First, check out my Ride & Review video of this place HERE:
This place used to be the original location of Black Iron Burger, I think.
My wife and I stopped in on a mini food crawl and gave it a shot. It was good!
The 6oz patty was cooked properly, with a nice crust from the flat top. The toppings were well portioned, and the bun held up, for the most part.
Fries could have used a bit of salt, but the onion rings were perfect.
I would definitely go back. I really like the cross between a luncheonette and a pub vibe that they have going here, and the staff was delightful. Next time I’ll try their signature burger that has brie and caramelized onions.
Check out my Ride & Review of this joint HERE first.
Long story short: you can kip this place! The pepperoni slice is fine, but at $5-$6 a slice, this place is a rip off.
I feel like you can do better at a good dollar slice joint. The toppings on this pesto and fresh mozz “Genovese” slice were nice, but the dough was a little gummy – maybe underbaked – and dense.
Finally, the official name of the restaurant is “Luzzo’s La Pizza Napoletana,” but there is nothing Neapolitan about this pizza. It’s a standard slice joint that’s oddly reminiscent of some national chain pizzerias, like Sbarro’s or Little Caesar’s.
First check out this quick Ride & Review video HERE:
This joint offers 13 pieces with unlimited sake for $120. We had about 4 or 5 carafes of the stuff, so we definitely got our money’s worth. Our favotire pieces were the lean and fatty tuna, the foie gras on crispy mochi, and the bowl of uni, ikura and caviar. Awesome! Would go back for sure! Only criticism was the sterile, medical office type lighting being a bit “fluorescent blue,” if that makes sense, and the loudness of the music.
First, check out this kickass Ride & Review video HERE:
– link –
My wife sent me an Instagram post from this place about a special burrata and mortadella app they were running. When I realized how close it was to our place, I called up and grabbed a reservation for dinner later that day. The food on their account looked awesome, and I’m always looking to try neighborhood joints like this.
The meal was incredible. First, let me say that the table bread was so good! They had an onion focaccia and some Italian bread, served with olive oil (watch the video to see it).
We started with that special burrata app, which had spicy salami, prosciutto and mortadella along with the burrata.
Next up, fritto misto, with calamari, shrimp and zucchini. LOTS of the seafood. Great portion!
We also had the grilled calamari, which is marinated in olive oil for a day before being grilled. This was lovely.
For the second half of the meal, we did two pastas and their smoked mozzarella chicken parm.
Although the cheese wasn’t bubbly or melted out, the dish was still really great. The chicken was pounded out enough to be tender, but not so thin that it lost juiciness.
The first pasta was a Sorrento style long, thick ribbon called scialatiella.
I love a thick pasta, and this was easily one of my favorite pasta dishes of the year.
Cavatelli with sausage, peas, and mushrooms in a white truffle cream sauce was next. This was so damn tasty. Cavatelli is typically my favorite pasta shape. All the pasta here is hand made in house, and really well made at that.
For dessert we tried the panna cotta. This was so smooth, creamy and delicious. The berry compote on the bottom was just the right amount of sweet acidity to cut that rich creaminess.
What a meal! We plan to be regulars here, and we can’t wait to go back. Check out the bottom line of the receipt. That shit had me cracking up!
This little Italian joint opened up down by us on East Broadway, and we were excited to try it out. The cocktails are all great, and the bar is stacked with lots of amari.
We tried three starters: the endive salad, the prawns and the fried artichoke. These were all fantastic; seriously one better than the next. These items are every day kind of items. They’re that good!
This smoked lamb ragu pappardelle was BONKERS!!! The pasta ate sort of like hand pulled noodles. A bit broken up in parts, but I would eat this by the bucket load. Amazing.
The dry aged duck was a bit of a let down. Not terrible by any means, but it was over seasoned, the skin was not crisp enough, and the flesh was a bit tough in parts. A 6/10. Maybe 7 on a good day. One half/slice was definitely better than the other.
This “crespelle” was sort of like a vegetable lasagna, and it was absolutely delicious. I was shocked at how much I liked this, considering it was utterly meatless.
For dessert we shared the midnight cake, which was definitely more like a mousse than a cake. We loved it. That little blob of white is creme fresche.
I would definitely go back, especially for those starters and the pasta dishes. They have a t-bone on the menu, so I’ll eventually have to try that as well.
UPDATE 7/20/2023
I had the steak!
This is an easy 9/10 and it is in the running for a best bite of 2023. The age was perfect on it, super tender on the filet side, nice texture on the strip side with no connective tissue (a center cut). Beautiful.
This joint is on Houston Street in the Lower East Side (they have a Bronx location too). I had been meaning to ride over and check it out, but one night just recently, Uber Eats showed me a push notification that they had a “buy one get one” offer for their cheeseburger. I gave it a shot.
I liked it! It eats similar to a Shake Shack burger. Sides/fries and chicken items were good as well. I’ll definitely be hitting this spot again when I need a fast food burger fix.
I finally made it over to Ernesto’s! I’m happy this place is really close to home. Check out my Ride & Review video HERE first, and then read on below.
Firstly, the cocktails here are excellent! A bit pricey at $18, but worth it for the skill and flavors.
We tried a bunch of starters. Everything was excellent, but the stand-outs were the croquettes, the squid, the anchovies and the tripe.
Potato Tortilla:
Croquette:
Asparagus Carbonara:
Fried Squid:
Anchovies:
Tripe:
They didn’t have the txuleta (vaca vieja) special on this trip, so we went with the rabbit rice and the blood sausage. Both were great, but we preferred the blood sausage out of the two. It was light and refreshing, which was a complete surprise to us. Blood sausage is usually so heavy!
For dessert we had flan and Basque style cheesecake. Between the two, the cheesecake was the winner.
I will definitely be back here to try the steak when they have it on special again.
First and foremost, check out my Ride & Review video HERE on YouTube:
This small sushi counter offers an $88 omakase, which consists of two appetizers, ten pieces of nigiri sushi, two hand rolls and a bite of dessert. Here are the two apps:
The nigiri:
This tuna with truffle oil was so good:
Scallop with uni – delicious:
Since my wife can’t have scallop, they gave her this uni piece instead:
This salmon with shaved manchego cheese was wildly unique:
Below is the chef, and the final piece (which was our favorite): Fatty tuna belly with caviar and truffle oil.
The hand rolls (eel + foie gras, and tuna) and dessert (melon):
This is probably one of the best deals I’ve come across when you line it up with quality and portion sizes. I left full/satisfied, and every bite was better than the last. The staff was super nice and offered us a free shot of yuzu sake in return for us offering the chef a glass of our wine.
I highly recommend this place, and I will definitely be going again, as their BYOB policy is a very attractive lure!
Casa Adela is a local Alphabet City Puerto Rican joint that serves up some really delicious and wallet-friendly food.
It’s been recommended to me by several people, and my wife and I finally made it over to try it out. Here’s a quick Ride & Review video of the experience:
We started with the chicken chicharrones, which were AWESOME, especially with that West Indian scotch bonnet and papaya hot sauce.
Next up was the oxtail stew. This was really flavorful, and the oxtail itself was incredibly tender without being dried out. It was legitimately perfect.
The pernil was juicy as well, with a nice strip of crispy, sticky, fatty skin on top. Amazing! That was my favorite bite of the meal, with the oxtail just behind it.
This, too, went nicely with the hot sauce.
Lastly, we had a half roast chicken. The same red spice used on the fried chicken skin is also used on the roasted skin. Whatever it is, it’s beautiful and delicious.
This place is cash only and they do not offer delivery, so I think I’ll be making many more trips here with the bike to pick up food in the future.
I haven’t been to Ping in almost 20yrs. I was glad to see nothing has changed for the dim sum experience. Here’s a little Zooz bike “Ride & Review” video I put together:
If you like that bike, you can get $150 off with code JOHNNYPRIME at checkout, www.zoozbikes.com.
Also – here is a nasty little outtake from the video:
My favorite bite was the rice roll with crispy cruller inside.
Also worth getting: the pork wrapped in bean curd skin – top right on my plate here:
