It’s the evening and where could be a good place to get fairly traditional Cantonese style Chinese food? Dim Sum Palace! We originally visited the Midtown location pre-pandemic, and it was pretty decent. Recently, they opened another location in Long Island City in a dense new-aged Chinese area. We’ve been missing Cantonese-style restaurants, especially dim sum, in this very close quartered area of over abundant boba places and spicy cuisines. We were able to walk in without reservations around 5:00 PM on a Saturday without issues. This restaurant is located in the former Brooks 1890 bar next to the Long Island City court house on Jackson Ave.

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 were around Central Park near the southern side, and this was on my list of restaurants to try. This new-ish Chinese (Shanghainese) restaurant is located where Joe’s Shanghai used to be in Midtown. It’s not too far from the Apple flagship store.

The stir fry snow pea leaf was mighty tasty. You can taste the subtleness of that wine, and the vegetable itself was tender and delicious.

Summary

We were near Rockafeller and were craving some bar like food. Not too far around the corner is this new-ish bar. Walking in, the interior is very open and seems pretty nice. There are a lot of tables that you can stand or sit on a high stool for drinks. You can tell it’s a pretty social atmosphere. But let’s get to the food.

This is the Detroit pepperoni pan pizza. The thickness of this was rather thin, almost New York like. Flavor wise, it was pretty salty but pretty decent. I wish they were more liberal with the pepperoni, and I am not sure I’m a fan of the thinness of this. I think my mark for great Detroit pan style pizza is Emmy Squared, and this one kind of misses its mark.

Summary

We were just around the block looking to meet a friend for a drink and some bar food at a nearby restaurant. Turns out that restaurant was booked due to a football game, so we had to hunt for another one. This restaurant for whatever reason was dead quiet but opened at the time.

The cured Long Island duck breast came with pomegranate molasses, collard greens, and kabocha squash purée. The duck breast was super tender and crispy. My only gripe was that it was very salty.

Summary

If you’re just shy of Central Park to the south and it’s in the middle of the day, this might be a good option.

On the bottom is the mixed grilled meat platter for two people (psita tis oras poikilia). It’s a combination of lambchops, traditional Greek sauce, pork/beef skewers, and pita and tzatziki. All of this was pretty good. The lambchops were ordered medium rare, and it was tender and delicious. I like the char on this.

Summary

This place is basically chirashi haven.

It’s miso soup.

The uni don came with hamachi and spicy tuna and shiso leaf. I wasn’t too much of a fan of the spicy tuna compared to some other places, but it was still pretty good. The spicy tuna had a very particular flavor that was masked of course when you use soy sauce with wasabi. Otherwise, the fish tasted pretty fresh overall. The butter of the sea was delicious.

Summary

This place is located near the James Hotel. They have an outdoors garden that has a decent view.

The chilaquiles was basically 2 eggs, crema, salsa verde, and crispy tortillas. There wasn’t much else here. I thought it was pretty primitive and uninteresting. The salsa was good, but you wish there was some more meats and maybe avocado or something else to give it a little more flavor.