Chatham Square

Recently, to celebrate the Chinese New Year, I was jonesing for a dim sum brunch. My Chinese coworker overheard my yearning and immediately recommended a spot her and her family frequent: Chatham Square, in, well, Chatham Square in Chinatown. It was exactly what I was looking for–an authentic, delicious experience not found by searching online.

My roommates and I went on Saturday around noon and walked into a bustling, cavernous room full of carts running from table to table full of covered goodies for the taking. For those who are unfamiliar, dim sum is a Chinese meal of pre-cooked dishes that are walked around a room so that as they go by, you simply point at what you want, and it’s yours! My coworker informed me the best time to go is Saturday around noon–it’s less crowded since people are still working on Saturdays (as opposed to Sundays, when everyone is off), and the food is freshest between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

After a quick 15-minute wait, we were ushered to a table near the back and almost immediately had five dishes on our table: (from middle top, clockwise) fried shrimp-stuffed eggplant, pork buns, shrimp wrapped in chewy rice noodles, (tea) shrimp shumai, and bacon wrapped shrimp. Okay, so we went a leetle shrimp crazy.

It was all incredibly delicious. And once those were devoured, we continued with sesame balls, scallion noodles, and a few other equally delicious mini-dishes. That day began my love for sesame balls–fried dough covered in sesame seeds with sweet red bean paste on the inside–that has grown exponentially since.

For dessert we ended with egg custard and fried taro dough balls.

Unfortunately, the egg custard was overcooked and tasted like scrambled eggs, when it should have been a creamy, sweet pastry treat, and the taro ball was a little boring after the magnificent sesame balls. But when the whole meal of 10+ dishes clocked in at $30, we were more than placated.

And an important lesson was learned: go for more sesame balls.

Chatham Square, http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/chatham-square-restaurant, 6 Chatham Square (between Mott St. and E. Broadway), New York, NY, 212-587-8800

Yerba Buena

I really don’t like restaurant week. Has anyone else noticed how it’s a fake deal? The menu usually doesn’t offer the restaurant’s signature dish, AKA the one you want to order, and has bland choices like field greens salad or chicken breast. And, I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally order three courses when I go out to eat, so I end up spending more than if I had just split an app with my friends and gotten an entree. But now let me tell you how I really feel…

Despite my reservations, when my friends suggested we check out a place for restaurant week, I agreed and immediately set out to find the most appealing menu. And, with only a few days notice, the place that could accommodate my party of 6. Yerba Buena in the West Village won (plus, have you seen their cocktail list? Irresistible.).

My choices that night were the tamale to start, roasted suckling pig for my main, and a Latin pastry with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The fab tamale photo skills of Chrissy Tully

<3 suckling pig <3

I was torn between the suckling pig and the seafood stew, but luckily my friends ordered the stew, so I was able to eat both!

seafood stew with clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, fluke, scallops, and more!

The tamale and dessert were only okay, but the suckling pig, with fingerling potatoes, olives, kale, and salsa verde, and seafood stew, with shrimp, fluke, clams, mussels, and corn, were really delicious (again! contributing to my theory that I didn’t need to spend $35 for the other 2 courses!).

Yerba Buena is also a really beautiful restaurant. Would I go back on a normal night? Probably, yes, to split the guacamole with friends and try a new entree. And definitely, yes, to work my way through that cocktail list.

Yerba Buena, http://www.ybnyc.com/media/yerbabuena.html, multiple locations in NY

Takashi

Some foodie questions are just too tough to answer, like, “What’s your favorite restaurant?” Or, “What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?”

Narrow it down, though, and game on. For instance, were you to ask me, “What’s your favorite Korean BBQ restaurant in NYC?” I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you Takashi. Or, suppose you inquired, “What’s the best interactive meal you’ve had in a while?” I would easily answer Takashi (Korean BBQ meat is served raw–there’s a big grill in the middle of your table, where you cook the meat yourself and immediately devour).

This meat-lovers restaurant in the West Village has me seriously swooning (if you’re vegetarian, I’d stop reading right about…now). My first offal experience a few years ago had me confused why the sweetbreads my server had described to me weren’t sweet and definitely weren’t bread (for those not in the know, sweetbreads are cow thymus…yeah, I know…). Since then, though, my love for offal has grown exponentially, and I jump at the chance to eat any organ thrown my way. I’ll also never turn down Korean food. And I f*cking love kimchi. Making Takashi my Asian dream come true.

My boyfriend and I were slightly out of our element the first time we went, so we took a leap of faith and left our entire meal in our trusty server’s hands. Let me tell you–she did not disappoint.

Will and I started with red red kimchi and yooke, or thinly-sliced chuck eye tartare in special sauce. The kimchi, or fermented cabbage, was deeper than any I had tried before–it was slightly smoky with a thick red sauce on top. I definitely prefer regular kimchi (which they also served us later with the BBQ), but this was an interesting and tasty variation. The yooke was one of the stars of our meal. It was more intense than your average raw meat tartare: rather than being chopped up into imperceptible pieces, the meat was left chunky and whole, with each bite so satisfyingly chewy and tender, especially marinated in the raw egg, soy, sesame, and more.

Next up was the BBQ portion of our night. Our server gave us a tasting of a lot of the restaurant’s meats. We tried rosu (ribeye), shio-tan (tongue), tetchan (large intestine), hatsu (heart), shibire (sweetbreads), and stomach (I can’t remember if it was the first stomach, second, or fourth, which are all on offer at Takashi). Everything was succulent, fresh, tender, and delicious. My favorite was the large intestine–it was like eating grilled, marinated fat. It all comes served with lettuce, fresh veggies, a few sauces, and white rice to roll up in a glorious Korean burrito of sorts. I like eating mine separately, but it’s nice to have the variation.

And while I prefer a main course over dessert, the ice cream they top you off with is decadent. Soft-serve Madagascar vanilla with the works: rice flour dumplings, black sesame, sweet beans, and syrup (we went with the salted caramel). Divine.

When I crave Korean BBQ (which is more often than I think normal), Takashi is where I want to be. Is it my all-time favorite restaurant? No, probably not. But it’s definitely my favorite KBBQ around.

Takashi, http://takashinyc.com/index.htm, 456 Hudson Street (between Morton & Barrow Streets), New York, NY, 212-414-2929

Pigalle

Editor’s note: Today’s blog is more of a story than a review, so get comfy and gather round…

This is arguably the worst dining experience I’ve ever had–and everyone I tell is outraged, too. So get your indignant cap on.

A group of 5 of us went to Pigalle in Hell’s Kitchen for Saturday brunch. The food wasn’t good, but that’s not the point of this story. I ordered a frisee salad with tomatoes, bacon, and a poached egg and a side of fries–and I asked for hollandaise to dip my fries in (if you’ve never done that, try it!).

When the check came, I was annoyed to see they charged me $2 for the hollandaise sauce. Granted, $2 is not a ton of money, but it was a tiny canister of sauce, and they never told me there would be a charge. I asked the server why he charged me, and he immediately got defensive and said, “Don’t get mad at me; the manager told me to.” So I asked the manager to come over.

And that’s when things went downhill, and fast.

She tried to justify the charge as a side order, but I argued that they never told me there would be a charge, nor did it say it anywhere on the menu. She explained that since I asked for an extra condiment, there was a charge. To which I said, “Well, if that’s your logic, why didn’t you charge me for the ketchup? Because we had to ask for that, too.” She was clearly unhappy, but took off the charge.

Then we each tried to put our cards in to pay, and the server told us they had a two-card maximum. Um, what? Since when do restaurants in NY in this day and age put a max on the number of credit cards they accept? I’ve never run into that problem elsewhere. So the manager came back on over.

And that’s when things got truly ugly.

We argued that, again, we hadn’t been told at the beginning of the meal that there was a maximum on the number of credit cards, nor did it say it anywhere on the menu. She said we should have asked. We said that was ridiculous, and then she leaned in and said, “Listen, let me tell you something about eating in restaurants.” Oh no. You could practically see the steam coming out of our ears at that point. We didn’t want to cause a scene, though, so we just stopped her right there, grabbed the check, and borrowed money from each other to pay cash.

We were all so taken aback by how condescending she was, and my friend Dana went up to her with our money to say we had never experienced this kind of treatment in a restaurant. She told Dana to calm down (which, as we all know, is the WORST thing to say to someone), which is then when Dana got really upset. She told her she was appalled by how she was treating us, and the manager told her we were acting like children. Dana informed her we would never be back, and we were on our way.

Have you ever been treated so poorly in a restaurant? The level of customer service obviously differs from place to place, but I’ve never had someone be so immediately antagonistic and rude. Needless to say, we won’t be back. And I highly recommend you never go, either.

Pigalle, www.pigallenyc.com, 790 8th Avenue, New York, NY, 212-489-2233

Taureau

I really hate when restaurants have rules. Why can’t you seat my party before every single person arrives? Why can’t you split the bill between four cards? Why don’t you take reservations (my biggest gripe)?! Having worked in an extremely successful restaurant in Boston that has high customer service ideals, I know it’s certainly not because you can’t. It’s because you won’t.

So after being told that everyone in my 8-person party must buy the prix-fix meal, even though it was way more food than we wanted, plus, oh yeah, they only take Discover, American Express, and cash, I was already annoyed that I was going to be eating at Taureau, a BYO fondue spot in the East Village. But, the food is decent, it was in a convenient area for who I was meeting, they take reservations, and did I already mention it’s BYO? No? Guys, it’s BYO.

Once we sat down, we managed to convince them to let us opt out of the prix-fix, and we ordered two fondues and several sides for our group.

Each fondue comes with salad and unlimited bread, and each side you order is also unlimited. We chose the Perigord (parmesan & white American with truffles & truffle oil) and Pyrenees (swiss with white wine, garlic, and nutmeg), and mushrooms, cauliflower, fennel sausage, and asparagus to dip.

Nothing is even worth discussing other than the Perigord–it’s addictive. Truffle cheese? Just try to put your fork down. Everything else was only okay. The Pyrenees was bland, the veggies were overcooked, and the fennel sausage was cold and greasy.

I suppose in the end it’s a good place to gather with friends, especially because of the BYO factor and social aspect of fondue. Just don’t even think about going over seven people, though–and order the Perigord!!!

Taureau, http://taureaunyc.com, 127 E. 7th St. (between 1st & Ave. A), New York, NY, 212-228-2222

Celeste

Packed nice and tight

Everybody wants a dependable, delicious Italian neighborhood joint (or at least you do if you’re like me). But not everyone’s as lucky to have one as amazing as mine. Celeste is the stuff neighborhood joints dream to be. It’s cheap, cozy, welcoming, and–most importantly–the food is always, always excellent.

When you walk in you’re greeted by the kooky, friendly owner–a requisite to joints. If it’s anytime near dinnertime, expect a wait, though not terribly long (the most I’ve waited at peak time on a Friday night was 30 minutes), which is pretty incredible considering how tiny the place is.

The menu is like a greatest hits album of Roman Italian food: pizzas, pastas, fried food (calamari, veggies, artichokes, etc.), and mains.

Absolutely perfect linguini & clams

The first three times I went I couldn’t help but order the linguini & clams–it’s exactly what you want this ubiquitous, but often subpar, dish to be: briny, salty, and buttery with perfectly al dente noodles to slurp up. The key to this dish: ask for the hot oil. It doesn’t come already on it, but the owner is more than happy to sprinkle some on for you.

I’ve since branched out to other dishes, and I’ve never been disappointed. The fried apps are in a light & crispy tempura batter, their pastas are mostly homemade and perfectly composed (another favorite of mine is the homemade tagliatelle with shrimp, cabbage, and sheep’s milk cheese), and the pizza is cooked in their 700 degree wood-burning oven (helpful hint: get the margherita with prosciutto on top!)

As good as pizza gets!

Seriously, everything on the menu is fantastic, and if you’re not feeling anything on it (ha!), you can always try one of their irresistible specials. Ones I’ve had were frutti di mar (mixed seafood & pasta in a tomato saffron broth) and a burrata pizza with butternut squash, onions, and potato.

I’d pay a lot for this food, yet most entrees are around $10-12. Yep, you heard me. You can eat here every day of the week and not break the bank. I have to talk myself out of going there most nights.

So are you jealous this isn’t your neighborhood joint? Cause you should be.

Celeste, 502 Amsterdam Ave. (between 84th & 85th), New York, NY, 212-874-4559

South Brooklyn Pizza

One of 2 a.m.'s finest products

This experience is little hazy to me. As are lots of late night pizza places to most of us, except South Brooklyn Pizza had several stand out qualities. As soon as my friends and I ordered a pie with the cashier after a night out, he turned around and started preparing it, which was the first surprise of the night. The second was the care with which he made it–thinly rolled out crust, tenderly scooped tomato sauce, and deliberately placed fresh mozzarella. After it came out, he tossed on fresh torn basil, grated aged parmesan, and a few turns of extra virgin olive oil  (paparazzi pics below). With ingredients like these, really, what can go wrong?

Pretty much nothing, as it turns  out. It was a crispy, fresh, delicious pizza that was irresistible to the point of seriously burning our mouths for. The crust was slightly crunchier than I normally enjoy (don’t you think a doughy bite on top of some crunch is also welcome?), but the other flavors were so bright that it made up for it. South Brooklyn Pizza is a definite late-night East Village must.

And if you’re totally sober, I highly advise allowing it to cool before devouring.

Fresh out of the oven (see the steam?)

My kind of Art Basil

A parm shower

Just some finishing drizzles

South Brooklyn Pizza, www.southbrooklynpizza.com, several locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn

Little Muenster

It’s impossible to visit all the restaurants you want in New York, especially on a limited budget. So you know when a brand new one opens and manages to claim a top spot on your (already way too long) restaurants-to-try list, it must be pretty tempting. Enter Little Muenster, a new gourmet grilled cheese shop on the Lower East Side. I know what you’re thinking, and it was my reaction, too: Why the hell hasn’t anyone thought of this before?! An entire restaurant devoted to gourmet grilled cheese? Uh…yes, please!

Every sandwich was extraordinarily tempting, but I went with what I just couldn’t resist: gruyere, goat cheese, leek confit, and pancetta on sourdough bread.

Jealous?

It was, seriously, perfection. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside sour bread, velvety, melted goat cheese with the bite of Gruyere, oniony leek confit, and salty pancetta…except, it wasn’t pancetta in my sandwich. It was definitely bacon, but–trust me–I’m not complaining. It was my ultimate grilled cheese, and luckily, seems easy enough to replicate. Each sandwich comes with some homemade potato chips, too, which is a classic accompaniment to grilled cheese (beside tomato soup, which is also on the menu).

My friend Cayla went with the asiago, parmesan, muenster, butternut squash, and sage brown butter sammy, and it was just as good, yet totally different. The cheese wasn’t as creamy since it didn’t have the goat cheese, and the sandwich was sweet from the squash. Delicious in its own way, too, though I always opt for salty over sweet.

The place itself is adorable. It’s incredibly tiny with only room for about 12-14 people sitting down, and whimsically decorated.

An optical illusion

There were wooden mice around the room, and this chandelier is actually a bunch of cheese graters (can you see it?) with lights in some boxes.

I wouldn’t necessarily go for dinner since it has such a casual, laid-back vibe, but it’s a fabulous lunch or late-night spot, which is dangerous since so many bars I love are also on the LES, and Little Muenster is open ’til 4 a.m. on the weekends.

Or perfect, depending how you look at it.

Little Muenster, www.littlemuenster.com, 100 Stanton St., New York, NY, 212-203-7197

Co.

It was 5 p.m. on a Thursday and my only plan for the night was to heat up a Lean Cuisine and watch Whitney (yes, I just admitted that out loud). So when my friend Cayla suggested we grab pizza for dinner, my obvious answer was Hell no! I got plans with Whitney, bitch!

Okay, so I immediately said yes and headed downtown after work for what looked like some seriously serious pies at Co. in Chelsea. I arrived a few minutes before she did and my two options were wait 20 minutes for seats at the communal table or snag the caddy-cornered bar seats that just happened to be open (score!). It was super cute inside–very warm and energetic, yet casual. We were going to be eating pizzas, after all, but it was obvious that these weren’t your $2 slices at the place downstairs.

We planned to split a pie, but I wanted one with pork on top, which Cayla doesn’t eat. Here’s a hint to my heart: just say the word “lardon,” and I’m yours. So naturally I opted for the “Flambe” pizza, which had bechamel sauce and was topped with parmesan, mozzarella, caramelized onions, and lardons. Just typing it makes me giddy.

Photographed by Cayla Rasi

One look at the photo, and you know it’s gonna be good. And it was. It really, really was. The sweet, caramelized onions paired perfectly with the salty, crispy pork fat bits. And it was so interesting to have bechamel as the sauce, rather than tomato. What really brought the whole pie together, though, was how wonderfully well-done it was. It’s one more thing to add to the list of traits I’ve picked up from my Mom, who orders her pizza in the same breath as saying, “Extra thin and extra crispy!”

It was delicious, different, gourmet, high-end, and really expensive pizza. $17 expensive for a personal sized one. And I finished the entire thing, which just doesn’t happen often for me. Let’s call it special occasion pizza, because it’s hard to justify spending that much more for something that New York so readily offers at half the price.

It was the lardons. They kidnapped my sensibilities.

Co., www.co-pane.com, 230 Ninth Avenue (at 24th Street), New York, NY, 212-243-1105

Social Eatz

From the back corner of the restaurant

If there’s any type of challenge I like best, it’s finding the perfect place to eat for the mood/price/type of food/area my group wants. This weekend’s mission? Find a happening (yet casual), inexpensive, not-exotic restaurant in either Murray Hill or Turtle Bay that had good reviews and even better food.

Now, I don’t mean to brag, but my Zagat-ing and NY Mag restaurant list-ing skills are impeccable. I narrow my fields to the neighborhoods, price point, and type of food I want, then cross reference the two lists to find a winner. Bonus points for Zagat above 22 food ratings (it’s out of 30) and NY Mag Critic’s Picks. And this time the grand prize went to Social Eatz in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.

It totally fit the bill: an energetic, young crowd, cheap (I’m talking $10 entrees) food, and a safe-yet-boundary-pushing menu. How is that possible? Well it’s a Korean-American fusion menu, so there’s your standard burger, yet also a Bibimbap burger (which I had). I like more adventurous food, but one of the people I was eating with strays more toward safe, so it hit that perfect balance. Oh, and the cherry on top: I was able to get a 7 p.m. rez the day of.

The service was incredibly friendly–our server was attentive, yet not over-the-top. She never rushed us, and always seemed to stop by at the perfect moment. It was a bit loud in there (said my friend Ali), but I liked the vibe. And, what matters most, the food was great.

Turns out Angelo Sosa, a former Top Chef contestant, started the restaurant, so I was particularly interested to see if the food lived up to his reputation. I had the bibimbap burger, which is topped with a slow-cooked egg and pickled veggies. Plus Eater rated it the best burger in America. Really, how can you pass that up?

An insanely juicy burger!

Ok, so you can see that it’s a messy burger. In fact, I might call it horrible first, second, or third date food. This is a burger for committed boyfriends and friends who have already seen you stuff your freaking face. That said, it was delicious. Cooked to a perfect medium rare, the pickled carrots & cucumbers added great acidic flavor, and the runny egg a savory component. Was it the best burger in America? Absolutely not. Was it different and worth a try? Yes. It also comes with a kimchi of sorts on the side. I actually have no idea what you would call it, but it was a spicy, crunchy, acidic pickled veggie that I couldn’t get enough of. I even swiped my friend’s since he wasn’t eating it (you snooze, you lose).

In my research, I had read that the fries come with a cheddar-sake dipping sauce. Um, yes please! So obvi we ordered one for the table, plus an Asian-inspired mac and cheese.

Carb overload--fries and mac & cheese.

The fries were just like I like ‘em: skinny and crispy. The cheese sauce was flavorful and didn’t taste processed at all, but was a tad thin. And the mac & cheese was excellent. They actually used macaroni (so throwback) and it had a tempura flake on top that added great texture.

Last note about the restaurant: it really is social. Our server told us that if we checked into Social Eatz and wrote a review, we’d get free Halloween shots. An awesome-sounding deal, except apparently we’re not very social people and none of us use Foursquare or Places. All in all, though, good play Social Eatz. I will absolutely go back when I need a restaurant in that area.

Plus everything is better with a “z” attached. Byez!

Social Eatz, http://www.socialeatz.com, 232 E. 53rd St (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues), New York, NY, 212-207-3339