Roku Nana is a newly opened sushi and Japanese food joint on Clinton Street. My wife and I came in here to try their sushi, and it was a pretty great deal for the price point.
We started with two rolls; the pink lady and the flamingo.
These were great. I liked the pink lady the best (pink colored roll), and my wife liked the flamingo.
Then, we did their 10-piece premium nigiri dinner, which was $53pp.
It comes with a hand roll as well. The uni was the best, followed by the fatty tuna.
There’s also a speakeasy upstairs serving awesome cocktails.
This southern food restaurant is a staple in NOLA. On my last trip to the “Big Easy” I was finally able to try it.
They’re known for their po’ bouys, so I had to try the Famous Ferdi special: a po’ boy packed with baked ham, roast beef, debris and gravy, served dressed.
Absolutely incredible, and I think this was the best bite of the 2025 trip.
The waitress came over and gave us this plate of collared greens, shrimp etouffee and green beans. Someone had ordered it and left, or they made an extra by mistake.
This didn’t look like much, but it was absolutely amazing! Definitely need to come back here next visit.
MOTHER’S RESTAURANT
401 Poydras St
New Orleans, LA 70130
Not much to say about this little coffee spot near the casino in NOLA, but the coffee was great, the beignets were supposedly better than Cafe Du Monde, and they served an amazing bloody!
We stopped into this joint for a quick bite. I tried the special gumbo of the day, which was called the Cajun gumbo. It consisted of chicken, andouille sausage, crawfish and shrimp. It was really tasty!
I’ve been meaning to try this spot for a while, and then recently a friend told me that their rice rolls with homemade crullers inside are great. I had to give them a try.
They were awesome! These had dry shrimp on them, which packed a lot of flavor. We also had the regular roast pork rice rolls. Tough to choose a favorite.
We figured, while we were here, we may as well try some other stuff. The roast pig was a huge portion for $11, and it was incredible.
The roast duck over rice for $8.50 was a pretty good deal, despite the duck being mostly skin and fat (I don’t mind too much).
We also had this heaping bowl of tripe and wonton noodle soup.
The broth lacked flavor, but the insane portion size of noodles, tons of tasty tripe, and I think six wontons made up for that.
Two people over-stuffed for around $55 all-in, with enough leftovers for another full meal for two. Great deal. I will definitely be back here.
Balvanera is an Argentine wine bar and steak-focused restaurant. We went with another couple, so we were able to try a bunch of stuff.
We started with four small plates:
Octopus
Roasted Beets
Blood Sausage
Burrata & Squash
All of these were really great, but I think we all sort of agreed that the octopus was the best, with the blood sausage either close behind or tied. Really great flavors on this stuff. The blood sausage had none of that grainy, irony, gamey flavor that you sometimes get with low quality or overcooked blood sausage. It had a sticky sweetness to it that was hard to describe. The octopus was so incredibly tender, and the Romesco sauce was killer.
We went with the 25oz, 28-day, dry-aged rib eye for our main course ($120).
This was cooked to a perfect medium rare, but it lacked a little bit of that dry-aged flavor. It was present mostly around the edges and along the bone. But that didn’t matter, because the flavor was so great. This is a solid 8/10 steak, potentially bordering on 9/10 if the aged flavor bumps up on future visits (definitely going back).
For dessert, we did a chocolate tart and flan. Both of these were pretty nice, but I think next time I will focus more on the small plates in the savory department instead of the sweet stuff.
Oti is a small Romanian restaurant with a great outdoor space on Clinton Street in the lower east side. My wife and I popped in here for a quick meal. The menu consists of mainly small plates and wine. Here’s what we had:
Farmers Board
This is a nice charcuterie style board with meats, cheeses and dips. At $25 this wasn’t too bad. Great bread too.
Broken Burrata
Pretty self explanatory. This was really delicious.
Bone Marrow Toast
I didn’t get much bone marrow flavor on this, but there was something pickled and sweet on top that threw my taste buds for a loop. This was tasty and had melted cheese on it. It was good despite not following through on the marrow aspect.
Stuffed Pepper
This was probably the best (and biggest) dish we tried. Inside was a nice mixture of spiced meats, rice and cheese. I would definitely get this again. Save some bread to drag through that delicious sauce too.
Meesh
These meatball / kebab style thingies were really nice. That sauce on top was a mustard of sorts. I would definitely get this one again too.
Pickled Grapes
Our waitress suggested these over the pickled Jimmy Nardello peppers to cut the fat and compliment the Meesh. They were SUPER sour. Eating them together with the Meesh was the best way to have them. In hindsight, I wish we had gone with the peppers instead.
My buddy told me about this place, and it looked so good that I needed to try it ASAP. We started with some nice cocktails and moved onto a trio of starters:
Stir Fried Manila Clams
Crispy Pork Jowl
Petite Filet Steak Tartare
These were all fantastic and unique. I think the tartare might have been my favorite, or perhaps dragging the pork jowl through the sauce that came with the clams. So delicious.
For entrees, we tried another trio:
Pad Kua Taley
Pan Roasted Pork Chop
Dry-Aged Rib Eye
These were great too, but a few slight criticisms: First, the noodles were excellent but the squid was a little bit overcooked. This was a delicious dish featuring wide/flat noodles and shrimp, squid, crabmeat, Asian celery, scallion, and sesame oil in a roasted chili sauce. Second, the pork chop was a little bit dry due to being overcooked. Thankfully, the salted chili lime sauce that it came with added that moisture and flavor back into it beautifully.
The steak is a great deal at $68 for 24oz of dry-aged beef on the bone. If I had to guess, this was choice grade. The roasted garlic with tomato, tamarind and dill flavors really help bring out its dry-aged characteristics. Bravo. 9/10.
For dessert, we had some more cocktails and a unique sweet and sticky rice dish that was topped with pumpkin custard.
I was reluctant to put this restaurant into my standard steakhouse review format with 100 points spread across ten categories. I think it would have made for an abnormally low score due to the structure of the review. But this place hits top marks for their bar and decor, with an inviting, bright, wide open and airy space. The flavors are so unique and new for the application into a chop house. The staff are all super friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and attentive. I really enjoyed this meal, and I can’t wait to go back to try the two other cuts of steak on the menu (strip and skirt), and perhaps some of the large format fish dishes as well.
TEAKWOOD THAI CHOPHOUSE
345 Greenwich, St.
New York, NY 10013
