restaurant reviews
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Restaurant Review: Boi Sandwich
I was just living my life one day, heading to pick up dinner at Boi to Go–a Vietnamese fast-food-type offshoot of the original Boi just a few blocks away from my boyfriend’s apartment in Midtown–when I saw that the location had closed early. Horrified that I might have to dine on another slice of tasteless pizza, I read the sign more closely and found that an even newer Boi had opened on 3rd Ave. between 44th and 45th. It meant backtracking three whole blocks, but I decided to give it a go. That was half a year ago, and I’m still loving it just as much as I did that…
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Restaurant Review: Tom Colicchio’s craftbar
You know you’re living a charmed life when you and your boyfriend read Serious Eats’ Top Five Fancy-Pants Doughnuts in New York City article, decide on a whim that you’re in the mood for some of those fancy-pants donuts, and head out to Tom Colicchio’s craftbar to get your fix. You may remember that Kamran took me to craft for Valentine’s Day this year and that it remains to this day the best meal I’ve ever eaten without question. craftbar being the less formal sister to that restaurant, I was prepared for a difference in quality or service along with the difference in price. But no! We were seated in…
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Restaurant Review: Keens Steakhouse
I went into my dinner at Keens Steakhouse with an extremely open mind. I’m a lover of Peter Luger, but I was under the impression that $90 steak is $90 steak wherever you go, and I was excited about the scotch-and-cigars atmosphere of Keens. I hadn’t known to specify in my reservation that my boyfriend and I wanted to sit in the main dining room, so I was worried when all of the people in front of us were sent to different parts of the restaurant, but we were luckily seated downstairs under the ceiling entirely covered in clay tobacco pipes. The atmosphere is much darker and cozier than Luger’s,…
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Rocco Steakhouse Has the Big, Fat Bacon and the Schlag
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Max Brenner Does the Ice Cream Sandwich
I know there are a lot of Max Brenner haters out there. I agree that their menu full of quotes from some bald dude likening eating chocolate to lovemaking is pretty laughable (and sorta gross before dinner), and I agree that waiting in line for an hour with all of the tourists sucks when you feel like you should be entitled to special treatment as someone who pays $2,000 in rent to actually live in the city. But I still crave it. My friend Beth and I ate at the one in Union Square a few weeks ago and were full enough from our large dinner portions that we were…
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Kellogg’s NYC in Times Square
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Restaurant Review: Degustation
My boyfriend got a sudden urge for a tasting menu last week, so I posted to Chowhound seeking a menu without much seafood to suit me. Someone suggested Degustation, where we’ve been meaning to go anyway, and even though the restaurant has no website of its own to post a menu on, other people’s reviews seemed to suggest the place was right up my alley. It’s basically located in an alley, so we almost missed it, and then when the friendly hostess came to greet us, it turned out we weren’t on their reservation list. I chalked it up to the unpleasant telephone exchange I’d had with the reservationist the…
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Restaurant Review: Tocqueville (Restaurant Week Summer 2009)
For our final Restaurant Week meal, my boyfriend and I were torn between: A) Tocqueville, which had a decent menu but looked especially formal, and B) City Crab, which we’ve been meaning to go to anyway but which only listed their entree as any of the chef’s daily specials. And that’s scary to a non-seafood-lover. So we chose Tocqueville in the end and think it may be the best Restaurant Week dinner we’ve had. It’s hidden down 15th Street near Union Square, and although I’m sure it cuts down on their business, the restaurant’s quiet location only adds to the feeling of being special–maybe even elite–that you experience upon entering.…
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Restaurant Review: Primehouse New York (Restaurant Week Summer 2009)
My boyfriend, Kamran, and I base most of our Restaurant Week dining decisions on the inventiveness of the menu, which is why we chose Primehouse New York over Smith & Wollensky or Delmonico’s on the 31st. Passion fruit and gazpacho? Yes, please. • APPETIZERS • Passion Fruit Gazpacho Lump Crab & Avocado Grilled Double Cut Bacon Roasted Figs, Frisée, Maytag Blue Cheese Heirloom Tomato & Goat Cheese Salad Micro Basil, Sea Salt, Aged Balsamic • ENTREES • Scottish Salmon English Pea & Mushroom Risotto, Preserved Lemon Beurre Blanc Marinated Hanger Steak Grilled Portabella & Arugula Salad, Roasted Pepper Salsa 7oz Dry Aged Petit Sirloin Caramelized Summer Vegetables • DESSERTS •…
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Restaurant Review: Tao (Restaurant Week Summer 2009)
I’m sure I knew what Tao was all about by virtue of watching this past season of “Celebrity Apprentice” and seeing how many times Dennis Rodman recommended it, but the Restaurant Week menu somehow made that seem unimportant. It became important again, though, about five seconds after I walked in the door and heard the thumping club music and saw the crowds of yuppies and tourists holding drinks in the waiting area. After an uncomfortable fifteen-minute wait where we were bumped into multiple times despite leaving plenty of room around us for people to get by, my boyfriend and I were led upstairs, across a bridge, and to a booth…
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Schnipper’s, the Fast Food Alternative in Times Square
I never look forward to eating around Times Square. My second date with my boyfriend was at Chevy’s Fresh Mex, but that’s only because we changed our movie location at the last minute and weren’t familiar with the area at the time. Since then, we’ve had one unexpectedly delicious French meal inside Port Authority at Metro Marché, a great sushi experience at Haru, and “real barbecue” at Virgil’s, but the majority of Times Square fare is along the lines of Applebee’s and McDonald’s. Even when I’m excited about a restaurant in the area, the idea of the crowds and the lack of cleanliness and the way the restaurants cater to…
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Otafuku’s Okonomiyaki in NYC
The New York magazine review of Otafuku says, “It’s very rare to find this stuff in New York. Consider yourself lucky.” Similarly, my boyfriend has been going on about this place for the entire nearly-three years I’ve known him. He went there on a date with a girl before my time and claims that while the date sucked, the food was life-changing. I don’t actually believe him about the date, but I was at least interested in the food. Otafuku is not a restaurant. It’s a hallway divided in two by a counter, with men cooking on one side and customers ordering on the other. There’s enough room for four…
