defonte's

3rd ave & 21st

website

i think this might be my new favorite sandwich. it's definitely a close race between defonte's hot roast beef sandwich and num pang's pulled pork sandwich. i discovered defonte's through the "a sandwich a day" feature on the nyc seriouseats blog. the original defonte's is in brookyln, but thankfully there's a manhattan outpost that delivers to my apartment.

the hot roast beef sandwich is so much more than what the name implies. at defonte's, the sandwich is served with crusty french bread, soaked in au jus, piled high with thinly sliced juicy roast beef, house-made mozzarella, and get this - a slice of fried eggplant. ridiculous. it gets a little cold in the delivery process, but wrap in foil and toast it in the toaster oven for a minute and the bread gets crispy on top and the mozzarella and meat warm through perfectly. yum.

blind tiger

bleecker/jones

website

our night on the town that ended at big daddy's started at blind tiger. we had a large group of people, all there to say farewell to vanita and hubby before they move to the left coast. luckily, we managed to snag enough bar stools and tables to seat and feed everyone.

blind tiger has an impressive beer menu, but my focus was on food. we ordered olive tapenade (too salty), hummus (alright), deviled eggs (not as good as spotted pig), beet salad (hard to share), a blt sandwich (eh), and various grilled cheese sandwiches. the grilled cheese was definitely the winner - gooey, filled with onions and tomatoes. one word of caution though, there was a surprise jalapeno in one bite of the grilled cheese sandwich. no one else tasted any jalapeno, it was apparently only in my piece of the sandwich, but i swear it was there. beware.

big daddy's

park (19/20)

website

i can't believe i haven't blogged this place yet. derek and i come here a lot. in fact, last saturday, we went to big daddy's twice. first for lunch around 1 pm, then for a late night snack at 2 am with jenny after a night out on the town. it's a strange restaurant - a mix between a diner and an 80s theme restaurant. the food is standard diner food but better quality (although not gourmet gastropub quality).

i usually get the same thing - the healthy scramble (tofu, egg whites, spinach, green onions, tomato with tamari sauce) with a side of tater tots. derek usually gets one of their burgers - this time he got the daddy-o burger (topped with pepper jack, bacon, and onion rings). great food, good prices - my only complaint is that sometimes it can take a while for the food to come out. for our 2 am visit, jenny and i shared a buffet of fried food: tater tots, fried zucchini, and piggies in a blanket. a perfect way to end the night.

seo

49th (2/3)

link to yelp

this is a fantastic find from CR. i love japanese food and japanese restaurants: everything is meticulously prepared, service is always awesome, and the atmosphere is usually extremely tranquil. i joined CR for dinner last friday at seo, which was the perfect place to unwind after a long week at work. we sat in the back room which overlooks the peaceful backyard garden. yelpers raved about the crab dumplings which are basically like japanese crab cakes. lots of good crab meat covered in fluffy rice noodle curls. i thought they were just okay, possibly because i was hoping for something closer to shanghai-style soup dumplings with crabmeat.

the stewed pork appetizer is an absolute must, though. tender juicy meat served with chewy rice cakes. pictured is my entree, udon with sliced duck (CR's recommendation). the duck is slightly seared, sliced paper thin, and served cold. chilled udon (linguine-like) noodles are served separately, as is a bowl of hot soup. dip the duck into the soup to warm the meat and cook it a little bit further - the meat melts in your mouth. similarly, dip the udon into the soup as a light contrast to the rich duck meat. the japanese know how to serve food - different textures, temperatures, flavors - all at once.

five guys

laguardia (houston/ bleecker)

website

i've had a lot of great "fast-food" burgers, but five guys is not one of them. maybe it was an off day, maybe it was a bad location. i don't know. all i can tell you is that derek was happy with his double cheeseburger with mushrooms, but i couldn't even finish my hamburger.

five guys is a very popular chain that started in DC and has a couple of branches in new york city. the patty was fine, but not great. what was terrible about this burger was the bun - it was stale and overpowered the rest of the ingredients. the fries weren't great either. maybe others have had better experiences than i have, but with so many awesome burger places in the city, i'm going to stick with what i know.

le relais de venise

52nd/lex

website

after reading m's post on this restaurant in london, i knew i had to try the new york branch. it's an interesting concept - there's no need for a menu - everyone gets salad with mustardy dressing (but not too much mustard), sliced strip steak and french fries. the only thing you order is the doneness of the steak - rare, medium, or well. waitresses dressed in black and white serve you the steak half a portion at a time, each time with fresh french fries.

the steak comes covered in an amazing sauce. jenny and i were trying to figure out what was in the sauce, but we only managed to taste the butter. i'm sure there's other stuff too. it was amazing on the steak, amazing on the fries, and minding my manners was the only thing keeping me from licking my plate clean. salad and steak for $24 - a great deal in the city. reasonably priced bottles of wine (it was $20 for our cote du rhone) and an extra $7 for three tarts (my favorite was the lemon). m has managed to provide an excellent recommendation from the other side of the pond.

le bateau ivre

51st (2/3)

website

so we didn't actually eat dinner here, but jenny and i stopped by for some wine and french fries while waiting for derek to get out of work. and the fries were so good, i had to write them up. a light crispy exterior and a soft fluffy interior. jenny likened the inside of the fry to mashed potatoes.

anyway, they're really good, worth a write-up and worth a visit. they have wine too. maybe someday we'll go there for dinner, but we'll definitely go back for the fries.

veniero's

11th st (1/2)

website

i am so thankful that kurt and jinny came back to visit because even though they are no longer new yorkers, they still know the best places in the city. they took me to veniero's ("you've never been veniero's??") and introduced me to an old-school italian pasticceria that's been around since 1894 (who knows why i never found it before).

i snuck a bite of jinny's key lime pie - amazing graham cracker crust. i ordered the chocolate banana strawberry sponge cake. it reminds me a lot of the whipped cream sponge cakes they serve at asian bakeries. the whipped cream filing is light and creamy, moist sponge cake, sweet fruit - a great dessert. i'll definitely be back.

otto

8th st (5th ave/university)

website

to continue our tour of batali, we checked out otto near NYU. it was late on a quiet sunday evening - hardly anyone on the streets when we walked down past washington square park. but otto was packed, loud and raucous. that's where everyone was. reasonably priced batali food, who can resist? a co-worker recommended the cheese plate, but i forgot to order it - so i'll have to go back, of course.

what we did end up ordering was an arugula salad (excellent) and the pane frattau pizza - a thin crust pizza with tomato and pecorino, topped with a perfectly cooked egg sunny-side. poke the egg and the runny yolk runs all over the pizza like a rich sauce. the pecorino was a little too strong for derek, but i loved it. especially when you put the arugula salad on top. dinner for 2 under $25? that's a bargain for batali.

kuai an la mian

forsyth (south of canal)

website

i realize that the picture attached to this post is only going to look appetizing to a select few, but if the image makes you drool you need to check this place out. derek (the noodle king) found another hand-pulled noodle spot under the manhattan bridge in chinatown. the menu lists about a dozen or so bowls of noodles with various ingredients. i couldn't figure out which one would have what i wanted so i went with the house special.

that was definitely the right choice. derek, who ordered the beef tendon, graciously hid his envy when my bowl arrived with two pieces of duck, a fried egg, beef tripe, pig intestine, beef tendon, other pieces of unidentifiable meaty things, and some leafy green stuff over hand-pulled noodles. the duck was perfectly juicy, the tripe was tender and flavorful, and the hand-pulled noodles were dense, chewy, and delicious. an excellent bowl of noodles - derek has found another winner. the house special was actually the most expensive item on the menu (less than $7 - query whether you would rather have two people's pops or a giant bowl of noodles?).