Happy new year! I spent new year's eve enjoying a very decadent 4-course pre-fixe at my favorite restaurant, the Little Owl. It was a really wonderful meal - the chefs in that tiny kitchen know what they're doing - and I even splurged on a $40 shaving of white truffles on second course, a parmesan and organic egg yolk risotto. It was my first time eating shaved white truffles and while they were tasty, I think a drizzle of white truffle oil is just as good and much less expensive. Oh well - live and learn.
As 2011 gets underway, I want to share a list of the best and worst places I tried in 2010 so that you can make sure to try or avoid them in the coming months. I'm only listing places in New York that I tried for the first time in the last twelve months that I didn't already independently review or otherwise describe in a prior post.
THE BEST
50 Broome Street (between Thompson and West Broadway)
A rustic Italian restaurant - think rough wooden tables and exposed brick walls - in SoHo with a selection of excellent homemade pastas. I also still have fond memories of a roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprout salad.
Celeste
502 Amsterdam Avenue (between 84th and 85th Streets)
They don't take reservations or credit cards, the tables are packed so close to each other you're practically sitting on top of the people next to you, and the host and wait staff are less than friendly. But most of the tasty items on Celeste's menu are less than $15. I particularly enjoy the pizzas.
513 West 27th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
Excellent Neopolitan pizza from the pizza experts behind Luzzo's in the East Village. The pizzas with tartufata (truffle paste) are particularly praise-worthy.
435 Halsey Street (Brooklyn)
My friends who used to live in Bed-Stuy introduced me to this pizza destination that was well-worth the long subway ride. In addition to six classic pizzas, they also have daily specials featuring seasonal ingredients.
251 West 50th Street (between Broadway and 8th Avenue)
"Contemporary Mexican cuisine" in the theater district from Julian Medina, the chef behind Zocalo, which had been one of my favorite places on the Upper East Side before it closed in 2009. I was delighted to find that many beloved items from Zocalo's menu live on at Tolache, including the manchego cheese, corn, black truffle, and huitlacoche quesadilla.
THE REST
159 West 23rd Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues)
Judd and I ended up here one night after I'd researched a place to meet in Chelsea in my trusty Zagat. I like seafood and Spanish food, so it seemed like a safe choice. WRONG. I have never had less appetizing paella. I think everything in it came out of a can or a freezer before it was over-cooked in a microwave. ICK, ICK, ICK. No amount of sangria could make me go back.
43 East 30th Street (between Park and Madison)
This was hands-down the worst restaurant I've been to in memory. Frat-boy ambience (one notch above Brother Jimmy's), unimpressive service (I think our waitress may have been brain dead), and TERRIBLE FOOD (a chicken quesadilla that I literally couldn't eat because it tasted like it had gone bad). What a shame in a neighborhood that is otherwise a barbeque hot zone (Blue Smoke, Hill Country, and RUB are all only a few blocks away).
15 West 56th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
My sister must have lost her mind when she suggested we take my mother to David Chang's newest and most formal restaurant in midtown (all other outposts of his Momofuku empire are in the East Village) this fall. I didn't like almost anything we ordered, including an overpriced and undercooked pork-chop for two, strangely-textured and overpriced shrimp and tofu summer rolls, and unpleasantly fatty and overpriced spareribs. Add servers with serious attitude, communal tables, and no dessert, and this place was a complete strike out. (NB - you can get dessert to go at the Momofuku Milk Bar on your way out.)
210 East 46th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
Undoubtedly the most expensive disappointment of the year. The $40 sliced filet with mushrooms and bordelaise sauce tasted like it came from a hospital cafeteria. And with the outrageous prices, could they renovate the place!? I felt like I was in a dirty English pub. Sheesh!
Loren's the only person I know who *didn't* like Ma Peche. I will admit the night in question was not my best meal there...but still I think her criticism is way harsh.
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