Restaurant experiment: Ippudo

Ippudo

65 Fourth Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets

New York, NY 10003

212-388-0088

http://www.ippudo.com/ny/

I have found my new favorite ramen joint.

Ippudo has been on my list ever since I tried Momofuku Noodle Bar and Ramen Setagaya.  Even though Dave and I got here a little after 6:30 on a Tuesday, we still had to wait around two minutes to be seated (the hostess said five).  Not bad, considering waits are notoriously lengthy here.

We agreed that the decor was beautiful, with wood pieces (yeah, I don’t know Home Depot words very well) on the restaurant’s outside as well as inside.  Mirrors, wood, a sculpture that looked like fireworks.  Dave and I were seated side by side facing mirrors and a centerpiece reminiscent of a fireplace.

Our bowl-cut-sporting waitress suggested we get the pork buns.  Was she on point or what?  They were much like Momofuku’s pork buns and just as good though they were a little spicy.

Dave ordered the specialty tonkotsu ramen which is a pork-based broth, and I went with soy sauce-based broth ($13). 

The fried egg reads “Ippudo,” how nifty is that?  Mmm, the pork was tender and just fatty enough.  Scallions!  Seriously, scallions make all better.  Dave and I were in heaven because the ramen ruled.  Or rocked out socks, if you will.  Hells yeah!  700+ Yelp reviews can’t be wrong.

Restaurant experiment: Hollywood Diner

Hollywood Diner

574 Sixth Avenue at 16th Street

New York, NY 10011

212-691-8465

Greg and I came here post-Sunday night Bingo (we didn’t win anything).  We only came here because it was nearby, cheap, and recommended by Tom.  Works for us.  We sat in a booth which afforded a view of people descending into the subway.  It was kind of like a movie.  Good because there wasn’t anything  too Hollywood about the place really.

I ordered a cheeseburger, and it was all right.  There were too many fat fries, and I had to leave some.  To be fair, I was still slightly under the weather and not up to my usual appetite.  Poor orphan fries.

Okay, that’s that.  You know the drill with diners.

Restaurant experiment: Montas Restaurant

Montas

54-55 Myrtle Avenue at St. Nicholas Avenue

Ridgewood, NY 11385

718-386-0387

Montas looks like a real diner.  You know, one of those stand-alone deals?  Freestanding restaurants aren’t all too common in NYC, and Montas looks the part of the diner.  Location scouts think so too since Montas will soon play a supporting role in the new Kevin Smith movie which would be exciting except I don’t like Kevin Smith movies.

However, I do like fried chicken.  There is a KFC nearby so I was tempted to go get some Colonel’s secret recipe but Montas won out.  So therefore it was only natural to want fried chicken at Montas.  Actually I was still recovering from a cold, and fried bird is comfort food for the body and soul, no doubt.

I’m pretty picky about my fried  chicken, and I actually was rather satisfied with this offering.  The skin was rockin and the meat was not dry.  Very impressive.  Plus two of my favorites: limes and onions.  The mofongo was fine as the rice and beans.  It’s hard to mess those things up.  Dave and I actually ordered rice and beans as a side, making it a double, and adding the plantains into the mix.  Food galore.

The waitress came around before we had decided what we wanted to ingest.  She then returned two or three times with diminished frequency and gave up on us, not coming back for what seemed like eons.  The service after ordering was scarce.  The gal wasn’t mean or anything, but let’s just say it was a good thing we weren’t in a hurry.  But I do give points for the spotless bathroom, raunchy mixed drink names, and the celebrity/baseball players theme.  Heck, there’s a drink called the Sammy Sosa, and I saw under a photo of A-Rod.  Not that I’m a huge baseball fiend, but I think I secretly like theme restaurants.

I don’t know it from Adam.

Mike, Douglas, and I were having a discussion about Adam’s apples.  How did that come up?  I can recall where it came up (Cafe Luxembourg) but not exactly how.

If you search for ”Adam’s apple” in Google Images, a lot of pictures of Ann Coulter come up.

The Adam’s apple is medically called the “laryngeal prominence.”  It develops at puberty and is basically a lump of cartilage covering the larynx/voice box.  Guys have these apples, and some girls do and some don’t.  Male cartilage meets at a 90 degree angle which is why it sticks out so much.  Female cartilage meets are more of a 120 degree angle, causing less protrusion.

What does it do?  Nothing.  How useless!

I like the name, a biblical reference.  And apparently the apple bobs around when some guys are nervous.  Iiiiinteresting.

References

•  http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/adams_apple.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laryngeal_prominence
• http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/061102_adams_apple.html
• http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1715.html

Restaurant experiment: Balthazar

Balthazar

80 Spring Street at Crosby Street

New York, NY 10012

212-965-1414

http://balthazarny.com

Mike and I accidentally stumbled onto Fashion’s Night Out in SoHo, so we were pleased to rack up free items from retailers, mostly bottled beverages.  The plan was to eat at Balthazar after.  Unarmed with no reservation, a scary prospect.  Amazingly we were squeezed in despite a 45 minute wait but had to sit at a miniscule round table in the flow of traffic by the bar.  Oh well.

Balthazar is a sister restaurant to Lucky Strike and Pastis, both other French bistros which I have patronized.  It has some other siblings, but those were of note to me.  This place is also known as a celebrity hotbed though I didn’t see any movie stars.

Mike and I nibbled on the free bread as we perused the menu.  We eventually settled on drinking a bottle of a red blend and sharing two appetizers.  He selected the lobster risotto, and I elected for the chicken liver and foie gras mousse which came with “red onion confit and grilled country bread” ($14).  The onion was nothing super special, but the mousse was all kinds of awesome.  Rich and delightful and melting in the mouth.  Yeah!

Mike’s risotto was strongly lobster-tasting.  The corn was a nice touch for a firmer texture since risotto can get too mushy for me.

We went with the cheeseburgers ($16).  At this point, I was stuffed and could have called it quits right there.  Man, those appetizers were practically entrees in themselves.  But Mike and I persisted.  The fries?  Laura said they were supposed to be the best.  I can’t say I agree with that, and while they were at my desired thickness and crunchiness, they needed more sodium chloride.  But noble effort!  Iceberg lettuce?  Um, okay.  I feel like I can’t fairly judge the burger since I was too full and couldn’t enjoy it as much.  No desserts for us.  I felt like I needed to be rolled out of Balthazar.

Our waitress was a sweetie.  I wasn’t fond of being in the line of fire and was fearing that my wine would be knocked over.  Thankfully no dining malfunctions.  The bathroom has an attendant.  What???  Those tourists are the money shedders I guess.  Who brings a bag from Dylan’s Candy Bar to Balthazar?  Tourist alert!  Next time, Mike and I are ordering the plateaux de fruits de mer.  Two tiers of raw seafood?  I’m there!  And we’ll make a reservation as well.  Too bad we aren’t famous…yet.

Restaurant experiment: Dojo

Dojo

14 West 4th Street at Mercer Street

New York, NY 10012

212-505-8934

I took pictures of my meal but accidentally deleted them in a wine-induced haze from the next restaurant I will write about.  Sigh.  So this will have to be pictureless.

Dave suggested we dine at Dojo since he had given it his seal of approval; plus it is cheap.  Good enough for me.  Dojo is pretty popular with the college crew, judging from all the young ‘uns sitting in the main dining area.  We sat in the bar area which was healthily crowded as well.

Despite the Japanese name, Dojo serves up all sorts of things, from burgers to burritos, salads to sandwiches.  I eschewed the Japanese grub in favor of the chicken parm sandwich with fries.  The fries were skinny and salty which earns an A from me.  The sandwich was huge too: on a baguette the size of my foot, healthy slathers of marinara, and too much chicken which was escaping from the clutches of the buns.  I gave up and had to leave a tiny portion.  Food wasting kills me.

So yes, Dojo is the perfect college kid restaurant!

Restaurant experiment: Panca

Panca

92 Seventh Avenue South between Grove and Bleecker/Barrow Streets

New York, NY 10014

212-488-3900

http://www.pancany.com/

Summer is winding down, so we elected to sit outside while enjoying an early dinner.  Not brunch since Greg, Wayne, and I missed it (stopped at 4pm).  Panca is on busy Seventh which affords plenty of people watching opportunities.  We witnessed a cop pulling over a woman and giving her a ticket.  Dinner entertainment?

Wayne and I shared a half-pitcher of sangria ($14).  Panca’s sangria is unique: thick, V-8 looking, with almost a berry/cinnamon taste.  I was mesmerized by the electric yellow Inca Kola two gentlemen were sipping at an adjacent table.

There was no free roasted corn on the table, just plantain curls with salt.  Darn it, I love the huge roasted salty corn kernels. 

I ordered the seafood chowder, chupe de camarones ($18), which contained fish, prawns, shrimp, egg, corn, and squash.  The cilantro was toned down at my request.  Mmm, creamy and seafoody, perfect for a breezy summer day. 

Even though the soup was huge and full of creatures from the sea, I was game for dessert.  All the options sounded appealing, like the sampler, the caramelized pineapple, the ice creams.  I zeroed in on the lucuma mousse because I had no idea what a lucuma was.  None of us knew.

So we asked the waitress.  Our waitress was either totally green or just plain clueless.  We asked her what was in the sangria, and she didn’t know which was okay but not giving us notes of confidence.  Apparently mango and passionfruit.  Huh.  Greg asked about the risotto, and she hadn’t tried it but said a lot of people liked it.  Asking about the lucuma was the least helpful.  She dodged the question by informing us that lucuma is a fruit from Peru.  Yes, we kind of concluded that ourselves.  “It’s like mango?”  Okaaaaaaay.  “It’s sweet.”

I got the scoop from my smartphone; lucuma is a fruit grown in high altitudes mostly in South America, and the flavor is described as maple and sweet potatoes.  Thanks Wikipedia!  You’ve come to the rescue when our server failed us.  No mango taste, and it was sweet but not overly so.  Wayne and I concluded that the lucuma mousse reminded us of fall and winter.  Very warm and cozy.  Yummy!!!

Restaurant experiment: Han Bat

Han Bat

53 West 35th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues

New York, NY 10001

212-629-5588

After shopping at Macy’s, Lily and I ended up with Korean for dinner because hey, K-town is right there.  Avoiding the madness of the Korean restaurants on 32nd Street, we ambled up to 35th Street (Lily’s idea).  Han Bat was next to a couple of other places.  Folks were waiting around for tables, but we were seated right away.  Sometimes it pays to be a party of two!

I was actually focused on what I wanted and not overwhelmed by the multitude of choices, so I suggested to Lily that we get the scallion pancake and some meat.  Han Bat only had a scallion pancake with shellfish (pajun), and I would have preferred no squid, but whatever.  Meat-wise, we got the bul go ki.

I always forget about the free appetizers.  Too much spicy stuff.  I stuck to the non-red items and foisted the red items onto Lily.  Good veggies: zucchini and bean sprouts.  The squares in the middle, we couldn’t figure out.

The pajun was tasty, and its inside was 90% scallions and squid versus the bready part.  We had to share one small bowl of rice though which wasn’t the best thing.  What can you do?  It’s NYC after all. 

 

The bill was about $40 per person.  If only Korean food were slightly cheaper!