Nari "Nayori" C.'s Profile

I know it was my birthday and all.. and I might have been in a hyped up mood.. but honestly, one of the best meals i had in a long time!! Danny Meyer, you never cease to fail me.  It seems as though I always enjoy every meal at all your restaurants.

First of all, the service.  Freaking fanta-bulous.  Even when the bartender was recommending and explaining different wines to my friend, my drunk sister flaps her wet umbrella in between them yelling 'YAHH~~'  (so asian), he politely ignores it without laughing and keeps explaining.  Now THAT is polite.  AND the wine he recommended was superb. And of course, table service was just as fabulous.  

I think we ate 2 baskets of bread.  So good.  I always tend to judge restaurants by their bread.  I don't know why.  A pet peeve is when restaurants send cold butter.  I freaking hate that.  HATE.  But the butter was nice, fluffy, and spreadable.. mmmm ..  There's like 4 different variety of bread, the three of us girls ate 2 baskets.  Freaking pig JANET.

Anyway, fried artichokes with anchovy sauce.  I'm salivating right now.  I dipped the bread in the anchovy sauce.  Why is BREAD so good. I love carbs. BTW people, bread is good when it's good.  You can do bread really wrong.  Maialino does not.

Uni pasta.  You can do uni pasta really wrong.  But no, Chef Nick Anderer knows best.  Pasta was cooked perfectly, with a bit of a bite.  Creaminess from the uni, followed by a faint kick in the back of your throat (from the jalapeno).  All i kept saying was.. orgasm in mah mouse.  

Of course, the chef was chatting with the table next to us, and my drunk sister yells out to him.  "CHEF I'M SUCH A BIG FAN OF YOUR BUNNY MEATBALLS".  Okay no, not that kind of ball... (we went to meatball madness for food&wine festival and Maialino was serving rabbit meatballs).  I could tell he wanted to laugh really bad, but being the polite HOT gentleman he is, instead sent us a complimentary dish of his 'bunny' meatballs.  Gotta love a hot chef with a sense of humor.  I don't think it's on the menu, but if you can order it... these are some DAMN good bunny meatballs. LOL!!!

ANYWAY, lambchops were amazing.. dessert was amazing.  I'm getting tired now after writing that crazy story about the bunny meatballs.

Cheers to bunny meatballs.

If you don't eat here, you will regret it!  Oh yea, did I mention that the chef is HOT?  Hot chef = better food.  (Did I just say that..?)

Two girlfriends and I walk in on Sunday afternoon around 5pm for an early dinner, but dinner does not start until 6.  That's fine, we sit at the bar and have drinks before dinner.

Bloody mary- one of the best i ever had, with pickled green beans and just the right amount of acid and spice.

I tried some other drinks.. the sweet tea sour and dr pepper cocktail, both were a bit too sweet for my liking.  I advise you not to order these if you do not like sweet.  

Dinner was at 6, cute atmosphere, homey..southern.. comfortable.  
We decided not to do the chicken dinner (only available on sunday&monday) only because it was our first time and we wanted to order off the regular menu.. See what they got.

Cornbread, needed to be seasoned.  Texture was spot on, and came out steaming hot and fluffy.. but the seasoning did not live up to expectations.  It simply was not..corny (?) enough.  and needed more salt or sweetness.  It was just missing something.

Fried brussel sprouts, delish.   I'm a huge brussel sprouts person, HUGE.  Probably my favorite vegetable.  Fried is my favorite way of eating them too.  The ham was sort of unnecessary i think.. and could have used more acid.  But all in all, it was cooked really well, so I'm not complaining..

Fried pigtails, my favorite of the night!  SO DAMN GOOD~~~  LOVE!.  I can eat 10 portions of this, because it's THAT good, not because i'm a fat monkey bear.

Country fried steak.. hmm... mediocre.  I don't mean to be so critical but the gravy was just way way too thick.  At one point, i couldn't even tell if it was gravy or mash potatoes i was dipping the steak in.  I hate when that happens.  Also it's similar color and it's dark in there..so how am i suppose to know?  Eventually I just started eating everything mixed together.  I also hate when i cut into the steak, the whole meat comes out of the fried batter.  I know it's country fried steak and sometimes that's just the beauty of it.. but STILL!!!  i'm picky.  But it was crispy and stayed that way for a while which I like..  and the mash potatoes were so yummy and seasoned so nicely.  

The short rib dish was mediocre too.  There was just too much meat compared to sauce.  I don't like when the meat, sauce ratio is too imbalanced.  I mean, when I eat all the sauce and still left with a huge chunk of meat, there's a problem there.  Also, there was nothing special about it.  It was just... blah, no significance.  I don't remember much about it at all. (cept the meat and sauce ratio issue)

We decided to skip dessert and grab turkey hoagies and ben&jerry's mint chocolate cookie from our local bodega.  All complete with shots of don julio.

I come here to do my weekly Japanese grocery shopping.  It's awesome because it is 3 blocks away from where I live, which means I can buy loads and loads of yummy Japanese goodies and carry it all home.  It is a teeny tiny market, but filled with joyous luxuries.   I probably could spend hours in here, but then the employees would think I'm psycho huh?  

Anyway, the down side is that everything is in Japanese.  I don't know about you, but I don't read Japanese which makes it pretty hard to shop here sometimes.  But whatever the case, I don't know how but I manage to get everything I need.  Somehow, someway  I never made a mistake yet (especially the bottled sauces. Makes my eyes go @.@)

They always have some premade food such as onigiri, sushi, and bento boxes.  I think if you come during lunch time you can order udon or some sort of noodles and curry dishes in the back.  I never tried the food here, but it seems similar to cafe zaiya.  

Anyway, they have some great sales sometimes.  For example, last week a package of udon noodles were 49 cents each.  And every sunday I believe, all of their frozen seafood is 20% off.  

Oh yeah, if you do end up coming here or any Japanese market.. go to the freezer section and try to get your hands on Kurobuta sausages..  Because these sausages alone will make you come back over and over and over again... :)

Beautiful interior.   I love open kitchens where you can see everything that is going on.  

I was here for RW lunch.  To start we had the tofu and the two kyoto-style appetizers.  Hijiki (seaweed) salad simmered and mixed with soy beans, and daikon sundried and simmered in dashi.  I'd say they were pretty good, and traditional.  I loved the simplicity of the flavors and how nothing over powered anything.  Very delicate and focused on the main ingredient.  

For the main entree we had the yellowfin tuna belly and the washugyu ribeye.  The tuna was definitely not that great.  It was very, very fishy.  The sauce tasted a bit too salty and overpowering.  But not overpowering enough to kill the fishy flavor.  The washugyu was great.  Cooked a bit more then I usually like, but since the cut was ribeye it wasn't so bad.  It still was juicy and tender, and I liked that it was not seasoned much so it could focus on the quality of the beef.  The miso soup that was served with the food was too salty.  I thought I'd just throw that in there.  

The fig ice cream is what got to me.  OH MY GOSH!!!  I LOVE FIG ICE CREAM!!!! Not that I ever had it anywhere else but, now I know that I REALLY LOVE FIG ICE CREAM.!!   It is probably the best ice cream I ever had in my life.  No joke.  I thought green tea was my favorite flavor, but fig really just blows my mind.   I'm going to buy an ice cream maker just to make this ice cream myself.  

Anyway, over all I think I really enjoyed it here.  The server was quite nice, giving us fresh hot tea at the end without us asking.  I like the little signs of appreciation.

Although I wasn't going crazy over the food, I am quite curious to see how dinner would be.  I am definitely coming back to use my $20 coupon that was given (another sign of appreciation).  Oh yes, and to somehow steal the fig ice cream recipe from the chef.  :D

Food: Not bad, but not worth the price
Decor: Trendy
Service: FAIL!

I was here last week for RW with 3 of my girlfriends, and we made reservations 2 weeks in advance.  I expect a decent seat when I do this.  Instead, the hostess decides to shove us in the corner (worst table in the restaurant) near the bus pans and kitchen.  I asked to be moved to one of the middle tables, or somewhere not so close to the server station area.  When I did, the hostess simply says "oh, those tables are only for 5 or more.", yet right in front is a table of 3 sitting in the middle section.  She was snobby to begin with.  I had to ask the server to move us, and then we waited 20 minutes to change tables.

We switch tables and order sparkling water.  I asked for lemon about 3 times.  I never got my lemon, and I gave up on asking.  I dropped my chopsticks, and again I had to ask twice.  Yet my server still forgot, so I had to ask the busboy.  Seriously,  what the bluck?  Was this server just simply ignoring me because I was here for RW?  That was the impression I received from these people..

Not only that, but I saw gnats flying around my food.  Regardless of restaurant week or not, I think this is suppose to be considered a pretty decent restaurant.  I don't think it's really appropriate to have gnats flying around the restaurant, let alone my food.  

I poured my own wine.
I poured my own water (I didn't even know how to open the stupid bottle too.  I'm paying 10$ for a bottle of water, can I have it poured for me??? Jesus...)
Server didn't come over ONCE to see how we were doing.

Besides the horrendous service, let's talk about the food.  I'd say it was decent.  Decent for restaurant week price.  Not decent for the price they put on their regular menu.  The scallops with foie gras sauce were pretty good.  However, it was a bit undercooked, but I like my scallops a bit rare so I did not mind much.  Red snapper oriental salad was a bit under seasoned, and not spicy at all.  I'd say bland and nothing special.  

The black cod was very good.  Though I wish it was served with a salad or something on the side.  Kobe steak was okay, but looked and sounded more elegant than it really was.  Basically, just kobe steak with garlic chips, and a side of soy dipping sauce.  Although the main entrees were not bad, the portion sizes were just ridiculously small.  I think I could have ate the whole entire restaurant week menu and still not be full.  

Dessert was definitely nothing fabulous.  Cheesecake and chocolate cake which were both just plain jane, can find it at the grocery store.  

The food was not bad, but definitely not worth the money.  It was okay since I was paying restaurant week prices,  but for the regular menu I'd say it is very overpriced.  Especially for the portion sizes.  

BUT, the main reason I would never come back here: SERVICE.  When we were leaving, I made eye contact with about 5 of the employees and did not even get a 'thank you' or 'good bye'.  I just do not understand this.  I'm not saying they have to bow down when we are leaving,  but a simple thank you would be nice.  I just kept getting the feeling that they were blowing us aside because we were there for RW.

Anyway, me or my girlfriends are probably never coming back here again.

Disco Fries with Mozzarella cheese is a MUST !!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, I am so obsessed with this place.  Believe it or not, if I wanted to bring a date to any place in the city, this would be it.  To some people, this idea may seem psychotic.  But for me, I feel that this place describes 'me' very well.  

Let me explain.  I am Korean.  I love Soju.  This place is the epitome of a real Korean sooljip (bar).  When you think of the Korean drinking culture, usually this is the type of place that comes in mind.  Pocha is short for POjang maCHA, which is generally known for ghetto outside bars that scatter across Seoul.  People eat Korean bar food, while drinking soju, on bench like tables.  Hence, Pocha 32 resembles this type of bar very well.  This place is the closest you will get to South Korea's drinking culture.  

I guess some people might not understand.  Some people will find this place really ghetto and gross.  But for a true Korean 'seoul', this is the best place to be.  

ANd, the food is pretty damn good for Korean bar food.  Better than any other place on 32nd (The budae jjigae is hands down the best i've ever had). It is open til 6am (so frikkn awesome).  And they have a fabulous $9.99 menu.  And you can order as much soju as you like..  WHAT MORE CAN YOU ASK FOR. :D

Writing about this place is making me want to go again....  Okay, I'm definitely going tomorrow.

Being Korean, I swear EVERY time I come here I see someone I know.  Yes, this is definitely one of those places you will always run into someone (asian) you know.  And that could be a good thing.. or a bad thing.. depending on your mood..

It's definitely a fun place, where it's pretty easy to meet people and just relax and have a good time.  They have great specials on tuesdays, $20 for all you can drink beer/wine and all you can eat fried food.  This is probably one of my favorite happy hour specials in the city :)

The cocktails are a little overpriced on the weekends.  And sometimes the crowd could get a littttle skeevy..   But I guess this is with most bars in the city?  

But all in all, I think this is definitely one of the better bars in K-town.  Not to mention the ultra cute staff (specifically DANA~  lova ya :D )

I know my review is like the 200th review.  And I'm probably going to say the same thing as everyone.

It's too expensive for a teeny tiny lobster roll!

But it tastes soooooooooo fabulous :)  I love the different sodas they have too!!!

I tried the spicy cajun crab soup though... not that good.  Not worth it!  Don't get soup, just order another lobster roll.  

I can probably eat ten of these.............

I'd say for a snack this place is awesome.  Come here for appetizer and then go somewhere for dinner.  YAY

Ahh, one of those sweet little gems you get so excited about finding.  Supposedly, two Australian dudes decided to open a 'australian style' burger place.  Of course, this is word of mouth so I have no idea if this is really the case.  (I should have asked!)

As soon as I walked into the place, I already felt that this was my kind of place.  I just love small cozy tiny ass places where you can sit next to a stranger and pretend you know them.  You can't really do this at a french restaurant, know what I mean?

Anyway, of course the Bronte Burger.  Yes, I did want to try the burger with the egg on it (I love burgers with an egg on it), but I decided to go with what the place was popular for.  

The bun was a toasty ciabatta, great spin on your regular burger bun.  The patty was thick and delicious, followed by a sweet chili after-taste.  I'd say the first bite was a 9 out of 10.  After half the burger I'd say more like a 7 our of 10.  Also, I really like that it is served with a refreshing salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, a great healthy alternative to french fries in my opinion.  

It's definitely a great twist to what you expect a burger to be, something quite different.  I suggest if you are looking for a typical 'burger', this is not the place.  However, if you are open to new and exciting things,  Rubys is highly recommended. :)  

Can't wait to come back here for more of the dollahh canned beers and to try the burger topped with the egggg.  :D