Several weeks ago, I asked my family if they would like to go out eating at Sesonal, the 1* Michelin-rated, Austrian restaurant that’s located in Midtown West. Everyone except my father could attend and we set the date back last Saturday. My reasoning was the fact there aren’t that many restaurants in Manhattan that serves Austrian food (the other place I know of and went to is Cafe Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie located in the Upper East Side) and the menu sounds different and enticing enough that my family is willing to try.
My mother, brother and I perused their lunch menus and settled on the three-course lunch prix fixe since we’re planning to cook a huge dinner at home.
Front interior
Seasonal is handsomely decorated – streamlined and clean lines and curves with several paintings to add some color to the white walls, dark wood tables lined with olive green place mats. The curved bar with a creamy white leather chairs looked comfortable to linger if it was the after-work hours.
As some of you, my readers, I have mixed feelings about brunch. I do love having a relaxed daytime, weekend meal at a restaurant but I dislike the fact of seeing ordinary breakfast food that I can make at home. Thankfully, since I’m in the melting pot of culture and restaurants in New York City, there’s hope for me.
Mercadito’s exterior and interiors
Stumbling upon Mercadito’s email about their brunch* it seemed like a good idea to try a Mexican brunch. I managed to convince my brother to get out of his apartment the past Sunday and meet up with him there.
Standing in front of this narrow restaurant that’s pretty easily standing out from the rest on this part of Avenue B, it’s already filled with diners. And it’s a few minutes past 12 PM.
Mimosa and guacamole
We started brunch with fruit flavored mimosas. (They serve off a prix fixe menu of $19 consisting of a fruit mimosa or cafe con leche, an entrée that comes with rice and beans.) The three featured were strawberry, mango, and pineapple. Both were good, bubbly drinks and you can tell they use real fruit instead of a mix. I would prefer the pulp being puréed or muddled down a bit more so I won’t have a large chunk of fruit in my mouth.
To go along with the drinks, we ordered the trio of guacamoles (traditional, pineapple, and mango) and fresh tortilla chips. All the guacamoles were fresh and delicious. I prefer the traditional but the mango (the brown colored one) was quite memorable for being the pretty unusual (a darker, sweet-savory guacamole). Continue reading “Brunch at Mercadito” »
Hearing good things about Maialino, I cannot help but make a reservation during Restaurant Week when I found out they are participating. It’s inexpensive compared to what one would pay for lunch, as most of their pastas hover in the upper teens, as the main courses are in the twenty dollar range. And it’s run by Danny Meyer’s restaurant group, generally speaking over my many years of eating out, a bad experience is rarely encountered. I’ve asked three friends to join me and we’re all hungry, anticipating greatness as to what Chef Anderer’s kitchen has in store.
Views of the dining room
Entering the dark lobby of the Gramercy Park Hotel yet as I’m into the bar area, the bar and dining area are bright and rustic with dark walnut wood. It feels pretty cozy.
When you go to any French brasserie in the world, whether it’s in New York City or Paris, the dish that one would always find on their menu would be steak frites. Scouring through Paris food guides like Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris and Paris Chowhound, I ended up reserving a table at Le Bis du Severo.
Le Bis du Severo
Le Bis du Severo is an annex to Severo, both restaurants are owned by a former butcher from Nivernaises who is passionate about his meat. The interior is sort of retro-modern with the black and white checkered tile floor, burgundy red banquettes, and a small zinc bar up at the front. Continue reading “Beef-centric Dinner at Le Bis du Severo” »
In NYC, I have my fair share of lavish dining: Eleven Madison Park, the lunch tasting menu at The Modern Dining Room, Jean Georges, and Marea. All were very good to excellent experiences but frankly, I’m getting bored with NYC fine dining. The restaurants that I’ve went to over the span of a few years pretty much kept the menu almost the same except configuring the flavors according to season. In other words, I’m a jaded New Yorker and the fine dining scene here is getting monotonous.
I’ve asked the good people of France Chowhound what three-star Michelin restaurant in Paris that serves a great lunch? I’ve made contact with a few friendly people who are familiar with the fine dining scene in Europe like Julien and Food Snob (via France Chowhound) and asked for input since I’m going to a city where there are many three-star Michelin restaurants than NYC. After much contemplation, I picked up the phone and called Ledoyen for a reservation.
Ledoyen
Walking off from the posh, busy boulevard off of Champs Elysses into Avenue Dutuit, HC and I felt like were slowly transported off to an isolated, peaceful place. First we encountered their small stretch of rose gardens that surround the restaurant on the side. When we walked up to the entrance, we’re welcomed by the doorman and welcomed again by the hostess.
As a born and bred native New Yorker, I don’t exactly understand the concept of brunch. Brunch to me is basically another way to sneak in more alcohol into your system even though you had your fill of poison the night (or two, if you started on Friday) before and eat somewhat bland food during the late morning to the late afternoon in hopes to get rid of hangover or induce yourself to another drunken stupor. Since I don’t drink that much and I care more about the food, I haven’t encounter brunch food that I truly enjoyed. Until now.
A week ago, I went to Lucky Rice‘s Press Preview party at the just opened, one of the highly anticipated restaurants to open (hey, we waited for two years for this to open), Fatty ‘Cue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I met a few well established bloggers like Jeff of Always Hungry and Marc of No Recipes, the genial people of Lucky Rice, and surprisingly later on the evening, celebrity chefs Daniel Boulud, Anita Lo, Pichet Ong, and of course, the gracious host and owner himself, Zakary Pellacio.
When you walk into this small restaurant, the atmosphere feels rustic. Low white ceiling in the main dining room, copper tin wall on one side as the side where the bar is, has exposed brick. It screams casual, where one can hang loose. Actually, the food I ate does reflect the mantra about being casual. You shouldn’t be shy to use your bare hands eat your food.
Interior: The dining room (left) and down the bar (right)
About a week ago, I had dinner with an old friend, Michael and meeting a new one, one of NY Times’ freelance photographers, Evan Sung at the Meatball Shop in the Lower East Side. A casual, fun, nostalgic meal that’s causing quite a media stir that specializes on their namesake – meatballs.
Entering the small, already bustling restaurant at 6:45 PM, one would see the aged-looking walls decorated in black and white portraits and vintage kitchen tools (like hand-cranked meat grinders) and a tinned ceiling. Two-top tables strewn against the one wall while the wooden communal table takes up most of the space with the bar on the right. Continue reading “Meet-Up Dinner (Sort of) at The Meatball Shop” »
Last week I met up with a friend who’s visiting New York City for a couple of days and we arranged to meet up for dinner for the sake of catching up. Talking a bit about where either of us wanted to go, we settled down for El Quinto Pino.
Entering this tiny, bar and stools setting with approximately sixteen seats with a semicircle-shaped marble bar, this place was filled with diners. And it’s only 6:30 on a rainy evening. Placing ourselves near the windows, our server asked us what we’d like to drink; I stuck with water, my dining companion had his glass of wine. At the same time we asked, “Where is the menu? Or that large chalkboard in the back is the only copy?” He answered, it’s the one in the back.
Madejas con ajilimójili
The madejas con ajilimójili or crispy lamb intestines were not bad. This particular dish was something my friend wanted but I don’t mind trying once. These crispy, knotted tendrils of intestines were barely gamy and it’s tender by itself. When dipped in the pink, garlic vinegar, it’s way too acidic that it took over the delicate flavor of the intestine. Continue reading “El Quinto Pino” »
