I didn’t take any photos of this place, but you can watch my Ride & Review HERE:
This is by far my favorite cheesesteak: The Long Hot. It has steak, crumbled sausage, long hot peppers, cooper sharp, and fried red onions. Perfect. And all on a fresh made sesame seed bun.
You can’t beat it. I’m so happy this place is in my neighborhood. They have great deals on Uber Eats, and awesome happy hour specials.
G’s CHEESESTEAKS
6 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009
Rippers is a famous beachside burger shop in Rockaway. This joint serves up big, juicy, perfectly cooked burgers for the hungry masses at the beach.
I have to say this was one of the best burgers I’ve had since I went to Lions Bar.
The griddle cook offered the burger a nice textural crunch, and the inside was cooked to a perfect juicy medium. Good cheese coverage, and not too many toppings or sauces.
The fries were also really crispy and nice too, with some seafood/Old Bay type seasoning on them.
RIPPERS
86-01 Shore Front Pkwy
Rockaway Beach, NY 11693
Tacos 1986 just opened up in the west village near the corner of West 4th Street and 6th Avenue.
The tacos are $5 each, but I should have gotten the open-face quesadillas for just $0.75 more each.
I did three al pastor tacos, and they were delicious. They had lots of really tasty shaved pork on them, with a nice dollop of guacamole on top.
Great tortillas too. I can’t wait to go back for more.
TACOS 1986
1 Cornelia Street
New York, NY 10014
If you’re in LIC and looking for Vietnamese food, one option you have is Cyclo.
I stopped in here with a few of my ebike friends for a bowl of pho and some other snacks.
The quail egg fried wontons were unique. I would skip on the sweet chili sauce.
The beef skewers were a bit better, in my oopinion.
The clay pot beef stew wasn’t hot enough to crisp up the rice on the bottom of the serving vessel (which wasn’t really hot), but it was tasty and came with a side of veg.
The pho was pretty good. This is on par with some of the basic Chinatown spots near me. This runs you $18, and it came with sliced eye round and brisket.
CYCLO
5-51 47th Ave #573
Long Island City, NY 11101
Sushi Hayashi is one of the “all you can eat” sushi/omakase spots that are trending now in the city. This spot is a pretty good deal. The pieces are all decent, and you get a solid amount of sushi for $98 in the omakase (14 courses). The salmon, shima aji and shrimp were our favorite pieces from the omakase. The wagyu fell short, and there was no uni, but over all this was a worth-while omakase.
Once you’re finished with the 14-course omakase, you get two rounds of “all you can eat” sushi ordering, which is limited to a selection of eel, scallop, lean tuna or fatty tuna. The toppings and garnishes are done away with during this time (just a brush of sauce, and some torching for the fatty tuna), and you’ll be charged $6 per piece for any nigiri that you order but don’t finish. The record is 72 pieces eaten. Insane.
I went with nine extra pieces total during this “all you can eat” portion of the meal; three each of the lean tuna, fatty tuna and scallop.
They really have the system down pat, and they operate like a well-oiled machine.
They’ve created the first fast food style omakase! Highly American! What follows below is a photo dump of all the courses.
Two appetizers:
Ten nigiri pieces:
The roll portion of the omakase:
Round 1 AYCE:
Round 2 AYCE:
Dessert: matcha ice cream.
SUSHI HAYASHI
355 E 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:
Rosie’s is a big, fun Mexican spot on the corner of 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue. The Cake Dealer and I tried a few items at the bar. They make some nice margaritas here, so definitely start with one of those. If you want a nice bar snack, get the chicharrones. They’re huge and delicious.
One of my favorite items was the squash blossom quesadilla. Everything about this was just perfect. I wish I had ordered three of them.
The tacos here are pretty good, as are the tortillas, which are made right in the middle of the restaurant. You can watch them being made at a bar, like you’re at a sushi counter.
We tried the shrimp, fish and al pastor tacos. Of these, the al pastor was the best, with the shrimp coming in just behind at second place.
We also tried the flan, which was really light and tasty.
We would definitely go back!
ROSIE’S
29 E 2nd St.
New York, NY 10003
First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:
Comal is a new Mexico City -inspired restaurant in the lower east side. They offer up some really unique dishes that you won’t commonly see at popular Mexican restaurants.
We started the meal with three skewers: al pastor chicken, beef tongue, and mushrooms.
The al pastor was our favorite of these. I think the mushrooms would have been better grilled, and the tongue was a bit gamey in flavor.
Next up, the cobia aguachile. This had great flavor; bright, fresh and refreshingly spicy.
The beef tartare was nice as well. It came with some lettuce cups and was topped with fried crickets! I’ve had them before. They’re not really my thing, so I let The Cake Dealer have them all.
For our main courses we did the skate wing in squid ink sauce, which are like a delicious spicy mole/curry cross breed. The fish was perfectly cooked.
We also had the half chicken, which was really tender and juicy. All the flavor was in the skin and the earthy, spicy sauce.
The stuffed wing with pickled tomatillo was a nice tough to go with it, but ultimately it seemed like a lot of extra chef work for little reward on our end. We liked the regular parts of the chicken better.
On the side, we had the Comal rice, which was essentially a small bowl of rice and beans for $10 (overpriced), and the squash and zucchini with cherries and cheese (so unique and awesome).
For dessert, we had their raspberry and vanilla soft serve swirl. This his the spot on a hot day.
COMAL
116 Forsyth St.
New York, NY 10002
First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:
This spot offers a great 18-course omakase for just $100. I’m just going to dump the photos I snapped for each piece, but our favorites were the following: oyster appetizer, shrimp, red snapper, shima aji, both medium and fatty tuna, uni, salmon, wagyu spoon, and the shrimp and uni hand roll we added at the end. We would definitely come back here again.
SUSHI BY M
75 E 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:
Bar Oliver is a small Spanish style tapas and pintxos joint at the intersection of Oliver, St. James, East Broadway, Bowery and Worth downtown.
My wife and I stopped in for drinks when they first opened, but now that the menu is fully built out, we wanted to go in and try some food.
We started with the Montauk red shrimp pintxos. These were tasty little bites. Expensive at $18 for two, but that’s the way of live here now I guess.
Next up, the mushrooms. These come with a beautiful egg yolk on top to break and mix in. Loved this dish.
We also tried the skate cheeks. These were served in a nice bright tomato sauce and ate more like a soup than I had expected. There were three to four good sized fish cheeks in there.
We contemplated getting a larger format rib eye, but instead we went with the wagyu hanger steak, which comes with fries and is served atop a really nice piquillo pepper sauce.
The steak was perfectly cooked, but it was a bit small for my liking. I’d say around 6oz. But at $39 it isn’t a bad deal. I give this a, 9/10. Perfectly cooked, nicely seasoned, great flavor and texture.
For dessert we did the Spanish cheesecake. To me, it ate more like a standard cheesecake. Still good though.
I would definitely go back to try more items. Especially the larger steaks. They had a good selection of local beef and domestic wagyu cross breed, all dry aged.
BAR OLIVER
1 Oliver St
New York, NY 10038
First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:
Flavor: 9
First, we went big on the king size prime rib.
This had a kombu crust that made for a totally unique flavor. This was a 10, for sure. Perfectly cooked with some mild dry-aging on it.
We had the 48-day dry-aged bone-in strip steak that was on special for the day. The flavor was great, but there was definitely a good amount of chew to the meat. Due to that, the score is a 7. It was really beautiful though. Sadly, that drops the overall flavor score average to 8.5, which I have rounded up to 9.
Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9
There’s a great selection of cuts here, showcasing everything from A5 grade Wagyu, US dry-aged prime, cuts for two, cuts for one, and even some off-cuts like Denver steak and top round. I only took a point due to the quality issue on the strip steak that we had (a bit “toothsome”).
Portion Size & Plating: 8
The portions are good here, especially for the steaks. The sides are certainly shareable, but the desserts seem to be made for one. Plating is simple and rustic, using cast iron platters, ramekins and things like that.
Price: 9
The price is high here in midtown, with a whopping $145 for the king cut prime rib (16oz). Some of the larger aged steaks are about $6/oz, which can get pricy if you go big. The good thing here is that the food is worth the price, and they have some very reasonable options for smaller appetites. They even participate in restaurant week.
Bar: 8
The bar downstairs (Bar 92) is a small but beautiful art deco stretch. They make great cocktails, and the martini cart is fun. It’s dim and lively. I can see myself having a drink here before a meal, for sure.
Specials and Other Meats: 7
The only non-beef meat protein on the entree menu is chicken. I respect the clarity and focus, but I was surprised there wasn’t a nice big pork option. Perhaps they run it as a special some days, as they did read off some beef specials to us.
Apps, Sides & Desserts: 7
We started with four items. First, the brioche. The butter is delicious but I would skip this. It’s a bit pricey and slightly underwhelming.
The “double cut bacon” is nice though. Thick cut bacon with a gochujang type sauce.
I would skip the dumplings. They needed a bit more salt on the filling inside, and just didn’t hit the mark for us.
The shrimp were delicious. Four per order, head on, and with a nice szechuan chili oil sauce (could have used a bit more kick to it, but enjoyable nonetheless).
On the side, we had three items. First was the creamy, cheesy corn. This was nice.
I would skip the carrots. I bit into a forkful of them and there was some woody texture that I had to spit out. Perhaps stems were left on for visual appeal and I didn’t realize?
The mixed mushrooms were excellent, but could have used a bit more of the truffle flavor.
He had four desserts. My favorite was the coconut milk panna cotta.
The earl grey ice cream was nice too, but they need to put the crumble on top instead of at the bottom of the dish.
Their Korean spin on the Paris Brest (Jeju Brest) was nice. It wasn’t as crunchy as I expected, but it sort of ate like a jelly donut crepe. Very tasty.
Lastly, the black and white mousse cake was incredible. Rich, flavorful, well-balanced, and a really good portion size if you want to share a dessert. If I was more of a chocolate lover, this would have been my favorite dessert.
Seafood Selection: 8
There’s a bunch of nice looking seafood selections here. We only ate the shrimp, but based on how well the other stuff came out, I can confidently say that the seafood here will be good. Next time.
Service: 10
Amazing. One of my friends has an egg yolk allergy, and the staff was really considerate, knowledgeable and friendly when we were trying to navigate the menu and ask about special preparations. They were also really attentive, they knew their meats and cuts, and they were super generous, giving us a few items on the house as compliments of the chef. The only negative was they forgot a potato item that we ordered. We had plenty to eat, though, and didn’t even realize it until after we left.
Ambiance: 9
Despite being upstairs in the Times Square area, this place really transports you. It’s a mix of art deco, mid century modern and dark/dim classy. I really like the space, and I’ll definitely be back for more.
GUI STEAKHOUSE
776 8th Ave
New York, NY 10036
