Jacqueline Cheng » new york

Big Apple: Restaurant List

jackie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:00:59 +0000

Over the two weeks we were in the Big Apple, we ate at several different places. This is a bare bones review of all the restaurants in one post. More in depth reviews and pictures are in the individual posts linked below.

AMERICAN
   Savoy – 70 Prince St, New York, NY 10012
      Rating: 4/5
      Price: $$$$

BAR WITH FOOD
   Blind Pig – 233 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003
      Rating:  3/5
      Price: $

   Cassidy’s Pub – 65 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019
      Rating:  3/5
      Price: $

BAR WITHOUT FOOD
   Barcade – 388 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
      Rating:   3/5
      Price: $

   Blind Tiger- 281 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014
      Rating:  3/5
      Price: $

   Grisly Pear – 107 MacDougal St, New York, NY 10012
      Rating: 4/5
      Price: $

BELGIAN
   Markt – 676 Sixth Ave, New York, NY 10010
      Rating: 3/5
      Price: $$$

BURGERS
   Shake Shack – SE corner of Madison Square Park (Madison Ave and E 23rd St) New York, NY
      Rating: 5/5
      Price: $

   White Castle – 525 8th Ave, New York, NY 10018
      Rating: 1/5
      Price: $

CHINESE
   Joe’s Shanghai- 9 Pell St, New York, NY 10013
      Rating: 3/5
      Price: $

DESSERT
   Creperie- 135 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002
      Rating:  3/5
      Price: $$

   Junior’s Cheesecake – 1515 Broadway (45th St between Broadway & 8th Ave), New York, NY 10036
      Rating:  5/5
      Price: $$

JAPANESE
   Ippudo – 65 Fourth Ave, New York, NY 10003
      Rating: 4/5
      Price: $$

   Izumi Sushi – 139 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001
      Rating: 3/5
      Price: $

   Minca – 536 E Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10009
      Rating: 4/5
      Price: $

KOREAN
   Seoul Garden – 34 W 32nd St, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001
      Rating: 3/5
      Price: $

PIZZA
   Grimaldi’s Pizzeria – 19 Old Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
      Rating: 4/5
      Price: $

   John’s Pizzeria- 278 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10014
      Rating:  4/5
      Price: $

VENEZULEAN
   Caracas Arepas Bar – 93 1/2 7th St, New York, NY 10009
      Rating: 5/5
      Price: $$

Happy eating in New York! If you have additional suggestions, please comment so that other people can benefit from good eats as well.

Previous posts in the Big Apple series:
Getting There
Sleep and Eat
J’s Birthday
Weekend
Weather and More Eats

Big Apple: Weather and More Eats

jackie — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:00:58 +0000

The first week we were in New York, the weather was cold and mostly dry. But, come Day 8, it poured like cats and dogs. Proof, as I stayed nice and dry in the hotel room.

Thankfully, the rain let up in time for dinner at Seoul Garden. I was craving some rice. A week without rice is a long time! We both ordered combination soon tofu, which came with beef, seafood, shrimp, clam, and vegetables for $9.95. The rice and ban chan were just what I was hoping for. The tofu was good, but towards the end it started to taste funny to me.

Day 9: We followed the recommendation of N to Shake Shack on the southeast corner of Madison Square Park. It is a stand inside of the park and probably better spot to hit up during the warmer months. They did have heat lamps around the tables, but it was so close to the hotel that we just took it back to eat. We each ordered the Shack Burger, which comes with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Shack sauce ($4.75). We shared an order of french fries ($2.75), and Hubby ordered a vanilla hand-spun shake ($5.25). The shake was the best! The burger and fries made my belly happy.

Day 10: I recommended either Italian or Thai and somehow that evolved into ramen. At 9:30pm, Ippudo was busy, and we waited 30 minutes for a table. The decor was trendy, and the wall behind the bar was decorated with different styles of bowls. Everything was tasty and the service was excellent, but it was pricier and had smaller portions than most ramen places I have been to before.

Appetizer: Tori Tatutaage $9

Ebi Wonton Ramen $13

Shiromaru “Classic” Ramen $14

Day 11: We woke up to falling snow. It was beautiful!

That night we met up with Hubby’s co-workers in Brooklyn at Barcade. It is as the name sounds: a bar with walls lined with old school arcade games. It was a fun place to hang out and enjoy happy hour. They ordered in some pizza with square slices. I thought the coolest part of the place was the mural out front made out of bottle caps.

Day 12: Our last full day in NY. We gathered for dinner with some of Hubby’s co-workers at the Belgian restaurant, Markt. We did not partake in the eating of the raw seafood appetizer platter, so we cannot comment on that. But, the meat in my beef stew was really tender and delicious.

Plateau Markt – a generious iced platter of house selections from our raw bar $60

Carbonades Flamades - Belgian beef stew prepared with Leffe Brown beer $16

Hamburger Accompagne de Frites – Grilled sirloin burger on a toasted roll and Belgian fries $16

Day 13: Time to go home! Breakfast at Creperie before catching our flight back to SFO. It satisfied that craving.

Left: ”The Famous Crepe” – Strawberry, Banana, Nutella, Ice Cream and Whipped Cream $10
Right: Baked Pears, Caramel, & Almonds $8

After almost two weeks of being away from home, we were excited to go home. Home sweet home.

Seoul Garden – 34 W 32nd St, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10001
Shake Shack – SE corner of Madison Square Park (Madison Ave and E 23rd St) New York, NY
Ippudo – 65 Fourth Ave, New York, NY 10003
Barcade – 388 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Blind Pig – 233 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003
Markt – 676 Sixth Ave, New York, NY 10010
Creperie- 135 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002

Previous posts in the Big Apple series:
Getting There
Sleep and Eat
J’s Birthday
Weekend

Big Apple: Weekend

jackie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:00:08 +0000

When the weekend rolled around, we were so tired from work and the events of the week that we did what we normally do at home on the weekends. We slept in…like till mid-afternoon. I know, what a shame to waste precious time in New York sleeping instead of exploring. But, this trip is our third or fourth trip to NY together and frankly, we have done a majority of the tourist stuff already. Really it was all good; we just did more eating!

Day 6: LL recommended Caracas Arepas Bar. OMG! It was incredibly fabulous, and I think you have to try it! Mouth salivating greatness! Since we missed lunch, we headed out for a relatively early dinner for us at 6pm on a Saturday night. When we arrived, it was a small place with max seating of probably 40 people. Luckily, the hostess said that the people on her list were no longer waiting so she would be able to seat us immediately. Score! From their website, the arepas did not appear very large. We were afraid that one each would not be enough food. So, we ordered three arepas and a sidekick. It was a bit too much food, but so YUMMY that we gobbled it all up!

La Surena: grilled chicken and chorizo, with avocado slices and the classic and always enigmatic spicy chimi-churri sauce. In other words, yummy goodness in your mouth. $7.50

La Pelua: shredded beef with cheddar cheese. The beef was tastily marinated and extremely tender; it just melted in my mouth. $6.75

They offer weekend specials that are constantly changing. The night we were there it was La Dominguera: beautiful slow cooked short ribs with chunky tomato mojo sauce. It came in a fancy dish compared to the red plastic baskets the others did. Even though we were getting full, I could not stop myself from continuing to bite into this arepa. $7.75

Tostones Mochimeros: fried green plantains topped with mojito mayo, a squeeze of lime and white cheese. We asked the waitress to recommend a sidekick, and this is what she said was her favorite. I could see why; it was delish. $5.50

After recovering from food coma, we met up with some of Hubby’s co-workers at Cassidy’s Pub to celebrate a birthday. Even though we stayed out till the wee hours of the morning, it was great because I was able to take a picture of L-O-V-E across the street from the pub.

Day 7: The plan: Grimaldi’s pizza for lunch and then walk back via the Brooklyn Bridge. Their website said that they open at 11:30am, but they do not actually open until 12 noon. Good for us because we were running a little late and arrived at 11:50am. We stood in line and were part of the first wave to sit down. Lucky us! We avoided a long wait in the freezing cold and threatening grey skies. We ordered a large (18″, 8 slices); half cheese, half pepperoni and mushroom for $16 + $2/topping for a total of $20. Good pizza, but not exceedingly better than other places we have tried in NY.

The only real touristy thing we did was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It is something we have not done before, and I was really looking forward to it. We made the trek across despite the drizzling rain. It made the experience all the more memorable.

A couple of smart people, my bro S and his friend N, recommended that we walk the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan because the view of the skyscrapers was better than the other way. I am glad we followed their suggestion. Oooh…pretty buildings.

One more week in the city. Can you handle more food?

Caracas Arepas Bar – 93 1/2 7th St, New York, NY 10009
Cassidy’s Pub – 65 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019
Grimaldi’s Pizzeria - 19 Old Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Previous posts in the Big Apple series:
Getting There
Sleep and Eat
J’s Birthday