After a brisk walk, I was thirsty, so I ordered a strawberry lemonade.  Surprisingly very strawberry-tasting, it was also a little too tart for my tastes.  As the ice melted, it became a little less bracing, but the initial sip was pretty in-your-face-I’m-lemon. 

The specials of the night all sounded fantastic, but when we heard “fried chicken with mashed potatoes and sauteed kale” we both perked up.  Communicating telepathically is something I practice with all my friends – no, seriously, if you ever see me biting my lower lip and staring at a friend, I am trying to send them a mental message – though it doesn’t always work.  This time, it worked as Hungry turned to me, looked me dead in the face and said, “Do you want to split the fried chicken… as an appetizer?”

Yes.  Yes I do.  And yes, yes we did.  Though the place is quite dark and I only had my point&shoot camera so you can’t see, I will tell you about this fried chicken.  First of all, it was all dark meat.  There were four pieces, and though I don’t remember the price, it couldn’t have been that awful.  The mashed potatoes were super creamy and flavorful, there was some ridiculously good gravy, the greens were cooked perfectly, and there was a side dish of unnecessary (but delicious) honey. 

And the fried chicken was crisp, tender, juicy, moist, and fantastic.  Even though it sat on top of a mound of hot mashed potatoes, it didn’t get soggy – maybe we ate it that fast?! – and it was just so good.  The skin was crispy, revealing a moist meat underneath, flavorful, just… I would totally go back just for this, because it was really good.  Really… really… good. 

Then our burgers came.  Since my throat was hurting, I asked to switch my fries for a salad as I’d done last time, and was informed it would carry a $2 surcharge – but I could choose any salad I wanted.  I chose the same one as last time, and it was, as last time, fantastic.  Love that raw kale, pear and pecorino salad… I made Hungry try some and she also thought it was very good. 

Unfortunately, as I was pretty full from my half of the fried chicken plate, I couldn’t appreciate the burger.  It was still very tasty, and cooked properly, but after eating so much fried chicken… I was pretty much done for food.  I soldiered on and managed to finish it at least, because it would be a damn shame to leave any behind… Still a very good burger but so far, nothing I’ve had at Brindle Room was bad (well, I didn’t like the duck confit poutine that much, but it wasn’t bad – just not to my taste!). 

Yvo says: Seriously, if you haven’t been to Brindle Room yet for the burger, what are you waiting for?  You don’t like burgers?  Then get the fried chicken, which is incredible.  (It’s a special, though, so check before you go if they have it!)  Come on, really.  Are you not reading? 
highly recommended burger & fried chicken… what else do you need?

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Post tags: fried chicken

Because I was dying to try it after the All Clad Chef’s Tour, I suggested The Meatball Shop, and she politely didn’t mention she’d already been.  What a nice date

After getting lost because I thought this was on East 7th, not Stanton Street – and I assure you, those two streets are not even close to each other!!! – I arrived to a patiently waiting Sarah.  I’ve been late twice now, and am determined to not let it happen a third time!  So sorry, darling! – but wisely, she had a book with her, because she must have other friends who are routinely late.  I must try that – bringing a book when I’m meeting friends who are routinely late.  I sat down and quickly ordered the lemonade of the day: blackberry.  I was surprised when it came so red – I don’t have much experience with blackberries (beyond my Torch, ha… ha… *crickets*) but this was nicely tart, slightly sweet, and if it tasted like blackberries, I would have no idea.  Tasty. 

After we discussed our order at length, we decided on the smash – two balls smashed on a brioche bun – with what I believe were the classic beef meatballs topped with parmesan cream and mozzarella, plus the family jewels (a sunny side up egg).  And a salad.  This is $8. 

PERFECTLY fried sunny side up egg, one of my huge pet peeves is going anywhere for sunny side up eggs and getting one that’s undercooked (runny white) or overcooked (solid yolk).  Both are highly offensive to me, and I drooled a little watching Sarah try to cut this in half as the yolk ran everywhere.  So good.  I loved the parmesan cream, and the meatballs were, as expected, fantastic.  I would definitely go back to get the parmesan cream over pasta or mashed potatoes next time.  I’m already mentally planning my next visit, to be honest. 

While waiting for me, Sarah chose two sliders to share. 

The special meatball of the day, Buffalo chicken with blue cheese dressing, was a huge hit.  I don’t really order chicken (aside from fried or wings) when I go out, and would never have thought to order a chicken meatball, but this was genius.  Just the slightest burn of heat (great for me) and the cooling creaminess of the blue cheese – awesome sauce.  Perfect.  I think just one was the perfect amount too – well, half, as we split everything. 

I am pretty sure this was the spicy pork with spicy sauce, but I’m not entirely sure – I just remember it was GOOD.  That’s what matters, right?  That it was GOOD?  Yum. 

Because we’re gluttons – or just like to eat, whatever – we ordered dessert too. 

LOOK HOW TALL THAT IS.

Don’t believe me?  Here’s my finger for scale!  I have the most famous fingers on this blog, as they’re in tons of pictures to show scale!  Anyway, house-made mint ice cream with the special cookie of the day – chocolate wafer – holy crap, those are the chocolate cookies of my dreams.  And the ice cream was minty-fresh, with bits of fresh mint strewn throughout, and so tasty without being too sweet.  I picked up one cookie (and helped Sarah take the other one; I’m a lady, see?) and nommed it while scooping bits of ice cream into my mouth.  Love, love, love.  

I definitely am planning a return very shortly.  The lighting was gorgeous for a lazy afternoon lunch, and it was laidback in there.  We sat at the bar, we weren’t bothered, and all this (plus a seltzer for my svelte lady), with tip and tax, came to $16ish/person.  Not bad… not bad at all.  

Then I wandered up to Madison Square Eats… will post tomorrow! 

Yvo says: I really enjoyed our meal, and I totally want to go back to try more combinations of things and some things I missed on this first visit.  Very reasonably priced, love the atmosphere and service, just a great time and a casual place to enjoy a meal with a friend.  Love.  And no, the chef who called me ‘cute as a button’ wasn’t there, but I didn’t go to see him!   Maybe next time.  Ha!
recommended

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Post tags: Ice cream, Meatballs

One of the specials on the menu, duck confit poutine, caught TC’s eye so that was ordered as well.  There was plenty of super tender, juicy duck meat, and the gravy was super rich.  The frites were crisp when they arrived, though of course, the nature of the dish is such that they eventually get soggy – drowning in gravy as they are.  Unfortunately, though, there was an excess of duck fat – did you ever think you’d hear me say that? – and the only thing you could taste often was duck fat.  It got to be a little too much, so I could only eat a little bit before I gave up, though TC soldiered on and ate most of it…  The excess duck fat made it just sit like lead in our stomachs though.  I would love if they could cut back a little on the amount of duck fat used! I also think the price, at $18, more than our burgers cost, was a bit excessive – I’d be okay with getting less duck if that would bring the price down a little bit. 

But of course, the main event: burgers!  When we ordered, our server took two steps away from our table, then returned a moment later to ask us if we wanted fries with our burgers.  “It comes with fries, but you’re ordering poutine, so that might be too many fries for you – do you maybe want a salad with the burgers instead?”  I really appreciated this thinking about the bigger picture and sharing with us, because I’ve gone to places that never mentioned to me my dish included something that I then ordered as a side dish.  Very annoying.  So this was much appreciated, and I quickly agreed – I’d actually meant to ask her about that, but totally forgot. 

And you know, I totally expected it to be just some lettuce, whatever, some green stuff, a throaway salad.  Nope.  I wound up really enjoying this salad – raw kale, topped with sliced pears, pecorino, sliced/toasted almonds, and golden raisins, dressed very lightly.  It was great to cut through the fat of everything else we ate; I liked it so much that I wound up asking the server more questions about it and I intend to recreate this at home shortly.  REALLY enjoyed it. 

As for the burger: topped with caramelized onions, but this time with American instead of cheddar, I was looking forward to this. 

I actually was almost done with it before I remembered to take a cross section.  Cooked perfectly to my order of medium rare, and that crust stays crunchy throughout the whole burger, so amazingly flavorful and just perfect… this is quickly becoming my favorite burger in the city.  (Sorry Shake Shack!)  I found out recently why it’s so good – it’s made with deckle fat.  Just incredible.  I might even become a regular here; honestly, if it weren’t so far out of the way from most things I do, I probably would have gone many more times already.  The times I’ve been, there hasn’t been a line or a crowd, which is both good and bad; it means I can go enjoy myself, but then… it means I can go anytime I want?!  Eeek…

To top all that off, we ordered the donut sundae as our finish.  A warm (freshly fried, perhaps?) donut topped with ice cream, sliced almonds, caramel sauce, and two caramelized banana hunks, this was the perfect end to the meal.  It was almost a bit too decadent, as I wound up eating just a bit of the donut and ice cream, and finishing the deliciously crunchy banana… so good. 

Yvo says: Brindle Room is quickly becoming my favorite burger in the city, and I will definitely be back.  I love the service, the laidback atmosphere, the burger… oh, that burger is just incredible.  I intend to take many more people here, and I predict that this will be the next big burger go-to spot for many people.  So hurry over there and get yourself a burger before it becomes super crowded, super hyped, to the point you can’t get a table without waiting for a very long time, and then with all that hype, the quality starts to decline… get yourself over there STAT!!!
hightly recommended for the burger; salad is slammin’ too, and other stuff is recommended

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Post tags: Burgers, Ice cream, poutine

Our first stop was Tasty Dumpling. I’d asked around and this was the only place I hadn’t heard of in the past; the other places, everyone talks about.

Once we went in, I was surprised; despite the small space, it was pretty popular and there were a lot of people ordering dumplings. They were out of the pork & cabbage dumplings, so we all ordered pork&chive dumplings, fried.

The order came out quickly – 5 dumpings for a mere $1.25 – and each dumpling was fried properly with a crisp bottom.

However, the flavor was lacking a little bit, and the skin a bit too thick. The meatwads could have been juicier, which was fixed with a quick dip in the dumpling sauce found in the bottles on the table, but … eh.

We also opted to try the boiled pork&cabbage dumplings, figuring that the innards would be the same as the fried pork&cabbage ones, except… you know, boiled.

They were not good. Actually, they were pretty terrible. Thick skins that were mushy, soggy from the boiling, and the inside was incredibly bland. The others were adding hot sauce to make them better, but I opted to just not eat anymore.

Our next stop was Prosperity dumpling, where I’ve heard many people say have the best Chinatown dumplings. Another tiny hole – even smaller than Tasty Dumpling, actually.

The pork&chive dumplings here were 5 for $1 (!!!) – yeah, you thought Tasty Dumpling was cheap; Prosperity is cheaper. Again, properly fried.

The skins were thinner, and the innards were juicy, tasty. These didn’t require any sauce. I really enjoyed these – I also got a cold soy milk (housemade) that was refreshing, though unsweetened – so be warned if you get it, it’s not sweet. The dumplings were much better than the Tasty Dumplings.

No outside photo because it’d started raining steadily by this time, but our next and last stop was Vanessa Dumpling, just down the street from Prosperity, and another place that people talk about all the time. In fact, I posted briefly about the 14th Street location when I posted about Crocodile Lounge, and TT has posted about the 14th Street location itself as well.

Vanessa’s was by far the largest of the three places, with an actual full menu of other items as well. We stuck to dumplings though, as we were starting to get full… Since they had both pork&cabbage and pork&chives, though, I split an order of each with BeerBoor. Pork and cabbage first, which I thought were alright.

Then the pork&chives. These were fried alright – I dislike it when they stick and the skin rips.

These were better than the pork&cabbage in my opinion, but I tend to prefer pork&chives (which I find more flavorful in terms of dumplings, though I like cabbage in general) anyway. They still needed a bit of vinegar (as you can see on my plate), so though these had more chives than any of the other places, the flavor was muted. The skins also weren’t quite as good as Prosperity’s.

After we left Vanessa Dumplings, the skies opened up and it poured torrentially on our walk to the train.  Eek.

Yvo says: While each place had its good points (Vanessa had the biggest seating area and an actual full menu of food items; Prosperity had easily the best dumplings, and were the cheapest), there was one clear winner. Prosperity Dumplings had the best dumplings in terms of overall taste and you can’t beat that price point. Yum!
all are good in their own ways, but Prosperity Dumplings had the best of the bunch

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Post tags: dumplings

It definitely looked like some sort of laboratory. It was so clean and sanitized in there.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have a big menu listing all of their flavors. We had to scrutinize the tiny tags in front of the serving tubs while we were on line. The line moved quick so it didn’t give us much chance to figure out what we wanted. Since CT chose to get the crepe, I chose the flavor of gelato.

I ended up getting a small black sesame. I think it was around $3. Not cheap, but a lot cheaper than getting dessert in a restaurant and it just the right amount to satisfy. I never had black sesame before. It was quite mild and creamy. The sesame gave a little crunchiness. It was the perfect digestif.

CT says: I had no idea was to expect, but I really enjoyed the black sesame! The closest comparison I could make is peanut butter, but lighter. I definitely plan on revisiting this place to try more of their flavors whenever I’m in the neighborhood.

All in all, it was pretty good gelato. They have such a large variety of flavors that cater to all palates(sweet and savory). If you happen to be in the Lower East Side, I would definitely recommend stopping in. Take a chance and try a flavor you haven’t had before. You might just like it.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gelato