Category Archives: Nolita/Soho

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Italian, Nolita/Soho, Restaurant Reviews

Peasant

May 28, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

This was an epic beast feast for the ages! $125 per person, not including wine/drinks, was a steal for all of this food we got:

Everything was fantastic, especially the head cheese, liver mousse, and pig!

The amount of potatoes we were given was pretty wild.

I highly recommend this meal for large groups. It was awesome! I can’t wait to go back and try more items from the regular menu, like the pasta and veal porterhouse.

PEASANT
194 Elizabeth St
New York, NY 10012

Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Spanish

Tomino Taberna Gallega

May 27, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First off, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My wife took me here for my birthday to try the Vaca Vieja (old dairy cow, popular in Spanish food). Here’s what we had:

Empanada with octopus and cheese inside. Really nice. The crust reminded me of pot pie dough.

Fried squid on a bed of fried zucchini. This was excellent!

Mussels with a pimento broth.

Wild mushrooms with sliced grapes and goat cheese. Totally unique and delicious.

As a mid-course we had this “Bomba Rice” with squid ink and squid, both on top and mixed into the rice. Amazing.

The steak was a cry-aged 38oz tomahawk for just $108. Crazy! This would be over $160 in a midtown steak joint.

It came with fries too, which were awesome.

The steak had both great flavor and great aroma, and was probably the best version of Vaca Vieja I’ve had so far.

I give this an 8/10 because it was slightly overcooked on the outside and slightly undercooked on the inside.

Dessert was a crepe filled with berry cream and served with yogurt ice cream. Really nice and refreshing.

I will definitely be back here again. I should note that they also have a great selection of Spanish imported beer.

TOMINO TABERNA GALLEGA
192 Grand St
New York, NY 10013

Burgers, Nolita/Soho, Press Reviews

Bronson’s Burgers

July 19, 2021 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

There’s a new burger joint in Nolita and it’s pretty great!

They’re serving Golden Packing beef burgers with cheddar, pickles and caramelized onions on a delicious house baked bun.

The chicken sandwiches are made from fried thighs, so they’re extra tender and juicy!

Great crisp on them too. They also have excellent fries and onion rings.

As well as some interesting “cheeseburger hash browns.”

Don’t skip on their shakes and homemade lemonades too. We had both basil and blueberry mint. They were incredibly refreshing on a hot summer day.

BRONSON’S BURGERS
250 Mulberry St,
New York NY 10012

Fusion, Korean, Nolita/Soho, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Kjun

July 12, 2021 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Kjun is a Korean/Cajun fusion food concept that offers delivery service around NYC. They will soon reopen a physical location, but for now, the delivery is thoughtfully packaged, arrives hot, and travels well – nothing soggy, everything remains crisp that needs to.

We tried the fried chicken, ribs, and pork belly lettuce wraps. All were awesome. I especially liked the sides like the noodles and pickled watermelon rinds. Delicious food! Can’t wait to try their hanger steak dishes next.

Full Points for Flavor, Fusion, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Kimika

July 3, 2021 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Most fusion restaurants are characterized by a big swing, and a big miss. The intentions are usually good, and the concepts make sense on paper, but at bat on the plate, they just don’t have the right swing. Kimika is the exception. Chef Christine Lau VERY successfully marries Japanese, and other aspects of regional Asian cuisine, with high end Italian cuisine. She knocks it out of the park! My wife and I went with another food-obsessed couple, so we were able to try most of the menu.

First off, excellent cocktails! I loved their take on an old fashioned.

To start, we snacked on a bowl of spiced olives, tuna tartare and wagyu + uni skewers. All fantastic.

This squash and sunflower pesto pizzette was an incredible expression of Asian + Italian – also very light and crisp. A great snack.

The “pasta” dishes are where you really see that marriage, though. This shrimp and prosciutto tortellini with mochi in a Japanese broth was probably our favorite bite of the night.

The crispy rice cake lasagna with Italian sausage was up there though, and I’m finding myself craving this as I write…

Even the vegetable selections are all beautiful mash-ups of Italian and Asian flavors, and all of them were great! Our favorite was the charred green beans with olive tapenade and prosciutto (first pic below).

The mains are pretty incredible here. We started with an amazing porchetta. Look at that crispy skin!

Then we moved on to a surf & turf plate, composed of spot prawns that were basted with uni butter, and a killer dry-aged steak with a pickled greens and wasabi spread.

So good! And easily one of the best steaks I’ve had in a very long time. 10/10 – it really brought the funk!

Dessert was also a homerun with the yakult soft serve (our favorite), tiramisu and warm mochi bomboloncini.

I highly recommend this place, and I can’t wait to go back!

KIMIKA
40 Kenmare St,
New York, NY 10012

Italian, Nolita/Soho, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

Emilio’s Ballato

February 21, 2021 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This old school Italian joint is known for having some great parms, whether it’s chicken, veal, eggplant or whatever. Of the three I tried, the veal with vodka sauce, peas and prosciutto took home the win and beat out both the standard chicken and veal varieties.

The meal began with an awesome platter of antipasto (probably the best I’ve had) meatballs, and baked clams oreganata.

We tried three different pasta dishes: cacio e pepe, carbonara, and linguine with clams. Of these, I will throw down with the carbonara every time.

The star of the mains, however, was not the veal parm, but, rather, a special double cut pork chop that was prepared with vinegar cherry peppers. Awesome, and cooked perfectly. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

This is definitely a place you’ll want to go to repeatedly to take advantage of both the great regular menu items as well as the daily specials.

Emilio’s Ballato
55 E. Houston St
New York, NY 10012

Nolita/Soho, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

D’Espana

March 8, 2020 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Despana is a little wine shop, gourmet Spanish grocery, and tapas/pintxos bar in Soho, all rolled into one. My wife won a wine tasting here in a silent auction, so last night we went in to give it a shot.

We tried six different wines from Spain that utilized grape varietals that I have never tried before. All were great. I’m not a wine snob by any means, but I do appreciate the good stuff and I know it when I taste it.

Speaking of tasting good shit, the snacks here are delicious.

That lean muscle lomo on the bottom right side of the charcuterie board was amazing. And that sous vide octopus? BUTTER!

Give this place a shot if you’re in the area.

D’ESPANA
408 Broome St
New York, NY 10013

Burgers, French, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Balthazar

March 8, 2020 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

In all my years in NYC, I never tried Balthazar until last night. I had heard all the great stories: awesome steaks, awesome fries, awesome bread. Only one of those is true, but there are other things worth noting.

My wife and I stopped in for a quick meal at the bar. We started with some nice stiff cocktails, and a pair of apps: escargots and steak tartare. BIG FRENCH.

The escargots were awesome. We crushed them quickly. The tartare was average to good, but the slices of toasted bread were awesome. In fact, the Balthazar bread is so good that other restaurants use Balthazar bread for their bread service.

For our mains, we had the burger and the steak frites.

The burger was really good. Nice crust, great flavor, ample cheese coverage.

The steak, however…

… was Applebees level trash. It was cooked nicely, but the quality was average at best.

I can make anything look good, but this was a 5/10 or 6/10 at best. At $42 this felt like a rip off, and I think it was either flank or flatiron. Not strip as I was kind of expecting. The fries were very good, but not quite at awesome level. Go across town to Raoul’s if a killer burger and steak frites is what you’re after. Here, I would stick to the bread, the burger, and the snails. And yes, the fries are still worth trying if you haven’t already.

BALTHAZAR
80 Spring St
New York, NY 10012

African/Middle Eastern, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Nolita/Soho, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

19 Cleveland

August 17, 2019 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I went to 19 Cleveland – a newish Israeli/Tel Aviv joint – for a friend’s birthday. I’m not quite sure of the names of the dishes we had, as so many small plates came out and some aren’t necessarily on the regular menu. Everything was really good so I’m just going to do a pic dump and highlight my favorites with some extra words.

The falafel and starters were all great.

The hummus was awesome. Probably the best I’ve had other than the fave bean and olive -based one at Coco J’Adore.

I really liked this crispy kale, beets and farmers cheese dish. It reminded me of the one I loved at Le Turtle.

Incredible schnitzel. A top dish of 2019 contender for sure. Make sure you get this. It comes with a platter of greens too, to make it into a Milanese of sorts.

I also really loved this lemony and buttery pasta that came with a fried poached egg on top. DELICIOUS!

Roasted cauliflower.

Branzino.

Awesome halva ice cream on this first dessert plate (the stone great color).

That about does it. I’d definitely come back here again and I highly recommend it. Fun spot.

19 CLEVELAND
19 Cleveland Place
New York, NY 10012

Burgers, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Restaurant Reviews

Raoul’s

March 16, 2019 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to try this spot for about four years now, and I finally got around to it. At least for the burger, anyway.

The Raoul’s burger debuted in 2015, and it has taken the burger world by storm ever since. This au poivre style masterpiece comes with sauce on the side, as well as a nice crispy set of French fries.

On top of the burger is some dressed spinach, sliced gherkins, red onion and a blob of triple-creamed French cheese that reminded me of a soft, velvety and mildly tangy goat cheese. The bun is a soft yet supple challah from Amy’s Bread. Perfect.

The bartender told me to cut the burger in half to make it easier to dip into the au poivre sauce, and he even cautioned me to ration some sauce for fry dipping. Wise words.

However, this revealed that the cheese was relegated to one spot in the middle of the burger, and not spread evenly from edge to edge. I didn’t mind much, as this made for slightly different flavor experiences with each bite. I also didn’t have that issue on the second trip (see halved pic above).