I always start with an order of summer rolls, because I like these better than fried spring rolls. These were sizeable and pretty good, with a really love price that surprised me (I forget, but it was like $3? in that range).

DLS and I got the same thing (though I added beef balls to mine) so I only took pictures of mine. The broth was intensely flavored, and really lovely, and while my noodles initially were clumped together, a few swipes through with my chopsticks and they separated easily.  The beef was tender, and everything was just perfect – absolutely delicious – and when I added my standard squirt of lime, I was in total heaven.  I really enjoyed my bowl of pho, despite my initial reservations as we walked into easily the largest, cleanest restaurant in Eden Center (and I wanted to go to a hole in the wall) – which wasn’t very busy at all despite it being lunch time.  Also, our bowls of pho were in the $10 range (a little bit under), which surprised me.  Since we didn’t check any other places, I don’t know how much the other restaurants charged, but I found this a little higher priced… but the service was better (our water glasses were refilled constantly), the place was more upscale and very clean, and our server was very pleasant.

Yvo says: I definitely enjoyed my bowl of pho, though when I return to Eden Center, I’ll be checking out other places to see how they stack up instead of just returning straight here.  It was definitely one of the better bowls of pho I’ve had though – surpassing most places in NYC easily, though not as good as Montreal or San Francisco.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, pho, summer rolls

Per usual, DLS wanted Pellegrino. I opted for a strawberry lemonade, but when I’d reached the halfway mark, I added Pellegrino for a bit of sparkle. I love sparkling drinks, that’s just me.

After a lot of debate – not knowing what to get, and just wanting a large sampler of everything, we finally settled on one of the set menus for two – the Hanabi menu for $100. We also had 15% off since they were newly opened, so that was cool.

Our first dish to arrive: hot oil seared salmon, which was very fresh and tasty, though it reminded me distinctly of a Chinese fish dish my mother makes – whole steamed fish that she then pours boiling oil over the top… with soy sauce. It’s very good, but not what I expected here.

Yuzu carpaccio was by far my preferred dish of the first two: slices of raw fish wrapped around assorted vegetables, served in a light yuzu dressing, I really enjoyed this greatly. I think DLS noticed because he kindly gave up the last piece for me to eat, thanks!

Our server came over and showed us the platter of Gyu Kaku salad, then asked if we’d like her to serve it for us. When we agreed, she left to scoop it into two separate bowls but still made it super pretty, which I appreciated. I should take a moment to note that our service was fantastic – I don’t remember her name, but our server made sure to explain everything to us, and she was extremely helpful when we were laboring over the menu and trying to figure everything out. She even asked at the end what we liked best and told us what her favorites were – really sweet.  And the salad was the perfect blend of crunchy bites, lightly sweet dressing, and just very tasty (though my friends will tell you that you don’t win friends with salad).

Then our meats began arriving: kobe chuck kalbi, which was super tender and very tasty. As each plate of meat landed on our table, the runner bearing it would tell us how long to cook it on each side, which was much appreciated.

Chateaubriand, again very tasty.

This horribly blurry picture is of the bistro harami hanger steak, one of my favorites of the night.

The cooking times/instructions were especially appreciated as it turned out that DLS was quite adept at following those instructions, using his watch to time each side. I let him cook everything; what is with guys and cooking meat over an open flame? Haha.

Our set menu also came with sukiyaki bibimbap, which… I can’t even explain how awesome this was. A server came by and showed to us how he stirred everything together in a hot stone bowl – asking us how spicy we wanted it – and then let it sit there while the smell tantalized us – to create a super crisp crust. Then, he came back eventually and served it into two separate bowls, so though the crust had formed, the rice was able to cool down (which is one of my issues when I eat dolsot bibimbap at Korean restaurants) a bit and I could enjoy the intensely crisp rice crust along with the well-flavored rice itself. At this point, I was giddy with delight over the food.

Miso cod came in a foil packet to steam on the grill. DLS asked if his miso halibut was better, and I had to say it actually was – the miso here was too overwhelming for the subtle fish and totally overtook it. I would not order this again.

Basil marinated chicken didn’t fare better – the flavor was fine, but I didn’t think it was anything special.

Garlic shrimp; I’m not a huge fan of shrimp and these were just eaten because they were there.

Asparagus, which both of us like, but this was in way too much butter. I’d have preferred they be grilled instead of soaked in butter… next time, I’ll pick grilling vegetables from the a la carte menu.

Well, here’s where I once again display my need for indulgences… One of the reasons the Hanabi menu was chosen instead of the Matsuri menu (another set menu for 2, this one only $80) was because of the desserts. Black sesame gelato, which obviously spoke to me on many levels, but DLS didn’t seem to mind when my eyes went wide and I whispered “black sesame gelato?!” – regardless, this was unlike any black sesame ice cream I’ve ever had. Denser, richer, more black sesame flavor, I literally danced in my seat with joy as I licked each spoonful clean. So freaking good.

The set menus came with two desserts, and the more fun one was obviously making your own s’mores over the grill. It was a lot of fun toasting the marshmallows carefully – though I almost lost mine! – and then pressing them carefully between the graham crackers to melt the chocolate. I didn’t think I’d be able to eat my entire s’more, but I did, and it was good.

Mmm.

Yvo says: I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Gyu Kaku, and I know for sure DLS did as well. He even signed up for the frequent diner card (which costs $1 but is good forever), which is also a good deal. While I definitely preferred the red meat items over the other items, I enjoyed the menu for the ability to try a lot of different things and quickly realize what I liked and didn’t like as much… and next time, I’ll be able to order from the regular menu with ease and happiness. Yum! The one negative was the lack of exhaust hoods – normally, my experience at Japanese BBQ has been that they have exhausts close to the grill so you don’t go home smelling of food, but this place didn’t have that. Oh well – it won’t stop me from returning. I really liked the food.
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bibimbap, carpaccio, DLS

Since my weight’s been dropping drastically, I allowed myself a special drink. He had mango juice – on the left – and said it was just like canned, but I had canteloupe juice, which was light and refreshing, but best of all, contained long strips of fresh canteloupe that I enjoyed slurping up through my straw and then eating with my spoon. So good.

To be healthy, we ordered a mixed veggie plate… unfortunately neither of us liked this. I’d expected more interesting vegetables in a more pungent sauce, but instead found green beans – properly cooked though – along with eggplant and pumpkin, which surprised me. It was a big meh for me.

Crispy pata, with my hand for scale. Huge leg of pork that was deep fried… I thought I’d like this more but I found it just a mess of fried taste. It was… okay.

Lumpia! or fried egg roll type things – which I love love love – and these were no exception. Fried properly to a crisp exterior revealing a hot interior, a swipe in the orange tangy sweet sauce, and just great. TC and I took turns “fighting” over the last few, haha.

And because I always wanted to try it, kare kare – oxtail stew of sots. I loved the veggies used – kale? – but I found the flavor was a little bland. Nothing the addition of liver sauce didn’t cure, though, so I ate this up happily with…

fluffy white rice. I enjoyed parts of our meal more than others, but I think that’s to be expected – some dishes just weren’t to my liking. I’m sure as I explore the cuisine, I’ll find more dishes that I like and some that I don’t.

For now, I can’t give any sort of recommendation for or against, as I’ve little to no experience with this cuisine – and maybe some dishes were great examples of the dish, just not something I like. What are your Filipino dishes you like and want to recommend I try next time?

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: crispy pata, lumpia, Woodside

The menu is pretty simple, covering just one side of the page.

We started off with the kara age or fried chicken pieces – I’d been disappointed with the kara age at Tabata, our current favorite ramen place (I’ve eaten there at least 5-6x now, not bothering to review the followups, but have tried other things there), so I was eager to have it elsewhere. This did not disappoint – fried perfectly crisp on the outside, juicy meat on the inside, and seasoned very nicely. The slaw on the side was just nice to munch on but nothing special. I was really happy that we were off to such a good start.

DLS chose the miso ramen, the only one served with curly noodles.  I know for sure he enjoyed his bowl very much, and I tried his noodles and really liked them as well. The perfect texture – a bit of bounce, good chew, and just perfectly cooked… it was good. He did note that it was spicier than he expected, but nothing unbearable.

I chose the shio ramen, as that’s generally my first order at any ramen place for comparison’s sake. It’s my preferred type of broth… usually. I had a lot of issues with my bowl. First, to get the good stuff out of the way: the pork slices were perfectly tender and fragrant, melting in my mouth nicely. Yeah, that’s all the good I can say about my bowl, really: the broth was well-made, but I found it agitating and annoying that someone decided they should add a ton of yuzu pepper/seven spice. When I order shio ramen, I expect the broth to be light, salty, ‘sweet’ – if I wanted to add spices, I could use the bottle of pepper on the table to pump the spice level. It wasn’t unbearably spicy, it was just enough to tickle my tongue and annoy me, as that’s not what I wanted when I ordered that. That’s not to say that you won’t enjoy this: maybe everyone in the world likes things this way, and I’m odd. Regardless, I found that a negative… and one that I could and would overlook, had I enjoyed my noodles.

Oh, my noodles: gummy, floury, tasting mushy and yet uncooked at the same time – they were just not good. I had a hard time eating a lot of them because they just tasted so bad – seriously, all I tasted was uncooked flour and mushy noodles. I was pretty upset by this – given that I’d looked forward to this so much and honestly, I’d read so many good things about the noodles. Why did my noodles suck so bad?!

Now, I know many people who have gone since then, and before me as well, and not a single person has reported the same issue I had. I’m inclined to believe that I got the one bad batch (and DLS tried some of my noodles and agreed with my assessment, so I’m not crazy), but given the location being super far from just about everything and anything that I personally do, and my bad noodles plus not enjoying the broth that much… I seriously doubt I will give this another try.

To rinse the uncooked flour taste out of my mouth, we decided to share a green tea ice cream – served with red bean paste, toasted buckwheat, barley molasses and soybean powder for $3.  I was surprised to see so much of the ice cream melted before it got to us, but I liked the toppings and thought the serving was the perfect size (and price) for a quick sweet bite to end our meal. It was definitely more interesting than just a scoop of ice cream – and you know how I love texture in food, so the contrasting crunch was much appreciated.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend nor not-recommend this place. My noodles were unforgivably un-tasty, and I just didn’t like the broth. I do recognize that enough people have gone and liked the noodles that my batch must have been just a bad one… but as I mentioned, given its location and my personal experience, it is highly unlikely I will be returning (unless one of my friends insists that I give it a re-do, which has happened with several of my recent negative reviews already). Service was extremely friendly and pleasant, and the space is nice and comfortable as well. Oh, be warned- it is kid friendly, which may be a negative for those of you who don’t have kids. (I had the absolute pleasure of sitting next to a kid whose parents spoiled the crap out of him. I don’t care if I was there for only 10 minutes of their rearing him, if you don’t wake up until we’re about to leave, we’re leaving anyway and you can eat at home. You don’t get to tell me that we’re staying just because you don’t feel like going home. That’s how my parents raised me.)

If you do decide to check Jin out, do let me know about your experience. I’m really curious about my noodles and if it’s possible I got the single lone horrible batch…

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, fried chicken, Ice cream, Ramen

Our first order of business: three Thai iced teas, please!  Creamy, cold, and delicious, not a complaint about these.

Our first dish, green papaya salad, came quickly, which was good because I think we were just about to attack each other and eat the loser. Plenty of peanuts, and not overwhelmingly spicy as I’ve had some green papaya salads in the past, I found this refreshing and really good.

Our next appetizer was fried tofu. I find myself quite adept at making really good fried tofu, and found this really good but something I wouldn’t order again for the sole reason that it wasn’t that interesting.

We also ordered a duck salad with pineapple and cilantro. I felt that this dish should have been served with rice, as at times it bordered on way too salty – and I love my salt! – but mostly, it was very tasty, especially with pineapple.  Yum.

We also ordered a special – the crab fried rice, which I was delighted to find had whole chunks of real, fresh, delicious crab in it – and not skimpy, either – while the rice was dry enough to have that fluffy, perfectly fried feel to it.  I very much enjoyed each bite of this fried rice.

Last of our savory dishes, but certainly not least, was our seafood pad thai – which, as you can see, had squid, shrimp, and other assorted bits of seafood throughout. While this tended on the slightly gloppy, sweet side, it was perfectly serviceable and I had no qualms eating it – nor would I object to ordering this again.

For dessert, FS was pretty excited when they had mango ice cream over sticky rice. She asked the server several times to make sure there was no coconut (because of my allergy), but I think there was a miscommunication as, when it arrived, it was very clearly coconut sticky rice on the bottom. Unfortunate, because I really wanted to try it after hearing FS and DLS both rave about this type of dessert… but the server felt awful when she discovered that I couldn’t eat the rice and insisted that she bring me a mango ice cream on its own. I thought this was really thoughtful of them – and unnecessary, as I was stuffed to the gills by this point anyway – but I appreciated the gesture never the less. I could tell she felt sincerely sorry about it, but eh, the sticky rice is made with coconut milk, so they couldn’t just give me the dessert without coconut in it.  Ah well. It didn’t affect my meal negatively!

Yvo says: Overall, we were all very pleased with our meal. Not a dish was disliked, and I know we all agreed that we’d definitely return.  I know FS and DLS were both happy to discover that Pam Real Thai delivers to them via Seamless… lucky butts. I guess I shouldn’t hate, I have an OK local Thai place…
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, duck salad, fried rice, pad thai, thai iced tea