Summary

In a forever hunt for the best lomo saltado in NYC, this is another place we tried. This restaurant is located near Vernon where all the restaurants are, and it was relatively easy to walk in without reservations.

I got the passion fruit juice with water which was basically passion fruit syrup with water and crushed ice. It was pretty good, but it was pretty obvious that you could probably make this at home. It was neither sweet or sour, so they chose a good water/syrup ratio here.

Summary

For this special outing, Yakitori Torishin has been on my list ever since I moved to New York City. I finally had a chance to try this for the girlfriend’s birthday.

We wanted the regular yakitori experience as opposed to the select counter experience. The reason is that I just couldn’t imagine the value from yakitori at literally double the cost of a regular omakase. They brought us into the back room, and we were still seated in front of the chefs.

Summary

Korean BBQ in NYC is often straight forward. If you want to eat it, you go to Koreatown for a safe bet. If you go away from Koreatown, you risk eating somewhere that may not satisfy that lust. Perhaps the meat would not be as good, or the side dishes would be awful.

Fortunately this place in Chelsea was actually pretty decent.

I definitely want to preface that the ventilation in this restaurant is not good despite the ducts over the grills, so your clothes will smell.

Summary

French dips, let alone good ones, are pretty nonexistent in NYC. I’ve had a good one up in Upper West Side at Jacob’s Pickles, but other that I usually get my cravings by making my own. We just got out of watching the movie theater, and we were reasonably close to this new location. The chef used to work as an executive chef at 4 Charles Prime Rib in the East Village, and they picked a fantastic location on St. Marks between 1st/2nd Ave in the East Village.

Summary

We actually have eaten here before, but we totally forgot to take pictures and document. From the best recollection, we remembered this place as being one of our favorite Brazilian restaurants in NYC. So we decided to visit this again to document.

The maracuja caipirinha we recalled being really good our first time doing. Ordered it again, and it was nothing but a disappointment. The tartness of the passion fruit tasted sour and borderlinen rotten. There was no sweetness, and it tasted very watered down and unflavored. We asked the waitress to bring it back to the bartender because of this. The bartender created another one, and it was slightly better but still didn’t taste fresh.

Summary

This restaurant has been on my list for a while. Before I moved out of North Williamsburg, I wanted to eat something with pork. Unfortunately at the time, they were closed on a Tuesday for whatever reason, so I did not have the opportunity to try this place until today.

The ambiance is a dimly lit romantic setting right near the corner of Havenmayer. There were a lot of candles all over, and the tables were pretty close to each other reminding me of my time in Paris. Keeping in mind that I am getting over a slight head congestion, my tastebuds might be a little on the dull size.

Summary

A friend was in town around the Hudson Yards area, and we wanted to look for something around the area. The menu here looked pretty decent, and it was on my bookmarks for quite a while.

The bread came with some type of tomato olive oil medley. It reminded me of bruschetta toppings but more akin to diced tomatoes out of a jar. The sauce itself was alright.

Summary

This restaurant is right around the corner of Lombardi’s in Nolita. We were hungry, and of course all the super popular restaurants had wait time. This one though for some reason had none, so why not?

They served us complimentary bread with olive oil and olives. Nothing much to say, but it was a nice gesture and good too.

We also ordered octopus which was cooked in red wine sauce, pan seared and served on arugula salad. The octopus surprisingly had a very nice char to it. It was crunchy or tender at the right spots. I liked how some parts of it was like eating a soft sponge, and others was like biting into a nice crisp.

Summary

If you’re around the Rockafeller area and are looking for pretty decent Italian food at a not overly expensive price, this restaurant might be a good candidate. It is located on the 2nd floor of the Nordstrom NYC flagship store near the watches section. We walked in without reservations around 5:30 PM, and we were seated at the bar fairly quickly.

Because Nordstrom doesn’t have the drinks menu online, I’m hoping my memory serves me well. The left is a mai thai, and the right is a mezcal cocktail. The mai thai was doused with passion fruit liqueur which is why I got it in the first place. It wasn’t too strong, and everything tasted very tropically and subtle. The mezcal cocktail had a slight smokey flavor to it. I don’t remember what else was in this though, but it definitely was sweet.

Summary

We continue to explore the neighborhood in Long Island City. This street is littered with all sorts of restaurants, and the recent one that got our interest was this Cuban themed restaurant. We were able to walk in without any reservations on a Friday night around 8 PM.

With our meal, we were served bread with a chimichurri variant. The bread was lukewarm and not toasted much at all, but the inside was soft.