4.5
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La Silhouette – French/American (New) – Hell’s Kitchen
After reading a short blurb about La Silhouette and its owner, Sally Chironis’s, connection to Le Bernadin in the New York magazine food blog, Grub Street, I checked out the menu and found that I wanted to try every single thing on it. Well, except for maybe the Mixed Baby Lettuce salad, but the inclusion of a snail risotto made up for that. So my boyfriend and I booked a reservation for last Saturday, a mere two weeks after their opening. Their liquor license wasn’t in place yet, so we brought a bottle each of Eins Zwei Dry 2008 and Chateau Padouen Sauternes 2006 with us, which were immediately put…
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Soba Totto – Japanese – Midtown East
Soba Totto is one of the true gems of Midtown East: it’s delicious, simply but beautifully appointed, and surprisingly not overpriced. My boyfriend and I were pleased to both find ourselves with a day off last week so we could finally enjoy Totto at lunch. We were totally in the mood for chicken meatballs and were sad to find that they don’t serve yakitori at lunch, but it forced us to try something we may have liked even better. Chicken Soboro Don: sautéed minced chicken, poached egg, scallions, seaweed, rice I was worried I might actually be playing it too safe by ordering this. I’m trying to push myself to…
- 4.5, american (new), good for groups, great for dates, michelin-starred, restaurant reviews, upper east side
What You’ve Read About The Wright is Wrong – American (New) – Upper East Side
I was secretly concerned about going to The Wright inside the Guggenheim Museum for my birthday this weekend. The menu looked classically delicious, and photos of the decor made it seem like a hip 1970s spaceship (it won the 2010 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant Design), but the reviews were a little too so-so, and we’d been totally unimpressed by a similar museum restaurant a few weeks earlier. But, you know, I’m always happy to find out for myself how a restaurant rates. Dr. Boyfriend and I decided to do the chef’s tasting with wine pairings, and right away The Wright scored points with me when our server…
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Saltie – Sandwiches – Williamsburg
My friend Meredith and I live mere blocks from each other in Brooklyn, but since my dining is done almost exclusively in Manhattan, I rely on her to tell me what’s good in the neighborhood. She recently recommended the sandwich shop Saltie, saying, “I had their Scuttlebutt sandwich 2 weeks ago and CAN’T stop thinking about it.” I don’t do olives, so instead I tried the Clean Slate, and OMG, you guys, I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. It’s hummus, quinoa, pickles, and yogurt on naan, and the memories of its craveable sourness just keeps invading my brain. $8 seemed a little steep to me until I got the thing…
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Wechsler’s Currywurst – German – East Village
I would go to Wechsler’s every day. It’s one of those quintessential East Village finds that’s tiny, cozy, and cheap, yet unlike most of the East Village, it’s somewhere you can actually take a date. Not, like, a snobby date. A date like me. Basically, I just want to go back to Wechsler’s, and I want you to go with me. Anyway, here’s a picture of some meat covered in some sauce: That’s what currywurst is: sausage, sliced and covered in a saucy blend of tomato and curry powder. It’s traditionally a German street food, but when I recommended Wechsler’s to my friend Steve, he reported back the next day…
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The Lemongrass Grill Curry Puff – Financial District – Thai
The curry puff is common to Thai, Malaysian, and Singaporean cuisine, but none of those cuisines is common to me, so the first time I tried one, I was in heaven. Sort of like an empanada, sort of like a samosa, it’s pastry stuffed with a thick curry, chicken, potatoes, and onion and deep-fried. Since that original curry puff, I’ve tried as many as I can find in NYC, but I always go back to the one at Lemongrass Grill. It’s the flakiest, the curry-est, and the most way-too-delicious-to-last-more-than-two-bites. The puff isn’t hard like a samosa’s, so the filling gets to mingle with it. But really, it wouldn’t be anything…
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Recipe: Low-Carb Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes
I was in Ohio last weekend and spent much of it with my best friend, who–like me–finds lots of excuses to “cheat” on her low-carb diet. Meaning that whenever I’m in town, we go crazy and eat whatever we want, which is everything from Dairy Queen to Pizza Hut to McDonald’s with a couple of local joints thrown in as long as they’re all as unhealthy as possible. We’ve said 100 times in the past year that we’d love to try “being good” one time when I come home for a visit, but this time we actually meant it. As luck would have it, the lovely Maria Emmerich posted a…
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One of Two Good Pizzerias in NYC: Totonno’s – Pizza – Kips Bay and Upper East Side
The way that I defend chain pizzerias should give you some indication of how much I generally think New York pizza sucks. It’s not the style I mind–I’ve grown to love the huge floppy crust that you fold together so the grease can drip straight into your mouth–but I just find it so entirely flavorless. Totonno’s is about as New York-y as pizza comes, with an owner who started at the famed Lombardi’s, a location on Coney Island, and a reputation known the world-over. And yet, I find myself somehow craving it. The crust is brick-oven-browned, a little crunchy on the outside to help it maintain its form. But more…