New York Restaurant Reviews – Page 39 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Our Place Shanghai Tea Garden

141 East 55th Street between Third and Lexington
212/753.3900
$365 for eleven, with drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

It was a challenge to organize the Dr.’s second birthday celebration with his married friends but they all showed up for brunch with their children at Our Place. (Part one was at Le Bernardin and tapas with wine at Jadis the night before.) Once all the Bugaboos and BabyBjÃ¶rns were all set aside, we sat down and enjoyed the dishes selected for us by the kitchen staff. We all started with a mixed plate of appetizers: a vegetable and shrimp egg roll, two soupy buns and two shrimp shumais. Then they passed around the main dishes: beef, chicken, baby bok choy and mushrooms, all in semi-sweet brown sauce.

They gave me the impression that they were extremely busy on weekends because they called twice to confirm my reservation for twelve people. We walked in at noon but we didn’t start eating until at least 1pm and we still had the space towards the back to ourselves. I appreciated that we were never given attitude even though it took us all three hours to eat and pay the bill, babies crying and all. Go to any of the restaurants in Chinatown for a more down-to-earth meal without the orchids, but stay in midtown if you want an English-speaking waitstaff with plenty of patience.

Gari

370 Columbus Avenue off 78th Street
212/362.4816
$130 for two, with three drinks, with tip
♥

I was craving sushi but did not want to go home too late, so I looked for a sushi place around the upper west side. I found Gari on Columbus Avenue with all its Frank Bruni and Food & Wine writeups on the window and I thought, this could be promising. Because we walked in without a reservation, we weren’t able to sit at the bar. I love ordering the omakase only if I can talk to the sushi chef so that I can watch what’s he’s doing. For ten pieces at about $65 (about $75 if you also want sashimi), I opted for the sushi-by-piece instead. This is my only problem with Gari: the price. We started with the octopus ceviche but I only counted four slivers of octopus in my glass bowl; that comes out about $3 a sliver. I ordered the shrimp and crab rolls because it included woodear mushrooms. I needed to take the rolls apart to look for the mushrooms. I know it’s du jour to be all minimalist, but I’m hungry!

The sushi was pretty good. We ordered our usual favorites: fatty tuna, yellowtail, mackerel, smelt roe with quail egg, fluke and shad. The $14 roll of uni, though, was questionnable. It was fresh but it looked like it was whipped so they ended up looking like melted Kraft cheese. Was this a Zen presentation or was it to save on the uni? The damage with two Sapporos and a glass of Prosecco? $130 for two people. I went home and all I wanted was fried chicken. Next time, I’ll stay in midtown and go back to Sushiden.

Related post/s:
You’ll spend less money at Sushiden

Prune

54 East 1st Street between First and Second Avenues
212/677.6221
about $75 for three, without drinks, without tip
â™¥ â™¥

Prune’s selections are influenced by different cuisines and that’s exactly what I liked about Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s style. The tripe is a must-try even though you don’t like tripe. In Barcelona, I ate a lot of tripe. Prune’s version is Milenese, topped with a delicate dollop of pesto and shredded cheese. It’s light but beefy at the same time. I only wished it was served with country bread so I can scoop up the sauce. The skate wing comes with capers; simple and understated. Now, can we talk about the roast beef? I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything as good. It’s soft, it’s bloody and just so damn tasty. Both dishes came with potato slaw sprinkled with Hungarian peppercorns. You crush them with each bite and then there’s that burst of spicyness which gives the side dish its entire personality. We made room for the thick homemade apple pie with buttermilk ice cream. It was the perfect way to end a nice long lunch. The golden-brown sugared crust was such a treat.

I’ve always wanted to go to Prune but could never make myself walk over to the east side when I’m deciding where to go for dinner. I also don’t wake up early enough to make it downtown for a weekend brunch. When they announced that they are finally serving lunch during the week, I had no excuses left. I’ve seen a line outside Prune during warmer nights, but it was quiet when we walked in on a Friday afternoon. There was ample natural light which makes you just want to sit back and stay. Prune was the chef’s childhood nickname, but I can easily call it Home.

Updated, 2007: There was a long line for Sunday brunch even though it was almost 3pm. We decided to wait for 15 minutes next door with our iced coffees. We walked back to check if we can finally get a table, but we were told that we have to wait another twenty minutes. I was grouchy and hungry, so I told the Dr. that I can’t wait any longer. We started to walk away from Prune when I heard the maitre d’ call my name. She said she was going to seat us in the next five minutes and asked us to wait just a bit more until they clean the table that just emptied. I appreciated the fact that the maitre d’ just didn’t let us walk away. She could have easily picked any of the other couples waiting outside. We were lucky to be squeezed in and so we celebrated with bloody marys, stewed chickpeas, lamb sausages and a ham and cheese sandwich.

Boqueria

53 West 19th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
212/255-4160
about $100 for two, with a few drinks, without tip
♥

Arabella and I discussed dinner options and cravings one evening: I am Frenched out for the moment (her) and Can we keep it chill? (me). Tapas, an eating concept from the Basque Country, could be anything bite-sized on a small plate. It’s not French and it’s definitely the most laid-back way I can think of in terms of eating dinner, so to Boqueria we went. I am still reeling from my Catalan vacation and because I had lunch at the boqueria three times while I was in Barcelona, eating pintxos (pin-chos) was an easy pick.

The quail egg was fried and served on top of a sausage sliver and a crispy baguette. It needed a good drizzle of olive oil. I liked the idea of a date stuffed with almonds wrapped in bacon, but then again, I like anything with bacon. The squid was served with a handful of limp mixed greens; perhaps stewed chick peas could have made the dish more lively.

The consolation, however, was the service. The place got crowded as it got later but our bartender-server made sure she gave us her attention. She was very patient with the mixed crowd: one actually opened up his laptop at the bar and another kept screaming for a Syrah until she politely explained that he was in a Spanish bar. Men in suits kept bumping our backs with their obnoxious laptop murses, so she made us stay by comping a glass of white and a glass of sangria. Although the space is very sleek and the buzz infectious, the food at this Boqueria could be a little more inspired.

Applewood

501 11th street off Seventh Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn
718/768.2044
$160 for two, with several drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I believe it’s called skill when a chef can take a cheap cut of veal and mask it as if it’s not part of the animal’s chewy shoulder. And I believe that it’s only a sincere love for food that can make a lamb loin taste, not like lamb, but of the combination of the complementary ingredients with it.

An amuse of roasted red beets with bloodoranges was a good start to a nicely-paced dinner at Applewood. The beets were tender but gave softly in my mouth. A seared Maine scallop sat in soup; I was only disappointed that I didn’t have a spoon to slurp all of it. A braised Vermont pork belly was crunchy and yet so delicate with the tiny pieces of eggplant, my smile stretched past my ears. The lamb loin was soft and really tasted like a nice cut of beef especially with the slightly bitter daikon and the creamy (but a little too salty) polenta. And veal shoulder, an inexpensive cut meant to be braised for hours, was naturally chewy but it was presented with such skill that you accept it just the way nature intended it. We ended the night with a small muffin of almond cake and it came with Seckel pear, the miniature sweet-sour kind excellent for cooking. A much bigger dessert, nectarine cobbler, was eaten until the last crumb was unseen.

Treading to Brooklyn for dinner is an ordeal for us Harlem residents, but we are well aware of the restaurants cropping up in support of sustainable local products and we are slowly making our way to eating in the outer boroughs. Applewood, for the last two years, has been changing their menu daily to ensure the freshness and seasonality of the ingredients. (An onion martini is a must-have before dinner is served.) An otherwise quiet Tuesday night dinner became special.