
Nathan
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Everything posted by Nathan
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having been to Pamplona (and a look at its menu should be convincing regardless), I can assure you that it's not in the same league as the Bar Room. neither is it to be favorably compared with Casa Mono. the menu is really dumbed down...
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that's fair. I'm betting on one cause I just didn't think it was that good. not in the same ballpark as say Little Owl.
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You say that like it's a bad thing. ← heh. yep...I'm not a fan of cheese.
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so Bruni reviews Pamplona tonight. I can't make up my mind whether I think it gets one-star or none. my experience there was somewhat underwhelming...as opposed to Urena, which I greatly enjoyed. but I'd guess one-star is fair. it's just that it seemed like every course relied upon cheese as a crutch.
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Totally understand that - but I thought we had all decided for ScorpioEL that the private dining room wasn't going to work...anyway, do most restaurants, in your experience, do the private dining room for lunch? And, are there two or three turns at lunch? ← restaurants will do private dining anytime that it makes economic sense for them to do so...including times when they're not normally open... large parties are almost always forced to go with a separate fixed menu that's more expensive than the normal check. especially during holiday season. that's the big factor here...it's not August. it's November/December. restaurant profit-maximization months.
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Didn't they not too long ago get a new executive chef? ← yes, Daniel Humm. it's now very critically acclaimed and more expensive than before.
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numerous places do a $25 lunch year round (that's why RW is such a joke)....that doesn't mean they'll do it for a group of 25 people. heck, JG or Perry Street come in at that price point for lunch....but I kind of doubt they'd be willing to offer that deal to a large group during holiday season...
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It's a comment based on numerous independent assertions I've seen made by a number of people both in past discussions in this forum and elsewhere. And the assertion is that "most" (but certainly not all) of the NYC Chinatown Vietnamese restaurants are run by Chinese operators rather than by Vietnamese. As for the claim that many people make regarding the food in these places as being "less authentic" for that reason - I'm inclined to be skeptical. Does your first hand experience contradict the assertions? Just curious. ← oh no...I don't have the foggiest clue. I'd just seen that observation come up here before.
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yup. and that's not including tax and tip. plus restaurants often mandate a specific set menu that's somewhat more expensive for large groups doing private dining (that's why Lupa's out). frankly, at that budget I'd forget about getting a separate room and just concentrate on trying to find somewhere you can afford that will seat a group that large. maybe you'll luck out and they'll have a separate room. does anyone know if La Nacional serves lunch?
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it's been discussed. the consensus here is the same as anywhere else (including Bruni's devastating critique): the food sucks. the crowd is entirely B&T couples getting engaged or having their anniversaries. the decor is tacky or romantic (there are differences of opinion). it's kind of like Tavern on the Green or Tao...in the sense that it does a phenomenal amount of business...just not NY'ers. edit: I think Town is normally open on Christmas Day.
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that NYC Vietnamese restaurants are run by ethnic Chinese?
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well, Alto is not happening on that budget. neither is Lupa. Craftbar could probably do it. not sure about 5 Ninth.
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tripe salad is a must. lamb shoulder if it's on the menu. chawan mushi squid salad. brussel sprouts any seafood dish
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not a dessert person but I liked the cayenne-chocolate. the pepper was worth eating. yeah, walnuts might have worked well with the endive. maybe more acidity as well (liked the pomegranate but thought it was a little sweet and the endive kind of one note)
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much prettier space than Uovo. good wine, cocktail and beer program. service was fine (albeit the place was two-thirds empty on Sunday night). octopus was cooked properly (a rarity!) a tripe stew special app was ok. with Ssam Bar up the block and it's amazing tripe salad...this inevitably was kind of lost in the comparison. lamb burger is huge and bleh. good frites though. pork belly and sausage entree was huge and pretty good..especially the sausage. fried scallions were a fun side order. portions are quite large (other than the octopus), prices pretty cheap. food needs polish.
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loved the peanut butter-foie cookie and the black cod with sunchoke puree. also a fan of the "bacon and eggs". didn't think the endive salad worked at all. it needed something else. among the wines, the soave was an absolute standout. an absolutely terrific evening...congrats to Jessika, the guest of honor and to the Bite Club crew on a job well done.
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all I know is that according to my googling, stoofvlees is simply another name for Belgian carbonnade....which is basically a boef bourgignon with beer instead of wine. the Carbonnade at resto happens to include frites (other recipes call for it to be served over egg noodles (the way I've made it)). if the version at Markt includes frites, so much the better. I don't know if the one at Cafe Luxembourg does (and that place sucks anyway). but I can definitively say that if you order the carbonnade at Resto you'll get frites with stoofvlees.
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heh...myself and DaveH are the other two...
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for Cantonese or Hong Kong style I'll take Vancouver. but agreed that I haven't had Sichuan food of the NY level in Vancouver. I've been in Toronto many times but haven't had Chinese there.
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no
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they have it...sort of...at Resto. according to my googling, stoofvlees is carbonnade...which they serve at Resto with a pile of frites at the bottom. frites are also served ala carte with a variety of sauces...none of them are carbonnade based but one is a gribiche...
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the texture was different..sort of creamy and the flavor was extremely mild.
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it's insanely stupid (and I told them as much) because it doesn't weight the critics by influence. it's moronic.
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some dishes stay the same, some change with the seasons. something had been done to the horseradish...I don't know what...and then it was kind of grated over the halibut.
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I make it here all too rarely. it's that damn wait...(not that they're complaining about the popularity). we lucked out last night. only about a half hour wait when we stopped by a little after 9. the sliders are as good as ever. tried a new (to me anyway) artichoke app. fried and served with arugula in a lemony-parmesan broth. liked the broth. thought the artichoke was bland. a horseradish topped halibut served with chive and lemon mashed potatoes was an interesting dish. note to the two-star detractors up the thread: this was exactly the sort of dish one sees at classic two (and a few years back, three) star restaurants....as soon as I saw and tasted it I thought "this is so totally Union Square Cafe"....it was absolutely perfectly cooked, the horseradish showed excellent technique, and the dish was completely boring. so, yeah, they can do that food just fine. I'd rather that they not thank you very much. the pork chop is, of course, still insanely good. I'm still drooling. it reminds me of a really good steak. has that same crispy, robustly seasoned exterior, and that awesome interior juiciness...it's missing that minerality that you get from a good dry-aged steak...but it's as good as pork can be.