Category Archives: Non-Steakhouse Steaks

Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Pizza, Press Reviews, Queens, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Tutti Matti

June 15, 2016 Johnny Prime 1 Comment

Tutti Matti opened up in January. They’re slinging some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. Their pizza is Amalfi Coast style, which is cooked a little longer than Neopolitan style.

The crust is light, airy and crisp, yet it still has a doughy quality to it, so it isn’t stiff.

This crust makes for a great calzone too:

Our friends at The Creative Shake and Eaters Drinkers invited us here for a press meal, where we were able to sample a bunch of pizza as well as some of their regional Italian cuisine. Of course a really nice selection of Italian inspired cocktails were flowing.

This pasta dish is made with spicy nduja and tuna. You wouldn’t think the two go together well, but it was tasty.

I regret that I didn’t get a chance to sample the lasagna, but it looked and smelled delicious.

Fried seafood, very light and crisp, and served with a zucchini cream sauce that was incredible!

My favorite of the non-pizza items were these lamb chops. They were perfectly cooked, well seasoned and beautifully plated.

Last of the savory items was this chicken cutlet that was pounded flat, breaded, fried and topped with arugula, tomato and balsamic vinegar. Very simple and tasty – plus I thought it was kinda shaped like the Millennium Falcon.

For dessert, we all destroyed this delicious Nutella pizza:

This place has two chefs: a pizza chef, and a cuisine chef. I only spoke to the latter, Luigi, who served up the lamb that I loved so much. I was glad to have the opportunity to tell him just how awesome those chops were.

This place is just one stop into Long Island City on the 7 or E trains. I will definitely be back for more of that pizza and lamb in the future. In addition, they have the following weekly specials: 20% off lunch from noon to 3pm during the week; gnocchi night on Monday ($17 all you can eat); pizza night on Tuesday ($16 unlimited slices); ladies night on Wednesday (first glass of wine $13, rest of the night is free from 5pm to close); Thursday through Sunday $1 oysters 5pm to close; and Happy Hour all week from 4pm-7pm with $7 wine and $5 beer. Pretty amazing!

UPDATE 6/15/16

FINALLY got a chance to come back here and sample some more pizza and other dishes. The pizza still holds up as one of the best in town, easily. We tried four different pizzas:

Campagnola (tomato, prosciutto, arugula, parmesan)

Black truffle!!!

Radicchio and sausage.

Broccoli rabe and sausage.

I think that last one was my favorite, but it was really tough to choose a best of the four.

We also samples some pasta dishes. First was this buccatini. Very simple and nicely executed:

Next was linguine with clams. Stunning presentation and very nice, mild flavors. Not too heavy with the garlic and oil.

Last, baked gnocci. While these were heavy, they had a lot of flavor.

Of course I had to get the lamb chops again since I loved them so much last time.

Only this time we also threw some rib eye into the mix! This 32oz offering for two was only $64. Not bad, however I felt that it was a bit over cooked on the edges (it was a thick cut) and slightly under seasoned. It just needed a hit of salt and pepper. 6/10.

Since we came in with a pack of about 15 food bloggers, they threw in a piece of tiramisu on the house for us. Very nice, and with good coffee flavor!

TUTTI MATTI
47-30 Vernon Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11101

French, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, West Village

A.O.C. L’aile ou la Cuisse

May 26, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I was recently invited to A.O.C. for a press meal. The menu looked pretty stacked, with lots of things I wanted to try, so I jumped at the opportunity to come here.

We sat outside in the back garden, which is beautiful, shaded and perfect for a spring/summer meal outdoors, especially with some colorful cocktails like these.

We started with this amazing charcuterie and cheese board called Le Grand Mix. At $28 I felt that this was great. Usually these kinds of items are way overpriced to me, to the point of feeling like ass rape mixed with getting your balls stomped-on by stiletto heels. Here, however, it seemed very fair, if not actually a good deal. There were five sliced meats, a pair of duck confit crostini, three cheeses, some grapes, sliced apples and strawberries. There was even a small mixed greens salad beneath the apples!

Prosciutto, country ham, smoked duck, mortadella, spicy salami, if I had to guess on the sliced meats. The cheeses were brie, gouda and a harder style like parmigiano reggiano.

For our meal, we shared the cote de boeuf rib eye steak for two.

At $79 it comes with a bowl of mixed veggies and french fries. Great deal! The mixed veggies were all fresh, not frozen, and consisted of green beans, asparagus, broccoli and carrots. These had some basic seasonings like garlic and butter.

The fries were thin shoe-string style, which I like. Some were very crisp, and some were half crisp. It was an interesting mix of textures, but the flavors were spot on and they were well-seasoned.

The steak itself was overcooked, unfortunately. There was a bit too much grey going on for medium rare. The meat, as a result, was a little more dense and tough than I like, but it had good flavor otherwise, especially when dipped into the bernaise sauce that came with it (you can choose peppercorn as well, I think).

A video posted by Katherine (@thecakedealer) on May 25, 2016 at 7:02pm PDT

Here’s a closer shot of the steak. I boosted the reds a bit in Photoshop on both images, because I couldn’t help myself and I wanted it to look nice for the Instagram post.

I’m giving this a 6/10 instead of a 5 or 4, because ultimately this is a wonderful deal and the only real issue was the cooking temperature. I would definitely come back here and order this again, so don’t get the wrong idea. Compared with other steak-for-two deals that often times don’t come with sides, are smaller, and cost much more money, this is a steal. Just make sure you insist on rare.

For dessert we tried the tarte tartin. I wasn’t expecting pie format for this, since it was described as an apple turnover on the menu. But the apple flavor was very natural and not overly sweet. The crust, however, fell short and was a bit gummy. Ultimately it just lacked character, and tasted more like a thick apple sauce than a pie or tart.

My overall recommendation: Definitely get the charcuterie and cheese boards, and if you want to order steak, go for it but just be mindful of the cook temperature. The hanger looks great, and I’m sure the entrecote shell steak is nice too, traditional steak frites style. The mussels look amazing as well. I wish we had room in our guts to try more stuff, especially those.

A.O.C. L’AILE OU LA CUISSE
314 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014

East Village, Full Points for Flavor, Japanese, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Bohemian

May 13, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Bohemian is a dine-by-referral-only joint on Great Jones Street that’s nestled in the back of a high-end butcher shop called Japan Premium Beef. My wife scored a referral to eat here through one of her friends, so we set up a meal with her sister and her sister’s husband to celebrate their anniversary and sample as much as we could fit in our stomachs.

We started with a bunch of cocktails, which are all really great and unique. We tried about seven or eight over the course of the meal. Here are a few pics of some of them:

They have a great selection of hard-to-find Japanese beers too:

Plates here are small and pricey, but very good. We started with this poke bowl that consisted of high grade tuna, soy, sesame and micro greens. Absolutely delicious and super fresh.

Next up was the wagyu short rib sashimi. This had great fat content and was super tender. Each piece gets topped with a little bit of wasabi and fried garlic slices.

This fois gras sushi with aged balsamic and sea salt was incredibly decadent, but pricey at $17 for the pair:

My favorite of the starter items were these wagyu beef tartare squares, served on blue cheese stuffed toasted grilled cheese. The cheese was mild and didn’t overwhelm the awesome flavors of the beef. Add a bit of dijon from the smear on the plate and you’re set.

This mac and cheese is served with a tomato butter toast that is out of this world. The mac itself is perfect in every way: creamy, smooth and topped with a crunch.

This slab of bacon was a bit chewy in the part that I had. My wife had a better experience with her piece. The good bits were super tasty though, so maybe the slab itself was just a little inconsistent.

And why not have a pair of wagyu mini burgers with pecorino? They were perfectly cooked to medium rare, and served with some pickles for good measure.

The miso black cod was really nicely cooked, but a bit on the small side in terms of portion.

We regretted not going with the branzino when we saw that it was a beautifully presented whole fish and smelled like charcoal. But I wasn’t too worried because we were about to eat some fantastic wagyu beef. We started with a trio of beef (3.5oz each) that contained flatiron steak, culotte (top sirloin cap) and skirt. We liked them from best to worst in that order. I’ll review them now in the same order.

The flatiron was buttery and tender, cooked perfectly to medium rare and came in, for me, at an easy 9/10 for flavor.

The culotte was similarly buttery, but a bit tougher in texture. It reminded me of strip loin, but a little less grainy. 7/10.

I wish I had used a knife to cut these skirt steak bits a little smaller because they were too tough in the size that was served to us. They were cooked perfectly, but just lacked a bit on the flavor and texture fronts. 6/10.

All of the beef was served with a small tray of sea salt that you could use to season as you saw fit. This was key, because otherwise the cuts were all a little too bland.

The last cut of beef we tries was a 10oz hanger steak. This was super tender and extremely delicious, and cooked absolutely perfectly with a great crust and a bright pinkish red center. 10/10. It was served on a mountain of potatoes that seemed to have been baked first, and then fried to a golden crisp on the outside. Awesome.

Dessert was pretty nice too. We tried two ice creams: ricotta and strawberry balsamic. The strawberry was tart, but really nicely balanced between the sweet aspect of it. It ate more like a sorbet at times. The ricotta was light and fluffy, more like frozen cheese or a semifreddo. The ricotta cheese flavor was definitely prominent. What was best was mixing these two flavors in each bite. It was like eating a delicious frozen strawberry cheesecake.

Sorry for the shitty pics. At this point the lighting changed drastically in the joint, and I didn’t bother to fix my settings.

We also tried the trio dessert sampler, which consisted of creme brulee, matcha green tie cake and cheesecake.

My favorite of the three was the creme brulee. It was really smooth and creamy.

BOHEMIAN
57 Great Jones St
New York, NY 10012

Italian, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Pizza, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Pasquale Jones

May 4, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The Charlie Bird restaurant team recently opened this joint, and since opening it has gotten a lot of hype and attention from the food fanatic community. Namely, for the pizza and the pasta.

My wife and I came here with a crew of other food instagrammers so that we could try a lot of stuff and snap a bunch of pretty pictures.

The menu isn’t too extensive, which I liked. It listed a bunch of eye catching stuff that I wanted to try. I was also happy to see escarole make an appearance here in the greens section (though I didn’t get to try it out).

We tried three starters: pane carasau, cuttlefish and sugar snap peas. All were good, but slightly small in terms of portion size for the price point. While this is a “no tipping” restaurant and one should expect higher pricing, I felt that they went a bit too far. Based on my accounting of things, I’d say they are charging about 40-50% more per item. If you figure a 20% tip into the math, then you’re still overpaying by 20-30%, depending on the particular item in question. So while the idea of a no tipping restaurant may seem great, the real loser is the customer, who can no longer adjust their tip downward for low food quality or poor service. Our waiter was kind of a dick, and I wasn’t super impressed with the food either. As such, I felt like I over-paid for several aspects of the meal.

The pane carasau is essentially what you might get for free in a bread basket at a high end Italian joint. It was really just thin, crispy bread chips with a small dollop of delicious, warm honey and black pepper ricotta. $9.

The cuttlefish was steep at $18 for this plate:

The pickled peppers on top were a nice hit of heat, and it was cooked nicely in terms of texture, with only a slight bit of it being, perhaps, a bit overcooked and chewy. It tasted clean, though, and the charcoal grilling method added a nice earthy ash flavor to it.

The snap pea dish with watercress and cream was probably the best of the three, but, again, extremely overpriced at $17.

The peas carried a nice sweetness, but I was hoping for more cream.

Now for the pizza (category 1: full pies only, no slices available). We tried two pies: little neck clam and the special pizza of the day, which was a morel mushroom and cheese pie. The clam pie had good flavor, but it felt a little sparse on the actual clams and toppings. That means the diner feels ripped off when paying $24 for six small slices. That’s a hell of a profit margin when you think about how cheap it is to make this shit!

The morel pizza could have used more toppings a bit closer to the edge of the crust. That wasted real estate also translates to the feeling of being ripped off when the bill comes. This was, however, the better of the two pies, in my opinion. The morels had a meaty quality to them, and a good amount of earthiness.

On the pasta angle, we went with the baby goat pappardelle. This was a delicious dish. The meat was very tender, and the pasta was well dressed with sauce. The texture of the pasta was just right. While the portion size felt a little bit small for $23, I didn’t mind as much because it was top notch quality.

For the meats, we tried two dishes: pork shank for two, and dry aged rib eye for two. Let’s start with the pork.

This was delicious. While a bit small for two, the price of $48 wasn’t too bad. Well, I mean, when you compare it to the outstanding crackling pork shank with firecracker apple sauce at Maloney & Porcelli, which only costs $36 and can feed two people with extra to bring home, then, yeah, it’s way overpriced here. But given all else on the menu, I felt this was probably the best bargain. The flavors were outstanding and it had hints of sausage spice from the fennel and rosemary. This is a must-order if you decide to come here.

You can pass on the rib eye, however. It definitely delivered on the dry-aged flavor, but it was very small for two people to share at $125. If I had to guess, I’d say this was about 22oz on the bone. Maybe 24oz. For that size steak at a steakhouse, you pay between $50 and $60. So here, I would have expected to pay about $75 to account for the tip being included. At $125, we are looking at a massive fucking mark-up.

Contrast this with the best rib eye in Manhattan over at Osteria Morini, just around the corner, which offers a steak that’s more than twice the size of this thing at 52oz, with 120 days of dry-aging flavor, and accompanied by two generously-sized sides for just $145. Uhh… no brainer. Anyway, this steak had a bit of chew to it. Not as tender as we had hoped and expected from dry-aging.

It was cooked perfectly to medium rare, and it had a great crust on the outside. The crispy meat surrounding the bone was excellent as well. However there was no rib cap to speak of. Perhaps it was butchered off for some other use. 7/10.

The steak came with this nice roasted onion:

And something came with this side of citrus-dressed arugula:

But the highlight of the night, aside from the pork shank, was seeing Michael J. Fox and Dennis Leary in the dining room, eating together with their wives.

To sum up: skip this place unless you are focused on the pork shank. If that’s not your thing, then stick with the pizza and pasta, but I, personally, would still go elsewhere for those even though both were pretty tasty.

PASQUALE JONES
187 Mulberry St
New York, NY 10012

Burgers, Flash Deals, Full Points for Flavor, Italian, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Parms, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Osteria Morini

April 7, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Morini has a new burger and I tried this strip steak too. BOTH INCREDIBLE!

My wife was recently browsing around the Instagram foodporn landscape when she came across this image of a massive rib eye:

osteria morini — Photo Credit: Osteria Morini: @OsteriaMorini on Instagram

I was immediately intrigued when she shared it with me, but I kind of just put it on the mental list of places that I needed to try. Like any fool who is just looking at photos and not actually READING captions, I missed the integral part of what was going on and why my thoughtful wife sent it to me:

“BIG news. Literally. Tonight only we are serving 120 day dry aged Tomahawk Steak. It’s on a first come basis and there are only 7, so call to reserve yours now.”

120 fucking days?!?? Wow. So a few days go by and I get this frantic text from my wife: “GET YOUR CAMERA AND MEET ME AT OSTERIA MORINI TONIGHT AT 6PM!”

I responded. “Okay. Why, what’s going on?” Then she proceeded to explain to me the details of what I had glanced over a few days earlier. She’s a very patient person. I do this often, apparently. But my mouth dropped. She had secured us one of the seven 52oz, 120-day dry-aged Pat Lafrieda/Creekstone Farms rib eyes just a week or two in advance of our 7-year wedding anniversary. They only offer them on the first Wednesday of every month, so scheduling is limited. Anyway, I ran home and got my camera, because we were about to celebrate with the best steak we’d ever eaten.

The steak is not trimmed of any excess fat, and the bone is left with all the meat still attached prior to cooking, as you can see in the Instagram photo above. This is ideal when dry-aging, because eventually you have to trim off the outer bark and you inevitably lose some meat when that happens. Better that it be fat and gristle than your spinalis dorsi. Even still, this particular cut is still left with tons of surrounding meat and tenderized fat. Ours came out to the table pre-sliced, beautifully plated and ready for gorging:

Everything is edible on this. Even the fat breaks down into a really delicious beef jelly after that much time aging.

The cap was truly something to behold. Packed with tons of flavor and so fucking tender. As for the eye (longissimus dorsi), just take a look at this perfectly cooked masterpiece of a slice:

I half expected something so funky and nutty that it would almost be unrecognizable as steak, and more akin to blue cheese. But it was mild and pleasant, not so robust that it became odd tasting, like what can happen with some long aging processes. This was just right. I was smiling the entire time. This is the best steak I’ve ever eaten. 10/10, and still a 10/10 on a second visit years later.

But let’s not brush aside the other great Italian cuisine going on here at Osteria Morini. The bar has a great selection of Italian-inspired cocktails that are really unique and interesting.

The atmosphere is home-ish and comfortable. It’s warm and inviting, with lots of wood tones.

By 8:30pm the lights had dimmed significantly and the place was wall-to-wall jammed. The food is so great, it is no wonder why. But when you take the stellar service into consideration, a packed house becomes a no-brainer. GM Phillip Buttacavoli made us feel very much at home, and all employees from servers, to kitchen staff, to bartenders were really helpful, pleasant and nice.

The foccacia table bread was warm, toasty and nicely seasoned.

We started with the stracci pasta: long, wide ribbons of egg-forward pasta with a braised wild mushroom sauce and rosemary oil.

Perfectly cooked, and delicious through and through. The other pasta dishes all sounded great too. I will definitely be back to survey more of those selections.

The steak, which was a very fair $145, came with our choice of two sides as well. We went with the parmigiano roasted asparagus and the parmigiano fingerling potatoes.

The asparagus reminded me of the kind my mother used to make. Very simply cooked but with parmigiano over the top to add in some salt and flavor. And the potatoes were perfectly crunchy and nicely seasoned all around.

For dessert, we tried the gianduja budino: a baked chocolate and hazelnut custard with candied hazelnuts, brown butter and salted chocolate cake crumbles.

I loved it. It had just the right amount of sweet and savory to strike a great balance. They even gave us some complimentary glasses of saffron and cardamom amaro to go with the dessert.

We ended up using a great Gilt City deal on this meal. My wife paid something like $145 for $200 worth of credit to apply to the bill at pretty much any Altamarea Group restaurant (except for Marea). That left us with a little bit to cover at the end.

What a fantastic meal. I can’t wait to go back!

UPDATE 8/1/18

Had a bunch of pasta dishes, which were all excellent:

Octopus was really tender, and had a nice char on the outside.

Incredible “White Label Burger.” Custom Pat LaFrieda beef blend with tomato, speck aioli, and fontina cheese with sides of parmesan and parsley onion rings and fonduta.

And crispy breaded veal wrapped in prosciutto and covered with truffle cream sauce.

OSTERIA MORINI
218 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012

Italian, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Restaurant Reviews, West Village

Crispo

April 3, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Crispo is a gorgeous Italian joint down on 14th Street near 8th Avenue. My buddy and his girlfriend have been coming here for years. I had never heard of it, but when he told me about it, I knew we had to try it out together as a group.

We started with a bunch of apps. For that reason, and because I knew we were also going to eat pasta and steak, I took it easy on the delicious and generously portioned table bread.

First, we had a sampler app trio of speck, aged goat cheese and mozzarella rice balls. The meat and cheese came with dried fig and an apricot/fennel jam. Both the speck and the cheese were great, top quality products.

The rice balls were addicting. You can easily catch yourself popping a bunch of these in a row without even realizing what’s going on. They were perfectly fried to a golden crisp on the outside, and the inside was both firm from the rice yet oozing with delicious melty fresh mozzarella cheese. Not heavy, salty or greasy, which is the opposite of what you sometimes get when these are done wrong.

The next app was a nice, simple fried calamari. This also came with fried zucchini. There was a cornmeal aspect to the breading here, which made for a nice crisp crunch. That’s fried parsley on top, too.

Our favorite app was this crispy pork belly topped with a melted gorgonzola-stuffed fig. Underneath the pork belly was crispy polenta, and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

This was one of the most tasty apps I’ve had in a while. In fact, I think this could be an incredibly successful entree as well if just magnified in proportion. Seriously, I could eat this all day. The fat is cut with the acid, and the funk of the cheese takes the flavors off onto a ride that’s more wild than the fucking Great Space Coaster.

So after all of that, we were finally ready for some pasta. This place seems to be somewhat famous for two pasta dishes in particular: the Spaghetti Carbonara and the truffle ravioli. I know what you’re thinking. “Spaghetti Carbonara? I can get that crap at any halfway decent Italian joint.” But here’s the rub: most Italian joints fuck up their Carbonara with cream, making a dense, salty and overly-heavy pasta eating experience. Real Carbonara, from what I understand, doesn’t have any dairy, other than the cheese you grate over the top! The creaminess is achieved via egg yolk.

Break the yolk, mix it around a bit, and you’re ready to rock. Just sprinkle in a green veggie and some crispy pig bits. I must say, this Carbonara was divine, and like none I’ve ever really tasted before. Not only was the pasta cooked just right, but the ingredients were well-balanced, and nothing was too salty. A big problem I usually have with Carbonara is sweating like a pig while I eat, because of all the FFFFFFFFFFUCKING salt that’s usually in it…

The hand made truffle ravioli were nice and al-dente, served in a simple brown butter type sauce, and the portion was large for a very reasonable price. I was expecting like six somewhat large ravioli in the bowl, not a dozen.

Now to the meat. My wife and I shared the New York Strip steak, which was simply grilled and then topped with a mound of red wine reduced onions.

The steak was cooked perfectly to medium rare.

While I wasn’t a huge fan of the onions (I’m a purist), I did find myself going into them every so often out of an enjoyed curiosity. The meat itself was nice, tender and flavorful. 8/10.

The steak also came with parmesan herb fries. These were really crispy, and the parmesan acts as a cheese-funk seasoning that replaces the standard salt. Very nice.

Last, we had some creme brûlée, pot de creme and pistachio gelato. I didn’t snap the gelato pic for some reason, but I did pull the trigger on the cremes (the two come in one dessert order – bonus).

I was blown away by the quality of the food here, the service, the ambiance and decor, and the portion sizes. I’m ashamed that this place never made it onto my radar in all its years in operation. But not just that: the prices are really fair. All of the food described here, plus about two or three alcoholic drinks per person (wine, cocktails, beer, after dinner drinks), plus a round of coffee for everyone with dessert, only came to $105 per person, with tax and tip included (we had four people at the table total). I was shocked.

Needless to say, I’ll definitely be back here, because there is a lot of shit on the menu that I want to try (like the pork shank).

CRISPO
240 W 14th St
New York, NY 10011

French, Midtown West, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Brasserie 8.5

March 9, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Brasserie 8.5 is part of the Patina group of restaurants. If you’re loyal to them, they’re loyal to you. What I mean by that is simply this: go to one of their restaurants, and at the end of the meal they provide you with a contact and comment card. When you supply them with an email address and date of birth, they send you a free $50 credit for your birthday, which can be used within two months of the date. My wife and I have been to many of their establishments, and we haven’t been disappointed yet. The $50 credit makes it all a bit sweeter too.

So we came here with the $50 credit this time because it was within two months of my wife’s birthday. But, to be honest, we’ve been meaning to come here for quite some time. This joint offers an amazing happy hour deal with $5 quality draft beers, $1 oysters, and a bunch of other fairly priced items. In addition to that, they have a regular $29 three-course price fix lunch, a regular $39 three-course price fix dinner, no corkage fees on Sundays and Mondays, and on Sundays they have an awesome $32 bottomless mimosa brunch buffet that takes over the whole lounge area. Amazing, and you are truly dining in elegance with impeccable service at this massive midtown restaurant. The bar area is really nice, too, and the cocktail menu has some very nice concoctions.

So let’s get down to business. My wife did the price fix menu. Her appetizer was octopus with bean puree. The octopus was soft and tender, but it had a bit of skin slime going on. Perhaps a quick char on the grill would have knocked that back a bit before plating it on the bean puree.

Her entree was branzino with kale and calamari. These were nicely cooked and the skin was crisp. However the fish taste was a bit stronger than we are usually accustomed to for branzino. Not bad in any way, just a bit more powerful than expected.

Her dessert was a pear tart with vanilla ice cream. This was a beautiful dish, and the tart was perfectly executed.

I started with this nice cylinder of tuna tartare. The tuna was fresh and the cucumbers were crisp. The dressing was minimal so as to allow the simplicity and quality of the tuna stand on its own.

My entree was, as you might have expected, their dry-aged cote de boeuf, which was topped with sauteed mushrooms.

This nice bone-in rib eye was cooked to perfection on the inside. An even medium rare through and through.

I’m giving it 8/10 for flavor. I’d say it came in at about 20oz., if I had to guess. While the meat was perfectly cooked, there was a lot of bleed out due to the fact that the outside did not have a great deal of sear or char to it. That char tends to lock in all of the meat juices, that way, when you let it rest after cooking, none of the juices pour out of the meat. I wondered if it was cooked sous vide style… but the fact that the mushrooms were plated on top of the steak didn’t help much either, as that heat and moisture would work to remove any trace of searing that was done during the cooking process.

On the side I had an order of fries and sauteed spinach. The spinach was a bit watery, but it had a good buttery-garlic flavor.

The fries were perfectly crisp, though a little light on the seasoning.

I skipped dessert and shared some of my wife’s tart. All in, this was a pretty good meal. And we did well with that $50 birthday credit. Check out the William:

BRASSERIE 8.5
9 W 57th St
New York, NY 10019

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Chinese, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, West Village

Decoy

March 3, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The Cake Dealer and I took on the Peking Duck feast here at Decoy with Chubby Chinese Girl and her husband. This is one of the best deals in town. For $65/pp you get four starters, two main courses, one side or rice dish, and one Peking Duck with ten pancakes, three sauces, pickled leeks, cucumber and green onion. While this isn’t a huge single carcass, it is definitely a beast feast worthy of the Carcass Club.

So let me get right down to business. The cocktails here are really nicely crafted. I tried two, the Timelessness (Hibiki, pomegranate molasses, sherry, yellow chartreuse and Laphroaig mist) and the Sitting Down For Dinner (duck fat-washed George Dickel, lemon, egg white and red wine). That second one is pictured here, along with my wife’s Smoke N Spice (Thai chili-infused Fidencio mezcal, pineapple, Aperol, Sriracha bitters and lime, served in a pineapple mug). Notice the shape of the duck created in the foam in mine:

In fact, ducks are everywhere in here as decor in paintings, or even just hanging over the tables:

You can kinda see them over the bar here as well:

Notice that guy on the right? That’s “Quinn” from the hit show Homeland. I didn’t want to intrude and get a photo (he was with a woman), but I did manage to snap this pic of the back of his head.

Alright. So here’s a nice set of snacks that came out to the table before our appetizers. Roasted Shishito peppers, roasted cauliflower, curried carrots, Chinese broccoli stems, marinated mango and pickled cucumber.

The star of the night, though, was probably this plate of “Decoy Chips,” which are fried branzino skin. These were so freaking good. They were nice and crispy, well seasoned and lightly dressed with pickled green and red onion.

Alright. Now onto the starters. First was this Kumamoto oyster topped with caviar and dressed with Yuzu. Refreshing and crisp.

Next up was oxtail dumplings. These were lightly breaded and fried to a golden crisp, and jam-packed with a generous amount of tasty stewed oxtail meat.

These grilled wagyu chunks were pretty nice. I was unable to readily identify what cut of beef they were, and I forgot to ask, but they were tender and flavorful. They came with a little mound of kimchi.

This next item is a fois gras and strawberry tart, designed and plated to look like a goose or swan.

Absolutely stunning, and really decadent to eat. Velvety smooth.

After the starters, a little shot of duck consomme came out to prepare out gullets for the Peking Duck. This was both savory and sweet. Really nice. I would drink a cup after running every morning, if I could.

We devoured the Peking Duck pretty quickly. It wasn’t all that big, but we had a lot more food coming so we didn’t mind so much. The skin was crisp, the meat was tender and flavorful, and the sauces and toppings were all really good. This may not be the best Peking Duck I’ve ever eaten, but it is certainly up there considering the value.

Our main courses were a grilled rib eye ($10 extra) and a pork “toro” dish with Korean rice cakes and Chinese sausage.

The rib eye was nicely cooked to medium rare and pre-sliced for us on a beautiful plate:

I’m not sure if that was all bleed-out underneath, or a purposeful sauce. The flavor score would be about an 8/10 on my ranking scale, mostly due to the proper cooking temperature and the wonderful char that stood up to the liquids on the plate. That’s asparagus served with it there, as well. Those were a bit under-cooked for my liking, but the tips were good.

The pork dish was actually a bit light on the actual pork, but we all enjoyed the rice cakes and Chinese sausage that were mixed in.

Our side dish was unique and delicious. This is a bowl of lightly sauteed snow pea leaves, simply executed with garlic and oil. It reminded me of some Italian greens that I cook in a similar way, like escarole or spinach, but with a more watercress-like texture.

To sum up, this place is definitely worth visiting for the duck feast. You get a ton of really good quality food for a reasonable price. In addition, the drinks and bar snacks (like the Decoy Chips) are exceptional if you just want a quick drink or a bar bite.

DECOY
529-1/2 Hudson St
New York, NY 10014

East Village, Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Yerba Buena

February 29, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED!

My sister told me about this place a while back, and she later got me and my wife a gift certificate so that we’d give it a shot. Specifically, she told me to try the “poquito picante” cocktail, made with gin, cucumber, jalapeno and lime. It was really delicious. It had that heat from the jalapeno, but it was rounded out nicely with the sweetness from the lime syrup and then cooled off with the cucumber. My wife tried the “concoction,” a fresh fruit riff on a classic egg white whiskey sour. We ordered both cocktails at the bar while we waited for our table, and we were happy to learn that all drinks were half price for an all-day happy hour at the bar on Sundays.

We started with a hamachi ceviche. This was fresh and flavorful, and garnished with sesame seeds and dried, puffed corn. It had a mild flavor and wasn’t too overpowering on the citrus.

We also shared this trio of fries: hearts of palm, avocado and watermelon.

These were really interesting. The avocado was super creamy, as expected. The hearts of palm had some starchiness to it, about which we were both a bit surprised. They tasted great though. The watermelon was an even bigger surprise, however. It was sweet, yet savory, and crunchy, yet juicy. It went perfectly with the smokey ketchup that was served with these fries.

For her entree, my wife ordered the Lechon Confitado, which is suckling pig with sunchoke-black truffle puree and kale-red chiles.

This was the winning dish. The pork was cooked perfectly – like a juicy pulled or shredded pork without the over-saucing that typically occurs at BBQ joints. The confit coking method surely helps in that regard. It was topped with some greens and pickled red onion. The earthy and delicious sunchoke puree was drizzled around the plate.

I intended to order the rib eye that was listen on the menu, but they were out. Instead, they offered me a skirt steak, so I gave that a try.

It was cooked nicely to medium rare, but just wasn’t up to standard with some of the other places I’ve had skirt recently.

I’d say this came in at about a six out of ten for a combination of flavor and quality. It was juicy, but did have a bit of bleed-out, and lacked a good sear on the outside.

It was served with an avocado, tomato and onion salad, and some yucca fritters.

For dessert, we shared the “panqueques,” crepes filled with dolce de leche and served with a scoop of ice cream. The menu said it would be pistachio ice cream, which we were excited about, but they gave us chocolate instead.

In any case, dessert was delicious. The crepes were made fresh, and the dolce de leche was smooth and creamy.

This is definitely a place worth visiting if you’re in the Alphabet City area and looking for a bite or cocktail.

YERBA BUENA
23 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009

American, Burgers, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Union Square/Flatiron

The Clocktower

February 13, 2016 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

My wife and I came here for an early Valentine’s Day date. We chomped though a good deal of food, so I’ll just get right to it.

The decor here is incredible. It’s elegant yet old fashioned-inspired. High ceilings, big fireplace, wide-planked dark wood floors, dark wainscoting, etc.

The bar is a destination in itself, and they make some really unique cocktails that utilize ingredients you’d never expect to see in a drink, like chicken stock and pea puree.

Table bread is a nice warm and toasty loaf that’s served with a soft, freshly salted whipped butter.

We started with a dashi cured smoked salmon appetizer that was topped with puffed rice, greens and a soft boiled quail egg.

This had a bright and acidic pop to it. A great way to start the meal.

Our next course was a burger, which we shared.

This this was pretty much perfect. By far, this was the best thing we ate here.

It was seared to a nice crisp on the outside, and a beautiful medium rare on the inside.

On top was lettuce, bacon, red onion, pickle, cheddar cheese and special sauce. Nothing too fancy – just really good quality shit. The bun was toasted and warm on the outside but soft like a potato roll on the inside. Just the right balance.

The fries were thick, long and hand-cut – like John Bobbitt’s dick – only crunchy on the outside and soft inside, like mashed potatoes. They could have used a little bit more seasoning or salt, but they were so perfectly cooked that I didn’t mind.

Our awesome waiter Jake, who had really great suggestions on drinks and food items, cleared the table and presented us with these kickass plates as we awaited out main course.

For our main course we ordered the cote de boeuf for two, which was a 40oz bone-in rib eye that came with gratin potatoes (two servings), a green bean salad, and bone marrow jus.

This thing was beautiful. The sear on the outside was like a salty and crisp meat bark, and the aroma was out of this world. It was dressed up with some lightly roasted garlic cloves and thyme.

As you can see, the meat was cooked to a gorgeous pink medium rare, and every bite was tender and juicy. The fat was so soft and mushy too – completely edible. Nine out of ten!

I wasn’t much of a fan of the bone marrow jus. For some reason it wasn’t working for me in the flavor department, but it did smell wonderful.

The potatoes were pretty good. With gratin style potatoes, I always find myself wishing that the chef had done several thinner crisped preparations and then layered them before serving, that way there is some more of that delicious top crunchy texture as you work your way down into the middle.

The green bean salad was nothing to scoff at. It was topped with truffle and tossed with foie gras! This thing was so earthy from the truffles, the truffle oil, the toasted hazelnuts and the foie that it was almost like having another meat course.

By time dessert rolled around we were pretty full, so we just shared this chocolate custard item with a cocktail that was made from cheerios milk and bourbon called “The American Seriel Killer.”

To our surprise, Jake later brought over a tin of shortbread, brittle and English toffee, along with a special dessert plate of grapefruit sorbet since he learned that we were celebrating a special occasion. Killer service here.

I highly recommend this place. At $25 the burger may seem a bit steep at first, but it’s a half pound of some of the best eating you’ll ever have, and it also comes with those delicious fries. Similarly, at $135 the steak for two may seem steep, but you get three sides with it, and I guarantee you will go home full and satisfied.

UPDATE 12/26/2022

We came back! This time for Christmas dinner. We tried the steak tartare, the scotch egg, the Beef Wellington, the prime rib, and the sticky toffee pudding. Everything was great! 9/10 on both the prime rib and Beef Wellington.