Category: New York Restaurant Reviews

New York City Restaurant Reviews

Harlem Tamales

Corner of 145th Street and Edgecombe Avenue
no phone number
$1 for each tamale
♥

The Dr. texted me at 7am, an ungodly hour, to let me know that the tamales lady was there. It took me another 30 minutes to get out of bed and put on my jeans over my pajamas. I schlepped over to 145th Street, half awake, to finally buy the tamales the Dr. has been curious about since he started his commute to the hospital earlier this year. I was going to be his test case: try the tamales and let him know how they taste so he can buy them on his own. Man, I don’t even wake up at 7:30 to go to work, but I’ve also been curious ever since he told me about the lady in the corner selling tamales from her cooler every morning. I go the other way for my own commute so I never see her, but if I didn’t do it today, I’d certainly won’t do it when it’s the dead of winter.

I crossed the street and held out my hand with the peace sign. Dos. She asked, Verde? With Mexican food, if there is green, there must be red, so I said, Verde y rojo, por favor. She opened her cooler and revealed a whole trove of steaming corn husks, grabbed two tamales and wrapped them in aluminum foil and handed them over to me in exchange for $2. I walked back home, sat at the kitchen counter and started eating breakfast. I don’t have tabasco sauce but I have some piri-piri, a Portuguese chili, to dot them and add a little kick. In Mexico, we ate a few tamales from the Zócalo. I’m more than 2,000 miles from the ciudad today but these tamales were comparable, if not better. The corn meal was so fine it melted in my mouth. There was even more chicken meat in this Harlem version, and thankfully, they were boneless. (Some vendors get lazy and put chicken wings in there!) Overall, a pretty good breakfast before 8am.

Lahore

132 Crosby Street between Houston and Prince Streets
212/965.1777
$7 for rice with two choices, with chai, without tip
♥ ♥

This hole-in-the-wall is only one of the stops a New York City cab driver makes during his daily route. For $7, the guy behind the Lahore counter will give you rice with your two choices of curry. When I have a craving, I order the lamb or the goat with the alo saag, a spinach and potato mush spiced with fragrant cardamom, cinnamon and fennel. Or else I go for the chicken with the okra stew or the chickpea dal and pay extra for a small container of yogurt.

They also sell sandwiches which are easier to eat especially if you’re on the go, as well as samosas and traditional Pakistani pastries. There are a couple of stools if you prefer to stay in and eat but don’t say I didn’t warn you when your clothes end up smelling like the aromatic kitchen. Whatever I order, I don’t skip on the hot chai to push down all the heavy goodness I call lunch.

Blaue Gans

139 Duane Street between Church and West Broadway
212/571.8880
$80 each for ten, with a lot of drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

Updated, December 2008: The Dr. and I returned for Christmas dinner and it was still the same hearty and filling food for half the New York City price.

After two bottles of wine at the Monday Room inside Public Restaurant, eleven of us had dinner at Blaue Gans for my early birthday celebration. We were seated in the middle of the room, a long table arranged with decorative wreaths and surrounded by vintage posters from former tenant Le Zinc. Blaue Gans doesn’t take reservations but because my initial plans at Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner’s other restaurant, Wallsé, could not be accommodated by the staff, they nicely arranged for my gathering to be held in Blaue Gans instead.

I don’t remember much because there was a copious amount of alcohol and a trip to a strip club after dinner, but I know three of us shared a few exceptional dishes. The blutwurstgrostl or blood sausage was minced and served like a pattie on top of sautéed potatoes and sauerkraut. The rindsuppe, griessnockerl oder leberknodel or beef consommé came with semolina quenelle and really delicious calf’s liver dumpling. It was light and very clean, the perfect winter treat. I was just pissed that one of the waiters took it away from me before I was done with it. The weisswurst or pork and veal sausage was also good and the pretzel that came with it was the best pretzel I think I will ever have. We were stuffed after the appetizers but of course, we couldn’t help but eat the schweinsbraten, rotkraut and serviettenknödel or the roasted pork belly with red cabbage and brioche dumpling, as well as the rack of lamb that was perfectly medium-rare and melted like butter in my mouth.

The restaurant is meant to be casual, where guests can just sit, talk, eat and drink wine. We did exactly just that while the faint music played in the background mixed with a good buzz of conversation and laughter. I wasn’t able to take good photos because I was inebriated (and because I also need a new camera) but that just gives me another reason to make a return trip and enjoy the food again. For now though, happy birthday, me.

Grand Sichuan St. Marks

21 Saint Marks Place between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
212/529.4805
$25 each for three, with three beers, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

The Chipotle opened along St. Marks opened first and then the vending-machine store BAM! made headlines. When I saw the Grand Sichuan open, I only thought, Great, I don’t have to go to Chelsea for Sichuan Chinese food. The neighborhood is truly changing and now tattoo and piercing parlors co-exist with restaurants catering to both college students and punk kids. I wasn’t about to pass by the area without trying some spicy Chinese food. Because I am used to the Grand Sichuan menu, I also ordered the same dishes from the St. Marks branch.

The Dan Dan noodles is always good, almost swimming in oil and red, chili sauce. I don’t think I ever go to any Sichuan restaurant without ordering these noodles first. The double-cooked pork was a little bit cold and chewy served with scallions and green peppers but still a good dish with rice. My favorite is the kung pao chicken. Every person who insist on ordering Chinese food from the take-out stores should order the real Sichuan version of kung pao chicken so that they can change their minds about how hit-or-miss Chinese food can be. The smoked tofu with celery dish is also a choice of mine for its texture and earthy taste. The celery becomes a palate cleanser while the tofu tames my tongue from all the spicy taste it’s been getting. With all those dishes, we can’t say no to the vegetables. Peashoot leaves are always expensive but a big plate of them always finishes first. They’re sautéed in hot oil and garlic and balances out the whole array of plates on your table.

The St. Marks is sparkling new and it’s definitely less of a zoo than the Chelsea branch so if you’re craving Chinese food and don’t want to keep walking downtown, Grand Sichuan is the way to go.

Related post/s:
Grand Sichuan in Chelsea

Aburiya Kinnosuke

213 East 45th Street between Second and Third
212/867.5454
$104 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

There are two ways you can order your grilled food at Aburiya Kinnosuke. The robata grill is right at the bar where the Japanese chefs set skewers next to burning coals (not on top of) and take about 30 to 40 minutes to prepare. If you choose the shichirin grill, your meat will be served on top of a little clay pot and you can grill your food yourself. The portion is small you won’t be grilling like you do at a Korean restaurant. It’s all done that Japanese way: simple and understated.

When we reserved two seats at the bar, the fish of the night was yellowtail and the specials board noted that they were all flown in from Japan. The restaurant’s specialty is fish collar and because the yellowtail probably flew in style, it was priced at $30. We were interested to try it even at that price but thankfully, they were all out of stock by 9pm. We opted for the sea bass collar instead for $7. For collars, I don’t care if the fish came from another country. If it’s a cheap cut of fish, it really shouldn’t be more than $10. That said, we imagined our $7 sea bass collar was as good as how the $30 one would have tasted. It’s grilled the same way and it probably had the same amount of meat as the yellowtail.

But we started with the monkfish liver first. We never fail to order ankimo when it’s on the menu and Aburiya Kinnosuke’s is as delicate as they come. Another item we don’t skip at Japanese restaurants is the uni. The sashimi was served in a small woven basket with two kinds of kelp. I couldn’t help but order the fresh sea eel minus all the familiar kabayaki sweet sauce. They were served with the eel bone deep-fried with a dollop of wasabi. The eel meat was soft, yet very meaty, and it really had its own sweet taste without the dressing. The pork cheeks were delicious. They were chewy but tender enough to make us forget that cheeks, too, are considered cheap cuts. The offal taste was offset by the sweet seaweed and lemon juice. The fried chicken balls came with grilled peppers, something we’ve come to love after Barcelona, and powdered sea salt. They were crunchy without being too heavy. Next were the beef slices on the shichirin grill. They were atop a dried magnolia leaf and a handful of miso chiffonade garnished them. We cooked them for only a few minutes, rare and juicy enough to eat.

The servings were small so Aburiya Kinnosuke’s pacing was key. There were short pauses in between our dishes that allowed us to enjoy our Sapporo and plum vodka. Our dessert was one of the best things I’ve had since my visit to ChikaLicious: white sesame pudding with vanilla ice cream. The sweetness was so restrained and the nuttiness so addicting that I could have eaten another serving even though we were so full.

The crowd at Aburiya Kinnosuke is more adult and more moneyed. In fact, you can reserve a booth behind small curtains where a lot of the Japanese men probably conduct important businesses. (Since the initial reviews were published in 2005, they have employed English-speaking staff. The white girl who answers the phone is as fluent in Japanese as any of the chefs.) I understand that I have to go to midtown to have a real Japanese meal because of the proximity of the United Nations building. If I count how many times I eat Japanese food in a given month, I would group the restaurants in midtown as the best ones. Aburiya Kinnosuke is just one of them.

Related post/s:
Desserts at ChikaLicious