The famous Olympia Diner scene from SNL, come to life!
I have to say, I expected this burger to suck, seeing as though this place is definitely somewhat of a tourist trap, and the meat to bun ratio seemed way off. That’s why I went with the triple. Boy was I wrong in my assumptions. The burger was great!
I will make it a mission to come here on every visit to Chicago. Next time I’ll try the Polish sausage and the hotdog.
BILLY GOAT TAVERN
Lower 430 North Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
My wife and I tried Dhamaka last night, using a gift certificate that our friends gave us as a housewarming.
We started with some of their delicious cocktails, and then moved right into some meaty apps. The first thing that came out was my favorite item of the meal – lamb ribs!
These had such awesome flavor and tenderness. The mint chutney that came with it is something they should sell by the jar!
Next up, smoked goat belly. This was cleverly presented in a tiny barrel smoker:
It was a bit too aggressive on the salt level, but over all we loved it. It was similar to some kofta / meatball skewer dishes that we’ve had.
These prawns were a little bit overcooked, as they were difficult to pull from the shell. They were spicy and really tasty, however. Especially the heads.
Our first main was the stewed mutton dish. They smush an entire bulb of roasted garlic into this, paper and all, so be prepared for dragon breath as well as picking garlic paper out of your bites of food! The dragon breath wasn’t so bad actually, but I wish they somehow removed the paper first.
Our other main was this delicious chicken and rice dish.
The chicken is bone-in, so the meat remains really juicy and tender. The ]rice reminded me of a really tasty, elevated rice-a-roni! Love that stuff.
That about covers it. We will definitely be eating here again!
Dhamaka
119 Delancey St
New York, NY 10002
When I was a kid, I used to eat halva like it was my job. It’s probably my absolute favorite sweet thing to eat aside from soft serve vanilla ice cream. Seed + Mill sells halva cakes, but they also have goat’s milk vanilla soft serve ice cream. That’s double whammy for me in the dessert world. So when my buddy Jay from The Dishelin Guide set up a little influencer gig there, I was all over it.
I started with some of that soft serve goat’s milk ice cream in a blue corn tortilla cone, topped with shredded halva and freshly made tahini (they make it right there on site, in front of you). Amazing! This stuff is going to get big. It’s rich and creamy, but not as overbearingly sweet as regular ice cream. The tahini and halva bring in just the right amount of sweetness as a topping.
Next up, the halva cakes. They’re all purely halva – nothing baked or anything like that – but the quality and available flavors are like nothing I’ve ever experienced.
White chocolate and raspberries:
Mixed chocolate:
70% dark chocolate swirl:
And, while I didn’t shoot them, also worth mentioning here are the lemon and white chocolate, peanut butter, pistachio and rose water varieties. I love this place, and can’t wait to go back for more.
SEED + MILL
Chelsea Market
409 W 15th St
New York, NY 10011
Nestled below a pole dancing and twerking school (I shit you not; you can see the poles in the windows above the right hand side of the entrance in the photo), is Akbar Palace.
We scored a flash deal for this joint: $20 gets you $40. The management was nice enough to honor our Groupon even after the expiration date too, which was cool.
Each table gets some flat cracker type bread with some chutneys.
There was tamarind sauce (left), apricot chutney (center), and a really nice tomato, onion and pepper chutney that I never tried before (right). That was my favorite of the three.
We started with a pair of apps that sounded delicious but ended up being a bit flat from our expectations. First was the pepper crusted scallops. I liked that they had a good grilled-on-the-flattop flavor, but the portion size was a bit small.
Same goes for the crispy calamari. The tempura-esque coating was interesting, though I didn’t get that curry leaf flavor that I expected from the menu description.
My wife ordered a boneless lamb dish but got semi-bone-in goat instead. No matter – it was really tasty, and the meat was tender.
I had chicken makhani, which is like chicken tikka, but served in a mildly spicy tomato and yogurt sauce. This was pretty good. The meat was of good quality and the sauce was nice over rice, or on top of the naan bread.
The naan was good. It was soft, yet crisp, and had good texture from the tandoori oven flames. It was lightly coated with olive oil as well.
We skipped dessert since we had the lassis earlier. They were smooth and creamy, tart and sweet, and ice cold. Perfect. This place is known for its mango lassis. They are truly excellent, so if you go here, make sure you try one.
I felt that the bill was a bit high even after applying our $40 credit to it. We still had to shell out $50 for the remainder, the tax and the tip. Does this look like a $90 meal to you? I don’t know… I’m starting to think that some of these Groupon deals aren’t so good. As Admiral Ackbar would say (namesake of this restaurant?): IT’S A TRAP!
My official recommendation on this flash deal: skip it, but stop by for a mango fucking lassi if you’re in the area.
AKBAR PALACE
47-49 W. 55th St.
New York, NY 10019
UPDATE: THIS JOINT IS NOW CLOSED
Scarpetta is a legit excellent Italian restaurant. Scott Conant, of “Chopped” judging fame, is the owner. My wife and I went here to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Here’s a quick photo dump with some info about each item. Eat here. Fucking do it.
First is the table bread. Its a really amazing selection of warm & crispies that comes with olive oil, mascarpone butter, eggplant tomato sauce and a pair of stromboli: broccoli rabe and salami. So much for not eating meat on Good Friday!
Next is the creamy polenta topped with truffled mushrooms. Really decadent and delicious.
And the sfornato: duck leg atop a savory custard with pickled sunchoke. Amazing.
Now the pasta. First was the saffron cavatelli with oxtail. Delicious, though a touch too salty for my preference.
My wife had the agnolotti with marrow and braised short rib inside. These were great, and unexpectedly light.
At this point we were fucking stuffed, but there’s always room for meat. Goat meat in fact. This capretto was in the style of ossobuco or braised shank, though made up of many parts of the animal. Served with chopped broccoli rabe. Scrum-diddly-umptious.
We were too full for dessert unfortunately, but we did have a fake sighting of Alex Guarnaschelli on the way out. Both my wife and I could swear it was her, but I asked her on twitter and she said that it wasn’t her. Pretty cool that she even responded.
SCARPETTA
355 W. 14th St.
New York, NY 10014
