My wife and I tried this place for happy hour. They offer $1.50 oysters, lower priced starters and some drink specials as well.
The oysters were great (not pictured), and so was the scotch egg.
We also tried their fried chicken. This was pretty good. At $24 the price was a bit steep, but I really enjoyed the charred lemon and unique flavors in the batter. Worth a try for sure.
I would definitely go back for more, and to shoot some pool.
FLOWER SHOP
107 Eldridge St
New York, NY 10002
Joey Roses dive bar/social club on the Lower East Side that was recently featured on Eater as a spot where you can still get some cheap, good eats. After reading the article and seeing how close it was to home, I had to try it.
The thrust of the article was that, from 5pm-7pm and from 10pm-12am, they offer “buy two get a third free” deal on their sandwiches. Their sandwiches are regularly priced at $8. Can’t beat it!
They’re nicely packed Italian sandwiches, filled with mortadella, beef, salami, you name it. They have a few different selections you can make. My wife and I picked up three different sandwiches. All were good, but the mortadella sandwich was king. It comes with mozz and sweet cherry peppers on it. Killer.
Make sure you also get some of their crispy fried Brussels Sprouts. The touch of agave syrup on them really sets them apart from others. They’re perfect!
This place is so close – we will definitely be back.
JOEY ROSES
174 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
This little fried chicken joint is on Avenue C at 6th Street.
There’s a craft beer spot next door called ABC Beer Co., which has nice covered outdoor seating and a great selection of beer. My wife and I snagged some fried chicken tenders and french fries to try with our beer.
The fries were a little soggy, but the tenders were good. Tender, juicy, great crisp on the outside. Good enough to make us want to go back to try the actual fried chicken pieces as well as the sandwiches. I will update this review once we get around to trying.
BOBWHITE COUNTER
94 Loisaida Ave (Avenue C)
New York, NY 10009
Weird name, great happy hour.
Zest Sushi has a very extensive menu of items for just $5.50 during happy hour, which also includes their beer and sake offerings as well. My wife and I tried a bunch of stuff, and pretty much everything was great. Here’s the run down:
Mini salmon don.
“Salmon Dream” torched sashimi.
Skewers of crispy squid tentacles.
Crispy oysters (this was the only item I wouldn’t get again).
Takoyaki (fried balls of octopus with bonito).
Crispy salmon skin roll.
For drinks, the better bet is to get the sake. They give you about 10oz for $5.50, and it’s pretty good.
ZEST SUSHI
249 Broome St
New York, NY 10002
I was recently invited into this place for a media dinner, complimentary in exchange for posting content on Instagram. Here’s what we had:
The Good
Perfect espresso martini. And I mean perfect!
Awesome pappardelle with porcini mushrooms. Pictured here is a half portion size. They split the dish even though I asked them not to.
Octopus with chic pea puree. This was on the upper side of okay, just about at the good level.
The Bad & The Ugly
Complimentary plate of cheese and meats. Meh.
Steak Tartare. This needed salt/seasoning. I also didn’t like the burrata cream on the bottom, but the sun dried tomato was a nice, unique topper. It was ugly though, and I had to add some crumbled parm from the plate above to give it a pop of flavor.
The porterhouse was overcooked, under seasoned, dry, and tasted as if it was a plate of leftovers that was re-heated in a toaster oven. If you’ve ever done that, you know exactly what I mean. It was noted as being dry-aged, but I didn’t taste it. There was little to no char on it either. 4/10.
We skipped dessert since it was starting to get late. The service was slow toward the end of the meal (busy overcooking the steak, perhaps). I kid. The restaurant did get pretty full and busy later on. The restaurant is in the back of a Hyatt hotel lobby, which is weird. I wonder if that’s where they serve the complimentary breakfast in the morning.
I probably won’t go back, but if I did, I would definitely stick to the pasta selections and the wine/cocktails.
RAMERINO ITALIAN PRIME
16 E 39th St
New York, NY 10016
This joint opened recently and is connected to the 9 Orchard hotel. There’s a lot I want to try here, but on this first trip my wife and I just stopped in for a couple of cocktails and some snacks.
The cocktails are great. I had a Gibson that used basil syrup in the mix. Very herbal and unique.
I also tried their amari-based old fashioned, which was really strong at first. But as the ice mellowed it out, it was perfect.
We had the Oysters Rockefeller, which were quite expensive at $24 for four. They were delicious, however, and reminded us of the flavor profile of escargots.
We also had an order of their perfectly cooked fries, which come with ketchup, mayo, and dijon. I love that they give you dijon automatically. It’s my favorite condiment.
Based on this trip, we will definitely be back to try more of the menu. Stay tuned for updates!
UPDATE 10-15-2022
On a second trip, after a LOT of hype in the food media world, I noticed a decline here.
First off, the nice ice cube in the old fashioned is gone now, and they replaced it with a bunch of small regular ice cubes. Bad move!
We started with the steak tartare, which was fairly good although it was very heavy on the onion and vinegar. The parm crisp on top was nice though.
The burger is no longer on the menu. I was excited to try it but they had a steak on special, so I went with that.
$185! Get the fuck outta here for 32oz!
It was just okay. Cooked perfectly, nice crust. But the meat itself was pretty dense and tough in places, and a good amount of connective tissue that was inedible. The best parts were along the bone, and edges, where some aged flavor managed to creep in. 6/10.
My wife’s duck was better, but parts of the dish were insanely salty.
The bread and butter here is fantastic, and complimentary. Get it.
Fries were still great, so there’s that.
CORNER BAR
60 Canal St
New York, NY 10002
This new sushi counter at Essex Market / The Market Line offers a fairly reasonable sushi dinner that consists of 8 pieces, a hand roll, ikura with rice and uni with rice – all for $85.
I usually love hand rolls, but I didn’t really enjoy this one. I think it was a mix of the Japanese pickle and a too thick/chewy seaweed wrapper.
The sushi pieces were great though, as was the ride. But the real star of the show was this salad that we ordered as a special. It was basically sashimi with some nice veggies.
Pass on the cauliflower, crab, uni and okra cold “soup” that they have on special as well. It was slimy and not soup-like at all. It also needed seasoning.
The light cocktails are a hit. There’s no hard liquor, but they’re made with apertifs, liqueurs and digestifs.
GOUIE
115 Delancey St.
New York, NY 10002
This place is great. Some of the guys from the NYC Zooz Club and I hit this spot after riding around for a bit. Their curry sauce covered fried chicken thigh sandwiches are amazing.
I got mine with cheese. It was perfect, and the fries were bangin’ too.
Get over here and try this place. I’ll definitely be back for sure. Also, if you want to see some video of our bike gang ride from the day, check out the below:
CHEF KATSU BROOKLYN
143 Greene Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11238
My wife and I have wanted to try out this cocktail bar and live music lounge for a while. We finally made it in for an early dinner yesterday.
Quick take-aways: Delicious cocktails and good comfort food.
We really liked the broiled oysters and the french fries, as well as the ice cream sundae. The rest was just okay.
The snails were a bit under-seasoned and lacked that “snap” texture.
We also tried the shrimp and crab cake special. The shrimp were slightly overcooked and the batter on the crab cake needed work (no texture). The salad with fried green tomato was really nice though.
The batter on the fried chicken was too hard, but the meat was cooked nicely. The Voodoo seasoned fries were great.
Their coffee-based dessert cocktails are incredible. They have two, and each one is extremely unique, with one even having carrot juice espresso and tahini in it. Wild. They paired really well with the ice cream sundae.
We will be back for cocktails and live music, for sure. But maybe we’ll stick to the oysters and fries in terms of food.
CANARY CLUB
303 Broome St
New York, NY 10002
Misi is an Italian joint in Williamsburg that serves up some great pasta and an even better porterhouse steak.
Cocktails are really nice, like this negroni sour:
For starters, we did the whipped ricotta with roasted peppers, and the baby artichokes. Both were light and refreshing, but if I had to choose a favorite it would be the artichokes.
Next up was the pasta. We did a lamb ragu citarra as well as a brown butter tortelli stuffed with spinach and ricotta. Normally, I would gravitate toward that lamb ragu, but the tortelli were the winner between the two excellent pastas.
The dry aged porterhouse was awesome.
It was cooked to a nice medium rare and dusted with fennel pollen and rosemary.
The seasoning on it was definitely in the cumin/curry wheelhouse, which was a really nice change of pace.
It came with a side of giganto beans that were really bright and flavorful. Perfectly cooked.
But this steak was an easy 8/10, and I would definitely come back again to try more of the menu.
MISI
329 Kent Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11249
