Entries tagged as ‘restaurants’
Um, HELLO it was gorgeous this weekend. Look at me in my new Chloé shades wearing one of my spring jackets without a scarf. I was even wearing flats. How refreshing!
So last weekend it was snowy, snowy and this weekend was nothing but sunshiiiiine in the skies! I had to go into the office on Saturday, which was a bummer, so I feel like I only had one night and one day of the weekend but I definitely made the best of it. Yesterday I ran in the morning through Prospect Park. The lake was very blue and I was very happy. Spring is almost here! Hopefully this is not a tease.
Anyway, onto brunch:
I met up with my good friend Melissa after the both of us had very eventful weeks and we ended up at Good over in the Village. It seems to be a pretty good spot (no pun intended, seriously).
Melissa had the basil and goat cheese scramble:
I think that kind of looks gorgeous. This is what brunch is all about (besides mimosas of course – which we didn’t even get).
Also had some cheese grits that were a little spicy:
I’m more of a home fries girl myself, which is good because that’s what I got with my mushroom, broccoli, and ricotta salata omelet:
I think I’m growing up because I never used to like mushrooms. Also, this was the first time in my entire life I’ve ever ordered an omelet. Sometimes I think I had a weird upbringing because we never ate omelets, never watched the Sound of Music and never went skiing. I don’t know if those things have anything to do with each other besides the fact that they all came up in conversation yesterday. And apparently I like omelets. The ricotta was hiding underneath the omelet and that was a nice surprise.
So Good is pretty good. I already said that.
Afterwards, Melissa and I went somewhere that pretty much every New Yorker has an opinion about. And that includes me. One day I think I will post the reasons why I think I can call myself a New Yorker (in fact, I will do that this week!) and tomorrow I will let you know what our second destination was. Here’s a hint: I should have bought some milk.
Happy Monday!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: asparagus, basil, brunch, cheese grits, chloe, eggs, goat cheese, good, greenwich village, manhattan, mushrooms, new york, new york city, omelets, restaurants, ricotta, scramble, shades, spring, west village
Do you know what this is? It’s one of those Indian restaurants on First Ave between 5th and 6th street. First of all, sixth street is nothing but Indian restaurants, but the few jam-packed next to each other on the small space on First Ave between 5th and 6th definitely take the cake. A man stands outside each restaurant and tries to convince you to come inside. “How many? How many?” What you can’t see in the picture above is that to the left of this man is another man, standing in front of another Indian restaurant that looks exactly the same and they are both asking the same thing. It’s hysterical.
I’m sure someone has a developed opinion to which of the Indian restaurants in this clump of Indian restaurants is better, but I’m a newbie here. And like many places in NYC, I’ve walked by it a million times. And I’ve often wondered who exactly eats there. I see all the gimmicky lights and think it can’t possibly be any good. In fact, when I agreed to go to Panna II for dinner last Saturday night, I had no idea that that was the place I had agreed to.
But guess what! I LOVED it! I didn’t even know I liked Indian food! But it is soooo goood:
I seriously have no idea what we ordered. Some chicken somethings. Some vegetable somethings. I know we ordered some cheese bread and some coconut bread which was Amazing. It was all amazing. And Panna II is BYOB, which is fun. We also did BYOD (bring your own dessert) cause my friends brought in a chocolate cake for me!
And when the Panna II people found out it was my birthday, they took the cake and five minutes later, this crazy “Happy Birthday” song came over the entire restaurant and the lights were flashing on and off and they brought out my cake with candles on it. It was insane. I cannot explain the birthday song to you, but if you know someone with a birthday coming up, you should take them to Panna II just for that experience. It was hilarious.
Do you see all these lights? It’s a whole other world inside Panna II. And I kind of love it.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: birthdays, coconut bread, east village, first avenue, food, indian cuisine, more birthday posts, nyc, panna 2, restaurants
What is thaaaaat?! It’s the best black-eyed-pea salsa this side of the Mississippi! I told you I have a favorite restaurant in the West Village and this is what it is: Cowgirl. Cowgirl! I love it! I can think of 18 bajillion people I have taken here and all 18 bajillion people love it. It’s Tex-Mex and it’s kitschy and this salad is the best thing in the whole wide world:
It’s All Chopped Up and it’s got chicken and avocado and apples and pecans and lemon poppy seed dressing and there is nothing better. Nothing, I tell you. I crave it probably once a week.
So there you have it. Cowgirl: my favorite casual restaurant in all of NYC. I’m thinking of all the friends I’ve taken there over the years and it’s pretty much everyone who’s ever been in town, so if you’re not on that list, you should be sad. And get on it immediately.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: avocado, cowgirl, cowgirl hall of fame, food, new york city, nyc, restaurants, salads, salsa, top five, west village
I could not have asked for a better birthday. This year went without a hitch. Above is the chocolate mousse we all had at The Mermaid Inn, where I chose to have my fabulous birthday dinner. Of course, mine was the only one with a candle. :)
First the day began with a snow day:
Then I came out of the shower to this on my chalkboard heart:
So from now on, whoever comes and visits me gets the privilege (and duty) of drawing on my chalkboard heart. During the day Kayti and I went to my favorite restaurant in the West Village for lunch and if you don’t know what that is by now, you’ll have to stay tuned for another post. Then we walked all around town, ending up in Soho to do some “shopping” (bought nothing). Then was nap time and preparation for the most fabulous dinner.
First: Look at all the drinks above. They gave us complimentary glasses of Prosecco for the table and then we also had two bottles of wine. And Missy had that beer. Ha!
Second: I love my friends. I had six of my favorite people with me and our time together was just hilarious. How I got to know such awesome people is beyond me. Lucky, lucky.
Third: I absolutely LOVE The Mermaid Inn. It was my first time there and it was beautiful and the food was delicious and the service was flawless. If I were to recommend a nice dinner in the city, Mermaid is now at the top of my list.
And they have their logo on the butter:
And here’s a really awesomely bad photo of all the food on the table (Mike, I’m still working on the white balance!):
Let’s see. We had two lobster sandwiches (one was mine!), one cod, two trouts, one salmon, and one shrimp avocado sandwich. Oh, and for appetizers there was some lobster bisque and New England clam chowder, and I have major love for the latter. I love everything. I love the Mermaid Inn. A lot.
There’s always so much pressure to plan a birthday party and everyone was really pleased with Mermaid and said they wanted to come back and that made me really happy. It was especially important for my birthday to be spot on, being the restaurant girl, and it was. Holler.
Missy and I really impressed with the butter.
Group shot!
Me ladies.
Miss lovely Stephanie.
Chocolate mousse cheers.
P.
And an awkward family photo… Happy Birthday to me!
The rest of the night was spent traipsing around the city: The Bourgeois Pig, CV at The Hotel on Rivington and finally, an endless dance party at Pianos with just the girls. Oh boy, did we have too much fun. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: birthday parties, birthdays, chalkboard heart, chocolate mousse, clam chowder, dinner, east village, food, friends, happy birthday to me, lobster, restaurants, seafood, snow, the mermaid inn
Would you like some Dr. Pepper ribs? Or how about some bacon mac and cheese?
I’ve decided nobody really cares about the music I go see because no one ever comments when I talk about it. I cannot imagine being a music writer because I do not know how to put sounds into words. At all. I mean how do you convey the experience of a concert through type? Well, I don’t know! So here’s some food to make us all feel better.
It’s from The Brooklyn Star, where I went with Kelly last week. I think we are doing an entire food tour of Williamsburg with the way this is going. Next up is Marlow and Sons.
The first thing you should know about The Brooklyn Star is that it is tiny. From the outside, I thought I was just peering into the bar area, but it was the whole restaurant itself!
There’s a tall table in the middle that I think would be really fun to sit at. It would be like sitting at a friend’s dining room table. The second thing you should know: food here is good. We had biscuits to start and I had the Dr. Pepper ribs and the mac and cheese, which I took home for lunch the next day. I love day old mac and cheese. Kelly got chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and warm cole slaw. Good, good.
Basically, Kelly and I only go to romantic places together because this would be another great place for a date. And they have Brooklyn root beer!
I had just been reading about The Meatball Shop earlier that day and they have root beer on tap so I was like, “Whaaa? I need that.” This wasn’t tap but I’m sure I’ll be at the Meatball Shop soon.
And there you have it: The Brooklyn Star.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: brooklyn, chicken fried steak, food, mac and cheese, new york, restaurants, ribs, the brooklyn star, williamsburg
Look who finally went to the Clinton Street Baking Company! This girl! And MB!
This was my third attempt going to this overly popular, little pancake heaven. And third time is the charm. Usually when I go with people, (always on the weekends, cause we’re really smart) whomever I’m with takes one look at the line and jumps ship. I knew with yesterday being President’s Day and a lot of people off of work, we’d have the same kind of wait, but MB was a trooper and we waited together for… dun dun dun… just over two hours! Two hours for pancakes? These girls have got to be crazy. And we are. But so were the five billion other people standing in the cold.
We had lots to catch up on and found a bench across the street in the sun, so it wasn’t bad at all. And guess what, it was worth it. It is Pancake Month afterall.
First things first. MB ordered a coffee when we first sat down so I got myself a little hot chocolate:
It was realllly good. I fear it may be encroaching on the number one top spot in my book of hot chocolate in NY, which is currently The Adore. This had the perfect amount of cocoa and the perfect amount of sweet:
I will come back to the Clinton Street Baking Company just for this.
And now what we came for… the panacakes!
I mentioned it was Pancake Month, so Clinton Street had a different flavor every few days and yesterday’s was raspberry, chocolate chunk. Also, the syrup is fantastic. MB was singing its praises before we got our food and now I know exactly what she was talking about. It’s not as sticky as your run-of-the-mill maple syrup, and I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it’s really smooth. Like butter. So maybe it’s butter.
Because the pancakes are so, so sweet, we got some eggs so that we could split two orders:
Why is breakfast the best meal ever? We also got some sugar-cured bacon which was delish. And here are the pancakes after we gave them some love:
Perfect.
Also, if anyone has any interest in perhaps MB and I starring in a show on the Food Network or something, where we travel and eat foods from all over in search of the BEST, let us know. I mean, I know there’s a ton of shows like that already out there, but they don’t have us! :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: breakfast, clinton st baking co, eggs, food, friends, hot chocolate, lower east side, new york, new york city, pancakes, restaurants, waits, yummies
This is Jodi. She lives in Michigan. And she came to the city last weekend to play.
Six of us went out to dinner at Bondi Road. I had been there once before for brunch and it was completely packed, but when we went to dinner it was the complete opposite experience. It was dead and they made the biggest deal about not seating us until we were all there. And when they finally sat us with five people, they asked how far away the sixth person was. It was so strange.
Anyway, it’s an Australian restaurant and it’s pretty legit. Australian owners, Australian staff, and Australian clientele. Well, except for us. Half of us ordered different kinds of fish but it was the those of us who ordered the fish stew that were the winners.
Delish, delish. All kinds of fishy goodness in there. The other ones just got a piece of fish and were starving after they finished and they didn’t feel like ordering anything else and waiting for it. They may or may not have stopped at a Burger King afterwards. Ha.
Anyway, it’s a cool spot. You just may be better off going for brunch.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: australia, bondi road, burger king, fish, fish stew, food, LES, lower east side, michigan peeps, new york, restaurants
I did not mean to have a Restaurant Week dinner last night. Not at all. But I met up with Ben, because he’s still in town since DC is practically at a stand still with the weather. A friend of mine told me about the Greek restaurant Periyali on 20th street and it sounded pretty good to me!
Imagine my surprise when we sat down and they hand us Restaurant Week menus along with the regular menu. And yes, Restaurant Week has basically turned into Restaurant Month. They’ve extended it to Feb. 28th. It’s a blessing and a curse, though.
You don’t have to order off the RW menu when you go to the participating restaurants, but it’s a pretty good deal and Periyali’s RW menu offered what I was looking for, so I went for it. That octopus above was Ben’s appetizer, which I tried (duh). Pretty good. I had the Horiatiki Salad which was basically just an authentic Greek salad – no lettuce; just feta, tomatoes and cukes. It may be boring but I already explained it’s one of my favorite things ever.
And for my main I had lamb chops:
Lamb is my thing right now. Just love it. Ben had Mousaka, which is always delicious.
One thing about Greek restaurants though, is that they don’t really get desserts. It was a plate of a cookie and two different kind of cakes – lemon and walnut I believe. Or was it carrot? Either way, nothing to write home about. I remember there being bakeries in Greece with lots of treats when I went, but I don’t remember ever having a good dessert at a restaurant. Probably because the other food is so good you don’t really need it.
Periyali is beautiful, and it’s another one of those places where they take care of you. I think it’s worth going to for RW, it’s a nice atmosphere that’s not overly stuffy:
Our table was midway through the restaurant and past the bar. I didn’t want to take a picture of the other side because the way the other people were facing, I would have looked like a creeper. And the restaurant is more white than yellow. I still have to figure out my white balance settings.
After we had our dessert, we just sat and chilled for a long time. That’s another thing about Greek restaurants that I love: they do not rush you. It’s just a great dining experience.
When we finally left, we went and saw “Dear John” and I’m just going to say that I do not recommend it. I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters and I didn’t really care what happened at all. I just liked to look at Channing Tatum. I’ve heard people say they cried their eyes out and really I have no idea what they had to cry about. I did, however, cry last week when I saw Next to Normal on Broadway. I recommend this play times a thousand, it’s definitely on my top five (along with Reasons to be Pretty and who knows what else). I guess I’m just spoiled with entertainment because at Next to Normal I was definitely crying some real tears.
And guess what: today is a SNOW DAY! Kind of unbelievable, really. This doesn’t happen. But it’s happening now and they announced it yesterday afternoon which was weird. So I am going to play in the snow and take pictures of the trees. That is if I get the energy to put on my snow boots and brave the cold. :)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: broadway, dear john, food, greek food, i love greek food, lamb, mousaka, movies, movies not worth seeing, new york city, next to normal, nycgo, octopus, restaurant week, restaurants, snow day, theatre
You’re never going to guess where this mini ice cream is from. Actually, you will, since the name of the restaurant is in the title of this blog post. Opps. But it was at the Oak Room at the Plaza. The Plaza. They serve ice cream cones. Hilarious.
Okay, remember yesterday when I voiced the need for feeling like you’re being taken care of when you’re at a nice restaurant? Well if you’re not sure what this is like, go to the Oak Room. You feel like a million bucks. The place just looks like a million bucks. Actually more. But I don’t want to think about numbers.
The Oak Room is so nice I almost didn’t blog about it. I certainly didn’t take five million pictures like I do normally. There’s just too much class. And my cousin was embarrassed. Haha. There was a girl there wearing a suit that looked like it came from the closet of Hilary Clinton. And she was probably younger than sixteen. That’s just the Upper East Side, y’all!
Anyway, the Oak Room and Bar is somewhere worth going to. I had such a great time. Lobster and corn bisque and hanger steak. A million bucks. I’m just going to keep saying that.
The only thing I wasn’t too impressed with was the Oak Bar:
It’s chocolate-praline mousse and brown butter ice cream, but it sure didn’t taste like it. It tasted like a frickin Butterfinger. Yep. My cousin thought it was amazing. I had one bite. So that’s that.
Here’s a picture of my cousin telling me to “Stop it” with the pictures (seriously):
And those were the only pictures I took. Ha.
We walked down a hallway for a bit and saw this ginormous room with nobody in it:
Even in the basement, huge areas were blocked off. How much would I love to explore the Plaza? It has so much history! I just learned that it was originally opened as a bar for men only. Which means white men, at that. What an interesting world we live in.
And now here is my favorite part of the evening. So I had just enjoyed a fabulous meal and fabulous wine with my fabulous cousin. When we came out of the the restaurant, it was lightly snowing. When I came out of the subway stop near my apartment it was still lightly snowing. And gorgeous. So I had the hugest smile on my face because I just love everything and then I get up to my apartment entryway and what do I see? An action figure sitting on one of the posts, covered in snow:
Just like that. It was so great. In the morning, he was gone, but when I came back from work the next day, he was there again! I wonder where he is now.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: a million bucks, butterfingers, dessert, hilary clinton, ice cream cones, new york, nyc, restaurant week, restaurants, the oak room, the oak room and bar, the plaza, Things I Like, upper east side
Uh oh, City Mitten might have some bad news for ya. Bad news is this may be the first restaurant post that I’m not going to rave the entire time. In fact, I’m going to start with a rant. And it may make me sound a little bit like a snob, but Lisa and I went to Mesa Grill for lunch this week and we both decided this must be done.
First of all, Bobby Flay is famous. Mesa Grill is his first restaurant. The food is phenomenal. Phenomenal. I enjoyed everything. But the service sucks.
I’ve been to many a nice restaurant in New York. And few times have I had to wait for a table when I had a reservation. In fact, this was only my second time. And my very first for a lunch. A lunch. That’s just absurd.
The main point is that at Mesa Grill you do not feel like you’re being taken care of. And at a high caliber restaurant, you should. Restaurant Week or not. Lisa had to make some major effect to flag the server down for another glass of wine. That shouldn’t happen. Our tablecloth was dirty. They gave us eachother’s desserts. And what really bothered me is that when they gave us clean flatware for our dessert, they put it onto our dirty table cloth! They’re supposed to use one of those little knives and clear off the table cloth for you, but nope, there’s my brand new fork on top of all our crumbs. Perfect!
Ha. It was funny because I’m really not a snob. Sure, I have my moments, but you all know my favorite restaurants are kitschy and laid-back, not stuffy and pretentious. But when you’re going to a famous chef’s restaurant and the prices are high, the whole experience should be above par.
End of rant. Let’s talk about the food. As I said, it was phenomenal. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Spicy salmon tartare. I am in love with tartare. It is so good. The best I’ve had was tuna tartare at Kittichai last year, but this was simply delicious. Had just the perfect amount of spice, too.
Cornmeal crusted chili relleno. I’m glad Lisa ordered it because I was just curious what it looked like. And now for me:
Mahi mahi! I think the last time I had mahi mahi was on a family vacation in California. Not sure why. Because it is very good. One thing I like a lot about Bobby Flay is the presentation and the color, as well as the fact that the flavors are strong. He’s got that part right.
Dessert:
Chocolate peanut butter flan with Kahlua whipped cream. Lisa got the pineapple upside down cake but kept stealing mine because it was better. So rich and creamy and just good!
One final note: I hate restaurants (in general) where they have to move the table in order for you to get in. Sometimes the tables are wayy too close together. I mean I’m not teeny tiny by any means, but I can’t imagine being larger and trying to squeeze into one of those things. And then once you’re in, you’re trapped. Especially when the tables on both sides are occupied. It was a little hysterical when I tried to get out when we were finished, but more so because nobody bothered to help me. Except Lisa, of course. Ha. I told you, I’m not a fan of the service at Mesa Grill. Just the food.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: being whiney, bobby flay, chile, chocolate, desserts, food, mahi mahi, mesa grill, new york, new york city, nyc, nyc restaurant week, peanut butter, poor service, restaurant week, restaurants, tartare
