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Archive for August 2017

Eating NY – Waffle & Dinges

Aug31

Restaurant: Waffle & Dinges

Location: 1080-, 1090 6th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Date: July 6, 2017

Cuisine: Belgian Waffle

Rating: how could a waffle & ice cream be bad?

The culmination of a frantic internet search for a quick breakfast led me to:

Not even realizing (beforehand) that it was just a kiosk. Well I had been drawn in by the web photos of waffles covered in sugary looking dairy products anyway.

Basically you just pick what goes on your waffle. It’s a pretty simple process. There was a lot of sugar options.

Waffle with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, nutella, bacon, and spekuloos spread (sort of a gingerbread caramel). It was sweet and pretty good. The annoying cardboard box/plate and the incredibly soft and flimsy plastic knife and fork did it no justice though. I broke 2 of them trying to saw through the waffle. Plus this was $11!

I think it would have been excellent in a better setting with a proper plate and utensils. I’m never a fan of eating standing up with plastic.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating_new_york, New York, Waffle, Waffle & Dinges

Eating NY – Grom

Aug30

Restaurant: Grom

Location: 233 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014. (212) 206-1738

Date: July 5, 2017

Cuisine: Gelato

Rating: Good gelato

After brunch at Baker & Co we just walked by Grom and of course I had to try it.

I like the open to the sidewalk format, fairly close to one in Italy.

They don’t have that many flavors and use the closed tin system popular at the very high end places in Italy. It keeps the gelato better but I have a sweet spot for the big pans of decorated gelato.

Here are the current flavors. Mostly classics.

And the high New York prices.

Chocolate and Stracciatella.

Pistachio and Cassata. The pistachio was good, not quite as good as mine, but good. Texture on both were great. The cassata was pleasant, but didn’t have the more intense almond flavor I like.

Tasting just a few flavors this tasted like real Italian gelato. The sugar balance and temperature were Italian style and made for that nice mouth feel. It was clearly not “mix gelato”. So as American gelato goes, very good. Fairly conservative (i.e. Italian) in flavor selection.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating_new_york, Gelato, Grom, New York

Eating NY – Baker & Co

Aug28

Restaurant: Baker & Co

Location: 259 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014. (212) 255-1234

Date: July 5, 2017

Cuisine: Vaguely Italian

Rating: good eggs

Off to Greenich Village for brunch — in the middle of the week.

Some google searching brought us here to this menu.

Eggs, scrambled with thick cut bacon and fries. The bacon was so thick it was like a smoked pork chop.

Benedict. With burrata, truffle, poached egg, hollandaise, and prosciutto. GREAT Benedict. I’m going to have to remember this and use the burrata/truffle thing again.

Overall, we were the only people in here and the food seemed solid, but too small a sample to really give any verdict.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Baker & Co, Baker's Lunch, Brunch, eating_new_york, Eggs, New York

Uovo – Italian Sugarfish

Aug26

Restaurant: Uovo

Location: 1320 2nd St, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 425-0064

Date: August 26, 2017

Cuisine: Italian Pasta

Rating: Very good classic Italian pastas

Uovo is an interesting new concept from at least one of the Sugarfish owners — but instead of over-ponzued sushi, it’s classic Italian pasta. Uovo means egg in Italian (used in the pasta).

Just across 2nd street from the Sugarfish in Santa Monica — 2nd street is being taken over by fast concepts.

The decor is a lot like Sugarfish, small, modern, mixing bar and tables.

Lots of pasta bar.

Look at the hyper focused menu. Just pasta. A couple veggies. No salads. Nothing else at all. No desserts even!

There is a bunch of song and dance about the pasta being made in Bologna. Truth is, they are right about the eggs for the most part. Italian eggs are fabulous and along with the flour and olive oil are key to great pasta. You can get some similar eggs here, but they are very pricy organic fertile eggs.

There are a few very simple wines and beers. All by the glass. Sugarfish has always been minimalist on the beverages.

Tortellini Crema di Parmigiano. Handmade tortellini in cream of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Butter/cream/parm sauce. Very simple but nice tortellini. There was pepper in the stuffing too as their should be. Extremely simple flavor, and rich, but very well done.

Tonnarelli al Pomodoro. Imported tomatoes & 24-month-aged Parmigiano-Reggiano. My 8 year-old loved it.

Ravioli di Ricotta. Ricotta ravioli in pomodoro sauce. Simple also, very soft ravioli — they could have been more al dente.

Tonnarelli all’Amatriciana. Imported tomatoes, pecorino, onion, guanciale & red chili pepper. I prefer the more traditional tubular pasta shape with all’Amatriciana but the sauce was excellent and the guanciale crispy.

Lasagna Verde. Meat lasagna made with green pasta. Rich creamy/nutty sauce. A nice baked lasagne.

Service was slightly confused for being a few days open, but very attentive and nice. Dishes came out one by one. 16% tip (taxed too) is included. This is hyper focused both in menu and service. It didn’t take long and it was certainly fine.

Pasta was very solid. It’s not as good as Felix, and certainly way less adult. Very “classic” Italian, like you’d get at an old fashioned Italian restaurant in Italy. Fairly limited set of noodles and flavor profiles. Not much in the the way of actual vegetables in the dishes and pretty focused on cheese and simple meats. Lots of red sauce. No sausage. No Pesto. No guazetto. No walnut sauce. All very traditional pasta types not included. They can of course add them later but these are fairly tailored to appeal to really straight up American tastes while being drawn from a classic Italian playbook.

For me, a good spot for a quick pasta lunch or a very casual family dinner with the kids. Don’t bring more than 4 people. Uovo doesn’t take reservations and you pay at the counter (after your meal, it is full service more or less).

There was already a line by 5:30pm.

There was no dessert so we walked down to the Promenade.

Ok but not great gelato at the Promenade kiosk.
Light milk chocolate and hazelnut.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Italian cuisine, pasta, Santa Monica, Uovo

Eating NY – 2nd Ave Deli

Aug25

Restaurant: 2nd Ave Deli

Location: 162 E 33rd St, New York, NY 10016. (212) 689-9000

Date: July 4, 2017

Cuisine: (Kosher) New York Deli

Rating: 3 meat sandwich!

Most people gravitate toward the “tourist” delis like Katz, but if you want real New York Jewish food you have to go full kosher!

They used to be a couple blocks over last time I was here — actually on 2nd ave — now they are just down the street on 33rd.

The menu.

Dr. Brown’s Black Cherry — got to have it!

Slaw.

Pickles — two types.

Sweet peppers.

Chicken liver. The liver was good, but not sure what you do with the motley collection of veggies underneath.

Triple Bypass Sandwich. A 3 decker sandwich consisting of 3 large potato pancakes and everything but the kitchen sink: salami, pastrami, and corn beef. The pastrami is the best of course.

Fries.

Apple strudel. No butter obviously.

And a complementary shot of chocolate seltzer. I always find the acidity of this drink surprising.

Overall, some solid meat. I added the Russian dressing of course, but probably would have been even better with some cheese — haha. I normally bash Kosher restaurants as (at least in LA) they don’t seem to care a whit about quality. 2nd Ave is solid though for NY Deli — it is what it is.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: 2nd Ave Deli, Deli, eating_new_york, Kosher, New York

Eating NY – Marta

Aug23

Restaurant: Marta

Location: The Redbury Hotel, 29 E 29th St, New York, NY 10016. (212) 651-3800

Date: July 3, 2017

Cuisine: Wood-fire pizza

Rating: Good, but not as good as I hoped

New York is famous for its pizza, and so I figured to kill two birds with one stone by also trying a Danny Meyer place (recently, not counting a 13 year ago trip to Gramercy Tavern).

So Marta. Joe Tarasco is the executive chef and it describes itself as a “rustic Roman pizzerie.” Minus the 1100 year old stone walls and plus modern design and neo-Neapolitan pizza.

See what I mean about the modern decor.

But it is an attractive space.

The menu. Most of this you would never actually find in Rome.

2016 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Rosato Vino da Tavola. 88 points. Nice medium heavy rose. Somm recommended, made from Nebbiolo.

Suppli al Telefono. Tomato Risotto Croquettes, mozzarella. Sort of like Roman arancini except filled with extra cheese (a decidedly American modification).

Marta Mista. Baby head lettuce, artichokes, marinated sweet peppers, grana padano, red wine vinaigrette.

Insalata di Tonno. Tuna Conserva, buffalo Mozzarella, Baby gem lettuce, capers.

Bietole al Ferri. Ember-roasted beets, salmoriglio, ricotta salata. Beets actually seem to be more common in American salads. I haven’t seen a lot of them in Italy.

Polpettine di Pollo. Chicken Meatballs, black olives, Ricotta, sourdough.

Prosciutto. Prosciutto di Parma, Giardiniera, Grilled Sourdough.

Margherita pizza. Mozzarella, basil.

Kid’s pizza.

Patate alla Carbonara. Potatoes, guanciale, black pepper, pecorino, egg. I had high hopes for this, and the dough was excellent, but the overall taste was dominated by potato. If it had them at all it should have had about 1/4 and more pork, and maybe creme fraiche and egg or something to get more of a proper carbonara balance.

Coppa Cotta — minus the cheese. This is a dairy free version. Shoulder ham, pineapple, mozzarella (missing), and Calabrian Chili.

Pollo Ubriaco. Beer-brined half chicken, charred Caraflex cabbage, Fresno Chili, mint. Not super Italian too.

Spigola. Wild striped bass, roasted squash, cucumber, gazpacho.
The dessert menu — but we had a Broadway show to catch and didn’t stay.

Overall, Marta was pretty good, and a bit similar in some ways to Santa Monica’s Milo & Olive. It’s slightly Roman. The Arancini and Carbonara are least hint at the Eternal City. I was a little disappointed somehow, maybe it was my too-much-potato Carbonara pizza. It was solid, but I had hoped to have some amazing pizza.

Service was very nice though and the space lovely.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Danny Meyer, eating_new_york, Joe Tarasco, Marta, New York

Eating NY – Laboratorio del Gelato

Aug21

Restaurant: il laboratorio del gelato

Location: 188 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002. (212) 343-9922

Date: July 3, 2017

Cuisine: Gelato

Rating: Good, but not amazing, and tiny expensive portions

Since this top rated Gelato place was just a few blocks from the Tenement Museum (go if you haven’t been), I just had to try it.

Lower Manhattan for sure, just across from Katz’s Deli.

Check out the prices.

We were here at 11am and the tubs were like this, so they don’t make it every day. Little tubs too without the “styling” often found in Italy. That might not be that cool to New Yorkers though.

Passion fruit and chocolate. Notice the ridiculously tiny scoops. This was $4.50!

Orange chocolate (or something like that, I can’t remember) and hazelnut.

I’m not too bothered by the price, hey although the portions are deceptively tiny. This was good gelato, but it was a little cold/hard and the flavors slightly muted to my taste. For example, the hazelnut had very nice Italian hazelnut flavor, but it wasn’t as intense as I make it — or like it. Plus they had a 2 taste limit with “limited” my sampling so I really didn’t get the best sense of it.

I wasn’t massively impressed. You can find better gelato in Italy if you try 2-3 shops at random. I liked Grom better (review coming in a few days).

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: eating_new_york, Gelato, il laboratorio del gelato, New York

Eating NY – Joy Luck Palace

Aug18

Restaurant: Joy Luck Palace

Location: 98 Mott St, New York, NY 10013. (212) 219-2828

Date: July 3, 2017

Cuisine: Cantonese Dim Sum

Rating: Not nearly as good as the best in the SGV

Of course I had to try some Chinese in New York, and since I didn’t have time to go out to Flushing I figured I’d play it safe by looking up a top dimsum place. Eater raved about this one in Chinatown.

It’s in the center of the crowded old school Chinatown streets.

Inside it’s pretty typical of these big one room Cantonese joints. Crazy cove lights. On the “low decor side.” Not nearly as glitzy as something like Grand Harbor. There were no white people — I took this as an encouraging sign.

They still use the cart system. That went out 5+ years ago in the better LA (i.e. SGV) places. I hate the cart system. It’s fast, but the food has been sitting, and it’s hard to get them to come by at the pace you want.

Har gow. These crystal shrimp dumplings were fine. Nothing special. As usual it took some work to get water and sauces.

Sui Mai. Pretty typical as well.

Peanut and more dumpling. Stickier skin, pretty good.

Bean curd with pork and shrimp. Just fine.

Fish balls. Slightly different, but also nothing special.

Pigs inside pigs. Chinese sausage wrapped in bao dough. Cute at least.

Shrimp rice crepe. Not the greatest version of this dish.

Vegetarian fried rice crepe. Slightly different and actually pretty good.

Sticky rice steamed in lotus leaf. Fine but not amazing.

Pig shaped custard buns. Cute again.

Besides the cute pig shaped dimsum this place was fine but utterly mediocre. It was about on par with the Palace in Brentwood, which I consider just passable. The cart system made it hard to get anything interesting and we even ended up repeating. The service was worse than Chinese typical. The atmosphere pretty much unappetizing. If this is Manhattan’s best (and I have no other datapoints to judge by) than it has a LONG LONG way to go to even get in the same league as the 5+ best SGV dimsum houses.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, dimsum, eating_new_york, Joy Luck Palace, New York

Eating NY – Marea

Aug16

Restaurant: Marea

Location: 240 Central Park S, New York, NY 10019. (212) 582-5100

Date: July 2, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Great “fancy” Italian

My family loves Italian food and New York is famous for its Italian, so I figured we try a bunch at a bunch of different levels.

Marea is the modern style of fancy Italian, which some Italian-American lovers dismiss, but is actually fairly representative of high end (Michelin) restaurants in Italy. I know, I’ve eaten at plenty of them. And in fact, Marea has 2 stars itself.

The menu. We all went for the 4 course “deal.”

An amuse of sardine/anchovy and cheese on polenta.

They had a lot of very nice breads like this olive focaccia.

And since two groups ordered the whole fresh Branzino, the fish came out first to show off — just as they do in the Mediterranean.

2013 Azienda Agricola Bucci Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Riserva Villa Bucci. 91 points. I visited this winery 2 years ago. The nose was alive with saline-minerality and zesty citrus tones. On the palate, I found soft, lifted textures with tart citrus, spice and mineral tones. It finished fresh and lively.

Insalta. Sesonal greens, sherry dressing, almond, nectarine, parmigiano.

They have a lot of crudo al taglio on the menu, like this: Tonno. yellowfin tuna, oyster crema, crispy artichoke.

Scampi. Pacific Langoustine, murray river pink salt.

And my Assaggio di tre. From left to right: Scampi Pacific Langoustine, murray river pink salt. Passera. Long island fluke, stone fruit, almond, chive blossom. Dentice. Pacific snapper, lime coriander, crispy skin.

These were nice. I’ve decided that these “western sauces” are MUCH better on crudo (aka sashimi) than on sushi (like Sushi Gari). It doesn’t play well with the rice.

Polipo. grilled octopus, smoked potatoes, radish pickled red onions, chilies, tomato.

1999 Mastroberardino Taurasi Radici Riserva. VM 90-93. Good ruby-red. Red plum, sweet spices, roast coffee, flowers and a loamy nuance on the open-knit nose. Then juicy and stylish in the mouth, combining peppery and soft red fruit qualities with a subtle touch of oaky sweetness. Not a hugely concentrated wine and surprisingly forward, finishing with suave, spreading tannins and an almost sweet quality. There’s nothing wrong with this balanced wine, although I would have expected a little more complexity and depth; I wonder if the production of the 130-year anniversary bottling in the same vintage caused this Riserva to be less concentrated and deep than it might otherwise have been. Readers should take note that 1999 in Taurasi was characterized by a cool growing season, and thus was nothing like the outstanding ’99 vintage in Montalcino or Barolo. Still, I always felt that 1999 in Campania was unjustly overlooked by wine critics at the time, and I think that the wines are starting to show well now.

Twisted trofi pasta with pomodoro sauce. Great texture.

My son’s lizard toys get their own plate of parmesan.

Gnocchetti. Gulf shrimp, chillies, rosemary. First there was Gnocci, then there was gnocchetti.

Spaghetti neri. Seppia, ink, mussels, fresh chili, saffron.

Pansotti. Lamb, bagna cauda, english peas. How can you go wrong with fresh made pasta stuffed with meat and covered in butter?

Rosotto funghi. Wild mushrooms, parmigiano. Perfect creamy texture.

Branzino. Here comes the fish, perfectly filleted.

With sauces.

Brodetto di pesce. Adriatic seafood soup, clams, langoustine, scallop, prawns, bass.

With the broth. The flavor was great and the seafood fresh. It wasn’t the strongest or richest broth, channeling a lighter more delicate vibe rather than the more southern heavy garlic/tomato thing.

Tagliata. Grilled creekstone 50-day dry aged sirloin. braised romaine.

Fingerling potatoes, rosemary.

Wild arugula and lemon.

Market beans, romesco, almonds.

Wild mushrooms, savory.

Dolce.

Trio of sorbetti. Cherry amaretto, strawberry balsamic, blackberry lemon.

Chocolate gelato.

Affogato. vanilla gelato, espresso, amaro, almond sbrisolona. I haven’t seen affogato (mostly) straight up on a 2 star menu before.

Semifreddo tropicale. coconut semifreddo, passion fruit, kiwi, mango, basil.

With a gooey center! This dessert was an 11 by my standards. A perfect expression of coconut and bright tropical fruits. I will make a coconut gelato with almonds and passionfruit coulis to riff off of it.

Cioccolato. domori chocolate, white chocolate ganache, almond stracciatella gelato.

Petite fours. Raspberry pate de fruit.

Mini tiramisu.

My son likes dressing up now.

Overall, Marea was very good. Execution was top notch across the board. Pastas were amazing. Interesting that it’s Adriatic in style, most closely resembling these places I’ve eaten at on Italy’s Adriatic coast: Madonnia del Pescatore and La Frasca. The format is a bit different more American at Marea, with fewer larger courses. I, of course (pun intended), prefer the more smaller dish format. Marea plays it fairly safe too, avoiding some of the weirder (to American taste) choices you might get in Italy. But it is quite Italian.

Service was top notch. Our server was simultaneously very New York, punky, not explicitly Italian, and excellent. Very nice, knowledgable, responsive, accommodating, etc.

The wine list was good and only slightly high. Clientele was more staid and there were quite a number of wealthy Chinese.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: eating_new_york, Italian cuisine, marea, New York, Wine

Eating NY – Sarabeth’s

Aug14

Restaurant: Sarabeth’s Central Park South

Location: 40 Central Park S, New York, NY 10021. (212) 826-5959

Date: July 2, 2017

Cuisine: Breakfast

Rating: New/old school?

Sarabeth’s is a New York breakfast mainstay, located right along the south side of Central Park.

We had to wait over an hour, even at 9am!

The place is huge, and mobbed.

Cappuccino of course.

The menu.

Spinach omelet.

French toast with strawberries.

Pancakes.

Oatmeal with strawberries and banana.
Omelet and muffin.

I had a crab Benedict, but I guess I forgot to take a picture of it. Sad, as it was the best thing (for my taste).

Overall, Sarabeth’s was very classic. The menu wasn’t super interesting, but execution was solid. Still it’s pricey. And the format is oddly old-school with the white tablecloths and liveried waiters. Certainly fun to try but I’m not sure I would crave it.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Breakfast, eating_new_york, New York, Sarabeth's

Eating NY – Cosme

Aug11

Restaurant: Cosme

Location: 35 E 21st St, New York, NY 10010. (212) 913-9659

Date: July 1, 2017

Cuisine: Modern Mexican

Rating: Interesting ultra modern Mexican

Cosme made #3 of New York restaurants on a list of the best 100 restaurants in the world.

Cosme is a restaurant in New York City’s Flatiron District serving contemporary Mexican-inspired cuisine. World-renowned Chef Enrique Olvera and his team create dishes rooted in Mexican flavors and traditions, while also celebrating local and seasonal ingredients from the Hudson Valley and surrounding region. Cosme’s beverage program focuses on artisanal spirits and mirrors its cuisine, letting the high quality ingredients shine.

The interior mostly subscribed to the “keep it really dark so they won’t see our minimalist decor.”

The bar area.

It was very crowded and loud.

The menu is all share plates.

A sort of compari/aperol old fashioned. Pretty good.

For my son, a cheese quesadilla (off menu).

Chips with a kind of romesco-like paste. The paste was great.

Cobia al pastor, pineapple puree, cilantro. A nice crudo with sweet and savory notes.

Uni tostada, avocado, bone marrow salsa, cucumber. I liked this a lot, despite the tomatoes. The uni was very briny. We had an uni virgin at the table and she was not a fan — but it is an acquired taste.

Lobster, shiso, ginger mojo, brown butter. You could really taste the lobster. Next biggest note was ginger and butter.

Ayocote bean salad, market greens, charred cucumber vinaigrette. Nice salad, beans were at the bottom.

Morel haurache, fava bean salsa, epazote, black lime. I loved this dish, but it was very spicy. Long serrano type heat.

Pink peppercorn and axiote seafood aguchile. Cerviche basically. Strong lime flavors.

Soft-shell crab with salsa verde and tomatoes. Nice crab.

Branzino a la talla. Very delicious seabass with a lot of flavor.

Duck carnitas, onions, radishes, cilantro. This dish was very highly recommended and it was pricey ($89!). But it’s also about 3 times the food of the other dishes. Lots of duck, maybe most of a duck. It did have the texture of pulled pork too.

There were various condiments that went with it.

So I loaded it up on a blue corn tortilla.

Emmoladas, ricotta, hoja santa, queso fresco. Basically a dark mole with various dairy additives. We had to get the dairy on the side for one person. I love mole and I loved this dish. I basically ate it on tortillas.

Short rib, scallions, cipollini, avocado. Nice chunk of meat.

More tortillas.

The dessert menu.

Husk meringue, corn mousse. I didn’t know what to expect from this dish, but it was fabulous. Very light and fluffy, with a mousse-like texture blending with the crunchier meringue. Light pleasant sweet corn notes.

Rhubarb sundae, chile ancho, shiso, lemongrass ice cream. Super delicious also with unexpected flavors and textures.

Flourless chocolate cake, peanuts, coconut-lime creme fraiche. The second half of it was served “on the side.”

peanuts, coconut-lime creme fraiche. Made for an excellent dessert all by itself.
Trio of weird sorbet. Calamansi, raspberry, chamoy. All three were made with a very low sugar concentration for sorbet so they weren’t sweet enough even to my Italian tuned taste. The orange one which was a kind of passionfruit/mango with chili (like one of the Mexican candies) was my favorite. Extremely adult.

Overall, an interesting place. It was too loud. Not that trendy new places in LA aren’t too loud, but I don’t like this trend so I’ll call it out. One of my New York friends who sent me there thought so too. We had a hard time talking at our table of 7.

Service was not up to snuff for a restaurant of this quality. It was pleasant, and we didn’t get any attitude (which some people complain about online) but the waiter, while extremely nice and helpful, barely showed up. We “let him go” at the beginning because we were talking and then had to wait about 20 minutes before we saw him again to order drinks (I hate that). Also once we took the order runners brought the food and he didn’t come by for a long time. We got everything in just 2-3 flights which resulting in too many dishes at one time, but he explained that he did this on purpose because we had so many dietary restrictions (which we did) so fair enough.

Food was excellent, but I wasn’t totally blown away. Flavors were very bright and interesting but I thought that Hoja Santa in Barcelona (similar style food) was quite a bit better. Part of this was the format. Hoja Santa was a long small item tasting menu and because they catered to the dietary restrictions on an individual basis made for a much more civilized experience. Staff was just more on point there, but it is Spain and an Adrià brothers restaurant. In summary, I would say that the Cosme kitchen is excellent and doing some really good work but that the whole “experience” needs a bit of tuning to take it from a “trendy NY eatery” up to the level of a world class restaurant.

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Cosme, eating_new_york, Mexican cuisine, New York

Eating NY – Eat

Aug09

Restaurant: Eat

Location: 1064 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10028. (212) 772-0022

Date: July 1, 2017

Cuisine: New York Deli

Rating: Solid updated deli

My 2017 New York trip kicks off (appropriately) with some Zabar Deli, specifically the Upper East Side Eat.

Baked goods in the window.

Lots of deli on display.

The menu shows of the Upper East Side Manhattan prices! Deli isn’t super cheap in LA, but you’d have to hunt around to find a $24 grilled cheese!

Bread was impeccable.

Cappuccino.

Cinnamon bagel with whitefish salad. Interesting how they cut one of the sides down to reduce the overall carb-factor of the two whole bagels. The bagels were those smallish chewy really good NY kind, not the oversized bland ones. The whitefish salad was solid. Not a whole lot here on the plate though for $22. Pickles were very light dill, like a grav lox marinate.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese, bagel and capers.

Egg salad on pumpernickel bagel. Side of potato salad.

Plain bagel and cream cheese.

Stuffed salmon. Baked with spinach and onion/fennel.

Scrambled eggs and lox with salad.

Omelet and rie.

They sell gelato and it looked fairly hand made but it was all melted and refrozen.

The mustache cookie!

Solid deli in a very NY style. NY prices of course, but it’s right next to the park on Madison Ave!

For more New York dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Eat, eating_new_york, New York

Last Minute Shunji

Aug07

Restaurant: Shunji [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 12244 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (310) 826-4737

Date: June 28, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: First rate traditional sushi

A last minute cancelation changed up the Foodie Club dinner plans — so we gathered up some Burgundy and headed out for Shunji’s omakase!

Shunji, which took over for the “Mr. Cecil’s BBQ” in this oddball looking building on Pico has developed quite a reputation.

At night, Shunji offers an amazing and advanced mix of traditional and modern raw and cooked dishes.

Chef Shunji Nakao was an opening chef at Matsuhisa in the day, then opened Asanebo, then The Hump (one of my old favorites). It has quickly risen to the top of the LA Japanese scene.

Fred brought: 1990 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 97. 1990 is one of my favorite vintages ever for this storied cuvée because while the vintage was on the riper side the high yields allowed the fruit to retain a very good level of acidity which made for balanced and ageworthy wines. While I have had the pleasure of tasting the ’90 on a number of occasions since its release, the last time was alongside the 1985 and the 1988, and as admirable as those two vintages are, the 1990 is head and shoulders above them to my taste. The fantastically complex nose is comprised of an abundance of yeast and toast characters that don’t completely dominate the essence of apple, pear, citrus, spice, acacia blossom and discreet orange peel scents. There is equally good depth to the delicious, full-bodied and powerful flavors that possess a lovely sense of vibrancy thanks to the still firm but fine mousse that shapes the delineated, delicious and impeccably well-balanced finale. In my view 1990 is one of the greatest vintages for this wine of the last 25 years and one that is still drinking well. While there is no additional upside development to be hand, neither is there any rush to drink up as this should continue to hold effortlessly for years to come.

Marinated vegetables and jellyfish. Before we went I predicted marinated vegetables and dashi gel — this pretty much qualifies. But it was pretty tasty in a sunomono way.

Ikura. Shunji’s salmon roe is unusually sweet and delicate. Lovely.

Goldfish sashimi with radish. Yep, goldfish. Mild, but nice.

Seasonal fig, cauliflower, and okra. On the right, Opal eye sashimi.

A trio of Toro (in the back), blue fin tuna, and chibiki. The last was unusual, all three were great.

Gorgonzola tofu, honey, and cherry tomato. I’ve never had gorgonzola tofu before. It totally worked. Nice soft texture.

From my cellar: 2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. BH 94. This is a much different and classically styled with an ultra pure nose of ripe but austere green fruit brimming with oyster shell and seawater notes that introduce elegant, pure and sweet flavors all wrapped in a beautifully balanced and wonderfully detailed finish that also displays some austerity. This is built on a base of pungent minerality and will require ample time to come around. A Chablis lovers Chablis.

Fred brought: 2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. BH 94. Fairly strong wood spice and vanilla presently mark the nose, framing the otherwise pretty white flower and floral aromas though there is plenty of mid-palate density to the rich, round, intense and powerful medium full flavors that despite the richness retain a fine sense of finishing detail. There is good minerality, buckets of dry extract and fine balance with almost painful intensity and superb finishing persistence.

Grilled ayu. A traditional sweet river fish of the smelt family. There was even an instructional video on how to debone it! Which actually helped. Delicious and sweet meat.

Our chef prepares the truffle rice.

Erick brought: 1978 Camille Giroud Beaune 1er Cru Grèves. 93 points. In fabulous shape.

From my cellar: 1997 Joseph Drouhin Romanée St. Vivant. 96 points. Bright shimmering ruby appearance in the glass. Ready from the moment opened, and didn’t really change much over the course of several hours. Enticing nose of red fruit and sweet grilled herbs, a touch perfumed as well. Great purity and class in the glass, with loads of mature Pinot flavors alongside a gentle smokiness that added heft to the wine. A great showing for the vintage, no doubt.

Truffle rice! Both white and black truffles. Very mild and lovely.

Marinated egg.

The egg notches up the truffle rice.

Wagyu sukiyaki. Delicious!

House-made ginger. I probably ate a pound.

Needle fish or trumpet fish.

Here is the head to prove it.

Sweet lips. Ugly fish, tasted good.

Hokkaido flounder.

Amber jack.

Porgi. As you can see Shunji really knows his “white fish.”

Shimaaji (mackerel).

Sweet shrimp. Succulent.

The heads look on in horror.

Then become shrimp miso soup.

Seki aji (premium Spanish mackerel).

A rare fish comes with a serial number!

Stone snapper or maybe sea ball belly.

Belt fish.

Scottish salmon.

Barracuda. A bit smokey.

Chu toro. Melt in your mouth delicious.

Kohada. A bit marinated.

Tasmanian trout. Amazing, but like salmon.

Hokkaido scallop in nori.

O-toro. This bad boy was stunning.

Dueling uni. Santa Barbara on the left, Hokkaido on the right.

Roasted tea.

Seasonal fruit plate, includes mulberries!

Truffle ice cream and chocolate mouse.

Midori melon.

All and all Shunji is rather fantastic, easily in the large repertoire of top LA sushi restaurants. This was a really great take on sushi kaiseki style dishes, combining both innovations with a solid grounding in traditional Japanese flavors and seasonal ingredients. There was some really unusual stuff too. I prefer Shunji at the sushi bar with a smaller group — and more nigiri — which this awesome dinner bore out. Sometimes the (non sushi) vegetable dishes are a bit too subtle, even if I appreciate them for their delicate dashi-scented ways. But Shunji is a master of the white fish and he has an exceptionally wide variety of mouse watering nigiri.

Service is attentive and excellent. Be prepared to open up the wallet as this is premium sushi — in a completely different league than your average Spider Roll — particularly if you go for the truffle rice.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Champagne, Foodie Club, Japanese cuisine, Omakase, Shunji, Sushi, White Burgundy, Wine

Top Island Two

Aug05

Our hedonist group returns to Top Island for a second round of Cantonese goodness…

Click here for the full post on all the dishes.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Top Island

For the Bun of It

Aug03

Restaurant: Mama Lu’s Dumpling House

Location: 153 Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755. (626) 307-5700

Date: June 27, 2017

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Tasty and cheap

Two days in a row I head to the SGV for Chinese yummies.

This time it’s Mama Lu’s, one of a small mini-chain of casual inexpensive dumpling places.

This is classic SGV. Look at this sexy corridor — right out of late 90s China — the restaurant bathroom can be found here too.

And the interior, vintage early 21st century SGV interior. Booths, drop ceiling, fish tank, dangling wires, all that.

On the table are sugared peanuts and cucumbers.

XLB. The classic pork soup dumplings. Skin is a touch thick and there wasn’t much juice, but the meat was tasty. I’ve certainly had better of these but like pizza and some other things, XLB are always at least good.

Pork, shrimp, and chive dumpling. Soft classic boiled dumplings. Not bad.

Spicy wontons. Disappointing. Not really spicy at all either and kinda bland.

Zha jiang mian. Not the really traditional version, but pretty tasty. Mild, despite the peppers, and no super strong bean flavor. Just kinda nice.

Crispy shrimp. Fried shrimp with mayo. I like this Chinese-American dish.

Shredded pork and bean curd. Really a Szechuan dish. This was fine.

Pea tendrils and mushrooms. What can you say.

Mama Lu’s certainly wasn’t mind blowing. It was cheap and tasty. If it were close to me I would go all the time. They have a big menu and are very crowded. Atmosphere is either hideous or quaint if you are an SGV aficionado like me. While everyone inside was Chinese, it feels slightly Chinese American. Maybe it’s just catering toward people who have been here 15-20 years rather than young folk just off the boat. Certainly there is no trendiness.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese cuisine, dumplings, Mama Lu's Dumpling House, SGV, XLB

The Legendary Restaurant

Aug01

Restaurant: The Legendary Restaurant

Location: 2718 Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91803. (626) 872-0616

Date: June 26, 2017 & September 21, 2018 and January 6, 2018

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Solid Szechuan in the land of so much solid Szechuan

It’s actually been awhile since I tried a NEW Szechuan place for lunch. But part of my 2 part back to back days in the SGV I figured lunch buddy Larry and I would give Legendary a try — the name after-all is very impressive. Wait, that must be Szechuan Impression or maybe Chengdu Impression :-).

Anyway, a year and change later I came back for a revaluation.

Typical frontage. It was 100 degrees in the SGV today!

The interior is just hinting at having some style. Not much. And it used to be some tikki restaurant called Bamboo Lounge and the signs aren’t even all changed over. haha.

It should also be noted that they have a liquor license and a tiny selection of beverages.

Short menu with nice pictures.

By 2018 there was a MUCH glitzier picture menu — printed in China and quite gorgeous. I forgot to photo it though.

Big pitcher of smoked plum juice. A must with Szechuan.

Special Bean Jelly (9/21/18). Oh, Szechuan bean jelly, how I love thee! I can never get enough of the slippery texture and hot tangy taste of this dish.

Hot and sour fern root starch noodle (1/6/19). This was an amazing dish with a really fabulous hot and sour tangy sauce and a cool slippery buckwheat-like noodle.

Chongqing street noodles. Basically noodles in the chili oil broth. Not bad, but I like good dan dan better. Nice noodles though.

Shredded garlic pork (1/6/19). Not exactly shredded, but it was garlicky and porky. Basically garlic cured cold bacon you dip in sesame sauce. Pretty delicious.

Sichuan boiled wontons with chili sauce (1/6/19). Sauce on the side for Ron who is a spice hater.

Shredded eel with dried chili (9/21/18 and 1/6/19). Actually quite delicious. The eel was very fried, very crispy, and not fishy at all. It had that nice salty/aromatic quality from the chilies. This is, of course, very similar to the chicken dish, but more eel!

Second time we had this dish (1/6/19) it had a fairly off-putting “urine-like” taste.

Peking Duck (1/6/19). I was surprised they had it — we had to pre-order, but still, this was pretty darn good. The mean quality was excellent and I liked the way they cut and presented it. The skin could have been a touch crispier but this was great.

Pancakes to go with the duck.

Boiled Fish with Peppercorns (9/21/18). To say that this dish had “peppercorns” will always be an understatement. There must have been an entire bag of Szechuan peppercorns in here — and it gave the fish a delightful (and intense) numbing factor.

Crispy shrimp (1/6/19). Shells, on, a bit sweet, but tasty.

Fried shrimp in hot spicy sauce. I’m not sure I would call this a sauce. Fried shrimp bathed in dry hot peppers is more like it. The shrimp were tasty though.

Griddle Cooked Chicken (parts) (9/21/18). There are any number of griddle cooked dishes, and they taste pretty similar regardless of the protein, but this one was basically all chicken giblets. I must have eaten 10 hearts! Not bad, considering that.

Boiled beef in chili sauce. This was probably my favorite dish. Nice mala broth. Tender beef. TONS of garlic and interesting tofu noodles and lotus rooms underneath. Really great over rice.

Black pepper beef (1/6/19). Well executed with a good bit of flavor, but not a regionally appropriate dish.

Kung Pao Chicken (1/6/19). Pretty good version of the classic.

Braised special pork (1/6/19). Sweet, fatty, delicious.

Smoked lamb chops. Or mouton chops as the case happened to be. Very fatty and gamey. I liked them, but I don’t mind a bit of mouton — but YMMV.

Griddle cooked cauliflower (1/6/19). Nice flavorful vegetable with good crunch.

Trick eggplant (1/6/19). Eggplant and 1000 year old egg. Nice umami savory quality.

Tofu with Crab Roe (9/21/18 & 1/6/19). I discovered this dish on my recent China trip and have been addicted ever since. It has that soft Mapo type texture, but is mild, salty, with a lot of umami.

Second time I had this, 1/6/19 it was not as good. Fine, but blander.

Lightly fried pork buns. These were basically pan fried XLB. Loved ’em. Ate most of this plate. Could have eaten another plate. These unfortunately were out of stock on 1/6/19.

Yang Chow Fried Rice (1/6/19). Solid everything fried rice.

The gang on 1/6/19.

Overall, on my first visit, I found Legendary a solid Szechuan place with a bit better style to the plating than most. Food was good, but not quite as good as some others. They didn’t seem to use MSG though which is great. It was also dead empty so they might not last. I’d certainly go back but the competition is fierce in this area. It isn’t Legendary though, I’d give it a blue, no purple for sure.

Second time around, in September of 2018, I was more impressed with Legendary. We got some different dishes (well totally different, and only a couple I’ve had exactly at other places) and they were all spectacular — except maybe the chicken hearts. They weren’t crowded at all, and same funny Bamboo Lounge vibe, but I this this is a first class Szechuan joint, up there with Chengdu Taste and Szechuan Impression.

Third time, for dinner on January 1, 2019, Legendary continued to impress. 8-9 out of 10 dishes were great and there were a lot of really good ones, including, surprisingly, the Peking Duck. There were a few misses like the eel this time around, but also some other unique and “legendary” dishes like the fern root noodle.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Wines from dinner visits: