The Standard Grill
I have given the Standard Hotel a few tries over the last few weeks. Tried the Biergarden, had drinks at the Standard Grill, and also dined at the Standard Grill. My recommendation for the best experience at the Standard Hotel is to stick with drinks at the Standard Grill and enjoy the free apples on the way to the unisex bathroom.
Drinks were all well executed, they are creatively presented and always nice and cold. I have enjoyed the PENNY DROP on two occasions. It was served in a copper cup and included Vodka, House made ginger cordial, lime juice, ginger beer, fresh ginger. You can really taste the fresh ingredients.
The margarita is quite good and they also have an extensive wine list. Don’t forget about their $45 punches that “serve multitudes.” Haven’t tried the punches but looked to be popular in the restaurant.
Don’t get me wrong, the food wasn’t bad, but the lackluster, inattentive service took away from the experience. We waited far too long to be greeted, far too long for water and it took forever to get our drinks. The waiter fumbled through the specials (which were already printed on the menu). The food also took an extended period of time to arrive. To top it off, the bill had a “convenient” 20% service charge added in ( we were a party of 6). Not sure when 20% became a “standard” tip.
There were also some weird elements to the meal. These two items were placed on our table in the beginning of the meal … not sure why? Just seemed random…
We had to ask for bread, which was good. I liked the salty rolls but a few at my table thought they were hard and tough to eat.
I particularly enjoyed my Sunburst Farm Trout, currant & pine nut relish ($19). The trout was cooked perfectly, the charring of the fish added to the taste and the aesthetics. The fish was simply prepared. The sweet currant & pine nut relish was a perfect complement. All in all, the price wasn’t bad either.
The “Million Dollar” Whole Roast Chicken for Two ($34) seemed like a nice gimmick, but, while it was enjoyed, for the price you may find yourself wondering why this “Million Dollar” Chicken isn’t that different from one of those Rotisserie specials at your neighborhood grocery stores (or even Costco for only $4.99). Check out this chicken special I saw while walking through Harlem…
The Standard Grill Ranch Burger with bacon and cheese, fries ($16) looked like a good choice and the people at the table that ordered it seemed to enjoy despite one being slightly overcooked.
Crispy Potatoes With Smoked Paprika Aioli ($7) were excellent.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 9/10 (Trendy, thoughtful design, cool scene)
Service – 5/10
Category:
Food Type – New American
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate
Wanna go?
Address: 848 Washington Street, 212-645-4500
website – thestandardgrill.com OpenTable – opentable.com/the-standard-grill Menu: http://thestandardgrill.com/menu/
Park Avenue Spring
It’s Springtime, and you know what that means? Time to go to Park Avenue Spring, the restaurant that changes with the seasons. According to Park Avenue Spring’s website, this Spring’s decor was “inspired by a classic English garden with wild, raw vegetation and materials.” This is a perfect special occasion restaurant, though I got the feeling that some of the people dining at the restaurant didn’t need a special occasion to go.
In my past Park Avenue reviews I focused on the use of fresh seasonal ingredients, for this review, the theme is taking traditional recipes and making them better. If you’ve always wanted to try the “twists on traditional recipe” challenges on Top Chef come to Park Avenue Spring.
I started with Thai Minestrone with spring vegetables, lemongrass, and tapioca. The broth had all the flavors of a Thai Tom Yum soup, but the heat wasn’t as overpowering as this is not your neighborhood Thai restaurant. Also, it was clear that the “young” spring vegetables were much fresher. The tapioca, was the perfect end to the bowl of soup, which was designed to be scooped up in the last couple spoonfuls. The use of tapioca was a clever play on the noodles.
Another special dish was the shrimp scampi. Normal “Italian” presentation takes a bunch of shrimp mixed with garlic, butter and white wine, over pasta. Park Avenue Spring shrimp scampi was served on a plate with large fresh shrimp, head on (if you don’t want the heads on, ask and they will take them off) topped with a crunchy pan fried noodle crust instead of your typical bowl of noodles. The pleasure of the dish was the power and flavor of the shrimp without all the typical distracting ingredients. The 3 shrimp included in the appetizer portion was the perfect sampling for us.
In addition to making traditional recipes more modern and desirable, they also do a great job at delivering on the traditional favorites like rack of lamb, filet mignon, burgers, chicken, halibut etc. The Colorado Lamb Chops with rhubarb panzanella were delicious. Cooked exactly as ordered.
Halibut with Black Truffles brioche-crusted poached egg, though cooked perfectly, was a little too salty for my taste.
I hate to say it, but I enjoyed my friend’s halibut preparation with lemon and breadcrumbs more. She also gave a more generous portion, sides, and seconds!
The meal always starts out with one of the best bread baskets in Manhattan. It included flatbreads, corn bread, and a salted herb roll.
The service, as always, it friendly and efficient. We enjoyed sitting in the more intimate section all the way in the back (to the left) of the restaurant as opposed to the larger room to the right.
In addition to the high quality food and presentation, the ambiance and the people watching really kick it up a notch. Prices are inflated, but this is Park Avenue and you have to pay a premium for a chance to bump into Gossip Girl. XOXO (my wife makes me watch).
Macelleria
Having experienced many Italian restaurants in NYC, I typically say most in NYC are either really good or really bad. Macelleria is somewhere in the middle.
We enjoyed a well executed Italian meal with efficient service in a festive environment. Macelleria is the perfect place for a celebration – the crowd is young and the energy is high. The restaurant is next to several trendy clubs/nightspots.
A few nitpick items stand out as separates Macelleria from some of the higher rated establishments.
We started with pasta. I had the wild boar pappardelle. The pasta was piping hot and cooked perfectly but I thought the wild boar sauce tasted and looked like standard chuck meat. The waiter said it was cooked for over three hours but I didn’t get the special “wild boar” taste I’m used to from ordering the dish at other places. We shared the Prime Dry Aged New York Strip Steak as well as the Branzino – both were well done. They were both very flavorful.
The sides were nothing to write home about… the spinach was a little bitter from my friend’s perspective. The roasted potatoes were crunchy and crispy but I could have used a few more on the plate.
Dessert was good, but they tried to play off standard “food service” ice cream as gelato.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Italian
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate (Meatpacking price inflation)
Wanna go?
Address/phone –
48 Gansevoort St | Btwn Greenwich & Washington St, 212-741-2555
website- macelleriarestaurant.com
menus – menupages.com/restaurants/macelleria
Open Table- opentable.com/macelleria
Vic’s Bagel Bar
Judging from the Sunday morning crowd that wrapped throughout the store, Vic’s is a welcome addition to Murray Hill. Why, you may wonder, is this bagel shop different from any other bagel shop? The answer is bold innovation, creativity, efficient service, fresh high quality ingredients, and most importantly THE BAGEL.
What’s the bold innovation? A customized cream cheese/bagel topping bar. All cream cheese is made to order with those high quality ingredients I mentioned.
They have everything you’d expect, and then a few unexpected ones like Chocolate Chips, Sprinkles, Potato Chips, Kosher Bacon Bits, Pesto, Wasabi, BBQ Sauce, Zaatar, and Maple Syrup. They are smartly capitalizing on the very popular overpriced NYC yogurt /salad bar trend.
I had the “Tokyo Tel Aviv Express” with lox, wasabi, pinch of scallion and edamame on an everything bagel. My everything bagel was soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. It was much better than I expected. They included the perfect amount of ingredients– I usually tell other bagel shops to go light on the cream cheese but this bold mix of ingredients was easier to eat than a “glob” of cream cheese. The wasabi added nice flavor, but was not overpowering as it could have been.
The coffee was also good. Vic herself said it was somewhere between Dunkin and Starbucks and she was right.
Though I like Daniel’s bagels across the street, when I walked by with my bagel from Vic’s the crowd was nowhere near Vic’s. Time will tell what kind of impact Vic’s has on Daniel’s.
This may be a bold prediction in the young life of Vic’s Bagel Bar, but I see this concept as being a perfect franchise in cities beyond nyc. As Bravo says “Watch what happens!”
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 8/10
Category:
Food Type – Bagels
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable
Wanna go?
Address/phone –
544 3rd Ave At 36th St – 212-213-3900
menu- menupages.com/restaurants/vics-bagel-bar
website- vicsbagelbar.com
Nana
There’s no room for Nana in Murray Hill. Always excited for a new place, but my dining experience tonight was all I needed to know that the Nana doesn’t have what it takes to make it beyond a year. Nana is undifferentiated and no better than any of the other generic sushi places in the neighborhood including Hana, Iron Sushi, Tony’s, Akane, etc. For the record, the only good sushi place in Murray Hill is Mishima. Back to Nana… they only had one server for the place. He didn’t know the difference between shumai and vegetable dumplings. My Chirashi was fresh but it took too long to arrive. The pieces of fish were too big and lacked the flavors you will remember from a higher quality place.
To top it off, they are attempting to fool Yelpers with a review and professional photos from the owner, or someone related… Check it out and let me know if I am right or wrong? http://www.yelp.com/biz/nana-sushi-manhattan. I suspect bigmouth s. as being somehow paid by the ill nana.
Rating:
Food – 5/10
Ambiance – 6/10
Service – 5/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese
Style – Trendy
Price – Reasonable
Wanna go?
Address – 511 3rd ave, Manhattan, NY 10016 (At 34th St)
website- http://www.nanasushi.com
Koi New York
Koi is still cool, but not as cool as it once was. We decided to go for a late night snack (instead of dinner). Ordered Kobe potstickers (four small dumplings for $20), crispy rice topped with spicy tuna, and sauteed shrimp on california roll. The crispy rice is the dish that everyone seems to get when they go to Koi. Nothing like that crunchy and chewy rice meeting with high quality spicy tuna on top. Good but it can’t be very healthy. I would have enjoyed the spicy tuna more if it were spicier. The sauteed shrimp, which included asparagus and high-quality mushrooms, was good, but a little too salty for my taste. I wouldn’t order the potstickers again.
In the past, when not coming in for a snack, I have enjoyed sushi a la carte. It is nice to mix some pure fish (especially the Hamachi) with some of the unhealthy fried options we had last night.
Koi is in an impressive space connected to a “cool” hotel.
Don’t forget about the cocktails.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – Japanese/ Fusion
Style – Trendy
Price – Expensive
Wanna go?
Address/phone – 40 W 40th St, Btwn 5th & 6th Ave, 212-921-3330
website- http://www.koirestaurant.com/
menus – http://menupages.com/restaurants/koi/menu
reservations – http://www.opentable.com/koi-new-york
Hell’s Kitchen
Simple and straight forward American lunch fare. Well executed. Perfect for a “client lunch” with R/GA yet I can see how the sleek and modern restaurant can become a “hot spot” for the dinner crowd in this up-and-coming neighborhood.
I had the grilled portobello sandwich with red peppers, cheddar cheese and red onion marmalade. It was a well executed sandwich –everything served a purpose. The unlikely sharp cheddar (rather than the typical mozzarella) and tasty peppers and marmalade was a nice contrast to the simple and really juicy, generous portobello portion. Loved the fact that while the mushroom was juicy, everything was contained in a large foccocia roll that didn’t get soggy. I ate every bite.
The table ordered salads, sandwiches, and salmon. All seemed to enjoy.
Service was fine at first and food came quickly but waitress went MIA after we ordered. Could have used an iced tea refill.
Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 7/10
Category:
Food Type – American
Style – Casual, Trendy
Price – Moderate
Wanna go?
Address/phone – 523 9th Ave, New York, NY 10018, (212) 947-4208
Zengo
Zengo loosely means “give and take.” The idea is to come with a big group of people, order several plates, pass the dishes around and enjoy. I plan to give and take a lot because it is so close to home and on their fourth day in business they impressed me as really “buttoned up” with excellent service, high quality, tasty food, and a really creative and well planned space to explore.
Before even entering the space, I was impressed by the thoughtful decor including wrought iron screens and wood beams to make the large and previously imposing space a little less imposing.
Sensing my curiosity, the bartender, Allison, arranged for the manager to take me and another interested diner a tour after our meal. I am looking forward to experiencing La Biblioteca downstairs with wall to wall shelves of over 400 types of tequila. It will open when they receive their liquor license. They say it is will have the largest selection of Tequila in North America. I was also impressed that they are sending the “tequila sommelier” to and from Mexico to learn about the product first hand (I need to get a job like that). It also is cool that you can buy tequila, get a “library card” and then go back and enjoy the bottle for up to 6 months from your locker. In contrast to the “chill” downstairs, the upstairs Sake and Sochu Longue was more of a VIP vibe. I plan to go back to try both.
I should probably get into the food… I sat at the bar and enjoyed three entrees. Of the three, the “give” would be the Wakame-Hijiki Seaweed Salad cucumber, carrot, daikon, apple, ginger vinaigrette. Though fresh, in my opinion it needed a kick of flavor. The “takes,” more than compensated for the lackluster salad. The Halibut Ceviche aji amarillo, red onion, cucumber, apple, tomato, cilantro was as fresh and flavorful as can be. It was sweet, light and tangy. I enjoyed the plantain chips that accompanied. Even better were the Charred Tuna Wonton Tacos with sushi rice, mango salsa, guacamole. This is a prime example of how to effectively mix Asian and Latin fare. The sushi grade tuna was impeccable, the wanton taco shell was crispy and the sushi rice was the hidden treasure.
The bill crept up there, but this is midtown, and I was more than happy to pay for the impressive and thoughtful surroundings, quality ingredients, and attentive service. This place will be lots of fun for those benefiting from the expense accounts from the many neighborhood businesses when the economy picks up!
Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 10/10
Service – 9/10
Category:
Food Type – Latin/Asian
Style – Nightclub
Price – Expensive
Wanna go?
Address/phone –622 Third Ave at 40th St, New York, NY 10017, 212-808-8110
website- http://www.modernmexican.com/zengony/index.htm
menus – http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/zengo
reservations – http://www.opentable.com/zengo