Typically on the weekends, both this location and the midtown location have a huge line of people waiting outside. And for what reason?
We came on a Friday night around 5 PM, and there were probably at most 3 or 4 small groups of people in a big space.
The cookie shake was a massive vanila-ish shake that had a bunch of sweets on it. It was good, but it is all sugar. I am pretty sure you can finish these shakes by yourself, but that’s just punishing your diet.
This place is right around the corner of Katz in the Ludlow Hotel. We sat in the patio area which is much nicer and quieter than indoors where everyone else is sitting.
Starting off, they serve bread that seems to be freshly made for your table. The bread comes with some butter with oil on it, and it’s really good.
We ordered 2 cocktails: Laboulaye which is the green one and Petite Socco which is the red one. My green drink wasn’t as good as the red one. The green was definitely smokey, but I was hoping the bell pepper would provide a more significant kick. The red drink was definitely very good.
I don’t know much about this ramen spot other than it was on Chef’s Table, and how it really touched a lot of people’s hearts. So my review will be almost based solely on the food itself.
The pork musubi bites were surprisingly good. Each bite is packed full of flavor, although I am rather doubtful that it’s worth $5 a piece.
The Japanese fried chicken were an interesting spin on karaage. The crust was nicely crisp, and the sauce was very tangy. There was a little kick to it too. They served this with a sauce on the side that I don’t quite remember how it tasted like. I do remember that my first thought was that this was oversauced similar to how PF Chang’s would do orange chicken, but nonetheless it was decent.
I was looking for Wondee Siam but somehow ended up here.
Like most Thai places, there are very few that are bad.
The kanom jeeb is pretty decent. It’s like fried shrimp shiu mai balls.
The country style curry was ordered with Chicken. Despite it having 2 pepper signs on the menu, it’s actually not that spicy. The curry was watery, but it’s easy to consume once you mix the rice with the sauce. The sauce has a ton of salty flavor in it though, so I find it a good match with a thai iced tea.
The vibe in this place was pretty cool. It reminded me of being in one of those Lord of the Rings tavern.
The poutine was pretty salty, but it was a good match with the beers. I wish the cheese curds were a little warmer and more abundant.
The savage is actually regular hot wings. The hot wings tasted like they were fried first then doused in sauce after. It’s a nice texture combination, and it’s how I prefer my hot wings. The wings themselves didn’t seem to have a lot of flavor outside of the sauce though. There are some french fries that the wings sit on that soak up the sauce and oil.
Stumbled onto this while trying to go to Bobby Vans steak. That place was closed unfortunately. The service here was pretty subpar by New York City standards.
The filet mignon was ordered medium rare, but in my opinion it came out medium. The temperature on the steak as a whole came out cold as if it was sitting there for a tad bit too long. The blue cheese sauce was really salty, but perhaps it was there to hide the lack of taste on the steak.
This place is interesting. It’s like a modern version of typical Korean tapas.
They have these idea cocktails that have flashing lights underneath it. You can click on the switch underneath to alter the different lighting patterns. It’s gimmicky, but I’m sure they are targeting that photo crowd. The drinks themselves were OK. I think I prefer Brazilian style fruit cocktails now.
The hamachi cevichee was decent. It’s just tartare with a different flavor profile, but otherwise, it tasted like what you’d expect.
This is a relatively new spot that has opened up in the last couple months.
The pork buns were surprisingly decent. I think they were a little expensive for each as is most Manhattan foods, but it was good.
What was interesting to me was lobster ramen. It had miso flavored soup broth and of course lobster meat with shells. They gave a shell cracker on the side, and they definitely did not skimp on the meat. They gave chashu and lobster here. Even though I am pretty good at extracting lobster meat, I never realized how annoyed I’d be at doing it out of a soup. I think I prefer more of the Boiling Crab style if it came to that. The lobster meat definitely was a good value for the cost of this ramen soup (I think like ~18$?). However, next time, I’d probably not let my eyes dictate over my common sense. I think it was a good idea, but for me I felt the work to extract the meat was not worth it.
This is Paulie Gee’s sliced pizza. You can order a whole pie if you want. All in all though, I think Vinnie’s in Brooklyn is better.
The pepperoni pizza was good but not great for slice. If you come here expecting a similar crust to what the original Paulie Gee’s serves, prepare to be disappointed. The crust is not that great compared to a lot of NYC sliced pizza places.
Came here around 5:30 PM on a Saturday, and the wait was quoted 60 minutes. In reality, it was just 45 minutes, so it wasn’t too bad.
The pizza itself is similar to Roberta’s. The pizza dough is pretty fluffy, and it tastes pretty good.
The Benny Gee had much better taste than Ricotta Be Kiddin Me. The ricotta pizza was more salty, but the Benny Gee definitely had a better well rounded profile.