My wife and I had been meaning to try this spot for a while. The day after Thanksgiving, we gave it a shot.
First, the complimentary egg drop soup was fantastic. I could eat a gallo.
The chicken sisig bites were more like cold chicken salad than the sisig I expected. But they were still good.
The butter shrimp were perfectly cooked and came in a delicious sauce that went well with everything, especially rice.
What better way to come down from Thanksgiving than with a 3lb cripsy pork shank?
This was an insane deal at $50.
We finished off with banana and jack fruit egg rolls and guanabana ice cream.
Delicious meal. I will definitely be back for some of the stew dishes, a proper sisig entree dish, and the lechon. Also worth noting – this place serves up some really unique and delicious cocktails.
My foodie friends and I hit this place before the holidays for our annual “Friendsgiving.” My wife and I had ordered delivery from here before, and we liked everything we got. It was time to go in for a proper sit-down meal.
Here’s what we had:
The duck was by far the favorite of the night, with the dumplings coming in second. From prior delivery orders, I can also recommend the kung pao chicken.
Bufon is a new meat and seafood focused joint in the lower east side. My wife and I tried five items from a menu that we really wanted to ravage. We definitely plan to go back to try more items.
Sunchoke
This was fantastic. Really nice, fresh and mildly starchy.
Halibut
The sauce on this was crack. It was some sort of buerre blanc with bottarga.
Pork Chop
Delicious. Served with butter beans and chopped up Chinese sausage. Super unique.
Picanha
Roasted to perfection. The fat was delicious as well. Scored and rendered to become a beef gelatin of sorts. Skip the vinegar based Creole salsa and get the au poivre for a more classic Sunday roast feel. 9/10.
Crispy Confit Potato
I didn’t expect a fancy hash brown, but it was really good.
No dessert was offered yet. They literally just opened. Interior decor still a work in progress, and the windows still needed to be cleaned!
My wife and I came here during the joint’s opening week. We ate at a high top near the bar so we could enjoy some of the awesome happy hour deals.
Flavor: 7
We had the porterhouse. There is a nice amount of dry aged flavor on this steak, but it just needed a bit more seasoning to really pop.
The steak was also a little overcooked, rendering some of the slices dry and mealy in texture. But nothing that a sauce couldn’t fix. I chalk this up to opening week jitters.
Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 8
There are five different steaks on the menu, including some wagyu. All the bases are covered (filet, strip, rib eye, porterhouse), but perhaps something like a skirt or flat iron could round out the selections for their steak frites item (currently that is just another strip steak, likely boneless and smaller than their dry-aged offering). My suspicion is that everything here is choice, given the low pricing and the lack of “prime” statement on the menu (with the exception of the wagyu filet – ungraded Mishima Reserve, 8oz for $83).
Portion Size & Plating: 8
All of the portions here seemed generous for the price. We had a few happy hour items that were discounted, so that definitely helped in the whole “bang for your buck” department. Plating was very nicely executed in steel platters.
Price: 10
You get a lot for your money here. The prices feel like they’re dialed back to 10 years ago. Happy hour drinks were $9, which is excellent. And $1.50 oysters and other discounted plates made the appetizer round a steal.
Bar: 9
Gorgeous bar. A great place out hang out and people watch along the windows on the high tops. It can be a bit crammed along the side wall, but the bar is roomy and beautiful. Their Applewood Smoked Old Fashioned was a steal at $9 for happy hour.
Specials and Other Meats: 7
We had the lamb shank and kofta meatballs alongside our steak. Both could have used a bit more salt, but execution and flavor was on point for these.
Apps, Sides & Desserts: 8
We ordered some happy hour starters like oysters, truffle parm fries, and fried calamari. These were all excellent and at a great price for happy hour.
The steak came with za’atar spiced smashed fingerling potatoes (also comes with their steak frites). These were actually my favorite item of the night!
The broccolini was nice, but also needed some salt. In fact the only things that didn’t need salt were the fried items and the dessert
For dessert, we tried the pineapple cake, which sort of tasted like corn bread – both in flavor and texture. I enjoyed it but the cake dealer did not.
Seafood Selection: 7
There’s standard steakhouse seafood fare here on the appetizer menu, but the only offering on the entree menu is branzino. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and maybe the menu will change seasonally. But the seafood we DID have was great.
Service: 10
Service was great here. Staff knew their menu well, and they were considerate enough to ask us if we wanted to sit in the bar area to take advantage of happy hour.
Ambiance: 10
The dining space here is gorgeous. There is an upstairs seating area, and a high ceiling downstairs area in back. They really did a great job of creating a big steakhouse feel in a small-ish neighborhood joint. I will definitely be back to try their burger, rib eye, strip steak and steak frites.
ESSEX RESTAURANT
124 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
My wife and I stopped in Tre for their weekend happy hour menu, which is a great deal and runs from 2-7pm.
We started with some cocktails, which were excellent. The espresso martini and aperol spritz were both well made.
We tried five items.
The fried calamari was dry and rubbery. Skip these.
The sautéed broccoli rabe was tasty, but at $13 it was too small of a portion size (this was from the regular menu, not the happy hour menu).
The fried artichokes were great. Nice crisp, good seasoning, tender.
I also liked the linguine al limone. For a discounted happy hour deal, this was a great buy. Lots of garlic though.
We also ordered the chicken milanese from the main menu. This was perfectly crisp, tender inside, pounded thin, and topped with a nice arugula and tomato salad.
Keep an eye out for the operating fee, which is a 4% charge added to your bill. Not sure why they don’t just raise prices instead. On the flip side, they also offer a cash discount.
Would definitely come back to try more stuff. Give this place a shot.
Roku Nana is a newly opened sushi and Japanese food joint on Clinton Street. My wife and I came in here to try their sushi, and it was a pretty great deal for the price point.
We started with two rolls; the pink lady and the flamingo.
These were great. I liked the pink lady the best (pink colored roll), and my wife liked the flamingo.
Then, we did their 10-piece premium nigiri dinner, which was $53pp.
It comes with a hand roll as well. The uni was the best, followed by the fatty tuna.
There’s also a speakeasy upstairs serving awesome cocktails.
I’ve been meaning to try this spot for a while, and then recently a friend told me that their rice rolls with homemade crullers inside are great. I had to give them a try.
They were awesome! These had dry shrimp on them, which packed a lot of flavor. We also had the regular roast pork rice rolls. Tough to choose a favorite.
We figured, while we were here, we may as well try some other stuff. The roast pig was a huge portion for $11, and it was incredible.
The roast duck over rice for $8.50 was a pretty good deal, despite the duck being mostly skin and fat (I don’t mind too much).
We also had this heaping bowl of tripe and wonton noodle soup.
The broth lacked flavor, but the insane portion size of noodles, tons of tasty tripe, and I think six wontons made up for that.
Two people over-stuffed for around $55 all-in, with enough leftovers for another full meal for two. Great deal. I will definitely be back here.
Balvanera is an Argentine wine bar and steak-focused restaurant. We went with another couple, so we were able to try a bunch of stuff.
We started with four small plates:
Octopus
Roasted Beets
Blood Sausage
Burrata & Squash
All of these were really great, but I think we all sort of agreed that the octopus was the best, with the blood sausage either close behind or tied. Really great flavors on this stuff. The blood sausage had none of that grainy, irony, gamey flavor that you sometimes get with low quality or overcooked blood sausage. It had a sticky sweetness to it that was hard to describe. The octopus was so incredibly tender, and the Romesco sauce was killer.
We went with the 25oz, 28-day, dry-aged rib eye for our main course ($120).
This was cooked to a perfect medium rare, but it lacked a little bit of that dry-aged flavor. It was present mostly around the edges and along the bone. But that didn’t matter, because the flavor was so great. This is a solid 8/10 steak, potentially bordering on 9/10 if the aged flavor bumps up on future visits (definitely going back).
For dessert, we did a chocolate tart and flan. Both of these were pretty nice, but I think next time I will focus more on the small plates in the savory department instead of the sweet stuff.
Oti is a small Romanian restaurant with a great outdoor space on Clinton Street in the lower east side. My wife and I popped in here for a quick meal. The menu consists of mainly small plates and wine. Here’s what we had:
Farmers Board
This is a nice charcuterie style board with meats, cheeses and dips. At $25 this wasn’t too bad. Great bread too.
Broken Burrata
Pretty self explanatory. This was really delicious.
Bone Marrow Toast
I didn’t get much bone marrow flavor on this, but there was something pickled and sweet on top that threw my taste buds for a loop. This was tasty and had melted cheese on it. It was good despite not following through on the marrow aspect.
Stuffed Pepper
This was probably the best (and biggest) dish we tried. Inside was a nice mixture of spiced meats, rice and cheese. I would definitely get this again. Save some bread to drag through that delicious sauce too.
Meesh
These meatball / kebab style thingies were really nice. That sauce on top was a mustard of sorts. I would definitely get this one again too.
Pickled Grapes
Our waitress suggested these over the pickled Jimmy Nardello peppers to cut the fat and compliment the Meesh. They were SUPER sour. Eating them together with the Meesh was the best way to have them. In hindsight, I wish we had gone with the peppers instead.
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.
