My BFF recently asked if I wanted to have lunch and gave me a list of ideas where we could go.  (Ironically, perhaps, when I eat with friends, I generally refuse to pick a place because I feel responsible if the place sucks.)  One of the ideas she mentioned was Restaurant Week.  I mention this every time I write about Restaurant Week: I never make a point of going each time it rolls around, but someone inevitably asks me to hang out during that time and suggests it.  I’m agreeable so I tend to wind up going to at least one a year.  Not a big deal usually, though some have been horrible… I also mention every time I write about Restaurant Wweek that I’m disillusioned with the idea of eating at top restaurants inexpensively.  It seems that the quality during those two weeks dips, and service is always rushed from the influx of diners, and the restaurant’s star dishes tend to not be offered… meh bleh meh! 

But I’m agreeable.  Mostly.  I complain later if I need to Oh one more thing to note: if a restaurant doesn’t list its restaurant week menu online, there is zero chance I will go in blindly.  I don’t even go to most restaurants for regular meals without looking first, and Restaurant Week… well, let’s just say I never forgot the experience of going to a steakhouse for Restaurant Week and there not being steak on the RW menu, k? 

And so after looking at menus, we settled on Craft Bar… where I’ve actually been before but totally forgot because it was pretty middle of the road – with excellent service. 

My stupidity (sorry again!) led to me being about 40 minutes late for our reservation, but when I arrived, I found a serene LTS sitting at an intimate booth facing the rest of the dining area, so I squeezed into my seat next to her, apologizing profusely.  Our server appeared immediately and greeted me, and he joked about it being okay since, by profession, he was a ‘waiter’.  Ha.  Corniness aside, he was fabulous, really friendly, joked with us, attentive when we needed and invisible when we didn’t… and when I asked him to make recommendations on the menu, he totally chose what I already wanted (without me telling him first), saying those were the best dishes on the menu.  Hehe. 

So I finally got to try those breadsticks that Endless Simmer mentioned so long ago - and sadly, both BFF and I found them way TOO crisp.  The seasoning was great, but the sticks were so hard that at one point I worried I was going to break my tooth!  BFF heard the crack and looked at me with concern, but it was just the breadstick breaking.  Eek! 

For BFF, chicken consomme: it was a very, very cold day, and soup seemed to be the perfect choice.  She said it was very good, but I didn’t try any as I was busy with my own starter.

You can see my abandoned breadstick in the background… Cherrystone clam chowder!  I love clam chowder, and this was topped with crispy pork belly bits.  YUM.  The soup itself was creamy, rich, and excellent.  My own version is markedly different, but I wouldn’t say better… just different.  Both yummy. 

One of the whole cherrystone clams in my chowder – there were two.  Sweet, juicy, tender… yum!  I liked that though there were only two clams in the bowl of soup, it didn’t feel like too little (and eaten with the crispy pork belly, it felt downright decadent), but also that they didn’t ‘try to make up for it’ by flooding the rest of the chowder with excessive potatoes, vegetable matter… it felt just right. 

For BFF’s main course, she chose linguine with mussels.  I know she enjoyed the dish, though I didn’t try any of it.  She mentioned that the mussels were cooked perfectly. 

Being a glutton, I chose more pork belly: the braised pork belly with lentils and baby carrots.  The first forkful was absolutely glorious: a bit of creamy fat coating the mouth, a bit of meat pulling apart into fibers, and all the savory goodness one could possibly want.  I was in heaven, though I admit that as I progressed through the dish, the lentils definitely became more important to eat in order to help the fat coating my mouth not overwhelm.  It’s a slab of pork belly; what do you expect? 

BFF chose the butterscotch pot de creme with creme fraiche and and oatmeal cookie for her dessert.  I tried some of the pot de creme but don’t remember being moved as much as she was… she was in heaven.  I was pretty surprised she opted out of the chocolate dessert, since she’s pretty big on chocolate too.

So I went with the chocolate dessert. 

Chocolate custard tart with malted milk ice cream… the chocolate was so rich and fudgy, I ordered coffee and put hardly any sweetener in.  Perfect, perfect end to a great meal. 

Yvo says: Honestly, I felt like we got our money’s worth.  For $24.07 all that food (drinks were additional), and it was enough to stuff me soundly, plus it was very tasty, quality… I was very happy with the outcome here.  Sometimes you roll the dice and you lose, but this time, we picked a winner, and I would happily tell people to go here for Restaurant Week without hesitation.  I don’t know if I’d be happy with the same amount of food at regular price, but for what we paid, it was an absolute steal.  And afterwards, we went across the street to Fish’s Eddy for 99c silverware.  Win.
recommended for Restaurant Week; great service, terrific food

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dessert, restaurant week

Since 1989, Michael McCarty’s Manhattan restaurant has been hosting business lunches and dinners, as well as serving those out for a special occasion. The Feisty Foodie family was invited through Bread & Butter PR, and we trekked to Midtown to sample the wares and weigh in on the kitchen.

After an event co-hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (visitphilly.com) and Michael’s, we were seated and, with a brief introduction from the owner, orders were taken and the drinks started arriving.

Normally I’d never comment about the alcohol (ha!), but this happens to be made at the owner’s winery in Malibu, and not a drop of his Pinot Noir goes anywhere but to his two restaurants. He even keeps a few vines at his apartment in town, and makes perhaps 3 bottles’ worth of wine from those per year — probably the rarest wine I’ll ever hear about.

I know, it’s just a roll, but these were some very, very good dinner rolls. Crusty, but hot and moist inside.

TT says: A small amuse of what I believe featured tuna tartare with a bit of fish roe. Pretty standard preparation. I don’t remember anything exceptional about this, either, but it’s certainly not a dish I’d turn away.

TT says: This was scallops with pomegranate, the first of many “bonus” dishes that Michael brought out for us. We Feisty Foodie writers had just eaten at the Alexia event earlier, and now we were being served a three course dinner at Michael’s along with a whole lot of “bonus” food. This dish was creamy and sweet, with a touch of tartness from the pomegranate. I only had a bite since there was so much food to be had.

Seared Hudson Valley foie gras, with fig compote and “finger lime”. As with virtually all dishes at Michael’s, the centerpiece was accented with a variety of (usually) complementary flavors.

Billed as Sashimi of Tsukiji Market Hamachi, Pickled Jalapeno, Bell Peppers, Salmon Roe, Yuzu Vinaigrette, my first course was, in a word, beautiful — I almost didn’t want to eat it. Maybe it was for the event, but the attention paid to this plating was rather impressive.

Of course I did eat it with gusto. The diced peppers (minus the jalapenos somehow) pitted against the citric, acetic tang of the vinaigrette, worked very well with the hamachi. No fishiness whatsoever, just delicious sashimi. I was impressed with this photogenic dish.

The California fig, burrata cheese, jamon serrano, extra virgin olive oil, aged balsamic salad. Yvo says: I ordered this appetizer because I was in the middle of a burrata kick. Longtime readers might have noticed that I’ll become obsessed with an ingredient and for a while, will order anything containing that singular ingredient; yes, some of these stay obsessions (salted caramel, anyone?). In any case, burrata, with its mild flavor and creamy texture, complemented the saltiness of jamon serrano (a former obsessive ingredient of mine, since I returned from Spain) and the sweetness of the figs beautifully. Splashed over with a bit of good olive oil and some balsamic, excellent ingredients were allowed to shine in this simple but delicious dish.

Yvo says: I ordered the pan roasted Oregon black cod with ‘littleneck clam chowder, Dungeness crab and Peewee potato’ because look at that resume of ingredients. It sounds awesome! And while I was less than impressed with the ‘clam chowder’ (um, do you even see any? I see clams, but no chowder of which to speak in my bowl) or Dungeness crab (I don’t recall even having any), the presentation was cute enough though made it unwieldy for me to eat the real star of the dish: the roasted cod. I couldn’t stuff myself any more full, but that fish? That fish. My friends, the crust – which you can clearly see in the photograph – was crisp, but the fish meat melted in my mouth. Black cod is a fairly oily (read: delicious) and creamy fish, so the crispness of the crust was not lost on my tastebuds as I crammed as much of the fish into my mouth as I could. Amazing. I forgave the lack of promised ‘chowder’ and Dungeness because that one piece of fish was just that good. That fish. That fish was incredible.

TT says: Another “bonus” — stone crab claws! Michael really went all out for us. These things are not cheap, so I was pretty shocked when these came out for a table of 15 people. The meat was light and naturally sweet.

TT says: I started with the Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with spaghetti squash, salsify, and Sauce Américaine. The lobster was perfectly cooked. A tasty way to start the meal.

My pork chop — Snake River Kurobuta pork chop, mind you — arrived with heirloom carrots, pickled pearl onions, and a mustard jus.

Yes, that is cooked to my liking. So tender and juicy, with some sear, the flavor of the pork, salted very nicely, really stood out against the mustard.

Besides being quite photogenic, my vegetables swam happily in the sauce, picking up creamy mustard and generally proving I made an excellent choice for an entree.

Gary enjoyed a 28-day dry-aged DeBragga and Spitler Prime NY steak with potato puree, porcini mushrooms and Brussels sprouts in a Bordelaise sauce.

TT says: For my main, I ordered the Ellensberg rack of lamb with tzatziki, autumn vegetables, and rosemary au jus. The lamb was juicy and tender. I liked the addition of the tzatziki to make the Greek flavors shine. Although, I don’t think the dish justified the menu price of $45.

Meanwhile, of course, we continued to have glasses refilled. I was quite pleased with the house Pinot, though bottles of a white — Sauvignon Blanc, perhaps? — also circulated.

Dessert came in the form of a selection of cookies fresh from the kitchen. The reverse chocolate chip cookie (white “chocolate” chunks in a chocolate base) was my favorite, though I did enjoy the coconut macaroon as well.

Okay, there was also a brown-sugar cheesecake with ginger Anglaise and a graham cookie.

Aaaaaand apple pie: a stack of sweetened apple slices in a kind of mega-mini tart, with cinnamon ice cream and toffee sauce.

Naturally, we needed yet more dessert, in the form of a variety of ice creams, served with nuts. I was fairly desserted out by this point, but our part of the table gamely soldiered through.

… until we reached the cheese plate, which ended the evening’s dining on a more savory note.

Again, thank you to our hosts for the evening of eating and drinking. I enjoyed the dishes I sampled, and were the price tag lower — I know, if it were lower, the quality would not be at the level it was — I would certainly be making my reservations tomorrow. But I’ll keep them on my short list the next time friends are in town and want to get together after work for a special dinner and drinks in Midtown.

Please note that the food and drink were courtesy of Michael’s. I received no monetary compensation for this review, nor was I obliged in any way to post about the food and drink, positively or otherwise. This is my own opinion and I feel it was unbiased; you are free to take from this what you will.

© BeerBoor for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

After what seemed like the longest semester EVER, I caught up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in ages over dinner at Landmarc in the Time Warner Center.  I’d been to the location down in TriBeCa – twice – although looking at those reviews, what was I drinking when I wrote them?  I bash everything and then say I like the place.  Haha I guess I’m a lot pickier now – in any case, I didn’t re-read those first, I just remembered writing positively about those experiences and enjoying my food.  Plus Blackboard Eats had a special deal that pushed us in that direction – 30% off dinner or lunch, plus a free dessert tray for Visa Signature members.  Guess who’s a Visa Signature member?   

The bread was fairly standard. 

Unfortunately, I can’t find the cocktail menu online, but I do know I had a lemonade type drink with gin in it.  I’m discovering within me a fondness for gin.  I liked this drink quite a bit.  I wish I could remember the name or what was exactly in it, though! 

I remembered that I’d enjoyed the ricotta fritters previously, and suggested we order these.  I thought I’d referred to them as biting into cheese-flavored-air…

but was disappointed to find these were soggy, no crisp exterior, and the inside tasted more soggy than like whipped cheese air.  Sadface.  My friend seemed alright with them, but made no positive nor negative comment, just ate her share. 

And then she ate her steak, which was also consumed without much comment on the food.  Well, not everyone is as food obsessed as I am, to be fair.  She happily nommed as we caught up on each other’s lives. 

I’d tacked on an order of creamed spinach for us to share, which I liked.  It was creamy, slightly garlicky, and tasty.  She must’ve liked it even more, since she basically inhaled the rest of it before I could eat too much…

Since I wasn’t that hungry, I decided to make a meal of the bone marrow appetizer alone, knowing how filling marrow + bread can be (for me, anyway – that beefy fatty goodness!).  I eagerly dug in and was immediately confused.  Running through the marrow in each shank were thin bones, about the width of fishbones, but stuck to the bone.  Like the cow had had… weird… extra calcium deposits or something, or grew thin bones inside its shank.  I don’t know that the restaurant could have known about that, but it really ruined the experience for me as they got more and more frequent and actually made it near impossible to get more than a teeny bit of marrow at a time.  I hardly ate any after that, digging briefly through each bone just to see what I could get, and then gave up.  I was pretty disappointed – I know you can’t compare, but I’ve had such good experience with marrow (both at home making it myself, and with ordering it – notably, at Blue Ribbon).  So… fluke, or regular occurrence? 

Our free dessert tray, courtesy of BlackBoard Eats’ special deal.  Normally $16, it includes one each of the desserts on its menu.

Closer up – blueberry crumble, chocolate mousse, creme brulee.

Cream puff; lemon tart; tiramisu and chocolate mousse. 

Honestly, none of the desserts were bad (maybe the tiramisu… but I won’t get into that) – and the lemon tart was pretty fab! the blueberry crumble was pretty good, too! – the rest were pretty standard.  Pretty cool that it came free of charge! 

With our check came a dish of caramels… so good!  I ate my two very quickly and hid the wrappers, hoping she’d think there were only two.  Haha just kidding.  I ‘fessed up.  These were bangin’ though! 

Yvo says: Our check came to $55ish, plus a generous tip (tip on the PRE-DISCOUNT AMOUNT, please!!!) … about $80.  Totally awesome BlackBoard Eats deal, and overall, a positive experience – we weren’t treated differently even though we had to tell them from the start that we were planning on using the deal.  Our service was fabulous, and though I didn’t like my actual meal that much, I felt like it was a fluke and I could go back and enjoy another meal there.  Or just stick to the steak there, like I once conjectured…

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blackboard Eats, dessert, marrow, Steak

I had dinner with StB and the new fiance recently; she was back in town for the weekend, so we headed over to Ducks eatery because she’d heard a lot of good things about the food.  Cute, right?  Except the above is not what I saw when I was looking for the place (that photo was taken a few days later when I walked by and finally noticed it). 

That’s what I saw.  See?  The ducks are on the left side of the door.  Why is it called Spin?  Because it’s actually the eatery inside a ping pong club.  I mean, table tennis.  Yes, table tennis.  There were people playing table tennis all night… Apparently it’s really popular now.  Balls of Fury, anyone? 

I ran a little late so when I got to the table, StB and StBf had ordered the wings.  I tried one, and they were ok but nothing special. 

StB also ordered the cocoa + coconut popcorn, which I definitely didn’t try (I’m allergic to coconut).  I know she really liked it because she took it with us and ate a lot of it

StBf ordered the Philadelphia sandwich, which he thought was good – not amazing, but solid. 

StB ordered the Saigon: ”It was decent but I wouldn’t order it again. It was a little too sour. The pickled veggies and lemongrass pate overpowered the other ingredients. However,  I did enjoy the crispy bread and cracklings.”

After a lot of pondering, I ordered the Korean tacos.  I wasn’t sure I’d like it because it listed kimchi as a topping, and I’m not big on kimchi – especially the super spicy, super fermenty kind. 

But these tacos were REALLY GOOD.  The tortillas used were flour (hooray!), the meat was super tender and flavorful, and all the little toppings on the side you could add really made these delicious.  Soft meat, slightly tangy kimchi, refreshing bean sprouts, and a squirt of lime juice… mmm, I think I could eat these all day.  But $9.50 for two… maybe not.  Can someone start selling these from a truck please?  Oh, wait…

StB and I ended the meal with boozy-pops, cherry vodka pops that is.  Pretty tasty – very strong on the cherry – but too messy for either of us to eat that happily.  The bags were pretty sticky and both of us hate being sticky.  A nice little novelty, but not “OMG YOU HAVE TO GET THIS” by any means. 

Yvo says: Considering our varying opinions, I definitely like the food here and the very quirky atmosphere of watching people play table tennis as we ate.  Also adjacent to the eatery area were two large glass windows that peeked directly into the 28th Street 6 train station, another avenue for people watching, very nice touch for the nosy people.  The food is alright, but I’m not sure I can justify the prices… maybe once in a while as a treat or if I actually want to play table tennis?  (There’s so many other places in the area to eat more cheaply too!) 
iffy, some hits, some misses, some alright…

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: sandwiches, tacos

Recently, post-class, I snagged a friend and off we went to Blue Ribbon.  It wasn’t quite late enough to catch the chefs as they came off shift, but it was late enough but still packed, so we sat at the bar right in front of this lovely sight: the yummy seafood display.  We even watched as the guy put together a seafood tower that looked awesome, but alas, two people cannot justify eating all that.  (Well… we could… but I had eaten dinner and just wanted a light bite.) 

CL opted to get the shrimp remoulade; I believe happy with the choice.  I don’t remember trying any (maybe I did?), but I am not a big fan of shrimp in general, so…

The whole reason I really wanted to go was for the beef marrow appetizer.  OMG.  Oxtail marmalade – I’m not sure you can get beefier flavor than this combined; I spread some of the marrow over a piece of toasted bread, then scooped some of the onion & oxtail marmalade atop it and happily munched myself into bliss.  PURE.  BLISS.  I think a return visit just for this dish is in order… SOON.  (I’m literally drooling a little right now.  Doesn’t help that it’s lunchtime right now, but still.  It was that good.)  Oh, and sprinkled with a bit of crunchy sea salt… transcendental.  But you know, so many people have raved over this dish before, it’s nothing new that I’m saying.  Just go get it.  Because it’s wonderful.  Sigh. 

Sweetbreads.  I like sweetbreads, I really do, but I didn’t like these.  Not a good example of sweetbreads, sadface.  Thusfar, the only place I’ve had amazing sweetbreads was at Regate, which is now closed, ugh.  These were also a bit chalky, and just not flavored well.  I was sad because I’ve really enjoyed the vast majority of things I’ve eaten at Blue Ribbon (having only been there twice, that’s pretty easy, though).  I wanted to like this dish, but much of it remained untouched. 

Yvo says: Blue Ribbon takes normal dishes to another level.  But it’s also at a price point that might not be the most comfortable for everyone – for the above, plus a few drinks, tax and tip, the total was $91.  I’m not going to say that was expensive (although it was the sweetbreads that boosted the price the most – $30!)… but considering this was just an after school snack, it definitely wasn’t cheap.  Definitely yummy though.
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: marrow