Tag Archives: restaurant reviews

Cookshop

10 Dec

As mentioned in my previous post, after the Dewar’s tasting, we needed food, desperately.  So we went across the street  to Colicchio and Sons.

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They told us to grab seats at the bar and people should be getting up any minute.  We hovered for about 5 minutes before feeling like we were just being plain rude… so I pulled out the iPhone and did some OpenTable-ing for the neighborhood.

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When I saw Cookshop (on 10th Ave and 20th Street) had a reservation open for 4 just 20 minutes later, we were out of there.  (Though we all vowed to return)

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We took the 5 minute walk and were seated immediately.

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This place just felt good inside.  Like someone put in a enough effort to make it feel special without making it feel overdone or uninviting.  Unfortunately, it was horribly dark.  Forget taking pictures… we could hardly read the menus!   (Apologies in advance for the overly dark pictures).

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Even though we had just sipped our way through the scotch tasting, we ordered some more drinks to keep the buzz going. We all had a good laugh when we realized that the locations that we had just learned about at the tasting were listed right on our menu.

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We went for mixers, however…

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We started with pizza.  Description sounded good…

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Upskirt was decent…. but it was just okay.

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The highlight was the gnocchi.   It was a special that night and included veal meatballs and brussels sprouts.    It was so perfectly pillowy.  We all mentioned how much we enjoyed this dish.

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Lori ordered what sounded a like a humble dish of eggplant parm.  But when it came out, not only was the portion HUGE, but it was delicious.

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Kevin ordered the “Lamb Three Ways.”  It was good… but not fantastic.

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Mike chose the porchetta, and he was nice enough to share some crispy cracklin’s with the table.  And we were all thankful for that!  It was delicious.

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I got the duck with lentils and squash.  I enjoyed the squash very much, and the duck was pretty good (though I wish the skin was a little crispier).

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We were absolutely game for dessert.

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Lori chose the Chocolate-Raspberry Sundae.  I am not a big sundae person at a restaurant, simply because I always prefer baked goods unless I’m going to an ice cream store specifically.  Lori seemed to agree and said this was just okay.  Nothing special.

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Mike and I both chose the Saigon Cinnamon-Pistachio pudding with a chocolate cookie, salted whipped cream & candied sicilian pistachios.  It sounded PERFECT.  But I found it lacking in flavor… I could hardly taste the pistachio.  Lori LOVED it, however, which is pretty funny since she did NOT like the Milk Bar ice cream with a similar flavor profile and I LOVED it.

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Overall, I thought Cookshop was delicious.   I think this is the kind of place I would prefer for brunch, however, dinner was very good.  I highly recommend the gnocchi!

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

For Lori’s full review, check it out here!

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Brunch at Bar Boulud

2 Dec

Mike and I have walked by Bar Boulud many times on the Upper West Side (Broadway between 63rd and 64th to be exact).  Mike and I were running some errands in the area and decided to grab brunch in the outdoor “patio” on a beautiful fall day.  I have realized that I LOVE to eat outside if not only for the fact that my photos turn out so much better in natural light.

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Right after our order was taken, we were presented with bread and pastry options.  Mike picked an impressive looking croissant.

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And I chose a cinnamon raison pastry (note: whenever faced with a choice of pastry, I will always choose something that looks like a cinnamon bun… always).  And it was gooooooood.

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Mike started with the Pâté Grand-mère, which I believe contained liver, pork, and something else… it was tasty, but I’m starting to discover that I may just not be a pâté person (not to mention the complexity in trying to type it in a blog with all those symbols!)

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I played a bit out of my usual sandbox and got the quiche of the day to start.

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It was very fresh with great flavors. Not too dense but not too light.  Great balance of flavors.

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Mike made a good choice with the Croque Madame. It was delish!

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I ordered the housemade tagliatelle pastacolorado lamb bolognese, because it just sounded too good to pass up.  It lived up to expectation!

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Even after all that food, we split the “floating island” which said it had praline rouge, crème anglaise.  I still don’t know what that is, and I still can’t tell you what we ate, other than it faintly resembled a meringue… but it was delicious.

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And quite beautiful to look at.

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AND we split my selection of the hazelnut chocolate torte (which I believe was their dessert of the day).  It came with cherries, pistacchio, almonds, and all sorts of other goodness that I can’t remember besides the fact that it was RICH and DELICIOUS.  Nom Nom Nom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Overall, I was very impressed by Bar Boulud.  This meal was $26 per person and included all 4 courses (bread & coffee were in there).  For a meal that counts as 2, I think that’s a steal for food this artfully prepared and with such fresh flavors.  Even if you don’t eat outside, the inside looked quite lovely.

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

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More Birthday Catch-up: Ma Peche

22 Nov

Lori and I come within 2 days of sharing a birthday.  We have made a tradition out of going out to celebrate each other each year since our fateful meeting.  (In fact, it was one of those birthday celebrations where I met Mike… and the rest was history).  This year we decided to try the new David Chang‘s new midtown restaurant: Ma Peche (on 56th Street between 5th and 6th Aves).

The restaurant is in the Chambers Hotel (and you have to kind of walk through the lobby to get to it).  The room has very high ceilings with an huge space and what appears to be a very small kitchen.  You can see the kitchen area below, lit up towards the right of the picture.

The drink menu didn’t leap out at me, but I eventually chose the Ampersand and Lori chose the Moscow Mule.

Both were quite good, but nothing to write home about.

I was VERY excited about the men, however.  The Prix Fixe wasn’t that enticing…

But I couldn’t wait to try the pork & duck terrine or the crispy pig’s head or the pork ribs or the striped bass or the steak frites or the cavalo nero…

I honestly didn’t know how I was going to decide.  And then… the bomb hit.  The waitress informed me that 99% of the menu had peppers in it that couldn’t be changed.  Now… I didn’t have this problem even at Ko where they make the menu for you and serve whatever they have that day… but here at Ma Peche, I was SOL.  We kept asking for certain dishes and basically were told over and over again that it would kill me.  DAMN.

I couldn’t stand the idea of Lori missing out because of me, however, so I encouraged her to get the crispy pig’s head.  I actually risked it and took a little bite. It was delicious, but definitely something I couldn’t eat without pain.  It was worth it though.

We split the scallops with papaya, soy beans, and poppy seeds.  It was a beautiful plate and we thoroughly enjoyed.  The parts apart were good, but once you combined it all together into one mouthful, it was fantastic. There was also a hint of salt that brought it to a new level.  I do have to say, however, that I definitely prefer my scallops seared.

To give me an entree option, they actually had to go off the menu and gave us a crispy rice noodle with vegetables.

The noodles were cool spirals and weren’t so much crispy as they were chewy.  But in an AWESOME way.  The sweet potato was pretty bland (which was sad since I LOVE sweet potatoes), however, the corn in this was SO. FREAKING. GOOD.  I actually would go back here JUST for this.  I find myself craving them now.

The steak with rice fries was a fantastic dish.  The fries were more like flash fried rice balls and I LOVED them.  I thought they tasted like popcorn and I couldn’t get enough.  The beef was also fantastic and had the perfect flavor.

For dessert, we went to the offshoot of Momofuku Milk Bar.  It’s a carry out dessert place and we decided we would grab a bite and eat it in the hotel lobby.  They had a large assortment of delicious look cakes and we couldn’t wait to try a piece.  Lori blogged about our visit as well.

I was especially excited to try the Apple Pie Cake… I was just curious how you could make a pie into a cake.

What we didn’t know, however, is that they don’t sell these cakes by the slice.  Only complete.  Le sigh.

Luckily, all was not lost.  They also sold cake balls!  They basically enrobed those cakes in chocolate shell.  Nom Nom Nom.

I also couldn’t resist trying the soft serve.  It was salty pistacchio caramel and that sounded just too good.  I expected more, but I liked the kinda of sweet, kinda salty flavor.  Lori wasn’t a huge fan.  It was definitely polarizing.

The cake balls were good, but not as good as I had hoped.

The apple pie was certainly my favorite though!

Overall, the food was innovative and fun to eat.  I wish I could have tried more, however, what I did get to try was fantastic.  I was not impressed with Milk Bar, but it was satisfying.

Ma Peche Overall Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

Milk Bar Overall Nom Points: 5.5 out of 10

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