This is an updated entry to Dun Huang. The original East Village location is closed, but they opened another location out in Long Island City. They have several locations spread throughout the city. Dun Huang advertises itself as authentic Northwestern Chinese food. The menu at this location pales in comparison to what we got in the East Village location, so I’ll still share the differences for reference.

Ambiance

The decor at the Long Island City location is pretty no frills. It feels they have two rooms: one “main” dining area and another dining area next to the window.

Summary

This is easily walkable from the 5th Ave flagship Apple store for some decent casual Korean food.

The banchan comes with the bulgogi bento box below. It’s basically that white pickled daikon, kimchi radish, and kimchi. Just a note that their kimchi here is super sour compared to other places I’ve been to.

The bulgogi bento box was ok. It came with japchae (Korean sweet potato noodles), bulgogi, fish cake, kimchi daikon, and what tasted similar to tempura potato of some sort. The bulgogi was a little on the greasy side and very sweet. The japchae was pretty decent. The fish cake was pretty good, and so was the daikon. I didn’t care much for the tempura. I think the bulgogi bento box was just OK, and I’d recommend to get something else instead unless you’re hungry and don’t care.

Summary

This ramen place is near NYU and Union Station, so it’s very accessible.

The spicy miso ramen comes with ox bones and marrow broth, spicy miso garlic base, bean sprouts, roasted corn, toasted nori, naruto fishcake, soy braised beef, scallions, and thick wavy noodle. THe broth is super rich, far beyond what I was expecting. It’s not spicy per se, but the soup doesn’t go down super smooth for me. At the end, the spicy pepper would always surprise for some reason. Maybe it’s attributed to the oil and thickness of the broth, I’m not sure. Regardless, I thought the ramen was acceptable, but there are better ones in the city.

Summary

The Blue Ribbon chain is known for their seafood and sushi. So it was interesting to see them coming out with the fried chicken venture. This has been around for a while, and for the last few years, friends have raved about it.

We got the 4 piece mixed with fries basket. The chicken itself is pretty tender and juicy. The skin is lightly crisped and doesn’t have the batter thickness that something like KFC or Popeyes has. What I did not particularly like was how much seasoning was on the skin. It was salty. The fries themselves were OK. They remind me of Checkers/Rallys batter consistency. This location has all you can drink/fill Boylan soda dispensary. They also have sauces to go along with your fries and chicken.

Summary

This place is known for the dessert chef featured on Cake Boss. To be quite honest, I’ve never watched it, so I don’t know what to expect.

We got chocolate cannoli, plain cannoli, some red velvet cake thing, and lobster tail. To be honest, the lobster tail was actually quite good and was my favorite of everything. The lobster tail’s pastry thin crust was flaky but not brittle. It tasted like a delicate thin but sturdy crust of a pastel I had at Aldea. The filling was good and not too sweet. The cannolis, to be honest, I could do without. They were actually quite sweet, so I don’t really recommend that as much as the lobster tail if you had to pick one. Lastly, the red velvet cake looking thing was not very good. There wasn’t much cake in it. And if there was, it was blended with all the cream inside.

Summary

This place is located near 42nd Street and 9 ave in the POD hotel. The restaurant decor is kind of interesting as it does give out a tropical-ish vibe to it. There is an outdoor area that has a lot of those basket woven seats with a cushion on them. From where we sat outdoors, we can see views of the H&M building and the Empire State Building in plain sight.

Summary

We stopped by for lunch for David Chang’s newest Momofuku restaurant and is located in the mall across the street from The Vessel. It’s on the 5th floor near the Bouchon Bakery. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too filled, but then again it’s terribly hot and humid outside.

The trading card cocktail consists of plantation pineapple, cruzan blackstrap, smith & cross rums, trader vic’s macadamia liqueur, curry, and yogurt. I did not like this at all as it was very sweet.

Summary

This place is one of Jean Georges’ new seafood-centric restaurant situated right at the corner of the Pier near South Street Seaport. This area has a tiny Boston like mall where people can shop and eat at some decent restaurants. The iPic theater is also here too.

The area is largely going through some sort of construction. The restaurant is located at the edge of the pier and overlooks the water facing towards the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, just about everywhere in the restaurant you can see the Brooklyn Bridge without much obstruction. If you do try to make a reservation, I definitely think the second floor seating is more beautiful than the first.

I’ve never had Portuguese food other than the pastels, so this is the first for me. This special occasion was for a birthday and to try out a different type of cuisine that is largely not as popular as the mainstream French or Asian themed Michelin Star restaurants.

We got the tasting menu with wine pairing. The hosts were very nice in that we mentioned we’d like to just have wine pairing for 1 person and not the other, so that we can share since we’re not big drinkers. The hosts still gave us 2 glasses and poured smaller samples. I am pretty sure if I had the wine pairing to myself, I would be drunk before I reached the end due to my inability to have the enzymes to process alcohol.

Katsu is some of my favorite Japanese food. It’s basically crispy, fried pork cutlets served with a savory sauce. We decided to try this restaurant because it was close to where we were in Midtown. This type of food generally is not overly expensive like other Japanese foods, and it’s pretty filling too. And for whatever reason, the pork cutlets are always really good and hearty too. I’ve also been able to come back to this restaurant several times solo and was able to be seated without much issues.