Summary

Normally we don’t care about brunches, but this restaurant was surprisingly good and not too expensive. Located in West Village near the “Friends” place and some touristy spots, this is a very quaint and small shop. If I recall, it only has like at most 5 tables with counters spread throughout the place. This place is small, so set your expectations accordingly.

We ordered a glass of orange juice and a One Night Stand. There wasn’t anything particular about the orange juice other than they put ice cubes in it which I thought was weird. However, the One Night Stand was actually pretty refreshing. It’s tequila, watermelon, chili agave, and lime. It has that little spicy kick to it, but not too much. The watermelon rounds it out very nicely.

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

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.