Tag Archives: ues

PQR Pizza

March 19, 2018 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

When my wife and I were in Italy, we went bonkers for Bonci Pizzarium near the Vatican, and we’ve been craving it ever since. A brand new pizza joint on the upper east side, PQR, brought me right back there.

I have to say this is one of my new favorite spots in the city. Roman style pizza just works on so many levels. If you’ve never had it before, this is an exemplary representation. The dough/crust is perfectly crisp yet puffy and airy, and they’re generous with their high quality toppings.

Get the spicy soppressata with grape tomato and the sliced potato with truffle sauce. You’ll thank me later.

Spicy Soppressata:

Sliced Potato & Truffle:

Sliced Potato & Porchetta:

Traditional Mozz & Tomato Sauce:

PQR
1631 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10028

Burgers, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Parms, Pizza, Rib Eye, Upper East Side

San Matteo Pizza

March 18, 2018 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

San Matteo is a Neapolitan style pizzeria and restaurant on the Upper East Side. Neapolitan style pizza is characterized by a puffy and doughy crust with, generally, pure and simple ingredients on top. See below:

This style of pizza isn’t crispy with a crunchy bottom like NYC style pizza, but I assure you that it’s still awesome. That was the Margherita Regina pie, $18. They have daily special pies too, like this pesto and spicy coppa pie.

Their meat and cheese boards are pretty incredible too:

After eating this delicious stuff, I was surprised that I had room for dessert: profiteroles.

UPDATE 6/2/18

On a second visit, I came in to test a new burger that the owner Fabio was formulating for a competition (Burger Bash). The thing was amazing. Piedmontese beef in a 70/30 lean/fat ratio, topped with Blue Moon beer caramelized onions, radicchio, and lots of gooey and funky taleggio cheese. It was all housed in a freshly baked ciabatta bun, right from the pizza oven.

We also enjoyed numerous Aperol spritzes at the bar.

Some salumi:

An incredible porchetta and arugula sandwich:

Eggplant parm:

The meat you get in the pork chop Milanese, which is one of the best I’ve had, is raised on chef/owner Fabio’s farm.

And of course more pizza:

This one had guanciale on it:

Fabio even made us a nice risotto dish with fresh porcini mushrooms, mixed up right in a cheese wheel:

I really love this place – such amazing Italian food.

They serve up some great LaFrieda steaks too.

And my favorite arancini rice ball of all time.

SAN MATTEO PIZZERIA E CUCINA
1559 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10028

French, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Upper East Side

Sel et Poivre

March 8, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

FIRST REVIEW 4/10/2014

Thanks to new friend and fellow food blogger The Restaurant Fairy, I was recently hooked up with a restaurant PR person who is in charge of setting up press dinners for restaurants that are looking to generate detailed reviews and additional news coverage to build customers or put a spotlight on a new/special menu at their establishment. I’m hoping to attend more of these types of press dinners in the future. With any luck some wealthy benefactor will discover me and fund a new career for me in the world of food writing. The goal is to become a professional diner.

Anyway, my first press dinner in this vein was at French joint Sel et Poivre. For you proud, dirty American apes out there who don’t know or care too much about other languages, that means Salt and Pepper.

The restaurant has been in business here for decades. Owners Christian and Pamela are a husband and wife duo who take turns managing the place each night. They’ve been a team here for about 8 years, and for decades prior the restaurant was run by Pamela and her mother. This year Christian and Pamela are celebrating their 25th anniversary so be ready for some special menus coming this spring/summer season.

The atmosphere is very local and homey. Walls are adorned with old black and white photos of family travels. There’s a classic, clean French bistro feel to the place, and the 65-person seating capability is intimate without being stuffy or crowded.

So how’s the service? Amazing. Waiters here aren’t just people toiling away at their job. These are men with long careers. The newest employee other than the bar staff has been there for 7 years, and veteran waiters have loyalty in the 25-30 year range. The chef has been there for that long, and the staff still manages to keep the menu interesting and new while always retaining the classics that some people have been coming back to eat for years. Impressive, and that speaks volumes about the management and quality of the joint. Christian himself is a stand-up guy. A class act. He’s funny, talkative, approachable, kind, warm, inviting and a great host. Within moments of talking with him you feel as if you’ve known him all your life.

Located on Lex at 64th, the customers range from shoppers, to business people, to tourists. But their bread and butter are the locals, some of whom come in several times per week for specific dishes that they’ve been enjoying for generations. One family has been dining here for 4 generations. Even the landlord eats there, who has had the building property in his family since it was a cow grazing pasture in the 1600s. I’m serious.

Okay so on to the good stuff. Note that the portion sizes in my pics are all smaller than the actual menu items (except for the desserts). Press dinner portions are typically smaller so that more stuff can be tried. Here’s what we had:

First was a celery root remoulade with red beets. There was a distinctly Mediterranean flavor in this dish, likely because of the cumin spicing. I enjoyed it. It was a cool, refreshing way to open up the taste buds.

Next we had wild striped bass with artichoke hearts, fennel and black olive lemon oil. The fish was perfectly cooked with its crisp skin still intact. This was also very Mediterranean in its flavor profile. Light and fresh. And I must say that the artichoke was one of the best preparations I’ve ever had outside of mom’s home cooking.

Steak was next. An aged sirloin to be exact. It was juicy and flavorful, had a nicely seasoned crust, and was cooked to a perfect medium rare.

The beef was served with two sauces: roquefort and poivre.

I only took a pic of one because they looked and tasted similar to me, though one was clearly more peppery. Both were drinkable, however. They went especially well with the cone of crispy and savory fries that came with the steak. Delicious.

Next was a bit of offal! Veal kidneys with an amazing mustard sauce, boiled potatoes and spinach.

Kidneys aren’t for everyone. This was my first time eating kidney. It was a bit mealy and chewy in parts, but the flavor was delicate and nice. The sauce did a great job of bringing out the game flavors without letting them overpower you. I ate every bite!

For dessert we had classic French creme brulee and chocolate lava cake.

They were both very nicely executed, well-balanced, and not overly sweet. The cake came with some fresh whipped cream and vanilla ice cream, and the brulee had a nice consistency and great caramelized sugar on top.

Last, I should also note that the wine selection here is extensive. Having broadened the scope from French and California wines to include stuff from New Zealand and South America, Christian and Pamela have modernized their wine selection to stay on pace with an increasingly knowledgeable caliber of diners. This is probably because Christian is also a sommelier, so he knows what pairs well with the dishes outside of French-only wines.

I look forward to going back for lunch or dinner to try some of their other amazing menu items, like frog legs, or to try their classic French daily special dishes (Bouillabaisse Monday; Coq Au Vin Tuesday; etc).

If you like classic French food then this is a great place to go, and they also modernize and freestyle very well with some of their other dishes.

UPDATE 3/8/2017

I went back to Sel et Poivre for another press dinner. We tried a few different items this time, and I was able to meet Pamela, the other half of the dynamic duo behind their French bistro (which is now coming up on its 28th year in business).

The celery root and beets were just as good as I remembered, this time more artistically plated.

The fish soup was really fun. It comes with a plate of toasted baguette slices, roue and shredded Swiss cheese. The idea is to spread the garlicky, spicy roue onto a slice of bread and they sprinkle the shredded Swiss on top. Then, you float it in the soup and let it all melt together and combine into a velvety consistency.

It was delicious. The fish was clearly present, yet subtle and not overly powerful. I could easily slurp down a few bowls of this.

The brook trout was really nicely cooked and had great flavors from the shaved almonds and tangy white wine and lemon sauce.

It was prepared skin-on, but I felt that it could have used a bit more crisp on the skin. Perhaps because it was plated skin-down, the skin lost some of the crisp it might have developed while cooking. Otherwise this was an excellent dish.

This lamb rib was perfectly cooked. So juicy and tender, with a nice mild game flavor. The outer edges were coated with peppery spices that penetrated deep into the meat. My favorite dish of the night.

I was excited to see the steak come out (sirloin). While I had already tried it in the past, this time I was able to see the full portion size – with a beautiful pre-sliced presentation – on a bed of mustard-based peppercorn sauce.

It was a perfect medium rare execution!

This baby still had all the same qualities as the last visit, only this time there was only the one sauce and a more pronounced peppercorn crust. Further, the last time featured an aged cut, while this one was not aged, as far as I could tell.

The fries that are served with the steak were golden and crispy.

Dessert was nice. We tried some profiteroles and a berry tart.

The berry tart was gorgeous, and was easily my preferred dessert between the two.

SEL ET POIVRE
853 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10065

Burgers, Flash Deals, French, Full Points for Flavor, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Upper East Side

Vaucluse

February 18, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife picked up a nice Gilt City deal for this joint that gave us $200 to spend for something like $100. I had heard great things about the burger here, so I figured it was time to check it out now that there was a flash deal at play.

The cocktail menu is pricey at $18, but very nicely crafted.

We shared that burger (the “White Label Burger”) as an app. The patty is an aged beef blend; the cheese is fontina; and it’s topped with a tomato jam and dijonnaise.

They cook it nice and rare, so you don’t lose any of that aged funk to the heat. It’s a potent burger, and part of me still loves a classic roadside American burger better, but this is kinda like having a steak between a bun. Definitely nice.

And like any good French joint, it’s served with frites.

These were pretty good, but not quite on the level of Boucherie, which has now become my benchmark standard, to which all French fries must be compared.

We also tried the calamari stuffed with lobster and rice.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much lobster to this dish. In fact, I couldn’t really find any or taste any in the bites I had. In any case, the tomato sauce was nice, as was the cook on the squid.

My wife had some rabbit, truffle and cheese ravioli for her entree. This was a small portion size for $25, but they at least warned us ahead of time that it would be.

They were excellent. Each raviolo seemed to be partitioned, with one side having the rabbit, and the other side having the cheese.

Of course, I had steak.

This was served with some dressed watercress, but I quickly brushed that bullshit aside. I sliced it up so you could see the perfect cook temp on this prime NY strip steak.

This was actually a steak frites, so it came with more fries and a peppercorn au poivre on the side. Well, I asked for it on the side so I could get this intense shot of foodpourn.

Did you just bust? Because I did.

I ate every bite. It was a great little steak. I didn’t detect any aged flavor, and I assume they would have advertised that if it were the case. Not too bad at $44, but on par with the Jubilee rib eye steak frites that I had just the other day for $40. 8/10.

We shared a lemon tart with basil ice cream for dessert. This was really pretty, and tasted a bit like a key lime pie with the herbaceous basil ice cream on top. We liked this a lot.

Oh and I should mention that this place also brings out an amuse at the beginning, as well as petit fours at the end. I only snapped the amuse, which was a tiny popover style bread with a truffle cream filling. The dessert capper was a chocolate hazelnut bite.

UPDATE 8/18/18

On a second trip, I came in to promote the burger for the Altamarea Group, as well as to try some other items with a group of Instagrammers. Here’s what we had:

Escargots served on bone marrow.

Veal carpaccio.

Steak tartare.

Squid ink spaghetti.

Those rabbit epaulettes again. So good.

Wild boar strozzapreti.

The White Label burger.

Duck.

Veal chop.

Tomahawk rib eye. This was a 10/10 – absolutely perfect.

And some desserts.

VAUCLUSE
100 E 63rd St
New York, NY 10065

Burgers, Filet Mignon, French, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Upper East Side

Little Frog

December 15, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Little Frog is a new French bistro that just opened up a few months ago on East 86th street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. I came here with a bunch of food enthusiasts and bloggers for a press dinner. Here’s what we tried:

House Bread:

This flatbread comes nicely packaged and warm inside of a paper bag with the Little Frog logo stamped on it.

Lamb Meatballs:

It may not strike you as a particularly French item, but lamb meatballs here are served with a dollop of labneh (a Lebanese style of cream cheese) and a host of Mediterranean spices, paying tribute to the old French colonies in North Africa, no doubt.

It’s tough to compete with Mom’s homemade meatballs, but these were tasty nonetheless.

Duck Liver Foie Gras:

Beautiful and delicious. Super smooth texture, nice and velvety. If you like this sort of thing, please get it. This was my favorite app.

Pork Belly:

Can’t go wrong here. The thick slices of tender, braised bacon sit on a bed of delicious lentils. This is a winner, so I shot it twice.

Grilled Octopus:

I’ve had more tender tentacle in my day, but that doesn’t mean that this was tough by any means. The dressing was perfect and the flavors really popped.

Salmon Tartare:

This is served with lemon sabayon and capers, but it sits on a bed of crispy quinoa that really adds an awesome textural element to the dish. It stands out as a really great app.

Beets & Kale:

This salad was simple and tasty. Far be it from me, the meat guy, to praise a salad, but this hit the spot after dipping into some of the more meaty apps earlier.

Okay now onward to the entrees. We started with this incredible duck flambe.

This is one of the better duck dishes I’ve had. The meat was super tender and tasty, and the skin remained crisp and flavorful, with all fat rendered out nicely.

The steak au poivre is a top sirloin cut that’s smothered with peppercorns and then topped with gravy. Ours was cooked to about medium, but it still remained very juicy from the gravy. Also, the tenderness of the cut surprised me; I’m usually apprehensive about top sirloin, but this was good stuff. 7/10.

The Coq Au Vin was a bit dry at the outer edges, but the tenderness and juiciness of the inner meat made up for it in spades.

A few of us claimed that this was the best entree of the night, though the others were ready to throw down in a pitched battle to defend the duck.

If you’re still hungry, get the ice cream sundae for multiple diners. It comes served in a massive bowl, complete with a lit sparkler shooting out the top. I took this shot after the sparkler was removed:

UPDATE 9/28/17

Filet Mignon: 9/10

Froggy Burger: So good!

Salmon Tartare: great crunch and texture from the crispy quinoa.

LITTLE FROG
322 E 86th Street
New York, NY 10028

Greek, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Upper East Side

Korali Estiatorio

November 17, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

With a name that means “coral,” it’s only fitting that Korali Estiatorio, a neighborhood gem for authentic Greek food on the upper east side, features a variety of fresh seafood fit for the gods.

Owner Gregori Politis hails from Lefkada, in the Ionian Sea. After 20 years in the hospitality business, he now brings the authentic recipes of his childhood to the masses of NYC. Chef Peter Tsaglis headed up prominent New York City kitchens. Peter focuses on seafood, and has a passion for amazing ingredients and flavors. His upbringing and travels across the Greek islands influenced his style of traditional cooking blended with modern and contemporary fare.

The interior was designed with Mykanos in mind, a seaside town on an island of the same name, which is known for its bright white architecture.

The bar is stocked with Greek spirits and wines from rare varietals that are uncommon here in the states, like Assyrtiko and Agiogitiko.

With Greek music playing on the sound system and the invigorating scent of fresh seafood in the air, you really do feel like you are being transported to the Greek Isles.

Okay so let me get to the food… We started with some tzatziki and pita bread. The yogurt this joint uses is so thick, rich and awesome. This had just the right amount of spices and flavorings added, so that our mouths were spared of garlic overload. I really enjoyed this.

In honor of the joint’s focus on seafood, we did not delve into any meats. I know: blasphemy for me! Perhaps next time I will go hard into the lamb dishes, though.

For our meze courses we had grilled octopus and stuffed calamari. The grilled octopus was so tender and perfectly cooked. It came on a bean puree and was seasoned gently with olive oil and lemon, and sprinkled with capers. Really delicious, and probably one of the better octopus dishes I’ve had in a while. And it was a good sized portion, with about two large tentacles chopped up on the plate.

I couldn’t resist ordering the stuffed calamari.

When I was a kid, my family would do the traditional Italian fish dinner for Christmas. My grandparents were the main drivers of that meal, and I would help my grandfather clean all the shrimp, scungili and squid for prep. But my grandma would take the time to make stuffed calamari. She would take the cleaned squid tubes, fill them with a cheese, breadcrumb and meat stuffing, and literally stitch the ends closed with a needle and black thread. Then they went into a skillet for browning on all sides before getting plopped into a low simmering tomato sauce that was filled with crab legs and other shellfish. Before serving, she would pull out the black thread and the calamari would stay pinched closed, holding in the delicious stuffing. It really was a painstaking and amazing effort, and I’ve never seen anything like it since. Until now, until Korali.

This Greek version is stuffed with spinach and feta, but still served in a tomato sauce. Rather than a traditional stewed style Italian red sauce, this one contained mainly sun-dried tomatoes and garlic. It was a really exciting profile of flavors, and this was hands-down my favorite dish of the night. I highly recommend this!

For our entree, we ordered a whole grilled fish for two that was on special: “pink snapper” from the Mediterranean Sea.

The skin was crisp and savory, and the meat was tender, flaky and cooked nicely. It was simply dressed with olive oil, lemon and Greek seasonings, and then topped with capers.

We cleaned this baby off entirely, even busting into the face to get some of that delicious and succulent cheek meat.

This fish for two also came with two sides. We picked garlic sauteed spinach and Greek fries. The fries were crisp and had a nice herb and garlic flavor.

The spinach was sauteed just right, retaining that great “green” flavor without over-wilting the leaves. Also, the garlic was again not overpowering and added just the right amount of flavor to the dish. These guys know what they’re doing in the kitchen!

For dessert, we got to try an assortment of three items: Greek yogurt with honey and berries, baklava and semolina custard in phyllo (Galactoboureco). By far my favorite of the three was that delicious, thick and creamy yogurt again. This sweet version was the perfect way to bookend the meal after starting with the savory tzatziki version at the beginning of the meal.

But the baklava was the best my wife and I have had. Usually this dessert is soaked with honey, and that just kills the texture and flavor of the nuts, making everything too sweet and soft. Not here at Korali! These had a cookie-like crunch to them, and I found myself smearing some of the yogurt onto them to make it a double whammy dessert. So damn good!

Overall this was a really great meal, light and satisfying. This is a great place for the UES neighborhood. I don’t live nearby, but I would definitely go back in a heartbeat.

One thing that really got my attention about this place is that you can pre-order a whole roasted goat every Friday, which is locally sourced from upstate. I will definitely be back for this with my crew from The Carcass Club.

In addition, Korali now offers a prix-fix lunch deal Wednesday through Friday, as well as brunch on weekends, with a choice of starter, entree and dessert.

Note: I was invited to dine as a guest of this establishment and received a complimentary meal. This was not in exchange for a positive review; all opinions expressed are my own.

KORALI ESTIATORIO
1662 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10128

Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Thai, Upper East Side

Bangkok Cuisine

April 14, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Is it just me, or is Thai food in NYC starting to all blend together into an incoherent, blurry amalgam of “sweet coconut this,” or “spicy curry that?” I live right near what I like to call “Thai Town,” a strip of dozens of Thai restaurants that run up 9th avenue from the upper 30’s to the upper 50’s in Hell’s Kitchen. One or two joints stand out there as being different and good, but largely it’s all the same Americanized, overly sweet, unbalanced bullshit but with a different name slapped on the facade outside. The interiors even start to look and feel the same. Dim lighting, bamboo everywhere, and a subtle yet obnoxious house music beat relentlessly thumping in the back of your brain for the entirety of the meal. I know you’ve experienced this, and no matter how much X you drop beforehand, it just won’t work while you’re trying to fucking eat. Is this the perception of Thai culture and cuisine that we have here in America, to which Thai restaurants feel they must cater in order to draw in customers? If so, we need to change it, ASAP.

Stepping into Bangkok Cuisine on the upper east side was a refreshing change from that cookie-cutter Thai experience.

The space is bright, elegant and classy, with a gorgeous emerald Buddha as the centerpiece and focal point of the restaurant. It almost has a museum-esque quality to it, with high luxury style marble under foot and ornate chandeliers over head.

Hap, son of the chef and owner, invited me in for a press meal. He runs the joint and takes pride in the decor choices he made when designing the restaurant a year ago. He did a great job. I knew just from the decor alone that I was about to get into something very different and unique here when it came to the actual food.

This place is a perfect spot for a date, but it also has appeal to everyday neighborhood diners who want a great meal in a beautiful setting. It doesn’t hurt that the prices are very fair as well. During lunch hours (even on weekends) you can score a three course meal for just $9 or $10. That’s pretty much unheard of these days.

The bar is nice too, with cocktails inspired by Thai spice and herb flavors, and fresh exotic fruits.

Okay so let me get to the food. Hap suggested we try some of their best and most popular items, to get a good feel for his dad’s cooking style and the diversity of the menu.

First were the chicken lettuce wraps, with minced curried chicken, carrots, celery, shredded beet and cashews.

These were super light and healthy; a great way to start the meal without going heavy. The curried chicken was a nice change-up from what I usually expect in a lettuce wrap. It was almost like a Thai or Indian taco, if you will. The beets added a nice contrast of color with that pop of red, and the iceberg lettuce added a great textural element of crunch to the tender minced chicken.

Next were the BBQ pork skewers. These were my absolute favorite of the starters.

They were sweet, spicy, sticky and super tender. The spice/sweet balance struck here was right on the money, and the sticky and tangy sauce on top really fueled my addiction to these. With fresh cut herbs sprinkled over the top of these warm skewers, the air all around the table was filled with some incredible, mouth watering aromas. When you come here, these are absolutely a must-order.

Hap also brought out a small sample size of two other popular apps for us. First was the Thai crepe, a thin, wide, flat, homemade steamed rice noodle wrapped around chicken, shallots and peanuts.

This is similar in form to Vietnamese banh cuon, which my wife and I love. The flavors here are a bit different though, as they are sweet rather than tangy, and more peanut-forward than the Vietnamese dish. These are nice and light, and very healthy.

The second sampler app was the five-star Thai dumplings. These may look like Chinese dumplings, but they taste very different.

They have Thai-spiced chicken and shrimp inside, and are served with a sesame and soy dipping sauce.

We tried three entrees from the special chef’s tasting portion of the menu, all at Hap’s suggestion and based on popularity and his personal preferences.

The first was this stuffed salmon with panang curry.

First off, this was absolutely stunning to look at. It’s pan-roasted salmon with crab meat and shrimp stuffing, green beans, bok choy, peppers, carrots and onions in a thick and rich panang curry sauce. The sauce here, again, displays Bangkok Cuisine’s amazing ability to properly balance sweet and spicy. One could easily just spoon the curry up and eat it like a thick soup. And the salmon itself was cooked to perfection, with what was essentially a really good shrimp and crab cake added in the mix. It’s no wonder that this is one of their signature and most popular dishes. Absolutely delicious.

Our second entree was volcano duck.

This is a crispy, boneless half duck served atop tempura carrots and celery, and topped with a fluffy egg and homemade chili flake sauce (pad pong karee). Just to beautify the plate even more, there are a pair of fried lotus root slices on top. The dish consists of traditional Thai ingredients that have been treated in non-traditional ways. For example, the duck is prepped and cooked in a notably French style, with butter under the skin to get a certain level of crisp before finishing, as opposed to just frying the fucker to holy hell. I haven’t seen or tasted anything like it here in the city. The duck itself was amazing. Tender, flavorful and with super crispy skin. And the fluffy egg on top lent a flavorful soft texture to offset the crisp of the duck.

The final entree was a true test of Thai food mettle: Pad Thai.

But this is no ordinary Pad Thai. This is seafood tom yum inspired Pad Thai. The sautéed rice noodles are adorned with shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels, eggs, peanuts, carrots, bell peppers, scallions and bean sprouts, all deftly tossed with just the right coating of a hot and sour lemongrass “tom yum soup” flavored sauce. Again; a very unique take on a classic Thai dish. It reminded me of the way this noodle dish my wife and I had in Hoi An, Vietnam captured the characteristic flavors of pho in a sauce for a non-soupy noodle dish.

Each bite of seafood was cooked just right. All tender, and nothing overcooked, whatsoever. What really got me, though, was the perfectly dressed noodles. Lots of times Pad Thai comes to you all watery and soupy. I hate that! This had just the right amount of sauce coating the noodles, and that helped make the noodles slightly sticky, so that all the spices and accompaniments clung to the noodles just so. This made it easy to pick up with chopsticks and stuff down my throat. If Pad Thai is your go-to dish when eating Thai, you won’t be disappointed with this. It brilliantly marries two very popular Thai dishes (Pad Thai and Tom Yum), executed perfectly.

Unfortunately at this point we were too full for dessert. But I will definitely be back to try the whole fried snapper, lamb chops and drunken noodles, for sure. They looked great on the menu.

I highly recommend this place, and even if you’re not regularly spending time on Manhattan’s upper east side, it’s certainly worth a trip up to the neighborhood.

BANGKOK CUISINE
1586 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10028

Press Reviews, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Upper East Side

Flight

December 20, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Flight is a Thai and Asian-inspired gastropub on York at 78th Street that used to be called Dresner’s until it was completely revamped. The new setup (opened in October) is really beautiful inside, with muted, modern, intimate tones of grey wood and simple, elegant yet cozy accents.

Owners Dermot (beverage director, front of the house) and Golam (executive chef) did an amazing job with the transformation. Dermot has been in the ownership position of this location for many years, and Chef Golam has an extensive 27 year cooking career.

We got to sit in the coolest part of the restaurant: an elevated, sidewalk-side seating area that sits about two or three feet above the sidewalk and has long floor-to-ceiling windows/doors that can be opened in the warmer weather.

The concept of “Flight” is being able to taste many things during your time there. Aside from offering flights of wine and beer, they also offer whiskey flights, as well as food samplings like meat and seafood flights with brunch, lunch, dinner and happy hour menus. I like this idea, because whenever I am excited about a menu, there are always tons of things that I want to try but can’t because I get too full.

I was recently invited along with some other bloggers for a press dinner, where we got to sample a bunch of their signature dishes. Be warned, though, that we received small, tasting sizes of the dishes. Actual menu items are much larger portions.

My wife plucked her two favorite wine varietals off of their extensive global wine list: a Riesling and a Viognier, which were both really great. Crisp, light, refreshing, slight sweetness and easy on the aftertaste. I tried three of the 16 craft beers that they had on tap: UFO Ginger Land Wheat, Queens Pilsner, and Kona Big Wave. My favorite of the three was the wheat beer. I’m partial to that style. They also have a bunch of bottles available as well.

We started with some flatbreads on the table. This was similar to a pita, but more dense and much thinner. It was really nice and flavorful. It had a chewy texture as opposed to crisp, but in a way that almost reminded me of naan bread (which I love) or a thick crepe. It was served with a hummus-like dipping sauce. Very nice. I may have eaten more than my allotment for table sharing.

Next was a seasonal soup that they were offering, made from butternut squash and apple, and garnished with some basil. This was really smooth, not too filling, which I was happy about, and slightly sweet and crisp from the apple. It had great depth.

My favorite dish of the evening came next: Thai style coconut curry mussels. These were fucking delicious. I could eat this all day. The only negative about this dish was that I wished there was more liquid for me to drink or sop up with bread at the bottom of the bowl. So good. Spicy, light, warming, and just the right amount of seasoning.

The Thai meatball with dried crispy shallots, sweet chili sauce and cilantro was a really great bite as well. The meatball was a little harder than I had initially expected. Asian style meatballs tend to have more of a snap to them and are more dense. The flavor was great. Spicy.

In continuing with the Thai and Asian theme, the lump crab cake was dressed with a spicy sauce as well. The cake itself was a great texture: lots of good lump meat, and a beautiful golden brown crust. This rivaled the mussels for best dish of the night, for me.

The wild mushroom risotto was rich and creamy (marscarpone base), but not heavy. It was dressed deftly with a white truffle oil that really brought out the earthy flavors of the mushrooms.

The curry chicken was spicy as well, with bright lemongrass and cilantro flavors that made it herbaceous. It came with mushrooms, onions, peppers and eggplant, along with basmati rice. The only down side was that the chicken was a little dry. Perhaps thigh meat would have been better than breast meat for this.

The final savory dish was lobster ravioli in a butternut squash sauce and topped with a butterflied shrimp. The ravioli stuffing was lobster, basil, onion and shallot, and the pasta was hand made on site by Chef Golam. The squash sauce was similar to the soup course, but a bit more spicy and savory than the apple-infused soup.

For dessert, three different items came out. First was a brown bread ice cream that was absolutely amazing and, in my opinion, the best of the desserts. It tasted like french toast. The base was vanilla but bits of cinnamony bread were incorporated for texture. It was garnished with a sugar-dusted phyllo dough stick.

The tiramisu was very light, also with crispy phyllo dough on top. The dish wasn’t too sweet, which is good for me, and it wasn’t soaked in rum either. Not too boozy at all. Really nice, and it is one of their best sellers. This was my wife’s favorite of the desserts.

One of the other bloggers tried the apple tart. My wife and I didn’t get to try a bite, but it looked perfect, topped with some ice cream and the signature crisped phyllo dough for some crunch.

That about does it! I will definitely be back here to try a meat flight! They offer a burger, a filet mignon, a NZ rack of lamb and a NY strip, so I think I’ll be in good hands. They’re even going to be starting weekly jazz nights here as well, so I’ll be looking out for that too.

FLIGHT IS CLOSED

Burgers, Flash Deals, Upper East Side

Burger Bistro

September 21, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I noticed a sweet little Groupon deal for this place the last time I was browsing the site. For $10, you get $20 worth of food. I jumped on it, not fully realizing that this place was way the fuck up on 87th and 1st Avenue. Inconvenience aside, my wife and I walked up after spending the day on Roosevelt Island to do some photo exploring.

Here’s what we had:

Fried artichoke hearts. These were tasty, juicy, crisp, well seasoned, and came with a really nice horseradish cream dipping sauce. A bit pricey at almost $9, but pretty good.

The burger was pretty good. Nicely cooked, nicely seasoned, a good amount of cheese, and the potato bun was just right. I went with American, lettuce, tomato and onion.

We ordered some “seasoned fries” to go with it. They looked beautiful but completely lacked any salt. The seasoning used on them reminded me of one of those Mrs. Dash type “salt substitute” disasters. Also, they weren’t very crisp. Disappointment, although I must admit they LOOK awesome:

Moral of the story here: The Groupon deal is definitely worth it for the burgers. Maybe try the regular fries though.

BURGER BISTRO
1663 1st Ave
New York, NY 10028

Burgers, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Upper East Side

The Penrose

August 30, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Last week when I was introduced to BurgerFi by my buddy, he also showed me The Penrose. The decor was mad cool – old fashioned gastro pub look and feel. Really nicely done. I made a thick, bold mental note, in sharpie, to make sure I went back to give that shit a try. So I did, with my wife in tow.

Here’s the breakdown:

We started with chicharones (pork rinds). There were really crispy, crackly and light. The lime juice really took them to the next level.

Next the entrees came out. I had the Penrose burger with cheddar. Really nicely cooked and seasoned. Loved every bite.

My wife had the mussels, which came with perfectly buttery and toasty bread and a really unique broth, which included almonds, that we were sucking up with straws at the end.

A really great meal. And these three items, with 2 drinks included (it was happy hour), only came to about $50. You can’t beat it. We will be back for sure.