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!
I hit Seafire Grill with some buddies from high school. While this can technically fit into the steakhouse review format, I decided to keep it quick and easy, since the thrust of the menu here is seafood.
Speaking of seafood, we had a nice selection of raw east and west coast oysters to start, along with grilled calamari and Spanish octopus.
Of course I had steak for my main course. This was a nice 8/10. Rib eye, dry-aged on sight.
Nice seared tuna entree.
The sides were all good. We did creamed spinach, truffle mashed potatoes, and caulilini. For dessert, pecan pie and apple strudel.
Sushi Hayashi is one of the “all you can eat” sushi/omakase spots that are trending now in the city. This spot is a pretty good deal. The pieces are all decent, and you get a solid amount of sushi for $98 in the omakase (14 courses). The salmon, shima aji and shrimp were our favorite pieces from the omakase. The wagyu fell short, and there was no uni, but over all this was a worth-while omakase.
Once you’re finished with the 14-course omakase, you get two rounds of “all you can eat” sushi ordering, which is limited to a selection of eel, scallop, lean tuna or fatty tuna. The toppings and garnishes are done away with during this time (just a brush of sauce, and some torching for the fatty tuna), and you’ll be charged $6 per piece for any nigiri that you order but don’t finish. The record is 72 pieces eaten. Insane.
I went with nine extra pieces total during this “all you can eat” portion of the meal; three each of the lean tuna, fatty tuna and scallop.
They really have the system down pat, and they operate like a well-oiled machine.
They’ve created the first fast food style omakase! Highly American! What follows below is a photo dump of all the courses.
Two appetizers:
Ten nigiri pieces:
The roll portion of the omakase:
Round 1 AYCE:
Round 2 AYCE:
Dessert: matcha ice cream.
SUSHI HAYASHI
355 E 50th Street
New York, NY 10022
I took my wife to Crevette for our anniversary for a nice seafood-focused dinner. The cocktails here are nice. I did a classic martini, and instead of bread the table was adorned with a small place of mixed olives.
Here’s what we had to eat:
Pink Shrimp:
These were a bit pricey but they were indeed tasty. I’m not sure they were work $8 each, however.
Red Shrimp Carpaccio:
This was delicious. Easily the winner between the two shrimp starters. I would get this again for sure.
We threw in some meat here with a blood sausage and merguez sausage skewer, as well as an octopus skewer.
Both were nice but I think I preferred the octopus.
Next up were the mushroom courses.
Mushroom and Foie Gras with Egg:
This was great but we only had two small pieces of foie on the dish. I was hoping for a bit more. The mushrooms were delicious though.
Spanish Tortilla with Ramps & Morels:
This was probably my favorite dish of the night. The tortilla was really nicely made, and the morels were absolutely perfect. Ramps are always nice when they’re in season.
For one of our mains, we did the lamb ribs:
These were delicious. That had a nice candied bark on the outside. I just wish that I liked the sauce a bit more. It was sort of eggplant-ish.
We also had the Dover sole for two.
The woman who filleted this table side did a horrific job of getting the meat off of the bones. We ended up having to eat very carefully to avoid gagging on the tiny bones. The fish was nice, but I would not get this again. I would have liked a little bit of crisp on the skin. I think perhaps I was expecting a different preparation.
For dessert, we did a soft serve sundae and a lemon tart. Both of these were excellent. I think I liked these next best, just after the Spanish tortilla with morels.
My wife and I came here with another foodie and social media influencer couple to try out some of this new restaurant’s menu. Aqua has both Italian and Japanese menus, so you can have a full-on omakase here, or you can dine a la carte and dig into some pasta or veal Milanese.
We selected eight items from this menu, and then had two versions of their tiramisu (one classic Italian, and one Japanese):
First off, they make some really nice cocktails, which is clutch since they have a gigantic bar (the whole space is pretty massive, actually).
We started with the mushroom and truffle arancini. These were delicious bites.
The lobster bisque pizzette was really unique. I’ve never had something like that. It makes for great table bread to share as a snack.
This red prawn carpaccio was absolutely incredible. This is a must order when you go here.
These little nuggets of fried rock shrimp were really tasty. They don’t look like much, but I was hooked. I could not stop popping them.
The oxtail and truffle mafalde was perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the oxtail was super tender and savory.
Here’s a shot of their 12-piece sashimi omakase, which has all of your favorites, salmon belly being my favorite.
This eight-piece roll had salmon and scallop, which was nice.
And finally, the yuzu shiso marinated lamb chops. These were awesome. After the red prawn carpaccio, this was probably my favorite item.
For dessert, we tried the classic tiramisu and the matcha/green team tiramisu. I think we all agreed that the classic version was better. I didn’t snap any photos of that, so you’ll just have to watch the video to see them!
The Cake Dealer and I decided to give this new joint a shot. We really liked everything we tried, so let me get right into it.
First, the cocktails were excellent. We tried three, and they were all delicious.
The shellfish platter is a bit expensive as $38 for six pieces, but each and every item was a masterpiece. I think my favorites were the hot items on the pebbles (oyster cooked with beef fat and topped with horseradish, and the clam with garlic chips.
The shrimp toast was so delicious. Buttery, crispy, and with lump shrimp meat instead of the paste-like texture that you might see at Chinese spots. The tarter-like sauce was definitely not needed here.
The mortadella tartine was really tasty. I could eat about 30 of these.
We also did their caviar service which was a generous heap of high quality caviar, cream, whipped bean puree, onion, chives, avocado and potato chips with a large bowl of fresh tortillas. This was really nice. I would definitely get this again.
For our mains, we did the fries and fish, which is a medium sized bowl of french fries and fried anchovies.
The anchovies were fresh, plump, light and crisp – not very fishy at all, and really tasty white meat.
We also did the Peekytoe crab omelette on rice, which I really loved.
This, the shellfish and the shrimp toast were probably my favorite items of the night. One thing I wish the omelette had was a crunch texture somewhere. Maybe some crispy fried shallots on top would do the trick. But I did appreciate the texture pops from the salmon roe on top. So good!
Finally, we finished off with their cinnamon toast sundae. The ice cream tasted like the cereal Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and the crunch element came from the tiny fried bombolini doughnuts on top. Absolute crack!
We can’t wait to go back to try more of the menu. The service was really great here too, as they gave us complimentary glasses of Lambrusco since we were celebrating our anniversary.
I didn’t take great photos here, but the food, atmosphere, service and overall vibe is outstanding. The martinis are great, first off.
But the Garden Gibson was a little too sweet for my taste.
Second, the bread service is incredible. There’s semolina Italian bread, focaccia, and cacio e pepe babka, all service in an edible sourdough basket with whipped butter and a labneh onion dip.
We started the meal with a nice array of seafood to share: lobster tails, ebi shrimp cocktail, razor clams, baked cherrystone clams, and caviar service.
The pasta was killer. We did the butternut squash agniolotti, the frutti di mare spaghetti, and the baked shells. The baked shells tasted like French onion soup! Wild!
We also did some scalloped potatoes along with a burger and fries that they generally only serve downstairs to the exclusive Crane Club members. A real nice steakhouse style classic, and the fries are perfectly crisp and well seasoned.
For the mains, we tried the aged rib eye, the dover sole, and the parmigiano-aged NY strip steak. All of these were excellent, but the real stand out winner for me was the strip steak. It was so tender, so perfectly cooked, and so uniquely flavored. I can’t wait to go back for more! 10/10 for that baby, with a solid 9/10 for the rib eye.
Also really loved the tomahawk pork chop. It stole the show.
For dessert, we tried the banana layer cake, the apple crisp, and the cheese cake. It was hard to choose a favorite here, but I think I was leaning toward the apple crumble the most.
I can’t wait to go back here to try more shit. This place is a real winner, and it makes for a perfect replacement to Del Posto.
87 Ludlow is a relatively new bar and restaurant that offers up an ice happy hour, chock full of nice cocktails and interesting Filipino food.
My wife and I stopped in for a quick meal last week. Here’s what we got:
Oyster Sisig, which I didn’t get a photo of, but you can see a bit of it in the beginning of this video here (my wife is mixing the quail egg into it):
The Isaw (crispy pork intestines) was excellent!
I think the penang curry mussels were my favoritie though:
This joint has a really nice 15-piece omakase for just $85. You get a lot of what would normally be “upgrade” toppings on the pieces, too. Things like uni, foie, etc. Here are some pics of everything we had (minus the hand roll).
My favorite was the wagyu beef with uni on top (obvious?). It was A5 rib eye!
I would definitely go back here again, and the joint is BYOB so that’s perfect! They also offer a super-upgraded 18-piece omakase for $140. But honestly, the 15-course is such a great value that I don’t think I’d get the 18-course.
