DaveS's Profile
Urena
I recently visited Urena and wrote a review here:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/358108
I thought the food was definitely better than good. And the service I experienced was actually pretty good. Not 3 or 4 star service, but good. Though I can sympathize with the Tapas issue, that is kind of strange. A little flexibility goes a long way, especially if a restaurant isn't crowded.
It just seems to me that they are somewhat neglecting everything besides the food. Not completely, but enough that the effort in the front of the house doesn't match the effort in the kitchen.
Help Me Experience Spanish Wine -- PLEASE!
Definitely. I just started trying wines from this region. I'm really enjoying the 2004 Altos de Luzon from Finca Luzon, this is predominantly Monastrell with some Cab and Tempranillo.
Generally there's a lot of good reasonably priced wine to be had from Spain. I've had a lot of luck with Garnacha (Grenache) based wines from Priorat and Monsant.
Just find a good wine store with helpful sales people and go crazy. There's a lot to enjoy.
Looking for downtown restaurant for party of 5 - help!
In the same neighborhood as Cookshop I would highly recommend Red Cat.
Hip "downtown" dinner-date place on Upper East Side?
Second the wine bar @ Etats-Unis. Also, Uva on 2nd between 77th and 78th (maybe thats what chundi is referring too, although I think there is also a wine bar across from Uva). Decent food and pretty happening on some nights.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=73&restaurantid=11997
La Esquina downstairs
Its a different menu. And pricier. Not ridiculous, but relatively pricey for Mexican. I really enjoyed the food on my one visit.
Urena Review
I've been wanting to visit Urena since it first opened and I finally made it this past Saturday. I went in knowing all the issues with its decor/atmosphere, but once the food started coming, its quite easy to forget about that stuff.
The room does have a rather generic decor that almost makes me think of a small version of a restaurant in a hotel, maybe a Marriott in some place like Scottsdale. Its dimly lit these days, so the decor kind of fades into the background. The background music was an odd greatest hits of classical music, maybe one of those time life CDs.
The food. First an amuse of butternut squash soup with truffle oil. This could have used just a touch more seasoning, but was otherwise delicious and warmimg and would have been even more perfect had it not been a 70 degree day. For an appetizer I had the goat cheese ravioli with rabbit. This was also a bit underseasoned, but the rabbit was juicy and tender and falling apart. Two of my dining companions shared a foie gras appetizer that prepared it in 3 ways. This was a beautiful looking dish that could easily be mistaken for a dessert. They said it was terrific. For my main, I had the braised short ribs with northern beans and chorizo. This was great. The fork tender ribs were perfectly cooked and seasoned. And the spicy chorizo added the perfect kick to this dish. I also took a bite of the lamb loin, which was delicious. Good things were said as well about the fish dishes.
Dessert. 3 of us shared 2 desserts. One was a chocolate torte of sorts. More like a woderfully crispy cake with some ice cream and foam and I can't remember what. The other was an apple dessert that was amazing. There was a spiced cake in there, some candied orange zest and some other stuff I also can't remember.
The service was very good. They were terrific about my wife's dietary restrictions. The waiter was one of the first to actually ask when she ordered the cheese course if they should leave off the honey and other stuff which she can't have (no sugar allowed), most places don't consider that. Our server didn't seem too knowledgable about the wine list when I asked him about a particular bottle. And its a rather short list too. But thats ok. Its clear what there going for here is not some fancy 4 star experience. So maybe the decor is kind of off and the service is great, but they aren't sommeliers and food historians. Maybe the music could use some retuning and the wine list some expanding. But the food is delicious. And if you want food this good your usually gonna pay a lot more for it. So bring some good company and forget about all that other stuff and just pay attention to who's sitting across from you and whats on the plate.
Snickerdoodle Cookies
I've had some good ones from Billy's Bakery: http://www.billysbakerynyc.com/
Also Whole Foods usually has as well.
Any rock solid dinner choices left?
Red Cat. Never disappoints and a terrific value.
Tapas-type food, not too noisy?
You could try Urena. They have tapas in addition to their regular entrees.
http://urena-nyc.com/
great restaurants near joe's pub?
Five Points is a good option near by:
http://www.fivepointsrestaurant.com/
also Aroma Kitchen & Winebar:
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/41695233
Best restaurants in Forest Hills
Well, I just made my second trip to DB Wine Bar this weekend, and I have to say it is definitely putting out some really good food. It has to get my nod for best in FH. I normally don't order chicken, but I order their chicken under a brick, which was perfectly cooked, moist chicken with crispy well seasoned skin. The items that had some issues on the last visit were prepared much better this time. Fish that was somewhat dry on our last visit was cooked just right. The calamari appetizer was also improved over my first visit. I could have skipped the chocolate cake our table ordered for dessert and stuck with just the cheese plate that we also ordered. Good wines by the glass. Good service.
Other top spots:
East Ocean Palace - went back for a 4th visit this past sunday night. The food quality was much better than the previous two visits and on par with our first visit which had my wife and I very excited. Service is pretty poor though.
Nicks for Pies and AJs for slices.
5 Burro and Cabana, while not amazing, are good off night stand bys.
Q is not bad (haven't yet hit most of the other spots, Thai Austin/Bann Thai).
Other than that, I try to get out of the hood for dining goodness. And I never order Pasta in FH, although I will give it a shot at DB. Two words that don't seem to penetrate within a few block radius of Austin street: al dente.
Best Seasonal Menu right now for $30?
You might consider the $28 lunch at Telepan:
http://www.telepan-ny.com/lunch.html
Special meal in Manhattan; Daniel, Per Se, Jean Georges?
Absolutely. The waiter spent a lot of time with us going over the menu, asking my wife what she couldn't have and what other things across all the menus appealed to her. And the replacement dishes were every bit as good as the dishes on the menu. They were really fantastic about it.
Special meal in Manhattan; Daniel, Per Se, Jean Georges?
I'll second this. For me, per se was an experience above and beyond the others. Granted, it was the first (and one of the only) place my wife and I had done a tasting menu, as we were completely comfortable with them handling her dietary restrictions. They will do anything for you.
Again, you won't have a bad meal at any of those. I would say though, that the service at per se was pitch perfect. Whereas I couldn't say the same about Jean Georges and Daniel, at least in my experience. Le Bernardin was closer to per se in terms of graciousness and tone of service.
Has anyone been to Varietal?
If you haven't seen it already, here's a something on Varietal over at Augieland:
http://augieland.blogs.com/augie_land/2006/12/varietal_832_fi.html
Jade Eatery and Lounge - Forest Hills
Finally gave this place a shot on saturday night. Don't think I'll be going back.
The decor looks like high concept asian restaurant by way of Ikea.
Food. Eh. I had a thai spring roll to start, this was left in the frier a little too long. And for an entree the red penang curry over rice noodles with beef. This was edible, but the beef was kind of tough, and the dish as a whole was kind of a soupy mess.
My wife had sushi which she wasn't too thrilled with. And for some reason her sushi came out like 5 minutes after my dish. And they weren't exactly crowded.
We got out of there around 8 and it wasn't full. I don't see how this place makes it. That space was crying out for a good restaurant, and someone decided to make a half-ass attempt at a high concept (for FH) restaurant instead. What a waste.
Holiday dinner at Raoul's
Had some great lamb chops there a while back. Experience and other comments here would suggest sticking to meat.
Greek restaurant in NYC
Second Parea. Had a terrific meal there. You can search for a review I did a while back.
Sat night West Village--No reservation---Any recs?
Las Ramblas also is non-reserving, though its tiny and fills up quickly.
New Years Eve
Going to Devi with a large group, and they have their regular menus available.
30th Birthday Dinner on Sat. night - where to go????
Hearth also has availability at 7:30. Thats a great option.
sugar free chocolates...
Varsano's 172 W. 4th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenue).
I've gotten various sugar free chocolate goodies there for someone who cannot have sugar and I was told they were pretty good.
http://www.varsanos.com/
Dinner in Village/Chelsea
I can't recommend Red Cat enough. Its become a favorite of mine. Though it isn't that quiet. Although its not unbearable, and I'm pretty sensitive about noise.
Kori (TriBeCa)
Recently did the same. Kori before the Knitting Factory. It was open, and pretty good.
Good Tapas in New York?
Tia Pol and Las Ramblas are both really good and pretty authentic.
Pizza Slices
When I worked downtown I frequented Little Italy Pizza on Park Place. I thought it was a pretty good slice.
Lower Manhattan lunch crisis
I used to work down in that region and I often went to Casse-Croute, a tiny french counter service place ( there are a few seats along the counter). They can be a bit frazzled from time to time, but the food is good.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=5444
Also right next door is Mangez Avec Moi. Decent, reasonably priced, Pan-Asian.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=2098&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=0
My birthday & I get to pick! Two nights!!
Another option for the friday night is La Palapa Rockola in the West Village. Just did my wife's 30th there and it was great. I worked with Steven and he was very helpful. Let us tailor the menu exactly how we wanted. A ton of food, pretty good too, for around $32 a head (choice of taco, then salad, tamale, choice of entree and we brought in dessert). And we did pitchers of Margaritas and Sangria all night.
