Kibo
Located in the old Japanais space near Union Square, Kibo is a BR guest Restaurant, and benefits from the well oiled BR guest machine to ensure quality food, great ambiance and extremely efficient and courteous service.
While I am sure they spent a lot of money on renovations to the restaurant space, to the my untrained eye, the entrance and the dining room looked unchanged from the Japonais days, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the space is impressive design wise with a long dining room, ample bar area and tall ceilings. One change worth highlighting is the addition of a new Robata grill, which cooks meats and fish at 1,000 degrees to result in the perfect sear on the outside and juiciness on the inside… More on that later…
The first thing to impress me about the restaurant was the efficient service. Our waitress, Amy W., was just so nice and so knowledgeable about the concept, the menu items, and other interesting details. She was supported by a team that was always coming to clean up the table, pour water (which appeared to be bottled water of some type, at no extra charge) and make sure everything was going smoothly.
We started with drinks, after all, this was a night out to celebrate my four year anniversary of marriage to my beautiful wife!! I have been in NYC for years and have gotten used to the $16 cocktail. When I saw that my wife’s, Kibo San, the restaurant’s signature cocktail featuring Vodka, Pama, Lychee, Egg White Froth, was $10, I thought “this is a bargain.” This statement only applies in NYC, I guess. She enjoyed the light, flavorful (and inexpensive) cocktail. I enjoyed a Six point Bengali Tiger IPA. Looks good, doesn’t it?
Now, for the food… We started with the Japanese Caesar Salad with sesame dressing. For $9 the salad was a generous portion of romaine lettuce with french bread croutons, Parmesan, walnuts, and as a pleasant surprise, slices of apples. Perfect start to the meal with some great liberties taken to adapt/modernize this traditional salad.
Because we had to try the Robata grill, next came prawns. Prepared on a skewer, the portion was three large prawns. The kimchi sauce added some impact, but the highlight was the impact of Robata grill, which as described, perfectly seared the prawns on the outside and cooked it just the right amount to maintain juiciness. The prawns were a highlight – they looked so good when they came out that I forgot to take a picture (and I rarely forget)!
Next, we each had a sushi roll. My wife, California, and I had the Rainbow - tuna, hamachi, fluke, salmon, and tobiko. These rolls were both compact in size but not in flavor. The fish was fresh and the tobiko and strong wasabi made my roll really pop. I got the impression that these rolls resembled the sushi from the other BR guest restaurants ( in a good way).
For an entree, we shared the Skirt Steak with mushroom, shishito, and shallots. It was juicy and flavorful. It went perfectly with the Chicken Soboro (fried rice, but not in the way the habachi/Chinese take out prepares it).
To complete the sampling of creative Japanese delights, our waitress brought over a slice of their soon to be famous 20 layer chocolate cake. It is worth coming to Kibo just to try this dessert. I didn’t count the layers – if you would like to, the slice is pictured below. This was a special chocolate desert from a taste perspective and a flavor perspective . It was topped with homemade green tea ice cream.
If that wasn’t enough, she also brought us two classes of champagne to toast our Anniversary.
Kibo was a perfect place to celebrate a special evening for two. From looking around, it also appeared to be a great place for large groups – lots of 20/30 somethings seemed to file in around 9pm on Saturday night, which is good, because in addition to great food, the restaurant is playing up the fact that they have a DJ and lots of bar space.
When all was said and done, our meal came to $109. In terms of what we had (even without the comped dessert and drink) it was a relative bargain in the NYC dining space.
All the best to Kibo.
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
111 East 18th St at Park Ave South
New York, NY 10003
P: 212 824 2770
E: info@kibonyc.com
My Maki Sushi – Closed
11/2011 – Sorry to see My Maki has closed.
My Maki is the Chipolte or Subway of sushi. Located near Grand Central, it is in a good location for the business and on-the-go crowd. I stopped in for an after work snack, but would go to My Maki for lunch if I worked near Grand Central.
Here’s how it works:
- Pick the wrap – 10-piece roll wrapped in traditional Japanese Nori ($5.90) or 10-piece roll wrapped in neutral flavored wrap made of soybean ($6.90).
- Pick what’s inside – large selection of the common ingredients such as tuna, eel, and a few uncommon ones like crawfish. Price range is $1.50 to $2.95.
- Pick extras – All the stuff you’d expect like Avocado, Cucumber, etc. and a few different ones like Doritos and thai basil. (First two are free, additional are 75 cents).
- Pick an external topping like masago, sesame seeds or spicy bread crumbs.
- Finally, pick from one of their freshly prepared sauces including spicy mayo, edamame jalapeno, karashi mustard, citrus ponzu, thai chili sea and sweet unagi (eel) (75 cents)
The roll I had was tuna, shatakes, carrot, and avocado wrapped in nori and topped with masago.
The food was fresh and I got exactly what I wanted in a quick period of time. Though the concept is fairly innovative, from an ingredient perspective I would like to see a larger variety of more unique ingrdients. I also would like to see some more luxurious options.
All in all, I paid $12 for a large tuna roll, which I could have gotten on seamlessweb from 121 Midori Sushi (formerly Kiku Sushi 3). For those of you who don’t know me, that was a joke. I frequently make fun of the infultration of low quality sushi in the neighborhood. In addition to a lackluster selection in the Murray Hill Neighborhood, sushi places tend to result to shady tactics to attract customers on Seamlessweb.
My Maki addresses exactly what’s wrong with the NYC sushi scene. According to their press release, “My Maki was created after the founders discovered that it was nearly impossible for an on-the-go customer to get a high-quality sushi lunch quickly in Manhattan. Typically customers are faced with two unappealing options at opposite ends of the sushi spectrum: Traditional full-service sushi restaurants where average order preparation times are fifteen to twenty minutes, the environments are dull and uninviting, and prices are high; and deli sushi where a very limited assortment of pre-packaged rolls made with hard, tasteless rice and questionable fish sit for hours in a refrigerated case. (My Maki Press Release)”
I see no reason why this restaurant won’t thrive, after all, how could all the crappy, undifferentiated places survive in this market? Here are a few ideas to position My Maki for success.
- Get people to undersatand what it is and how it works - The key is to get people to understand the concept and give it a try. Spend more money with a talented graphic artist to design signs to walk people through the process.
- Help people find the place – Though the location is centrally located near Grand Central, it can be easily missed. The only reason I saw was I choose to walk on 43rd when I leave GCT.
- Innovative target marketing - Take a lesson from Vic’s Bagel Bar, who is doing innovative things like serving liquor at night while offering a crowd of recent college grads beer pong.
- Ingredient Management - Learn what’s selling and what’s not and take off low performers and don’t be afraid to introduce more innovative ingredients/specials.
- Give people a reason to come in for dinner (or to bring sushi home) possibly for a discounted price.
- Offer brown rice.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Sushi
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
212-682-2795
Donatella
We went to Donatella to see and taste pizza from their famous oven. The oven is the centerpiece of the restaurant. It was constructed piece by piece with materials shipped from Italy (890 pieces including dozens of volcanic-soil mud bricks and bags of Neapolitan sand and cement). The flashy gold tiles on the outside are purely for aesthetics. The wood burning oven gets hot, 700 degrees to be exact, to “create a pizza that is both soft in the middle and crispy on the ends, in the authentic Neapolitan tradition (Donatella Menu).”
We opted to do a family style meal so we could try the many specialty items on the menu.
We started the meal with bruchetta with sea salt. At $4, it is the best deal on the menu. Esentially, it is a pizza without the cheese and sauce. It was a prime example of how the oven works. It came out right away because it was cooked in less than a minute in the oven. I loved the crispy, burnt parts, which were a perfect complement to the soft parts. We almost ordered another.
The salad, mesculin with candied walnuts was composed organic mixed greens, pecorino, and this really tangy lemon dressing. It was served on a cold plate, which a nice touch. The menu said the greens were from Blooming Hill Farm, so I looked up why Blooming Hill farm is special. Blooming Hill Farm is in Blooming Grove, NY. It Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. “CSA members make a commitment to support the farm by purchasing a share, and the farmer, through their support, plans his growing season based on the resources from the local community(http://www.bloominghillfarm.com/csa.php ).” There’s a long list of restaurants that support the farm and its products. http://www.bloominghillfarm.com/customers.php. Ok, enough about the lettuce.
Other entrées we enjoyed included the MARGHERITA pizza with san marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, pecorino, basil. The sauce was sweet. While it was a good pizza, all the ingredients made the middle soggy. Try the bruchetta to get a true appreciation for the oven/pizza crust.
The roast of the day was a large pork chop on top of creamy polenta with a rich mushroom sauce. It was juicy.
Another highlight was the PACCHERI ALLA GENOVESE with braised beef & sweet onion sugo, parmigiano reggiano. The fresh Paccheri (or Oversized Rigatoni) were cooked al dente. The sauce was sweet and rich. Excellent dish.
All in all, everything came together, for a lovely meal. We arrived at 8 pm for a relatively quiet start to the meal. By the time we left at 9 pm, the crowd picked up significantly. The crowd was young. Lots of big groups. A perfect place to start out a night out with friends.
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Italian
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
Wanna go?
Address/phone –
184 8th Ave.
NEW YORK, NY 10011
BTN 19th & 20th
PH: 212.493.5150
Web – http://donatellanyc.com/
China North Dumpling
I had just completed a long run… I was hungry… I only had $3 in my pocket… In all other neighborhoods I wouldn’t even be able to get a slice of pizza. This isn’t the case in the Lower East Side at China North Dumpling.
$3 for 12 fresh and very juicy dumplings! The dumplings were simple …I tasted scallions in the mix and the slightest hint of ginger. I didn’t taste mushrooms or cabbage (common dumpling ingredients). I knew the dumplings are fresh because I saw a lady in the back making them… there also were several large bags of flour up front.
The Hot Cock sauce was watered down.. but how much can I expect for a $3 order of dumplings!
It’s possible that the only thing that has changed about North Dumpling since it’s doors opened many years ago is the duct tape covering certain items on the menu.
Despite the run down interior, North Dumpling seems to be a local hang out. Right after I arrived I would say 12 people from the Lower East side community crowded into no frills establishment. As I left two police cars were in front of the restaurant… No there wasn’t a disturbance on the dark city street… It was just dinner time!
No Rating
27a Essex St (between Hester St & Grand St)
(212) 529-2760
Compass
My compass lead me to the West Side or maybe it was Google Maps. Nevertheless, we arrived at Compass, a well established New American for a dinner with friends. Compass offers straight-forward continental items featuring fresh seasonal summer highlights with occasional bursts of creativity. The setting is sleek and spacious and not stuffy (unlike some competitors in the same price point.)
I was wowed by timely and attentive service. We were quickly greeted by a waitress. Within minutes the first course of our three course tasting menu was presented in unison by three servers. Same thing happened for the mains and dessert. Other service niceties included a unique bread basket of corn bread & biscuits with honey butter, a small amuse bouche of octopus salad between apps and entrees, a little plate of house made chocolates and strawberry marshmallows after dessert, and a bagged muffin for breakfast the next day. Just those little extras make it worth finding Compass.
Onto the food. The $35 price fixe menu is available all year. The menu changes seasonally.
We started with the marinated tomato salad with red and yellow tomatoes, goat cheese, petite herb salad, and raspberry vinaigrette.
The chilled sweet corn soup was a pureed soup. The waiter poured it table side. The smooth soup was enhanced by the small amount of Pickled Watermelon and confit shrimp.
We were off to a great start…. Our table tried all three entrees on the summer tasting menu.
- Roasted Hanger Steak with Creamy Polenta, Tomato Red Swiss Chard Gratin, Cipollini Onion, Red Wine Sauce.
- Bo-Bo Farms Organic Chicken with California Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Lemon Grass Chicken Jus
- Atlantic Salmon with Israeli Couscous, English Peas, Squash, Mascarpone Cheese, Serrano Ham.
Though the entrees featured hearty portions and desirable ingredients, we were less impressed by the dishes than the appetizers, desserts and service. It wasn’t that there weren’t well prepared… It wasn’t that they weren’t cooked to order…. they were just much less memorable.
Dessert were two appealing All American choices. The Cheesecake Parfait with Strawberry Salad, Graham Cracker Crumble was light airy and refreshing. The chocolate mousse was elegant and rich Caramel Popcorn and “Popcorn Sherbet” were creative accouterments.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – American
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Address/ phone: 208 West 70th Street (Amsterdam & West End Ave.), 212-875-8600
Nooï Pasta to Go
When traveling in France this summer, I wondered why NYC had yet to have a “pasta in a box” establishment. In France these establishments seemed as common as pizza places in NYC. Sure enough, a week or two after my trip on my walk to Grand Central, I came across “Nooï to Go.”
The idea is simple. Pick your pasta, pick your sauce, pick your toppings, box it up and go (or eat in if you choose in their modern 1,700 square foot establishment).
I selected “Bolo” - Bolognaise with bow-tie pasta at the suggestion of Chris, the chief operating officer of Nooï North America, who was working the counter when I visited.
The things I fear about a concept like this were overcooked pasta and flavorless sauce. Both my fears were dispelled at first bite. I truly enjoyed a hearty, flavorful, filling portion of pasta and sauce. The pasta was al dente as advertised… I think it has to do with those fancy automated machines in the back that look like deep friers (for pasta).
Nooï’s offerings are simple $3.95 (26 oz) or 4.95 (32 oz) for pasta and two toppings without sauce.
“Simply delicious” recipes are $1 more and include:
- Tomato Fresca - Tomato, olive oil, basil
- Diablo – Spicy
- Fredo – Alfredo
- “Vodkaya”
“Rich and Tasty” are yet $1 more and include:
- “Bolo” Bolognaise
- Bracnara- Carbonara
- “4 Magic” – 4 Cheese
- Pesto
- Chick’n Champi – Chicken meat with mushrooms and cream
- Bollywood- Chicken curry
- Le Salmen – salmon, cream, leaks and dill
- Lovster – Cream, minced lobster, tomato and sherry
You can get multi grain for $1 extra.
Everything seems simple, yet I found the menu to be too hard to follow. The menu referenced all these “formulas” which would put pressure on me if I were on a crowded lunch line. Too many words, too far away…. it made something very simple seem complicated. This could be solved by a good graphic artist who knows how to do less with more. Even better, invest in some plasma screens that allow you to make ordering more visual.
Also, strangely, the in-store and take out menu made no reference to the types of pasta offered. Even the Wall Street Journal article announcing Nooï deemphasized the pasta…”Nooï’s Mr. Sanchez did say the restaurant will include different cuts of pasta and 12 to 15 types of sauces, ranging from Indian and Mexican sauces to more traditional ones.” I would like to see more about the pasta on the menu – is it made fresh daily ? It it dry? What about those automated pasta machines make it taste so good!? What about the machines cook the pasta perfectly every time?
These nits are minor and can be easily addressed. Most important is reasonably priced, tasty pasta and sauces.
All-in all, I would go back, especially if I was in the neighborhood around lunch time during the winter.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 8/10
Category:
Food Type – Pasta
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Address/ phone: 370 Lexington Avenue (Btwn 40th & 41st St)
Aura Thai Cuisine
Upon entering the Thai restaurant named Aura, I wasn’t sure when I would see the Aura. It wasn’t in the Lincoln Tunnel approach outside…
And it wasn’t in the mismatched and cracked artwork on the walls.
When I started eating the food, the aura came through… Do you see it in the pic below of my Thai Iced Tea?
In all seriousness. You don’t go to Aura for ambiance. You go for better, more authentic Thai than you get in all the wanna be Thai places around the city. The lunch special is particularly a good deal – even after they crossed out a few of the offerings on the menu. Everyone starts out with some dumplings or shumai (depending on the day). I found the vegetarian dumplings to be tasty… I tasted mushroom, vermicelli noodles. I wanted to ask more about what was inside, but the waitress didn’t look ready to engage in that conversation.
The Aura PAD KEE MAO with chicken, vegetables and fresh basil in a spicy chili garlic soy sauce was so much better than the Thai noodles I order on the East Side ( I wonder if they deliver across town?). The heat came from a variety of colorful peppers (not just a squirt of Sriracha sauce). I ate every bite.
When I got a chance to research the name, Aura, I actually found out that my hunch was only slightly correct. Turns out “the fusion cafe is actually named after the matriarch of the Watanasuparp family, Nora; hence, NAURA.” According to the Aura’s website, “this minor misnomer is intentional and welcomed, though, because the eatery evokes Thai aura and flavor into every dish.” One can assume that the Watanasuparp family owns the restaurant.
Aura or not, you can count on high quality Thai at reasonable prices.
Wanna go?
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 5/10
Service – 7/10 (fast but abrupt)
Category:
Food Type – Thai
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Address/phone –
462 Ninth Avenue (Bet. 35th – 36th Streets), 212 971-8530
website- aurathaicuisine.com
menu – aurathaicuisine.com/menu.html
The Redhead
update 7/15: http://www.theredheadnyc.com/blogs/news/1748942-bye-bye-brunch-hello-sunday-nights
The Redhead didn’t disappoint for brunch. We were greeted by our server Mike (I bet he wrote the signs below).
Mike was a genuinely nice guy and I sensed his “bring it” attitude as he chatted with us about the “must haves” on the menu.
I had chicken and waffles. From my experience, this dish usually has fried chicken (Amy Ruth’s) but chicken on The Redhead’s was sauteed. This was not a dish that you put syrup on. The barely visible waffle was on the bottom. On top, a chicken mixture containing both dark and white meat (I preferred the dark meat pieces). The mixture of shataki mushrooms, dill, scallions, and shallots produced a very rich gravy. Now that I look at my pic… it is quite an ambitious brunch item for a hot day, but I enjoyed every bite.
Other items enjoyed by the table were the much ligher fruit pancakes with pistachio, strawberries, & raspberries. My cousin described the pancakes as creamier and lighter than most pancakes.
How could anyone not enjoy the Pat LaFrida burger on the menu at the Redhead (and most high end burger restaurants in NYC)?
The Redhead feels genuine to me. The food, service, the “it takes a village” way the Redhead was built described on theredheadnyc.com. “We’ve long dreamed of opening our own neighborhood restaurant, and this is it. Everything has been lovingly crafted by the three of us, with lots of help from our friends and families. Thanks to everyone who helped paint, sand, plumb and build the redhead.”
On that note, as we left, we noticed that the bar totally filled in with regulars chatting it up. Speaking of the bar, don’t forget to check-in on foursquare.com – for the first time I got something for checking in, this spicy Bloody Mary with lots of garlic!
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – American
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Address/ phone: 349 E. 13th Street (close to 2nd), 212-533-6212
Web - theredheadnyc.com
Menu: menupages.com/restaurants/the-redhead
Maialino
It wasn’t until people flocked away from NYC for Memorial day that I could get a reservation at Maialino, and the best time we could get was a 9:30 PM. There were several reasons why Maialino is so popular: Danny Meyer, Gramercy Park Hotel, Rockwell group decor…and most importantly, you guessed it, the food.
I had been intrigued by this restaurant long before I knew what it was. For some reason when heading downtown, cabbies always zig-zag through the city and always end up passing the Gramercy Park Hotel. As we pass the park, we look to the right to see the ground floor windows of the restaurant. I always thought to myself ” this is very nyc and I want to eat there.”
Upon entrance, the restaurant isn’t as trendy as I was expecting it to be from the outside view. According to the PR description, Maialino “captures the warmth and comfort of a traditional Roman trattoria, re-imagined for its contemporary setting.” It actually has an Otto vibe… A more expensive Otto vibe. With a large bar up front and different “stations” in the middle of the restaurant (not train stations like Otto, a salami station and a dessert station).
I was particularly impressed with how spread out the tables were for NYC and how good the acoustics were.
We were taken to our table and promptly presented menus. Maybe the style of the menu was designed to be like an old italian restaurant (like Pietros in midtown), with prices written in and a few lines to add new dishes…. My cynical self said this was a smart tactic to be able to up the prices without a new print run. Others will say this adds authenticity.
Since by the time we sat down for dinner it was 10 PM, our goal for the evening shifted from a full meal with appetizer, primi, secondi, and dessert, to trying that the waitress said were the “money plates” of the restaurant, two pasta dishes.
Before the “money plates” arrived, a fresh basket of bread and bread sticks was placed to the table. I would like to re-emphasize the freshness of the bread. It was one of those bread baskets that was worth eating. Fresh foccocia, fresh semolina. I wish they would have offered more before we were finished with the meal.
Onto the best part, the pasta! Tonnarelli Cacio e Pepe consisted of a spaghetti type pasta. It was covered in Pecorino cheese and has a powerful amount of black pepper. The cheese and olive oil coated the pasta to form a consistency that was different from the normal “smooth” sauces I am used to.
The Lasagna al Forno consisted of spinach pasta & bolognese. Looking back, I wanted to take a picture of how the house made spinach pasta was delicately layered, piece by piece over the beef bolognese, but the pasta was gone before I had a chance to take a picture (oops). It was very flavorful… The consistency of the pasta was perfect and the meat added just the right amount of contrast.
As I mentioned, Maialino is expensive, but, when all was said and done, we were out of one of NYC’s top new restaurants for under $75. Now, don’t get me wrong, that $75 went to two glasses of wine and several bites of pasta, but it was worth it. It is definitely a place I want to go back to to try again (if I can get a reservation at a decent hour)!
Rating:
Food – 9/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Italian
Style – Casual
Price – Expensive
Address/ phone: 2 Lexington Ave, 212- 777-2410
Menu: maialinonyc.com/_pdf/trattoria.pdf
Opentable – opentable.com/maialino
Papaya Dog
We live in New York, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of…. Sometimes after you are making dreams come true at fancy expensive places with small portions, at the end of the night you are hungry. You can always go for pizza, but when you are near a Papaya Dog, I highly recommend you switch it up go for a $2 hotdog and a wide array of unhealthy food at reasonable prices. This review also applies to Gray’s Papaya, and Papaya King…
The dog is better than the boiled dogs you get on the street because it is grilled. Most of these places use Sabrett hot dogs or other quality brands. I am not going to describe this in more detail… After all, it’s a $2 hotdog but trust me, it’s good…
The best part of eating an unhealthy hotdog is you can get all your nutritional needs from one of their sugary drinks.
Wanna go?
Locations throughout the city.
I don’t recommend you seek out a Papaya Dog. You will know when your time to enjoy this NYC treat has arrived!
No rating.