Life in NY - where to get the best bang for your buck
I've finally come to the realization that in the 120-180 range almost any meal tastes good (though there are some disappointing exceptions...) The truly skilled gourmet should be satisfied only when the pleasure of the fare exceeds the pain of the wallet. Here are some picks more fitting for the first-year analyst (or stringent student) budget:
<$10
Cafe Zaiya (41st between Madison and 5th). For an early dinner you can get delicious pasta ($6) or a beef bowl ($5), then splurge on Beard Papa's cream puffs, all in one place. A one-stop hop for sushi, panwiches (Japanese-style sandwiches), hot dishes, and various pastries.
Pho Viet Huong (Canal between Mulberry and Bayer). $6 gets you a really yummy (and curiously authentic!) Vietnamese meal in the heart of Chinatown. My favourite: vermicelli with beef.
$20-30
Momofuku Ssam Bar (12th and 2nd). A satisfying meal: Momofuku Ssam with kimchee puree ($10) and pork steamed buns ($9) is a gourmet treat .
Lasagna (51st and 2nd). There's really only one thing to note on the menu (and guess what it is). For some reason everything is deliciously satisfying. Over 13 kinds served nightly also means you can satisfy almost any craving, as long as it includes tomato sauce, pasta, and cheese.
<$50
Aburiya Kinnosuke (45th between 2nd and 3rd) - the best (and most fun!) Japanese prix fixe I've had in the States. For 45 bucks you get homemade tofu, a grilled dish, a steamed dish, a tempura dish, sashimi, a rice dish, a soup dish, dessert...quite an improvement from the 5-6 pieces of sushi you can get across the street at Sushi Yasuda for that price...
Blue Ribbon Bakery (Houston and Bedford). For $19 you can enjoy a truly delectable pulled duck sandwich vastly more satisfying than the pretentious fare usually associated with "nouveau american" (the kind that makes you feel slightly cold (and much poorer) inside). For a splurge the bread pudding is famous (make sure to have it come split into the two flavors, banana walnut and chocolate).
on the flipside, here's, IMHO, the expensive restaurant wall of shame. where you go somewhere to splurge, and you splurge...and realize man, that was...useless.
New York
6. Redeye Grill | Horrible, horrible corporate food - the menu is an Americanized concatenation of sushi and "surf and turf." Steaks range at about 30-40 bucks, which indicates that the total bill is about 80...what an effing waste of money. The lobster was barely edible. The peking duck quesadillas taste like fast food. The steak I didn't actually try, but needless to say, I'll probably be turning elsewhere for a bite of red meat elsewhere.
5. Ribot | Great green tea martini, bad food otherwise. Probably one of the only restaurants I've actually just left 80% of my entree at.
4. Esca | I can't figure out how you ruin a plate of vegetables, but the chefs at Esca accomplished it. On top of that, the seafood wasn't fresh, the bread tasted stale, and at the end of the day it was just a waste of nearly $100.
3. Oceana | The service was great at this seafood restaurant, but if I paid you $120 you'd probably be nice to me for 10 minutes too. The dessert: beautiful meshed wires of sugar encasing some inedible dollop of chocolate something-or-other. The fish dishes: tasteless. The only saving grace was the gigantic wine selection, but again, if I paid you $120 I'm sure you could come up with a decent bottle of wine somewhere.
2. Osteria del Circo | If there's one pet peeve of mine, it's bad dessert - and this place ranks amongst the worst. The ladyfingers dipped in rum taste more alcoholic than the average cosmopolitan. Which is great if you're looking to get drunk, but isn't that what bars are for?
1. Olives | After it had been hyped up so much by Karen I thought it would be a treat, but au contraire...the food was awful, over-buttered and bland at the same time (how is that possible?!) The service was worse. Basically, if you're under 50 you'll get no love. But who cares - I'm most definitely never showing my face there ever again.
this place looks awesome...anyone wanna check it out with me??
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