Crane Club is located across the street from Chelsea Market. It’s being led by executive chef Melissa Rodriguez, who formerly oversaw Al Coro, which earned 2 Michelin stars at one point. This restaurant is under the Tao Hospitality Group, which oversees some upscale trendy hot spots like Hakkasan, Lava, and TAO Asian Bistro. We were able to make a reservation for the dining room very easily for 5:30 PM on a Friday night. This restaurant’s food was meant to be unapologetically fancy.

Located near the Vessel and Hudson Yards, Zou Zou’s was on my partner’s list for quite some time. They simply love Mediterranean small plates and dips. We actually had to make a reservation a few weeks out to nab our reservation at 5 PM on a Sunday night. The restaurant lies in this little courtyard where it leads into one of the Peloton offices. When we arrived, we were able to check in a few minutes early. The hosts asked us to wait at the bar, and when they were ready for dinner service, they will come get you and bring you to your table.

Konban was a new katsu restaurant that was on my radar for a while. When it first opened, reservations were hard to come by. Now a few months later, it’s easy to make a reservation a week out. Because Manhattan has so few katsu-specialized options, this was going to be a very special experience. I was able to make a reservation for 5:30 PM on a Friday night for two people.

We had the pleasure of enjoying the company of one of our friends who is coming into town for work. This restaurant is conveniently close to the Highline and was also near their hotel. I vaguely recall that this is a very popular seafood restaurant down in West Village, and it had been on my list for a number of years. Surprisingly, they opened another location here, and we thought we’d go check it out.

I’ve always enjoyed simple menus of steak frites. We visited L’entrecote, and it was a pretty good restaurant for a similar value as this one. When I arrived at 5:20 PM and because this restaurant doesn’t take reservations for small parties, there was already a line out of the door. Fortunately the total wait time for us was about 15 minutes in line because we volunteered for bar seats if they were available. We were hoping this restaurant would be another spot of equivalent, if not better, caliber steak frites. So how did it fare?

We saw this restaurant’s opening relatively recently on an NYC openings blog. I wasn’t sure what exactly was the “Genesis House” or what “curated by Onjium” meant, but I figure post pandemic this was an excellent opportunity to make a reservation for something new to please my gourmand syndrome. The Genesis house is kind of interesting. The first floor is a showroom of Genesis vehicles where you can sit in the cars and talk to the different reps. The cars look nice, but this show room felt a little out of place for me. On the second floor is the library and restaurant, and on the lower level is an open meeting area. I learned that Onjium is a 1 Michelin Star out in Seoul. They curated the menu here with both modern and Korean techniques in iconic Korean recipes.

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.

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

This is a restaurant located close to the end of the Highline. It’s down on 10th ave at the corner. It’s actually next door to its bar. So if you want to visit this place, don’t open the first door on your left. Open the second door.

The sour beer on the top was quite good. It had some flavors of a Guinness but obviously with the sour in it. The sangria cocktail at the bottom was alright. Not my choice, but wasn’t bad.

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.