Jay E. Mandel

Sapori is open in Murray Hill and it is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Why? Authentic Italian food that’s fresh with attentive and friendly service. And they have an amazing large outdoor space that lets you get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

After a false start due to electrical problems, Sapori is now open for good.  The restaurant is decorated well. Dark, rich decor.

I came in for take out with my son just as they were opening for dinner (that explains no people in the photos). The waiter and waitress were just so nice -taking extra time to talk to my boy and helping us lift the stroller up the stairs up front. I ordered a Margarita pizza, a caesar salad and papperdelle.  I asked if they have spaghetti and meatballs and the nice waitres explained, “that’s not a very authentic Italian dish and for that reason it is not on the menu.” The pizza was light and tasty.  My favorite part was the charring of the brick  wood burning. oven.

All in all a good pie that’s better than Vezo down the street for sure. The caesar was good though I would have liked  a little more lettuce to tone down some of the creaminess of the dressing. Finally the papperdelle was amazing. While waiting, they allowed me into he kitchen  (it was immaculate). The chef showed me the fresh pasta and ingredients and told me that it is made daily with just water, eggs, and flour. It was light and the sauce was fresh.

I look forward to heading back to dine in with the family and encourage you to do the same.

Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service –8/10

http://saporinyc.com/

153 East 33rd Street New York, NY 10016
Between 3rd Avenue & Lexington Ave
Telephone: 212-251-1037
FAX: 212-251-1039
E-mail: info@saporinyc.com

I went to the Park Avenue Tavern for brunch with low expectations of the food and service. My expectations were exceeded for the food. The service was slow and wasn’t very precise, but the staff was extremely nice if that counts for anything.

Enter the nicely decorated restaurant with modern/classic decor to the smell of Ammonia (Jay’s Mind: It was the morning after St. Patty’s Vs. It is too expensive to smell like a college bar/Primehouse doesn’t smell like this ).

The service was slow because they had a 40 person party downstairs. In theory, that shouldn’t have made the waiter forget my bloody mary (which was quite tasty) and probably shouldn’t have delayed our food as much as it was delayed.  They were clearly understaffed in the kitchen and the front of the house because while the crowd was decent, about half of the tables in the restaurant were empty. With that said, the staff was nice… the manager even let my wife change my son’s diaper in his office.

The highlight was the food for me, which allowed me to overlook the minor service foibles. The food was good enough for me to recommend the restaurant and consider coming back. I really enjoyed my Nicoise Salad ($16). It was skillfully prepared. It was different from most of the Nicoise salads I get around the city. The Nicoise salad is my typical brunch standby so I have a good basis for comparison. The salad was made from hearty and fresh tuna (not the rare kind). It was juicy and bursting with flavor.  The lettuce-less salad also had olives, fresh red peppers, soft fingerling potatoes, hard boiled egg and green beans.  It was dressed in a flavorful vinaigrette.  There were no anchovies. The entire salad was chilled.

Park Avenue Tavern probably does well with Corporate functions with New York City’s first self-service draft beer system. I would also give it a try for dinner.

Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service –6/10

parkavenuetavernnyc.com

99 Park Avenue (Corner of 39th St. & Park Ave.)

For those of you who don’t know what bubble tea is, it is hot or cold tea with chewy balls made of tapioca called “pearls” in Chinese. It is fun to drink bubble tea because you watch the tapioca come up the wide straw and you have something to chew on in addition to your flavored tea. Lots of places sell bubble tea around the city. From my experience, I suggest you be wary when you select your bubble tea establishment. When the places don’t do a large volume of bubble tea sales, you are more likely to get stale tapioca and sugary/powder based tea mixes. This isn’t the case at Co Co, a Taiwanese chain that has popped up throughout the city of late. You may not have heard of CoCo, but they have over 800 stores worldwide and are growing. You can count on fresh ingredients, fast service, in a youthful/friendly environment. The  bubble tea “Batistas” always take a lot of care in making their drinks. They measure exact quantities of bubbles, tea and fruit juice, they shake the cocktail shaker vigorously, then they put the drink in this machine that seals a cool looking plastic cover – the whole process is very exacting. It is always fun to pop the big straw through the tight sealed lid. They sell so many bubbles that you can rest assured you will not get stale balls. I love the grapefruit bubble tea and the lemon. I am less a fan of some of the other varieties like the coffee/chocolate or the ones with other chewy items in the mix. Tip: ask for half the sugar – it will taste the same and be healthier.

38 Lexington Ave (between 23rd St & 24th St) and 459 Lexington Ave (between 45th St & 46th St)

coco-tea.com/eng/drink.php

Kutsher’s Tribeca is the NYC outpost of the famous Catskill Resort of days past. While the decor didn’t bring back nostalgia of the Jewish mountains, the food did. We went early. The restaurant was filled with families but I can see how it could be filled with young people later in the night.

Most notable of my experience at Kutcher’s was their creativity interpretations of Jewish classics without going too far. The most memorable part of my meal were the house cured meats.. Loved the duck pastrami and house chopped liver.

Mrs. K’s Matzo Ball Soup was a generous portion. Ball was dense yet fluffy. Noodles were somewhat ramen like.

The crispy potato latkes were as advertised. Apple sauce was home made.

And finally, the black and white cookie ice cream sandwich was worth it for dessert. They were thoughtful enough to make sure that you get the black side on top and white on bottom and vice versa for those sharing (or maybe it was just a coincidence).

All in all Kutsher’s Tribeca is  totally worth trying (and coming back).

Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 9/10

kutsherstribeca.com

186 Franklin St
(between Hudson St & Greenwich St)
New York, NY 10013

The Smith is absolutely brilliant for expanding to Midtown East, in an area where real estate values are down due to a mid-2000 crane crash. The restaurant attracts an older crowd than the the original location’s largely NYU student crowd. The crowd was bustling with a reminded me of my Syracuse University days.. it was like a fashion show of the latest expensive jeans and expensive strollers. True, I have both expensive jeans and my son’s iCandy (expensive) stroller is better than all those fancy Bugaboos I saw today, but that’s besides the point.

Anyway, we had a reservation but weren’t seated for 20 mins after our res time. With a kid who has scheduled feeding times, it is harder to wait even 20 mins than my pre-baby days. When we were seated, service was really fast, almost rushed. The the food quality was noticeably lower than what I remembered from the Union Sq location back in the day. I used to go all the time – check out my positive review below. The pricing also is now really inflated for the portions/food quality.

My cousin had a ranchero scramble, which was $16. It included chipotle salsa, black beans, tortillas, cheddar, avocado. It looked and tasted so plain. Though the menu says,  ”WE SUPPORT LOCAL, NATURAL, SUSTAINABLE & ORGANIC PRACTICES WHENEVER POSSIBLE,” it appeared to not be possible for this dish. The dish looked like supermarket tortillas, runny eggs, Goya beans and avocado, stacked, but not stacked in a tasty looking way, it didn’t blend like some of the rancheros  I’ve had in my day. The only way my cousin was able to get some satisfaction from the dish was to pile on the house made hot sauce, which he said was quite good. It came with a free bloody mary, bellini, blood orange mimosa, passion punch or fresh squeezed juice. I sipped the mimosa and it tasted like Andre Champagne and Tropicana. My $18 shrimp salad with avocado, fennel, oranges, grilled onions, frisée, watercress, basil viniagrette could be called refreshing, but I felt the shrimp portion was slightly skimpy and they cut the shrimp in half to make it appear like I was getting more for my money. Also, after I was finished, I felt like I needed to go out for lunch.

If you want a brunch in NYC with a legitimate free cocktail and an amazing bread basket, stick with Primehouse.

With all the above said, the Smith will thrive because it is a scene. They can continue doing what they are doing and the crowds will continue to pour in!

The Smith Midtown - 956 Second Avenue NYC (at the corner of 51st).

***

The Smith has a great variety of food at  reasonable prices (even with the recent noticeable price increases on the most popular items). It is a cool setting. Lots of NYUers frequent The Smith. With each time I go, I always say I am not going to rush back but then end up back soon thereafter.  It’s a good place for a casual meal with friends.

Start with two bottles or water – flat in the clear bottle, sparking in green. Free premium water is a nice touch. They also give fresh French bread wrapped in white paper.

The Smith constantly delivers a better mac and cheese than others I have had. Love the presentation in a cast iron pan. It  is always piping hot, crispy on top and the variety of cheeses makes it really flavorful.

Entrees are hit or miss.  My friend recently said of the  roasted cod with curried cauliflower, toasted almonds, red pepper romesco ($21). “The cod is bland but when you mix it with the shit below, it makes it better.”

I have always enjoyed the vegetable “bibimbap” – sushi rice, shiitake, spinach, edamame, sunny up egg  ($16). My other friend said “it’s the best bibimbap I’ve had outside a Korean Restaurant.”

I’ve also been told the charbroiled chicken with smashed potato and roasted garlic is good.

Don’t forget about the $6 draft beers and inexpensive carafes of wine.

Also,  top the night off with a $5 sundae for dessert.  Make it special with the birthday sundae and they’ll put in a candle even if it isn’t your birthday.

Rating:
Food – 7/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 7/10

Category:
Food Type – American
Style – Casual
Price – Reasonable

Wanna go?
Address/phone – 55 3rd Avenue, 212-420-9800

website -ctrnyc.com/THESMITH
menu - ctrnyc.com/THESMITH/thesmithwebsite/menus.html
OpenTable – opentable.com/the-smith

Located in the old Japanais space near Union Square, Kibo is a BR guest Restaurant, and benefits from the well oiled BR guest machine to ensure quality food, great ambiance and extremely efficient and courteous service.

While I am sure they spent a lot of money on renovations to the restaurant space, to the my untrained eye, the entrance and the dining room looked unchanged from the Japonais days, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the space is impressive design wise with a long dining room, ample bar area and tall ceilings.  One change worth highlighting is the addition of a new Robata grill, which cooks meats and fish at 1,000 degrees to result in the perfect sear on the outside and juiciness on the inside… More on that later…

The first thing to impress me about the restaurant was the efficient service. Our waitress, Amy W.,  was just so nice and so knowledgeable about the concept, the menu items, and other interesting details. She was supported by a team that was always coming to clean up the table, pour water (which appeared to be bottled water of some type, at no extra charge) and make sure everything was going smoothly.

We started with drinks, after all, this was a night out to celebrate my four year anniversary of marriage to my beautiful wife!! I have been in NYC for years and have gotten used to the $16 cocktail. When I saw that my wife’s, Kibo San, the restaurant’s signature cocktail featuring Vodka, Pama, Lychee, Egg White Froth, was $10, I thought “this is a bargain.” This statement only applies in NYC, I guess. She enjoyed the light, flavorful (and inexpensive) cocktail. I enjoyed a Six point Bengali Tiger IPA. Looks good, doesn’t it?

Now, for the food… We started with the  Japanese Caesar Salad with sesame dressing. For $9 the salad was a generous portion of romaine lettuce with french bread croutons, Parmesan, walnuts, and as a pleasant surprise, slices of apples. Perfect start to the meal with some great liberties taken to adapt/modernize this traditional salad.

Because we had to try the Robata grill, next came prawns. Prepared on a skewer, the portion was three large prawns. The kimchi sauce added some impact, but the highlight was the impact of Robata grill, which as described, perfectly seared the prawns on the outside and cooked it just the right amount to maintain juiciness. The prawns were a highlight – they looked so good when they came out that I forgot to take a picture (and I rarely forget)!

Next, we each had a sushi roll. My wife, California, and I had the Rainbow - tuna, hamachi, fluke, salmon, and tobiko. These rolls were both compact in size but not in flavor. The fish was fresh and the tobiko and strong wasabi made my roll really pop. I got the impression that these rolls resembled the sushi from the other BR guest restaurants ( in a good way).

For an entree, we shared the Skirt Steak  with mushroom, shishito, and shallots. It was juicy and flavorful. It went perfectly with the Chicken Soboro (fried rice, but not in the way the habachi/Chinese take out prepares it).

To complete the sampling of creative Japanese delights, our waitress brought over a slice of their soon to be famous 20 layer chocolate cake. It is worth coming to Kibo just to try this dessert.  I didn’t count the layers – if you would like to, the slice is pictured below.  This was a special chocolate desert from a taste perspective and a flavor perspective . It was topped with homemade green tea ice cream.

If that wasn’t enough, she also brought us two classes of champagne to toast our Anniversary.

Kibo was a perfect place to celebrate a special evening for two. From looking around, it also appeared to be a great place for large groups – lots of 20/30 somethings seemed to file in around 9pm on Saturday night, which is good, because in addition to great food, the restaurant is playing up the fact that they have a DJ and lots of bar space.

When all was said and done, our meal came to $109. In terms of what we had (even without the comped dessert and drink) it was a relative bargain in the NYC dining space.

All the best to Kibo.

Rating:
Food – 8/10
Ambiance – 8/10
Service – 9/10

Category:

Food Type – Japanese
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate

111 East 18th St at Park Ave South
New York, NY 10003

View On Map >

P: 212 824 2770
E: info@kibonyc.com

I used to work in NYC, but now I don’t.  Writing restaurant reviews when I worked in NYC was easier because I could write up cheap lunches, which happened more often and added on the pounds, but that’s another story. Anyway, I was working in NYC today, so I went back to old habits and tried a new place for lunch. The restaurant, Dee Daa, is a stone’s throw from Grand Central and claims to “ bring a little balance to your day. It’s a mix of zen and zest. Food that tastes great and makes you feel good. Service with a smile without a long wait. That’s what we’re all about.”  My opinion is they did a good job on branding mediocre, yet tasty Thai food… If you put your Thai restaurant  in midtown and are willing to pay up on rent, come up with a fancy name, and invest in some branding/artwork and cool signage, it’s an invitation charge $7.50  for rice with a few pieces of clicken that should cost $3.50.

Nevertheless,  Dee Daa was crowded and seemed to do a good business.  Service was friendly as they promised. While take out is their thing, it seemed wasteful to serve everyone, even those dining in, with those white plastic takeout containers. Also, while they displayed calorie counts on the menus and I picked the dish with the lowest calorie amount (under 400) I got the impression every dish started and ended with lots of cooking oil. That may have been the reason I tasted lemongrass thai rice the entire afternoon.

Rating:
Food – 5/10
Ambiance – 7/10
Service – 7/10

Category:
Food Type – Thai
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate

deedaa.com
155 East 43rd St (b/t 3rd and Lex)
646.396.6500

11/2011 – Sorry to see My Maki has closed.

My Maki is the Chipolte or Subway of sushi. Located near Grand Central, it is in a good location for the business and on-the-go crowd.  I stopped in for an after work snack, but would go to My Maki for lunch if I worked near Grand Central.

Here’s how it works:

• Pick the wrap – 10-piece roll wrapped in traditional Japanese Nori ($5.90) or 10-piece roll wrapped in neutral flavored wrap made of soybean ($6.90).
• Pick what’s inside – large selection of the common ingredients such as tuna, eel, and a few uncommon ones like crawfish.  Price range is $1.50 to $2.95.
• Pick extras – All the stuff you’d expect like Avocado, Cucumber, etc. and a few different ones like Doritos and thai basil. (First two are free, additional are 75 cents).
• Pick an external topping like masago, sesame seeds or spicy bread crumbs.
• Finally, pick from one of their freshly prepared sauces  including spicy mayo, edamame jalapeno, karashi mustard, citrus ponzu, thai chili sea and sweet unagi (eel) (75 cents)

The roll I had was tuna, shatakes, carrot, and avocado wrapped in nori and topped with masago.

The food was fresh and I got exactly what I wanted in a quick period of time.  Though the concept is fairly innovative, from an ingredient perspective I would like to see a larger variety of more unique ingrdients.  I also would like to see some more luxurious options.

All in all,  I  paid $12 for a large tuna roll, which I could have gotten on seamlessweb from 121 Midori Sushi (formerly Kiku Sushi 3).  For those of you who don’t know me, that was a joke. I frequently make fun of the infultration of low quality sushi in the neighborhood.  In addition to a lackluster selection in the Murray Hill Neighborhood, sushi places tend to result to shady tactics to attract customers on Seamlessweb.

My Maki addresses exactly what’s wrong with the NYC sushi scene. According to their press release, “My Maki was created after the founders discovered that it was nearly impossible for an on-the-go customer to get a high-quality sushi lunch quickly in Manhattan. Typically customers are faced with two unappealing options at opposite ends of the sushi spectrum: Traditional full-service sushi restaurants where average order preparation times are fifteen to twenty minutes, the environments are dull and uninviting, and prices are high; and deli sushi where a very limited assortment of pre-packaged rolls made with hard, tasteless rice and questionable fish sit for hours in a refrigerated case. (My Maki Press Release)” 

I see no reason why this restaurant won’t thrive, after all, how could all the crappy, undifferentiated places survive in this market?  Here are a few ideas to position My Maki for success.

• Get people to undersatand what it is and how it works - The key is to get people to understand the concept and give it a try. Spend more money with a talented graphic artist to design signs to walk people through the process.
• Help people find the place – Though the location is centrally located near Grand Central, it can be easily missed. The only reason I saw was I choose to walk on 43rd when I leave GCT.
• Innovative target marketing  - Take a lesson from Vic’s Bagel Bar, who is doing innovative things like serving liquor at night while offering a crowd of recent college grads beer pong.
• Ingredient Management - Learn what’s selling and what’s not and take off low performers and don’t be afraid to introduce more innovative ingredients/specials.
• Give people a reason to come in for dinner (or to bring sushi home) possibly for a discounted price.
• Offer brown rice.

Went to La Boite en Bois  last night, the 22 Zagat rated Upper West Sider’s pre-theater Menu. Very cute place – the ambiance reminded me of my last trip to France and the little cafes I dined at. The restaurant was more than slightly cramped, but that added to the ambiance. It’s one of those places where you can’t help talking with the people at the next tables.

Service was friendly and efficient. We especially liked the fact that they made their onion soup for my wife, which was not on the dinner menu. The soup paled in comparison to the amazing onion soup we had at Artisinal the other week, but it was a nice gesture.

The pre-theater dinner offering is a $44 prix fix with traditional French favorites like pate, French onion soup and escargot for apps and duck, steak au poivre, etc. for entrees. I had the specials of the night. I started with pumpkin soup. It was creamless. In my opinion, it was a little too liquidy and lacked impact/flavor. I needed to salt and pepper it up to eat.  Next, I had the entree special which included little pieces of monkfish, salmon with a large scallop and a large shrimp cooked in parchment paper with creamy leek sauce.  For the record, I hate ordering fish and then ending up with creamy sauces but that was my fault. Nevertheless, I ate it and it was good – I especially enjoyed the leeks and sauce. Another nice compliment to the entree was a generous portion of risotto with mixed vegetables and simple steamed spinach. To close out the meal, I enjoyed a tasty bread pudding but since this restaurant is blocks away from Magnolia, I would recommend skipping dessert at  La Boite en Bois  and heading to Magnolia.

In summary, I would go for lunch to La Boite en Bois but would skip dinner. It was fun getting out with my wife on our historic October snowstorm, but when I think back to this night a couple of weeks from now, it will be hard to remember the food.

Food – 6/10
Ambiance – 6/10
Service – 8/10

Category:
Food Type – French
Style – Casual
Price – Moderate

Wanna go?
75 W 68th St, Near Columbus Ave., New York