Tag Archives: lower east side

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Bufon

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Bufon is a new meat and seafood focused joint in the lower east side. My wife and I tried five items from a menu that we really wanted to ravage. We definitely plan to go back to try more items.

Sunchoke

This was fantastic. Really nice, fresh and mildly starchy.

Halibut

The sauce on this was crack. It was some sort of buerre blanc with bottarga.

Pork Chop

Delicious. Served with butter beans and chopped up Chinese sausage. Super unique.

Picanha

Roasted to perfection. The fat was delicious as well. Scored and rendered to become a beef gelatin of sorts. Skip the vinegar based Creole salsa and get the au poivre for a more classic Sunday roast feel. 9/10.

Crispy Confit Potato

I didn’t expect a fancy hash brown, but it was really good.

No dessert was offered yet. They literally just opened. Interior decor still a work in progress, and the windows still needed to be cleaned!

BUFON
78 Rivington Street
New York NY 10002

Italian, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

Tre

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My wife and I stopped in Tre for their weekend happy hour menu, which is a great deal and runs from 2-7pm.

We started with some cocktails, which were excellent. The espresso martini and aperol spritz were both well made.

We tried five items.

The fried calamari was dry and rubbery. Skip these.

The sautéed broccoli rabe was tasty, but at $13 it was too small of a portion size (this was from the regular menu, not the happy hour menu).

The fried artichokes were great. Nice crisp, good seasoning, tender.

I also liked the linguine al limone. For a discounted happy hour deal, this was a great buy. Lots of garlic though.

We also ordered the chicken milanese from the main menu. This was perfectly crisp, tender inside, pounded thin, and topped with a nice arugula and tomato salad.

Keep an eye out for the operating fee, which is a 4% charge added to your bill. Not sure why they don’t just raise prices instead. On the flip side, they also offer a cash discount.

Would definitely come back to try more stuff. Give this place a shot.

TRE
173 Ludlow Stree
New York, NY 10002

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Roku Nana

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Roku Nana is a newly opened sushi and Japanese food joint on Clinton Street. My wife and I came in here to try their sushi, and it was a pretty great deal for the price point.

We started with two rolls; the pink lady and the flamingo.

These were great. I liked the pink lady the best (pink colored roll), and my wife liked the flamingo.

Then, we did their 10-piece premium nigiri dinner, which was $53pp.

It comes with a hand roll as well. The uni was the best, followed by the fatty tuna.

There’s also a speakeasy upstairs serving awesome cocktails.

I would definitely go back again!

ROKU NANA
67 Clinton Street
New York, NY 10002

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Comal

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

Comal is a new Mexico City -inspired restaurant in the lower east side. They offer up some really unique dishes that you won’t commonly see at popular Mexican restaurants.

We started the meal with three skewers: al pastor chicken, beef tongue, and mushrooms.

The al pastor was our favorite of these. I think the mushrooms would have been better grilled, and the tongue was a bit gamey in flavor.

Next up, the cobia aguachile. This had great flavor; bright, fresh and refreshingly spicy.

The beef tartare was nice as well. It came with some lettuce cups and was topped with fried crickets! I’ve had them before. They’re not really my thing, so I let The Cake Dealer have them all.

For our main courses we did the skate wing in squid ink sauce, which are like a delicious spicy mole/curry cross breed. The fish was perfectly cooked.

We also had the half chicken, which was really tender and juicy. All the flavor was in the skin and the earthy, spicy sauce.

The stuffed wing with pickled tomatillo was a nice tough to go with it, but ultimately it seemed like a lot of extra chef work for little reward on our end. We liked the regular parts of the chicken better.

On the side, we had the Comal rice, which was essentially a small bowl of rice and beans for $10 (overpriced), and the squash and zucchini with cherries and cheese (so unique and awesome).

For dessert, we had their raspberry and vanilla soft serve swirl. This his the spot on a hot day.

COMAL
116 Forsyth St.
New York, NY 10002

East Village, Italian, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

House of Pasta

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My wife and I popped in here because we heard good things. We started with some nice cocktails, and a beautiful bread basket with focaccia and basil-infused olive oil.

Then moved on to the roasted octopus and crispy artichokes.

Both of these were great, and the octopus came with a few pieces of crispy artichoke as well. We were glad that we ordered the artichoke side dish for some extra though. They were delicious! Also the cauliflower puree underneath the octopus was so flavorful. I could eat that like a dip all day!

In the middle course, we had the dinner special of truffle pappardelle with chicken milanese, as well as the fusili with red pesto and straciatella.

Both of these were expertly seasoned and beautifully plated. We really enjoyed these. The red pesto was a unique mix of walnuts and red pepper that I had never had before. The Milanese was fried super crisp and pounded super thin. Perfect.

For the main course, we had their crispy pork shoulder with fennel and arugula salad. At $22 this is an absolute steal.

The skin was perfectly crisp, covering a layer of deliciously sticky fat and tender, juicy braised pork. Amazing.

For dessert, we had their tiramisu. This was really nice as well.

We love this place, and we can’t wait to go back! We also noticed that they have some excellent buy-one get-one free deals on Uber Eats. Needless to say, we will definitely be going back and also ordering delivery.

HOUSE OF PASTA
511 E 12th St.
New York, NY 10009

African/Middle Eastern, East Village, Greek, Mediterranean, Restaurant Reviews

Au Za’atar

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

This place is pretty great. We started with some nicely mixed cocktails, and then dug into a nice stuffed zucchini app.

It came with a bunch of dips, pickled items, sauces and bread.

We also did the lamb shank, which was served in a delicious yogurt sauce with toasted pistachios. This was awesome.

Next up, the smaller sized mixed grill. The star here was the minced lamb kebab.

The fries were good, but could have used just a bit more crisp.

For dessert, a delicious and light yogurt based pudding with banana and strawberry. Similar to a nice flan.

I would definitely come back here to try more stuff, especially their braised lamb sholder.

AU ZA’ATAR
188 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Contra

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First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

My wife and I stopped in here for a quick meal and drinks at the bar. Here’s what we had:

Montauk Royal Red Prawns

These beauties are served raw over ice and dusted with umeboshi (dried pickled plum). I really liked these.

American Wagyu Tartare

This was probably one of the best tartare dishes I’ve ever had. It came with crispy fried artichoke, fried shallot and ramp oil.

Smoked Pacific Oyster “Tartare”

This was essentially a dressed up tin of high quality smoked oysters, minced up with red onion and aioli, which you then spread on toast points.

Stuffed Chicken Wings

These were stuffed with stilton, pork sausage and scallion. I think there may have been some hatch chili involved too. The flavor was excellent on these.

Potato Ice Cream Sundae

Totally unique. I could taste the potato knowing that it was made from that. but otherwise I might not have. It was not too sweet, which I really appreciated. This was also served with blueberries.

I can’t wait to go back for more drinks and food. Everything was so good!

BAR CONTRA
138 Orchard St.
New York, NY 10002

East Village, Italian, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Bianchi

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First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

My wife and I came here for a quick meal to try a few items. Here’s what we had:

Complimentary Bar Snack

Castelvetrano olives and potato chips? Both high quality? Count me ALL THE WAY IN!

Bean Salad

This was a nice, light, yet filling way to start the meal. A substantial amount of beans!

Veal Milanese

This was great. Nice batter fry on this, and it came with a bright, punchy arugula salad.

Olive Oil Ice Cream

For dessert, we had the olive oil ice cream. The flavor was a bit lacking, but otherwise it was creamy and tasty.

I’d definitely come back here to try more stuff.

BAR BIANCHI
5 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Sushi Lin

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First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

We did the 17-course omakase, which was $125. This was definitely worth the price of admission. Favorites included the oyster and salmon appetizers, as well as the otoro, uni and king crab pieces.

Even the dessert, sesame panna cotta, was nice.

I would definitely go back here.

SUSHI LIN
151 Rivington St.
New York, NY 10002

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Rebel

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My wife and I hit up this Caribbean/Haitian joint called Rebel nearby. We started with some nice cocktails. Mine was the tumbler – lime, burnt sugar and rum. It was really nice without being too sweet.

We had their jerk wings, which were super tender, and perfectly spicy.

For our mains, we shared fried pork with red beans and rice, and stewed goat with black mushroom rice. Both were great, but we agreed that the stewed goat was the winner. Also the black rice was excellent (no pics, but it’s in the video).

For dessert, we tried their potato bread pudding. This had nice flavors, but the texture was different from what I expected when hearing “bread pudding.” In any event, I think this would be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Careful when paying at this place. The 18% tip is already included on your bill. While this is illegal (can only do it with 15% for parties of 6 or more, last I recall), we still gave an extra $5 on top since the service and food were both great. We would definitely go back.

REBEL
29 Clinton St.
New York, NY 10002