New York Restaurants

my favorite thing they do at stone barns is the soft fried egg -- I guess they hard boil it halfway, then peel the shell, bread it and throw it in the deep fryer

diner is not closed. felicity was talking about 718 diner aka ms williamsburg diner.

I just went to Blossom in Chelsea. It is the better of the vegan restaurants.

I really want a chicken burrito now.

I just realized I was confusing the 718 diner with Relish.

Aurora tonite. Will report back.

I was not impressed with my admittedly institutional dinner at Daniel, and I've heard similar where's-the-beef sentiments from others who have eaten in the comfier rooms.

I like the Shack lots and what room could beat Madison Square Park, but I prefer the burger over at Blue Smoke. Maybe that's not a fair fight, but even on the faster end of the burger scale and putting aside the fact that my apollonian sandwich is essentially a tomato-delivery-device, I lean toward the mini version of the real thing rather than the glop-crunch of a double stack, though the latter admittedly is a better adjunct to a tasty root beer.

Dressler doesn't look nearly as pleasant a space as Dumont's garden, and the room/vibe are probably fixed just-so in michelin's supposedly-food-only cosmology, but the food at Dumont made enough of an impression on me that a hauter version is high on my list. I suppose it helped that I ate at the older place at the height of Summer.

speaking of great little places, Spigolo, located in the restricted zone, is kind of harried, but has some really wonderful food, and I'm not even that into 'Italian'.

I've never eaten at any of the Batali places, unless you count an institutional dinner at Del Posto, which really was pretty good as far as those things go, though the wine outshone the food.

I haven't yet eaten at any of the Michael Psilakis places either, but he seems to be the most interesting thing going right now.

Spigolo is indeed great, I think run by a husband and wife team who actually live upstairs

I've eaten at Blue Hill in the city -- about four years ago now? -- and it was fantastic, but the whole farm experience sounds really cool. If anybody's planning a trip to southern Italy any time soon, there's an amazing centuries-old farm with its own citrus grove outside Ostuni, it's called "Il Frantoio" (which means "the olive press" I think). They do a zillion course meal every night, and the guy who owns the place tells you about each thing you're having. It's mainly vegetarian since that part of Italy is so dry that it can't really support livestock. (During our tour the owner pointed at the roofs of the main house, saying "see that section? That was the first to be built. In about 1500. See the roof? It's pointed. It rained here then. See that section? It was built in 1600. Flat roof. no rain. It's been that way ever since.")

The only Batali place I've been to is Otto, which is fun. Once we made a full dinner out of antipasti, another time I had a pizza, and another time I just went for coffee and gelato and stood at one of the bar tables. All three were good experiences.

I walked into Otto once when my friend and I were being indecisive, and the place looked like a zoo.

Wow, gabbneb went below 14th st!

Otto is great place to take the kidz, we go around 6 PM before it gets all zoo-like. I always get the clam pie. it's great - dozens of clams w/garlic parsley and a touch of fresh mozz. the pizza crust is different here, sort of crunchy and I can see why some people don't dig it. no complaints re: the italian wines by glass.

am looking forward to taking Aidan to Otto, especially as we're not going to get anywhere too top end with him, I think Stone barns may be a bit adventurous too, so we'll probably make do with the cafe there while out for a walk.

Otto, is a great lunch spot, wouldn't choose it for an intimate dinner. Good food, though.

hi jon, we're past our sell-by date here, but i was below 14th st on the regular before you were in middle school

http://www.google.com/search?q=meme&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

jaymc how old is gabbneb

Aurora was good overall. Food was slightly disappointing - the pork belly was dry and the lamb was too fatty and gristly (in the low light it was actually very hard to avoid the fat and gristle), although both were seasoned very nicely. The octopus antipasti was great and so was the ginger parfait dessert. The coffee was not up to the standard you'd expect from a good, self-respecting Italian restaurant. But it was such a nice place to be in terms of atmosphere and service that I didn't mind so much, and I'd still go back at some point. The bill was also not bad at all for everything we had.

for whatever little it's worth, I concur with everyone else in New York that Momofuku Noodle Bar is really good.

tried octopus salad, baby bok choi, shredded pork ramen - all great. The soft-serve ice cream they have was even really good (Cousin Ben & Larry's or something like that)

next time get the steamed pork buns!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/189/522600496_9266cab453.jpg

yarrr

oh man, salivating.

dmr, yer not going to see Roky tonight are you?

nope we're gonna try to see times new viking at don pedro and then go up to the environ records thing at studio b

are you going? never seen the man

I'm going, yeah. He was great last time.
Would have gone to TNV if i didn't already have tix for this thing.

oh rite restaurants uh, i am a big fan of eating at them.

I'm gonna try some Salvadoran joint in east wburg called Bahia? supposed to have good pupusas

have fun at Roky dawg

dmr - what is that little sandwich you posted? i want

i dub it the cukie monster

dmr - what is that little sandwich you posted? i want

momofuku steamed pork buns

Obama's got the Gray's Papaya vote

we did the bo ssam dinner at the ssam bar. it was very fun and very delicious. sadly, lunch there is pretty bad.

yeah the wraps kinda suck, I went there early on (when the better food was still late-night-only) and hated that place. need to go back for the full menu

bahia pupusas were an A+, rest of the menu a little bit hit or miss. I had some pretty good shrimp ceviche though.

Pam Real Thai again tonight. That place is a miracle. Amazing oxtail soup.

that is if you can bear to look a beautiful hog in the eye before you eat its cousin.

Ham and eggs: The chicken is dedicated but the pig is committed.

egg on N. 5th in Williamsburg has a good ham biscuit, candied bacon and grapefruit brûlé.

Thin crust NY Pizza ladder IMHO:

1. Totonno's, Coney Island
2. De Marco, Houston Street
3. Lombardi's, Spring Street

Mary, did you ever make it to Totonno's?

Court Square Diner, Court Square, LIC by PS1 - Fuck Yes!! 24-hour delivery delicious Greek, breakfast, booze & ciggies!

Peruvian in Port Chester (think it was called Chavin) last night - some really really tasty food, and ridiculously cheap too.

I love Bahia's pupusas but it always takes like 45 minutes when I want it to go.

The staff is ridiculously friendly at Court Square Diner. A+ I did make it to Totonno's despite their policy of closing early/always being full/not accepting visitors. It was good, but not so amazing, I didn't think. I like the pizza place in Dumbo--so yummy. Also, there is Michael Angelo's in Ditmars for when you just must have your thin-crust delivered.

I want to try Agnanti by Ditmars Park. I haven't been that into the Greek food in Astoria. So far it seems kind of mediocre and over-priced. But maybe I don't have a good Greek food frame of reference? I went to Taverna Cyclades where the atmostphere is great but the food just sort of meh. I also went to Elias Corner which had great atmosphere but so expensive for just whole grilled fish. I haven't tried any of the mezzo places yet. I really want to try the fancy Italian place on 31st past Ditmars but I need a date!

I want to try Bahias too. Where is it? NoVa actually had lots of pupusa places.

Agnanti is pretty good. I liked Cyclades too though. You should go to the fancy Italian place and just get a brick oven pizza, their really expensive dishes are overrated imo!

Bahia is in east williamsburg at grand and graham (grand st stop on the L)

Agnanti is really good. It's by Astoria Park. The setting is very nice over there by the water. It's nice to walk down to the water, not as nice to think about the greatest tragedy to happen on New York soil prior to 9/11 took place there.

We like JJs sushi in Astoria, not mind-blowing, but nice.

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
New York, NY

i really, really, really really need to go to momofuku

they carry those doughnut plant donuts at dean & deluca but they are about $3 each and look like they would give me a stomach ache. they look amazing though.

Gennaro on Amsterdam at 93rd, roast game hen with lemon.

speaking of donuts. whatever happened to krispy kreme? it just kind of died off. maybe america's love affair with the doughnut is over.

i actually don't like donut plant, although i've never tried the cake ones. i hate the "yeast donut" style that they started out specializing in. peter pan is my choice for occasional indulgence.

xpost - maybe people realized that kk's are kind of gross.

KK doughnuts are so gross to me, I adore the apple cider kind, the cake ones with a slightly yellow interior and either no frosting or the real chocolate stuff. I've heard there are Greenpoint bakeries with reasonable facsimiles of my childhood doughnuts but haven't rly looked.