I’ve been waiting for this place to open for the last couple of months. I first found out about it when they put up their “Shinobi Ramen” sign up while I was getting out of Pinebox, which is across the street. I LOVE ramen, [...]]]> Shinobi Ramen
53 Morgan St. (Grattan)
Brooklyn, NY 11206

I’ve been waiting for this place to open for the last couple of months. I first found out about it when they put up their “Shinobi Ramen” sign up while I was getting out of Pinebox, which is across the street. I LOVE ramen, but I’m a little picky. Being from Kyushuu, I prefer Tonkotsu style ramen (and yes, adore Ippudo and Hide-Chan) to Soy, Miso, or Shio. I’m also not a fan of Momofuku Noodles, Rai Rai Ken, or Minka. All of their broths suffer from being too salty, since the flavor of their broth isn’t strong enough. Meh. I do like Setagaya (the old) and Menkuitei.

I will say this, with this new addition to the neighborhood, this area probably now has almost everything you would want. I am ecstatic about this shop and I REALLY wanted to like this place. I was a little skeptical, once I saw their menu with Soy and Miso ramen (although I do enjoy those flavors, as well).

First thing first, I ordered the Mabo Ramen (instead of their Shinobi Ramen staple), which uses their ramen broth and combines it with a spicy Mabo Tofu. It was pretty amazing. The broth is REALLY satisfying, the toppings are good, and consistency of their noodles has everything I need. The broth is a combination of chicken and pork, while their Shinobi Ramen has the addition of Soy Sauce, and the toppings range from Chasiu (pork belly) to ground pork for the Mabo Ramen. The portions are good, the prices range (depending on topping) from $9-12.50. They also have a Miso Ramen, and a Soy-based Vegetarian ramen. The broth and toppings get high marks from me. Their noodles get the job done, although I’m not sure whether they make them in-house. The firmness is perfect, though.

On Friday night, we wandered in there right before 10 o’clock, and finished around 10:30. Although they can stay open until 11pm, they are open until they run out of their soup, which has happened many times in the last week alone. It happened when we got there, and we heard Shinya (the owner) tell someone that he made more that day in order to keep going later. Needless to say, they just opened, and I think they are trying to see what the demand is. This is to say that they are still experimenting with their quantities, so I would not go in at 10pm, expecting them to still have soup. Later on, I’m sure they will hit that magic number (as they can only seat so many people – roughly 25). I also wouldn’t be surprised if a line developed outside.

We went to Momo Sushi Shack and tried to Mexican Bomb and the Ikura Bomb. A-MAZING! Other notable mentions are there pressed nigiri with seared salmon. Honestly, I haven’t had anything here that I didn’t love. Even the Salmon Saikyo, which is sweet ginger salmon seared, was A LOT of food but [...]]]>

We went to Momo Sushi Shack and tried to Mexican Bomb and the Ikura Bomb. A-MAZING! Other notable mentions are there pressed nigiri with seared salmon. Honestly, I haven’t had anything here that I didn’t love. Even the Salmon Saikyo, which is sweet ginger salmon seared, was A LOT of food but really great. I still stand by the fact that the best thing in this restaurant is the ceviche. I always want a bowl of my own whenever I come here.

This place is hands down one of my favorite sushi places. I also tried a soba in clam broth with clams with berkshire pork (kuro-buta) pieces. That was SO tasty. Everything here is just so inspired. I am blown away by “simple” dishes here that sort of reinvent the whole dish. Really great!

Cafe Ghia 24 Irving Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11237

The corner of Irving and Jefferson was left bare after a dark neighborhood bar shut down a few years ago. Ryan’s totally been hoping that something cute opens up there, since it’s a prime location, but we were sad that the building looked [...]]]>

Cafe Ghia
24 Irving Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237

The corner of Irving and Jefferson was left bare after a dark neighborhood bar shut down a few years ago. Ryan’s totally been hoping that something cute opens up there, since it’s a prime location, but we were sad that the building looked like nothing was going on for a long time.

Of course this all changed a couple of months ago. We saw the windows had newspaper plastered on and there was some serious work going on over there. Then in the last 2 months, we saw a serious bar table and some espresso machines/coffee stuff, which sparked some debate. Will it be a bar? Or a cafe? (We were hoping bar.) And at nights when I walked by the place after work, I would plaster my face on the window hoping to get some inkling of what was coming. (You know, and in the process creeped out the owners of the place.)

They are a restaurant/cafe that is open for breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner 7 days a week. Awesome, right? They are open until 1am-2am (depending on the foot traffic) and their kitchens current close around 11pm (although they will probably start having late night snacks available until closing).

On the first weekend of April, they opened up! (Apparently they were hoping to open up since October, but things kept getting pushed back.) Of course we slid on in Sunday evening, one of the first people in that night to survey our new neighborhood restaurant.

The place offers seating of around maybe 15 people on the floor and another 8 or so at the bar. It’s full of light and super cute with great shelving system that I am totally jealous of. (Seriously, I need something like that.) The menu is simple, but has vegetarian opens, soups, appetizers, and Ryan’s favorite… Charcuterie plate (and a cheese plate). They have wines, local beers (Sehr Crisp! Pork Slap! Oh my!) and a good brunch cocktail selection. (Including some serious hangover recipes: Emergen-C cocktails? Ben’s Breakfast Beverage Buffet: Coffee + Water + Coke + OJ?) The best part is the price point is really good. Their house wine is delicious and affordable. They have a seriously lovely white wine, called BOE (with a beautiful label done by a local Bushwick artist).

Their dinner menu is a little light (but hearty enough with good portions), currently consisting of their soup of the day (more on that later), salads, charcuterie plate, cheese plate, and sandwiches. When we went there for dinner, their mac n’ cheese and burgers weren’t on the menu, yet. Ryan and I got the turnip soup to share with the cheese plate and charcuterie with chicken liver. The SOUP was seriously good, you guys. I still think about it. It was the perfect consistency and creamy with some drizzled pesto and pumpernickel croutons. I loved everything there, but that was MY FAVORITE thing.

The cheese plate was delicious. They were all very earthy and they are all from the farm that the chef worked at previously (local in NJ, I believe). There was a creamy harder cheese, a stinky soft cheese, and a sharper harder cheese. The breads were toasted (kinda like a sandwich) and was soft and crispy. The charcuterie plate was good. Love the prosciutto and coppa. They were all cured in house, as well. GET THE CHICKEN LIVER. It was creamy and savory and everything I love in pate. It was A LOT of food.

I loved that this place is dedicated to being open for breakfast and lunch during the weekday. I wouldn’t get to take advantage of this, but Ryan certainly could. We went there for brunch twice and loved what we had. Some home runs were the breakfast sandwich (bacon egg and cheese? You can’t really go wrong – and Ryan loves his sandwiches and bacon), daily scramble (I love the combination of goat cheese, butternut squash and spinach. The butternut squash is done so well and adds to the creaminess of this whole dish. I love the fact that the second time around they used kale. That balanced out quite well.), and the belgian waffle (I have no words to describe this. It’s like a pumpkin pie custard delight).

We’re so excited that this place opened up on that corner. With this place, arepas place, the coffee place and the salad place on Wyckoff, there are tons of daytime options near the Jefferson stop now. Over all Cafe Ghia is a missing puzzle piece to the growing culinary scene out here.

Woorijip 12 W 32nd St New York, NY 10001

In the beginning, the ONLY savior around this place was K-Town. Although the prices aren’t sky high, the lines are long and there are LOTS of people. In times like this, a Korean Buffet take out place is great. This place has a [...]]]>

Woorijip
12 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001

In the beginning, the ONLY savior around this place was K-Town. Although the prices aren’t sky high, the lines are long and there are LOTS of people. In times like this, a Korean Buffet take out place is great. This place has a reputation for their foods to be like home cooked meals. THey have hot buffets, noodle bar in the back, and prepackaged hot and cold foods. You can have some soju/sake/beer (not that I do for lunch) or any variety of drinks. The price is decent, $6.50 a pound for the buffet. You can get a decent meal here for under $10.

My coworker likes to get the hot foods, such as bulgogi beef stir fries and sweet sour chickens, etc… However, my favorite thing about this place is that they have such a large vegetable options (not to be confused with vegetarian – unfortunately I don’t think most Asian things are vegetarian friendly). I get their cooked baby bok choys, kimchees, spicy bean sprouts, as well as items like, vegetable and seafood pancakes (yum), spicy mabo tofu, and fried tofu. In the picture on the left, I got some edamame, some mackerel, pancake, kimchee, vegetable rolls dipped in sauce, and vegetarian maki roll. I also sometimes pick up their spicy soup. I haven’t had a chance to try their noodle bar in the back, but they have items like udon, kimchee stew, etc…

I like to tell myself this is healthy, but I usually go a little overboard in these types of places. Definitely one of my “go-to” lunch places here!

Minar Indian Restaurant 5 W 31st St New York, NY 10016

There are a couple of Indian places near here. All of them very filling and around the same price… a lot of them are bland (especially the ones on West 34th streets). I’m still partial to the fancy Havarti, but in [...]]]>

Minar Indian Restaurant
5 W 31st St
New York, NY 10016

There are a couple of Indian places near here. All of them very filling and around the same price… a lot of them are bland (especially the ones on West 34th streets). I’m still partial to the fancy Havarti, but in a quick bind for lunch… this place has been my staple.

Minar curries are spicy! (So make sure you like that.) The servings are plentiful and you can get a platter of 1 vegetarian and 1 meat dish with lots of rice and a nan bread for around $8. Their Kofta Curry (although it’s really salty) is delicious. For meat dishes, I am a Korma gal and they do it nice and creamy here, no complaints. The food … I wouldn’t say is mind blowing, but it’s solid. It’s Indian. And it’s here.

Some people in the Seamless Web reviews claim that the delivery takes FOREVER, but I don’t find that to be the case. (I could have gotten lucky, though. An hour wait is ridiculous. My food came in 30 minutes.)

There has been some great places [...]]]> If you asked me a year ago, I would have told you that I work in a lunch-time wasteland. This wasn’t quite fair, although this isn’t downtown or the East Village. (Imagine if I can have lunch at Ippudo or Xi’An’s at least once a week?)

There has been some great places around Herald Square, where I work… and for the next week, everyday, I will showcase a lunch I’ve had. I’ll try to make this a segway into a weekly lunch post.

Paris Baguette is a Korean French Pastry Cafe. Here is the thing, Asian (Japanese & Korean) pastry shops are the prettiest, cutest, and tastiest cafes around. That’s just the way it is. There is a certain “cafe” aesthetic that screams pink frills, cream puffs, and delicate tea cups.

Paris Baguette
6 West 32nd St.
New York, NY 10001

Virginia was the first one to really point this place out to me. She took me here for coffee, which was delicious. (Their ice coffee here, seen in the picture, is thick, but creamy, and sweet. It’s different than your morning skim coffee with a splenda and well worth the splurge.)

Anyway, remember my lobster slider obsession from the summer? Well, this place has a lobster roll as well, which sets you back around $6. Not bad, right? The lobster roll itself was on soft baguette with roasted peppers and other veggies topped with a light mayo and vinegar..

It wasn’t jam packed with lobster meat like American lobster rolls. But the bread was toasted and the fixings were pretty solid. It was a very delicate sandwich. Within the heirachy of lobster rolls, it would come out on the bottom, but it’s a pretty fancy lunch sandwich.

The only thing is… becareful about coming in here, because I am ALWAYS tempted to buy their various shortcakes with various fruits and creams… and just devour those for lunch. Bad. And the smell upon walking into this place? Let’s just say if they bottled it and sold it, I would buy it.

In New York, autumn is fully starting to blossom with it’s cloudy skies and windy weather. Everyone out in the street is breaking out their coats, scarves, and boots, and we’re all waiting for the color of the leaves to turn brown. It’s beginning and all I’ve been craving all week [...]]]>

In New York, autumn is fully starting to blossom with it’s cloudy skies and windy weather. Everyone out in the street is breaking out their coats, scarves, and boots, and we’re all waiting for the color of the leaves to turn brown. It’s beginning and all I’ve been craving all week is soup soup and more soup. The best thing about working near Korea-Town is the food choices there.

Kunjip
9 West 32nd Street
New York, 10001

This place does solid Korean food. They have such a big assortment, like a lot of Korean places, like Bibimbop, Chigae, Japchae, Mandoo, Guk Mandoo Duk, etc… I love coming here for the soups, though. Lately, Hoyeon’s been ordering this spicy soup filled with udon, rice cakes, vegetables, meat, intestines, and tripe. It is savory, spicy, and delicious. Everything a meal should be when it starts to get colder.

The Banchan is plentiful and varied. If you’re in the middle of eating and they have a new small plate, they will bring it. As a result, this place is extremely filling and very satisfying. In the winter, they have this puffed up savory warm egg that I’m looking forward to having again. Otherwise, their potatoes are delicious, as is the root vegetables they bring out.

Otherwise, everything I have had from here has been solid, including their spicy Japchae, Oxtail Soup, Duk Bok Gi, and Bibimbops, although I have never tried their barbeque. If you come during off work hours, they have Hite, which is always my favorite, as well as OB beers. I just came here yesterday, but I’m craving it again tonight. Sigh. Too bad there aren’t any Korean places in my part of Brooklyn.