We have not tried too many Brooklyn restaurants near the Barclays Center area for quite some time due to the pandemic. On this early brisk and semi-cold night, we had an interactive theater outing over at the One Hanson Place building in Brooklyn. After the event was over, a friend that we met at the event impromptly invited us to meet his friend at this restaurant. This was less than a mile away, and since we didn’t have other plans, we decided to try it out.

This restaurant is sandwiched at the cusp of Sunnyside between a AYCE Korean BBQ restaurant and a newly opened Sonic fast food joint. The menu looks pretty traditional Korean, and it’s always nice to try these types of restaurants in different neighborhoods. This one is rarely as busy as its next door neighbors, but I had some expectations of how this would turn out. When we arrived at 5:30 PM on a Friday evening, we were the only patrons in the restaurant. So how was it?

Flushing is the NYC mecca for Chinese food. It’s at the end of the 7 train line heading east, and it takes about 40 minutes from Manhattan on weekends. Many restaurants and stalls only accept cash, so it’s quite different than being in Manhattan or Long Island City. My partner had a friend that wanted to meet in Flushing to try out Korean BBQ. I thought there would be several near Main Street, but it seems all the decent Korean BBQ places are least a mile east of the Main street subway station. Instead, I selected this “Gan Hoo” because I thought it was Korean BBQ, but I learned much later it’s really a Chinese interpretation of Korean BBQ. So how was it?

We had to go to the Upper East to return some items, and of course that allowed us to also explore some restaurants around that area. I recall Mission Ceviche having a stall in the Gainsvoort/Chelsea food hall, but I never actually tried it. They actually have a few locations in the city, and fortunately we were near their Upper East Side location. My partner is a ceviche fanatic, so we thought we’d take a look.

This area of Astoria is not in the heart where Ditmars and Broadway are, but rather on the cusp. There are a lot of different restaurants around that are not overly busy, so it’s easy to get a seat on most nights. We decided to stop by this new-ish BBQ restaurant on our way to the market. Pig Beach actually has alternative locations in Miami and in Brooklyn, and it has its own unique BBQ zest to its mix.

This restaurant is very close to the Bloomingdales along Lexington in the Upper East side. Surprisingly it has been here for a while, but we seldom come to this neighborhood to grab food. It just so happens we were on an errand run, so my partner was able to grab an early reservation. This is one of the more price friendly restaurants of Jean Georges although it arguably is still on the pricy side.

We got some new Mexican restaurant coupons for a margarita/beer. This location is quite convenient near Times Square, just a few steps from the heart of it. We made a reservation for a 4:15 PM on a Saturday late afternoon, and the crowd traffic was fairly light outside and inside. The reservation was probably not needed, but you never know. When we arrived at the restaurant, they did ask for proof of vaccination.

We had tickets to the Banksy exhibit later in the evening near the border of Chelsea and West Village. This mussel restaurant was something I had liked to go since I moved out to NYC, and finally all stars aligned. Surprisingly, there are not a lot of mussel restaurants in NYC. In Los Angeles in Culver City, I used to go to a place called “Meet in Paris”, and it had literally 10+ different types of mussel broths. This reminded me of those vibes, so I wanted to try this out.

All you can eat (AYCE) Korean BBQ places are pretty sparse the closer you get to Manhattan. If you did find one, the quality is kind of questionable compared to the a’la carte places. We discovered this restaurant a few months back when we went to the Popeyes next door. It hadn’t opened yet, but there seems to be a few restaurants next to it that are opening in the very near future. This restaurant used to be called “HoneyPig”, but apparently it changed its name right before opening.

We walked by this restaurant one evening as we were walking back, and I was reminded that this was something I wanted to try. At a quick glance, the interior seemed pretty spacious, and I always go back and forth on whether we can go here. My partner is never fanatical about noodles, but luckily this restaurant has other things such as dim sum and cold cut appetizers. This restaurant opened last year during the pandemic in October and seemed to have a pretty steady flow of repeat customers.