Hottest Table in Town

Seriously, how hot was it yesterday? Not only outside, but also at the new 5 star restaurant, Torrisi Italian Specialties. Last night's dinner was one for the books. After reading Adam Platt's review my sister and I knew we had to go ASAP. Last night was the night and I rushed out of the office at 5:30 on the dot to make it down to Mulberry Street in time for the first seating. They almost closed the doors on me, but I made it just in time to get a table at the 18 person restaurant. If you haven't heard of this place, then you don't read NYmag, NYTimes, Serious Eats or any other food blog because they have been raving about it since it opened. Just recently they started serving a pre-fixe $50 a person Italian/American dinner and the menu changes daily. Their made to order mozzarella and one of a kind gnocchi drew me in, but everything else I tasted made it one of the best meals I've had in a while.

There's no need for a menu at Torrisi because there is no choosing necessary, except for your entree (meat or fish). They first bring you the mozzarella drenched in olive oil and crunchy garlic bread with a hint of oregano to go with. So fresh I ate it by itself first. Then the antipastis keep on coming. A green bean salad, escarole salad with aged goat cheese, cucumber salad with aged tongue that tasted just like corned beef and these things called salami bread. I'm still not sure if it was actually salami or not but it was topped with a salt cod and cured lemon. It was a little too salty for me but was a favorite for Jenna.

Next comes the gnocchi made with Dancing Ewe Farm's sheep's milk ricotta they get from the Union Square Market every Friday. They only make this kind of ricotta five months out of the year so its solely a summer pasta. It's topped off with asparagus, cheese and a light cream sauce. Each bite melted in my mouth. The portion is small but it's filling and after finishing it off, it was hard to think about 2 more courses. But they came and we ate them - starting with the entrees. The options were a cod or a pork chop served with vinegar peppers. I ordered the fish and it was delicious. Cooked to perfection obviously in a light tomato broth. I didn't think I liked pork chop until I tried this one though. It was amazing and I don't even know how to describe it. The sauce was light and roasted peppers covered the dish and you had to have the first bite with a slice of the pepper to really get a taste. But once we saw the dessert plate at the table next to ours, we stopped eating the entrees to save room. A plate full of all different kinds of home made Italian cookies came to our table. Rainbow cookies (my favorite), a nut/popcorn cluster, a hudson bourbon puff pastry, a orange riccota waffle cannoli and a piece of Mast Brothers chocolate.

The line for the next seating started forming at 7:30 so we didn't linger to allow some other people the joy we just had experienced. Everyone needs to try to get into Torrisi at least once while they live in New York. If you can't get there before 6:00 when it opens for dinner, then I suggest getting there at around 7:30 to ensure you get a table. The staff is super nice and even held a table of four for an incomplete party. They also post the menu that day on their Web site, so you can start getting excited hours before! I'll admit that New York Mag does a better job at describing the greatness so below is the link: http://nymag.com/restaurants/reviews/underground/65478/

Garden of Soho

Warmer weather is finally here and what better way to celebrate then by eating outside? It's hard to find a restaurant with outside seating that has more than 4 tables and hour long waits so when I heard about Borolo and their outside garden, we had our place. We walked into the restaurant on West Broadway and thought we had hit the jackpot. There wasn't a sole in the ginormous dining room. We checked in with the hostess, told her we wanted to sit outside and she told us to go to the back. Little did we know that no one was sitting inside the restaurant because everyone was sitting outside! We couldn't believe how big and beautiful this back garden was. It was pretty much the same size as the inside dining room and the whole place goes from the front entrance on West Broadway to the back entrance on Thompson. We only had to wait about five minutes for our table and by then we had worked up our appetite.

We didn't want anything that heavy because as you know bathing suit season is coming up fast. So we decided on bunch of things to share - as usual. Unfortunately, the amazing sounding burrata salad with prosciutto and roasted peppers was unavailable so we got the caprese salad, tuna tartare and a spinach salad with feta cheese and strawberries instead. The mozzarella cheese was amazing. It was so fresh and creamy that I almost forgot about the burrata. The tuna tartare was also fresh and light. There wasn't as much avocado as I would have liked but the dish was over all yummy. Lastly, the spinach salad was enjoyable as well. The dressing wasn't over done and there was ample strawberries and cheese for the three of us. The appetizers didn't leave us overly stuffed and we were ready for the next course.

For the three of us we got the sea bass and a side of grilled asparagus. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but the appetizers were big! Two large pieces of fish came over roasted potatoes, olives and olive oil. Not a bone in sight, the fish was moist and very tasty.

Borolo is the perfect Italian spot for a night in the garden. They can accommodate parties of two up to parties of 8 or more (even with round tables)! I am eager to go back to try some of the pastas, especially the ravioli with apples and lamb ragu - intriguing right?

I take you to the Meatball Shop

It was raining and windy last night and almost every New Yorker was on their couch watching their DVR, but me and Traci thought tonight would be a great night to try the Meatball Shop and take our chances on the wait. It was only 30 minutes for a party of two, but don't go there with anymore than that because the wait was an hour or longer for 4. It went by fast once we ordered our $27.00 bottle of wine and caught up.

Next thing we knew we had our table in the front, a blackboard marker in our hand and began check marking the menu. Yes, you write on the menu saying what you want - pretty easy concept and even easier for the wait staff. Hence the name, The Meatball Shop only serves meatballs and sides. You can get them plain, with a sauce, over a side of pasta, mashed potatoes, vegetables, on a hero, in a slider or on a brioche bun.

There are 4 kinds of balls to choose from and a special that changes every night: chicken, beef, pork and vegetarian. The sauces are spicy meat, tomato, mushroom, creamy parm and also a special that changes nightly - last night was a pesto.

It was hard to decide exactly what to try but we decided to get four different kind of sliders, a sandwich and some sides to make sure we covered our basis. The food came out pretty fast and all at one time. The sliders are on the small side (you can see from the picture below) but were easily cut in two. We had to try them first and at the same time, first with the chicken and pesto. It was awesome. The bun was soft, meatball was flavorful and the sauce wasn't over powering at all. Next was the chicken with the creamy parm sauce. It tasted exactly how it sounded and was pretty rich. Perfect to go with a slider, but could never have eaten it on a sandwich or as a sauce - too heavy. The tomato sauce was good, but nothing special and the meat sauce was great. It made us both think of Max's special meat sauce and it wasn't spicy at all. We should have gotten that sauce with our sandwich, but who knew.

The mashed sandwich came with melted mozzarella cheese and a side salad of arugula and apples. We ate that last, the bread was a little too soft and we maybe should have gone with the hero but the meatballs were still delicious. We also got some mashed potatoes which were creamy and so good. You could tell they were home made and they had pieces of the skin in it also. And then we got a side of steamed spinach, but we barely ate it. It didn't have any flavor to it - could have used some garlic powder if anything.

This time I definitely saved room for dessert. They only have one thing on the menu - home made ice cream sandwiches. They have the standard chocolate chip cookies and then they have ginger snap cookies and cookies in between. Regular ice cream flavors like vanilla and chocolate and also espresso, mint and caramel. We went with a chocolate chip cookie with mint ice cream. Not the best choice I have to admit. The mint ice cream was not the kind you would get at Baskin Robbins and it was way too minty. We ate the cookie instead and ordered an extra one on the side. The cookie was soft and really good. There weren't chunks of chocolate chips but it was still chocolaty enough.

We left super stuffed and didn't even break the bank. I feel like I got to taste everything on the menu and can't wait to go back!

Eggcelent Dinner

Yes I did just put Egg and Dinner in the same title, but for good reason. Last night after a successful waffle party in the West Village, we weren't ready to leave yet so we walked into Joseph Leonard, a tiny seven table bistro owned by the former owner of Little Owl and Market Table, Gabriel Stulman. We got the last open table at 7pm and by the time we left there were a few loiters outside waiting for their turn to try the creative menu Joseph Leonard has to offer.

Immediately after sitting down at our table in the corner, I noticed a small container filled with baby gherkin pickles - one of my favorite kind. I've never seen pickles served anywhere other than a deli so this was exciting and I definitely had a handful by the time the waitress arrived.

Other than the pickles, we ordered an array of appetizers and main courses to share between the three of us. We started with the beef tartare special served with a poached egg and onion rings on top, the zucchini tart and the asparagus with a fried egg and pecorino cheese. A lot of egg for dinner, but all added a necessary flavor for the dishes. The beef tartare was amazing. We let the yolk ooze through the beef and finished every bite. The beef had a citrusy flavor to it and the onion rings were super fried but I've had better (the Varsity in Atlanta of course). Next, the zucchini tart, which takes 15 mins to make, was delicious as well. The tart was flaky and hot with an olive tapenade spread on top with thin grilled zucchini slices. We finished that dish as well and moved onto the asparagus. We again, popped the egg and let the yolk ooze onto the dish. You had to combine a bite of asparagus with some of the fried egg and a shave of the cheese to fully take advantage.

For the main courses, we shared a pot of mussels and the skate. The mussels came in a huge bowl, perfect for sharing and a side of fries. The sauce was a light garlic and white wine mixture with pieces of fennel on top. We only got 1 or 2 closed mussels and each one was huge. To finish it off, we had to dip the toasted french bread and left over fries into the sauce after the mussels disappeared. The skate came with two huge pieces in a citrus emulsion with a frisee salad with oranges, pine nuts and olives. Skate is a white flaky fish so it really took on the citrus flavors.

Too full for dessert, we finished our moderately priced wine and walked all the way home to Murray Hill. Each dish was perfect for sharing, and a great portion for the price. The service was great and if you can get in to Joseph Leonard without waiting forever, I highly suggest picking at least one appetizer from the Vegetable section and you can't go wrong with any of the seafood.

Dips & Doughnuts

Saturday morning I woke up feeling refreshed after a 12 hour sleep the night before. I guess I didn't realize how tired I really was last week. Of course the first thought that popped into my head when I awoke was "where am I going to eat brunch today?"

After a short brainstorm later, Lindsey and I decided on Cafe Orlin in the East Village. Much bigger than a cafe, with outside seating, cheap prices and breakfast until 4pm, Cafe Orlin is a staple restaurant and should be added to everyone's lists for breakfast or lunch and maybe even for dinner. The menu is all Middle Eastern with different kind of salads, dips and cheeses but they do also have the standard egg dishes, oatmeal and bagels with lox.

The wait wasn't that long even though it was intimidating walking up seeing groups of people waiting on the side walk. We took the first table available, not being able to wait for a table outside. But if you remember the weather from Saturday, my allergies were in full force so a table inside was even better.

It wasn't hard to pick out what I was going to eat, I spotted it right away after looking at the menu outside. The three of us got the Diana's breakfast - two eggs however you like them with hummus, tabouli and pita on the side. Not a huge lover of tabouli, I got my poached eggs with babaganous and hummus instead. Jodi and Lindsey got their eggs scrambled and we all pretty much joined the clean plate club. You might think that the egg and dip combo was a bit weird, but I didn't really mix them together. I ate my eggs first (breakfast) and then the babaganous and hummus with the pita after (lunch). The perfect brunch. I left satisfied, not too full and not hungry at all and didn't even need a snack until we walked past the Doughnut Plant on our way to the Hester Street Fair. You can't pass the Doughnut Plant and not get one, so we got two and enjoyed every last bite. Highly suggest the coconut and the vanilla bean jelly filled along with the five I tried here.

It's All Greek to Me

It didn't take me long to try again at Pylos after getting shut out a couple of weeks ago. This time we had a reservation so there was nothing stopping us. The menu is authentic Greek and there were many things I had never heard of and had no idea what they were. Jenna knew a couple and Robin had gotten some recommendations so we slowly picked out what we were going to share.

First we started with some appetizers. The saganaki, the meatballs and a Greek salad. Saganaki was just melted cheese in a clay pot, kind of like queso fondito in Mexican restaurants (happy cinco de mayo btw). We ate it with the warm delicious home made pita bread they bring you to start. The meatballs were also good, three came in a serving so that was perfect. But to be honest, they didn't stand out because I don't even remember what they tasted like. I was too busy enjoying the pita, cheese and Greek salad. The salad was a perfect sharing portion and it was a true Greek salad, only had cucumbers, tomatoes, olives and feta cheese. It was delicious, fresh and just the right amount of dressing.

Next we ordered the recommended moussaka and the beef short ribs. The moussaka is my new favorite Greek dish. It reminded me of a lasagna with layers of zucchini, eggplant and a meat sauce with what we think was as potato puree on top. I couldn't stop reaching my fork across the table for another slice. The short rib was also delicious, tender and fell right off the bone. It was served in a red wine sauce that said spicy on the menu but wasn't at all. It also came with mashed potatoes on the side that were creamy and better when dipped in the sauce. As a side, we ordered the big beans (gigantes) roasted in a clay pot served in a tomato sauce. This was the least favorite out of everything we ate, the sauce was just kind of weird.

We were too full for dessert but I will definitely save room for it the next time I'm at Pylos, which I hope is soon. Everything we tried was fresh and the service was great. The menu is huge so there is something to eat for everyone and when you walk out onto 7th street, the options are endless of what to eat next!