Posted by Carey Jones, January 31, 2012 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: Christine Tsai]
The Wren
344 Bowery, New York NY 10012 (at Great Jones; map); 212-388-0148; thewrennyc.com
Service: Friendly if occasionally slow
Setting: Lively bar-restaurant (more restaurant than bar)
Compare It To: Wiflie and Nell
Must-Haves: Oxtail marmalade, fish and chips
Cost: Everything under $20
Grade: B+ (as pubby bar food goes)
Every time I think the Bowery is now totally saturated with restaurants, along comes another to prove me wrong.
And judging by the crowds that pack just about every one of these restaurants, there's plenty of room for more. Walking into Saxon + Parole a few weeks ago was the first time I was ever turned away from a restaurant's bar because there wasn't any room—the right call, as a single additional person could not possibly have shouldered her way in for a drink. And even at 6:00pm on a recent evening, The Wren was packed nearly to capacity with under-30s on their second or third pint.
It's already a drinking destination, to be sure. But would The Wren be a good place to grab a bite as well? We're already fans of the dressed-up bar food at Wilfie and Nell, the owners' previous bar-restaurant, so we had high hopes. What we found was a mix of solid bar food and a bit more, perhaps nothing worth traveling for, but more than good enough to line your belly after a few pints of ale—and gently priced, for the area.
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, January 24, 2012 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Kajitsu
414 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10003 (between 1st and Avenue A; map); kajitsunyc.com/
Service: Excellent. Very knowledgable wait staff who are not afraid to talk to the chef if you have questions.
Setting: Minimal and remarkably spacious, exquisite tableware.
Must-Haves: Only two fixed menus are available and change monthly, though a few additional side dishes can be ordered for the table.
Cost: $50 for 4-courses or $70 for 8. Sake pairings $29 and $36, respectively.
Grade: A
Japanese eateries in the East Village are known for meaty bowls of ramen, narrow spaces packed shoulder-to-shoulder, and servers (and restaurant owners) who'd just as soon kick you out the door as feed you (after you pay the bill, of course), so it's refreshing to step into Kajitsu, a quiet, well-lit, minimally decorated space where not only do you have room to spread (the whole restaurant has 26 seats in a space that could easily squeeze in 50), but the night progresses at a relaxed pace that you're almost tempted to describe as meditative.
Like the atmosphere, the completely vegan cuisine comes from the opposite end of the Japanese spectrum, one with a history and tradition that far predates the hot bowls of noodles being slurped up around the corner.
Fresh from a trip to Kyoto—the heart of kaiseki cuisine—I returned to New York slightly dejected, knowing that it'd likely be years before I got to once again experience what is generally accepted to be the pinnacle of Japanese cuisine. Modern kaiseki is often described as the Japanese equivalent of the tasting menu and indeed, kaiseki meals generally consist of at least a half dozen courses, sometimes with over one hundred separate preparations making up the composed dishes, yet its meaning goes far beyond that.
At the heart of kaiseki cuisine is the celebration of time and place. Seasonality, a reverence for tradition and history, and visual flair all play a part.
Shojin-ryori, the predecessor to kaiseki cuisine devised centuries ago by Buddhist monks (and the basis for the food served at Kajitsu) has been a purely vegan cuisine from its outset. There are no wizard-like attempts to transform vegetables into meat-like products, no culinary mimicry, rather It's a cuisine that celebrates vegetables in all of their diverse glory.
Chef Masato Nishihara took the long route to New York, honing his craft at Kitcho, a $500-per-head kaiseki restaurant first founded in Kyoto (it currently has a half dozen locations throughout Japan) before moving on to study the craft of soba-kaiseki—cuisine based on buckwheat noodles—at Tohma in Nagano. With that pedigree, it's remarkable that multi-course meals at the double Michelin-starred Kajitsu start at $50 and max out at $70.
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Posted by Carey Jones, January 10, 2012 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: Alice Gao]
Monkey Bar
60 East 54th Street, New York NY 10022 (map); 212-288-1010; .monkeybarnewyork.com
Service: Genial and somewhat relaxed
Setting: Dark, cozy barroom of the cushier Monkey Bar
Compare It To: Minetta Tavern
Must-Haves: Burger, corn fritters
Cost: Most small dishes $10-15
Grade: A somewhat pricey A-
I try to muster as much tolerance as I can when dining out. Particularly at smaller, newer spots. Try to understand that service can be slow at restaurants yet to hit their groove, that kitchens run out of choice items at late hours, that opening and closing times may vary at some places. It's part of the experience.
But personally and professionally, I have minimal tolerance for restaurants that appear not to want my business. If I, as a civilian, call a reservation line and get no answer—or hear that there's nothing but 5pm and 11pm, from now through, hmm, let me look through my reservation book, next July—I roll my eyes and stop trying.
That's how the original incarnation of the Monkey Bar struck me. Reading reviews suggesting that "it's a clubhouse, its members making their way... from the vanity fairways of Condé Nast, I.C.M., Time Warner and the like," and that "I [former Times critic Frank Bruni writing here] wasn't simply told that 6:30 was the closest to a prime time that I could hope for; I was told that anything better was for people with private lines to the owners"—that's enough to have me cross that restaurant off my list. Particularly when he termed the food "straightforward and intentionally unimaginative."
But two years later, things had changed. Graydon Carter brought in an unbelievable roster of New York restaurant talent: managing partner Ken Friedman (of Spotted Pig et al.); cocktail woman-about-town Julie Reiner (of Clover Club, Flatiron Lounge, Lani Kai, and more); wine director Belinda Chang, formerly of The Modern; and chef Damon Wise, formerly of Craft. A whole new team. And, what's more, a drool-inducing bar menu. Burgers and corn fritters and whipped lardo, no reservation required? We were there.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, January 4, 2012 at 10:00 AM
[Photos: Alice Gao]
Cafe China
13 East 37th Street, New York, NY 10016 (between 5th and Madison; map); 212-213-2810 cafechinanyc.com
Service: Pleasant and efficient
Setting: Beautifully styled
Must-Haves: Spicy Diced Rabbit, Chungking Spicy Chicken
Cost: appetizers $5 to $13, mains $8 to $25 (most under $18)
Grade: A-
What is it with great Sichuan restaurants opening in unlikely Manhattan neighborhoods recently? In November, we headed to Chelsea, where a run-of-the-mill Vietnamese restaurant had turned into the excellent Legend, at which we loved the Chongqing chicken and tofu-like "Tears in Eyes" and the liberal use of chili and Sichuan peppercorn on a number of dishes. And now in Midtown, we've found plenty to love about Café China.
First of all, there's the space itself, adorned with mirrors and screens and portraits that evoke an earlier era of Shanghai, from where hails Xian Zhang (who opened Café China together with his wife, Yiming Wang). A beautiful glass backed bar, upholstered chairs, lamps and curtains; there's enough to keep you looking around for ages before your meal arrives. But the menu could keep you occupied, too, pages of enticing dishes long. It reflects its Sichuan chef in the kitchen, who turns out excellent versions of many expected dishes, and a few surprises as well.
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, December 20, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Littleneck
288 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (b/n Carroll and President; map); 718-522-1921 littleneckbrooklyn.com
Service: Busy but attentive
Setting: Cozy, dark, clam-shack paraphernalia
Must-Haves: Clam chowder, clam roll, Polish bacon
Cost: $5 to $18
Grade: A-
Notes: Cash only, dinner only
As a native New Englander, I'd be wicked remiss if I were to ever suggest that anybody in the world knows their way around a bivalve or an ichthyoid better than a fellow New Englander. But at the same time, I've always wondered why New England-style seafood preparations have never made it far beyond the New England borders.
I mean, there are the obvious answers: nobody has the cold, clean, briny waters necessary to support the world's best clams, mussels, oysters, lobsters, and white fish (am I doing well, fellow Yanks?). New Englanders have been cooking North American seafood longer than anyone else in the area (unless you believe the stories about the Vikings and Spanish coming across for their cod). And of course, some would argue that New England seafood has broken free, if you're willing to classify lumpy, overthickened, underclammed chowder or lobster rolls made with too much mayo on (gasp!) side-split buns to be real New England recipes (they aren't).
But a good, large clam, whole-belly, clam roll with crisp, light batter or perfectly steamed, gritty steamers served with nothing but broth and a tub of drawn butter? Why can't we find a good version in New York?
Well, that's precisely what Aaron Lefkove and Andy Curtin, a couple of Brooklyn bandmates with—get this—no restaurant experience thought to themselves before they opened Littleneck, named after the second-smallest size classification of the sweet and tender hard shell clams. Why not, indeed?
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, December 6, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Family Recipe
231 Eldridge Street, New York NY 10002 (between Stanton and E. Houston; map); 212-529-3133; familyrecipeny.com/
Service: Friendly and familial
Setting: Small but comfortable
Must-Haves: Menu changes regularly
Cost: $6 to $25 per dish
Grade: B
Tokyo-born chef-owner Akiko Turnauer has a pretty solid resume of restaurants under her belt, including stints at Nobu and SoHo's former Kitchen Club. Eschewing the high-end fusion trappings of her former employers, she's decided to go back to her traditional roots to bring homestyle Japanese cooking to her new Chinatown restaurant Family Recipe.
The food is not Japanese per se, but it's not meant to be. Rather, it draws on Akiko's childhood travels throughout the world with her food-obsessed father. Ingredients are strongly seasonal and high quality, while cooking techniques remain simple, mostly drawing from classic Japanese homestyle method—grilling, sauteeing, simmering, and steaming.
A small amuse of cucumber slices topped with a bit of well seasoned, smoky sauteed shredded cabbage set the tone for the meal. There's no question that this is home cooking. Not fancy, about as un-rarefied as you can get; straightforward and simple in its flavors. I'm not sure who the eponymous Alice is for the Alice's Pickles ($6) but I do like her style.
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, November 29, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: Alice Gao]
Legend Bar & Restaurant
88 7th Ave, New York NY 10011 (between 15th and 16th; map); legendbarrestaurant.com
Service: A little slow and forgetful but polite
Setting: High end Chinese (only moderately tacky)
Must-Haves: Steamed Chicken with Chili Sauce, Tears in Eyes, String Beans with Olive Leaves Paste, Chongqing Diced Chicken with Chili Pepper
Cost: Appetizers start at $5.50, mains at $10.95
Grade: A-
About a year ago I wrote a review of Spicy and Tasty in Queens in which I lamented the dearth of hard-hitting, heavy-duty, full-throttle Sichuan food in Manhattan. I mean sure, Grand Sichuan in its many incarnations is tasty enough for what it is, but it never makes me wince with painful pleasure from fiery chili heat, nor does it make me squeeze my eyes extra-hard to try and restore some feeling in my mouth after the numbing effect from copious Sichuan peppercorns kicks in.
Let me quickly quote a passage from that Spicy and Tasty review as a reminder of what I look for in great Sichuan food:
The heart and soul of the Sichuan cooking style known as ma-la relies on the interplay of two key ingredients: fiery chili peppers (la) and mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns (ma). Here's something, and it's important:
Sichuan peppercorns are not spicy. Rather, Sichuan peppercorns have a numbing, novocaine-like effect on your mouth, with a citrus-y, camphorous aroma.
When Sichuan food is at its best, the fiery heat of the chili pepper should hit your mouth first in an all-out frontal attack. Only after you feel you can take no more does the numbing effect of the Sichuan pepper start kicking in, calming your nerves, and getting you ready for the next bite. It's this constant up and down, the mini-adrenaline rush that comes with each bite, that makes Sichuan food so intensely exciting.
Little did I know that just a month before I went and checked out Spicy and Tasty, the Chelsea Vietnamese fusion restaurant Safran had undergone a transformation into a bona fide, full-fledge Sichuanese joint.
We decided to take a full-staff field trip to see how it stacks up to its other Manhattan competitors.
Long story short: It beats 'em all, hands down.
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, November 16, 2011 at 9:30 AM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Mas (La Grillade)
28 Seventh Ave South, New York, NY 10014 (between Leroy and Bedford; map); 212-255-1795 maslagrillade.com
Service: Generally attentive and casual, though occasionally strangely formal
Setting: Casually elegant, though a bit cramped.
Must-Haves: Grilled Romaine with Lamb Bacon, Grilled Squab, Tartines
Cost: Appetizers $9 to $18, a la carte mains $24 to $89, sides $4 to $8, most wines over $80
Grade: B-
Chef Galen Zamarra has always been a strong proponent of using the very best seasonal ingredients he can find in his cooking. After winning plenty of critical acclaim for his menu at Mas (farmhouse), and a James Beard award during his stint at Bouley, Zamarra has recently decided to step up and really put his money where his mouth is to open Mas (la grillade) in the West Village. Not only are all of the ingredients supposedly top notch and seasonally inspired, he's also grilling, smoking, or spit-roasting them all on locally sourced hardwood in a kitchen decked out with nothing but wood-burning equipment.
Everything, from appetizers to main courses to desserts are cooked over wood. An all-grilled menu? That's a pretty serious statement.
Diners, however, wouldn't know it from walking into the 80-seat slightly cramped, but elegant space. There are no signs of fire anywhere on-premises—you almost wish you could see into the kitchen from the dining room or at least smell the coals you know are smoldering somewhere in the back.
Meals start with a complimentary bite, this time a delightfully tender-crisp grilled shrimp with a piece of toast, a bit of lemony mayonnaise, and a parsley-based sauce. No smoke to speak of so far, but tasty nonetheless.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 8, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: Robyn Lee]
Dominique Ansel Bakery
189 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 (b/n Thompson and MacDougal; map); 212-219-2773; dominiqueansel.com
Service: Attentive counter service
Setting: Café setting with an enclosed garden in back
Compare It To: Epicerie Boulud
Cost: Pastries and individual tarts $5 or under; sandwiches and salads $9-12
Grade: A for pastries, B+ for lunch
With the opening of the staggeringly good Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho, one thing is perfectly clear: the best training a pastry chef can have in New York City is to work for Daniel Boulud.
Though Boulud may be from Lyon, France's ancestral home of pork and sausage in its many forms, he has a knack for finding talented young pastry chefs, putting them through their paces, and then letting them spread their wings creatively so that when they do leave him they're confident in their ability to do just about anything.
Francois Payard was the first, followed by Johnny Iuzzini; Epicerie Boulud also shows the Boulud's ability to give a home to serious pastry. And now there's Dominique Ansel, who has opened up the little French pastry shop we've always wanted in our neighborhood. Kathy tempted us with a first look on the first day they opened, but in the week since, we've sampled pretty much everything on the menu.
Check out everything we loved, after the jump.
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, November 1, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Chuko
552 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11238 (at Dean Street, map); 718 576-6701
Service: Friendly and prompt, though not perfectly knowledgable about the menu.
Setting: 35 seat Japanese diner-style.
Must-Haves: Shishito peppers, any ramen
Cost: Appetizers $5 and up, Ramen $12 and up
Grade: B
There's no shortage of good ramen joints in Manhattan (check out our search for the The Best Ramen In New York), but despite all the other great neighborhood restaurants near Vanderbilt Ave. in Prospect Heights, your options for ramen were pretty much nonexistent until now.
Opened by Jamison Blankenship and David Koon, two Morimoto alums, Chuko brings ramen and a few small plates to the neighborhood. The space is reminiscent of a ramen-shop in Japan with a few tables, high tops lining the windows, and a bar that you can feel equally comfortable eating with others or wolfing down a bowl of ramen solo.
It's unusual to see an all-white staff at a ramen joint, but this is Brooklyn, after all. Service is fast and friendly, though at times the servers seem a little befuddled by questions about the food. That said, the food was uniformly very good.
The menu is tiny, comprising four appetizers priced between $5 and $7, and four bowls of ramen at $12 each. Deep fried Shishito Peppers ($6) are blistered and wrinkled and nicely salty, though I didn't taste much of the yuzu in the "yuzu salt" they were supposed to be sprinkled in. Delicious nonetheless (are shishito peppers ever not delicious?).
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, October 27, 2011 at 8:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Red Egg
202 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013 (Between Hester and Grand; map); redeggnyc.com
Service: Cheerful and professional
Setting: Comfortable and spacious, if a bit tacky
Must-Haves: Steamed beef rolls, Red Egg shrimp dumplings, steamed pork ribs with black olive
Cost: $2.75 to $6.50 per dim sum dish
Grade: A-
Having grown up hitting the cart-based gigantic Chinese palaces of New York and Boston's Chinatowns for my dim sum fix, I've never really considered menu-based dim sum as a viable dining option. Somehow, checking off boxes and waiting for your food to come is just not quite as fun as pointing at what you want from a stack of steamers.
But the truth of the matter is, the quality of the food you get at check-the-box-and-wait establishments is often much higher than at the cart-based operations. It's a simple matter of freshness and volume. At a normal restaurant, say, the very fine 88 Palace on East Broadway, you might get lucky and get a perfectly fresh steamed rice roll. On the other hand, you may get one that's been lurking at the bottom of the steam cart for a good couple circuits around the dining room, arriving at your table over-steamed and soggy.
Never a problem with order-as-you-go restaurants.
Pork, Shrimp, and Peanut Fun Gaw
At Red Egg on Centre Street, the game is upped even more with higher quality ingredients, fresher preparation, and more interesting flavors than at your typical dim sum restaurant.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, October 25, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
The Lounge at Le Bernardin
155 West 51st Street, New York NY 10019 (b/n Sixth and Seventh; map); 212-554-1515; le-bernardin.com
Service: Supremely polished but relaxed; a difficult feat
Setting: The modern, comfortable front lounge
Compare It To: The lounge at Per Se
Must-Haves: Ceviche, "The Egg"
Cost: Most dishes under $20 (though not sized as meals)
Grade: A
If you're a reader of Serious Eats, you've probably heard of Le Bernardin. You're likely to know that chef Eric Ripert's seafood restaurant is almost universally considered one of the top 5 restaurants in New York, with many considering it the very best. And you've probably never been.
Right? Let's be honest. We're sure those of you who have will let us know in the comments, but for a lot of New Yorkers, a meal at Le Bernardin doesn't fall within even their "special occasion" dinner budget; it looks more like their monthly rent.
Which is exactly why we're so excited about the Le Bernardin lounge, born from the restaurant's August renovation. It's the Le Bernardin's first comparatively casual dining area. A set-off space as you walk in from West 51st, it's got a comfortable bar along one wall and floor-to-ceiling windows on another, a lofty and light-filled space during the day that attracts an after-work crowd by early evening. ("By 8:00, we have to turn people away," says Ripert.) While the whole menu is available, its real draw is a revamped cocktail menu and an a la carte lounge menu. And nearly every dish—except the salmon "croque monsieur" that can barely contain its overflowing caviar—is under $20. ("Le Bernardin." "Under $20." Didn't think those phrases would ever share a sentence.)
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 18, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: Christine Tsai]
Untitled
Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10021 (map); 212-570-3670; whitney.org/Visit/Cafe
Service: Friendly, accommodating, fast
Setting: Minimalist museum basement
Must-Haves: Pancakes, pimento cheeseburger, pastrami reuben, breakfast sandwich
Cost: $15 for breakfast or lunch
Grade: A-/B+
Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group has dived into the food mosh pit of institutional food with both feet. Park concessions? Stadium food? We can now get our Shake Shack fix as we watch the Mets lose another game they could and should have won. Mainstream Midtown museum fare? You can get something good to eat on just about any floor of the Museum of Modern Art. So now, with his institutional food bona fides firmly established, he has now installed Untitled, his take on a Manhattan Greek coffee shop, known in the rest of the country as a diner, on the Upper East Side at the Whitney Museum. According to the menu, "Untitled offers a contemporary take on the classic Manhattan coffee shop. We are inspired by seasonal ingredients and supporting local food artisans."
The question I wanted answered: could Meyer, his well-oiled service machine, and Untitled chef Chris Bradley, a Gramercy Tavern kitchen alum, deliver a better class of diner food on time within a budget that's only slightly elevated?
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Posted by J. Kenji López-Alt, October 11, 2011 at 10:00 PM
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Wong
7 Cornelia Street, New York NY 10014 (b/n West 4th and Bleecker; map); 212-989-3399wongnewyork.com
Service: Excellent. General Manager Matthew Nathanson is warm and professional, even the cooks at the open kitchen are happy to smile and explain the food.
Setting: Surprisingly quiet and comfortable for a place with communal tables and very tight quarters.
Must-Haves: Hakka Pork Belly, Steak Tataki, Shrimp Fritters, Duck a la Plum Ice Cream
Cost: Appetizers $9 - $12, Mains $15 - $23
Grade: B+
Billing itself as "New York's first Asian restaurant to emphasize local and seasonal fare" (a bold statement, to say the least), Wong brings together the talents of Temple Wong, the well-traveled chef and owner of Café Asean, and New York newcomer Matthew Nathanson, whose experiences are mostly in California with a stint at Philly-based wine bar chain Vino Volo.
Pan-Asian cuisine can be a gamble at best. The flavors of China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia—all of which make an apperance on Wong's menu, sometimes in a single dish—are so diverse that more often than not, endeavors like this end in confusion rather than triumph. For the most part, Wong avoids the typical pratfalls of overzealous menus, serving food that's incredibly fresh, refined, carefully thought-out for the most part, and reasonably priced even when it's not. A couple of meals here revealed a strong menu with a few low points, mostly in the second act.
The dining room continues the somewhat disturbing trend of communal tables. You can expect to bump elbows with strangers if the restaurant is full, and don't plan on having any meaningful personal conversations unless you enjoy airing your dirty laundry over your neighbors' rice noodles. That said, the space is surprisingly quiet and pleasant when not full, considering its openness and hard surfaces.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, October 4, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Tertulia
359 Sixth Avenue, New York NY 10014 (at Washington Place; map); 646-559-9909; tertulianyc.com
Service: Varies between professional and lackluster
Setting: Beautifully worn-looking, warm-feeling taverna
Must-Haves: Cojonudo, tosta matrimonio, arroz a la plancha, any pork special
Cost: Expect $35-45/person before drinks or dessert
Grade: B
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
In a season of highly anticipated openings, Seamus Mullen's Tertulia was up there with RedFarm as one of September's most talked-about. "[The] rich, deceptively sophisticated menu... does for tapas-style Spanish cuisine what Batali did for Italian pastas and April Bloomfield did for English pub food," wrote Adam Platt in New York Magazine. Melissa Clark of the New York Times raved on Grub Street that a chorizo and garbanzo dish was "unbelievably good. Delicious sausage, delicious beans." Cheshes at Time Out calls out Mullen's olive oil as "superlative." And earlier tonight? Sam Sifton at the Times: "Add to the ranks of Harold Dieterle's Thai-speaking Kin Shop another Manhattan amazement, another soldier in the army that marches against fake authenticity in the name of hard work and big flavors."
If you've been reading this early press, you'd believe it's the opening of the year.
Frankly, we don't get it.
Don't get us wrong—there's plenty to like about Tertulia. It's not a disappointing restaurant in the least, unless you've read the glowing reviews cited above. We're not on board with any of these claims, particularly those chickpeas and that olive oil. (We'll get to them later.) Compounded by the difficulty of getting a table, the occasionally lackluster service, and the fact that none of it comes cheap, we can't give Tertulia the rave everyone else has. Even if there's quite a lot we liked.
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