Tag Archives: lincoln square

Italian, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Lincoln Ristorante

January 21, 2019 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Lincoln Ristorante is now part of the Patina Group of restaurants. These guys are awesome, because if you sign up to their newsletter, they send you $50 off for your birthday. You can use the discount pretty much any time within a month of your birthday. So my wife and I decided to check this place out since it was just her birthday the other day. This joint offers a four-course meal for $94, which I thought was pretty awesome, especially considering how great the food is.

I was impressed with the cocktail menu, which sports a prosecco bar and an entire menu of negronis. We tried the caffe negroni, which, later on, was perfect with our desserts. Here’s a pic of it (I kinda made it look like a pussy on purpose):

The meal begins with some complimentary bread sticks and house made focaccia bread with whipped ricotta. This shit is addictive. If you eat a few rows of this stuff (they will bring out more), then you can just get the three course meal for $78.

Then a small dish of smoked trout came out for us, compliments of the chef. This was great.

I started with an escarole salad, and my wife had the octopus. The salad was awesome. I love escarole, and I loved seeing it used raw rather than the usual sautéed or braised. This salad had shaved, truffled sun chokes, sliced apples, radishes and grated cheese. It was delicious, and very large.

The octopus was nice. It came in a spicy tomato ragu with some perfectly cooked beans. I was happy to see more than one tentacle given. As far as portion sizes go, this place is way above average.

For my pasta course, I had conch pasta with octopus and guanciale. This was really nice, and the toasted breadcrumbs gave it a great texture.

My wife had lobster risotto with an arugula pesto. This was herbaceous and fresh, and contained lots of lobster meat. It ate a bit more like a thick soup than a traditional risotto though.

My wife went with the lamb shank for her main course. This was tremendous, and really tender. We couldn’t finish. It had pancetta, roasted chic peas, and other goodies underneath.

I had the venison loin, which was probably one of the best meat dishes I’ve eaten in a while. Certainly the best rendition of venison I’ve ever had.

I highly recommend giving this a try if you can. It was perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, and it had none of that typical iron flavor that you normally associate with game meats. It was mild yet full of flavor. I loved it!

Dessert was incredible. My wife had a trio of gelati. Pistachio stracciatella, toasted faro, and prune. The toasted faro (middle) was our favorite of the three, and tasted like the flavor of the cone of an ice cream cone. The prune was like an elevated rum raison, and the pistachio stracciatella was creamy and rich.

I had the creme fraiche coffee cake, which came with anisette gelato, crumble, bitter lemon coulis and ricotta pasticcera. This shit is crack! I fucking loved it.

Then, a pair of tasty marzipan coconut bites came out with the bill.

We can’t wait to go back. I think we will do the three course meal next time, since we were really full after four courses.

LINCOLN RISTORANTE
142 W 65th St
New York, NY 10023

Italian, Parms, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Cafe Fiorello

December 28, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I popped in here before seeing “Darkest Hour” at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas (great flick, and too bad that the theater is closing down in a month due to high rent). The place was jam-packed at 5:45pm, but luckily my wife had a reservation locked in.

Our movie was at 6:35, so we wanted to eat quick. We ordered our drinks and pastas at the same time, and they came out within three minutes.

I had the spaghetti carbonara, which was made the right way with no cream and a runny egg.

Enjoy the yolk porn:

It was made with guanciale (pork jowl) bacon, which added nice salt content to the dish without actually using salt.

My wife had the fettuccine pesto, which had a really nice, fresh flavor to it. Delicious, though a bit garlicky.

Everything was great, but the prices were a bit steep. All in, with tax and tip, for just two drinks and two pasta dishes, we were at $95 and change. That’s pretty steep! The interesting tidbit: This was one of the fastest meals we ever had in NYC. We were in and out within 20 minutes, like a horny teenager at a whore house.

UPDATE! This veal parm a la vodka was incredible. Easily in my top dishes of 2019.

CAFE FIORELLO
1900 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

Burgers, French, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Restaurant Week, Upper West Side

Bar Boulud

August 5, 2016 Johnny Prime 4 Comments

Here’s another restaurant week review for your asses.

For $42, my wife had a three course meal. The first course? A fucking salmon rillette.

This was pretty good. I apologize in advance, though. My pictures don’t look too good this time around. I had competing light color values from outside along the windows (blue) and inside from the overhead lighting (yellow/orange/red, with dark shadows). As a result, my photos look like dog diarrhea smeared onto a piss and blood-ridden diaper/maxi pad, but only the kind of diaper/maxi pad you see in commercials that use blue colored liquid to simulate blood and piss for some ridiculous reason.

But anyway that salmon rillette had a nice base of hard rye, topped with minced salmon and pickle, and some frisee and sliced beets. It had a good flavor and texture.

The main course was a bavette steak. If you don’t know what the fuck a bavette is, click the link I just provided and read up on it, asshole. It’s a cut of beef.

This was roasted to a nice medium rare, but I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of char on the outside. It was buttery and garlicky, which was good for flavor. However, the slices that I had were slightly under seasoned. I think it still gets 8/10, so there’s some room for improvement. It was served on a bed of potato puree with a side of green beans.

For dessert, there was this blackberry financier with brown butter ice cream.

The cake itself was a bit dry, but all the toppings served well to moisten it the hell up. Corn? And popcorn? Interesting! But the brown butter ice cream blob way the fuck on the right was the real star of the dish. I would have preferred a bowl of that instead.

Overall this is a pretty good deal for restaurant week. Lunch is always the better buy ($29), but you aren’t getting raped here for a $42 three-course dinner.

The couple we were with let us try a bit of their dessert as well, a chocolate ganache pie of sorts:

This was very rich and tasty. If chocolate is your vice, then this dessert is nice. That was a rhyme.

For my meal, I went with the “Frenchie” burger. If you’re in the area for a burger, you can go with PJ Clarke’s for a standard style American burger, or pop in here for something unique and different… and French.

This mother fucker is topped with raclette cheese and a thick goddamn slab of soft, confit pork belly! Bitches know what’s up! I think. I don’t know, actually… Do they know what’s up?

That’s arugula underneath, incase you were wondering. The patty was perfectly seasoned, and the bun was soft yet pliable and strong. Toppings, as you can imagine, were on point. The confit pork was like having a fast food burger patty made of belly (in terms of size) right on top of your already-delicious burger. Good move. This burger was pretty damn good, but it doesn’t quite make it into my top 10.

For $23, the burger also came with fries, which were some crispy-ass, natural cut, shoestring mother fuckers. I liked them.

Honorable mention: bread selection. We had three styles of table bread. First were small cheese bread things that reminded me of pop-overs in muffin form. They were warm too, like the pair of underwear that you just peeled off your sweaty, NYC-in-the-summer ass cheeks and tossed into the laundry pile. The other bread basket had slices of a sunflower seed sourdough bread of some kind, and a few slices of standard French baguette. All good quality, just like the writing in this review.

That’s it. Now go fuck off.

BAR BOULUD
1900 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

Filet Mignon, Flash Deals, Other Cuts, Parms, Porterhouse, Press Reviews, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews, Upper West Side

Lincoln Square Steak

April 25, 2016 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

Lincoln Square Steak overall score: 91

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

My wife and I came here for our anniversary before catching a play at Lincoln Center. They had a great looking “early bird” price fix menu, and a solid looking selection of cuts on the regular menu. Check out the verdict below:

Flavor: 9
I ordered the rib eye from the dinner menu.

It had a great seared crust on the outside, and a good sized fat cap around the edge. The kitchen prepared this thing spot on to medium rare, cooked perfectly.

My wife went with the price fix menu deal, and chose the hanger steak. This, too, was super tender and cooked perfectly.

This was pretty big for a $39 price fix deal, and it came with an app, a side and a dessert. If I had to guess, I’d say this was about 12-14oz. Great seasoning and crust on the outside. These guys really know what they’re doing in the kitchen.

Here’s the porterhouse, which I had on a later, comped visit. 8/10

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9
In addition to the rib eye and the hanger, they also offer two sizes of filet, two different strips, and varying sizes of porterhouse. Excellent showing, and most steaks are prime and dry aged.

Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions are generous here. The hanger was a big size, and the rib eye felt right for the price. Plating is simple, nothing too fancy.

Price: 9
The prices here are comparable to midtown steakhouses, which can get steep at times, but I feel like here you are getting your money’s worth. Not to mention the price fix deal for $39 is awesome.

Bar: 9
While the location is somewhat tucked away just west of Amsterdam on 70th street, the bar here is really fantastic. It’s large and lounge-like, with high tops along the windows and a long, warm and inviting stretch of bar.

I’d definitely hang out here on a non-steak night. The cocktail menu is interesting as well, with unique twists on classic bar drinks.

Specials and Other Meats: 10
There’s a great selection of alternative meats here. If the standard cuts of beef aren’t your thing for some retarded reason, you can go with lamb, veal, pork or chicken, as well as braised short rib. Great selection, and with that kind of showing of meat, they don’t really need to offer any specials.

The chicken parm comes out pizza style. $40.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 9
We started with some Bluepoint oysters and Canadian bacon; that’s the way any red-blooded American should begin a steak dinner.

The oysters were big, crisp and fresh. The bacon was perfectly cooked and seasoned. It went nicely with the steak sauce.

The waiter brought out some ravioli for us next, compliments of the house. Mushroom cream sauce. Very tasty.

For the sides, we tried both the creamed spinach and the truffle mac and cheese. Both were perfect. In fact, we actually finished both sides, which almost never happens. The spinach had that “creamless” texture that I love, and it packed a ton of flavor. The mac was nice and cheesy without being too heavy. The truffle flavor was definitely present and most welcomed.

For dessert, we tried the cheesecake, and the staff sent out a complimentary chocolate soufflé in honor of our anniversary.

I liked the cheesecake best, but the soufflé was very soft and moist inside. Nicely executed.

Seafood Selection: 8
There’s salmon, tuna, shrimp, swordfish, branzino, sea bass and lobster on the seafood entree menu. That’s amazing. While I can’t give full points here until I go back and try one or two of the seafood entrees, I can attest to the oysters being top notch.

Service: 10
The service here is incredible. Our waiter, Nol, was very attentive, made great suggestions, and was very nice and genuine. We were greeted immediately with some specially printed up menus that said “Happy Anniversary,” just because my wife made a notation on the OpenTable reservation.

And as you saw in the dessert section above, they comp’d a soufflé for us as well. Later on, when we got to talking more about steak, my website came up and it turns out that the manager, Bruno, knew of my endeavors here. Then even MORE stuff was comp’d.

I love it when that happens!

Another thing I’ll note here is the great table bread: fresh baked popovers that come out nice and warm, and with soft, spreadable butter. I love that shit!

Ambiance: 10
This joint is truly decked out from front to back, top to bottom. It has an intimate feeling with all the red coloring going on, and for even more intimacy there are some separate dining rooms of varying sizes. Great layout with different levels. Here’s a shot of the main dining room.

UPDATE 3/10/17 – GROUPON REVIEW

This is a pretty great deal. You get a bottle of wine, two apps, two entrees, two sides and two desserts for about $100.

The wine selection was from about three or four varietals per red or white. We went with a Malbec.

Not bad. Pretty smooth. Our apps were fried calamari and steak tartare. The calamari were lightly battered, super crisp and perfectly seasoned. Inside they were cooked just right.

The tartare was a bit too salty, but when you stacked it up onto the crostini with some of the dressed greens, it was cooled down a bit. If I had to guess, it was all filet mignon meat.

For our sides we went with the truffled creamed spinach again (but this time we didn’t detect any truffle flavor), and garlic and herb fries. They were pretty good, but I’ve definitely had better.