Dessert bars are not a new thing in NYC, but finding a very good one can be difficult. This one comes from Chef Eunji Lee, who comes from renowned Jungsik. My partner did see the chef in the kitchen when we were there. We were able to make a reservation for this several weeks in advance surprisingly without any hassle. When you walk in, there is a floor level section and an upper level section.
Zaytinya is located right next to the N (yellow) line off 28th St inside of the luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel on the first floor. This is another restaurant of José Andrés, and the menu has a lot of classical Turkish, Greek, and Lebanese influences. What was appealing to us was the menu had hummus, and the prices did not seem too expensive despite being inside a luxury hotel. When you enter the restaurant, it has a very open and modern Greek ambiance to it, similar to many other Greek restaurants in the city. However (in a good way), there were several things we immediately noticed that separate itself. We made a reservation for a Saturday at 3:30 PM for a late lunch.
I read about Oiji Mi somewhere, and my gourmand syndrome was kicking in since I felt like I haven’t been to a prix fixe upper end restaurant in a while. Oiji Mi is relatively new, and it comes from the owners of the original East Village’s Oiji. It offers creative contemporary Korean dining composed uniquely for NYC. I saw that they offer a 5 course tasting menu for $125 per person, and the menu looked quite interesting.
On this very humid Friday afternoon, I had to make my way into the Flatiron area to run some errands. This Korean restaurant was something that seemed appealing since we haven’t had Korean food in a while. Normally for decent Korean, you’d have to venture into midtown, but the menu looked pretty decent online. We were fortunate that that they still had the NY restaurant week menu which was quite alluring. It’s $39 for an “entree” choice (dolsot bibimbap, kimchi fried rice, or teriyaki chicken), appetizer (japchae or steamed/fried pork dumplings), and soup (pork kimchi or vegetarian doenjang). We thought it was going to be personal portions, but you can actually just order 1 set and share it. The portion size was surprisingly large.
Indoor dining finally opened again in NYC on September 30, 2020. There are those that feel it’s reckless in this COVID temperament, but we still decided to celebrate by booking an indoor reservation at Cote, a 1 Michelin Star Korean BBQ restaurant. Normally, this is difficult to get a reasonable time, so we were happy it was not too bad. Like all upscale restaurants, they take your temperature via the forehead, and each table is partitioned by a plastic partition. Aside from air conditioning, there’s no way for your aerosols to hit another table unless you tried to spit a few feet up. There’s more than enough space between booths, so it was very enjoyable.
Typically when we walk north on 6th ave towards Trader Joe’s for groceries, we stop by Cava across the street for a snack. We saw this seemingly new interesting restaurant opened with no one in it. The space is very bright, modern, and definitely has a Japanese cafe-chic vibe to it. This dry “ramen” place just opened along 6th Avenue between 20th and 21st Street.
This is another one of those “pick X of this and Y of that” type of restaurant except the theme here is Japanese.
This little spot closed to the edge of Flatiron is a decent place if you’re into Shanghainese food and are not close to Chinatown.
The passion fruit lemonade was good. You can taste the passion fruit, and it mixed well with the lemonade.
The chilled marinated cucumbers were also good too although I felt the cucumbers were not marinated long enough. They were crunchy with an OK kick to them.
I’ve never had Portuguese food other than the pastels, so this is the first for me. This special occasion was for a birthday and to try out a different type of cuisine that is largely not as popular as the mainstream French or Asian themed Michelin Star restaurants.
We got the tasting menu with wine pairing. The hosts were very nice in that we mentioned we’d like to just have wine pairing for 1 person and not the other, so that we can share since we’re not big drinkers. The hosts still gave us 2 glasses and poured smaller samples. I am pretty sure if I had the wine pairing to myself, I would be drunk before I reached the end due to my inability to have the enzymes to process alcohol.
This apparently is one of Jean Georges Vongerichten’s upscale farm-fresh eatery, and it has a Latin American fusion influence. We came here without reservations on a weekday night and were seated at the communal table.
The spring pea guacamole with warm crunchy tortillas was actually pretty good. The chips themselves were nicely salted, and the big tortilla that came with the guacamole was more crunchy than the latter. The split pea guacamole had a nice fresh texture. I wish there was more citrus, but all in all a good start. The birthday friend I came here with thought it was amusing to interrupt my pictures during the n-times I took this picture. This one was the best of the collection of pics I took for this course.
We came by in the spring when they boasted of lush flowers and decorations. Apparently the flowers were not real, but that still does not stop it to become a very photo friendly place. It still is nice during the day because they opened the canopy, and so there was a nice breeze coming in. I think for food, it wasn’t a whole lot of hit, but the ambiance is pretty appealing to those who want to get a drink and just enjoy the colors for photos.