Category Archives: Lower East Side/Chinatown

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

Comal

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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

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

Bar Oliver

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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

Hot Pot, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Gangnam Hot Pot

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

This place was pretty great. I didn’t take any photos, so you’ll just have to check out the video to see what we had. The best items were the shellfish, the fishballs, and the sliced meats like lamb, rib eye and pork belly.

Definitely give this place a shot! It was really a great deal at just about $100 for two people including drinks!

GANGNAM HOT POT
125 Division St Suite B
New York, NY 10002

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Contra

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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

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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

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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

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

Rebel

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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.

REBEL
29 Clinton St.
New York, NY 10002

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Funny Bar

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First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

Funny Bar just opened up nearby. The Cake Dealer and I recently wandered in here and had a few drinks, and we knew we wanted to come back.

It’s a live jazz bar with no cover charge, and a really sleek, streamlined menu of STEAK!

Literally, there are like four items on the menu: steak for one, steak for two, french fries, and a wedge salad. Oh and they surprised us each with a free small chocolate brownie sundae at the end of the meal, but it wasn’t on the menu.

We started with the wedge salad, which is simple but delicious.

The steak for one is a petite filet, or shoulder tender/teres major. I love this cut.

It has all the flavor of the chuck, from where it hails, and all the tenderness of a filet mignon. At $29 for about an 8oz steak that comes with fries, this is a great deal. 9/10.

The steak for two is a larger cut. The server told me it was a flatiron, and the host told me it was a strip steak. I don’t think either is correct.

At first I thought maybe it was a tri-tip based on the shape, but the muscle striations seem to go the wrong direction for that. Based on the muscle fibers, I think this is in the sirloin family. Perhaps top butt/sirloin, or top sirloin. Either way it was perfectly cooked, had a great crust, and was artfully topped with a maitre’d butter and herbs. At $69 this is also a great deal for people to try the best of what can be on an otherwise under-utilized cut. 8/10.

Although it might be better to get two of the steaks for one instead of one of the steaks for two, satisfaction will be guaranteed. The fries are perfectly cooked as well. This is the large plate that comes with the steak for two:

They even brought us a free dessert on the house afterwards – miniature brownie sundaes!

I will be back for sure.

FUNNY BAR
133 Essex St.
New York, NY 10002

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Cactus Wren

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

The Cake Dealer and I decided to give this new joint a shot. We really liked everything we tried, so let me get right into it.

First, the cocktails were excellent. We tried three, and they were all delicious.

The shellfish platter is a bit expensive as $38 for six pieces, but each and every item was a masterpiece. I think my favorites were the hot items on the pebbles (oyster cooked with beef fat and topped with horseradish, and the clam with garlic chips.

The shrimp toast was so delicious. Buttery, crispy, and with lump shrimp meat instead of the paste-like texture that you might see at Chinese spots. The tarter-like sauce was definitely not needed here.

The mortadella tartine was really tasty. I could eat about 30 of these.

We also did their caviar service which was a generous heap of high quality caviar, cream, whipped bean puree, onion, chives, avocado and potato chips with a large bowl of fresh tortillas. This was really nice. I would definitely get this again.

For our mains, we did the fries and fish, which is a medium sized bowl of french fries and fried anchovies.

The anchovies were fresh, plump, light and crisp – not very fishy at all, and really tasty white meat.

We also did the Peekytoe crab omelette on rice, which I really loved.

This, the shellfish and the shrimp toast were probably my favorite items of the night. One thing I wish the omelette had was a crunch texture somewhere. Maybe some crispy fried shallots on top would do the trick. But I did appreciate the texture pops from the salmon roe on top. So good!

Finally, we finished off with their cinnamon toast sundae. The ice cream tasted like the cereal Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and the crunch element came from the tiny fried bombolini doughnuts on top. Absolute crack!

We can’t wait to go back to try more of the menu. The service was really great here too, as they gave us complimentary glasses of Lambrusco since we were celebrating our anniversary.

CACTUS WREN
98 Rivington St.
New York, NY 10002

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Beauty & Essex

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

The Cake Dealer and I finally made it over to Beauty & Essex after living down here since late 2020. She had been to the bar once before, but I had only ever been inside to make a meat delivery when I was working at Golden Packing in 2021. The chef, Derrick Prince, was on some cooking competition TV shows back in the day, and since then, I’ve always enjoyed following along on his social media and trying out his food whenever I could. He’s a really talented chef.

First off, the service here is impeccable. This is the same for all Tao Group properties. Really great staff that genuinely cares. They started us off with complimentary glasses of bubbly. It was a nice glass too, not some cheap garbage. I ordered a martini as well, and it was made very nicely.

We ordered two apps, but Derrick sent out three more! We had the pleasure of trying the French dips on toast. the shishito peppers, the sea bass tacos, the grilled cheese and tomato soup dumplings, and the steak tartare quesadillas. I think my favorites were the French dips and the sea bass tacos, but The Cake Dealer preferred the dumplings. All of them were great though.

For our mains, we ordered the Peruvian chicken and the beef Wellington.

Both of these were delicious, but I think the winner for both of us was the chicken. Shocker! But there was just something about the jalapeno salsa verde, the squash, carrot and zucchini ribbons underneath, and those little shreds of crispy potato and peas on top that just came together in a magical way. Incredible.

And that’s not to trash the Wellington at all. It was cooked to an absolutely perfect, butter-knife tender medium rare. The sauce was velvety smooth, the pastry was crispy and light. A really great representation of that this dish is meant to be. This is a 9/10, especially since the price was shockingly low to me at like $65. The beef alone would cost more than that at a steakhouse, not including all the prep and labor to make it into a Wellington. Great value.

On the side, we ordered the caulilini, which consisted of broccolini and cauliflowerini (a cross between cauliflower and broccolini), served in a parmesan broth. This was really nice, but Derrick sent out these roasted Kyoto carrots that blew us away. They were roasted for hours and served with some sort of blood orange agrodolce sauce. Good enough to make you understand vegetarians.

For dessert, we tried these beauties that were shaped like cherries, which had either a vanilla or white chocolate mousse inside of a chocolate shell that was covered in a cherry glaze and plopped on top of a hazelnut and chocolate crumble. Perfect way to end the meal.

I highly recommend this place, and I will definitely be going back to try more of the menu. They even offer a brunch pre fixe, which comes with an app, an entree, a side, and a glass of sparkling rose for $35. Another steal of a deal in my opinion.

BEAUTY & ESSEX
146 Essex St.
New York, NY 10002