Manhattan

April 24, 2021

Summary

When people say Manhattan has practically endless restaurants, it’s quite true. There’s not enough time, money, and health to try all the different restaurants out there. For this visit into the city, we decided to go after yakitori since that was fairly close around the area we were at. We have had previously been to Torishin, a former Michelin 1-star, so I wanted to show my partner different yakitori places that were less upscaled. This one looked like a good candidate. This restaurant, if it weren’t for the outdoors setup, would’ve been a little difficult to spot because it’s in the basement of a building.

Pio Pio

April 9, 2021

Summary

Pio Pio actually has several stores in the greater New York City. This one is number 8 and is located in Manhattan a few blocks north of Hudson Yards. Remember that the COVID protocols are still applicable. When we walked in, we were seated in an alcove to the left before the stairs that led down to a larger open space dining room. This alcove was pretty nice and it seemed to be catered for parties of 2. The lights were dimmer here for more intimacy.

Haizea

February 14, 2021

Summary

We were stoked that New York City has reopened indoor dining albeit @ 25% capacity. Yeah, some people say it’s not safe, but they are usually the same people that go visit their friends and family. The restaurants, believe it or not, do an excellent job sanitizing and giving space to diners and each other. Today was Valentine’s Day, and they had a few prixe menu options. We ended up going with Cupid’s Arrow Menu which we shared and was just a tasting of many of their items on the menu.

Nerai

December 31, 2020

Summary

For New Year’s Eve, we were fortunate to book this restaurant in Midtown East at the very last minute. This was always on our list since outdoor dining was a thing as the pictures of its settings looked quite appealing. Most tables have their own electric heater that sat directly above the table, so it wasn’t too cold compared to other places. For what it’s worth, it was in the high 30s with some wind chills. We did dress warmer just in case though.

Socarrat Paella Bar

December 29, 2020

Summary

For this very special occasion, I had originally made a reservation for indoor dining at a Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately earlier this month, the governor and mayor disallowed indoor dining, so restaurants can only do outdoor dining for take out. This lovely night turned out to be around 31 degrees F (feels like 25F). They did set up heaters near each table, but it barely helps with the nasty wind chills. Despite this frigid day, let’s checkout the food we ordered.

Love Korean BBQ

December 6, 2020

Summary

As we enter the end of the year and NYC indoor dining is forced to be shutdown due to a COVID uptick, we wanted to get some last fixin with Korean BBQ. Even though we have tried many of the major Korean BBQ restaurants near Koreatown already, this is one of the few remaining ones to try. When we visited, they check your temperature and had glass dividers between tables. We were fortunate to be seated in a little cubby hole meant for a party of 6-8.

Ravagh

October 17, 2020

Summary

Unlike the other cuisines in NYC, Persian food is not something that we actively seek out. However, we often are around this area shopping at the now-closed Bed Bath & Beyond and tend to look for restaurants that are very close. This restaurant was something we surprisingly haven’t tried, so we checked it out. I actually haven’t had Persian food since I moved from LA back in 2016, so I am curious to relive those moments again.

Cote

October 4, 2020

Summary

Indoor dining finally opened again in NYC on September 30, 2020. There are those that feel it’s reckless in this COVID temperament, but we still decided to celebrate by booking an indoor reservation at Cote, a 1 Michelin Star Korean BBQ restaurant. Normally, this is difficult to get a reasonable time, so we were happy it was not too bad. Like all upscale restaurants, they take your temperature via the forehead, and each table is partitioned by a plastic partition. Aside from air conditioning, there’s no way for your aerosols to hit another table unless you tried to spit a few feet up. There’s more than enough space between booths, so it was very enjoyable.

Allora

September 15, 2020

Summary

Today was our second anniversary, and it’s somewhat difficult to find a decent restaurant that has an outdoor garden that is away from the crowd. After staying up till 4 AM looking for one, I finally found one that was decent. The garden seating area is actually in the back of the restaurant, so there’s very little foot traffic from random people. Luckily the weather wasn’t hot at all.

Spanish Diner

September 6, 2020

Summary

We were visiting the Edge, which is a touristy spot where you can see the NYC area from 100 floors above, and in this COVID environment, it’s been hard to find some decent outdoor restaurants. We had passed by this place, which is a Jose Andres restaurant, and it seemed interesting. It’s a quasi-indoor place in that you’re eating in the building, but the area feels like you’re in a garage. The garage doors open facing outside, and there are plenty of fans to circulate air. We saw that they spaced out all the tables distantly from each other, so it seemed fine to sit down and eat. This is the Spanish Diner at Mercado Little Spain in the Hudson Yards block.