I have a group of foreign clients from asia coming for a dinner. They obviously do not want asian food. My limitations are that it not be too overpriced (preferabley $30 and under for an entree), but the space should be chic/upscale looking, since it needs to look somewhat impressive. Any kind of food is welcome except asian or asian fusion. Can be anywhere in manhattan. WE have a large group of 14 ppl! need chow hounds help!! TIA!

originally thinking:
Kellari - but my boss thought it was too pricey
Steakhouse - again too pricey
Casa La Femme - fun, but the food is just so-so
Pampano - great price and food but area is kind of boring

-----
Casa La Femme
140 Charles St, New York, NY 10014

Pampano
209 E 49th St, New York, NY 10017

TIA!!!

thanks, carmine's is definitely too touristy. The boy and his family are quite sophisticated and have dined many places in manhattan , all upscale, but looking for something a little more entertaining.

my friends nephew is turning 18, they live in NJ, looking for a recommendation that is entertaining, lively and can accommodate a large crowd.

all recs appreciated!

This is the easiest, laziest, 3-ingredient recipe for roasted cauliflower that always garners a lot of "Wows"--and i barely have to try! I created this dish after reading a Chow version of this dish ("soy sauce & black pepper cauliflower), thinking---"wait, i can make this even more authentic (after all, i'm asian) and even flavorful and spicier.!" What i love are all the roasted little bits of marinated cauliflower that explode with caramelized deliciousness.

If you love black peppercorns and heat, you will LOVE this dish.

SPICY BLACK PEPPER ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
olive oil
3-4 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee Black Pepper Sauce (found in most aisles for Asian foods in the grocery store)
chopped cilantro for garnish

1>preheat over to 350 degrees.
2>Dilute black pepper sauce with a good splash of olive oil (or water, if you're counting calories) so it's more runny instead of thick. Toss with Cauliflower in a bowl until evenly coated.
3>Roast 40 minutes or until desired texture.
4> toss with freshly chopped cilantro.

Took a bunch of out of towners there recently and remembered why i don't frequent Magnolia Bakery. The frosting is like pure sugar! barely any vanilla, just reconstituted powdered sugar with food coloring, and it's so sweet you feel cavities being formed. Why oh why is this style of frosting so popular? If you like it, please tell me why?

I prefer more buttery, vanilla-y, frosting like SSS, Crumbs, my local fave Pinisi, etc...

Even frosting from the grocery store cake mixes are better---thicker, richer-tasting, and more mouthfeel. I don't get it. i just don't get it.

have you tried the chinese tea parlors like TenRen or a typical HK tea cafe like Saint's Alp on 3rd Avenue near st. marks?

Try Podunk in the East Village on 5th st. It has a shabby chic decor, comfortable and charming, and they serve proper afternoon tea with freshly baked scones, savory and sweet, and tons of other goodies. It's truly a hidden gem.

i found the food good but not memorable, and environment sterile (even tho i'm an all-white minimalist myself, it was just too clinical). garlic milk just not satisfying at all, and influences from asian street food and comfort foods (i.e. sticky rice) should be in larger portions, this isn't the 90s anymore.

best iceberg wedge? must have LOTS and lots of bacon, a GREAT fresh dressing (i've had mediocre ones that taste like bottled dressing), crumbles of bleu cheese, and just be the epitome of iceberg wedges.

any ideas????

Noho Star
Spring Street Natural
Dos Caminos

all of those have casual settings but in a busy NYC atmosphere/environment.

i love bacon. and i'm a non-meat eater , mostly (ok, so i lied about that part).
Where are all the best bacon dishes in the city? restaurants that serve a variety of bacon yumminess? pls do tell your favorites!

Went with my boyfriend on Labor Day weekend to have lunch overlooking the river at Flatwater.
I guess many Chicagoans were out of town/holiday and it was early (11:00 AM,) so the place was 10% full.

We noticed that all the tables for 2 were in the hot, direct sunlight, so asked for a table in the shade (with an umbrella), since it was too sunny.

Hostess refused b/c "all the tables in the shade are reserved for 4 people."

I looked around at the nearly 10 EMPTY shaded tables in amazement. The entire place was practically empty, ghost town, and she refused to seat us at a shaded table? Who was she reserving it for? at 11AM? imaginary guests that would magically arrive any second?

She basically stated that we had no choice but the table for 2 in the hot, direct sun, and couldn't do anything about it. "Their policy."

Duly amazed at this incredulous display of bad customer service, i asked to speak to the manager, Janna (or Jana, not sure how you spell it). I also told her i was visiting from New York and came specifically to dine at Flatwater. Janna came over, unsmiling, surly-looking, and
matter-of-factly repeated the same thing in a --- if we wanted to sit in a shaded umbrella table, we would need a party of 4. And then walked away.

Now i understand if this place is operating at full capacity, but it was 90% EMPTY!!!
my boyfriend was just shocked at this inexplicably quizzical response.

the attitude of Janna and the hostess were so impolite and rude it just shows that management lack of ethos and service and its trickle-down effect on its employees.

Instead we walked over to Smith & Wollensky next door to Flatwater, which also was pretty empty but they immediately put us at a shaded table upon request. That's what service is about and that's what gets repeat customers. I will never attempt to dine at Flatwater again. i hope they go out of business.

Euzkadi on 4th street between 1st and 2nd avenue.
Spanish Basque Tapas in a dark, candlelit cozy restaurant with all sorts of character and most importantly, romance... i've met many a date here... the tables are small which means you must....get....close... on tuesdays they have live spanish music, lots of europeans, it's just hidden and great --and you rarely ever need a reservation. during the summer and good weather (now), it's semi-open air (not technically outdoors, but there aren't any windows so the air flows in, hard to explain)

little cupcake, for something really unique and offbeat, try Podunk on east 5th and 2nd avenue in the East Village. Its a homey cozy lil "podunk" teahouse that serves proper tea with all the trimmings in a "shabby chic" environment --really unique, check the reviews on yelp and such. The scones with strawberries arrive warm from the oven----delightful!

I have some business clients coming from Asia and would like to take them to dinner. My forte is below 14th street so i need all you CHOW hounders to provide reco's ABOVE 14th street:

looking for:

--Non-Asian cuisine

--Nice, upscale-feeling ambience/decor (asian clients will not understand "rustic" or "charming" ambience, they need something that feels more luxe ---when they come to the States for meals, they feel that "rustic/charming/homey" decor means cheap)

--Not super expensive (Le Bernardin and Atelier JR are OUT, sorry, even Morimoto is a bit too excessive)

BLT fish on the top floor -- its upscale, delicious, lots of little treats and "freebies" like the visually brilliant green apple cotton candy at the end, etc..

tao, spice markt and the park sounds perfect for you guys,
angels share is a bit more "romantic" and couples-y
modern is very chic but not really a 20's scene, it's an post-work, older crowd IMO

Just curious how some of you hounders (manhattan and elsewhere) were raised on what type of cuisine.

For example, i have a friend who's from Philly, and he had "bad american food like casseroles and processed stuff" which, according to him, "is why i'm not a foodie."

This seems to make sense as my friend simply "eats to make the hunger go away" which is a sad reason for eating, esp. if you live in NYC.

I believe that sometimes, if you grow up eating bad food, the opposite happens -- you can become a gourmand due to the bad memories of bad food.

based on my parent's culture, i was fed a mixture of chinese food, taiwanese dishes, and japanese food.

even though we were born here in the US, every day was chinese cuisine. Rice was a constant at every meal, no questions. My mom had to make a separate, even more authentic meal for my dad (i.e. more "weird" dishes).

However, this doesn't mean i had my share of american indulgences. outside of the home, i had every single type of "classic" american meal, snack, and fast food!

just curious,,,

TKettle on St. Marks - a bubble tea parlor which you may frequent for drinks but did you know that they have great dumplings?

My cousin and friends (homesick for their home country of Taiwan),
were in search of dumplings (not panfried potstickers but the boiled kind called shwai jiao), and were thrilled to find this taiwanese-owned cafe and happily chatted away with the owner & staff who recommended the dumplings.

Now, i usually hate boiled dumplings and always prefer the pan-fried kind, but these totally converted me. Moist, fragrant, and fresh--not frozen), you'd never guess that TKettle had such morsels here. My cousin and her friends (all from Taipei) gave it the thumbs up ---authentic, delish dumplings, more delicately flavorful and thinner-skinned than Chinatown's (i.e. vanessas and other dumpling houses), better than Dumpling Man (another taiwanese joint), and in a authentic cafe style that most young asians tend to frequent.

btw if you want a great bubble tea flavor there---get the coconut ---it's the insider favorite.

stick with LA. i found that there are none here that are actually good. they are all bland like another poster said, and skimpy on the filling. cheap -and not in a good way.

i just went to Bruxelles tonight and although the broth was tasty and salty just like i like it----- ALL my moules were endowed with (how do i put this delicately) extremely large "poo sacs" that really, really ruined the taste for me. I've had Moules Frites at many french bistros and Markt, but never encountered the extremely large "poo sacs" that burst in my mouth as i chewed---seriously, the flavor was so hard to take, i couldn't finish. Has this happened to anyone else?

The fries were excellent but you get a small silver cup of them. Where's the large plate of 'em? i want more!! not fair.

i think i will stick to Markt next time.

Looking for recos.... !

Walked by my local bakery/cafe today, Pinisi on 4th street and 1st, and tried a heavenly new cake: the "Sexy Coco Fluff". It's very simple: Moist chocolate cake, but instead of buttercream frosting, it's topped with whipped cream clouds of silky, fluffy, white marshmallow meringue that could float away.

For those who can't stand sickly sweet cupcakes (to me, magnolia's frosting is like reconstituted powdered sugar---cavity overload), or those who reminisce of chinese-bakery style cakes with the whipped cream frosting, this frosting is better --- airy, egg-white-laden to give it body, a touch of vanilla; the overall flavor is like baked alaska.

this cake is perfect for people who don't have a super sweet tooth---but appreciate light desserts that are created with a light hand in the sugar bin. I highly recommend this cake! the cupcake is pictured here but the cake has more whipped meringue all around; enough to have a cloud with each bite.

If you're looking for a much richer chocolate cupcake at Pinisi, try the Cannoli cupcake -- chocolate cupcake with cannoli filling as the frosting. studded with choc chips, it's also very yummy but sweeter.

and of course, they still have the Ghost Chille cupcakes!

:)

i went there this weekend, tried the vanilla pudding and was very, very, underwhelmed.
the puddings are not American style creamy, silky, thick custard-y puddings---so when i went inside, my hopes were dashed. that's kinda what i expect when i see "pudding" in the name. instead it's a sweet, moist cake in a cup, with vanilla sauce poured generously on top. this way, with each bite of the cake, you get a spoonful of sauce. You can see the vanilla bean flecks and the sauce is warm, unthickened by any fillers so it's very liquid. But overall, i found myself craving real "pudding" or at least a custard/creme/flan, instead of vanilla-soaked cake.

I didn't even finish it. I chucked the rest in the can and wondered if Beard Papa's was still open.

looking for a nice, 2 hour long type of multiple course prix fixe dinner for a special bday.
i heard TRU's quality went down, and i already went to MOTO which was a great expereience.

what else in Chicago would you hounders recommend?

hi everyone, looking for a memorable prix fixe in a nice atmosphere for a birthday...
i already went to MOTO which was great!! any great restaurants that have a nice prix fixe?

thank you!

it's his bday. He likes meat! So i'm treating. But i don't want an atmosphere that is "boys club" or too traditional like Smith & Wollenskys. We've dined at NINE, which was great and something along these lines is perfect. but the steak's gotta be good!

Pls suggest!

Gaijingirl, i'm with you. Angelicas, Organic Grill, Gobo, Candle, even Broadway East -- many of them are bland. I prefer Asian-style vegetarian which has stronger flavors and spices.