Tag Archives: hamburger

Love Lane: Mattituck, LI

5 Jan

After our wonderful adventure exploring the wineries in Long Island, Lori suggested we do dinner at one of her favorites, Love Lane Kitchen.

We didn’t have reservations, so they told us it would be about 30 minutes.

Luckily, right next door was Love Lane Market… and I love me a market. (I think they may be owned by the same people, but I’m not positive)

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They stock their shelves with great ingredients, many of which I am familiar with and some new ones.  It reminded me of a little Eataly.

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But with a bit more personal touch.

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I have this odd love for these types of chairs. I THINK the top is what they use to form horse saddles, but I could be making that up.

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Even their tiled floor was cool.

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I REALLY wanted to try the rotisserie duck, but we wouldn’t be able to eat it before I was off on a trip. Lori and her ABF got on though and said it was great.

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They even had a selection of homemade pastas.

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And homemade mozzarella.

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As well as a wood fire pizza oven in the back.

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This is the type of market that I wish would open up near me in Manhattan.  But it was just perfect in this little Long Island town, on Love Lane.

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As soon as we got out of the market, Love Lane Kitchen was calling our names.  We sat down and immediately dove into some delicious, fluffy rolls.

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We began with a calamari salad.  It’s refreshing to have calamari that isn’t fried and this was delicious, with a dressing that brought out all the great flavors.

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Mike, shockingly, got the cheeseburger.  Since it was devoured before I even remember picking up my fork, I’ll assume he enjoyed it.

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Lori got the skirt steak.  I tried some (without the sauce) and it was juicy and perfectly cooked.  It also had a nice char on it, so the flavor was great.

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Lori’s ABF chose the short ribs.  Oh these were good.  They were so tender and the sauce was a perfect compliment.

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I went with the pork belly with a slow cooked egg.  This was cooked to perfection, with both crunchy bits and the melty soft fats that make pork belly oh so good.

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And boy oh boy do I love eggs. It was on top of a radicchio (I think) which is usually a bit too bitter for me, but with the sweet of the pork and the egg yolk, it was delish!

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As if we weren’t indulgent enough, we split THREE desserts.  We got the cheesecake, the apple pie, and the chocolate pecan pie.  All three were good, but nothing was outstanding.  And I was too full to even look at another bite.

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Though the pumpkin cheesecake did just keep on calling out to me… “just one more bite!”

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Love Lane Kitchen was a perfect end to a perfect day.  Great, home style food cooked with love and attention.  Everything was scrumptious and I would love to go back to try more.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

For Lori’s take on our meal at Love Lane Kitchen, visit her blog here.

RARE (Fashion District)

10 Nov

I had heard great things about Rare for some time, and had a few cocktails in their bar on the east side, but I had never sat down for a meal.   We went with a big group of people one night, so there was an assortment of food ordered.

We started with the french fry tasting basket which includes cottage fries, hand cut, and sweet potato fries. All were well cooked but nothing special.

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I thought that the assortment of sauces/ketchups/mustards was clever. (I just love sampling)

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We also tried the parmesan truffle fries.  There is never anything bad about parmesan truffle fries, but I did want a bit more truffle.

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We also tried th elollipop wings, which everyone liked. (I can’t weigh in because they had peppers)

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We also tried the frickles (fried pickles) which were again good, but not great.

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The greek salad was unlike any greek salad I had ever seen before! It was topped with full lamb chops and smelled delicious.

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The steak also smelled great and came with a lovely slab of butter. (Why are the things that are SO good SO bad for us?)

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I heard the burger was great, but I wanted to sample… so I got the Burger Trio, which is the chef’s selection of mini burgers.  I believe I had a bacon cheddar burger, a short rib burger and something else.  It was good, but I can’t say it was memorable.  I wish I had tried the real burger to get a real sense of it.

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Here is why I had burger envy…

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They all looked great and everyone who ordered the burger was very pleased with their decision.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Rare but I didn’t feel like I had enough to really judge the meal by.  Everything I ate was just so-so, but I don’t think I ordered well.

I will have to go back to give an official Nom rating.

Pier 9

23 Sep

 

Pier 9 opened up on 53rd and 9th Ave earlier this year.  It took over the space that used to be Agua Dolce and seemed to become this new place overnight.  

Inside is very “under the sea” with dividers made of old sails, a watery color palette, and some plants that looked almost tropical.  It was almost a little TOO designed.  But it looked very nice.

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They put most of their menu onto a mirror, however, it seems as though must had changed since they finished this according to the menu we were given.

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We started with the lobster mac and cheese.  It was labeled as “non-traditional” and good thing, it certainly was anything but traditional!  It was like big, individual tubes of pasta stuffed with lobster and cheese and topped with lobster.

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It was delicious.

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Perfectly creamy and a really beautiful presentation.

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We also received biscuits, which Mike very much enjoyed.  

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They had peppers, so they brought me some surprisingly delicious toast instead.

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Mike got the burger.  Yup… even in a seafood restaurant, Mike judges by their burger.  He enjoyed it, but said it wasn’t anything super duper good.

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I got the scallops over celery root puree, eggplant, capers, raisins, and pine nuts.  It was a wonderful mouthful of textures with great flavor.  I was really impressed with this dish.  And the scallops were perfectly cooked and great on flavor.

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For dessert, we chose the s’mores donut. It was a homemade donut with marshmallow and s’mores ice cream.  I’m not a huge donut fan, but I LOVE s’mores.  Problem is… what I love most about s’mores is the combination of crunch, sticky, sweet, chocolate, melty goodness.  In this dessert, the donut reigned the plate and I thought it was good, but not my kind of dessert.  

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I was not expecting to like this place.  It had all the makings of a place that was so overstyled that they would let the actual food take a back seat. But this was food first.  And it was creative and delicious.  Well done.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10