yellowtail jalapeño roll with cucumber and sriracha was great, with yellowtail inside and on top. We found it spicy and delicious. The Lure house roll was somehow even better. It was shrimp tempura with cucumber and lettuce topped by creamy soft spicy tuna drizzled with a plum sauce-type dressing. I loved the contrast of crispy shrimp and melty fish. D taught me a Dutch word to describe the rolls, lecker. He explained its meaning as lip-smackingly yummy. I assume it has something to do with the English word lechery, or maybe that was just the way he was licking his lips saying it.
I was surprised at how filling those four things were. I was afraid we’d need more food – I’m usually always hungry. To avoid a case of the midnight munchies, we shared the cheesecake with pineapple ice cream and artistically arranged pineapple and orange chunks around it. It was an interesting combo that totally worked. The cheesecake was fluffy and creamy and I liked the chewy crust.
Our waitress was very nice and helpful, giving us her informed and correct opinion about the amount of food we got. The busboy ignored our empty water glasses, though. The odd ’80s rock they played was jarring to me at first, but then kind of a nice change from the ubiquitous Pink Martini and chill lounge music they play everywhere. Apparently Owen Wilson liked it too – he walked in a little after 10 and asked them to replay the song that was on at the moment. I think he was getting takeout or something.
Celebrity gawking aside, I was pleasantly surprised at the inventiveness and excellence of the sushi. It’s ironic that the raw bar fell short of the (also raw) sushi bar. In any case, it’s in a great location, and is if anything even better than I remember from my last visit a few years ago.
[It was an all right date. I started not liking him so much towards the end.]
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $160 (teetotaling)
Noise level: very quiet
Chance of walking in: medium.
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05.23.08
Posted in American, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5, seafood, SoHo at 17:54 by Dominique
222 Lafayette St. & Spring/Kenmare Sts., 212-343-3236
Great for: amazing clam chowder, French fries, lobster roll, a light meal in Soho
It’s a good thing I live way east of this place, or I’d be there all the time for the clam chowder. And then I would be a fat blob and never get any modeling or dance work. I love chowder too much. It’s one of my vices. Sometimes it’s ok to indulge though. My friend J and I haven’t seen each other in a long time, so he invited me to his favorite lobster bar along with two other friends R and H. By the time we were all there at 8:30, they had a nice table in the back for us.
I went straight for the New England clam chowder. (Why do they even bother with Manhattan? It’s like the reviled step-cousin of the New England version. I don’t know anyone who likes it.) I’ve had it once before, and it was so fantastic, I was a little afraid I’d built it up in my mind and would be disappointed this time. Nope! It’s a perfect blend of clams, bacon, onions, potatoes and cream. They always leave one clam shell in the soup, which I kind of find annoying because I can’t politely get at the tiny bit of soup that always gets stuck in it. The liquid is not too thick, the potatoes are cut small, the clams have very little sand, and the bacon is of course a delight. I could eat gallons of the soup. H got the tuna tartare with fried zucchini slices, which was very good – creamy, with perfect flavoring. I like the imaginative use of zucchini instead of standard bread. R’s bucket of steamers was also terrific, not salty or gritty. It comes with clam juice and butter. J very much enjoyed his chef lobster salad of claws, half tail, avocado and tomato.
I can’t tell you what R and J got as entrées. I was too busy deconstructing and devouring my excellent lobster roll (market price: $27). I only know what H got because she ordered the roll as well. The bread looked like a mini hot dog bun and was not too saucy, while the lobster was juicy and firm. I found the insanely sour pickle slices made the lobster taste sour, so they were better eaten separately. Now this I would say is “the best lobster roll south of Maine.” The Tides roll was barely in the same category. The French fries were crunchy, salty and excellent as well.
I had two delicious drinks, the kir royale and their specialty spiked lemonade cocktail. My three dinner companions shared a bottle of Côte de Nuits-Villages, a red wine they all seemed to like. Our waiter was very attentive and nice. He brought the pepper for our appetizers and left it with us, which was a nice touch. It may also have been because the restaurant wasn’t too busy at that hour, but I like to think the best of people. This is a great little place to stop in for a casual bite, drink or meal – they’ve got a terrific raw bar up front too.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $335
Noise level: a bit noisy, probably because of the tiled walls
Chance of walking in: medium. FYI, the kitchen closes at 9 on Sundays.
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05.18.08
Posted in American, Lower East Side, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 4 to 5.5, seafood at 18:27 by Dominique
102 Norfolk & Delancey/Rivington Sts., 212-254-8855
Great for: an intimate date spot, calamari
Tides has been on my list for a long time. I figured now that I live a few blocks away, it’s high time I tried it. It had really good reviews online, in particular something about “the best lobster roll south of Maine.” Unfortunately I cannot agree with that recommendation. The food’s not bad. That’s about as highly as I can praise it.
The fried calamari was probably the best part of the meal. It was tender and we liked the creamy remoulade. The fried clams and oysters were good, not too rubbery or squishy. It came with a vegetable remoulade.
My lobster roll was drowned in mayonnaise and inexplicably inflicted with chopped-up cucumber. That’s fine when it’s celery (also present), but the cucumber plus the abundance of mayo made it taste weird. And I hate cucumbers anyway. I wish they’d said something on the menu about them. The sauce was a bit vinegary as well. The roll was so tiny, it probably would have dropped half the insides out if I’d picked it up to eat it. I was, though, pleasantly surprised to like the sweet potato chips that came with it. Considering everything it had going against it, the dish as a whole was decent, but mainly tasted of mayo.
The pan-fried crab cakes were very good for the first few bites. Then they started tasting like stuffing. The crispy outside was good but somewhat dry and too bready. The chickpea salad was bland and didn’t really go with anything else. I’m not sure why the chef put those two things together.
The ceiling’s pretty cool. It’s made out of satay sticks and reminds me of the ocean floor covered in sea grass. The place is tiny, with two cozy booths and five tables. We came in at just the right time to get the last table. Though it’s small, I never saw people waiting – I suppose the location is kind of out of the way. I liked our really hot male model-looking waiter. He was so friendly and competent. Plus he looked like he’d taste better than the food. I made sure to get my fill of staring at him, because I don’t think this restaurant is worth coming back to.
Rating: 5.5 / 10
Our cost: $90 (teetotaling)
Noise level: quiet
Chance of walking in: medium.
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05.14.08
Posted in American, Flatiron, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5, seafood at 15:18 by Dominique
21 W.17th & 5th/6th Ave., 212-691-8888
Great for: lobster, basic seafood
I like the juxtaposition of a super-casual fish shack on the ground floor and a seafood temple one level up. I’ve been to both; the “temple” is better, but the shack is really fun too. This time we got there early, around 6:30, and were lucky enough to snap up the last available table.
I started off with the special appetizer of fried Ipswich clams and their sauce trio of Meyer lemon mayonnaise, wasabi aioli and tartar. They were surprisingly tasty, though not the clam strips I for some reason expected. The round clam bodies made it unfortunately obvious that I was eating mollusks, but they were good anyway. The Boyfriend’s jumbo shrimp cocktail had nice giant shrimp with vinegary cocktail sauce. His reaction to “How are they?” was a decided nodding “Mmmmmmm.” After tasting them, I concurred.
My fish, shrimp and onion strings (instead of fries) combo with cream-stuffed jalapeños was pretty good. I liked the sauces, the flaky fish, and the plump shrimp – just the batter was medium thick and kind of soft, so not really my style. I prefer my batter very thin and crispy. B’s 1.5 pound steamed lobster, on the other hand, was one of the best either of us have ever tasted. It was juicy and tender and scrumptious all on its own. B kept making yummy noises until I got annoyed, but I forgave him once I tried some. It was worth the $45 price tag. The accompanying roasted potato was also very good, though the non-existent corn on the cob was a little annoying. It turns out they’d run out, as our waiter never saw fit to inform us until we asked him where it was.
To finish, we had a slice of key lime pie. It was so good! It was white, as I’ve heard good key lime should be, and creamy loveliness. That may have been the first time I liked pie. We were too full or we might have ordered another slice.
The orange creamsicle cocktail was not as artificial as I’d hoped – it tasted like fresh orange juice, which I hate, so it probably wasn’t the best choice for me. It was still pretty good though. Drink it quickly, as it’s made with oj and heavy cream and I think those things separate after a while. I liked the red cherry and vanilla gin fizz better. It’s less sweet than you’d think it would be.
The hostesses were quite hot and very friendly. Our waiter, however, was dopey and inattentive. At first we thought maybe he didn’t understand English very well, but he seemed to speak it just fine. He was really slow about checking on us, so we kept ourselves occupied by studying our helpful lobster-eating tutorial placemats. They were also full of useful facts. Overall, we had a pretty good experience, and hopefully we’ll get a smarter waiter next time.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $138 (2 cocktails, $45 lobster) + 20 for being a dummy
Noise level: party, but not too crazy
Chance of walking in: mid-to-low in the Fish Shack, low upstairs as I recall.
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02.15.08
Posted in American, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 4 to 5.5, seafood, Upper East Side at 19:46 by Dominique
1341 3rd Ave. & 76th/77th St., 212-988-9200
Great for: bread, pineapple juice, watching Upper East Side bitches (I used to be one so I can call them that)
I used to live in the 70s on the UES, which was cool because I had a large rent-stabilized apartment, but sucked in almost all other ways. One of the few saving graces was the plethora of restaurants I could choose from that were within a 10-block radius. Sushi of Gari, Sushi Seki, Hacienda de Argentina, Daniel… Atlantic Grill was one of the few that I hadn’t tried. For some reason the Boyfriend and I decided to have brunch uptown, and I remembered that I’d always wanted to go here.
We had high hopes for the place, since Boyfriend likes its sister B.R. Guest places Dos Caminos and Vento, I like Blue Water Grill and Isabella’s, and we both loved Primehouse. We were sorely disappointed. The only good thing we had was the crab cake appetizer, which came with corn salsa and whole grain mustard remoulade. The Boyfriend’s lobster bisque was not good, we couldn’t taste the lobster, and the only yummy part was the crab profiteroles on top. Some might call the flavoring delicate – we called it blah. It was a very 4 out of 10 soup.
For a main I ordered the seafood Cobb salad with scallop, shrimp, crab, bacon and asparagus but no avocado or tomato. They brought the tomatoes anyhow, and the dressing was too citrusy. I am not a seafood expert but I didn’t feel that the shellfish tasted as plump and fresh as it should have – it certainly hadn’t gone bad, I’m not saying that at all, but everything was a little too cold and didn’t have that crisp texture that I find in the freshest seafood. Maybe it had been frozen? Anyway, the best part was the bacon. I always finish the seafood in whatever I’m eating, a holdover from when my parents would make me eat my meals in the most economically efficient way, but I didn’t finish it here.
The Boyfriend’s shrimp and scallop skewers were way too citrusy and the seafood, again, was not very good quality. We said, only half-jokingly, that his pineapple juice tasted better. We are really puzzled as to why this place is packed all the time when everything we had was so mediocre. It’s a lovely-looking restaurant, for sure, and the waiters are quite nice, but the food was really not very good, especially at such sophisticated prices. $25 for two skewers of crappy seafood? No thank you.
Now, in Atlantic Grill’s defense, we went back for dinner one time when we were going to a concert at the 92nd Street Y and the Boyfriend craved shrimp cocktail. This time was a bit better. The yellowtail and salmon tartare appetizer I got was pretty good. Our pound of shrimp was somewhat bland, though, with the same probably-frozen texture, and we didn’t like the sauces except for the standard cocktail sauce. Everything seems to just be varying levels of bland. No matter how much Boyfriend wants shrimp, we are not coming here again.
Rating: 4 / 10
Our cost: $80
Noise level: fine
Chance of walking in: low
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