not to get too caught up in semantics but if I understand it correctly, you’re saying that both OAD and Yelp have zero worth to you, which is a comparison in and of itself, with the end result of the comparison being that you think they’re both worthless. Maybe analogous to someone saying that both Rombauer and Meiomi are worthless to them, which is an implicit comparison.
Either way, for what it’s worth, I did appreciate Robert bringing up Opinionated About Dining, since I had no idea it existed, and it’s interesting to look at the lists. Very different from Yelp, both have a (nonzero) value to me – like most things, they have their limitations, but they also have something to offer to me, at least.
Reservations at Atoboy in 2 weeks. Looking forward to it based on all the good press and reviews. It sounds like the $30 corkage is he way to go based on posts here and their winelist. In terms of food friendliness to their menu, I am thinking sparkling rose of some sort. Thoughts?
The strawberry cheese mousse cake is worth saving room for, the granita is nice and refreshing, the ginger panna cotta is new but the previous panna cotta was delicious.
Everybody in a 10-people dining group enjoyed the set menu 5-course meal that was served for dinner 2 weeks ago. While I enjoyed all the delicious flavors and the creativeness, I was also the only one who thought that the served portions were a tad small, but made up for it with more courses than the normal prix fixe, which on a couple of visits before, left me wanting for more. Btw, for a large group, they will only do a set menu and charged $46 per (iirc).
Another +1 for Atoboy. We had the sugar snap pea, lotus root, sea bass, asparagus, sunchoke, squid, mackerel, pork jowel, New York strip. Everything was well prepared and tasty.
atoboy last night (due to all the peer pressure above)
the sunchoke dish is seriously delicious and a step better than both the pork and chicken
ellia is indeed a delightful host
thanks to all who mentioned it
Went to the opening night of The Grill (Carbone/Torrisi/Zalaznick) which occupies the old Four Seasons space.
Not many changes to the rooms with an old school theme to the menu and the music play list. Sampled several courses I hadn’t had in many years including Vichysoisse, which had a very healthy serving of caviar on top, as well as Lobster Newburg. Considering it was the first night open to public dining, the service was near perfect and the food very good, but the chef needs to dial back his liberal use of salt in several dishes.
A number of Staggering wines were opened with the best being '90 Dujac Clos la Roche, '90 and '91 DRC RSV, '93 Rousseau Chambertin, '93 La Tache, with honorable mention to '93 Ponsot Clos de la Roche and a FULLY mature '66 Taittinger CdC whose slightly off putting nose relegated it to only honorable mention.
Then again, I love old school dishes that you don’t see anymore (lobster thermidore at Daniel’s Restaurant in Dun Laoghaire is a must order every time I visit Ireland). But the place sounds so ridiculously over the top, almost a caricature, I’ll wait for the reviews.
It’s worth noting, as we probably all saw, Le Coucou won the 2017 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. They also bucked trends with their retro menu (although a modernized-retro menu). I love Le Coucou.
Absolutely loved Atoboy. Had the snap pea, sea bass, squid, sunchoke, pork Jowl, octopus, tofu with crab and radish and some sesame sauce, NY strip and a ginger panna cotta for dessert! Holy moly.
Everything was really delicious. Hard to pick a favorite to be honest. Octopus, pork jowl and sunchoke were special but we enjoyed it all. Service was really quite good as well. BYO’d a bottle of Schramsberg Querencia that worked really well with everything. Walked out paying $170 all in for a killer meal in NYC and enjoyed my own wine.
Just a quick respite from the Atoboy love-fest here.
Dinner at Marta last night, my first even as I live 5 walking minutes away, and liked the Margherita pizza. Good to have a different style from the more common New York pizza.
Also had good dishes of chicken meatballs and the tomahawk-sized pork chop special.
Great no-tipping service and corkage was at a reasonable $25 per bottle.
Dinner last weekend at jajaja, new vegan/mexican place in Chinatown (across the street from Mission Chinese). We actually started with some drinks and apps at Misson. Jajaja is still ironing out kinks, but the menu is really sharp:
Reasonable prices, like $8 for a pair of tacos instead of $16 like at fancy frou frou places. $10 de Maguey Vida Mezcal with a 2oz pour (along with other artisinal offerings), creative decor, good music (I recall hearing Selena, Calle 13 and Tupac) and cheap Tecate. It reminds me a lot of Tacofino Vancouver in what it’s trying to achieve (the food wasn’t quite as tasty, but vegan fish tacos are a tough ask!).
It’s an ideal 20 somethings (especially vegans!) place before a night out, but could also be a nice hip date spot. The food wasn’t mind-blowing, but at the price point and atmosphere it didn’t have to be. They’re not taking reservations, but that’s subject to change (the place just opened).
I recommend it if you’re looking for something light/casual/hip in the area. I wonder if Chinatown will be the next mecca of innovative restaurants, the way that Williamsburg and the LES were in recent years.
WARNING
NY Times review of Atoboy comes out this week. My guess is that reservations will become much harder to come by. Meanwhile a tofu special tonight was the best tofu I’ve had outside of Kyoto.
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