brooklyncook

I'd gone here back in September 2003 for a wedding, and found the food to be absolutely fantastic. Amongst other things, I had a fabulous lobster bisque, and an apple sorbet with a dried super-thin slice of Granny Smith apple. Quite possibly one of the best dining experiences I had.

Sir, I echo your sentiment. I just had lunch there this afternoon with three cohorts, having heard numerous great things about the place. The sauces that accompanied the various dumplings we ordered (the duck, the chicken, the traditional, the shrimp) were quite good, we thought. The dumplings themselves? Well, both steamed and fried, they were good -- but nothing really "leapt out" at us. I didn't bite into a Peking duck dumpling and find myself amazed at the flavor. It's not that I set extremely high expectations, but when you're getting a dumpling that's different from the norm, I think you should at least be wowed by a different flavor. The restaurant itself is quite nice; the look of the place is very sleek and cool, and the staff were friendly. I also enjoyed the music; it's the first dumpling joint I've been in that went from Jem to The Roots to Grace Jones. I would definitely go back to at least try the food again.

Well, then it's going to have to be next week. We did the same thing at the Dino -- opened for dinners only, and then opened on a broader scale. It's probably one of the best way to acclimate new employees.

Well, that kills that idea. ;)

I have the "flames" symbol (from a Flammable sign) on the inside of my left wrist, from all the grill work and bbq that I've done over the years. I have a couple of tattoo designs in the works, but I don't want to give those up until I've actually got them. :)

My game plan is to check it out after work tomorrow, given that I'm right down the street at the culinary school.

Oh, we were all over the place. Flew in Thursday night, and headed to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for a blue cheese burger with Stilton. Friday was Borough Market for the chorizo sandwich and a scoop of maple walnut ice cream. Later, we put back some pints of Magner's at this pub near the London Underground Museum, and ended up at S&M for a dinner of sausages and mash. I went with the Cumberland, the Wild Boar, and the Thai Pork sausages. Fantastic! Saturday, we went to Brick Lane for samosas and Red Stripe. Then we were off to Notting Hill to do a tad of shopping. We ended up at Sainsbury's to pick up food for our weekend at our friend's cottage in Grasmere. On the way to Grasmere (on the M1), the timing belt blew and we ended up at the services in Scratchwood (?). Finally took the last train out from London Euston to Manchester, and drove the remainder of the way to Grasmere. Had a lot of good home cooking there, stopped at a couple of pubs (the Badger Bar was one) and snagged some Grasmere Gingerbread before heading back to Manchester on Monday afternoon. We missed our train out of Manchester, so we dined on Indian food and then took the later train to London. Tuesday was a trip to Harry Ramsden's...honestly, we've got a chip shop over here in Brooklyn that does better fish & chips. I was a little disappointed. And then Tuesday night, we flew back to NYC. The high point of the whole trip? I am now in love with Branston pickle.

Thanks to all for your advice in this thread. We had a great time -- the first full day there, we ended up at Borough Market, and got our chorizo sandwiches, which were fantastic and simple. We ended up all over London, as well as Manchester, and spent a few days up in the Lake District. It was fantastic, and we dined incredibly well.

The support of them, from what I understand. Personally, I've never worn them, but I've asked the same question. :)

Do you know where, or would the Borough Market site perhaps have this info? I'm a chorizo fanatic.

What, we wouldn't stand on the left, like driving? ;) No worries -- I've mastered the fine art of escalator etiquette. If only the few million others here in NYC could figure it out... Another question, and I'm not sure if this should be a separate thread or not -- as far as 'local cuisine' goes, is there anything I should look out for? Special 'local favorites,' for lack of a better phrase to describe it? I'm even curious about good local beer/ale.

Great -- I've heard a few things about Borough Market so far, and between the recent issue of Gourmet focusing on London, as well as a piece in last week's NY Times, I'm already sold on it. I'll check out that gastropubs link; thank you all for the help! :) We're flying out of Newark on Thursday morning early, and promise not to stand around and snap pictures like tourists are apt to do. ;)

Hello! My girlfriend and I are going to London this Thursday for a few days, and we're on something of a limited budget. Does anyone have good recommendations for cheap and GOOD eats in London? General or specific suggestions?

Any idea what the hours are? I'm just down the street where I work, and I'd definitely like to be one of the first in there to beat the crowd. :)

You may be right. I'm not sure why Taste of India was in my head. I think I have a cookbook somewhere called that. The food was actually hot -- that wasn't an issue. Just the quality -- you could tell it was a matter of the food sitting and not being delivered shortly thereafter (i.e. the pakora wrapped in foil).

I had to get this experience off my chest, figuring that maybe someone else would read it and save themselves the trouble that I went through. I called up Taste of India on 5th Ave. in Park Slope on Friday night, hungry for some good Indian food. The gentleman on the phone seemed, if anything, rushed. "I'd like the chicken pakora, please." "Chicken pakora -- okay, your phone number?" "Well, I'd also like an order of naan -- "Naan." "-- and an order of beef durku." "Beef durku, okay, and your phone number?" I gave him the phone number, and I could see him practically lunging to put the phone back on the cradle when I said, "Wait, is it possible to pay with a credit card?" "Oh, your order has to be $15; you could get..." I forget what he suggested, but I opted for an order of vegetable pakora, because I am simply nuts about pakora. It's fantastic. But I digress. The food was ordered, and I waited. Waited some more. Patience is a virtue. Finally, 40 minutes or so later, the bell rings, and this gentleman delivers the food -- which came to $18 and some change. I tipped him, all was fair, and he left. Then it struck me that an order of vegetable pakora was either $2.95 or $3.95; either way, the total was off somehow. And then I opened the bag. No chicken pakora. I called them back. Long story short, the guy said he DIDN'T HEAR ME SAY CHICKEN PAKORA, which I found fascinating, since he repeated it back to me. (He had said he was the guy who took the order.) "Oh, we didn't charge you for that." Then how, exactly, did we arrive at a total of $18 and some change, given that I was charged for the other items? I couldn't get a straight answer. Hung up the phone, ripped up the menu, went through the food -- which was mediocre at best. It's a given, you can see, that I will NEVER order or even dine at that place again. Has anyone else had severely bad occurrences with restaurants like this? And in advance, my apologies if this is in the wrong thread/forum. I did look around first; I know that's a pet peeve to some.

Where is this place on 23rd? My curiosity's piqued!

Well, my girlfriend and I opted for Wogie's tonight, and it was well worth the visit. Yuengling drafts for $3? A steal compared to other parts of the city. The cheese steaks were fantastic, and accompanied with waffle fries, the perfect meal to cap off a long day. I don't really know how they'd rank on the spectrum of cheese steaks overall, but I was impressed.

I agree. Personally, I don't think Los Pollitos' chicken is anything earth-shattering. I've had chicken like this multiple times, and nothing really makes it stand out.

Are there any places that weren't mentioned in the list published?

Thanks for snagging the list; I was running back up the stairs in my school trying to recite the rest in my head and failed to remember them all. :) Yeah, I agree -- takeout from most places tends to get soggy if it's not "aerated." At my last place of work, we'd punch holes in the styrofoam containers we sent fries out in, so they'd have a bit more longevity than without the holes. If anyone's got thoughts on the other joints, I'd love to hear them. After seeing the picture of a philly steak in the TONY issue, it had me hankering for one tonight.

I don't have the magazine right on me (wish I did), but I can recall two places: 99 Miles From Philly Carl's Steaks There's a newsstand right next door to where I work here; let me run downstairs and leaf through one of their copies to get the full list.

Time Out NY just came out with a brief listing of six (seven, technically) joints in NYC to get a decent Philly steak. Having not had one for years, I'm putting it to you all -- where's the best place to get one? I'd link to the TONY article, but it's not available online, unfortunately.

A couple of points: 1. No "hole in the wall joint" is going to be that BIG. Since this isn't the first time you've commented on the decor, I can only presume it seriously affected your enjoyment of the food. 2. The sauce on your ribs, your pork, your chicken = the same stuff in those bottles. The. same. sauce. The only difference is that the sauce in the bottles isn't hot, it's room temperature. 3. One of the people you had lunch with has eaten at their Syracuse branch many times, yet "she's also not sure how great the food is in Syracuse"? I think you're going with the logic of p = Manhattan Dino's food wasn't that good (your opinion) q = Syracuse Dino's food is the same food so therefore, If p is true, and q is true, than z = it must be a cultural thing, and the food's not good at any location, and people are going there just to eat in a decorated restaurant. That's the overall vibe I'm feeling from you at this point.

Well, let's go with that. For starters, let's be fair -- the food writers Sietsma and Severson didn't seem to care for it, whereas the NY Press writer was somewhat indifferent. She did write that she'd go somewhere where one dish excelled -- she notes Daisy May's Beer-Can Chicken - versus a place where everything in the meal is above-average. So would I call that three bad reviews? Nein. Now, do they really need to "know barbeque" to review it? Perhaps not, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have a bit of background in the subject. Comparing the Dino to Blue Smoke on a local level would make sense; comparing the Dino to authentic Texas barbeque would as well. Comparing the Manhattan Dino to the Syracuse Dino (and not having even been there themselves) -- no sense. It'd make more sense for one of you (who's travelled the Southern locales) to review the restaurant. The comment on "there are ordinary people...who may not like what Dinosaur gives them" -- well, of course. Given that the reviewers didn't like what they got, that in turn denotes the inconsistency you suspect? Or does that just show that three ordinary people didn't get what they thought "authentic" barbeque should be?