Chinese, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Mee Noodle

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little joint looked promising as a spot to grab some Chinese style noodle soup. As we sat down, though, both my wife and I decided that we wanted dry noodles rather than a soup. I went with the same bet and picked roast pork noodles, and my wife went with roast duck. The duck was a bit greasy, and was an efforted meal, as you had to chew around small bones due to how the meat was chopped after cooking. The roast pork, however, was very nice. I went with chow fun noodles (wide ribbons) and my wife went with regular soup noodles.

While my wife wasn’t as happy with her meal as I was, I think we’d both go back at some point to try a few other dishes.

MEE NOODLE
795 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Commentary

The Ramen Cake

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

As you may recall, my wife The Cake Dealer made me an amazing steak cake for my birthday a while back. This year, since I was on a big ramen kick, she made me a ramen cake. Pretty fucking amazing. Check out the pics below:

And it was fucking delicious. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.

Chelsea, Food Halls, Ramen

Mokbar

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Today I officially published my ramen page, and I guess it was off to a good start, because the Mokbar Twitter account responded to my tweet about it, telling me I should give their food a try. I asked for a recommendation, and they suggested the cold brisket ramen in tomato broth. It sounded very enticing, but it was ultimately no longer available (I guess it was a seasonal item). No matter though; the rest of the menu was saliva-inducing anyway, and there were several other things I wanted to try.

The joint is tucked away in a nice little corner of Chelsea Market, a great place to explore and do some food tasting. They basically have bar seating only, but it’s not too cramped. Here’s a look at the table setting and some views of the kitchen:

My wife wanted one of the alcohol slushees, but they were out of those too. Doh! We settled on these:

I ended up ordering the classic pork broth ramen. It had great depth, a strong garlic flavor, firm wavy noodles, and yummy mushrooms. I ordered a poached egg to go with it. They forgot it at first, but the problem was quickly remedied. Take a look:

As you may know, I do not like my scallions cut in this way, but these were easy enough to brush aside, so not a big deal. I wish there was a little bit more pork in the bowl, because it was so damn good!

My wife had the chicken thigh ramen with kimchi cucumber. This was a thicker broth, but the soup itself was lighter than mine.

We also grabbed an order of the kimchi trio. I thought this was a little pricey at $12 for three small dishes of stuff that is typically free at most other Korean joints:

The first was pickled daikon, which was nice and crunchy with great spicy flavor:

Next was kimchi cucumber, also very good, and also in the chicken ramen that my wife had:

Last was a bacon cabbage kimchi, which was really nice and smoky.

The damage was a bit high for a ramen joint, but we did sample a lot of stuff. I thought it was worth it to try something different and unique. I definitely recommend this place for those of you who are looking for a new twist to ramen. Everything was really tasty!

MOKBAR
Chelsea Market
75 9th Ave
New York, NY 10011

Burgers, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

E’s Bar

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve been coming here for the great trivia games on Tuesday nights, with first place prize being a $75 bar tab, second place at $50 and third place at $35. We won the $75 tab three weeks in a row, so I’ve been able to sample a bunch of the food here. Best thing so far: the burger and fries. So fucking good. Really nicely seasoned, great flavors, good toppings. Do yourself a favor and get in here to try it out.

I also tried the tomato watermelon gazpacho, which was really nice and fresh, as well as the falafel burger with red pepper fries. Pretty good, but the regular burger wins by a long shot.

E’S BAR
511 Amsterdam Ave.
New York, NY 10024

American, Burgers, Long Island, Restaurant Reviews

Nicky’s on the Bay

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Nicky’s is a great spot for summertime food on Long Island. They do a good job with seafood, but I just had to try the burger here at long last. Blue cheese and sautéed onions. OH YEAH! Throw in some oysters and tropical drinks for good measure and you’re all set.

NICKY’S ON THE BAY
150 Clinton Ave.
Bay Shore, NY 11706

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Rothman’s

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

On their last day in business, I came in with a Groupon for a burger lunch. Having never been here before, I figured I would try the burger for lunch, and if satisfied, I would go back for dinner to have a steak before they officially closed shop. I had alway sheared good things about the steak. On the flip side, I had been warned that they tend to overcook the burgers, but I did not heed the alarms. Mine was overcooked too. Well, maybe not grossly overcooked, but the meat was very dense and dry, even with the egg on top! Fries were decent, but not on par with other places I’ve been to. Needless to say, I did not end up going back for a steak. Burger was pricey even with the Groupon deal, and the food was not that great.

Burgers, Midtown West

Island Burger

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I found this place as I was strolling around the new neighborhood. Since finding it, I’ve been here twice. The first time was for happy hour, where my wife and I had some great sliders, some roasted corn, and beer.

As you can see, we tried a nice variety of sliders. if I recall, habanero cheddar was my favorite. I was impressed enough to go back a second time with my cousin, this time for a proper burger. I had the “Miss Hula Burger,” with ham, swiss, honey mustard and pineapple.

While it was delicious, I realize that there is a revolting string of fat hanging down the front of the burger. I wanted to show this in all it’s glory, warts and all. And I apologize if you just threw up a little bit in your mouth. But you can trust me that the food here is good.

UPDATE 7/13/17

I came back in for lunch on a weekday and discovered a really great special that they run during those hours: $10 for a burger and a beer! Excellent.

ISLAND BURGER
766 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Ramen

Ippudo (west side)

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve tried almost everything here except for the Hakata classic, which I definitely need to get down on at some point soon.

First off, this place has an excellent selection of Japanese beers and cocktails. I have a photo somewhere… let me see if I can find it:

Next, a great assortment of apps and small plates to get the belly ready for ramen. We had some octopus items (Tako & Eringi Karaage), some fried fish, and spicy bacon shit (Pork Teppan).

Now on to the ramen. First is spicy Karaka-men with added pork belly. This was a great bowl of food:

Akamaru. A little thin on pork meat in my opinion, but tasty.

Torishio. My wife had this; a bit thin for my liking, but had good flavor and was light.

Yup. I even tried the veggie ramen. Definitely a soy sauce base with mushroom flavor, and small portion size.

IPPUDO WEST
321 W 51st St
New York, NY 10019

Midtown East, Ramen

Menchanko-Tei

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

After having a few good bowls at Menkui-Tei, I figured I would try this other hyphenated place in midtown closer to my wife’s office. She had been here before and said it was good, but this day we both had sub-par bowls. The broth was a little bland and watery. I also saw one of the servers pull something out of a bowl with his fingers (carefully, mind you) before putting the bowl in front of a patron. Yuck. I hope those hands were clean!

Anyway, the neat thing about this place is you can get a lunch meal with a side bowl of rice and pork. A bit too much food though, as the ramen portions are large.

I had the regular pork ramen:

My wife had the Kurobuta pork, a better quality meat for an up charge, yet my slices tasted better than hers. Go figure.

MENCHANKO-TEI
131 E 45th St
New York, NY 10017

Midtown West, Ramen

Sapporo

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

UPDATE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

Sapporo is a small ramen joint I found on 49th Street nearby my office. I went one day after work for a quick slurp. It was not to my standards, but passable nonetheless if you are in a bind and need a fix. I had the Sapporo Special:

On the plus side, they had a decent happy hour, which I took advantage of:

On a quick lunch visit with my wife, I tried the curry ramen. It was extremely salty, and I thought maybe the broth was made by just watering down their curry sauce from the rice dishes. The other components like noodles and toppings were all pretty good, though I wasn’t blown away by the two slices of chicken.

My wife had the winning dish, which was a cold noodle version of the tan tan men ramen. The noodles had what could best be described as a nori-infused fish sauce on them. Very tasty, and this was a big dish for $15.