Category Archives: Midtown West

Banh Mi, Midtown West, Pho, Restaurant Reviews, Vietnamese

Cha Pas

September 25, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Cha Pas is a pretty good little mostly-Vietnamese restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. They serve up some pretty good food here, but the prices reflect a place that is not like the downtown joints. This is more expensive. For some dishes, it’s worth it, but for others, not so much. That said, everything I’ve had here is very good. I’ve tried the banh mi, the pho, the Vietnamese chicken wings, the clay pot pork belly, and the chicken curry. No real disappointments to speak of, and the Vietnamese coffee is very good. They also have some more difficult to find Southeast Asian beers as well, and a really cool painted, exposed brick wall on the inside.

CHA PAS
314 W. 52nd St.
New York, NY 10019

Indian, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Baluchi’s

September 25, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

UPDATE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

My wife and I have alway sheen big fans of Baluchi’s because of their consistency with the dishes that we like, and their amazing lunch specials and dinner combo meals. At lunch time, nearly everything is half off, and that includes weekends. At dinner, they have combo meals for something like $16 that come with naan, rice, a main dish, and an appetizer. You really can’t beat the price. We were happy to find a new location near our apartment, which is being run by a gentleman who is trying to bring the recipes back to a more authentic Indian cuisine as opposed to the Americanized versions at the other locations. I’m always a big fan of the saagwala chicken here – it always delivers exactly what I want.

BALUCHI’S
493 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10018

American, Burgers, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Thalia’s Dollar Oyster Special

September 25, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS JOINT IS NOW CLOSED!

Thalia over on 8th Avenue has an amazing oyster deal. EVERY DAY from 7:00pm through 1:00am they have dollar oysters, and they are GOOD. The times I have gone, they were all nice quality, clean Bluepoints. What a steal! And with a great drink menu, this place is the perfect spot for grabbing a quick bite and buzz.

On a second trip for oysters, we had a full meal here. I had the burger. It was essentially my LGBT sandwich with a burger patty in the mix. While it was really nicely cooked, it needed just a bit more seasoning, as did the fries.

The fries had a great texture and flavor – just lacked a little salt.

My wife had pasta made from zucchini, which was nice and light, and topped with beans, mushrooms, and cheese.

For dessert we shared a velvet chocolate mousse. It had some cake on the bottom which I didn’t like as much as the mousse portion, but it was nice.

Check out this great drink I had too – really refreshing and tasty:

On another trip I had the spaghetti. Really simple but well executed. I found the sauce to be a bit too sweet, so I slapped some globs of the kalamata olive spread into it (the spread comes with the table breads). That made it perfect.

*DOLLAR OYSTERS NO LONGER AVAILABLE*

THALIA
828 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown West, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Iron Bar’s Pig Wings

September 25, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

“Pig Wings” are making a big showing now on bar and restaurant menus. WTF are they, you ask? They are small portions of bone-in pork that have been trimmed down to look like little drumsticks of sorts, with a hunk of meat surrounding the bone. I figured I would mention these fuckers since they are pretty good at Iron Bar over on 8th Avenue and 45th Street. They were crisp and juicy, with a really great dipping sauce to boot. I’m hoping to see more of them at other spots in the future.

I came back to this joint when I picked up an Amazon Local deal for $20 that scored me $40 worth of food and drink. Pretty sweet deal. I tried their Iron Burger, which had gorgonzola, grilled onions, and crispy prosciutto. Fucking sweet. Cooked perfectly, lots of funky flavor from the cheese, and good juiciness without going overboard. The fries were excellent too – nice battered style, really crispy, nice and soft inside.

My buddy picked up the Juicy Lucy burger, which is a patty stuffed with cheddar cheese. He gave it the thumbs up and said it was a great burger. Looks beautiful, right?

IRON BAR
713 8th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

German, Midtown West, Parms, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Reichenbach Hall

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This place is a massive German / Bavarian beer hall in midtown that serves up massive brews in massive mugs (and boots).

I came here soon after it opened with a lot of excitement in my heart, because I absolutely LOVE German beer halls. There’s just something about the fun group atmosphere that makes it unique.

Anyway, it was here that I discovered a really amazing grapefruit beer (Schoffenhofer). After drinking it, I was on the hunt, and even found some at a local distributor on Long Island. Needless to say, the fridge remained stocked with them until we moved back to the city.

Aside from the great beer selection, they have a nice fun menu too. We tried the pate, the HUGE pretzels, the wieners, and some sausage.

I sincerely hope this place becomes a bigger draw with bar folks. It has the potential for being one of the city’s best places for drinks.

UPDATE – SCHNITZEL WAS AWESOME!!!

REICHENBACH HALL
5 W. 37th St.
New York, NY 10018

Chinese, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Mee Noodle

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little joint looked promising as a spot to grab some Chinese style noodle soup. As we sat down, though, both my wife and I decided that we wanted dry noodles rather than a soup. I went with the same bet and picked roast pork noodles, and my wife went with roast duck. The duck was a bit greasy, and was an efforted meal, as you had to chew around small bones due to how the meat was chopped after cooking. The roast pork, however, was very nice. I went with chow fun noodles (wide ribbons) and my wife went with regular soup noodles.

While my wife wasn’t as happy with her meal as I was, I think we’d both go back at some point to try a few other dishes.

MEE NOODLE
795 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Flash Deals, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Rothman’s

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

On their last day in business, I came in with a Groupon for a burger lunch. Having never been here before, I figured I would try the burger for lunch, and if satisfied, I would go back for dinner to have a steak before they officially closed shop. I had alway sheared good things about the steak. On the flip side, I had been warned that they tend to overcook the burgers, but I did not heed the alarms. Mine was overcooked too. Well, maybe not grossly overcooked, but the meat was very dense and dry, even with the egg on top! Fries were decent, but not on par with other places I’ve been to. Needless to say, I did not end up going back for a steak. Burger was pricey even with the Groupon deal, and the food was not that great.

Burgers, Midtown West

Island Burger

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I found this place as I was strolling around the new neighborhood. Since finding it, I’ve been here twice. The first time was for happy hour, where my wife and I had some great sliders, some roasted corn, and beer.

As you can see, we tried a nice variety of sliders. if I recall, habanero cheddar was my favorite. I was impressed enough to go back a second time with my cousin, this time for a proper burger. I had the “Miss Hula Burger,” with ham, swiss, honey mustard and pineapple.

While it was delicious, I realize that there is a revolting string of fat hanging down the front of the burger. I wanted to show this in all it’s glory, warts and all. And I apologize if you just threw up a little bit in your mouth. But you can trust me that the food here is good.

UPDATE 7/13/17

I came back in for lunch on a weekday and discovered a really great special that they run during those hours: $10 for a burger and a beer! Excellent.

ISLAND BURGER
766 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Ramen

Ippudo (west side)

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve tried almost everything here except for the Hakata classic, which I definitely need to get down on at some point soon.

First off, this place has an excellent selection of Japanese beers and cocktails. I have a photo somewhere… let me see if I can find it:

Next, a great assortment of apps and small plates to get the belly ready for ramen. We had some octopus items (Tako & Eringi Karaage), some fried fish, and spicy bacon shit (Pork Teppan).

Now on to the ramen. First is spicy Karaka-men with added pork belly. This was a great bowl of food:

Akamaru. A little thin on pork meat in my opinion, but tasty.

Torishio. My wife had this; a bit thin for my liking, but had good flavor and was light.

Yup. I even tried the veggie ramen. Definitely a soy sauce base with mushroom flavor, and small portion size.

IPPUDO WEST
321 W 51st St
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Ramen

Sapporo

September 23, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

UPDATE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

Sapporo is a small ramen joint I found on 49th Street nearby my office. I went one day after work for a quick slurp. It was not to my standards, but passable nonetheless if you are in a bind and need a fix. I had the Sapporo Special:

On the plus side, they had a decent happy hour, which I took advantage of:

On a quick lunch visit with my wife, I tried the curry ramen. It was extremely salty, and I thought maybe the broth was made by just watering down their curry sauce from the rice dishes. The other components like noodles and toppings were all pretty good, though I wasn’t blown away by the two slices of chicken.

My wife had the winning dish, which was a cold noodle version of the tan tan men ramen. The noodles had what could best be described as a nori-infused fish sauce on them. Very tasty, and this was a big dish for $15.