Tag Archives: hell’s kitchen

New Kid on the Block: Better Being 940

9 Dec

We live in a weird neighborhood. It’s stereotypically “up and coming” with a fine mixture of luxury apartment buildings, Starbucks, new restaurants, and homeless people. We even have a needle drop right next to a luxury hotel being built!  Gotta love NYC.

We always get excited about new restaurants opening up in the area (except when there are 4 Irish pubs opening within 3 blocks of each other in the same month… strange).  On his walk home, Mike mentioned there was a new brunch place on 9th Avenue and 40th Street, so last weekend, we went to check it out.

Better Being 940 had just opened its doors this week, but not really. The official opening is tomorrow, December 10th at 8am (with an “awesome assortment of baked goods, a yummy egg sandwich and complimentary Stumptown coffee”).  Besides having a name that I cannot possibly seem to remember, had all the makings for a place I wanted to love.

A fun  menu of things I wanted to try…

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With some of it written on a giant chalk board behind the register.

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And a quirky interior…

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Everyone behind the counter looked at us with the same glance as if to say “I put my heart into this joint so I hope you’re enjoy it!” Everyone that is, except our waiter. Who was confused by things like “water” and “allergy.” I’m not sure if he was nervous, new to the English language, or just confused in general, but we just scratched our heads and kept on trucking.

Mike ordered the meatloaf sandwich (which was supposed to come with fries or a salad… neither of which it did). The sandwich was just “ehh.”  Average with the arugula making it a bit too peppery.

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I ordered the very interesting sounding Souflancake. (“It’s not a souffle. It’s not a pancake. It’s both!”)

It came topped with “seasonal fruit” (berries in November)?

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I really, really, really wanted to like this.  But I couldn’t. It didn’t have the fluffiness of a souffle nor the breadiness of a pancake. It really just tasted like an egg omelet with fruit on top. And I just cannot wrap my head around eggs with fruit.

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We asked our very confused waiter about the bacon we ordered, and he said it was on its way.

Within moments, we smelled that great smell of bacon just starting to cook.

It was actually quite tasty, but VERY greasy. It could have used a pat down before being plated.

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Just as I was resigning myself to not like this place, despite its potential, a woman who must be an owner came out and offered us peanut butter rice krispie treats on the house. I used to make something similar with my mom as a kid, so the nostalgia was really enjoyable.

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As we were heading out, the same woman came up to us to ask how we liked it. I was very honest with her about the soufflancake, but her earnestness just made me feel so bad that I didn’t like it. I WANTED to like it.  This place has everything I love.  And I have hopes that once they get out these early kinks and test some recipes, they will have something great.

I hope I hope I hope!

For now, I will review it only on what we had, with a strong desire that next time we go back, it will be awesome.

Total Nom Points: 5.5 out of 10

Total Nom Points: 5.5 out of 10

Grand Opening: Tavola

30 Sep

We lived around the corner from a pretty infamous place: Manganaro’s. There were 2 restaurants: Manganaro’s Hero Boy and (the late) Manganaro’s Grosseria.  They were side by side and the grocery displayed a sign very specifically stating that they had no affiliation with Hero Boy next door.  It was a very long family feud and the restaurants had both been there for over a hundred years. Anthony Bourdain had famously lived in an apartment above these restaurants before he made it big. He even featured them on a show a few years back.

I ate there once, and they had a group of Italian ladies fighting and cursing pretty constantly in the background, while cranking out awesome old fashioned Italian food that they served on floppy paper plates.  

But then, they closed. After all those years.

A new restaurant quickly started going in, and last week, the NY Times featured this new restaurant, Tavola, in an article.  Tavola opened on Friday (or thereabouts) and we went for a late night dinner.

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The menu is full of the classics.

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And they kept many pieces of the Grosseria as it was, giving it a bit of flashback to days gone by.

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They kept the old ceilings.

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And the very pretty old sky light in the back.

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They built a brand new oven that was quite beautiful.

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And they are doing their pizzas in this wood burning oven.

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It is a good mix of new and old, and it was instantly comfortable.  Even though it just opened, by keeping a lot of the old design, it felt somehow as if this place had been there forever.

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When we entered, it was pretty full and service was buzzing.  There was some confusion and we waited a bit too long for things like bread, water, and the check, but it was obvious that there were just small kinks that needed to be ironed out.

We started with hearty bread.  It was well flavored and good and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

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We had the arugula and fire roasted artichoke salad.  This was good, with a very nice dressing. I wanted more flavor and more quantity of artichokes, but overall it was a nice starter.

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We then tried the wild boar and veal meatballs, with fresh mint and pine nuts. These had a very nice flavor and the mint was a nice compliment.

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Then we had the lasagna with veal meat sauce.  I really loved this dish. The noodles were thicker and really held up to the layers.  The sauce was great and this tasted like everything you want from classic Italian.

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Overall, everything we had was very good and very hearty.  I can see this becoming a really nice, local place to eat on a cold night. As they iron out some of the service issues and get cranking, I can see them doing a very good business here in the section just south of Hell’s Kitchen.

The neighborhood is really growing with tons of new restaurants and building, and I’m glad to have Tavola as part of that growth.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

Ember Room: Dim Sum Brunch and Lunch

17 May

UrbanDaddy had a Perk for One Dim Sum Brunch with bottomless Bloody Marys and beer (two-hour max) at Ember Room, a new (at the time) restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen (9th Ave between 45th and 46th Streets) that had Todd English in its pedigree. Don’t mind if I do!

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The decor is eclectic pan asian, with some really nice touches like old fashioned light bulbs, bold artwork, and a beautiful dark wood all around.

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Our Dim Sum brunch came with some varied dim sum, all of which were good… but none of which were outstanding…

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We did enjoy our endless Chang beers.

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The one dim sum I especially like were the shrimp, as it had a whole, sweet shrimp tucked inside.

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We also added some korean bbq beef fried rice onto our order.  It was quite good, but the hot stone bowl wasn’t quite hot enough to char the rice in the way that Korean Restaurants in Koreatown do so well.  Also, it was supposed to be with kimchi, but since I can’t have kimchi, we went without.  It was okay… but I think they rely on the kimchi to give it flavor, so it was a wee bit bland.  It said it came with crispy shallots, which I was especially intrigued by, but they were too small to really notice.

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It was good enough that I was curious about the full menu, so I came back for lunch one day with my coworkers.

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They started with the chocolate ribs, which were slow cooked in a spiced chocolate sauce. Sadly, that sauce included chili, so I was out, but my coworkers scarfed these down.

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We got a side of sauteed chinese broccoli.  Frankly, I prefer the leafy part over the stems, but the oyster sauce on these made them very good.

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I believe this was the thai basil chicken, which was spicy thai basil minced chicken over a fried egg, served with jasmine rice.

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More korean beef fried rice. 

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And I went with the veggie burger, after a good amount of research by the waitress as to what I could, and could not, eat.  

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It came with some sort of soup which was surprisingly flavorful… but didn’t make enough of an impression for me to remember what it was.

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The veggie burger itself was impressive. Tons of flavor, nice texture, and the fried onions on top were quite delicious.  I’m not a veggie burger fan, but this was quite tasty!

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Overall, I enjoyed both meals at Ember Room, but I can’t say I’m running back to try more.  I think it’s a pretty good choice if you’re in the area or looking for a pre- or post- Broadway Theater meal. It is definitely different from the Italian that occupies most of that target market!

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10