Eric "My God I'm 30" K.'s Profile

Really? A four star average? I just don't get it.

First of all, I do enjoy molecular gastronomy (though not as much as I enjoy French food). After loving Alinea last month I was excited to try WD-50. Secondly, I have gone to restaurants more expensive than WD-50 (Per Se, Daniel, etc.) and paid the bill so the cost wasn't an issue.

Here is my list of complaints:

1) The food. There were only a couple of plates I really enjoyed. Namely the poached egg/super creative edible egg shell (made of edible clay, etc.) and the smoked salmon threads. A lot of the other dishes were overpowered by a single flavor (the foie gras dish was made almost inedible by the overpowering passion fruit) or the flavors just didn't mix well.

2) The cocktails ranged from so-so to just bad. They couldn't mix a proper Alaska (four ingredients including the garnish) and had to ask if it was served neat or on the rocks (neat). I sent it back for an old fashioned. That was made the new way and not the craft cocktail bar way (no muddled fruit, no soda, etc.). My friend raved about this place for cocktails when Eben Freeman was running the bar. I would now rate their bar less than the average restaurant bar (and more expensive).

3) A lot of the time we couldn't understand what they were saying when they plated food. This was caused by a combination of how loud the dining room was and the staff not speaking clearly. It was also awkward because they plated our food and the table next to just offset by 10 seconds or so. So we'd be hearing two explanations at once.

4) They spilled all the water and wine of the table next to us. We were mid conversation and all of a sudden everything was going everywhere. Luckily we didn't get our clothes wet but it did get on my friend's purse. We had to move our stuff, deal with people going under the tables to clean up, etc. I expected them to comp us a drink or something but they didn't. I sure hope the other couple got their wine for free.

I will admit that they are clearly being more experimental than Alinea. But if I have to choose between more experimental and better flavors I'll stick with better flavors.

This was the first time I've been severely disappointed by a restaurant of this caliber. I'm glad I tried it out and appreciated some of the courses (hence the two stars) but I won't be back.

This perhaps isn't a fair review since I only made it to Clyde Common for their late night menu. And the late-night menu is a bit unfortunate. Besides the burger there is nothing really substantial on their menu.

They were out of flatbread when I went there so I ended up getting the burger, the daily charcuterie board, and the grilled baguette. The burger was good but the rest was just ok.

And like people say the place is quite hipster. I felt like i was hanging out at some place in Capitol Hill in Seattle. You could definitely see a Portlandia episode being filmed here.

I'll come back to check out the regular menu but as of now I'm not a big fan.

I'm not a huge book nerd. All of the books I buy can be found online for http://Amazon.com or some other site for much cheaper than Powell's. I've heard that they have a great used book selection for cheap, but they didn't seem to have a lot of used copies of the the titles I was interested in.

With that said this place is quite amazing. It's gigantic and easy to get lost in. Probably my favorite thing about it is the rare book collection; I was particularly intrigued by a signed first edition of Fight Club.

I definitely enjoyed checking out Powell's and appreciate the place but I'm just not in love with it like others are.

It was a bit daunting walking in and seeing all the people standing at the entrance waiting to be seated. I thought for sure that we'd have a super long wait. But I did not appreciate the size of Mother's until we were seated just five minutes later.

I ordered the special pancakes (which included OJ as an ingredient) and the cornflake dipped french toast. They kindly offered to give me a half plate of each but I'm a bit guy so I ordered a full plate of each.

I definitely liked the pancakes more than the french toast. But I can't really say I loved the pancakes. Normally I'd give it a three star rating but the atmosphere is so fitting to have brunch at and I appreciate that you can get seated so quickly since it's such a big place.

I randomly chose to go to take a date to Cafe Katja. I'm not sure what I was thinking since I should have gone for something "safe" for a first date, but I wanted to try something different and Cafe Katja fit the bill.

We started with the aufschnitt teller and then had the sausage sampler. I have to admit that by the time I left here I was definitely on meat overload. But it was all so good that I really didn't mind.

I'll have to be in a certain mood to stop by Cafe Katja but when I'm in the mood for some incredible Austrian food this will be my first stop.

One star off because it is tiny and the food being so heavy I couldn't really eat here regularly.

I had wanted to go to Elemental/END for a while, but after checking it out I don't think I'll be back. I don't have anything horrible to say about END, I just only really liked two of the many plates we ordered and though the interior was quite bland. But, the service was very friendly and I'd probably like the place a lot more if I could indulge in the great wine selection (I'm allergic to wine).

When ordering it seems more expensive than it is since tax and tip is included in the price. So it was nice in the end realizing that overall the dinner wasn't as expensive as it felt like it was going to be. It definitely wasn't cheap though and considering both of us weren't a bit fan of most of the food (it was all off in some way or another - preparation, accompaniment, etc.) I won't be going back.

For my 29th birthday last year I started a tradition of eating at ultra-fine dining establishments. Last year it was Per Se. And this year it was Daniel. Unfortunately once a year isn't enough so I'm probably going to start finding reasons to do it much more often.

I went to Daniel four days after my 30th birthday with two friends. And as such it's a very fitting 200th review for me. I have to say I had a lovely time and definitely think Daniel deserves a solid five star ranking. But I will add the disclaimer that I do prefer Per Se.

Initially we were supposed to do the three course pre fixe menu. But before we got to the restaurant I convinced my friends to do the six course tasting menu. And when we were at the table I convinced everyone to do the eight course chef's tasting menu. *pats self on back*

I think that's really the way to go at these places. I'd rather just sit back and let the chef come up with things they want to serve me than to have to pick them out myself. And with the tasting menu you get to try a wide variety of things. What made it even better was that for some of the courses two of us got one dish and the third person had another. This allowed me to try a total of fourteen different plates.

These included:

Duck terrine with honeycrisp apple
Lola duck mosaic and daikon radish
Peekytoe crab salad
Nantucket Bay scallop seviche
Duo of Florida frog legs
Hamachi "a la plancha" with Tangerine
Celebration of white truffle from Alba
Turbot roasted on the bone,
Flax seed crusted millbrook venison loin
Wild scottish hare "a la royale"

I enjoyed every dish but I have to say the celebration of white truffle was definitely the stand out for me. It was actually my first time trying white truffle and we just barely caught the end of the short truffle season this year. The frog legs were also a standout with two excellent preparations of frog legs.

Now for the non-food parts of the dinner. I loved the interior of Daniel. It was quite simply gorgeous. And their cocktails were quite amazing. I had a Jaipur Sour and although the sprinkles in the drink resulted in me being made fun of it was quite a tasty cocktail.

We also had great service with water glasses and bread overflowing. Plates were picked up and dropped off at the same time for everyone at the table and our every whim was catered to.

I'm not sure if it was the fact that we ordered the chef's tasting menu and/or my birthday but we earned a look at the kitchen after our meal. It was incredible to see where the magic takes place and was an excellent end to the night.

So why do I prefer Per Se more? I think more of their dishes were standouts for me. Not to say Daniel was bad at all, Per Se was just a bit better. And while Daniel feels like a very upscale version of a regular restaurant, Per Se felt like a dining experience all its own.

In the end I say try them both out and see for yourself. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

This is another restaurant in Manhattan where the experience was a bit of a mess. The three of us arrived right at 8 when our reservation was but our table wasn't ready. We ended up sitting at the bar for over 30 minutes before we were seated. But once that was over we had solid service throughout the meal.

Once we were seated we were treated to some pretty good food. I started with the eggplant parmigiana and then had the gnocchi. And for dessert I had the flourless chocolate cake.

I was pretty impressed with the eggplant starter. Although I did enjoy the gnocchi it definitely didn't blow me away - I guess it just seemed too plain and so I finished it quickly. The dessert was great (I mean flourless chocolate cake - come on!).

Since we had waited so long for our table they gave us a free drink at the end of the meal. I tried and enjoyed the grappa. It was a lovely example not too strong and not too mild. But as a smokey scotch drinker grappa is right up my alley.

All in all I enjoyed my meal here but not quite to the level I paid for it. And, being the largest part of the bill, I was expecting more from my gnocchi. I'll probably come back to try this place again to see if I like something else better. But right now I would recommend Frankies 17 over Gradisca.

I've been here a couple times now and enjoyed my experience each time. Though I just realized that I've never really drank a lot here. I had scotch one time and a free cocktail they were giving out the other. Primarily I've ended up here to meet a friend. And since it was close to both of our places it served as a great meeting up point that was open late. Plus it does a good job of being relaxed without turning into a dive bar.

When I've been at Faces and Names it has mostly been for the food. I've enjoyed their wings. But I definitely liked their burger quite a bit. It's not going to be in the running for best burger in the city, but for a generic bar it's quite good.

If you are in the area and looking for a place to stop by I think Faces and Names would be a good choice. But keep the drinks simple and primarily order food. If you want great cocktails you'll have to head downtown.

RIP. It was a nice store and had a great cafe up on the top floor. Sadly it is no more. Now you'll have to go further uptown or downtown for a Barnes & Noble. I guess I'll stick with the Union Square location.