weinoo

Just go to the joint on 18th Street...Sakuramen. It's much better anyways and the staff are all very nice. Now, if they only could get a beer/wine license.

I've had the burgers at Dino's, Palena, Mintwood, Central, and a few others. I would like Mintwood's more if the roll was better; as it is, I like Dino's the most.

I think the local/native yeasts will take over.

You could do worse. It'll be expensive, but it's a nice enough place and the food is, you know, David Burke-ish.

Another visit last night led me to the conclusion that this is the best new restaurant of the year, every French bistro that has opened notwithstanding. A few dishes that hadn't been tried on the first visit included the pumpernickel crostini with trout roe... The fried boneless quail (which might make me forget about the fried quail at a few Vietnamese restaurants... The pork rib with saffron spaetzle was another winner... Not as crowded as it should have been at 7:30 on a Friday night, but there are a number of new places for all the yelplings to try, so...

Tuesday night indecision, but made the right choice by stopping by Noodle Bar... You can't go wrong with an order of these... And certainly not with these... This was a delicious take (to my taste) on a Greek salad. Favas (hidden), anchovies, feta, freekeh dressed with a great vinaigrette... Rocking as usual at 9-ish, but no wait for a seat. Still really good after all these years.

If you're thinking of heading to Citi Field to see the Metsies, well... Aramark, Citi Field, The Mets, Danny Meyer and Kiss My Ass...

Thanks, Don. I didn't find it to be any noisier than any other NYC place but we were sitting way up front and not in the middle of what may have been a noisier part of the restaurant. The food was quite good, as were the cocktails.

We had a great meal at Jaleo downtown last weekend. A pleasant surprise. And it's 20 years old!

After a long time, we returned to Jaleo downtown, and were all quite impressed... Jaleo at 20 - Happy Birthday!

We got in very early tonight (right at opening)...far from a gastropub, in the true sense of the word, but it was pretty impressive... Start with these "pigs in a blanket"... Move on to the "pub cheese," which tasted sorta like a really excellent version of cracker barrel... Not to be missed tonight, the Caesar Nigiri... Topped with some of the freshest mackerel I've tasted in a long time. I didn't love the merguez stuffed kumquats (at least not as much as one of my dining companions)... But I did love the Chicken Liver Toast (with extremely crispy chicken skin)... The much lauded Rye Pasta... Was really great. As was this foie dish (don't let your eyes deceive you)... Desserts - foregone...we'd had too much to drink. So we walked on. For those who think they'll "be hungry" after dinner - not to worry. I stopped at Il Laboratorio on the way home. It was the perfect dessert.

If you're detouring through Manhattan, you could stop at Patsy's in East Harlem.

What makes you think that?

A week ago, a few friends and I had dinner at the brand new Chelsea restaurant, Montmartre. It's taken me a week to write about it, because basically it took me that long to digest all the food we ordered. That's a bit of a joke; but seriously, we probably ate our way through 70% of the menu, ordering "the whole top half," per one of the attendees, as well as 3 (or was it 4?) of the main courses, all the sides, all the desserts - or, in our lingo, the bottom half of the menu... Now trust me, I don't normally order (or eat) like this, but when I'm with a bunch of people who are a good deal younger than me (like 90% of the population), going with the flow is easy, even if my digestive juices and taste buds don't think so. It's also why my standing rule is that dinner out with more than 4 people sucks, unless it's for pizza or at a bustling Chinese/Thai place, where tasting everything is part of the fun (I'm looking at you, Congee Village and Sripraphai and you'll have trouble spending more than $25 a person. All that said, the chef and one of the partners at Montmartre is Tien Ho; Well known to food-crazed locals, Tien "made his bones" at Momofuku Ssam Bar, during what some consider its finest hours - in my opinion, Ssam is still damn good, though perhaps not as exciting as it was 4 or 5 or 6 years ago when Tien was at the stove and you were lucky to get in. Oh by the way, we used to eat the same damn way at Ssam Bar, ordering literally the whole menu and fighting for the last scraps of kimchi laced Fuji apples with fluke, or whatever happened to be on the menu at the time. Here at Montmartre, Tien has moved toward a more French bistro vein, which is OK in my book as its one of my favorite cuisines (and his too, from reading about him). So there's an excellent brandade and a fine beef tartare with mustardy gaufrettes to liven things up; radishes (a classic bistro snack) get an update, served both raw and cooked along with trout roe and olive smears... (Oh, the pictures. It's a new camera and this was my first time using it under weird lighting conditions, so they suck). We loved the frisee au lardon, a salad loaded with duck confit and topped with a runny duck egg. And the cassava chips. And the potatoes Gascognaise, because if you don't love fried potatoes over caramelized onions and foies gras, you're nuts. The blanquette de veau was a personal favorite of mine, and the lamb served two ways with lots of Mediterranean flavors - yes. Were there misses? Well, sure...there are bound to be when a restaurant is only a few days old; the desserts didn't move me (there's no dedicated pastry chef - yet). I'm not a big fan of snails, and the cavolo nero tarte was fishy with anchovies even by my anchovy loving standards. And I don't like my $12 glass of white, while waiting at the bar, to be served in a tiny Picardie glass - this isn't Schiller's, I don't think. Be that as it may, when there's this much food on the table during round two, there was plenty to like... And when I get to go back with Significant Eater in tow and order just what we want, I'm pretty sure we'll be happy Tien's in the kitchen again. Montmartre 158 Eighth Avenue, New York City (646) 596-8838

Really great burger here last night...served with salt-roasted potatoes, pickles, tomatoes, onion, aioli on the side. $17. I'd have to rank it above the burger served next-door at MP, just for the fact that the bun is so much better.

Painkiller, which is actually PKNY, is evidently also good if you're underage... "PKNY Tiki Bar Faces Underage Drinking Charges" by Ed Litvak on thelodownny.com

Ahhh well, it was bound to happen.

My guess is a little of both.

We had dinner here last night. What we ate (a burger, the chicken, and a shared fish soup "Provencal") was fine. But have the prices on certain menu items gone up dramatically? Not the burger ($14) or the chicken ($21) which seemed to be in line with what they used to be. But all of the starters/salads/soups were between $15 - $20 (I think the cafe salad was $12). The puntarella was $16. A side of fries (as were all sides) was $8. Is this the new norm?

The only issue I see with this is that I think it's all-purpose flour that is the flour with a protein content of around 11%, whereas bread flour is generally in the 12% range. Still, When we're discussing protein contents that are 12% vs. protein contents that are over 14%, that's over a 15% difference in the protein content, which makes a huge difference as to how well the finished product comes out. Here are the protein contents of King Arthur flours (which I think are the best easily obtained flours): KA A/P = 11.7% KA Bread = 12.7% KA High Gluten = 14% So the difference between KA'S bread and high-gluten is over 10%. As someone who is constantly pulling out whatever remaining hair he has over the quality of my various baked goods, flours drive me crazy!

Agree totally.

Yes, they actually are.

SobaKoh is probably one of 4 - 6 places that make their own soba here in NYC (Corcoran, Sobaya, and a couple others I think). In any event, I'm pretty fond of Sobaya, because they have a nice menu beyond soba, the staff is very nice and their soba is good, imo. I have a problem with Corcoran Delancey due to its size (though I haven't been to their new location yet), lack of AC in the summer, lack of heat in the winter...basically, it's friggin' uncomfortable. Last night I went back to SobaKoh for about the 5th or 6th time, because I had read about some special soba that was being made (on Mouthfuls, I'm pretty sure), and I wanted to give it a try. Sure enough, there's a soba on the menu that is made with stone-ground Canadian organic something-or-other buckwheat - and it's great. Perfectly chewy - what a treat. Unfortunately, the tempura that I ordered with it was not so great - as a matter of fact, it's (the tempura) much better at Sobaya. I was tempted to order the uni/salmon roe topping and maybe I should've instead of the tempura. And none of the aforementioned places know how to cook chicken or duck? It's always dry and flavorless- stay away.

For those on a bit of a budget, there's a place on Avenue C and 9th called The Wayland - they actually have a happy hour where a well-made Manhattan or Sazerac may be had for $7, and oysters are $1 a pop. Idle Hands at Avenue B and 2nd is another well-stocked bar that does a nice happy hour...and the joint upstairs does a good burger. The Tantris Sidecar is one of Audrey Saunders' classic concoctions. Pegu is, and will always be, one of my favorites. And we've now got 2 more places to try; Milk & Honey's new Flatiron incarnation and Dead Rabbit, in the financial district (unfortunately having some problems opening, due to lingering effects of Sandy on the area).

Do you use Reinhart's recipe?