Tag Archives: hells kitchen

Chinese, Midtown West, Ramen, Restaurant Reviews

Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen

September 22, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

My wife and I have seen this place in passing for many months now, and we were always curious about it. Tonight I gave it a try. I knew right away it probably wasn’t a real-deal Japanese ramen place (Kung Fu is Chinese, not Japanese), so I was sort of expecting the worst. It turned out to be pretty freaking tasty though. It’s definitely NOT ramen. The flavor of the broth/soup I had was more like a mix between Vietnamese pho and standard Chinese noodle soup.

I ordered the house special “ramen,” which was a clear-ish broth with sliced beef, shrimp, a hard boiled egg, baby bok choy, cilantro and hazelnuts. I ordered it spicy, which meant it came with a blob of the house spicy sauce (the red stuff in the middle of the pic below), which was really tasty. A little bit of that shit goes a long way. I pulled more than half out just because I didn’t want my nose running and my upper lip sweating into my bowl. It’s also more like a hybrid between standard Chinese hot pepper (like the dry chili pepper flakes you get with oil when you order noodles) and Japanese spicy paste for ramen.

I am definitely going back here to try the other items. This soup was really fantastic. The beef was packed with flavor and very tender; even those ripples of fatty tendon stuff were like butter. I’m actually curious as to what cut of beef it is. The shrimp were not boiled to shit either, like I expected. They were cooked relatively nicely. And the egg was the best tasting hard boiled egg I’ve ever eaten. Not even kidding. The seasonings penetrated deep into the center. Maybe they boil them in broth or soak them in broth after they’re cooked? Whatever they’re doing, it’s fucking working!

One thing to beware of: the not-so-sneaky service charge. They added 15% to my bill without asking.

I thought that was shitty, and, in fact, I was prepared to leave them a bigger tip! I had it in my head that I was going to just leave $15. Oh well. Their loss. I handed the waiter a $20, and when he retuned my change to me I just left the $0.92 remainder. Still a pretty good tip!

UPDATE!!! I tried the fried ramen, which is essentially just like a lo mien dish with all the same components from the soup. It was tasty and not too greasy, but I like the soup version better.

The soup dumplings were excellent – I could eat these all fuckin’ day. Give them a few minutes to cool down so you don’t burn the fuck out of your mouth. I like to plop one into a soy sauce bath before eating. It helps cool them down, and gives it some earthy flavor.

On another visit I tried the roast duck “ramen.” It was the same tasty broth but floated with some hacked up pieces of roast duck. For the most part, the duck was not really edible. Too much bone and rubbery fat, and not enough edible meat.

Stick with the beef “ramen” at this joint and you will be as happy as a pig in shit. This other item we tried was the cold ramen. Essentially this is lo mein style noodles that are cooked really nice to al dente (and probably hand made), then dressed with a peanut-flavored sauce and topped with cucumbers, tomato and shrimp. I’ve had better, but this was pretty tasty.

KUNG FU LITTLE STEAMED BUNS
811 8th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Burgers, Flash Deals, Italian, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Stecchino

August 31, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

STECCHINO IS NOW CLOSED

My wife and I met some friends at Stecchino for dinner last night. The menu is pretty interesting, and features some really great products.

First we had some starters, like fried artichokes, burrata, and octopus carpaccio. All were fantastic. The artichokes were packed with flavor, and mostly heart. The burrata was incredibly smooth and creamy. And the octopus was tender and we’ll dressed.

For my entrée I had the burger, as it may go to the way side after management’s upcoming planned menu changes. It was a solid burger. Check it out:

It came with fries, which could have benefited from some more crisp.

My wife had rabbit fettuccine. The meat was tender but be careful: in my bite i had a small piece of rabbit bone. Look at that beautiful blob of ricotta on top!

I had to grab a pic of this. It was a limited quantity menu item: short rib. But a huge piece of rib. Tremendous, and really juicy, tender and delicious.

I also had a bite of my other friend’s chicken scarpariello. Both the sausage and the chicken in the dish were very flavorful.

Bottom line: Stecchino (which means toothpick in Italian, and is the name of my friend’s whippet) is a great place to eat. I’m excited to see how the menu changes in the upcoming weeks, especially because my wife purchased a brunch Groupon for $23, which gets us two entrées and two pitchers of bloody Mary. Yes!

The breakfast burger turned out to be amazing. Really tasty maple bacon, cheddar cheese, and a fried egg. Wonderful.

The real highlight was the potato dish that came with my wife’s smoked salmon eggs benedict. They were like baked potatoes that had been ripped apart and then deep fried with a light crispy breading. FUCKING MINT!

Burgers, Midtown West

Mother Burger

August 19, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

This place is pretty fucking legit. The burger was a slight bit over cooked, but it was tasty as all hell. I got a bacon cheeseburger deluxe with jalapeños.

My buddy got a fucking chicken salad, the damn quiff that he is… He claims that he had too many burgers and dogs recently. Whatever. At least it was a pretty big size.

The coolest thing about this place though is the $7 PBR 40oz. Boom.

The price came to $30/pp including tax and tip for everything: burger deluxe, salad, two 40s, and a Lagunitas. Not bad.

The interior is small but it gets the job done.

Cool thing is that we finished eating inside, then took the rest of our 40s outside to drink in the courtyard. Sweet.

Some more shots from a second visit are below. Burger still holds up as one of the greats. I kept it simple this time with a single cheeseburger.

MOTHER BURGER
329 W 49th St
New York, NY 10019

American, Midtown West, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Bar Bacon

August 18, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

My first day out shooting with my new camera brought my wife and I over to 9th Avenue, where we stopped in for lunch here at Bar Bacon. We had walked by a few times and were excited by the menu, so we finally gave it a shot.

We started with a flight of four 5oz beers and four types of bacon.

The beer & the bacon:
Left Hand milk stout paired with jalapeno bacon
Blue Moon paired with applewood smoked bacon
Empire amber ale paired with apple cider bacon
Six Point Sweet Action paired with pepper bacon

My wife had a bloody Mary that was pretty solid, garnished with a piece of thick cut bacon.

Next came the bacon banh mi sandwich. More like steamed pork buns as opposed to a Vietnamese sandwich. The two bites were tasty, but it was extremely small in portion size, and there was not much bacon in it. The BBQ flavored chips and coleslaw were great though.

Then we had the ever-increasing-in-popularity “pig wings” item that was covered with sri-racha BBQ sauce. These were good, but also small in portion size for the price. I like the pig wings over at Iron Bar a little better so far, but these held up nice.

Some atmosphere pics:

In sum: very yummy, but a bit over-priced and very small portions.

BARBACON
836 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Thai

Larb Ubol

July 12, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED!

I was recently invited to a press dinner at Larb Ubol. What grabbed my attention about the written invite was that it spoke about authentic Isan Thai food. Different from the more well known Thai food scattered throughout the city, their Thai food focuses on northern flavors like coconut milk, and southern cooking techniques like fusion cooking. Their mission is to introduce people to traditional Northeastern Thai food, which is really spicy and fresh, and known for saltiness. This is not the sweet, Americanized crap you might find in the burbs.

The place was crowded by 7pm. This is a good sign, because it means people are interested in REAL Thai food. It’s wisely located in a very vibrant food area on 9th avenue between 36th and 37th. Pretty decor, casual fun atmosphere.

We started with some Thai iced tea. It was delicious and refreshing, topped with little flower made from the straw wrapper.

My wife and I shared the larb duck (ped larb). It was crispy, spicy, fresh, and savory. Really great crispy duck skin was sprinkled in with the ground duck meat. It was served with fresh herbs, like mint and cilantro, chili, onion, fish sauce, cabbage and celery.

That was pretty spicy and salty, so I cooled down with a Lao lager.

We also shared grilled squid (pla muk yang). This had a good char and was perfectly cooked, clean, and simple. Add some fresh cracked pepper on it, and it’s a star dish.

My wife ordered the red snapper for her entrée (larb pla kra pong). Unbelievable presentation. It was a gorgeous full fish, fried crispy with scallions, chili, onion and herbs. The skin was so crispy that it reminded us of baked chicken wing skin. So tasty.

I had the crispy pork with Thai eggplant (pad ped moo krob). The pork was belly meat, and was like thick chunks of spicy bacon candy. So fucking good. And this was a steer in the right direction, by the way. Our waitress pointed us to the jewels of this place when she realized what we were after as we ordered: crispy duck, crispy pork. Initially I was going to order duck stew with Chinese broccoli (broccolini) for my entrée and pork larb to start, but she pointed me to the larb duck and this pork dish instead. Well done. This was great, especially with the sticky rice that we ordered on the side.

For dessert we tried coconut ice cream and Thai shaved ice. Both were garnished with corn kernels and sweet gelatins. The shaved ice reminded us of the dessert drinks in Vietnamese cuisine, only more solid. However the strawberry bubblegum-esque sort of flavoring was a bit off to us, but it was still refreshing and contrasted nicely after all the salty and spicy food we just ate. The coconut ice cream was smooth and creamy, and had coconut shavings in it.

Also worth noting: the food portions are big here. I even noticed the noodle dishes at neighboring tables were big enough for two to share. And, most importantly, the food was so good that I found myself looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch.

LARB UBOL
480 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10018

Burgers, Midtown West

Bareburger

June 13, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

My wife had a pretty great deal for this place. Basically one of us ate for free, is how the deal worked out. Two burgers, two drinks. No complaints on price, that’s for sure.

I had bison meat in my “Southern Burger,” which was pepperjack, applewood smoked thick cut bacon, pickled green tomatoes, fried onions, and whole grain maple horseradish mustard – with a fried egg on top. It was good and everything, but there was just ONE green tomato that didn’t cover the burger circumference. Also the bison that I chose for the beef patty was too dry. My thought was to add the fried egg for the runny yolk to add fat back in, but they overcooked the egg.

My wife had a lamb burger with a shitload of stuff that she custom picked (not a burger listed on the menu). The lamb meat tasted pretty great, as I recall, but she wasn’t blown away either. We’ve both had better burgers. Fries weren’t crisy enough either – a little sog going on. What a shame.

BAREBURGER
366 W 46th St
New York, NY 10036

American, Commentary, Food Halls, Italian, Midtown West, Ramen, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

Gotham West Market

March 15, 2014 Johnny Prime 0 Comments

Hell’s Kitchen NYC is really starting to put meaning into the KITCHEN aspect of the neighborhood’s name. Not only have many great restaurants popped up recently, but now there are half a dozen ramen shops, several awesome burger joints, and even a smattering of small niche joints serving things like like Korean fried chicken or Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. The most recent thing on my radar is Gotham West Market. It’s basically an upscale food court featuring a bunch of really nice pop-up restaurants, a gourmet food market, and even a store selling kitchen items, cooking gear, and baking supplies.

I first came here to try the Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop.

My wife and I tried the Shio and Shoyu styles. They were both good, but they contained green onion cut in such a way that it became overbearing and difficult to pluck off of the noodles. I like a standard cross cut to my scallions. This “long ways” cut sucks. The soup base was good, on the other hand, and the rye noodles were delicious.

My wife went back two times without me and tried most of the other spots in there, like The Cannibal, El Colmado, Little Chef, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Genuine Roadside, and Court Street Grocers Sandwich Shop. Poke around her Instagram feed to see some of her escapades. Or simply hit up the #gwmarket tag on there. Here are a couple of collages of her pics:

So today we went in for lunch, which was my wife’s 4th time going in 3 weeks, since I have been dying to try some of the stuff I’ve seen on Instagram from El Colmado and The Cannibal. I’ll take these fuckers down one at a time for you below.

THE CANNIBAL
We sat down to a nice beer and a Bloody Mary to start. The Bloody came with some pickled items on top – a beet, a cucumber, and a pepper.

We ordered three items here. The first was an octopus terrine, garnished with some pickled fennel and dill. This was so amazing, especially after having such a shitty plate of octopus two nights earlier at a local Long Island restaurant that completely fucked the octo up, turning it into rubber. THIS, on the other hand, was a masterpiece. Soft, tender, juicy, and nicely dressed – just like a prom date. One of the best octo preparations I’ve ever tasted.

Next up was the pig head terrine. Essentially a head cheese of sorts. It was really tender and flavorful, and it even had some capers jammed in there too for a nice bite of brine. They served it with some crispy bread, lemon butter, and herbs. Delicious.

Last was the lamb tartare. You can see below that it’s sitting on top of the little mustard smear that mixed well with the flavorful meat. In the back were the little planks of lettuce upon which we spread the tartare before shoving into our mouths.

EL COLMADO
I was excited to have some shaved-by-hand cured piggy, so we started with an order of sliced Serrano ham. Not too salty, very soft and delicious. I expected nothing less in terms of quality when it comes to Chef Seamus Mullen, of The Next Iron Chef fame.

In keeping with the theme from The Cannibal, we doubled down on octopus and lamb items. First is the lamb meatballs. Succulent, juicy, and rich with lamby goodness.

The octopus here was grilled to perfection and served with some vinegary fingerling potatoes. Very nice tasting, and beautifully plated I might add. Needless to say, all memory of terrible octopus from the local Long Island place has been erased. This was superb.

Well – not all memory is erased. We still need to remember that is WAS bad, and that we will never go back there again. Ahh, El Colmado & The Cannibal – you made my day. Two of the finest places I’ve been to in a long time.

So anyway, we finished up at El Colmado with a nice saffron flan for dessert. Perfect texture, and great flavor.