Back in 2012 and like Ippudo, this was supposedly another must-try ramen place that was highly raved by the NYC food scene. I got to this spot right when they opened, and there was already a small line outside in this frigid cold weather. Inside, they have counter top seating for 1-2 people as well as a some picnic table setups for larger parties. There was no David Chang spotted here, but how was the food? Strangely, the food from 2012 to 2025 hasn’t changed much.

Since 1905, Lombardi has been credited with developing New York style pizza and being the first pizzeria in the United States. This has been challenged by many NYC locals especially pizza aficionados. Having been here back in 2012, I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the evolution of this pizzeria. I’ve been here several times, and it’s always easier to walk in early dinner times vs prime time. You’ll be seated fast and food will come right away especially now there are so many other competing pizza places nearby.

Formerly known as “Marc Forgione”, this restaurant has moved from its prior Tribeca location to a different Tribeca location. Since then, they have lost their Michelin Star, but it is still a staple restaurant for those familiar with the history of this restaurant. It was quite easy to make reservations a few days in advance.

When I first came here in 2012, I wrote:

Marc Forgione is one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America. This is his first restaurant, and at the time of this writing it has 1 Michelin Star. Like Michael Voltaggio, this restaurant is one of his babies, so he periodically is cooking in the kitchen to make sure everything comes out as he desires. Unfortunately he didn’t cook today, but I just want to preface this by saying this is definitely one of my favorite restaurants ever that I’ve tried so far.

Per recommendations for dessert after dinner at Momofuku Ko, we visited Chikalicious. All I know is this place is busy normally with lines outside the door. My buddy and I visited it on a Thursday night, and to our surprise it wasn’t overly busy at all. In fact we got there right at 9:30 PM. There were 2 seats at the counter right in front of the Chef Chika. Yes, Chika is her name. She’s shy and quiet yet is very friendly. I’m not a dessert person in general, so it should take something really good to wow me.

I first found out about WD~50 from my friend who wanted to try it out for the longest time. On research, I found out one of the Bravo’s Top Chef previous contestant owns this restaurant. His name is Wylie Dufresne. He is well known for pushing a movement towards molecular gastronomy, which is basically a different way to cook things. This 1 Michelin Star restaurant’s menu is pretty sparse in choices in that you basically choose from 2 different types of tasting menus, the cheaper or the more expensive. Optionally, you could order 2 items off any of the tasting menus at the bar for $25. We of course opted for the expensive one considering we have no plans on coming back any time soon.

One of my goals was to knock out some popular Momofuku establishments. SSAM was one of them. The SSAM Bar is on the San Pellegrino world’s 50 best restaurants list at the time of this writing. The service style is basically family style, so there are a lot of sharing plates. Portions are small for large groups probably, but decent sized for small groups 2-4. The decor has a very modern feel to it.

This is a very small restaurant in the lower east side, so be prepared to share tables if necessary. In my blog of NYC eats, I totally forgot to blog about this one. This place is supposedly known for their spicy margaritas. My party each ordered habanero margaritas, and they were delectable. They were spicy with a kick, but not overbearing. For many, habaneros are already daunting. But once you soak the habanero into the tequila, it’s really not that bad in terms of spicy.

This will be my last NY food post for a while. For the last day to cap off the trip, we went to Rice To Riches in Nolita. This was actually really close to our Blue Ribbon meal a few posts ago. Rice To Riches is basically the equivalent to Baskin Robbins 31 flavors in LA. Instead of many choices of ice cream, you have many choices for tapioca. You also have the option of sampling any flavor that you want. I’m not a huge tapioca person, but I was willing to give this a try

I only got a few more NYC eateries to blog about then I’ll be done for now. Shake Shack is basically the west coast’s equivalent to In-N-Out. The one we visited was the original Shake Shack that sits in the middle of some sort of park near Eleven Madison. For a rather chilly day, there was still a long line of people that took approximately 30 minutes for us to get our food. We had time to kill, so why not?

Here in Los Angeles, we have a ton of pastrami places. My favorite meat is in fact pastrami. Not only do I enjoy the saltiness flavor in the cured meat, but I also enjoy how tender the meat is. I’ve been to Johnny’s in Culver City, Canter’s Deli near West Hollywood, Jerry’s Famous Deli, Langer’s in Los Angeles, etc. Compared to all those places, I very much prefer Kat’z Deli. The meat is chunky, soft, and super flavorful.