Sartiano’s opened around June 2023, replacing the former The Mercer Kitchen. The menu is helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef Alfred Portale. This is located near the SOHO shopping area right across the street from Lure Fishbar. I easily made a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM a few days in advance. When we arrived, the place was beginning to become lively.

Ambiance & Service

The interior is very dark, just like the former Mercer Kitchen restaurant. In many ways, they did not change much of the ambiance here. It felt like a very glowing, happening night spot for a nice night out.

Le Petit Pêcheur is one of the highly rated Astoria seafood places where you can pick your seafood and they will cook it for you. We’ve been to Hamido Seafood and Taverna Kyclades several times, so we’re wondering how this place stacks up. This restaurant opened nearly 1 year ago, and it has been low key on the radar. We were able to walk in without reservations around 4:30 PM on a Saturday afternoon.

In a scramble to look for a restaurant in the Union Square area, I stumbled onto this one, which is about 3 streets north of Union Square. The menu itself looked pretty normal, and when I arrived, the weather was very nice and calm. They had patio seating, and they opened the windows to let the fall breeze seep into the area. I made a reservation for 2 for 6 PM easily.

For our yearly celebration, we decided to come to Jungsik, especially since it was the first NYC Korean restaurant to earn 3 Michelin Stars. I visited this restaurant on a special occasion around June 17, 2017, but I barely remember much about it and did not take pictures. Today is redemption day. I was able to make reservations for 2 fairly easily a few weeks out for a Sunday at 5 PM.

Now that I have a new camera to play with, we’ve been trying to make an effort to travel around the city to practice taking pictures and learning more about the camera. At some point, I’ll start another website sharing and expressing what I got. For now, we were hungry in the Dumbo area, and the bathroom lines to wash your hands were long in the public restroom area within the Timeout Market section. My partner was really irked, so we decided to just walk into Cecconi’s to see if we can be seated. The outdoor section had a wait of upwards of 50 minutes, but the indoor seating was all ready to go. We were seated immediately at 4:30 PM on a Saturday late afternoon without issues.

La Dong was on my list for a while because I wanted to try some different Vietnamese flavors. The menu was quite appealing because there were things on there that I wanted to try since there is a sparseness of Vietnamese flavors in Manhattan. Even though there typically is a crowd outside, it’s quite easy to make reservations. I made a 5:30 PM for 2 reservation on a Friday without issue.

Located near Union Square and Flatiron is this recently opened Thai restaurant that specializes in modern take on Northeastern Thai cuisines. I was able to book a reservation for 2 quite easily just a few days prior for 5:15 PM. Since the restaurant space is quite large, this wasn’t that much of a problem. When we walked in, the vibe had a very familiar dark Asian restaurant vibe that a lot of new Korean, Chinese, and Thai restaurants are trying to do.

Oncheon is all about hot pot, Korean style. What I was curious about was how different was Japanese hot pot from Korean. It’s not that different. Both use high end quality meat, and their broths resemble their cultures. For example, Japanese hot pot tends to be light with miso or seaweed type flavors. The Korean hot pot seems to be similar to what you might find in Korean restaurants. I made a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM on a Friday night without any issues.

We saw an early afternoon theater show, and right after, we decided to check out Argentine food. Baires Grill was appealing because it is a Miami chain, and this is their only non-Miami location. We are planning on visiting Miami in the near future, so I was curious to see how this food differs than other Argentine restaurants we’ve been to. We walked in around 4 PM on a Saturday without reservations, and they seated us immediately without issues.

Kochi has been on my list for a while now. I’ve been to several of the Chef’s other restaurants, and they’re all delightful. This is his first solo project, after working in kitchens like Le Bernardin, Per Se, and Morimoto. What’s also great about this restaurant is that it’s very easy to get a reservation if you just book a few days out. We were able to get one at 5:30 PM on a Friday without any issues.