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Showing results for tags 'Upper West Side'.
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Sooner or later when hanging out on the Upper West Side, one of our group (usually someone who grew up there or used to live there) will always suggest we head over to La Caridad 78 for some sustenance. It is a Cuban and Chinese restaurant founded by Chinese immigrants to Cuba who later fled. This is not a fusion place. Oh, no, this is old school. Half of the menu is Cuban, and the other half is Chinese, and that is really how it should be. This is not a trendy place. It just pumps out solid food in extraordinary portions for the hard working folks (as well as the overpaid) on the Upper West Side. The small dining room could charitably be described as unadorned, but who really cares. The place bustles with local families, cab drivers, and everyone else who passes through the area. The tables are generally filled, but turn over quickly. I tend to favor the Cuban dishes, such as the Chuleta En Salsa De Soya (Pork Chop In Black Bean Sauce). Sure they were not thick, but there were at least 5 pork chops on this plate. Other dishes were similarly abundant. Do not be put off by the menu. Believe me, it looks odd. Almost jarring. Go with some friends. Order some plates to share with a few beers (very limited beer menu). This food is good; not great, just simple, generally well executed, plentiful, and affordable. Do not forget to check out the handwritten specials on 8 1/2 x 11 paper taped to the wall. We tried the Homemade Fried Dumplings and were glad we did. There are some pictures on their Facebook page (in addition to their website), if you are interested. Cash only. -
"West Side Restaurant Is Closing after 30 Years; 'People Are in Tears'" on westsiderag.com -
NY Times review of Mama's Too -
Speaking of the counter at Zabar's: ¨The Deli Business Is Still in His Bones, Two Decades Into Retirement¨ by Rachel L. Swarns on nytimes.com
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The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is one of our nation's finest institutions of classical music (website here). Although they sometimes play it safe, they're doing no such thing here: "Watch Ping-Pong Make Its New York Philharmonic Debut" by Joshua Barone on nytimes.com <--- You really should watch this.
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Wanted to try someplace new on a recent trip to NYC, so this was one of the places we picked. Dovetail. There are so many places to consider trying in NYC. I am often overwhelmed with choosing so my wife usually narrows it down to 5-10 places and together we winnow it down to the place we finally choose - their menu spoke to me. We had a fun day at Die Neue Gallerie (and had had a fine, fine lunch at the restaurant there on the premises), and we were glad we had a later reservation to ease in to. I'd like to punch the taxi drive we used in the head, but that is another story. Great space. It felt very refined and elegant, without feeling too stuffy. I'm a nice jeans and nice Hawaiian shirt guy at heart, and I did not feel (completely) out of place. Nice hum to the room without being noisy. Easy to carry on a conversation. They have some prix fix options (3-4 courses), a tasting menu, and things like pre-theater and a la carte dining at the bar. We went for the 4-course option where we could pick and choose. After a small flurry of amuses (oysters, then some fried things (tine risotto balls? and I think tiny...what, almost like micro egg rolls but so much better), we dipped in to their fluke crudo (fluke crudo, morels, dill cream, fava beans) and white asparagus (white asparagus, prosciutto di parma, sage, orange oil), both wonderful but the fluke was the standout. Then we had primarily vegetable/salad courses next. Warmed avocado, summer truffles, rye, rocket arugula, was stunning. And the Spring green ravioli, asparagus, black trumpet mushrooms, nutmeg was wonderful. Very hard to choose a winner between these two. You'd be right to order both. Entrees were quite good as well. Beef tenderloin, green garbanzos, chanterelle mushrooms, pickled ramps is what they have listed on their menu now, but the preparation I had involved no ramps, but wilted/seared greens and I think morels. My wife had the Halibut confit, english peas, shishito peppers, clam nage though I also think it was slightly varied as I do not remember the peppers in her dish (and I forgot to take a photo of it!). Both were great, but a minor step down from the prior course. For dessert, we had these two - Macerated strawberries, vanilla panna cotta, lemon sorbet, crystallized violet and Rhubarb pavlova, hibiscus cream, pink peppercorns - the first being particularly inventive in its preparation and plating. The crystalized violet was essentially the thinnest meringue you could ever make shaped in to a cup/dome that was then dropped on top of the strawberries and other gooieds - hiding everything inside until you cracked in to it. So good, and not too sweet at all. Perfection. The Rhubarb pavlova was quite fine as I recall (missed the phot again!), but was a notch down from the other dessert. We ultimately also got more petit fours to take back to the hotel with us. Good wine list, good service, great space, great pacing and a good time. I'd absolutely go back. I'll append photos when I have time to upload them and link to them here from there. Now, what is really funny is this - despite it being an excellent meal and being largely sated, there was a Shake Shack literally right around the corner from Dovetail. We were just going to hail a cab back to the hotel, but we'd talked over dinner about how much my wife raved about the chicken sandwich she'd had at the DC outpost of Shake Shack. We popped in to split one of those so I could wee what the fuss was about. SO GOOD! Get one! And yes, that kind of put me over the top. OOOOOOFA. Pictures -
Apparently New Yorkers go nuts for these hockey puck sized cookies. It's a good cookie, I would even call the oatmeal raisin a very good cookie. Would I line up for one? Probably not. I guess you can consider Levain to be the Georgetown Cupcake of New York City cookie stores. Levain Bakery Upper West Side and Harlem
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This sucks. Not that there's much to differentiate the various hot dog and papaya drink places in NY, but Gray's was my first. It's a bit like cheesesteaks in Philly: whichever one you first fall in love with is the one that you hold above all others. The original is still open, but I don't make it to the Upper West Side much. -
"Big Nick's Restaurant On Upper West Side Closes After 51 Years" on newyork.cbslocal.com. The rent numbers don't make sense to me for a burger/pizza joint. But so what. Another old line place can't afford higher rents. -
Vegetarian around Natural History Museum, Desserts a Big Plus
sandynva posted a topic in Help Needed
Hi everyone! i too am visiting nyc and would love some reccomendations. I'm staying near madison square garden/penn station, and will definitely be visiting the museum of natural history, so I'd love some reccomendations for nearby places. I'm vegetarian, but otherwise pretty open cuisine-wise, and dessert reccomendations would be especially welcome. As i'm going this weekend, i'm assuming any place that would need reservations is out. does anyone have any places they'd reccomend? thanks so much! -
Looking for a last minute, good quality, moderately priced sushi place in NY isn't an easy task. There are so many in the mid range. And, most of those are pretty bad, comically overpriced, or both. And, we had an additional constraint of neighborhood. That's what led us to this small, non-descript spot at the corner of 76th and Columbus on the Upper West Side. And, it delivered big time. On the cost/quality spectrum, it compares most favorably to spots in DC like Sakana in Dupont or Kotobuki on MacArthur. But it's better. A "boat" for two, served on a large wooden boat, was a deal at $55 with very generous portions of varied but traditional rolls, sashimi and sushi. Three thick slices each of white tuna, salmon and rich maguro. Big dragon roll. Cali roll. Sushi pairs of salmon, tuna, hamachi and ebi. More sashimi included four each of red snapper and fluke. A few others I can't recall. And, miso and a green salad included. We'd come in starving so ordered a dozen more sashimi split between tamago, yellowtail and For the special occasion or expense account meal where real innovation and ultra high grade fish is desired, this of course isn't it. For that, Azuba, Yashuda, or Gari all work nicely at maybe $250-$500 for a couple depending on the normal a la carte and drink variables. But, for an ample and surprisingly good assortment of the familiar a la carte sushi/omakase type offerings at very reasonable prices, tough to do much better than Raku II just north of Columbus Circle. -
Having lunch there on Friday. What should I not miss? Are Johnny Iuzzuni's desserts special or is he all hype? Thanks!
