Restaurant experiment: Big Nick’s

Big Nick’s

2175 Broadway between 76^th and 77^th Streets

New York, NY 10024

212-362-9238

Dave raves about the portcheddar burger here.  Since I can’t pass up a strong burger recommendation, I just had to try it when we had dinner at Big Nick’s.  Big Nick’s is a diner on the Upper West Side with a menu as long as War & Peace.  Seriously.  If there’s something diner-esque that you want, Big Nick’s probably has it.  Also characteristic of this place is how every single inch is covered in some writing advertising some menu item.  It’s almost seizure-inducing.  And the bathroom is located in the kitchen.  And pickles are self serve from a bowl on your table.  Also, they have a really diverse staff.

Luckily for Dave, the burger did not disappoint.  I don’t really like port, but the cheddar wasn’t even that port-like.  It gave the cheddar a more delicate texture, not to mention a glowing color.  It was radiating.  The fries were crispy, and the staff obliged with Dave’s request to make his fries extra crispy.

Big Nick’s, big taste!  Ohhhhh, it’s good I’m not in advertising.

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: La Parisienne

La Parisienne

910 Seventh Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets

New York, NY 10019

212-765-4591

Leslie and I were looking for a place to eat in between a double feature.  She suggested we go to La Parisienne.  Was it a French place?, I asked her.  No, it wasn’t.  Just a diner trying to be fancy.

Run by old Greek men, La Parisienne isn’t particularly French in any regard.  The booth we sat in had a little placard with New Line Cinema on it for some reason, along with other names.  I ordered a burger which was servicable.  I forgot that when I don’t order the deluxe at diners, the burger is basically naked.  And who wants that?  I did a special request for raw onions, and the waiter obliged, and there was no exorbitant fee tacked on for that.  Because you never know in NYC, I say as I recall a certain sour cream incident at La Palapa with Leslie.

But with Burger Joint just down the street, this simply can’t compare.

Maybe the Greek fare would totally rock my tastebuds?

I ordered a slice of New York cheesecake because I needed more food and there was time to kill.  With the first bite, I couldn’t decided how I felt about the cake and Leslie commented that my face said it all.  After I kept eating, I decided that it wasn’t bad. 

And why was the diner closing at 9pm on Saturday?  Strange diner.

Restaurant experiment: New Venus

New Venus

252 Eighth Avenue between East 22nd and 23rd Streets

New York, NY 10011

212-243-0980

After some St. Patrick’s Day festivities nearby, myself, Laura, Greg, and Wayne walked up Eighth Avenue in search of a relatively inexpensive place to soothe our appetites.  New Venus appeared on her scallop shell, and we decided we would eat here.

The waiter offered to give us separate checks, right off the bat, no prompting or anything.  Wow!  Days later, I am still floored about that.  New Venus earns a special place in my heart just for that act of kindness.  Usually you are laughed out of the restaurant if you request separate checks in NYC, so this was just that amazing.

I got a special Greek-style burger which was not on the regular menu.  The patty came with kalamata olives and a generous slab of feta cheese, served on pita bread, with onion rings and lettuce and tomato to round it off.  Since it was a deluxe, it came with fries which I barely touched since the burger filled me up.  The burger was not easy to eat.  I cut it up into bits with my knife and fork and made do that way.  How sophisticated.  As with most diners, the burger was fine but nothing which would cause you to squeal with delight.  Thanks to Laura for helping with the fries!

Restaurant experiment: Tick Tock Diner

Tick Tock Diner

481 8th Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets

New York, NY 10001

212-268-8444

http://www.newyorkerhotel.com/dining/tick-tock.html

Woo hoo!  My first new restaurant of 2009!

After a night of improv, Lily and I wandered around, improvising dinner plans.  Since we weren’t in the right frameset for Irish pubs (no shortage in the area), sauntering around on the damp sidewalk resulted in us searching for sustenance at the New Yorker Hotel, in the Tick Tock Diner to be exact.

The TT is one of the larger diners I’ve encountered in Manhattan.  Even though a lot of the booths were occupied, we were able to be seated promptly.  You know you’re in a tourist spot when people are asking the waitstaff to take their picture.  If you can deal with the obvious tourist trap-ness here, you’ll be all right.

The decor is standard diner, nothing really remarkable.  Also standard, the menu.  What to pick, what to pick?  Well, burgers, naturally.  Cheeseburgers.  It is me after all.

But I mixed it up a bit (gasp!) and ordered the California burger.  You have bacon and cheese together, you reel me in.  This guy featured avocado, blue cheese, fried (more like sauteed) onions, bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickle on the side.  Was $10.25 or so.  I’m not sure how Californian blue cheese and “fried” onions and bacon are, but whatev.  Food came out in acceptable time.

Avocado in general doesn’t dazzle, merely adds texture of the creamy variety.  That’s my staunch belief.  Here, if avocado were a scrawny schoolkid, he’d be mashed to a mush by the bully blue cheese.  You add blue cheese to anything, it’ll come out on top.  Could use more onions, or raw onions.  Those Californians love raw unprocessed veggies, I’m sure.  I was pleased that well done was well done.  Well done, Tick Tock diner.

On the bill, there was a tip table.  It suggested to me 15%, 20%, and 25%.  25%?  At a diner?  Are you kidding?  Uh, no.

Restaurant experiment: Tastee Corner

Tastee Corner

3020 30th Avenue between 30th and 31st Streets

Astoria, NY 11102

718-274-7704

I must be very thickheaded when it comes to eating in Queens. I’ll get to that in a second. Anyway, it was a dreary day and of the hour called brunch. I tried this place out with Max who had been championing it for a while. The name is not a misnomer; it is actually on a corner. They should spell it Tastee Cornerr. The Corner that is Tastee was filled with folks, but we lucked out and scored a booth which featured a picturesque view of the subway entrance and the ginormous package store across the street. There was a half-chewed bite of I guess what used to be a sandwich on the windowsill, grossness.

The service was efficient and well-meaning but often would show up to our table with things meant for other tables, suddenly remember that we didn’t want that stuff, and then dash off. The menu was standard NYC diner menu, meaning large and in charge. I usually order a burger but was strangely in a breakfast food mood and settled on two bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches. Here’s where my brain messes up. I saw that each sandwich was under $4, and in my Manhattan head, I conclude that those sandwiches must rival the size of a raisin and opt to order two to satiate my digestive system. Fail! That was too much food for me. I again had to leave Astoria with a to-go baggie tucked into my belongings. This will not happen again! No matter, I had lunch for the next day.

Was Tastee tasty/tastee?  Sure, why not?  The sandwich temperature could be a little hotter, but no big deal.  As I’ve mentioned before, if cheese and bacon are involved, I’m basically a happy camper.

Tastee Corner doesn’t offer freshly squeezed OJ. A minus.

To answer your question, no, I did not get to evaluate the bathrooms at this food purveyor though I suspect by the simplistic decor, they wouldn’t be too Meatpacking District.

Restaurant experiment: Coffee Shop

Coffee Shop

29 Union Square West at 16th Street

New York, NY 10003

212-243-7969

You know, there aren’t many dining options late on a Sunday night in the Union Square area. Heartland Brewery crushed us, with its kitchen already closed or about to close. After some cajoling, the hostess there pointed us in the direction of Coffee Shop down the street. Silly me, thinking it was a diner. Nope nope. It’s maybe 70% bar, 30% diner, 100% trendy with the seen-and-be-seen crowd holing up between the waves of the curvy bar. Max and I sat in the dining portion which was pretty dead, again probably due to it being Sunday night. The staff dictators wouldn’t let us sit in a spacious U booth even though those sat empty the whole time we were there. We had to squish into a tiny two person booth.

Our waitress was not winning any prizes for brilliance. She was not on top of things. Totally Inept with a capital I. Opening the menu, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Coffee Shop offers Brazilian food and drink, coolness. I ordered a batida to drink; passion fruit was out so I settled for coco[nut]. The batida consists of cachaça (distilled fermented sugarcane juice), a juice of your choice, and sugar. It was blended with ice and reminded me of a piña colada. Mmm!

The other mmm! came courtesy of the pao de quejo, Brazilian cheese bread, which came out as golf ball sized spheres of dough, piping hot with gooey cheese-ness, all with a slightly undercooked feel. We approved. I fared okay while Max suffered from the waitress’s lack of waitressing skills. Fries instead of salad, not bringing out his plantain chips. I’m convinced I could do better which is saying a lot since I’ve never waited tables before in my life.

Coffee Shop is not the place you want to go to if you want Brazilian food. If you need to satisfy your stomach late on Sunday night and for some reason you are in Union Square, Coffee Shop might be okay. Remember, batidas ease the pain of the “service.”  Would someone please take me to Churrascaria Plataforma? Please?

Restaurant experiment: Stargate Restaurant

Stargate Restaurant

1580 Third Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets

New York, NY 10128

212-410-5583

Lily and I wandered down Third Avenue trying to find a suitable place to eat, passing over the restaurants with loud music and shrill voices and the restaurants without a single diner eating.  We settled on Stargate Restaurant which appeared to be the only diner in this part of the Upper East Side.  Er, at least on Third.  They told us they close at 11pm.  What kind of a diner is that?  I’m going to have to dock them points for that.  But they can regain some points since they are clean and had cops eating there.

Lily ordered chicken fingers, and I went with the cheeseburger deluxe plate which was over $9.  There’s something wrong when four or so chicken fingers are roughly $9.  ???  They weren’t bad; Lily let me sample part of a finger.  I liked my cheeseburger fine.  The patty was unadulterated chuck, and the kitchen was generous with the toppings: two leaves of romaine, three slices of tomato, and cheddar times two.  That made for greasy cheesiness.  To make things even more like Christmas, they charged me for the regular cheeseburger, not the deluxe.  Score!  The fries needed salt, but that was easily remedied.  In these pricey food times, small freebies make my day.

Restaurant experiment: A Yummy Noodle/Yummy Noodles

A Yummy Noodle/Yummy Noodles

48 Bowery between Bayard and Canal

New York, NY 10013

212-374-1327

The post-partying gang wanted to eat at Noodle Town but hungry noodle fiends sat at all of its tables. Denied. Plan B was A Yummy Noodle/Yummy Noodles which was much bigger than the former establishment and was much emptier. Our waiter made himself scarce after eight of us plopped ourselves down at a circular table in the back. Was I the only one who thought a large diamond on the server’s Yummy Noodles shirt was very random? Because noodles and diamonds go hand in hand. Anyway, I like to call Yummy Noodles basically a Chinese diner with a huge menu and late hours. I don’t think it’s open 24 hours, but it was late enough for me to be deemed a diner.

I ordered pig’s feet noodle soup for $3.95. It comes in a dark heavy broth that doesn’t quite do the dish justice. I know I might have been talking nonsense since I’ve never eaten pig’s feet noodle soup before, but William agreed with me, so I wasn’t talking nonsense. Pig’s feet are too knuckley for my tastes though. Next foot to try: duck!  Some of the fellows were disappointed with their rice casserole; they expected a certain soy sauce sauce to be provided to add in, and when they asked the indifferent waiter, he pointed to the soy sauce.  Minus some points for that.

If you need to pinch pennies and have a hankering for acceptable Chinese and it’s past midnight and Noodle Town is packed, Yummy Noodles might fit your bill. Use your noodles!

Restaurant experiment: Teresa’s

Teresa’s

80 Montague Street at Hicks Street

Brooklyn, NY 11201

718-797-3996

Lily and I were down the street, getting our free wi-fi on at a polar climate Connecticut Muffin.  Seriously, it was the Arctic there.  When it came time for lunch, Lily suggested Teresa’s because a local friend of hers heaped high praise on it.  To thaw out, we sat on the patio on a brilliantly toasty day. 

I put “diner” down as a tag even though I’m not sure Teresa’s could be called your standard diner.  I only went inside to use the bathrooms (downstairs, for future reference), and it reminded me of Shoney’s in there.  That’s not a compliment.  But it didn’t matter as we were sitting outside anyway.  The lunch special for $8.95 makes you feel smart for ordering it, as you score soup/salad, an entree from a list, and coffee/tea.  I selected vegetable soup, lazanki, and tea.  The vegetable soup was mostly cauliflower in a light clear stock; nothing extraordinary.  Hot tea was Lipton.  I’d never tried lazanki before, and it was described as noodle[s] with ham, mushrooms, and sauerkraut, the latter maybe making me a bit leery, but I went for it.  When in Poland, do as the Poles do.  Lazanki=good.  Thin ribbon noodles are stir fried with the add-ins to the point of burning but that’s fine in my book since it adds a crunchy texture.  Mmm.  There was so much food that I had to take home the rest of the lazanki; I had filled up on bread.  Lily had the stuffed cabbage which looked like a burrito took a bath in tomato sauce.  She gave it a thumbs up.