Category Archives: Restaurant Reviews

Spot Dessert Bar

Up on the third floor of a K-town food mall, this little dessert outpost serves up some really nice treats. The Vietnamese coffee cupcake was pretty good, though I didn’t get a lot of that distinct chicory and sweetened condensed milk flavor that I expected.

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The other items were pretty good though, like these things which I thought were churros with icing at first. HA! They were just eclairs

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Everything else under the glass looked delicious. Lots of green tea stuff, as you might expect at an Asian style bakery. Also some really tasty ice creams/gelatos.

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SPOT DESSERT BAR
11 W. 32nd St.
New York, NY 10001

Angry Chicken

Tucked away on the third floor of a K-town food court, Angry Chicken roasts up some deliciously sweet and savory whole chickens. They were giving out some free samples when I was up there for dessert at a nearby food vendor. Check these gorgeous things out. Why so angry? Perhaps because they tasted heavily of apple? So what. Throw some spicy sauce on there and this is heaven.

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Don’s Bogam

This Korean BBQ joint is pretty good. I’ve been here twice now, and I had a good meal each time. While I find the prices of many of these places to be a bit on the pricey side, if you go with enough people you can defray the heavy costs. This time I took some shots of the pork belly. So good.

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The other dish is thinly sliced beef, noodles and yummy broth (the noodles are under the surface of the liquid).

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DON’S BOGAM
17 E. 32nd St.
New York, NY 10016

Luke’s Lobster

A while back Luke’s had a special $5 off day, which made their lobster rolls $10 instead of $15. I put this baby down in no time. It was really tasty, excellent lump style meat, perfectly cooked. I always thought they were too expensive and over-priced until I actually had one. There’s a good deal of lobster meat on these babies. Check it out:

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LUKE’S LOBSTER
207 E. 43rd St.
New York, NY 10017

Duane Park

As usual, my wife got a sweet deal for this place; dinner and a show for two for $60. I wasn’t expecting to like either the food or the entertainment, but I was surprised at how good the food was, and how fun the entertainment was.

We started at the bar, which is really elegant and fancy. It’s set up like a 1920’s sort of art deco social club. They have a nice cocktail menu ($14 each). I had the Bowery Honey Bee, and my wife had a “That’s Gold, Darling.”

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The table bread came out in a stainless steel cone, and was served warm and toasty, with a dish of white bean puree that resembled hummus, but with less aggressive spices.

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Our deal entitled us to a limited menu three course tasting. I started with the roasted shrimp and grits. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the grits were creamy. I just wish there was more!

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My wife had the mushroom veloute, which was creamy, earthy and rich.

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For my entree, I had the ale-braised pork shoulder, which came with mashed potatoes and sliced, roasted carrots. This was really nice. The meat was tender, soft and juicy.

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My wife had the salmon, which was perfectly cooked and came with cannellini beans and tomatoes. I typically don’t like cooked salmon, but this was really tasty.

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For dessert, I chose the sticky toffee pudding. It was mor elite a bread pudding than a proper pudding, so I was taken back a bit when it came to the table. It was delicious though, and warm. The ice cream scoop on top was the perfect balance.

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My wife had the cheesecake of the day, which was apple. Very unique. And good timing for around the Thanksgiving holiday: a mash up of New York (cheesecake) and Americana (apple pie). Great flavors.

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The entertainment was a blast. The band was playing classic soul and motown hits, and the singer was excellent!

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He even did a few duets with a female vocalist – serious hips on her!

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The funny thing about the show was that in-between songs, a pair of burlesque ladies would come out and jiggle their shit on stage. It was basically a classy strip joint in period-piece attire (or lack thereof).

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The best part was watching the band as THEY watched the dancers, laughing, crack jokes to one another as they played, etc. The guitarist was getting dresses and bras thrown at him from across the room. He dangled this red sparkly one from his guitar:

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DUANE PARK
308 Bowery
New York, NY 10012

Sao Mai

My wife and I stopped in here for some banh mi sandwiches after eating some pizza at Motorino around the corner. We tried a classic sandwich, and a pho sandwich (sliced beef and the toppings you usually get with pho, like bean sprouts, etc). Both were pretty good, but I think I liked the pho sandwich better. Both were pretty spicy without having to ask for it, which I like. Check out the pics:

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SAO MAI
203 1st Ave.
New York, NY 10003

Holey Donuts

I had been invited here for a press event a while back but never got the chance to check it out. After my wife and I finished a meal in the area, we figured we would check this joint out for some dessert.

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I tried the lemon creme crunch, which was pretty good but you can taste their whole “low calorie” and “health” angle in these things. It wasn’t BAD, per se, it just wasn’t that good.

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My wife had an apple crumble chocolate maple thing or something, but she asked for an ice cream filling. This was a cool option, but that means they had to swap out the apple filling for ice cream filling. It was much better quality donut when mixed with ice cream. Perhaps it added some softness or moisture that the non-ice cream donut was missing.

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HOLEY DONUTS
101 7th Ave. S.
New York, NY 10014

Bar Sardine

My awesome wife and I rocked the shit out of this place with my awesome cousin and his equally awesome wife after said awesome cousin told me how awesome the burger was at this place. I must say that I agree with the call that this burger was as every bit as awesome as described. But we also had some other awesome shit as well.

What, you might ask? How about this awesome cucumber, coconut water and gin drink?

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The awesome appetizers we took down consisted of three awesome plates of food.

First were these awesome deviled eggs. These little fucks were whipped up with black bean paste, soy sauce and black garlic, then topped with some sliced onion and a dot of sriracha sauce.

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Next up was this awesome plate of roasted carrots. These were topped with puffed, caramelized squash seeds and served alongside a spicy hummus. These were fuck-yo-mamma-in-the-ass good. Light, yet hearty and filling.

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Last of the starters was what  I consider to be the most awesome cheese in the entirety of the cheese industry. Burrata. Here it was served with some confit tomatoes and anchovies, with a little toast and olive oil as well. I’ve had better/softer burrata at other joints, but this was a really tasty item.

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Now that the awesome foreplay scene is done, we can eagerly move on to the full blown penetration. I’m talking’ some deep, cervix-mashing penetration.

This “Fedora Burger” is… how can I put this… awesome. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, topped with house made pickles (light, maybe a quarter sour, more like cucumbers than pickles), crispy potato shreds, red onions, smoked cheddar and BBQ mayo. The bun was strong yet soft and pliable – it stood up well to the burger, and it even had a little toast to it for good measure. Take a look at this little slut:

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And like all awesome sluts, they’re still pink on the inside.

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My awesome wife ordered the special for the day, which was a Cuban sandwich. This sandwich was a big ol’ bitch. Extremely buttery and toasty on the outside, and porky grilled cheese-like on the inside, this Cuban was intense.

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However, as awesome as the Cuban was, that fucking whore burger shined brighter than the mother fucking North Star in comparison, as if leading all of our taste buds directly to Jesus God-damned Baby Christ in his hay-filled and barnyard-animal-surrounded manger.

The little fucking poor-ass drummer boy even tried to use a pair of half-crisped herbed french fries to wail away on that perfect burger-drum for the King of Kings on his birthday. The fries packed some good flavor but still needed a little crisp to make them worthy of the word awesome.

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The place got awesomely packed. I snapped a pic of the bar area and some wall art, as well as the not-so-awesome bill, which was a little high but worth every penny.

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So that’s 21 times that I used the word awesome. <= That’s 22.

BAR SARDINE
183 W. 10th St.
New York, NY 10014

Hanoi Vietnamese Kitchen

Stopped off in this place to test out their banh mi sandwich – classic style, of course. The bread was toasty and warm, and the veggies and herbs were all nice and fresh. Not my favorite, but it was okay for a much needed fix.

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The pho here is pretty good as well. Nice robust flavor. I’ve had better for cheaper, but the quality of the ingredients here seemed to be a little better.

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HANOI VIETNAMESE KITCHEN
448 9th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Hanco

Walked past this little banh mi and pho shop on the way home from Talde and picked up a classic style sandwich to try. It was a little pricey for the size, but it was tasty nonetheless. I’ve had better at other places, but this place is okay if you’r win a bind and need a Vietnamese banh mi fix. Here it is:

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HANCO
134 Smith St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201