Dorlan’s Tavern & Oyster Bar

May 31, 2025 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

My wife and I stopped in this place for drinks a while back, and we made note to come back to try the food next time we were down by the seaport. Here’s what we had:

Fried Calamari with Banana Peppers

I wish the banana peppers were battered and fried too, but these were really nicely seasoned and fried.

Al Pastor Tacos

These were expensive at essentially $6/ea, but they were tasty and nicely made.

Fish & Chips

Great fries. Great fish quality, but the batter needs to rest on a cooling rack before being served on the plate. The spots that were touching the plate turned to mush or got soggy, most likely because they hit the plate when they were too hot and couldn’t properly “breathe” on those sides.

I would definitely go back to try the Old Bay flavored chicken tenders, and of course to enjoy their $10 shot and beer special.

DORLAN’S TAVERN & OYSTER BAR
213 Front St.
New York, NY 10038

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Contra

May 27, 2025 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

My wife and I stopped in here for a quick meal and drinks at the bar. Here’s what we had:

Montauk Royal Red Prawns

These beauties are served raw over ice and dusted with umeboshi (dried pickled plum). I really liked these.

American Wagyu Tartare

This was probably one of the best tartare dishes I’ve ever had. It came with crispy fried artichoke, fried shallot and ramp oil.

Smoked Pacific Oyster “Tartare”

This was essentially a dressed up tin of high quality smoked oysters, minced up with red onion and aioli, which you then spread on toast points.

Stuffed Chicken Wings

These were stuffed with stilton, pork sausage and scallion. I think there may have been some hatch chili involved too. The flavor was excellent on these.

Potato Ice Cream Sundae

Totally unique. I could taste the potato knowing that it was made from that. but otherwise I might not have. It was not too sweet, which I really appreciated. This was also served with blueberries.

I can’t wait to go back for more drinks and food. Everything was so good!

BAR CONTRA
138 Orchard St.
New York, NY 10002

East Village, Italian, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Bianchi

May 24, 2025 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

My wife and I came here for a quick meal to try a few items. Here’s what we had:

Complimentary Bar Snack

Castelvetrano olives and potato chips? Both high quality? Count me ALL THE WAY IN!

Bean Salad

This was a nice, light, yet filling way to start the meal. A substantial amount of beans!

Veal Milanese

This was great. Nice batter fry on this, and it came with a bright, punchy arugula salad.

Olive Oil Ice Cream

For dessert, we had the olive oil ice cream. The flavor was a bit lacking, but otherwise it was creamy and tasty.

I’d definitely come back here to try more stuff.

BAR BIANCHI
5 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Sushi Lin

May 20, 2025 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

We did the 17-course omakase, which was $125. This was definitely worth the price of admission. Favorites included the oyster and salmon appetizers, as well as the otoro, uni and king crab pieces.

Even the dessert, sesame panna cotta, was nice.

I would definitely go back here.

SUSHI LIN
151 Rivington St.
New York, NY 10002

Banh Mi, East Village, Pho, Vietnamese

Banh Anh Em

May 16, 2025 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

It is seriously tough to get a table at this new Vietnamese place, but luckily my wife is a rock star and made it happen for us. All of the sandwiches here are great, and the traditional banh mi here is the best I’ve ever had. But the simple and small pate with pork floss is magical. The bread they make in house here is insane!

We tried a few soups and a porridge. My favorites were the pho dac biet and the rice porridge with offal meats. So much rich flavor there.

The rice roll tower and steamed rice cups were sort of redundant, but the tower is the way to go because it comes with a whole shitload of things to put on it before rolling up and chowing down.

The steak and egg breakfast style dish had a bit of sweetness that was really warming and comforting. And their house hot sauce should be jarred and sold at high volume. It is incredible!

The iced coffee and coffee flan were both great too, but I was so full from everything else that I couldn’t eat much of the flan.

This place definitely deserves all the hype it’s getting. All of the staple items here are amazing, and they also offer some dishes that are much harder to find at most of the other Vietnamese places around town.

BANH ANH EM
99 3rd Avenue
New York, NY, 10003

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Rebel

May 8, 2025 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My wife and I hit up this Caribbean/Haitian joint called Rebel nearby. We started with some nice cocktails. Mine was the tumbler – lime, burnt sugar and rum. It was really nice without being too sweet.

We had their jerk wings, which were super tender, and perfectly spicy.

For our mains, we shared fried pork with red beans and rice, and stewed goat with black mushroom rice. Both were great, but we agreed that the stewed goat was the winner. Also the black rice was excellent (no pics, but it’s in the video).

For dessert, we tried their potato bread pudding. This had nice flavors, but the texture was different from what I expected when hearing “bread pudding.” In any event, I think this would be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Careful when paying at this place. The 18% tip is already included on your bill. While this is illegal (can only do it with 15% for parties of 6 or more, last I recall), we still gave an extra $5 on top since the service and food were both great. We would definitely go back.