Monthly Archives: January 2020

Chinese, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Jing Fong

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Jing Fong on the upper west side might be my new favorite place for dim sum. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive than the old, storied downtown haunts, but the food is markedly better. In addition, while the classic dim sum joint will have rolling carts of tasty goodness meandering throughout the floor of the restaurant (which is a big part of the fun), those carts often smell like sterno, chemical flame or leaking natural gas. That smell always ruins the experience for me.

This place brings everything out that you order, sans carts. No smell. I liked that change-up, though admittedly there was a little less fun and intrigue to the experience. But over all, I really loved this place. Some favorites below:

Peking Duck Dumplings – probably one of the best dumplings I’ve had.

I usually hate these pork buns. Always too “bready” and almost always too sweet. Not the case here.

Take a peek inside the vagina slit below. Great ratio of bun to meat, and the meat wasn’t too sweet. Perfect.

Always important to eat your veggies:

Especially when there’s minced pork inside.

Very nice steamed rice rolls (though I wish they offered the ones with fried crullers inside too).

This crispy fried chicken with roasted garlic (entree dish, not dim sum obviously) was really nice too.

I’ll definitely be back here again.

JING FONG
380 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10024

Carcass Club/Beast Feast

Red Meat Lover’s Club “Feast of the Beasts”

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The Red Meat Lover’s Club is a group of carnivores that hosts meaty events all over the place, and, in the process, the club raises money for charities through both ticket sales and auctions during the events.

I attended their “Feast of the Beasts” event, which was held at The Breslin and benefitted the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club. The menu was pretty incredible.

We started with passed bites and sips of fine whiskey, and then moved on to the main part of the meal.

First was a pair of roasted, crispy skin suckling pigs.

Absolutely delicious, especially the cheeks:

Then we moved on to lamb shanks. Endless amounts of lamb shanks…

But the main event was the roasted steamship round.

Check out this video:

The outer bits had so much great dry-aged flavor, and I was shocked at how perfectly cooked the inside was: a nice medium rare.

The sides were great too, roasted carrots, spicy broccoli rabe and crispy potato gratin.

I will definitely be hitting more of these events in the future, and you should too! They even sent me home with some cigars.

New Orleans, Other Cuts, Steakhouse Reviews

Rib Room

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Rib Room overall score: 81

Our first dinner in New Orleans during our 2019/2020 New Year trip was here at Rib Room. I was dying to try some prime rib from here ever since I passed by it on the street two years ago. Here’s how it went down.

Flavor: 8

I had the king cut prime rib, which is a gorgeous tomahawk chop that’s roasted to perfection. The cap was delicious, and the eye was cooked evenly throughout, without getting too monotonous in terms of flavors and textures.

This baby came with a hard, pipe-hittin’ horseradish sauce that will known your brain out of your skull if you’re not too careful with how you apply it to your steak. I love that kick! But beware.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9

There’s a good selection of cuts here, even beyond the standard prime rib sizes that you expect to find at a place that specializes in prime rib. They also served grilled rib eyes, strips, filets, etc. Everything is sourced from local producers and purveyors, but I didn’t detect too much dry-aged flavors coming through.

Portion Size & Plating: 9

The portions here are big, and you get a lot for your money on everything from the apps all the way through the entrees.

Price: 9

At $45 for the king cut of prime rib, which comes with a side and a salad, you really can’t go wrong. Coming from NYC it was a nice, refreshing reveal when the bill came.

Bar: 8

The bar here is nice. We hung out for a bit before being seated and enjoyed the beautiful hotel-lobby environs (Omni Royal). The martini I had was a bit too sweet though.

Specials and Other Meats: 8

In addition to an extensive list of chops and roasts, they also offer specials here as well. My wife had the prime rib “manager’s special,” which is a princess cut of prime rib that gets grilled on the sides after roasting. Here is a before and after:

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 7

We tried a few things as starters. Let me get right into them.

Lamb Pastrami Grilled Cheese:

This sounded better than it tasted. I had high hopes, but it came out a bit cold, and not too pastrami-flavored at all.

The cast iron baked cheesy oysters were pretty fantastic. Very unique.

 

The frog legs were massive, and breaded very nicely – fried to a golden, crunchy crisp.

The baked potato and salad came with the prime rib. Both were basic but good.

We skipped dessert and opted for some late night beignets at Cafe du Monde instead.

Seafood Selection: 7

There’s standard steakhouse seafood fare here. I didn’t try any so can’t really rate it.

Service: 8

Service here was good. Our waiter Richenel was really nice, attentive, and made good suggestions. However the restaurant messed up my wife’s order a bit (they brought her out a princess cut of prime rib instead of the manager’s special – firing it on the sides meant it was a bit overcooked from how she ordered). As a result, her steak wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Another thing to note here, they don’t have a prime rib cart service here like at Lawry’s or House of Prime Rib. They have something a bit different: a central carving station on the side of the dining room where you can watch the meat master work if you’d like. I dig it.

Ambiance: 8

This place is gorgeous inside. The hotel spared no expense in decking this place out. High ceilings, dark woods, fancy music.

RIB ROOM
621 St Louis S
New Orleans, LA 70130

American, Deli, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

St James Cheese Company

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This nice sandwich and cheese shop is a fun place to stop in for a quick lunch if you’re in the area. The bloodies are good, and the sandwiches and cheese are nice.

I could’ve used a little more roast beef on this sandwich, and thinner sliced, but the smoked blue cheese sorta made up for it. That was unique. But I think I’m starting to notice a NOLA trend with small amounts of sandwich meat down here. Not a good look!

ST. JAMES CHEESE COMPANY
641 Tchoupitoulas St,
New Orleans, LA 70130

American, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Revolution

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I, my wife and some friends ate at this joint for New Year’s Eve dinner before heading to a party in New Orleans. We tried a bunch of shit so I’ll get right to it.

STARTERS: steak tartare, charbroiled oysters, and crispy fried sweetbreads with mushrooms.

Of these, my favorite was the sweetbreads. They were crispy outside, creamy inside, and packed with lots of earthy flavor from the mushrooms. The oysters were great too, and over all the charbroiled oysters in this town are amazing almost everywhere we had them.

ENTREES: lamb chops and game pie.

These were both pretty good. I’d definitely recommend either one if you’re dining here.

SIDE: artichoke gratin.

This dish ate more like a dip, and as such would have benefitted from some bread or chips for dipping.

RESTAURANT REVOLUTION
777 Bienville St
New Orleans, LA 70130

Banh Mi, New Orleans, Pho, Restaurant Reviews, Vietnamese

Pho Tau Bay

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After two previous visits to New Orleans I was dead-set on finally trying some Vietnamese food. This town has a large Vietnamese community, so I know the food will be good.

My wife and I picked this joint because it was the closest to our hotel that was actually open on New Year’s Day. It had nice ratings to boot. We started with a pair of Vietnamese drip coffees, which were excellent.

Next, we shared a banh mi sandwich – their signature “dac biet” special sandwich.

This was great. Just the right amount of filling, nice fresh French bread that didn’t rip my mouth apart from being too hard or crispy.

Then we had some soup. I had the large “dac biet” special bowl of beef pho. This was great for the price tag. It easily surpassed most of the pho I have access to here in NYC (obviously there are some big exceptions since NYC is finally getting some good Vietnamese food).

My wife had the bun bo hue, which I thought was a bit too pungent and overly fishy for my taste, but it was still good as far as this dish goes. Especially impressive were the noodles. The round, “thick spaghetti” style rice noodles typically used in this soup will often get overcooked and become mushy. Then they break easily when you grab them with chopsticks, which is a pain in the ass. But these were perfect.

Give this place a shot when you’re down here.

PHO TAU BAY
1565 Tulane Ave
New Orleans, LA 70112

American, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

NOLA Po’Boys

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This little joint is the perfect spot to stagger into for some great drunk eats after hitting Bourbon Street. The po’boy is pretty good, despite not being on the traditional French bread.

This pile of meat really hit the spot though. It’s braised beef in roux gravy, on top of cheese fries. It’s like a NOLA poutine!

NOLA POBOYS
908 Bourbon St,
New Orleans, LA 70116

Fusion, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Maypop

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This joint delivered on some nice Asian fusion food down in NOLA. We started with a few bread specials; one stuffed with cheese and one was a spicy sesame biscuit.

There was also a nice amuse, which was a croquette of sorts, topped with a creamy foam.

The fried oyster dish was great, as was the marrow appetizer with lamb shank.

This spicy pork jowl dish was really awesome.

But the star of the show was this cornmeal garganelli in coconut milk alfredo with curried blue crab, spicy tomato red curry, lemongrass sausage, and basil. A possible best of 2020.

I really liked this gulf fish entree as well. Great crisp on the skin!

Dessert may have looked like a log of shit, but it tasted great. Chocolate mousse with toasted marshmallow and graham crumble. S’mores!

MAYPOP
611 O’Keefe Ave,
New Orleans, LA 70113

American, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

French Market

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We stopped in here for a quick bite and a drink. It was early in the day, so I had a bloody mary.

I wasn’t crazy about it. Something in the mix didn’t sit well, and I didn’t finish it.

The fried green tomatoes app with crawfish remoulade was nice though. Even though it looks like a pile of puke.

FRENCH MARKET
1001 Decatur St,
New Orleans, LA 70116

American, Burgers, New Orleans, Restaurant Reviews

Coterie

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We stopped in this joint for brunch after landing in New Orleans with an empty stomach. They offer a trio of broiled oysters with three different styles (you get two of each for $18). These were great, and if you eat here, this is what to order.

The fresh raw oysters are nice too.

I ordered a cajun burger, which was supposed to have a sausage patty, a beef patty, and some remoulade. But they gave me the “Hangover Burger” instead by mistake. It was okay, but pretty basic as far as burgers go.

COTERIE
135 Decatur St
New Orleans, LA 70130