West + East Harlem – Writing With My Mouth Full

Vinateria

2211 Frederick Douglass Boulevard corner of 119th Street
$45 each for 2 people, with drinks, with tip
212/662.8462
♥ ♥

Finally, a new addition to the Harlem restaurant scene worth writing about. Shauna and I walked around the neighborhood to try and cool off from the hot Saturday weather and got a drink at Bier International before moving on to Vinateria for food. I’ve walked past it a few times while they were under construction and I’ve been looking forward to eating there since they put up their logo using a nice typeface. (Harlem is teeming with laughable typefaces on storefronts.)

Whoever thought of serving the cavatelli pasta with rabe as an appetizer was a genius. I like my pasta dishes just fine, but I never want a whole plate of it because I always lean towards trying more than 1 dish off the menu. We ended up splitting that pasta dish, which was the best out of all the lot, plus the following:
– Halibut tartare – I’ve never heard of fish tartare using halibut instead of tuna, and it felt a little short because of the usually bland white fish. There was a surprising sunchoke purée underneath–surprising because most Harlem restaurants have not jumped on the farm-to-table bandwagon–which gave the dish all its flavor, but the fish could have used some more salt and lime for added brightness. I forgot to ask where they got their fish but we trusted that they were fresh; no reports of being sick after!
– Octopus Frisée Salad – The octopus was sparse but very tender and the potatoes were a great match with the greens.
– Arugula and Radish Salad with Anchovies – We could have used more anchovies. It wouldn’t have been obvious if they served it on a small plate rather than a bowl. The vegetables were well-seasoned though and made up for it.

The service was quite attentive but they kept pushing their filtered water which is unnecessary for a New Yorker like me. The cocktails were a saving grace because I have been looking for a place in the neighborhood where I can get a decently-made drink. I hope Vinateria only gets better as the crowd starts to build up.

Maison Harlem

As a Harlem resident for the last 10 years, I’m all for new bars and restaurants in the area. The neighborhood has definitely changed. You see more new faces walking around, cafés and boutiques, but its growth is still slower than Brooklyn’s.

Maison Harlem tries hard. A well-dressed gentleman–and may I say good-looking too–approached our table to ask how the food was. He told us that when he opened the place his main priority was good food, and now he’s working on improving the service. His next to-do is to refine the bar which is much needed because when we were there, they didn’t have a cocktail list and could not make me a Dark and Stormy because they didn’t have ginger beer.

Notables:
1. Space – The interior is beautiful and you can’t tell that from its on location on St. Nicholas Avenue. May I request for coat and purse hooks under the bar and by the booths though?
2. Crowd – It was nice to see more Harlem adults out for dinner. It was a mixed crowd on a Saturday night. Harlem is changing indeed.

Watch out:
1. Food – While the food wasn’t bad–my poached egg on my frisée de lardon came out perfectly and my hanger steak was medium-rare–it lacked oomph. We weren’t extremely satisfied after eating as if something was amiss. My steak could have used some salt and the truffled mac and cheese could have been more hearty and cheesier. Props for having Roquefort cheese as an option with the burger; I haven’t seen that cheese on any uptown menus, I swear.
2. Bar – The drinks are on the strong side until they create and refine their signature cocktails.
3. Service – Waiting on 5 ladies is difficult enough and I think we challenged our waiter with our decibel level and flustered him with our endless questions. But we kept him on his toes and he passed our test. I hope they keep it up when it gets more attention.

Jin Ramen

3183 Broadway between Tiemann Place and 125th Street
$20 each for 4 people, with drinks, with tip
646/559.2862
♥ ♥

Ramen in Harlem? This is seriously the best thing that has happened in my neighborhood in the 7+ years I’ve lived there.

Notable:
1. Happy hour $10 Sapporo pitchers after 10pm when I visited on a Monday night

Need I say more? I’ll be making more trips to Jin Ramen this winter for sure.

Red Rooster

310 Lenox Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets
212/792.9001
$86 for three, without drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

I’m very familiar with the Harlem Sunday brunch crowd. I’ve biked enough past the Baptist churches on Adam Clayton and Lenox Avenues to know that after service, large crowds gather at the nearby bakery or join the street barbecue line if it’s warm out. What I didn’t expect to see at Red Rooster was a colorful one–and I liked it. Seven years living in Harlem, I’ve witnessed the neighborhood change: beautiful brownstones getting gutted out and renovated, new apartments higher than six floors getting built in less than two years, Starbucks opening to serve $5 coffees. I’ve taken advantage of the gentrification, as most of you know, buying into one of the developments and enjoying decent brews with my bike safely chained outside the bar. I’ve slowly tried the handful of restaurants that have popped up, but businesses have shared one thread that still need a vast improvement: the quality of service. Red Rooster is no exception.

We walked in Red Rooster and joined the crowd at the bar while two people sang gospel songs. The waiting time was half an hour to forty minutes, so we felt lucky that we got bar seats. Getting bloody marys poured out of a plastic jug and a glass of a simply-mixed mimosa was another story–the two bartenders at the front seemed like they needed another pair of, maybe six more, hands to churn out the drinks being ordered. The bloody marys weren’t even worth waiting for.

The service didn’t change when we were finally shown our table. We must have been visited by at least five different servers, but none of them were quick enough at their feet to get our water glasses and coffee refilled, replace our butter spreaders with steak knives or place the correct plates in front of the person who ordered them. It seemed like the staff was overwhelmed, but there was constant traffic between tables and the service room that I wondered where they were all walking to.

Thankfully, chef Marcus Samuelsson hasn’t lost the talent that he’s honed during all his years at Aquavit. I’m not sure how many of the Top Chef audience even know that he has been around before they started blogging, but for a chef who’s been in the industry before all this foodie fuckfest, I’m also surprised that he’s gone uptown to start anew. He has adopted the Web and he has been parading himself on TV; he is also very visible on the floor chatting up and photographing with business partners and customers. It’s like Marcus Samuelsson Part Two without the need to talk about his familial background. It’s all about the food now, and at Red Rooster, it’s pretty good. The nuggets and toast, or their take on fried chicken and waffles, was well-refined and filling. The fried chicken nuggets were crispy and matched the sweetness of the toast slathered in maple syrup. I wasn’t a big fan of the baked eggs because they were just overcooked, but the mac and cheese using orecchiette with bitter greens made up for them. The five-ounce fillet steak was perfectly cooked and the sweet potato bits were a nice surprise with the French fries. The corn bread is the best I’ve tasted in a while, served with honey butter and tomato jam. The coffee, especially if served black, was so good that I didn’t mind not finishing my weak bloody mary; it will be marketed as Samuelsson’s own come next season. If I can’t get to Egg in Brooklyn often, Red Rooster will just have to do.

Chef Samuelsson’s baby is quite new, so I plan to make a return visit another Sunday to check on the service. I hope it improves and I hope they can deal with the crowd a little bit better next time because the food alone doesn’t carry an entire restaurant, nor can a famous chef.

Harlem Wing & Waffle

2394 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard on 140th Street
212/281.1477
$10 for one, without drinks, with tip
♥

It was counter-productive to bike eight miles in Central Park and only end up eating the calories I lost, but I was famished and Harlem Wing & Waffle called my name.

I have no idea who thought of fried chicken and waffles together, but he or she was a genius. It’s not the best friend chicken in the neighborhood, but when you’re feeling snackish, it’s the perfect combination.