Every few weeks, we make a market run, and we pass by this small area in Astoria that is relatively close to the market. Nearby, they have a few chain restaurants as well as some NYC specific restaurants. This Mexican restaurant seems to always be happening, so we decided to give it a try this time around. They have a ton of tables, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem securing an indoor or outdoor table.
I was supposed to meet my partner the next block at Casa Enrique, but for some reason they mistook a Japanese restaurant for a Mexican restaurant and ended up here. They found it weird that there were no lines, whereas I went to Casa Enrique and encountered a line. Because Casa Enrique doesn’t take walk-ins and the line was getting rather long, we decided to just eat here, and to my surprise, it was a good substitute.
I haven’t frequent the heart of the East Village for quite some time. Walking through St. Marks, it’s pleasant to see that the city is slowly coming back alive. People still walk around with masks for the most part, and some restaurants have closed. Despite all this, the energy is slowly coming back alive. Since we were in this area and because now everyone is out and about, it’s getting difficult to do walk-in dinings. Next door there was Curry Ya, but there were too many people. So we decided to try out this Vietnamese restaurant since there weren’t many people.
When people say Manhattan has practically endless restaurants, it’s quite true. There’s not enough time, money, and health to try all the different restaurants out there. For this visit into the city, we decided to go after yakitori since that was fairly close around the area we were at. We have had previously been to Torishin, a former Michelin 1-star, so I wanted to show my partner different yakitori places that were less upscaled. This one looked like a good candidate. This restaurant, if it weren’t for the outdoors setup, would’ve been a little difficult to spot because it’s in the basement of a building.
This Korean BBQ restaurant has been in North Williamsburg for a while. I’ve always wanted to go to this, but prior to the pandemic, it was always easier to go to Koreatown since I was always in Manhattan. We arrived here at an early rainy Sunday afternoon. They follow COVID protocol very well, and there were very few people inside. The waitress took our temperature and address as usual, and then we were seated after. The tables are separated by plastic guards. Let’s move onto the food.
This French restaurant is located at the southern part of Vernon Blvd right across the street from Cafe Henri. We were able to walk in without reservations. The interior is quite cozy in this COVID environment as it has this very French (Paris) cafe feel to it. Each table was separated by a plastic wall. Be warned though that this place only accepts cash or AMEX. More on that later, so onto the food…
Pio Pio actually has several stores in the greater New York City. This one is number 8 and is located in Manhattan a few blocks north of Hudson Yards. Remember that the COVID protocols are still applicable. When we walked in, we were seated in an alcove to the left before the stairs that led down to a larger open space dining room. This alcove was pretty nice and it seemed to be catered for parties of 2. The lights were dimmer here for more intimacy.
Even though there had been a large number of Asian restaurants in the Long Island City and Astoria vicinity, vietnamese restaurants are still fairly limited. I was kind of craving for some pho since it’s been a few years, and this one was within walkable distance. The city recently allowed 25% dine in, and the reviews for this restaurant seemed fairly decent. The interior was decorated pretty homely, and the tables were spaced decently apart with screen separators. Let’s move on to the food.
In 2021, it was by pure coincidence that the week we were going to Disney World happened to also have this International Flower and Garden festival. There are a myriad of flower and grass decorations of some of your favorite Disney characters displayed. It was our first time ever going to a destination with a lot of variety of little tastings scattered throughout. In different sections of the park, Disney has set up little booths that have different themed items, each ranging from $5 to $10. We didn’t drink much, but we’re going to share some of the cool foods we ate.
In terms of unique restaurants in Disney Springs, there aren’t too many. I think this is one of them that was a little different than the normal suburbia / city type of restaurant. This is Spanish influenced and is one of Jose Andres’ restaurants. Having been to his other restaurants like The Bazaar (where molecular gastronomy was a focus) in LA, I had some expectations for this. The restaurant itself is actually very noisy and dances around the line of being trendy and hip. The decor has a lot of colors that pop with a festive vibe.