I’m not a fan of brunch as whole, but my partner’s friends were in town and they selected this restaurant due to their pancakes. Take note that on Sundays, they do not allow reservations, and only the completed parties can be seated. We arrived at around 10:30 AM, and we ended up waiting about 45 minutes until we were able to get in. Originally we were a group of 5, but luckily one didn’t show up, so we were able to be seated once our whole party arrived.

Atera is a two Michelin Star restaurant in New York City. We’ve been wanting to go to this restaurant pre-pandemic, and each time we make a reservation, it was always cancelled due to shifts in NYC rules around the pandemic. Fortunately, the city is coming alive, and the reservation stuck this time around. We celebrated our very special anniversary at 5 PM. The cool thing about this restaurant that attracted me was that it had a temperament pairing of non-alcoholic juices.

This place was surprisingly good. The pork belly was really tasty with the fried skin and chicharron on top. The beef rib is a must get. Pork ribs are a pass due to them being dry. The ambience has a noir feel. I just looked at the current menu, and I don’t see the pork belly appetizer anymore. Also, I’m not sure what dessert we got, but it was tasty as well.

Food was bland, but the steak was surprisingly good for a touristy spot. There are a lot of scares from the ninja waiters. The sushi itself was also pretty bland and mediocre.

This place was really really good. Korean Michelin 2 star and well worth it. Probably one of the best Michelin star restaurants I’ve been to in NYC.

The only standalone Italian beef sandwich in the city. The other is at the Billsburg Smorgasburg and is a mess to eat. This place is pretty good for fast food.

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.