Park Avenue Autumn

For HB’s recent birthday (it seems all I do is post about birthdays anymore! haha), I searched for a long time for a brunch place that would take a reservation for 10.  Unfortunately, all the places we really wanted to try (Danal, specifically, which sounds so good!, or Eatery) would not give us reservations, so we settled on Park Avenue Autumn.  I was a bit wary if only because of my previous experience at its previous incarnation as Park Avenue Cafe, but the menu sounded quite delish and they were willing to give us last minute reservations for the prime [...]

Zucchero e Pomodori

After my yearly Yankees/Mariners game (Chien Ming Wang nearly pitched a perfect game) with HB, we met up with SpB, who’d been sitting with her other friends at the field level.  After a few hours of mindless TV, we felt a bit munchy and so, set off to find a restaurant that appealed to us in SpB’s ‘hood, the UES.  We finally stumbled upon this place- not too packed, as many places had been, nor completely empty…
Great choice!

We chose to split a side dish of steamed spinach, which was fairly standard, not overcooked at all.

SpB ordered the calamari diavlo, which [...]

Park Avenue Cafe

For the past two years since I’d heard about it, I’ve been trying to get to Park Avenue Cafe for their pay your own age three course menu deal.  The gist of the deal is that if you arrive past 8:30, you pay your age (minimum of 25, maximum of 65) for a three course meal of an appetizer, entree and dessert from their regular menu, plus tax, gratuity and any beverages you choose to consume.  Well, it was announced in November that they were closing for good at the end of this year… so RotaryGirl and I made plans [...]

Sushi of Gari

402 E. 78th Street, between 1st and YorkNew York, NY 10021(212) 517-5340Reservations recommendedmenu here
I heard a lot of hype about this place before deciding, yeah, I want to try this place.  I’d heard rave after rave about how great the sushi was, how inventive the sauces, how wonderful… and it had better damn well be, since it’s a good ten minute walk from the train station, and about 45-50 minutes from my work place- in the opposite direction of home.  The place was said to be small, and always a wait, even with reservations, so I sucked it up, made [...]

Yuka

Yuka
1557 2nd Avenue (between 80th & 81st Street)
(212) 772-9675 (reservations not accepted)
Cuisine: Japanese
Price: $18 all you can eat sushi/hand rolls/maki (from a list you check off). They have a regular menu, as well, linked above.
After hearing rave after rave after rave from J-bot, I finally, after two years, dragged my butt all the way up to the UPPER EAST SIDE. This place is far from where I work (all the way at the bottom of the Financial District), but after talking about the place a bit to my coworkers, they were game and so off we trekked. When we first [...]