My wife and I tried this place recently, which features nice wines, sliced meats, good pastas, meat-focused entrees, and classic Italian desserts.
We sipped on some wine while eating a unique starter that tasted like the onions in a French onion soup, topped with mashed potatoes, and then sprinkled with crispy pancetta. delicious.
Next was pistachio dough tortelli with a mortadella stuffing. These were salty, but still very delicious.
For our main, we tried the veal cutlet, which was almost like a modified Milanese. It was breaded and fried, then topped with a melted cheese sauce and prosciutto.
This was very salty as well, mainly due to the cheese sauce. But there was also a funky flavor on the tail bits. Not sure what, but I didn’t love it.
Dessert was incredible: almond panna cotta. I could eat buckets of this.
Despite the over-salting and funky veal, I would definitely come back here to try more stuff.
My wife and I stopped in here to try some stuff at the bar just before they transitioned from the lunch shift to the dinner shift. Here’s what we had:
Vietnamese Beef Carpaccio:
This was awesome. Great herbs on top, nice tender American wagyu beef, raw, thinly sliced, and dressed nicely with fish sauce, shallots, and crispy garlic.
Crab Cakes:
Also awesome. These were basically patties made from egg, pork, and lump crab. The dipping sauce served with this was incredible, and if you take a bite each time with some of the Thai basil, you’ll be in heaven.
Pho Hanoi:
The northern style pho had a nice cinnamon aroma, but it was more mild on flavor than it smelled. There was a generous amount of quality beef in the bowl, along with nicely cooked noodles.
Banh Mi:
We ordered the traditional Banh Mi, but one glaring thing that stood out as not traditional was the presence of lettuce on the sandwich, and the absence of daikon. We still liked it, and the bread was very good, but we took the lettuce off.
Duck:
We ordered the crispy roasted duck as well. The sauce was a bit sweet, so it was important for me to eat each bite with one of the dried chili peppers that came with the dish. The little supremes of grapefruit helped cool it down afterwards.
We also tried four cocktails, all of which were really interesting. They definitely sit outside the box of traditional cocktails.
Overall I liked this place and would probably go back. I think there may be a bit of Thai influence in the dishes, but I enjoyed.
This spot has swiftly become known for their stiff drinks and small bites. My wife and I tried a pair of their martinis: the pickle, and the clean dirty. Both were great.
We moved on to small bites, which included mini burgers, mini glizzies, and shoestring fries. These were all delicious. I was surprised to see the burgers cooked to a nice medium and still having decent thickness for the patties.
Although a bit expensive, I would definitely go back and try more stuff. Go give this place a shot!
I finally got over to Royale to try the burger that I’ve heard so much about. It was good! We ordered the Royale with cheese (not the smash burger).
This was probably about a 6oz patty, perfectly cooked to medium with nice cheese melt and cheese coverage.
Bun could use a little work, but it had a nice toast on it, and I appreciated the thinly sliced tomato, onion, lettuce and pickle on the side. Fries were good. Natural cut style, not too salty but good and crisp.
My buddy Dave, who I used to work for as a butcher, is a member at Flyfish Club, so he took me and a friend as guests. Chef Capon really worked us hard, so we were insanely full at the end of this meal.
Starters: green bean hummus (incredible); hamachi crudo; octopus carpaccio (also top notch); crispy rice topped with wagyu, tuna, truffle and caviar (a favorite for me); oysters and shrimp cocktail; and sushi rolls.
Mains: bay scallops in the style of escargots (really inventive and unique); pork chop; trio of pasta (casarecce with pistachio pesto, spicy crab and tomato rigatoni, and lamb agnolotti); fries.
For a view of the pasta, check out the video I linked above.
Star of the show: Caesar on a bed of Milanese style chicken.
Dessert: strawberry short cake; cookies with ice cream.
This was an incredible meal. I want to go back to try the omakase with my wife.
My wife and I came here for a quick meal and really enjoyed everything we tried. She had been here soon after they opened for a quick meal at the bar. Now, Corima was awarded a Michelin star and even has a fancy tasting menu. We opted for an a la carte meal, and I’m glad we did. Let me get into it.
We started with two recommendations from the waiter, Francisco, who was AWESOME, by the way…
The first recommendation: Their sourdough flour tortilla. This is CRACK.
It comes with a sort of mole butter, too. I could eat pounds of this stuff. When you go here, do not skip this. I’m not kidding. It doesn’t seem like much, and it’s hard to describe, but this is fantastic.
The second recommendation: Their Beef Cecina Tlayuda. This was essentially like a beef carpaccio on a crispy tortilla. Raw thinly sliced beef on top, lots of flavor packed underneath with alliums and such. This was my favorite dish of the night.
Next up was an absolutely perfectly cooked hamachi collar. It came with a spicy aioli, but the fish was so beautifully cooked and seasoned that it wasn’t necessary.
After that was another seafood item: The spicy surf clam toast with Chinese sausage and super thin sliced tomato. The toast was sourdough. This reminded me of a panzanella.
The duck enmolada was super unique. Think of this like an enchilada, but with a mole sauce instead of a chili-based sauce. Despite this being our least favorite dish of the night, we still vvery much enjoyed it. Literally nothing was left on any of our savory plates.
For our final savory course, we had the 120-day dry aged NY strip steak. This was about 6oz, pre-sliced, perfectly cooked to medium rare and topped with a veal brain Bearnaise sauce! Served with it were some jus roasted white asparagus spears grilled kolrabi cabbage. This was a 9/10. So good.
We ordered one dessert but they sent out all three! Incredible service here. We ordered the chocoflan, thinking it would be flan. It turns out it was more like a brownie topped with whipped cream and ice cream. It was delicious. Unexpected, but delicious. This was my wife’s favorite.
The rhubarb tres leches cake was served with a hibiscus sorbet. It was so light and flavorful. What a treat.
My favorite dessert was the mango granita sorbet with spicy tamarind chamoy and candied sakura leaf. So unique. Spicy and tart, with a bit of sweetness in there to round it out. And doesn’t the plating look kinda like Plankton from Spongebob?
I will definitely be back here for more. What an incredible meal. Put this place on your short list!
Awesome spot with great wings. The lemon pepper and buffalo were perfect. Crisp, great ratio of meat to skin, and not too drenched in sauce. Can’t wait to go back and try more. Everyone I was with said they liked the burgers and chicken sandwiches.
BEAR BURGERs BACKYARD
740 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11232
My wife scored a heavily discounted Groupon for Le Jardin Bistro so we gave it a shot. The deal came with two cocktails, two apps, and two entrees, with just one or two block outs that were understandable (a $26 foie gras app was one). Here’s what we got:
Apps: Escargots and steak tartare. Both great, and easily can hang with some of the big boy French spots that are super popular and expensive in other neighborhoods.
Entrees: Steak frites and rack of lamb. The lamb was the winner here, and nicely composed with tomatoes, cheese mashed/baked potato, and carrots. The steak was about a 6/10. A little tough, a little thin, and technically not a shell steak (a shell should have bone on two sides – this was boneless).
We added on some desserts: apple pie and strawberry tart. Both were good.
I would definitely come back to try their burger and mussels.
LE JARDIN BISTRO
95 Delancey Street
New York, NY 10002
