Category Archives: Restaurant Reviews

The Norm at the Brooklyn Museum

The Norm is the restaurant inside the Brooklyn Museum. I was recently invited in to try their burgers and to help promote them on social media.

The space is gorgeous here, and it truly fits with the nice artwork and artifacts on display in the museum.

I browsed the menu while drinking a bloody Mary. This was nice and savory, and had just the right amount of spice to it.

The burgers were delicious. The first one I tried was “The Norman.” Topped with cheddar and bacon, and some house made pickles, lettuce, tomato and onion.

The second one was an interesting Japanese fusion type burger. The patty contained mushrooms as well as beef, and it was glazed with a teriyaki sauce, and topped with caramelized onion,  pickled daikon and carrots.

I also tried the pho flavored ramen. This was an interesting fusion of Vietnamese and Japanese soups. The Sun noodles were perfectly cooked, but the addition of too much fish sauce muddied the flavors that were cooked into the broth with the various cuts of beef.

It definitely smelled like pho though, because of the herbs. The soft boiled egg and flank steak on top were also perfectly cooked, like the noodles.

This ramen was indeed tricky. My wife and I both liked it enough to finish it – even after crushing two burgers with fries – but we were perplexed by the competing flavors within. Not bad by any means, just different.

I think the mushroom burger embodied the same feeling, only we loved that one and the ramen we just liked. I’d definitely go back to try more stuff here. They do a great job, and are definitely thinking outside the box.

THE NORM
at The Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Pkwy
Ground Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Wm. Farmer & Sons

I tried some smoked wings and a burger at this joint in Hudson. The wings were pretty good, but had more of a tomato and red pepper sauce on them as opposed to something more traditional like Buffalo sauce.

The burger needed a bun upgrade, but was otherwise pretty great. Standard double patty style with “special sauce” that was reminiscent of Thousand Island dressing.

Beautiful dining space.

And really nice cocktails and homemade sodas.

WM FARMER & SONS
20 S Front St
Hudson, NY 12534

Cafe Le Perche

Breakfast at this bakery-slash-restaurant joint was pretty fantastic.

I had an amazing lobster BLT sandwich that must have had a pound of good lobster claw meat on it.

My wife’s “little breakfast” was just $9 and had a ton of food on the plate.

The only downer was the side order of truffle fries. They were more like roasted potato wedges, not too crisp, and I think they were simply hit with some truffle oil to give it an aroma.

CAFE LE PERCHE
230 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534

Aburiya Kinnosuke

I met my wife for a quick lunch near her office and we came here. I had the cold Korean style ramen noodles.

It was pretty good! Refreshing on a hot summer day.

My wife had this tuna saddle, which was massive and delicious.

They offer some nice lunch specials, but I recommend getting there just before noon, because the joint gets really packed out in the lunch rush.

ABURIYA KINNOSUKE
213 E 45th St
New York, NY 10017

Patisserie Lenox

Stopped into this Hudson bakery for a cold brew coffee and a lemon raisin swirl pastry. Really nice riff on a cinnamon roll type pastry.

PATISSERIE LENOX
504 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534

Verdigris Tea

My wife and I stopped in here for a quick sip of tea and a bite of some desserts when we were up in Hudson, NY.

The cookie had a tasty and soft center, and the banana cream pie was really smooth. Not too rich, so I liked it.

We sampled a few teas (green and black), and I slammed the pink lemonade. I really liked the green tea, because for once in my life it was sweet and not bitter.

VERDIGRIS TEA
135 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534

Lick

Lick is an ice cream joint I tried up in Hudson, NY. They had some interesting flavors on the board.

My wife and I went with a cup of fig and sweet cream. It tasted like an ice cream version of fig newtons. Delicious.

LICK
623 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534

David Burke at Bloomingdale’s

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

My wife picked up a Gilt City deal for David Burke’s joint at Bloomingdale’s. I noticed some nice looking sandwiches, a decent looking burger, and a hanger steak on the menu, so I was psyched to try it out.

Unfortunately, the special menu for the flash deal eliminated all of the things I was interested in trying: pastrami sandwich, French dip, burger, and hanger steak frites. But not to worry! This deal actually supplied us with a LOT of food, and, contrary to out last experience with a Burke joint (Fabrick), the food here was really good.

They start you with warm cheddar popovers. I can eat a basket full of them. Very tasty.

I ordered the grilled tofu Thai peanut salad to start (please don’t kill me). It was actually really good! It had an acidic pop to it from the various citrus and fish sauce additives, and good texture from the jicama and cabbage slaw.

My wife had the tomato soup, which was velvety smooth, topped with a Peter North -like splash of basil oil, and accompanied by a miniature grilled cheese sandwich.

For my entree, I had the grilled salmon.

It was cooked to a nice medium temperature, and it sat on a bed of slaw that was similar to my starter salad, only heavier on the slaw component as opposed to the lettuce. It also had a pop of cumin in it that altered the flavor profile a bit. The salmon skin had a great crisp to it as well.

My wife had chicken Milanese; breaded and fried tender chicken cutlet, topped with arugula and shaved Parmesan cheese, and garnished with grape tomatoes and lemon wedges.

There was a nice tomato-based sauce underneath too, but just the right amount so that nothing got soggy or smothered.

For dessert, I had this chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. I usually don’t go for chocolate cakes, but this was delicious.

My wife had the sorbet with fresh fruit. Really nice, actually, when you mixed both desserts together for a bite.

If you can still find this deal online, I recommend it. While they severely limit the menu on you, what you do get is good quality and a lot of it. You’l leave full, and with a feeling that you got a good deal.

DAVID BURKE AT BLOOMINGDALES
1000 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10022

Ichiban Nom Nom

I had the opportunity to head to Chef Joe Conti’s test kitchen prior to the open of his yet-to-be-named Japanese omakase restaurant downtown. The great thing about this meal is that I was able to taste a lot of different cuts of A5 Wagyu beef. The highest marbling score there is. Unreal. Since there were a bunch of courses, I’ll get right down to business.

Torched mackerel with pickled daikon.

Fried river fish, uni and river crab.

Giant shrimp/prawn carabineros. Simply seasoned with salt, but their insides cook into a naturally spicy and fatty butter-like substance that will provide you with wet food dreams for the rest of your life. It coats your tongue like a rich prosciutto almost. For real, this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my whole fucking life. They get to about a third of a pound each in weight, too, so they’re substantial. Favorite part of the meal – even better than the beef!

Wagyu skirt steak (8/10) and pork skirt steak. Amazing. Here, the pork out shined the beef just because it was so unique to see this cut here in the states. I want more of it!

Wagyu sirloin (9/10), tenderloin (10/10) and rib cap (9/10). All amazing, but my favorite, oddly, was the tenderloin. It was so buttery soft and tender that it would be impossible to compare it to anything else that came across our plates.

Here’s the tenderloin up close:

Italian panko Parmesan breadcrumb “gyu katsu,” aka deep fried beef strip loin. Amazing. 8/10.

Eel with shiso.

Cold udon noodles.

Ice cream: chocolate, green tea with chocolate chips, and salted caramel. Still some refining to be done here, but over all a great closer plate.

I can’t wait until this spot officially opens. I think it’ll be in the West 4th Street and 8th Avenue area. Keep an eye out! They’re already booked solid for the first few months after they open.

UPDATE: 1/15/18

Chef Joe’s place is called Shuraku, located in the west village. They opened to great success, and I finally got around to bringing my wife there to try the great food. The meal was excellent, and my wife loved her birthday dinner. Here’s what we had:

During the course of the meal we tried three different sakes. The one pictured with the bottle was my favorite, aged for 17 years in barrels. It had a mild smooth scotch flavor to it.

Course 1: tofu.

Course 2: A5 wagyu beef sushi.

Course 3: oyster and king crab.

Course 4: yakitori

Course 5: fish cake with dashi

Course 6: beef and seafood grill.

Course 7: udon with roe.

Course 8: yuzu cheesecake and strawberry yogurt ice cream, with green tea.

SHURAKU JAPANESE GRILL
47 8th Ave
New York, NY 10014

Becco

My wife and I decided to finally give this joint a shot after a manager at a different restaurant mentioned the porcini dry-aged rib eye to us when we were discussing steaks. That particular cut wasn’t available, unfortunately, since we came here for lunch (dinner menu only). But I was still able to get a good beef-filled meal into my belly nonetheless. Check it out:

I started with the bresaola. I always jump at this when I see it, because it’s not very common on menus anymore. No one wants to cure filet mignon – they want to cook it. But the cured preparation is so amazing!

It was sliced nice and thin, and was so incredibly tender.

Seriously. You need to come here and order this. It’s topped with lightly dressed celery leaf and endive.

My wife had the unlimited pasta trio. Of these, the veal bolognese was the best (spirals), then the tomato and basil (chitarra spaghetti), followed by the chard-stuffed ravioli.

I had a nicely charred hanger steak on a bed of polenta with fried leeks – drizzled upon with a really nice balsamic.

This baby was perfectly cooked and was so tender that you could pull the meat apart rather than cut it with a knife.

An easy 9/10 for flavor. Great portion size and price point too, at around $30 for the composed plate.

See that purple balsamic?

I definitely recommend giving this place a shot, and I’ll be back for that porcini aged rib eye ASAP.

BECCO
355 W 46th St
New York, NY 10036