Tag Archives: restaurant reviews

Taste The West Village (Pictures Fixed!)

21 Sep

(Sorry about the pictures in the original post.  Picasa seems to have a glitch in the html structure right now.  AKA “red x of death.”)

There was a fundraiser in the West Village this past Sunday to support two public schools (P.S. 3 and P.S. 41) called Taste The West Village.  I’m pretty sure I first heard of this through a new food blog I am reading: Wined & Dined.  I found out later that one of the schools is actually where the daughter of a friend of mine goes.  BONUS!

(Funny/dorky side note… some web coder either had a huge typo or thinks they’re funny.  If you open up the link to Taste The West Village, the tab/site name is listed as “Taste the Waste Village.”  WHOOPS!)

Upon getting there on the beautiful day, I noticed it was nicely set up in the open outdoors space (parking lot? play area?) next to the school.  Unfortunately, while my ticket package specified the deal at 20 tasting tickets (thank you AmEx incentives), it turns out that was a typo and was only supposed to be for 10 tasting tickets.  I battled internally between making a fuss and sucking it up (since it was a fund raiser and all) and did so just long enough that the guy at the table threw in an extra few tickets.  It wound up being very fortuitous as we used every single ticket and didn’t have too many or too few for everything we wanted to try. Perfection. 


Our first stop was the liquor area (hey, it was after noon!) and we began with a very refreshing St. Germaine Spritzer.  We first tried St. Germaine at a wine tasting this past winter and fell in love, so we were all too eager to have some on this warm afternoon.  It was quite delicious, though precarious to balance with tasting plates in one hand.  No worries!  We downed the spritzers and made our way through the food.

The Restaurant: August
The Chef: Terrence Gallivan
The Taste: Ricotta Ginepro Panna Cotta, Heirloom Tomatoes, Toasted Pinenuts, and Savory Honey Pearls
The Noms: I though the Panna Cotta would be a weird texture with tomatoes but I really liked them together.  Great flavors and very fresh for the warm day.  The honey pearls were cool but I didn’t find the flavor.
The Food Porn:

The Restaurant: Bobo
The Chef: Patrick Connolly
The Taste: Fried Oysters, Tartare Sauce, Celery Salt
The Noms: Delicious!  Seasoned perfectly and friend without too much batter yet still remained crunchy.  My close-up was WAY too blurry (thanks to the sun beating down, making my screen nearly impossible to see and turning many shots a lovely shade of indigo)
The Food Porn:

The Restaurant: Charles
The Chef: Kristine Mana-ay
The Taste: Braised Short Rib of Beef, Parnsnip Puree, Golden Raisins & Pine Nuts
The Noms: Wow!  I have come to realized braised short ribs are one of my favorite foods.  Mike and I both agreed that the parsnip puree probably could have used a bit more texture since both pieces were on the very soft side, however, the taste was great.  One of the few dishes we tried and said to each other that we MUST try that restaurant in the future (which, in my humble opinion, should be the goal of the restaurant at these types of events)
The (blurry) Food Porn:

The Restaurant: Barbuto
The Chef: Jonathan Waxman
The Taste: Eggplant Agridolce with Riccota on Ciabatta
The Noms: It was good.  Great flavors and perfectly seasoned and crunchy.  Good for a passed hors d’oeuvres but underwhelming overall. Didn’t scream “Come back for more!”
The Food Porn:

The Restaurant: Gusto
The Chef: ?
The Taste: Tonno con Melagrane Yellowfin Tuna, Pomegranates, Arugula and Saba on Garlic Crostini
The Noms: I liked the pomegranate seed with the the tuna, Mike did not.  Overall, nothing amazing.  It did make for some interesting conversation about this season of “Top Chef” really being “Top Ceviche” (“Thees ees notta toppa scallop!”)
The Food Porn:

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Times Square Sushi

23 Aug

There are an abundance of sushi restaurants in NYC, and a ton in Times Square, however, one always stands out as being VERY reasonable and VERY good: Kodama.  I have been there many, many times and it never disappoints.

This time, my mom and her boyfriend took Mike and I to this restaurant for my birthday.  We started with one of my favorite dishes there, the “friend” asparagus.  It is very, very lightly flash fried and comes with green tea salt for dipping. It is always a crowd pleaser.

Next up we got the shrimp shu mai (steamed dumplings).  So good.

We also ordered a lot of food for all of us to share.  It included the Black Dragon Roll which is shrimp tempora wrapped in eel (and something else that I’m blanking on).  We also ordered the sushi sampler with 8 assorted pieces of sushi, a tuna roll, and miso soup.  We also each ordered a fatty tuna sushi and a sea urchin.  The sea urchin is a sushi I struggle with.  I LOVE the taste but the gelatinous consistency is just a bit much for me.  I did enjoy it though.  The Black Dragon Roll was definitely the stand-out, however.

After we polished off that plate, we were still a bit hungry.  So we ordered a “Mets Roll” (eel with cucumber topped with avocado) and a Spider Roll (soft shell crab).  Both were sensational, though the Black Dragon was still the best.

The entire meal came to about $140, and all four of us left completely full with fresh fish.  Not too shabby for Times Square Sushi!

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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Fishtail Tasting with FoodBuzz

13 Aug

I was very fortunate to be selected to attend a dinner with fellow food bloggers at David Burke’s Fishtail thanks to FoodBuzz (and Visa Signature). 

(I plan on providing a review as I would any other restaurant and try to not consider the fact that it was free and I won the opportunity.)

One nice thing about being with other bloggers, there was no need to apologize for pulling out our cameras or using our flash.  We also hardly had to ask before taking our forks and digging into each other’s plates to sample the dishes. 

My first glance around impressed me with the decor.  It was quite eclectic and in some ways whimsical, but overall, it had an interesting touch that seemed to be a compilation of things that the decorator just happened to like.  

Our drink selection was a red, a white, or a “signature cocktail.”  I’m still not sure what it was, but it was delicious and STRONG.  It tasted like a combination of a mojito and a gin and soda. 

The passed hors d’oeuvres began immediately and our waiters were understanding enough to pause for photo-ops.  (In fact, our waiters throughout the meal were very impressive and attentive).

My first sample was asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. 

The bread they served was a pretzel like croissant roll that was absolutely delicious.  Not quite BLT popovers delicious, but worth sampling.  The other passed apps included California Rolls (average), mini tuna sliders (delish even with the wasabi, which I’m not a huge fan of!), chicken wrapped escargot (waste of escargot, tasted only like chicken), and oysters with ginger (?) roe.  The stand-out, however, was the lobster dumpling (center).  Perfection.

The one appetizer I couldn’t try, the spicy tuna tacos (allergic to peppers), was also one of the prettiest.  It sounded as though others enjoyed.

The menu provided us with the appetizer options of:
Dry Roasted Angry Mussels- chili oil, basil and lemon
Pretzel Crusted Crabcake- confit orange and poppyseed honey
Warm Octopus- hearts of celery, avocado, and lemon garlic aioli

Due to my allergy, my only option was the Octopus.  It was good, but I just think the chewiness of octopus is not for me.  Flavors were great, however, and the avocado was probably the best I’ve ever tasted.

I did manage to get a pic of the Angry Mussels, however, the pretzel crabcakes were across the table so you’ll just have to take my word for the fact that they looked scrumptious.

Our entree selection was:
Roasted Branzino- asian mushroom vinaigrette
Pan Roasted Wild Salmon- braised bok choy and two curries
Pan Roasted Diver Scallops- sweet corn and lobster risotto and citrus butter

While branzino has quickly become one of my favorite fishes, I love scallops all too much to pass them up.  Add the words lobster, risotto, and citrus and there was just no contest.  Luckily, the friendliness of my fellow food bloggers allowed everyone at the table to sample from each other.

The branzino was a whole fish and it was phenomenal.  Cooked perfectly and great balance of flavors that didn’t overpower the fish but added to it.

My scallops were very good and I enjoyed the risotto, although I wish there was more flavor to the entire dish.

The salmon was really good as far as salmon goes.

My biggest concern when looking at the menu was dessert. They all sounded amazing and I had no idea how I was going to choose just one.  Luckily, they provided us with a sampler of ALL of the desserts:
Peaches & Cream- white chocolate pudding, georgia peaches and strawberry sugar wafers
Chocolate Caramel Cake- chocolate mousse, “cracker jacks,” and peanut butter ice cream
“Can o’ Cake”- molten chocolate cake with all the fixins
David Burke’s Cheesecake Lollipops- raspberries and bubble gum whipped cream

The cheesecake lollipops came out first, and apparently they are a signature of David Burke.  They were VERY good and the waiter was nice enough to wrap some up for me to bring home to the very deserving Mike.

The peaches and cream was my least favorite.  It was just bland to me.  I love peaches but I think they need to be warm and in some conjunction with butter, brown sugar, or cinnamon. 

The chocolate caramel cake was pretty good, but the cracker jacks nearly pulled out my teeth (though they tasted great).  The peanut butter ice cream was Oh.My.Goodness. Good.  It was so flavorful and so delicious and seemed to be everyone’s favorite part.

The “can o’ cake” was a pretty big undertaking.  It required quite a bit of prep and wound up being served by the spoonful with what tasted like sesame bits on it.  Now I LOVE molten chocolate cake, but this just didn’t have the complete “wow” factor I was hoping for.


The pièce de résistance (count it… three French words I had to look up how to spell), however, was the food lovers dream, in my opinion.  Beaters covered in chocolaty goodness.  This put me very near heaven.  There is something just so nostalgic and wonderful about licking something gooey straight off a beater.

The perfect way to end the meal.

Overall, I think the dining experience itself (and getting to dine with kindred spirits) slightly outshined the food.  While it was good, it wasn’t great.  If you go in there and order the lobster dumplings, branzino, and the peanut butter ice cream, you’d be absolutely thrilled with a fabulous meal. I noticed that they have “crispy artichokes” as a side on the menu (we didn’t get to try, much to my dismay), and with that added I think it would be a close to perfect meal. 

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

Another THANK YOU to FoodBuzz for making this happen.  It was a great experience.  I do wish they introduced us to each other as I felt a bit settled in my small table so I’m not sure who else was there.  I also think that the chef stopped in, however, I could only guess from overhearing bits of conversation.  I would have loved to hear a word or two from him!

To check out the other blogger’s takes on our evening, check out these blogs:

High/Low Food/Drink
Zen Can Cook
Blondie & Brownie
Chez What?
Eating the World in NYC
Little Girl Big Appetite
Midtown Lunch
The Pink Spoon
Taste As You Go

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