New York City Restaurants by Neighborhood
331 West 4th Street at Jane
212/242.9502
about $45 for two, with a few drinks, with tip
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Possibly the best burgers in New York City besides Le Parker Meridien’s, people wait at Corner Bistro not just for the $2.50 McSorley’s but also for the Bistro Burger, a slab of juicy beef so big you can barely flatten it to put it in your mouth. The best part of it all is that it comes with crispy bacon and onions.
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Le Parker Meridien Burger Joint
60 Clinton Street between Rivington and Stanton
212/253.1960
about $100 for two, with two drinks, without tip
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I rarely go to an Italian restaurant because I can’t, and don’t want to, eat a whole big bowl of pasta. Falai serves the familiar but transcends at the same time because of the imaginative use of ingredients.
Rich chicken livers were served with a fluff of polenta but also surrounded with chanterelles. The baby octopus did not come with vinaigrette but instead cooked with caramelized Gaeta olives for that mildly sweet taste. Eggplants fried in batter sounded off-putting in 90-degree weather but they were sliced so thin and done so lightly, perfectly. For our main course, we split the ravioli squid ink pasta stuffed with pine nuts, scallops, white asparagus fonduta and baked zucchini. It was heavenly.
Before chef Iacopo Falai managed the kitchen of Bread TriBeCa, he was the pastry chef at Le Cirque 2000. He pays tributes to his roots with the restaurant’s dessert menu, but alas, we had to settle for a dainty strawberry sorbet because we still had glasses of Veltliner and Tocai and Prosecco to finish.
194 Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring, New York City
212/965.9511
about $150 for two, with two drinks, without tip
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It’s hard to convince me to try a restaurant dubbed “Best Place to Impress a First Date” but after walking by Peasant one afternoon, I thought of it as the best place to treat my special someone to dinner. The first thing you see as soon as you walk in is the fire from the brick oven in the back where they cook all their Italian fare the traditional way. The dark wood gives the restaurant a rustic feel, but the aluminum chairs add a touch of modernity.
We split the baked scallops topped with breadcrumbs and the octopus in vinaigrette. The beet and mixed greens salad was excellent. We like it when the waitstaff gives us some time in between courses, but Peasant stretched it a bit too long. The appetizers settled in our stomachs, that by the time the boy’s squab was served, we were already full. We started to slice the bird but had to send it back because it was too rare. Maybe the cooks in the back need more light than the brick oven provides. I also had to hold up a candle to see what kind of beans arrived on our table–fava–and what mushrooms smelled so good–porcini–with my sweetbreads. I’ve never had sweetbreads as a main course before but if there’s a restaurant that takes everything to the max, Peasant is it.
For dessert, we wished for the peach tart topped with hazelnut ice cream but decided to skip it after we saw that it was more that the size of a big slice. I appreciate big portions for the amount of money they charge, but there are times when I’d prefer a smaller plate rather than a gluttonous one. Fortunately, a smaller space in the basement offers smaller plates.
222 West 79th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam
212/873.0200
about $200 for two, with two drinks, with tip
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Updated, 2007: Chef Michael Psilakis has turned Onera into cash-only Kefi. He has also opened Anthos at 36 West 52nd Street off Fifth Avenue, 212/582.6900
My party was forty minutes late but the Onera staff was very accommodating. Perhaps I was already sitting and consuming alcohol at the bar and they had no other choice but to wait for my seven other diningmates. When they finally showed up, our table for eight was situated perfectly in the back of the tiny basement restaurant.
When my friends wanted to try something different without paying for a ridiculously expensive omakase at a sushi restaurant, I thought of Onera because Greek is not always the first thing in people’s minds when they think of dinner, so it can only be a curious choice. My friends’ filet mignon were all done the way they preferred. A couple ordered pork tenderloin and they were both delicious, served with fennel and toasted garlic velouté. I went off the too-familiar list and started with two dishes from their meze menu, or small appetizers. The sea urchin came on top of pickled beets and cheese. Everyone wanted to taste my uni and unfortunately, I had to give up three out of the five on my small plate. The scallops came with yogurt cucumber sauce and a whiff of anise. I only had three pieces so I devoured them before anyone said anything.
For my main meal, I divided my attention between the chilled roasted octopus and the crispy sweetbreads. Again, everyone’s forks were attacking my plates and I could not help but scold them for choosing the steak and the pork belly without thinking of the other items on the menu. But even though I did not have enough, the octopus was nice and tarty and the sweetbreads divine. Even with foie gras and sheep milk fraiche, the sweetbreads were not overly decadent to turn me off.
Onera did not disappoint me, nor my picky friends.
314 West 11th Street at Greenwich Street
212/620.0393
about $100 for two, with a few drinks, without tip
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Updated, 2007: A second floor space has opened, but I still waited two and a half hours on a Saturday even after I put my name down at 6:45pm
It’s no surprise that one of my favorite chefs, Mario Batali, helped open The Spotted Pig in the West Village. One look at the menu and a wanna-be foodie like me would immediately appreciate the tongue and the kidney, two items that are almost always expected in a restaurant that calls itself a “gastro-pub.” The chargrilled burger with roquefort cheese and shoestring fries in garlic and rosemary is a must-try. Order it meat medium-rare and I can bet it will satisy the carnivore in you, even if you don’t like stinky cheese.
During my first visit, I ordered the ramps and they came wrapped in pancetta. It’s pretty steep at $14 but if you like ramps in the spring like I do, it’s an appetizer you can’t skip. I also had the rabbit cooked with fiddlehead ferns, a vegetable also only available in the spring. With two of my favorite vegetables on the same menu at the same night, I swore I would return.
When I finally did, I ordered the poached lamb’s tongue and the pan-fried veal kidney. The tongue was served with lentils and fava beans. The tarragon plus the sour cream gave the dish a little kick and they helped melt the tongue in my, well, tongue. Even though several pieces of the tongue were sliced, I could not help but notice that one was actually a whole piece. It looked like the lamb went Maaah and then the whoosh of the butcher’s knife just sliced it. It made for interesting photo anyway.
The veal kidney was a little too overwhelming. I understood that another strong ingredient was needed to bring out the offal taste of the kidneys, but I thought prosciutto and mustard sauce were too salty to complement them. The combination was so powerful that they were all competing in my mouth. And this is when the pub’s role comes in. The Spotted Pig has about one hundred different bottles of wine on their list, together with a few pale ales and stouts. Hand-pumped Old Speckled Hen comes in handy with all that offal.
Visit on a weeknight and expect to wait for an hour. Visit on a weekend and expect to wait for two hours. Everyone in New York City wants to be at the Pig.
