Lombardi's Pizza - NYC

This place is known as the first pizzeria in the United States. So it should be good after all those years of pizza-making experience, right? I'm not that big of a pizza person, but I enjoy a slice every now and then. There seems to be a lot of rave reviews about this place too, and since my friend wanted to do this for dinner, I was hoping that it'd be good enough to make me rethink pizza being more than a last-minute party food.

And wow, this place was amazing!!!

... is what I'd like to say, but no. I wasn't impressed with this place. 

When we came in here, there was a couple sitting next to us. After looking at the menu for two minutes or so, the guy made small talk with us and voiced his displeasure with the place. To be honest, I thought it was a good thing since it set my expectations lower.

They don't sell individual slices here. You have to order whole pizzas. 

The pizza here is pretty expensive. They use quite a bit of sauce and cheese, so the cheese is stretchy as you take a bite out of a slice (not my thing, though I guess some people like their pizza extra cheesy and stretchy). Their smallest size is a 14", 6-slice pizza, and it comes in at $16.50 for just the cheese and sauce. Each additional topping is $3 on top of the base pizza price, so if you're used to ordering from a cheaper pizza chain with more toppings, you'll probably pay $30 for an equivalently topped medium pizza.

Medium Pizza with Meatballs. $16.50 for the base and $3 for the 6½ meatballs they used as toppings.

My friend liked this, but he's a pizza person and generally likes all pizzas. I didn't like this. For me, this was not worth the money or time.

Rating: 

I don't get the hype. I wouldn't come back here.

Joe's Shanghai - NYC

This place is pretty famous in NYC. When we arrived, we were seated at a communal table with three other small groups. A pair of them seemed French and had a tour guide book with them, so I guess this was one of their spots.

Joe's Shanghai has a lot of your typical Chinese Food items, but they're known for their dumplings. 8 pieces for $5, and each piece has soup in them. They come out hot.

Pork Dumplings

After trying a few... I really wonder why they're so popular. It's honestly nothing great. Just another Chinese restaurant as far as I'm concerned, preparing typical Chinese food. 

Service is terrible too. As soon as we sat down, one of the waiters expected that we knew what we were getting before we even opened the menu. We just opted for the dumplings only since we weren't that hungry and he was rushing us, and he looked kinda pissed. We were seated in an area that was kind of a tight space. There was another girl seated directly behind me, and it happened to be an aisle where the waiters kept walking through, so my chair was constantly being hit.

I guess if you've never had regular Chinese dumplings before, you can try this place out. But if you have had real Chinese food before, this place isn't anything special. 

Rating: 

Maybe their regular menu items are good, but I'll never know. I don't have any intention to return.

Cafe Metro - NYC

This small cafe was steps away from our hotel (the DoubleTree on Lexington Ave). We had our lunchtime breakfast there. Nothing special here, but good for some basics.

To order food, you have to grab the attention of whoever is behind the counter of the kitchen or deli area, then pay at the counter. They don't have prices listed anywhere for a good number of their items, so you're left finding out how much everything costs at the til. 

Cajun Chicken Sandwich; Bacon, Eggs and Toast in the BG

I ordered the Cajun Chicken Sandwich, which came out to $8.70 after taxes (which I only found out when I was paying). It was pretty good, but in my opinion, a bit pricey for what it was. If I stayed at the hotel longer than I did and felt really hungry and tired, I would hop over here to order this again.

My friend's bacon, eggs, and toast wasn't very... exciting. But I guess he should have seen that coming. It's a pretty plain breakfast choice. That, and his $5 freshly squeezed orange juice, didn't leave too great of an impression on him.

Rating: 

I liked my food. I wasn't impressed by the service, pricing transparency, or how to go about ordering there. Also, I took into consideration what my friend thought about the place. Though I would return in a pinch, he would not.

Donburiya - NYC

Store Front

After a long day of walking, my friend and I were too lazy to trek out to the Hell's Kitchen area for food (which was what we planned to do). So instead, I searched up a restaurant near our hotel and found this place.

Okonomiyaki

I think this Okonomiyaki dish was called Teppan Yaki with potato or something on the menu. The sauce was delicious, but this dish had large onion chunks that distracted me from everything else. I like onions, but the slices here were really thick and wide.

Tonkotsu Ramen

I ordered the Tonkotsu Ramen for a main. I've had that at Sansotei and all the other Ramen joints I've been to in Toronto, so I wanted to see how this would fare in comparison.

The portion wasn't very large. The half egg seemed to be missing a lot of the yolk, but that's fine with me since I'm not much of a fan of it anyway. The noodle quality was pretty typical, but the single slice of pork belly, though thick, was pretty tender. The soup was all right, but I like Sansotei more.

Niku Suki Udon (?)

My friend got this. That white thing in the middle is an egg. He said his udon dish was good, so I guess he enjoyed the place more than I did.

Regarding service, we had a waitress who seemed like she wasn't too fluent with English. I'm fine with that, but it's something you may want to prepare for. There were others there who spoke English fluently, and everyone was nice enough to us, but they did take a long time to bring us our bill when we finished.

Rating: 

The tonkotsu ramen was all right, but the okonomiyaki was a let down. My friend enjoyed his meal though, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Shake Shack - New York, Times Square

I went to New York City for a few days. A good time to go (financially) is February. The prices are pretty cheap since the weather isn't that great. $350 covered a round-trip flight from Buffalo to JFK, plus hotel stay for three nights (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

I tried a lot though, so I'll write quick reviews on each.

Shack Burger x 2, Strawberry Shake x 2, Cheese Fries

Shake Shack was the first destination on my list. It's a small chain with several locations across the US. I wasn't sure why they were so popular, but my trip buddy and a few coworkers of mine recommended this place. That's enough reason to try it, right?

At this location, the line for ordering food starts outside the restaurant. If you enter the seating area from one door, you'll have to leave from another exit close to the cashier and enter the line from outside. After you place your order, you're given a beeper of sorts that lights up when your order is ready.

We both got the Shack Burger, strawberry shakes, and split an order of cheese fries. It filled the try (as pictured above), but it honestly didn't look like much. But the shakes were more like food than drinks, so it was actually very filling.

the menu

First, the burgers: Wow. They were tiny for $4.60, but they were delicious. The meat was nice and juicy. They used a whole slice of lettuce, which made the burger look even smaller, but it's nicer than dealing with the shredded lettuce mess that is oh-so-common with fast food restaurants. I wouldn't exactly call this fast food though since it took a while for the food to be prepared. 

The cheese fries were all right. Nothing spectacular, but good as a side. There weren't too many to split, but in conjunction with the burgers and shakes, it was enough.

You can't see the shake, but you can see the size of the cup. It's a small cup. The strawberry shake was thick, like drinking ice cream, so even though it was small, it was more than enough. It tasted how one would expect a strawberry shake to taste. Again, nothing outstanding, but good if you feel like having a drinkable dessert.

Overall, it was a pretty good experience.

Rating: ½ 

Winterlicious 2013 @ Far Niente (lunch)

I'm going to keep this post short because it's really not worth my time criticizing every dish. Please excuse my dis-satisfied tone of voice with Far Niente as I am not able to word anything nicer than it already is.

complimentary bread

The soup was the most decent item on the menu that I had no complaints about. 

Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Hazelnut Oil, Lovage Cream

The complimentary bread I had in the beginning appears again here as if I didn't have enough. The chicken breast was dry, the 'crispy prosciutto' was not crispy nor was the 'crisp lettuce'. Avocado mousse? Not sure where that went. At least the spring mix salad with taro chips was decent. Then again, it's salad, how do you mess that up?

Italian Herb Grilled Chicken Breast “BLT” Club
Crispy Proscuitto, Pommery Tomato Puree, Crisp Lettuce, Avocado Mousse

This was the MOST pathetic dessert I EVER had. Just the presentation itself was PATHETIC. Look, just look. I was expecting at least a s'more sandwich, but instead I got a dissected s'more that was pronounced dead after it entered the surgical room, aka the kitchen. The "homemade" marshmallow was rubbery and jello like, not the soft fluffy marshmallow at all. 

Banana & Nutella S’more
Graham Crackers (should be crumbs), Caramelized Bananas, Nutella Mousse (not mousse, just nutella), Hazelnut Caramel

There, I'm done, now I need to eat something better to cheer myself up.

Final Verdict: BELOW Par

Winterlicious 2013 @ Toula (Dinner)

After hearing various positive reviews from friends, I wanted to try Toula. Located on the 38th floor of the Westin Harbour, the view had to be spectacle and it did not disappoint.
However, I can not speak the same regarding food. Originally, my most anticipated Winterlicious spot was Toula due to the large selection of appetizers, entrees and desserts. I was told if the restaurant offered the same selection on their Winterlicious menu as their regular menu then it’s hard for them to mess up. With that in mind, that’s how I made my selections.

First of all, let's talk about the complimentary bread basket. I forgot to take a picture because I was too in shocked about how terrible the bread was. The dinner roll was clearly made by someone who is baking bread for the first time because it tasted exactly like the ones I made for the first time. It was really tough, like REALLY. I can't believe how a restaurant can just deliver such un-presentable bread to its customers even if it's free.

Moving on. After we placed our order, the dishes were delivered REALLY quickly, in like 5 mins or less. In a sense, I felt I was being rushed. In that case, the dishes were probably prepared in advance and just kept warm until someone orders it. I understand that this is necessary in such high traffic food events, but at least make it less obvious. Anyways, the scallop was not overcooked, nicely seared, best dish of the night.
 

East Coast Giant Scallops “Lido”
seared with thyme and chardonnay essence, topped with warm eggplant and fresh herb mousse

Guess what I just realize... I cut away the prosciutto part thinking it was the SHELL! Omg, silly me. It did look like the shell and it was so dark I can barely see. Now to think of it, I can't judge this dish properly since I tossed away some of the components.  

Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp “Laguna”
wrapped with prosciutto di Parma DOP, drizzled with 10 year balsamic vinegar reduction on a bed or aromatic arugula salad

It's hard to see the half lobster tail here because it's drench in tomato sauce. The lobster was overbooked and tough, had no lobster taste. The pasta was slightly under-cooked  The pasta itself tasted good with the tomato sauce but not so much as a lobster pasta dish. Poorly executed, ruined a perfectly good piece of lobster.

Paccheri “San Marco” Pasta
with half fresh PEI lobster in a lightly spiced roasted plum tomato sauce

The seabass contained bones which made it very unpleasant. I hate fish with bones.

Pan Seared European Sea Bass
served with a “san gimignaino" saffron carnaroli risotto and drizzled with a warm pinot grigio and lemon sauce

I was looking forward to the dessert cause it seemed like tiramisu was something they really excelled at. It turns out that it was just so-so along with the spiced apple cake which is not shown here.


Toula Classic Tiramisu

Final Verdict: food wise it's really Par to Sub Par but if you factor in the view and the environment, I would give it Slightly Above Par

P.S. To "you know who you are" You didn't keep your promise! What a liar! Liar liar, pants on fire =P