Tag Archives: les

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Son Del North

September 23, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

This small burrito joint just opened up on Orchard Street in the lower east side. I had heard great things about it before learning that Golden Packing supplies their beef and chicken! Once I heard that, I was all in! I tried three different burritos: shrimp, chicken and beef.

Check out the grill marks!

The shimp burrito is the owner’s favorite, so I had to give it a try. It’s chock full of perfectly cooked, big, juicy shrimp. There’s a nice sauce in there too, along with the guacamole, beans and onions.

That’s right – NO RICE in these burritos. All substance. No filler.

The carne asada beef/steak burrito is made with high end middle meats and strip steak from Golden Packing, most of it being prime grade. The caramelized onions give you a steak sandwich vibe. Delicious.

My favorite, though, was the chicken burrito. They use thigh meat, which is the ultimate for retaining juiciness and flavor.

This place is absolutely incredible. Don’t be intimidated by the crowds in front. Most of them are just waiting for their order as opposed to lining up.

SON DEL NORTH
177 Orchard St.
New York, NY 10002

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Taco Recipes

July 21, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

That pretty much says it all. This is a classic NYC Chinese-owned Mexican joint, but with better quality food than the old ones we know and love. The tacos are gringo style, with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese and diced tomato. They taste familiar and they’re filling, for cheap.

TACO RECIPES
23 Essex St.
New York, NY 10002

Japanese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Omakase Sushi by No Name

July 10, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review show HERE:

My wife and I made a last minute reservation to Omakase Sushi by No Name yesterday, and I am so glad we did. This is easily one of my favorites in the city. We did their “tare” omakase, which consists of 17 courses for $129, prepared with upgraded higher end ingredients than what they offer in the 13 course omakase (that one is just $89).

The chef and waiter were both awesome, very knowledgeable and friendly. It’s really hard to choose favorite pieces among so many really nicely prepared courses, but I’ll try.

Everything with uni was great. There were three pieces: The raw oyster was beautifully dressed and topped with Hokkaido uni and ikura.

The uni by itself on top of a fried shiso leaf was absolutely awesome. I love shiso, and the combination was wild!

Lastly, the uni atop raw scallop with caviaar was delicious.

Some other favorites: hamachi, three layer chutoro (medium fatty), and smoked sea trout (first time trying a sea trout, as opposed to fresh water).

Probably my favorite of the night was the torched wagyu topped with the chef’s secret ingredient, powdered wagyu fat! It tasted dry-aged too. It was amazing!

As you can tell, there were lots of unique items that I have never seen before. Some others were the sea ell (as opposed to fresh water). It had a really sticky fat texture and tons of favor – way better than traditional barbecued style fresh eel. There was also a fried oyster topped with squid ink foam!

There was even a tasty coconut matcha flan/custard for dessert.

The best part, after 17 courses I was stuffed! I wanted to add a Dungeness crab and uni piece, but the crab wasn’t in season, and so it wasn’t available. But usually after omakase, I am still hungry! Not this time! I will definitely be back for sure.

I will definitely be back here again – I am 100% certain of that!

OMAKASE SUSHI BY NO NAME
114 Eldridge St.
New York, NY 10002

Burgers, East Village, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

The Commodore II

April 23, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

A second location of the popular Williamsburg bar “The Commodore” just opened in the lower east side at Avenue C and Houston Street. My wife and I have been eagerly awaiting the open since we saw renovations going on there last year. The interior is really cool, almost like you’re aboard a yacht. They even have life fish in a tank along the right side wall, with circular portals for viewing.

We started with two frozen drinks and both were great. The winner between the Orange Julio and the frozen mojito was the mojito, however. They also serve $4 cans of Schaefer, which is a steal. During happy hour, you can get a beer and a shot for $7, which is a price that’s on par with the cheapest dives in town.

Speaking of happy hour, they offer their burger with fries for $14 (normally just the burger costs $14, but at happy hour the fries come with). The burger is a nice crumbly patty that’s well seasoned and dressed with all the fixings.

We also tried their fried chicken, which, despite saying three thighs on the menu, actually came with four. Also great biscuits, two hot sauces and a sweet honey butter. At $22 this is a great deal, especially considering how crispy outside and juicy inside the chicken was. Delicious.

We also tried their fried green tomato sandwich with slaw. I enjoyed this, and the baguette was a really nice surprice here on this sandwich. I expected it to be too hard and rough, but it was warm, soft and really nicely butter-toasted.

Definitely can’t wait to go back and try their fish items, grilled cheese and nachos.

THE COMMODORE II
14 Avenue C
New York, NY 10009

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

Carlota

July 22, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

Carlota is a small tapas and vermouth bar on Orchard just above Canal. It’s a great spot for sips and snacks, and it’s a sister restaurant to Bar Belly, just next door.

We tried a lot of stuff, so there’s a photo dump below. Everything we had was excellent.

Here’s the menu:

Jamon and Tomato Bread to begin:

These squid ink croquettes were killer.

Cockles with chorizo – get extra bread for that amazing broth.

Awesome lamb chops.

Delicious taters.

And Basque style cheesecake was on the house!

Next time I want to try the chorizo sandwich.

CARLOTA
14 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002

East Village, Italian, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Parms, Restaurant Reviews

Il Posto Accanto

May 10, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out this kickass Ride & Review video HERE:

– link –

My wife sent me an Instagram post from this place about a special burrata and mortadella app they were running. When I realized how close it was to our place, I called up and grabbed a reservation for dinner later that day. The food on their account looked awesome, and I’m always looking to try neighborhood joints like this.

The meal was incredible. First, let me say that the table bread was so good! They had an onion focaccia and some Italian bread, served with olive oil (watch the video to see it).

We started with that special burrata app, which had spicy salami, prosciutto and mortadella along with the burrata.

Next up, fritto misto, with calamari, shrimp and zucchini. LOTS of the seafood. Great portion!

We also had the grilled calamari, which is marinated in olive oil for a day before being grilled. This was lovely.

For the second half of the meal, we did two pastas and their smoked mozzarella chicken parm.

Although the cheese wasn’t bubbly or melted out, the dish was still really great. The chicken was pounded out enough to be tender, but not so thin that it lost juiciness.

The first pasta was a Sorrento style long, thick ribbon called scialatiella.

I love a thick pasta, and this was easily one of my favorite pasta dishes of the year.

Cavatelli with sausage, peas, and mushrooms in a white truffle cream sauce was next. This was so damn tasty. Cavatelli is typically my favorite pasta shape. All the pasta here is hand made in house, and really well made at that.

For dessert we tried the panna cotta. This was so smooth, creamy and delicious. The berry compote on the bottom was just the right amount of sweet acidity to cut that rich creaminess.

What a meal! We plan to be regulars here, and we can’t wait to go back. Check out the bottom line of the receipt. That shit had me cracking up!

IL POSTO ACCANTO
190 E 2nd St
New York, NY 10009

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Barrio Chino

November 16, 2022 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I stopped in this little joint for dinner last week, and we really enjoyed it.

We started with aguachile verde and ceviche, both of which were great, although I would have preferred some additional tortilla chips to pick up all that tasty goodness.

For our mains, we ordered enchiladas verde and lamb barbacoa. Both were excellent, but the shredded, slow roasted lamb was amazing. So much rich, earthy flavor. Again, more tortillas would have made this perfect.

We will definitely be back here again – I need better pics!

BARRIO CHINO
253 Broome St
New York, NY 10002

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Canary Club

August 7, 2022 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I have wanted to try out this cocktail bar and live music lounge for a while. We finally made it in for an early dinner yesterday.

Quick take-aways: Delicious cocktails and good comfort food.

We really liked the broiled oysters and the french fries, as well as the ice cream sundae. The rest was just okay.

The snails were a bit under-seasoned and lacked that “snap” texture.

We also tried the shrimp and crab cake special. The shrimp were slightly overcooked and the batter on the crab cake needed work (no texture). The salad with fried green tomato was really nice though.

The batter on the fried chicken was too hard, but the meat was cooked nicely. The Voodoo seasoned fries were great.

Their coffee-based dessert cocktails are incredible. They have two, and each one is extremely unique, with one even having carrot juice espresso and tahini in it. Wild. They paired really well with the ice cream sundae.

We will be back for cocktails and live music, for sure. But maybe we’ll stick to the oysters and fries in terms of food.

CANARY CLUB
303 Broome St
New York, NY 10002

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

New Spicy Village

August 2, 2022 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I finally got over here to try the noodles.

But first, we put down some pork dumplings.

Despite being a little bit soupy, the dry hand-pulled noodles were awesome. We tried the spicy chicken and spicy oxtail. I give the edge to the chicken, mainly because the oxtail wasnt stewed or slow cooked long enough. The bones were cut very thin so that they cook faster, but that unfortunately means the meat will be a bit less tender. Still great though.

Will definitely be back to try the lamb noodles.

NEW SPICY VILLAGE
118 Eldridge St
New York, NY 10002

Burgers, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Pub Food, Restaurant Reviews

Black Crescent

April 26, 2022 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The tiny burger at Black Crescent may be overpriced at $13, but it is damn delicious. Great char, lovely beefy chuck flavor, and plenty of cheese coverage.