We’ve visited most of the Long Island City restaurants around the Vernon Blvd area. We had stopped by Blend on the Water hopefully for a walk-in, but there was already a wait. We’ve walked by Manducatis Rustica several times, and we figured it was worth a shot to see if they can take us. When we arrived, there was hardly anyone there. They told us that they had garden seating, so we opted for that.

On a hot day, my partner wanted to eat at a Brazilian restaurant pretty far from where we live. I ended up walking 2 miles for this Brazilian restaurant. At first, I thought it was supposed to be an expansion of a Rice and Beans place in the city, but I learned this was entirely different. The first thought that came in my head when I sat down was that this restaurant definitely is more of a typical locals stop with no frills fair priced Brazilian dishes.

I’ve been deprived of noodles in the city for a number of months now. Sure, there are sometimes where I get some Taiwanese noodles, but I also love soba noodles too. I was around the Columbus Circle area, and I was scouring for some alternative ramen places. This one peaked my interest because their specialty was not ramen but soba also known as buckwheat noodles. Buckwheat noodles are supposed to be pretty healthy for you, and on a summer NYC day like today, it seems like a win when opting for cold buckwheat noodles with a cold dip.

Astoria has a lot of nice gems for affordable prices. My partner wanted to do a nice walk and try out this restaurant per recommendation from their friend. At first glance at the menu, I was thinking this seems kind of ok. I had already done the artisan pizza several times, so my expectations were pretty low. I read many reviews, but I was skeptical because they were all pretty positive.

I have always heard of tea rooms, but I never thought much of it. We had heard from friends that they had gone to the Plaza Hotel, across the street from Central Park and had a pleasant experience eating sandwiches and drinking tea. I had looked at reservations before COVID, and it was usually pretty difficult to secure reservations. I did a quick glance and made reservations easily since the city is still slowly, albeit surely, opening up.

One of the really cool things about the Astoria neighborhood that is different than Manhattan and maybe Brooklyn, is that Japanese food is reasonably priced compared to the other boroughs. I am thinking part of the cause is because of the density of the Asian demographics in the area and having to be competitive with other neighborhood restaurants. This particular restaurant was just a few blocks north of Suzuki Shokudo.

My partner saw on their social media that some of their people had raved about this place for lunch. I took a look at the dinner menu here, and it seemed unjustly expensive for what it was. Usually a good indicator of prices starts with oysters. If a restaurant charges $4 for east coast oysters (average price should be around $3), you would expect the restaurant to have higher than usual menu prices.

A new Trader Joes opened up in Long Island City, and I was hoping to make turkey tacos with guacamole. Unfortunately, the avocados were not ripe enough yet, so I mentioned to my partner we can eat out. The first thought that came to their mind was this place because it’s one of the few nearby restaurants we have not tried yet but have seen a lot of people standing outside.

My partner is fanatical about ceviche, and I am fanatical about lomo saltado. Our level of comparison is Mario’s in Los Angeles, and there has yet been a tolerable comparison to that so far. There are not too many Peruvian options in the Williamsburg area. We’ve been to Chimu Bistro which was decent, and Llama Inn was a little too upscale. On this super sunny and muddy day after getting my hair chopped and despite all the plethora of options for anything but Peruvian, we decided to check out this restaurant based on recommendations.

Le Bernardin is a three Michelin Star restaurant in New York City that primarily deals with seafood. The head chef is Eric Ripert, who is very well known in the higher end spectrum of the culinary world. We actually saw him on the floor with a mask on talking to some of the wait staff. This particular occasion was for a birthday celebration. Our reservation was at 5 PM, and it had to be reserved a month in advance.