For our first meal in Key West, we hit up Square One. The place had a really nice drink menu and food selections, so I figured it was a perfect spot to try.
The decor is minimalist rustic, if that makes any sense.
It looks like pig wings have made their way down to Florida. The ones here were a healthy size and tasted really great. They were breaded lightly and fried crisp. The meat was super tender.
These duck dumplings were a very nice Chinese inspired appetizer as well. The flavors were robust.
My wife had this nice bowl of mussels, which were actually an appetizer portion but probably big enough for an entree if you are indulging in a few starters.
The snapper was all gone, but they had some local grouper. It came seared, and served atop some nice soba noodles.
A couple of days later my wife and I went back to try their flight of bloody mary drinks at breakfast.
From right to left that’s tomatillo and melon, carrot habanero, yellow tomato and regular tomato. Each was rimmed with a different type of salt to accentuate the flavors within. Really nice.
I had a lobster cobb salad to go with the bloodies. Lots of good quality lobster meat!
If you’re ever in Key West, I highly recommend this place. It’s great for drinks at the bar or any meal of the day. If native New Yorker Lucas is tending bar, you’ll have a great experience.
We visited the Key West location of this joint for brunch and liked it a lot. I had a poached salmon cobb salad with a side of duck bacon.
The salad was on point – salmon was perfectly cooked, and all the components came together nicely. The duck bacon tasted a lot like turkey bacon, and it had a similar texture as well.
I came to this cool village joint for a press dinner.
The interior is like an old world tavern, with lots of exposed brick, warm tones and wood beams on the ceiling.
The beer selection is really great, both on tap and in bottles/cans.
Chef Armando cut his teeth at STK and Five Napkin Burger before taking on the executive chef role at both this Malt House location and the newly opened, massive Financial District location.
The bar room is really well apportioned, with an L-shaped stretch that also has some tabletop seating nearby. At happy hour they offer nice food selections and cheap drink options, along with dollar oysters! There’s also a full menu at the bar for the other eats, and they offer flights of beer (four for $10), American whiskey and Scotch whisky.
Here’s what we had on our press tasting:
All the apps came out on a big platter, with the exception of the mussels, of course:
The onion rings had a nice bacon flavor to them. They were fluffy without being too bready, and the onion inside was cooked through.
The baked, fried and grilled wings were excellent – the best of the “fried stuff,” for sure. They had a mild buffalo spiced roquefort sauce on them, but that didn’t take away any of the crisp to the skin.
One of the more unique items on the menu is the fried cheese curds. You just don’t see them all that much around here. They were like small bite-sized bits of “cheese sticks,” only less melty and more airy and bready.
The fried pickles were crispy as hell! They were sliced paper thin first, and then battered and fried. These went nicely with the homemade ranch sauce.
The ranch sauce, by the way, was the best of the three sauces we had (the other two: a house sauce that was similar to thousand island, and a chipotle mayo).
The star of the openers, however, was the crock of mussels that were steamed in a sauce made from roasted tomatoes, chorizo, garlic, herbs (rosemary, for one) and white wine. Delicious.
Chef Armando hits back to back home runs with the burger and the mahi mahi tacos when it comes to the entrees.
The burger is a blend of short rib, chuck and brisket that makes for a tender, juicy and superbly flavorful patty of beef. Topped with onion marmalade, pickles, bacon, lettuce, red onion and cheese, you really can’t go wrong.
The fries on the side, however, were a little bit lacking in comparison to the incredible burger. Not as crispy as I like, and a little heavy on the grease flavor. The truffle fries had a better crisp to them, but I didn’t get much of the truffle flavor, and they were cut a little thicker than I like for French fries.
The tacos are super refreshing, with really nicely cooked fish and fresh ingredients. I’d definitely go back for these.
We seriously tasted an astonishing amount of food on this press event. Next was the open-faced strip steak sandwich on a French baguette, topped with melty gruyere, red onion and arugula.
The steak was pre-sliced but thick, making it good for the open-faced, knife-and-fork format.
The lobster mac and cheese was topped with a generous portion of lobster claw and tail meat, and it had the flavor of truffle oil to bring some earthiness into the dish.
We even tried a salad with grilled chicken. Pretty good. It was nicely dressed and the chicken breast was perfectly cooked.
For dessert, we sampled both the creme brûlée and the chocolate cake. My favorite between the two was the creme brûlée. It was smooth and creamy, nice and evenly textured.
The chocolate cake was served warm, with a scoop of house made vanilla on the side.
The cake was slightly dry, but the ice cream was a good way balance that: eat some ice cream with each bite of cake, and problem solved.
But what can I say: The Cake Dealer really spoils me when it comes to cake and bake.
To sum up: I’ll definitely be back here for some drinks, burgers and tacos. Great shit. Awesome US craft beer selection (like Bourbon County) that rotates out often, and excellent burgers. Most likely I will come for happy hour and indulge in some dollar oysters too.
THE MALT HOUSE
206 Thompson St.
New York, NY 10012
By far the more superior lobster roll when compared to Luke’s. This is only rivaled by Burger & Lobster.
Even after a walk home in the bag from the new outpost at Urban Space, Vanderbilt, this was still buttery and delicious. One side of the bun was a little soggy, but that was only due to the transport. Robust lobster flavors, excellent, perfectly cooked knuckle and claw meat, and great dressing. Well played!
Fresh from the Brooklyn flagship was pretty great too, though I still find lobster rolls to be too expensive, in general.
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND
Urban Space Vanderbilt
230 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10169
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND
284 Van Brunt St
Brooklyn, NY 11231
My wife and I ordered some take-out from this joint. It was a little pricey, but the food was pretty good. I imagine it would be much better at the actual restaurant, because at home, in the to-go containers, things were a bit messy.
I got the chicken burrito, which was filled with a good amount of nicely grilled chicken, rice, beans, plenty of cheese, sauteed mushrooms and peppers, and a nice sauce.
It came with refried beans and rice, as well as some lettuce, sour cream and guacamole.
My wife had the chili rellenos dish. They came to us completely unassembled/unstuffed, but the components were all nicely cooked and tasty, all pepper skin was removed, and this, too, came with rice and beans. Doesn’t look like much, however.
We even got some tortilla chips and salsa, as we would have, had we dined in the restaurant.
BONMi is a Vietnamese-ish soup, sandwich and breakfast joint that opened about nine months ago on 62nd between Columbus and Amsterdam.
The menu is simple, fresh and straight-forward:
Unlike traditional pho, the soup here has very thin, rounded noodles, as opposed to wider, flat noodles. The broth is beef or veggie stock, and you can add a variety of meats as toppings. We went with 18-hour beef in beef stock, with a lemongrass sauce and everything but carrots on top. It was pretty good! Just don’t expect that robust pho flavor. This is more like a standard noodle soup than pho.
The sandwich, however, keeps it pretty real to banh mi. The flavor profile is similar, though not with exactitude, and the bread is good quality, crunchy, fresh French baguette style:
It is a bit short on length for the price point, but it is packed to the gills with meat and toppings. This is the pork belly filling:
The joint also serves pre-made salads, summer rolls and other Vietnamese items, like this fresh brewed coffee:
For all three items it was just over $22. Not bad, considering the quality was acceptable to me, and even passed muster with my wife (her heritage is Vietnamese, so she is naturally picky when it comes to anything claiming to be remotely Vietnamese). Give it a shot!
My wife and I stopped by “Handy Nasty” for a quick bite before a concert at Webster Hall. I’d heard good things about this place, so was eager to try it out.
We started with an order of pork belly with chili oil. This was served cold. The texture of the fat on each slice was noodle-like, and the meat was likely boiled and then sliced thin. It had good flavor, and I suppose all that oil is meant to be mixed into the big bowl of rice that comes with it. Honestly we could have been full just from that alone. Portion sizes are massive here.
We also tried the dry pepper chicken wings. These were a little greasy from the puffed up batter on the wings, but the addition of chili paste, fried ginger, fried garlic and dry peppers give it a great flavor. The meat itself was very juicy.
My wife had the dan dan noodles. The mildly spicy peanut sauce is mixed into the noodles table-side for this massive portion of starch.
I went with an old stand-by: chicken lo mein. I figured I would test the mettle of this joint by ordering something so insanely common just to see how they executed. It was great – probably close to my favorite of the night, right alongside the pork belly. Quality ingredients and correct proportions of each, along with a hit of spice and low grease content, all make this a winner:
Peck’s Arcade is a great restaurant up in Troy, New York. My wife‘s friend Nick is the chef there:
When we were up in the area visiting my wife’s family for Thanksgiving, we stopped in to try the food. The building itself is a really cool historic structure that used to be an inn:
The place was full – even the wine bar next door that is under the same ownership.
We had a great bar style seat that was overlooking the small but extremely organized and efficient kitchen staff:
The cocktail menu is really dynamic, with old fashioned shit like the Pisco Sour, as well as new recipes like the Hibiscus Negroni.
Pisco Sour and a Red Scare are pictured below. Both were really tasty and well made.
We started out with several small plates. First was the octopus with hummus and roasted red pepper:
The char was excellent on this. The tentacle itself was expertly cleaned to be void of any chewy skin but the suction cups remained for a great crispy texture. It was soft and light.
Next was the bowl of wild mushrooms:
This might have been my favorite of the night. The mushrooms were simply but properly done with brown butter and coarse salt.
Next we tried a crostini with sardine. This was really flavorful and smoky, with a great savory punch to it.
The last of the small plates we tried were these fire roasted local carrots with dill, yogurt sauce, spicy smoked pepper paste and brown butter crackers:
Next we tried a pair of house-made pasta dishes. The first was the pillow soft gnocchi with a nice classic tomato and basil sauce:
The star, though, was the thick chitarra pasta that was served with broccoli rabe, a mild cheese sauce and some grated egg yolk.
It brought out the inner goombah in me so much that I started loading up my fork with twirling motions against a spoon, like my grandfather used to do:
For dessert we tried this really tasty smores panna cotta that came with chocolate cake, burnt sea salted marshmallow and homemade graham crackers.
Some cookies came with the bill as well. These also had a hint of salt in them, just like the dessert, which made the chocolate in both items really pop on the taste buds.
If you happen to be in the Albany/Troy area, definitely give this place a try. Everything on the menu looked so good, and with a seasonal menu that changes often, it will always offer something unique and different with each visit.
Nestled below a pole dancing and twerking school (I shit you not; you can see the poles in the windows above the right hand side of the entrance in the photo), is Akbar Palace.
We scored a flash deal for this joint: $20 gets you $40. The management was nice enough to honor our Groupon even after the expiration date too, which was cool.
Each table gets some flat cracker type bread with some chutneys.
There was tamarind sauce (left), apricot chutney (center), and a really nice tomato, onion and pepper chutney that I never tried before (right). That was my favorite of the three.
We started with a pair of apps that sounded delicious but ended up being a bit flat from our expectations. First was the pepper crusted scallops. I liked that they had a good grilled-on-the-flattop flavor, but the portion size was a bit small.
Same goes for the crispy calamari. The tempura-esque coating was interesting, though I didn’t get that curry leaf flavor that I expected from the menu description.
My wife ordered a boneless lamb dish but got semi-bone-in goat instead. No matter – it was really tasty, and the meat was tender.
I had chicken makhani, which is like chicken tikka, but served in a mildly spicy tomato and yogurt sauce. This was pretty good. The meat was of good quality and the sauce was nice over rice, or on top of the naan bread.
The naan was good. It was soft, yet crisp, and had good texture from the tandoori oven flames. It was lightly coated with olive oil as well.
We skipped dessert since we had the lassis earlier. They were smooth and creamy, tart and sweet, and ice cold. Perfect. This place is known for its mango lassis. They are truly excellent, so if you go here, make sure you try one.
I felt that the bill was a bit high even after applying our $40 credit to it. We still had to shell out $50 for the remainder, the tax and the tip. Does this look like a $90 meal to you? I don’t know… I’m starting to think that some of these Groupon deals aren’t so good. As Admiral Ackbar would say (namesake of this restaurant?): IT’S A TRAP!
My official recommendation on this flash deal: skip it, but stop by for a mango fucking lassi if you’re in the area.
Taureau is a French fondue joint down in SoHo that’s owned and operated by the same badass chef dude, Didier, who runs neighboring La Sirene and cross-town East Village gem Le Village.
My wife and I were invited here to round out a trio of press dinners for Didier’s restaurants.
The atmosphere here is cozy, with dim, warm lighting. Taureau derives its name, logo and decor concepts from the Taurus zodiac sign. It’s an earth sign specifically, and everything served and used for decor is of the earth (no fish on the menu, lots of natural objects for decor, dark wood and earth tones for the seating and tables, etc).
The concept of fondue is pretty simple: melted cheeses, hot oils, mulled wines and melted chocolates, in which various meats, veggies, fruits, breads and other items are dunked and dipped prior to eating. It’s not complicated or messed with here at Taureau. As with his traditional French bistro La Sirene, Didier has kept his fondue concept restaurant straightforward, and I believe it’s the only fondue gig in town.
The fondue experience is inherently communal. No guys: there’s no LSD, cult leaders, hippies or outdoor multi-day music festivals. I only mean “communal” as in everyone is using the same cooking vessel. As such this lends itself to be a good place to go both with a group of friends, or even for an intimate date. After you share cooking vessels, you can share a bed together. And with music like Barry White playing during the meal, the mood for such behavior is subconsciously set. One caution I will give you is this: be prepared to come away with a scent of cooking oil on your clothing. Didier has some good air circulation in the restaurant, so it wasn’t as thick as I expected. However sometimes the fondue pots can smoke up a little bit, and the oil smells can cling to your fabrics – JUST the oil smells though; the cheese and chocolate smells don’t cling. So even though Barry White may have lubricated your libido while you were indulging in chocolate covered strawberries with your lover, you both may come away with a “fast food employee” smell on your persons that could ruin the mood. I suppose you can simply double down on the sexy and eat topless if you want; then there will be no smell on your clothing. However, while it’s perfectly legal to go topless in NYC, it may be frowned upon by the restaurant and its diners, and if you drip hot oil, liquefied cheese or melted chocolate on your nipples, you may regret the topless dining decision very quickly (unless, of course, you’re into that weird shit).
I have to be honest here: I had been to a fondue joint out on Long Island once and I didn’t like it very much. It felt over-priced and the food was underwhelming. But here, I knew I was in good hands with Didier. Everything I have ever tasted from his kitchens was high quality and really delicious. As such I was excited to dive in.
Okay so, basically, you choose your price point and fondue accompaniments (very reasonably priced, ranging from $43/pp to $52/pp), and soon the food starts to come out as the fondue pots heat up on built-in electric heaters that are embedded in the tables. They serve wine too, so you can pair your cheese fondue with white, and then transition over to red for the meats:
The first course is a salad along with some croutons, which is unlimited if you choose to gorge yourself:
The salad is mixed greens, lightly but evenly dressed. The croutons are for your cheese fondue course that comes out with this. We tried four different cheese concoctions. The first was a nutmeg-infused cheese, which smelled like fall:
Then a combination of various Swiss cheeses:
And a cauldron of Monterey jack and cheddar cheese:
But my favorite was this earthy truffle perigord cheese:
It went perfectly with our side items for dipping, which consisted of broccoli, chorizo, fennel sausage, and portobello mushrooms:
In particular, the mushrooms with the truffle cheese was an incredible “double-down” on the earthy flavor notes. And the chorizo went really nicely with the nutmeg cheese. The spice of the sausage was off-set and balanced by that touch of sweetness from the cheese. We kept diving in, dipping food, and dodging and ducking from any errant drips of melty cheese as we reached over and across each other. Dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge. Just like the five D’s of dodgeball, from the Dodgeball movie:
Some drip-catching plates could have been helpful, I suppose, and I guess we could add a 6th D for the dodgeball reference, for Didier. He has truly created some really amazing cheese combinations, and that truffle cheese was the big star of the show for the evening. I just kept going at it, even when all that was left to dip was the broccoli!
After about 15 hits of truffle cheese, I thought I might be full, but then the meat course came out. Our cheese fondue pots were swapped for four new pots: red wine, vegetable oil, olive oil and peanut oil. The idea here is to dunk your meat in for varying amounts of time (depending how thoroughly cooked you want it), and then add a little sauce to it before eating. The sauces included a dijon cream, truffle red wine reduction, peppercorn gravy, gorgonzola cream and Hollandaise.
The sauces paired in unique ways depending on which meat you chose, and which fondue pot you used for cooking the meat. The meats are all marinated and pre-sliced, by the way, for maximum tenderness. Our meat selections were as follows:
Pork (cook for 45 seconds):
Chicken (cook for 45 seconds):
Filet Mignon (medium rare 15 seconds):
Hanger Steak (medium rare 15 seconds):
My favorite pairings were (1) hanger steak cooked in olive oil and topped with the truffle red wine reduction sauce; (2) filet mignon cooked in red wine and topped with the gorgonzola sauce; (3) pork cooked in red wine and topped with the peppercorn gravy; and (4) chicken cooked in peanut oil and topped with the dijon cream sauce. Really good shit.
Dessert, as you can imagine, involved copious quantities of melted chocolate. We tried both the milk and dark chocolate varieties:
We were served a plate of sliced fruit and dessert breads for dipping. Bananas, pineapples, apples, kiwi, grapes, strawberries, banana bread, white chocolate bread and even marshmallows were all involved.
You can mix and match to your heart’s desire. I was actually surprised to find that I liked kiwi with milk chocolate. Pretty interesting.
But you can’t really beat the simplicity of a chocolate covered banana or marshmallow:
That about covers it for this really fun fondue night. If you’re up for something unique and different for dinner, this is definitely the way to go. When you go, tell Didier that Johnny Prime sends his regards.
