Tag Archives: cake

African/Middle Eastern, Burgers, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Mediterranean, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

Eastwood

September 28, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I came here twice. The first visit was just for a snack and a drink, so I never wrote it up. But now that we’ve had a full meal here, I figured I would put together a review from both experiences.

On the first visit, we had drinks, an Israeli scotch egg, and some cake. They have a nice selection of beer and wine. Saison Dupont is my favorite of all time.

The Israeli scotch egg is surrounded by falafel, which was unique and delicious.

On the second visit we did some entrees. My wife had the lamb burger, which comes with crunchy slaw and a harissa mayo. She added Gruyere cheese at the owner’s suggestion. It was absolutely delicious. Easily a top three lamb burger.

I had the chicken schnitzel plate, which came with fries and a salad. The schnitzel was unique in that it was breaded with a sesame seed batter!

I really liked it.

The cake we had on our first visit was a flourless chocolate birthday cake, which, I think, may have even been vegan. I liked it more than my wife did.

We will definitely be back to try more items from Eastwood. Super friendly staff, great prices, and great food!

EASTWOOD
200 Clinton St.
New York, NY 10002

Italian, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Casino

May 9, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

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.

CASINO
171 E Broadway
New York, NY 10002

Other, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, West Village

Piece of Velvet

December 27, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife was invited to this little joint as an influencer to help promote their business.

We were able to sample four different slices of “Piece of Velvet” cake, and in the future, there will be ice cream and waffles offered on the menu as well.

Some cakes even have booze infused in them, like rum, bourbon, vodka and whiskey.

Red Velvet: this is their signature cake. It was rich and flavorful.

Pina Colada: This was my favorite of the four we tried. The pineapple and coconut flavors were very natural and tasty.

Ciroc Coconut: They’ve soaked real coconut shavings in “Ciroc” vodka for three days.

Blueberry Vanilla Bourbon: Self explanatory, and really delicious.

Here’s a shot of my two favorites side by side:

PIECE OF VELVET
101 MacDougal St
New York, NY 10012

Commentary

The Turkey Cake

November 27, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This is just a quick photo dump of my wife‘s insane turkey cake that she made this year for Thanksgiving. Not only does the turkey itself look real, with realistic looking roasted skin an all, but she made side items like broccoli, cauliflower, grapes, lemons, berries, carrots, peas, sage leaves and stuffing as well. Unreal.

Underneath the delicious marshmallow fondant skin was a really soft and moist vanilla layer cake with vanilla frosting. Mmmmm.

Commentary

The Ramen Cake

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

As you may recall, my wife The Cake Dealer made me an amazing steak cake for my birthday a while back. This year, since I was on a big ramen kick, she made me a ramen cake. Pretty fucking amazing. Check out the pics below:

And it was fucking delicious. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.

Commentary

The Steak Cake

February 15, 2014 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

No: this is not a real steak. Yes: this is cake.

I have the pleasure of being married to a baker. She goes by the name “The Cake Dealer.” When I first started this blog, she was pretty well into her baking hobby. She was asking me what kind of cake I wanted and I suggested a cake that looks like a steak. It’s only fitting, right?

Well this is what she came up with. A perfectly grilled medium rare porterhouse with a side of mashed potatoes and string beans. Unbelievable.

The mashed potatoes are made from mashed up vanilla cake mixed with vanilla frosting, and topped with a slightly melted-looking yellow square of fondant as the butter:

The green beans are shaped from green fondant:

When I said medium rare inside I wasn’t fucking kidding. It’s strawberry cake, nice and pink all the way through, but it still maintains nice grill marks on top with a healthy sear (brown fondant with lines made from food coloring):

The details are where this piece really shines though. That t-bone is absolute perfection. It looks like it is REAL and glistening. Made from fondant as well. And on top there is black and white sugar to look like kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Not only did it LOOK amazing, but it TASTED amazing too. The fondant was made from marshmallows, so it didn’t have that grainy, chalky texture that is always disgustingly sweet. The cake was soft, light and moist. Man, I fucking love my wife.

To see more of her amazing creations, like her cake that looks like a burger, fries, and a shake (below), go to HER WEBSITE.