Tag Archives: hells kitchen

Midtown West, Pizza, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Kiabacca Bar

November 3, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This Hell’s Kitchen pot-head pizza bar recently opened on 10th Ave and is owned by the same folks who run Pony Bar.

The beer selection is good, and they have a happy hour deal until 7pm where every draft beer is only $4 per pint.

On Mondays they run a special where all 12″ specialty pizzas are $9. Me and a buddy went in to try everything out. We tried three pizzas, to be exact. The margherita, the clam, and the prosciutto and arugula. The crust on all was good and crisp. It had a little bit of chew to it but was executed perfectly. These guys are using a wood fired oven, so the flavor is perfect.

For $9 a pop on Mondays this is a steal. While some of them might be a bit overpriced on other days, you’re at least getting good quality shit. I will definitely be back on another Monday to try out some more pizzas. Plus the happy hour deal is killer.

KIABACCA BAR
639 10th Ave.
New York, NY 10036

Flash Deals, Indian, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Bombay Grill House

July 26, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little Hell’s Kitchen joint offered up a decent Groupon that made it worth while to try. An app, two entrees, two drinks and a bread for $30.

I had a banana lassi. It was good, but I wish it was colder. Drinking room temperature banana yogurt isn’t that appealing. My wife had a pistachio shake, but it was more like a lassi than what we expected a shake to be (cold, creamy, ice cream-ish). They both looked exactly the same, so here is a generic shot. Can you guess which this is?

For the app, we shared some lamb kebob, which came to us plated and un-skewered. This was deliciously spiced lamb that was minced into a sausage-like texture.

I ate a biryani lamb and spicy rice dish, and my wife had a lamb curry that was mild and creamy.

As you can tell, this was a lamb-centric meal. The biryani was a bit dry and oddly spiced, but tasty nonetheless. In hindsight I probably should have gone with my staple Indian food order to test the waters, chicken saag.

My wife’s lamb curry was the winner on the day. It was creamy, mildly spiced, and mildly sweet from the presence of pineapple.

Our bread selection was a naan that was filled with coconut and pistachio. Really nice.

BOMBAY GRILL HOUSE
764 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

American, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Poulette

July 20, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I ordered some stuff here for delivery. I was excited at the prospect of eating roasted chicken from a place that specifically deals in such an item and nearly nothing else. I was expecting one of the best roasted chickens in my life. If that’s all you really do, as a restaurant, you need to excel at it. Unfortunately Poulette failed to deliver good roasted chicken. We ordered a half chicken. It was pretty dry and the flavoring on the skin had a bitter component that I wasn’t too fond of.

The brussels side was cooked with a vinegar and mustard base that really ruined the flavor of the sprouts. All you really need to do is roast them with some seasoning and chicken drippings from the roasting process for a really successful item. What a failure.

On the bright side, the french fries were good, as were the salt and pepper chicken wings. Both remained very crispy despite closed-container transport. The wings were expertly seasoned and cooked to a beautiful golden brown. They consisted of drumettes and wings with the little wing bone still attached, for extra nibbling. Sadly, the sesame glazed wings were a let-down. They were overly sauced to the point of undesirable sogginess. Good flavor in the sauce, but executed poorly. Perhaps that sauce needs to be in a container on the side rather than drenched all over the wings.

Apologies for the lack of photos. I was too hungry to whip out the cell phone this time. Take my advice though: if you come here, stick to the salt and pepper wings and the french fries. If roasted chicken is what you are craving, I say go to Inti.

POULETTE
790 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Japanese, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Torishin West

July 5, 2015 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

For quite some time I’ve been fascinated by the idea of small, yakitori bar type joints in Japan. For those that don’t know what this concept is, it is essentially a long bar with open flame coals where the well drinks would be. All manner of chicken parts are grilled on skewers, charred over the coals before you and served up hot and fresh to your plate. I’ve never been to Japan, and therefore have never been to an authentic yakitori joint. Now, you may be thinking that NYC would surely have an authentic place like this, being a cultural melting pot and all. The problem is that NYC’s zoning laws don’t allow for open-flame charcoal style cooking indoors at restaurants. So any place that claims to be BBQ, or grilling style (like Korean BBQ, for example) is actually a cheap knock off version that is done with electric heater cooking coils and infrared grills. NOT real charcoal.

So anyway, with that caveat placed firmly up top, we can get down to the goods. Torishin is a NYC yakitori restaurant located in the 50s on the west side. We tried a shitload of chicken, with a bit of pork and veggies mixed in as well. Unfortunately there is no open-facing bar where you can watch the chefs cook this stuff in front of you, like you can in Japan, but the end products were all really nice. I enjoyed every course of this yakitori omakase.

First was a bowl of pickled cukes and daikon. Unimpressive, for me.

This next bowl is meant to ba a palate cleanser. Shredded daikon. I’m really not too much of a fan of daikon to begin with, so I barely dipped into this:

Next, more daikon. This time a thick “burger patty” of it, topped with shrimp, veggies, and a dreaded piece of eggplant (which is a disgusting, vile vegetable).

Now on to some good shit. Chicken hearts. These were very tasty, and probably one of my favorites of the evening. They tasted, to me, like mild beef skirt steak.

Chicken breast wrapped in shiso leaf:

Chicken thigh (mmmmmmm):

Mushroom caps:

Pork belly:

Crab and shrimp with black mushrooms and yuzu jelly:

Asparagus. To me, this is a colossal waste of money. Essentially each skewer comes out to like $8 a pop. This plate was for four people. So we each got one asparagus shoot, which cost us $8 each. Rip off.

Chicken meatballs. Very tasty!

Chicken thigh meat wrapped in chicken skin. I liked this skewer a lot.

To finish off, we were given a choice of rice dish. This first one came in a broth, more like a soup:

This one was rice with ground chicken on top and a small cup of chicken broth on the side:

Dessert was either a shiso sorbet (left), sake jelly with kiwi and cherry (center), or strawberry sorbet (right). I went with the shiso sorbet and absolutely loved it. Very refreshing.

TORISHIN WEST
362 W. 53rd St.
New York, NY 10019

Flash Deals, Midtown West, Pizza

City Slice

May 20, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little joint had an Amazon Local deal where we paid something like $10 or $12 for $20 worth of food.

We tried a half margarita and half Italian supreme pie. Here’s what that shit looked like:

The supreme side had peppers, onions, and some thin sliced Italian meats. I wasn’t a fan. I’m generally not a fan of these types of pies in the first place, but my wife tends to like them. I liked the margarita pie better, but I’ve had much better margarita pies at other locations. I also tried a slice of the regular pie, which was honestly no better than any of the dollar slice joints in the area.

CITY SLICE
754 10th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Diner, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Flame

May 11, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I popped in here for a quick breakfast and we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, and the cheapness ($4.65 for two eggs any style with toast and hash browns). My lumberjack meal (pictured) was only $7.45 for two eggs any style, ham, bacon or sausage, and pancakes. It is standard diner fare, but the poached eggs were perfect. I had a small shell bit right on top, but other than that it was perfect.

Pancakes were good too.

Looking forward to trying their burger next.

UPDATE MAY 2015

So I finally got back in to try the burger. It’s very basic, nothing too crazy to write about. The bun is toasted, which I hate, and I think the burger patty was probably frozen. But at $9.75 for the deluxe, which comes with battered fries, lettuce and tomato, its not a bad buy.

FLAME
893 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Midtown West, Pub Food

1 2 3 Burger Shot Beer

April 22, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve walked by this joint on many occasions. Today I finally had the time to go in and see what it’s all about.

The name comes from the daily specials offered: $1 burgers (sliders), $2 shots and $3 beers – ANY beer on tap, other than the ciders. Not fuckin’ bad!

The joint is set up like a college style sports bar. Lots of TVs throughout, with seating at the bar and along the opposite wall.

They even have some drinking games like the wheel of death pictured below, along with beer pong, and there is an outside drinking area in the back as well.

So I came with a coworker and we noticed outside that if you bring a friend you can get their daily lunch special in a two-for-one deal. The daily lunch special is three sliders, fries, and a beer for $7. Normally that will cost you $10 if you order the items separately, on their own. With the “bring a friend” special we got six sliders, two beers and two fries for $7. AWESOME!

The beers are probably only 10oz, but they don’t restrict you on the draft options, which is nice. I got a Hoegaarden and my buddy got a Rebel IPA.

The sliders are nice and tasty. They come topped with American cheese and grilled onions, nicely jammed between a mini potato bun. Deeeeelicious. I can easily put away a dozen without even blinking.

The fries needed salt. They were decent, but seasoned with a salt substitute sort of thing. Perhaps paprika and some other herbs. The portion size is a bit small if you were ordering separately at the full $4 price tag.

Since I’m a fat fuck, I also needed to try some other items. First was this Philly cheese steak. It comes with finely sliced steak, ooey-gooey cheese and onions on a hot dog style bun for $5. I ate the fuck out of this thing. It was way tastier than the sliders, for sure. But maybe you can get a better one at a larger size for just a few bucks more down at Shorty’s, nearby on 9th Avenue in the 40s.

Wednesday is double wing day. When you order wings, they double it for free. I recommend that Wednesday is the ONLY day to try the wings here, as they are small (which I actually like, but most people do not) and don’t come with many per order (four or five), at a price tag of $7. Since we came on a Wednesday, our order was $7 for nine or ten wings. They’re breaded and fried crisp before they are tossed in the Hell’s Kitchen wing sauce, which is a standard mild to medium spice level. If you get these on a non-Wednesday, you’ll probably feel like you got ripped off.

Overall this is a great place to grab some grub and suds, especially on a nice day, since the place has an open and airy feel. Go with a friend during lunch to get the most bang for your buck. That two-for-one special on the $7 lunch deal is amazing. Just add some more sliders to the order to get a real filling meal out of it.

1 2 3 BURGER SHOT BEER
738 10th Ave
New York, NY 10019

American, Burgers, Flash Deals, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Ed’s Chowder House

April 7, 2015 Johnny Prime 4 Comments

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

Another neighborhood find, we came here because of the great happy hour deal. Cheap beer, cheap oysters, and cheap sliders. The sliders were so damn good that I vowed to return for a real burger. The cheese sauce on them was absolute heaven.

Fries were wonderful – great seasoning and nicely crisped.

Oysters were nice and fresh, clams too! At only $1.50 and $1 respectively, you can’t lose!

Various chowders were nice too. My favorite here was the potato, with smoky hints of bacon.

Salmon burgers are skippable:

On a second trip, my wife scored a Gilt City deal where she paid something like $40/pp for a five course tasting menu, plus a glass of Prosecco.

The table bread here is a variety of soft potato dinner rolls, corn bread “logs” and spicy muffins. Pretty good – I just wish they were warm.

The restaurant ran out of mussels for our shellfish platter, so they gave us more oysters instead. BONUS! Our favorite was the Wildfire Island (unless it is Wild Fire Island?) – it was briny and smooth, creamy, crisp – yet substantial and not snotty or runny.

Unfortunately the lobster was a little bland. The rest was good though (clams and shrimp).

Next was a nice cup of chowder. I had the mushroom chowder (right), and my wife had the New England clam chowder. Mine was the winner here. It was velvety and smooth, with lots of flavor, and topped with some truffle oil for good measure.

The scallop ravioli was pretty great. There were a ton of scallop chunks inside. The only thing this dish needed was a bit of fresh cracked boac keeper. The sauce was a butter type deal – I suppose that could have used a little bit more salt as well, but we both really enjoyed this dish. It had a great seafood aroma too, but the flavor wasn’t fishy at all.

For the entrees, we chose the two fish items. My Scuna Bay salmon was a small portion, but I thought it was executed perfectly. The brownish-gray puree was made of eggplant I believe, and it was tangy when combined with the roe and small chunks of squash. That served to flavor the salmon so that when you had a bite with a little bit of everything, i twas very well balanced.

My wife’s potato chip crusted cod was similar. When eating a bit with all three components (cod, chip and spinach), you got a really nicely balanced bite. Otherwise the cod by itself was a little bit under seasoned. Much of the flavor was soaked up into that spinach bed.

For dessert we had a massive selection to choose from:

We ended up getting the vanilla banana cream pie. This was tasty. You can see the chunks of banana in the layer, which was pretty. Not too sweet, which I was happy about.

My wife ordered the Cheeky Monkey drink as well. This was strong! Definitely had a strong banana flavor to it too, aside from the booze.

The waiter gave us some free cookies too. I can’t imagine paying for these. Basic chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin and chocolate. I wasn’t really crazy about any of them, but if I had to choose a favorite, it’d be the oatmeal raisin. It was at least soft.

Overall this was a pretty great meal for $40 or $45 per person (whatever my wife paid). She got a discount on top of the Gilt City deal, so that made it even better. I still like the sliders better that all of this though, from the happy hour menu.

ED’S CHOWDER HOUSE
44 W. 63rd St.
New York, NY 10023

Fusion, Indian, Midtown West

Chutney Kitchen

April 6, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’ve always said that Indian food is probably the least photogenic food out there. It’s probably the most flavorful cuisine, in terms of raw power, so it’s kind of a weird dynamic. Anyway, this joint is sort of like Indian food meets American grab-and-go lunch.

For example, take a look at this “Board Meeting” wrap, which has roti, chicken, rice, tikka, cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, kale and a cilantro chutney. I was hoping for a bold-flavored sandwich. Unfortunately it was a bit on the bland side. Perhaps it relied too heavily on the rice and not on the chicken and tikka.

My wife got the “All Sunshine” salad, which was the better of the two items. It had rice, lentils, cucumber, tomatoes and date chutney with cilantro. It may look like shit, but it tasted pretty nice for a salad.

The real star of the meal, however, was the order of fries. They were spiced with a little bit of curry powder that made them pop. They were crispy outside and soft inside. Delicious.

CHUTNEY KITCHEN IS CLOSED

Burgers, Midtown West, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

House of Brews

February 26, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This place has a huge selection of beer, including one of my favorites: a 15%ABV Goose Island Bourbon County stout that will fuck you up in no time. Tonight, however, my buddy and I sampled some stuff from this brewer, who was offering free pints to patrons that were interested in their shit (the Imperial Stout was legit):

The main reason for our visit was burgers. Of course my puss-bag friend went with a turkey burger because he’s watching his girlish figure, but I took down the Brew Burger with American cheese and jalapeños.

It stacked up nice: not too tall, and easy to wrap your mouth around. Kinda like Peter North, for all you ladies out there.

It was cooked to a perfect medium, and the bun held up under strict scrutiny. No soggy bottom, and, despite the toasted under-portion of the top bun, there was no flaking or crumbling.