Category Archives: Lower East Side/Chinatown

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

Cervos

Leave a comment

My wife and I finally tried this spot. It’s been getting very popular lately in the food scene, mainly because of the crispy shrimp heads seen here:

They paired nicely with the house hot sauce.

They’re delicious! But so are the other items they offer, like the mussels escabeche:

The fried skate wing:

And the piri piri chicken with french fries:

Fries were perfect, chicken was juicy! Great cocktails as well.

We’ll definitely be back to try the Manila clams and a few other items that looked tasty.

UPDATE! Clams were pretty good, but I probably wouldn’t order them again in terms of portion size.

These Louisiana white prawns were excellent. I would definitely order them again. There were five on the plate.

CERVOS
43 Canal St
New York, NY 10002

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

The Ten Bells

Leave a comment

This nice wine bar in the Lower East Side has an awesome happy hour deal that includes $18 carafes of red, white or rose along with dollar oysters in three varieties, every day from open until 7pm. On weekends they open at 3pm so my wife and I popped in to try a bunch of stuff. We were the first ones at the bar. This is what one side of it looks like:

The wine was delicious.

And so was this tomato flavored brandy:

For bites, we did two dozen oysters (eight of each variety, all nicely cleaned and fresh);

Steak tartare (this was really nicely prepared – one of the better tartares I’ve had);

And boquerones/anchovies.

Everything was great, and I can’t wait to go back for more.

THE TEN BELLS
247 Broome St
New York, NY 10002

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Belly

Leave a comment

Bar Belly has a pretty great happy hour that features dollar oysters, among other deals. We went with two dozen of these delicious, crisp, clean oysters, some fries for $6, and, of course, drinks. I highly recommend this oyster happy hour. It goes until 7pm every night.

BAR BELLY
14 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002

American, Burgers, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Mila’s Fish & Hook

Leave a comment

My wife and I popped in here for a quick lunch and to take advantage of the all day dollar oyster special.

The oysters were great. Mild, creamy, fresh and crisp. I only wish they also served them with horseradish and a cocktail sauce. The grilled calamari appetizer was great, served atop a salad of arugula with balsamic and orange supremes.

My wife had fish tacos, which were very nice (no pics), and I had the burger. This was great, though I wish I had gone with cheddar instead of Swiss (they were out of American). That little thing on top, under the pickles, is crispy cheese! That was a nice bonus.

We will definitely be going back here.

MILA’S FISH & HOOK
81 Ludlow St
New York, NY 10002

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Wo Hop

Leave a comment

How have I never reviewed this place in all my years living here, and all my times eating here – especially from way back when I went to Law School and lived/worked nearby for years after?

Wo Hop is a NYC institution. They’ve been serving up excellent and affordable Chinese food in their iconic downstairs location since 1938! I have to say, the fried wontons are some of the best I’ve ever had.

On this visit, my wife and I had the sliced chicken with baby corn. I was expecting this to be much spicier, being printed in RED on the menu and under the spicy Szechaun section, but it was still delicious.

We also had the 4D chow fun, which has 4 different proteins (shrimp, beef, chicken and roast pork). This was the better dish.

They’re still keeping prices very low here, which is great. Even the t-shirt prices haven’t changed since I purchased one back in 2000 – $10!

If you’ve never been, you definitely should go at least once, even if it’s just to say that you’ve been there.

WO HOP
17 Mott St
New York, NY 10013

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

Casa Mezcal

Leave a comment

Casa Mezcal is a fun Mexican bar/restaurant on Orchard Street that serves up some great food and drinks.

My wife and I stopped in here on a whim because a place nearby where we wanted to eat was closed for renovations. It turned out to be a nice unforeseen change of plans.

We noticed that they give free shots of mezcal if you post and tag them on Instagram, so that was a no brainer for me.

Those mezcal shots were deliciously hibiscus flavored and spice-rimmed. I tried one of their sipping mezcal too and really liked it (Del Maguey Wild Jabali).

They also had awesome cocktails on the menu. We tried a couple and loved both.

Speaking of drinks, this place has an awesome bar set up. There is even seating there now, COVID be damned!

We started with the carb meat tostada, which was our favorite item of the meal.

They accidentally brought out an order of chicken quesadillas instead of my burrito. I let them know and they took it off the bill. However, rather than let it go to waste, they told us to keep it anyway. So I gave the value of the item extra in tip at the end to make up for it. That was a really nice move on their part so I wanted to make them whole.

Both were excellent, but the burrito was probably one of the best I’ve had lately. My wife got fish tacos, which I didn’t shoot, but they were the best entree.

Over all this was a really great meal with really great drinks. We will definitely be back here.

CASA MEZCAL
86 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002

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

El Castillo De Jagua II

Leave a comment

First, check this video out HERE:

A $7 cubano sandwich stuffed to the gills with pernil, a $4 banana shake, a juicy-ass half roast chicken and an ungodly amount of yellow rice? You can’t go wrong at El Castillo de Jagua. This second location, which is right near our new place, offers some amazing food at amazing prices.

The Cuban was probably our favorite. Definitely could benefit from extra pickles and extra ham, but at $7 bucks with perfectly toasted and pressed bread, lots of pernil, and little grease, we were thrilled.

Speaking of, the pernil entree itself was juicy and MASSIVE in terms of serving size.

The roast half chicken comes with exquisitely crispy skin that somehow still remains juicy as well.

The fried pork meat was a blast. It reminded me of Chinese boneless spare ribs, but less sticky sweetness and more of crispy savoriness.

The main dishes come with copious amounts of rice. We picked yellow instead of white. Beans came with the mains as well (not pictured individually, but see the last photo for the serving size to the left of my hand).

The fried plantains had just enough sweetness to make them almost dessert-like.

Speaking of desserts, we were impressed with both the banana and sour sop shakes.

I can NOT wait to explore this menu some more!

EL CASTILLO DE JAGUA
521 Grand St A
New York, NY 10002

Indian, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Dhamaka

Leave a comment

My wife and I tried Dhamaka last night, using a gift certificate that our friends gave us as a housewarming.

We started with some of their delicious cocktails, and then moved right into some meaty apps. The first thing that came out was my favorite item of the meal – lamb ribs!

These had such awesome flavor and tenderness. The mint chutney that came with it is something they should sell by the jar!

Next up, smoked goat belly. This was cleverly presented in a tiny barrel smoker:

It was a bit too aggressive on the salt level, but over all we loved it. It was similar to some kofta / meatball skewer dishes that we’ve had.

These prawns were a little bit overcooked, as they were difficult to pull from the shell. They were spicy and really tasty, however. Especially the heads.

Our first main was the stewed mutton dish. They smush an entire bulb of roasted garlic into this, paper and all, so be prepared for dragon breath as well as picking garlic paper out of your bites of food! The dragon breath wasn’t so bad actually, but I wish they somehow removed the paper first.

Our other main was this delicious chicken and rice dish.

The chicken is bone-in, so the meat remains really juicy and tender. The ]rice reminded me of a really tasty, elevated rice-a-roni! Love that stuff.

That about covers it. We will definitely be eating here again!

Dhamaka
119 Delancey St
New York, NY 10002

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Pizza

Zazzy’s Pizza

Leave a comment

In our exploration of all the great pizza joints here on the lower east side, my wife and I came across Zazzy’s. Their Instagram page had me salivating, so when my wife had a $10 off coupon from one of the food delivery services, we figured it was a good time to try it.

We went with the pepperoni Sicilian pie.

A thing of beauty. The crust was puffy and light, but crisped up nicely on the bottom without being burnt like so many others. The roni cups were thin and lean, with no oozing puddles of spicy grease. They were just right.

I really can’t wait to try more stuff from this place, especially since the menu is expanding. I know all of their ingredients are imported from Naples, with tomatoes coming from the foot of Vesuvius. I’m all in on this joint. And they’re already opening more locations throughout the city.

ZAZZY’S PIZZA
173 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002

Burgers, Diner, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Zafi’s Luncheonette

Leave a comment

Zafi’s Luncheonette is a small, old school counter-service diner on the lower east side.

They do have some regular seating, but the counter is the best way to enjoy an old school diner like this. If indoor dining resumes in NYC, you’ll be able to pop a squat there with spacing between stools.

I had their burger, which was meh at best, but the vanilla milk shake made it all worth while. That thing was absolutely perfect.

I’ll be back here to work my way through some of their more traditional diner menu items, like a gyro, club sandwich, chopped steak, etc. Hopefully they will all be better than the burger.

Stay tuned…

ZAFI’S LUNCHEONETTE
500 Grand St
New York, NY 10002