For your ten dollars, you can get either a burger — with or without cheddar cheese slices — or Mr. Pink’s Double Dog, two beef dogs on a po’boy roll with parmesan, grilled onions and sweet pepper relish. Maybe next time, Mr. Pink, I’m about the burger today.

No line on this overcast day, so that means I’ll have my food nice and quick, right? Well… they have some kinks to work out. But I’ll explain later.

I ordered the cheddar burger, medium rare, and chose the “Tiger Tea” — why get water or a soda instead of a quart of tea with lime? By the time I had that burger in hand, I also had the Chilled Roast Tomato Salsa soup and the chocolate chip cookies to take back to the office, too.

The burger comes with two slices of cheese, red onion, pickles, and tomato. It’s fairly big, too, more than four ounces by my estimation. And the “onion roll” has thin onion rings baked into the top, just to point out it’s an onion roll.

Ohhhhh, was this tasty. Wonderful char on the outside, perfectly pink inside, still quite warm even after a four block walk back. It tasted as good as anything I’ve made on a grill. No, I take that back. Side Door uses better ground beef than I do. This was a stellar grilled burger.

For $5, this would have been a tasty chilled soup. You’d pay that for a 12-ounce soup in a lot of places in Midtown, and not get something with half the tastiness of this creation. Fairly thick, with diced jalapeño, a little cumin, and what I think was olive oil drizzled lightly on top, the soup had a definite kick to it, but the heat of the jalapeño contrasted nicely to the creaminess and light acidity of the tomato base. Would I buy this? I would, but honestly, not when there’s a burger to eat also. Maybe if there was a smaller food item to pair with it?

The rest of the lunch, featuring a quart of the Tiger Tea (in a reusable container!) and chocolate chip cookies. The cookies (four for $1) tasted like pure Toll House recipe, perfectly solid cookies, thin and crisp, so if you like your homemade cookies that way, you’ll love these. The chips were… chips.

But that Tiger Tea… first off, it’s a quart. Second, the menu says it’s lemonade and iced tea, but there’s a slice of lime floating in it, and it tastes strongly of limeade. And it is tasty. Really tasty. I don’t know how much it is a la carte, but I would buy this daily if it weren’t such a walk from work.

So, about the wait time and service. I placed my order, and as there were no cheddar burgers ready already, the guy working the door went to the kitchen to place my order (and the guy who ordered right after me). He said at the time it would be “three or four minutes”, which yeah, sure, I can wait for that.

After about fifteen minutes, during which time I was kept reassured, and he disappeared periodically to check, he came to me with the tomato soup to try, gratis, while I waited. While I enjoyed that we talked a bit, I praised the soup, and he went back to check again.

I didn’t get my burger for about thirty minutes. Only one other person had ordered during that time. Apparently the cooks in the kitchen haven’t gotten the word that the Side Door has customers. too, as the guy at the side door told me he personally had to put the burgers on the grill eventually. But the burgers arrived, I had a free soup, and I started walking back to the office. About hafway I realized I forgot my tea. Grrr. So I walked back, and he was waiting for me, gave me the tea, apologized as if it was his fault, and offered me the cookies to boot. Um, okay!

All the above would cost $16 normally, which is a bit high for lunch. $10 for a burger, bag of chips and quart of tea? Total win. The wait time? With any luck, that was an anomaly. The food they serve at Side Door is well worth another visit to give them a chance to show me the wait time doesn’t have to be that long. As it was, the service was super friendly and helpful, and of course generous. So I’ll definitely go back later this week — Wednesday and Thursday are good days, he said — and take another chance for that delicious burger.

The Side Door @ Beacon
25 W 56th Street
(closer to 5th Avenue than 6th)
(212) 332-0500

© BeerBoor for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Burgers, lunch, Tea

A very long time ago, Shilla was put on my radar when I received a press email from the owner.  The email listed a bunch of dishes that were signatures, and basically said “Come eat here, you won’t regret it.”  I thought to myself, why not, but instead of emailing her back and setting up a press tasting, I went in, unknown to them, for a better feel of the place without special treatment… and proceeded to pig out to high hog heaven.  Not like that’s new.  Also, I wanted to check the place out because I am a little tired of the regular Korean places I go to in K-town.  I wanted to try something different. 

After we’d ordered our huge meal, we were brought all our banchan (small complimentary dishes served with Korean meals; sometimes I buy a whole bunch of these and make a meal out of them with some rice… mmm so good).  I’m not used to seeing a salad being included, but we were each brought our own salad, a nice touch. 

Zucchini or cucumber? in gochujang, slightly spicy. 

Water spinach, crunchy glass noodles with veggies, radish ‘kimchi’ (I think this is called gaddukki? spelled wrong here though). 

From top to bottom, a dish of gochujang (spicy red pepper paste), kimchi, pickled daikon, another dish of paste, some lettuce to wrap our bbq in, and above that, marinated fishcakes. 

We also each received individual plates of this – salt, pepper and I think vinegar (I know I dipped my meat in it later, and enjoyed the extra layer of flavor it added, though I avoided the salt pile since it was a touch too salty for me!). 

No, that’s not a scoop of ice cream!  It’s mashed potato salad.  Normally I love this stuff, but I did find this one a bit dry.  Next to it is a dish of black beans… these are chewy nuggets of fun! 

Shilla also had blended drinks on the menu, so I ordered mango strawberry.  I loved this drink.  I recall one flavor overwhelmed the other a little bit, but the consistency and the flavor were sooo yummy… I would go back just to order this, honestly. 

I’d never seen kimchi and water placed around the grill, but was told this was to help prevent smoking/burning.  Okay!  We got to eat the kimchi afterwards, though I opted not to. 

Helly my fatty, fatty pork belly.

SO GOOD. 

Special marinated short ribs / galbi.  LOVE. 

Sooo good.  Also, a point to note: I’ve been in many Korean bbq places now.  My favorite lets you do the cooking yourself (it’s an all you can eat place, haha, are you surprised?), mostly leaving you to your own devices, only coming over if you look lost or if you ask them to help.  Most other places I’ve been to will cut the meat for you, cook it for you and rush over if you try to do things yourself… and are generally pretty brusque, bordering on rude.  At Shilla, the entire staff was super helpful and friendly and happy to help, happy to talk to me.  I point this out because sometimes I’ve been told by other people (Korean friends) that Korean restaurants aren’t as nice to me as they could be or are to other people because I’m not Korean – whether this is true or not, I don’t know, but I do know that Shilla has, to date, given me the friendliest, nicest service that I’ve ever had in a Korean restaurant.  It was a nice change. 

It didn’t hurt that the galbi was really delicious – marinated, seasoned properly, and super tender, succulent and delicious.  Mmmmmmm. 

The press email I’d received had mentioned the gopdol bibimbap, or mixed rice served in a hot stone bowl.  I’ve actually never ordered this anywhere, but I know a lot of my friends really like it – basically rice topped with a bunch of veggie banchan, some ground meat (in this case, beef), and a raw egg, you stir it all around and all together in the super hot bowl.  It’s so hot the egg cooks immediately, and the whole thing stays hot while you eat.  Plus, a rice crust is created on the surface of the dish, which is super nice to eat – crunchy and tasty.  Staying hot while I ate made it really difficult to eat this quickly – it was so darn hot while I ate it, which I imagine is generally considered a good thing – I’m just weird.  Well, also, it’s summer.  But that’s me being weird, not a fault of theirs.  I found this super tasty and will be ordering this again… it was quite yummy. 

The jhapchae, or glass noodles with meat and veggies, was also mentioned as being quite good.  I wasn’t quite that enamored of it – it looks a bit ‘wet’ and I’m used to it being much fluffier and lighter – but it still tasted fine, just not to my personal liking. 

To cap the meal off, an ice cold yogurt drink, yum! 

Yvo says: I really enjoyed my meal at Shilla.  While the prices were similar to the rest of K-town – that is, not really cheap – the menu says they have lunch specials, some of which fall in the under-$10 range, and I’d like to go back and check that out.  Of course I’ll report back on that when I get around to it… But I think I’ve found my new go-to place for Korean BBQ in Koreatown!  Very tasty stuff and the excellent service really puts it over the top.  Nom!
recommended

The total bill came out to around $100, which is about right for two people at Korean BBQ in Koreatown, though I think we (I) overordered a little bit. As I mentioned and reiterate here, though I was invited for a tasting, it only alerted me to this place; we paid for our own meal. Maybe next time I’ll accept a tasting

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: korean bbq

UPDATE: I am becoming a blogging machine, so I will also be reporting on Thursday afternoons for you.

One of CT’s closest friend was in town from Hawaii, LH. She really wanted to see a Broadway show while she was here, so I met them for a quick bite in Hell’s Kitchen before the show. I suggested we go to Ardesia, since I had a Blackboard Eats coupon for 30% off that was expiring soon. It is a wine/small plates bar that opened last fall opened by the “Director of Strategic Partnerships” at Le Bernandin. They have a nice patio out front, but unfortunately there were thunderstorms going on when we arrived. I liked the space a lot, very hip and unique, especially the catwalk wine cellar above the bar. It also turns out that the chef is an alum of El Quinto Pino, whose chef I met at the Tapas book release a few weeks ago.

As with all small plates restaurants, it is best to share in order to maximize the amount of dishes to taste. CT & LH each got a glass of champagne ($6 for HH), while I got the the Peak Organic IPA ($5 for HH).

The first dish to come out was the Duck Banh Mi (house cured duck, spicy duck pate, sriracha aioli, picked vegetables). It was a very tasty sandwich with some nice heat to it. The fresh veggies really helped to bring out the flavor. It also came with some homemade potato chips. I believe they were fingerling potatoes, since they were such small chips. CT & LH described the chips as “cute.”

Next was the Pastrami (house cured and smoked pastrami, caramelized Vidalia Onions, cameo apples). This was also a tasty sandwich. An upscale version of what you would get from the traditional Jewish deli. It also came with those yummy chips.

We got the Artichoke salad to be “healthy.” The deep-fried artichoke counteracted any chance of that. The salad was dressed nicely in a light vinaigrette with cannellini beans and gremolata. The artichoke was fried perfectly.

In order to get our hollaindaise fix, we ordered the Quail Egg Toast (house-cured panchetta, fried quail egg, hollandaise). It became a little messy to split the two toasts for 3 people, but well worth it. It was gooey, salty, deliciousness.

The Homemade NY Style Pretzels with Dijon mustard and cheese sauce was an impulse order. My instincts turned out to be right. I am a pretzel fiend and these satisfied me. The pretzels had the right amount of sea salt and “burned” flavor. Both dipping sauces were a quite tasty accompaniment.

Our last savory dish was the House-Made Goat Milk Ricotta Crostini. This was very light and refreshing. LH thought it was a little too “goatey,” so she only had half of her piece(more for me!).

The girls knew they wanted to order the Homemade Chocolate Chip cookies. They are made to order so we had to order them early. They came out still warm and gooey. I had a bite and it was quite a good cookie. It wasn’t mind-blowing, maybe could have used a little sea salt like someone else’s homemade cookies, .

All in all, it was a great opportunity for trying some tasty dishes along with some wine and beer with a nice discount. If you find yourself in the far reaches of west 52nd street, I recommend stopping in even if you don’t have a coupon.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blackboard Eats, TT

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

Another Midtown Lunch Happy Hour, another swing by Menchanko-tei post-drinking… 

Hansen ordered a seaweed salad to start and proceeded to mock me when I took a picture of the dish.  Then he said “it tastes like a briny wash of the sea and is delectable” – I couldn’t tell you if he was joking or not.  I’m sure it tasted fine. 

As for me, I stupidly read the menu “ramen salad topping” which I thought meant it had crunchy ramen in it, uncooked.  I know – at a real ramen place, ramen isn’t dried, but I was a little sleepy… I was disappointed to find my dish was just the ‘top’ part of a given ramen dish.  Hahaha. 

Takoyaki, which was tasty, properly cooked, lovely hidden nuggets of octopus.  NOM! 

The Beer Boor ordered the same thing he’d ordered last time, so I would say he liked it both times. 

TC ordered the chicken yakitori; I tried a piece and found it succulently soft, a bit oversauced but delicious nonetheless. 

Hungry ordered one of the ramens; I caught this action shot but didn’t ask her how she liked it.  I imagine we all like the place since this was not the first time any of us had been there…

Yvo says: Okay, this was really just a cop out of a post.  However, I do like this place enough and will continue to go back for my midtown ramen fix when Sapporo isn’t close enough (since Sapporo is just that much cheaper).  Nom on!
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ramen, yakitori