Union Square + Murray Hill – Writing With My Mouth Full

Ootoya

8 West 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
$58 each for 2 people, no drinks, with tip
212.255/0018
♥ ♥

Ootoya may be a restaurant chain, but the newly opened New York City branch looks anything but.

Tastiest:
1. Grilled beef tongue – will be the most buttery thing you’ll ever put in your mouth this season
2. Tonkatsu – The pork tonkatsu will make you believe in breaded meat again

Notable:
1. Tofu salad – The soft tofu will remind you of freshly made burrata; make sure you drizzle the dressing all over the greens to get the salad’s whole flavor profile; a little salt may need to be added

Good:
1. Sushi – The fish is fresh, just nothing exceptional. The chirashizushi is a very good deal if you’ll only eat one thing and expect to be full.
2. Yakitori – Just like any other grilled vegetables from Japanese yakitori joints, the asparagus wrapped with bacon are standouts. The okra may have been a tad too mature.

Service:
1. Japanese politeness galore. I will expect more rowdiness when the liquor license comes through.

ilili

236 Fifth Avenue between 27th and 28th Streets
212/683.2929
around $125 for 4, with drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

After thirteen days eating fresh seafood and vegetables in Dominica for both lunch and dinner, all I wanted to eat upon returning to New York was a bloody steak. It was godsend that Miriam was still in the city the morning my stomach started asking for red meat and I was glad to meet up with her at ilili before she had to go back to London.

ilili, a spacious restaurant specializing in Lebanese, Turkish and Mediterranean dishes, looks like a hotel restaurant and is apparently a party scene at night. When we stopped by for lunch though, the place was quite serene with only the soft buzz of quiet business meetings. It was, of course, the Monday after the blizzard, but I thought New Yorkers will be back on their feet eating after the New Year holiday. I was okay that most people stayed in.

The restaurant’s $20 lunch prix fixe is one of the best deals in the city and includes a main dish and a side. I was set to order their lamb burger until our waiter announced that the day’s special was lamb porterhouse with stuffed eggplants. It sounded too heavy for lunch, but it was hard to say no after Miriam promised that I may have a bite of her burger.

Their grape leaves were just what I needed to start–that Mediterranean taste was the only thing missing in the Caribbean and it was like something new in my mouth. The shared plate of warm pita bread and hummus sealed the deal for me. Miriam’s lamb burger was perfectly cooked and made light by the spicy arugula leaves. The fries were to die for, thick slivers but light and crunchy. The porterhouse was perfectly seasoned with a pistachio crumb on top. The stuffed eggplant was pillowy and bursted with harissa after each bite. They reminded me so much of the vegetables I ate in Tunisia and brought back so many good travel memories.

I guessed that the pistachio ice cream included either lavender or rose water since it gave me that soapy aftertaste, but otherwise creamy and tasty. It may have not been as creamy as their clotted cream in simple syrup with bananas, but what more can you ask for when all you originally wanted was red meat? I can’t wait to return for dinner.

Related post/s:
Tunisia road trip travel journal

Kasturi

83 Lexington Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets
212/679.7993â€Ž
$7 for one dish
♥ ♥

Let’s go there, I said as I pulled the Dr. towards the street crossing. Among the many restaurants in Curry Hill, the South Asian restaurant row in the Gramercy Park area, Kasturi is the only one without the frills. No string of chili lights here or sari-style tablecloths, just straight-up Bangladeshi food. You walk down a few steps and sit under really bright fluorescent lights with the taxi cab drivers on break.

The food is as bright as the lights, and before Kasturi, I never had anything like it. The dishes we tried all had a lemony taste and the saucy stews weren’t thick nor heavy. We couldn’t have enough of the anchovy stew, an interesting mix of ceviche taste with broth from a long-simmered stew. A tamer plate of zucchini and chickpeas smothered with bay and curry leaves was equally good, if not better with pickled hot peppers. We mopped everything else with warm nan. The neon yellow rice tasted better than it looked and a bowl of it proved just right for two Asians after a night out of drinking in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

We didn’t know what kind of food Kasturi served when we walked in and only realized it was Bangladeshi when we saw that the TV was fixed on ATN Bangla. There were plenty of phone card commercials and the diners next to me smiled when I correctly interpreted a commercial with an actor scratching his palms as someone who was expecting some money. They were eating the same dishes and watching them made me think of home: they were using their hands.

Kasturi is one of the reasons why I love New York City. Even after almost sixteen years of calling it home, I still discover new places, new foods and new cultures.

Mr. Jones Yakitori

243 East 14th Street between Third and Second Avenues
212/253.7670
$222 for four, with drinks, with tip
♥

Update, 2009: My Deathwatch prediction came true after only a month.

Oy, I’m putting Mr. Jones Yakitori on a Deathwatch. I don’t know why anyone would open a yakitori restaurant a few blocks away from St. Marks Place where yakitori joints are a dime a dozen. I immediately looked around for the grill when I went in, but I only saw booths for group diners. Upon entering, you immediately realized it’s that type of place. The decor reminded me of some of the worst Thai places in the city where mod is the predominant theme and the restaurant converts into a club come the weekend. I just know that I regret paying over $200 for a mediocre dinner for four. Good thing my companions, two of whom were Japanese, had a good sense of humor.

The foie gras inside the meatballs were barely noticeable. The bowl of rice cooked in butter and truffle oil was, admittedly, an unnecessary selection but it was even more ridiculous that they charged $9 for it. The yakitori pieces that would have cost us $3 apiece elsewhere were $5, while a pair of chicken ones came in for $7. Everything added up quickly and we accumulated a pretty long list of small bites. If we brought our boys with us, they would have complained at how hungry they still were after all that expense. Heck, I wanted a slice of pizza on my way home! (If you know my relationship with pizza, you would know that that’s saying a lot.)

The waitstaff were pretty, and though they were attentive, none of them looked like they appreciated Japanese food. I wouldn’t be asking them the difference between kobe and wagyu beef anytime soon. But then again, they might not be around even if I wanted to.

Irving Mill

116 East 16th Street between Irving Place and Union Square East
212/254.1600â€Ž
$129 for three, with beers, with tip
♥

Wow, they made a big deal about the burgers here. Don’t get me wrong: they were satisfying, but nothing more incredible than what other places in the city has to offer. It also didn’t make up for the confused service we received from our waiter who seemed out of it.

We ordered a few appetizers with our burgers to split between the three of us: salt and pepper pork ribs, crispy pigs’ ears salad with radicchio topped with creme fraiche and arugula-shiitake mushroom salad. We also ordered a side of kale to eat with our burgers. It was perplexing when our waiter brought all the vegetables for appetizers, leaving my friend eating the kale while two of us ate our salads. When we brought this to our waiter’s attention, he seemed to forget that the kale is offered as a side on the menu.

For shiitake, mine looked very much like button mushrooms. I couldn’t pin-point if it was the lack of dressing or tossing of ingredients together in a bowl, but they didn’t meld with the greens. What I expected to be a hearty salad was really dry and boring. I’ve had better salad from delis than this one. The salt and pepper pork ribs brought the same unexciting feeling. How can anything be well-seasoned and at the same time taste bland? When the busboy took away my plate, he spilled the leftover rib juice on our table and we watched as it remained on our table until we had to leave.

I ordered my burger medium-rare but it was pretty rare inside. I didn’t mind it, but I know that that would be unacceptable to many. The fries on the side were limp and soggy. At this point, our waiter disappeared and never returned. We had two different guys bring us coffee and our bill.

The saving grace of the night was the crispy pigs’ ears salad. They were truly crispy and mouth-watering but I would have been more satisfied without the creme fraiche on it. If the service was more pleasant, we would have stayed and ordered extra drinks to try and salvage our night, but we couldn’t wait to get out of there and just give our waiter a break.