Rex on Gourmand Syndrome

Forge

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:16:30 -0500

Formerly known as “Marc Forgione”, this restaurant has moved from its prior Tribeca location to a different Tribeca location. Since then, they have lost their Michelin Star, but it is still a staple restaurant for those familiar with the history of this restaurant. It was quite easy to make reservations a few days in advance.

When I first came here in 2012, I wrote:

Marc Forgione is one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America. This is his first restaurant, and at the time of this writing it has 1 Michelin Star. Like Michael Voltaggio, this restaurant is one of his babies, so he periodically is cooking in the kitchen to make sure everything comes out as he desires. Unfortunately he didn’t cook today, but I just want to preface this by saying this is definitely one of my favorite restaurants ever that I’ve tried so far.

WD~50

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:59:21 -0500

I first found out about WD~50 from my friend who wanted to try it out for the longest time. On research, I found out one of the Bravo’s Top Chef previous contestant owns this restaurant. His name is Wylie Dufresne. He is well known for pushing a movement towards molecular gastronomy, which is basically a different way to cook things. This 1 Michelin Star restaurant’s menu is pretty sparse in choices in that you basically choose from 2 different types of tasting menus, the cheaper or the more expensive. Optionally, you could order 2 items off any of the tasting menus at the bar for $25. We of course opted for the expensive one considering we have no plans on coming back any time soon.

Momofuku Ssam

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:47:37 -0500

One of my goals was to knock out some popular Momofuku establishments. SSAM was one of them. The SSAM Bar is on the San Pellegrino world’s 50 best restaurants list at the time of this writing. The service style is basically family style, so there are a lot of sharing plates. Portions are small for large groups probably, but decent sized for small groups 2-4. The decor has a very modern feel to it.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:28:30 -0500

On the same weekend that I went to Sage, I also visited Joel Robuchon’s L’Atelier in the MGM Grand. The pricing of the food is slightly cheaper than the main Joel Robuchon restaurant next door. He also has a dozen of L’Atelier locations spread across the world. I heard this one was suppose to be pretty good, and after dining here, this hands down is the best Las Vegas restaurant I have been to so far.

Sage

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:08:37 -0500

Sage is a popular American contemporary restaurant located in the Aria hotel on the Las Vegas strip. The head chef, Shawn McClain, won a few chef awards in the past decade. His executive chef, Richard Camarota, beat Iron Chef Marc Forgione on the the Food Network. There’s a lot of name dropping here and there, so since my party was staying here, we decided to try this restaurant out based on the rave reviews on Yelp.

Burger Bar

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:01:00 -0500

Burger Bar is a small burger chain by French chef Hubert Keller. This place is basically a higher scale build-your-own burger restaurant where just about every ingredient costs some extra money.

Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. Las Vegas, even back in 2012, was pretty cool for a food haven. They had a ton of options, and they go through turnover pretty quickly. This restaurant as of this edit is surprisingly still open. I remember they were infamous for having a $100 burger which had lobster and truffles on it. It was definitely too rich for me though I had a $70 white truffle burger in New York City in 2017.

RM Seafood

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:45:52 -0500

In Las Vegas, Rick Moonen’s Seafood at the Mandalay Bay is suppose to be pretty good. There are 2 restaurants of his here: one is the fixed course meal higher end restaurant, and the other (this one) is just a middle tier restaurant. The menu is a little strange as they have your typical American no frills seafood AND sushi. My buddy ordered the sushi portions, and he was quite unimpressed. Then again, I would never order sushi from a restaurant like this.

Lombardi's

Sat, 19 May 2012 16:35:48 -0500

Since 1905, Lombardi has been credited with developing New York style pizza and being the first pizzeria in the United States. This has been challenged by many NYC locals especially pizza aficionados. Having been here back in 2012, I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the evolution of this pizzeria. I’ve been here several times, and it’s always easier to walk in early dinner times vs prime time. You’ll be seated fast and food will come right away especially now there are so many other competing pizza places nearby.

Shake Shack

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:25:01 -0500

I only got a few more NYC eateries to blog about then I’ll be done for now. Shake Shack is basically the west coast’s equivalent to In-N-Out. The one we visited was the original Shake Shack that sits in the middle of some sort of park near Eleven Madison. For a rather chilly day, there was still a long line of people that took approximately 30 minutes for us to get our food. We had time to kill, so why not?

Chikalicious

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:02:15 -0500

Per recommendations for dessert after dinner at Momofuku Ko, we visited Chikalicious. All I know is this place is busy normally with lines outside the door. My buddy and I visited it on a Thursday night, and to our surprise it wasn’t overly busy at all. In fact we got there right at 9:30 PM. There were 2 seats at the counter right in front of the Chef Chika. Yes, Chika is her name. She’s shy and quiet yet is very friendly. I’m not a dessert person in general, so it should take something really good to wow me.

Bacaro

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:50:02 -0500

I have a ton of food porn pics that I haven’t put online yet, but I’ll get through it. If you don’t know already, I went to New York City this past February and tried out some of the local hot spots. This is my first time to the east coast, so I really didn’t care for any of the touristy places. My buddy and I, per recommendation, went to Bacaro which is Italian inspired cuisine. My plane had just landed about an hour and a half ago, and this is the first place that we went to.