Note to Self:
Thanh LongCrustacean- garlic noodles, $9.50, roasted crab $35.95--$46 total
La Vie- garlic noodles and roasted crab $35.95-- $36 total
PPQ Dungeness Crabs- $33, garlic noodles 6--$36 total
Friday, January 26, 2007
The Search for the Perfect Roasted Crab
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
MarkJoseph Steakhouse
Location: Battery Park, NYC
Last time we talked, Reid and I were excited about hitting up alot of restaurants in NYC. And that we did, and now with our foodie souls satiated and our waistbands looser, we are back to report on our happy experiences!
The first offiical meal that we had was at Papaya King, which I'll go into details later in a Papaya King vs. Gray's Papaya blog. But the meal that we were looking forward to all day was the steakhouse--MarkJoseph's.
SO GOOD. Days later, I still heard Reid muttering "mmm steak..." My boots were knocked off too. I had heard a reputation that MarkJoseph's had one of the best porterhouses in town, but that it was a rather "manly" type of restaurant. So I was quite surprised when I saw that the exterior of the restaurant gave the look of a cozy, classic and understated cafe. The location was awesome too, located by the wharf in a quiet yet very quaint part of town, albeit a tad off the radar of the city bustle. And while food will always reigns supreme for us, the look made me even more happy to eat there. My first impression of the inside was that rare perfect mixture of liveliness yet not noisy, fancy decor yet casualness that put us totally at ease. It's a place where families can have dinners dressed down and couples can have their romantic dates dressed up and people can eat their steaks alone and everyone would feel perfectly comfortable. My biggest pet peeve is when a place's vibe is so cold or so stuffy that Reid and I are reduced to feeling like gawky high schoolers.
Now for the food, which deserves quite a bit of time. I made the tragic mistake of ordering a salad rather than the creamed spinach. And even more sadly, my salad choice of tomatoes and onions turned out to be literally two big slices of tomatoe and a thick slice of onion. Grr. But then the porterhouse for two came, and our sadness evaporated into mouthdrooling states of nirvana where we remained for the rest of the meal. Reid was so very happy with the steak and it was very tender, very tasty, very much the best steak we've had. And to complete an awesome meal, we also got a white Poulley-Froussei that Reid chose and a key lime pie that made me *die* even more. The key lime itself would've made me want to come back.
We left very happy. And I'd recommend MarkJoseph to anyone who is looking for a steakhouse in NYC. I've researched other steakhouses in the city that are reputated to have comparable steaks. But as much as the food made me a huge fan of MarkJoseph's, it was also the great vibe and look of the restaurant that also won me over.
Location: Battery Park, NYC
Last time we talked, Reid and I were excited about hitting up alot of restaurants in NYC. And that we did, and now with our foodie souls satiated and our waistbands looser, we are back to report on our happy experiences!
The first offiical meal that we had was at Papaya King, which I'll go into details later in a Papaya King vs. Gray's Papaya blog. But the meal that we were looking forward to all day was the steakhouse--MarkJoseph's.
SO GOOD. Days later, I still heard Reid muttering "mmm steak..." My boots were knocked off too. I had heard a reputation that MarkJoseph's had one of the best porterhouses in town, but that it was a rather "manly" type of restaurant. So I was quite surprised when I saw that the exterior of the restaurant gave the look of a cozy, classic and understated cafe. The location was awesome too, located by the wharf in a quiet yet very quaint part of town, albeit a tad off the radar of the city bustle. And while food will always reigns supreme for us, the look made me even more happy to eat there. My first impression of the inside was that rare perfect mixture of liveliness yet not noisy, fancy decor yet casualness that put us totally at ease. It's a place where families can have dinners dressed down and couples can have their romantic dates dressed up and people can eat their steaks alone and everyone would feel perfectly comfortable. My biggest pet peeve is when a place's vibe is so cold or so stuffy that Reid and I are reduced to feeling like gawky high schoolers.
Now for the food, which deserves quite a bit of time. I made the tragic mistake of ordering a salad rather than the creamed spinach. And even more sadly, my salad choice of tomatoes and onions turned out to be literally two big slices of tomatoe and a thick slice of onion. Grr. But then the porterhouse for two came, and our sadness evaporated into mouthdrooling states of nirvana where we remained for the rest of the meal. Reid was so very happy with the steak and it was very tender, very tasty, very much the best steak we've had. And to complete an awesome meal, we also got a white Poulley-Froussei that Reid chose and a key lime pie that made me *die* even more. The key lime itself would've made me want to come back.
We left very happy. And I'd recommend MarkJoseph to anyone who is looking for a steakhouse in NYC. I've researched other steakhouses in the city that are reputated to have comparable steaks. But as much as the food made me a huge fan of MarkJoseph's, it was also the great vibe and look of the restaurant that also won me over.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Momoya's for tasty sushi
570 N Shoreline Blvd
Mountain View, CA
650-967-6166
$$
Now I'm pretty picky about my sushi, meaning that ever since I went to Tokyo, it's been really hard to top the excellent fish and presentations I experience there. Miyake's hasn't cut it at all and it's extremely painful to go to an expensive sushi restaurant in the Bay Area knowing you could be eating much better food for much less in Japan.
I think that I've found the perfect balance between price and appetite in Momoya Sushi. Located a short drive from Stanford campus, Kara and Chris had been telling me to go there for ages, but it's something that's always fallen off my radar screen. Luckily, with finals over and everyone heading home, Kara organized a group outing to Momoyas.
The food: plentiful, tasty, and reasonably price. I got some nice cuts of sashimi and shrimp tempura, along with miso soup and a salad for $15. I also got a "Dynamite" Roll, one of their many specialty rolls - this one was deep fried tuna sushi. The roll I got came with 6 pieces and they were quite large; well worth the $6. There was a mix of food in our 8 person group - from beef katsu to chicken domburi to numerous rolls. Ahh, so about those rolls. Each roll came with 6 to 8 pieces and the chefs did not hold back on using large pieces of fish, avocado, crab, etc to make them. Really fresh ingredients and presented nicely on traditional Japanese dishes.
Besides the excellent food, I found the service quick excellent. Tom jokingly said that he would storm out of the restaurant and go to Jack-n-the-Box across the street if the waitress did not greet us by saying "Konbawa." Even though she didn't, he stayed and enjoyed himself and the waitress proved to be extremely nice, filling our water consistently and also giving us some salmon skin rolls on the house. Definitely one of the best sushi restaurants I've been to around the area. You can spend $15-20 and be sufficiently full!
Mountain View, CA
650-967-6166
$$
Now I'm pretty picky about my sushi, meaning that ever since I went to Tokyo, it's been really hard to top the excellent fish and presentations I experience there. Miyake's hasn't cut it at all and it's extremely painful to go to an expensive sushi restaurant in the Bay Area knowing you could be eating much better food for much less in Japan.
I think that I've found the perfect balance between price and appetite in Momoya Sushi. Located a short drive from Stanford campus, Kara and Chris had been telling me to go there for ages, but it's something that's always fallen off my radar screen. Luckily, with finals over and everyone heading home, Kara organized a group outing to Momoyas.
The food: plentiful, tasty, and reasonably price. I got some nice cuts of sashimi and shrimp tempura, along with miso soup and a salad for $15. I also got a "Dynamite" Roll, one of their many specialty rolls - this one was deep fried tuna sushi. The roll I got came with 6 pieces and they were quite large; well worth the $6. There was a mix of food in our 8 person group - from beef katsu to chicken domburi to numerous rolls. Ahh, so about those rolls. Each roll came with 6 to 8 pieces and the chefs did not hold back on using large pieces of fish, avocado, crab, etc to make them. Really fresh ingredients and presented nicely on traditional Japanese dishes.
Besides the excellent food, I found the service quick excellent. Tom jokingly said that he would storm out of the restaurant and go to Jack-n-the-Box across the street if the waitress did not greet us by saying "Konbawa." Even though she didn't, he stayed and enjoyed himself and the waitress proved to be extremely nice, filling our water consistently and also giving us some salmon skin rolls on the house. Definitely one of the best sushi restaurants I've been to around the area. You can spend $15-20 and be sufficiently full!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
If you ever going to NY
I've been planning for a trip to NY for this winter break. The Big Three of my main foodie sites that I've been using to plan all of my restaurant adventures:
- www.chowhound.com
- www.yelp.com
-www.menupages.com
How I find my food:
Step 1) stalk random New Yorkers' food blogs for good restaurant recommendations
Step 2) Cross-reference restaurants on Chowhound and Yelp for reviews.
Step 3) If 75% of ppl or more give the restaurants a thumbs up, then I go to the final stage of clicking on Menupages to check the prices and selections.
The site www.menupages.com is beyond awesome. It has the full menu (sometimes no lunch menu though) of 99% restaurant in New York, including some of the tiny Chinatown diners. That is comprehensive! I now know exactly how much I'm going to spend on every meal. Of course this can be sad too when you don't have any new surprises when you open that menu in the actual restaurant, but totally awesome for the obsessive foodie like me.
- www.chowhound.com
- www.yelp.com
-www.menupages.com
How I find my food:
Step 1) stalk random New Yorkers' food blogs for good restaurant recommendations
Step 2) Cross-reference restaurants on Chowhound and Yelp for reviews.
Step 3) If 75% of ppl or more give the restaurants a thumbs up, then I go to the final stage of clicking on Menupages to check the prices and selections.
The site www.menupages.com is beyond awesome. It has the full menu (sometimes no lunch menu though) of 99% restaurant in New York, including some of the tiny Chinatown diners. That is comprehensive! I now know exactly how much I'm going to spend on every meal. Of course this can be sad too when you don't have any new surprises when you open that menu in the actual restaurant, but totally awesome for the obsessive foodie like me.
Tapas Bar
Tapas Bar
Location: Palo Alto
Price: $$- $$$
So the other night, Reid strongly encouraged us to go to Tapas, a new restaurant in Palo Alto (replaced Pasta Pomerdero) next to Classico Gelato. He had gone a while back with relatives and must've quite liked it because everytime we wondered where to eat, he would throw it out there....and get thwarted, until this time when he had the final decisionmaking say. Anyhoo, my final opinion on the place is that it was pretty yummy, but I wouldn't go there more than...once every 4 months or so.
That's not a bad review. Some of the food we got was really good--the two best dishes they have are their bruschettas and their duck tacos. The duck tacos were so good we got two of them. But other than that, the other dishes weren't outstanding and there weren't many other selections. Also for a tapas place, they only had red sangria, not white, and from the way they mixed their drinks based on a martini I got, it's a little overly potent.
The ambience is typical of the higher end Palo Alto cafes, and the location is great when you want to do the triumvurate dinner, gelato, and an art house movie across the street. It's basically a typical Palo Alto restaurant where everything is decent-good but nothing will make it a favorite restaurant to frequently go back to. It's on the pricey side, but if you stick to 4 dishes or so, it's affordable for 2 ppl for a nice night out. I'd go back for more duck tapas and bruschettas, but it's one of those things you can only crave every so often.
Location: Palo Alto
Price: $$- $$$
So the other night, Reid strongly encouraged us to go to Tapas, a new restaurant in Palo Alto (replaced Pasta Pomerdero) next to Classico Gelato. He had gone a while back with relatives and must've quite liked it because everytime we wondered where to eat, he would throw it out there....and get thwarted, until this time when he had the final decisionmaking say. Anyhoo, my final opinion on the place is that it was pretty yummy, but I wouldn't go there more than...once every 4 months or so.
That's not a bad review. Some of the food we got was really good--the two best dishes they have are their bruschettas and their duck tacos. The duck tacos were so good we got two of them. But other than that, the other dishes weren't outstanding and there weren't many other selections. Also for a tapas place, they only had red sangria, not white, and from the way they mixed their drinks based on a martini I got, it's a little overly potent.
The ambience is typical of the higher end Palo Alto cafes, and the location is great when you want to do the triumvurate dinner, gelato, and an art house movie across the street. It's basically a typical Palo Alto restaurant where everything is decent-good but nothing will make it a favorite restaurant to frequently go back to. It's on the pricey side, but if you stick to 4 dishes or so, it's affordable for 2 ppl for a nice night out. I'd go back for more duck tapas and bruschettas, but it's one of those things you can only crave every so often.
Thai Cottage II
Thai Cottage II
Location: Sugar Land, TX
Price: $
Just a quick note here- if you ever go to Sugar Land, TX. Please go to Thai Cottage at lunch, my penultimate favorite restuarant of all time and get the PRINCESS CHICKEN dish. That's it, nothing else. I dream of this dish all year long. Not that the other dishes aren't good, but this is the best. Also get yummy Thai soup and 2 fantastic spring rolls for the lovely price of $5.95 including tax.
The decor is great, the ambience is fantastic, and well located next to all the stores in Sugar Land. Support Thai Cottage!
Location: Sugar Land, TX
Price: $
Just a quick note here- if you ever go to Sugar Land, TX. Please go to Thai Cottage at lunch, my penultimate favorite restuarant of all time and get the PRINCESS CHICKEN dish. That's it, nothing else. I dream of this dish all year long. Not that the other dishes aren't good, but this is the best. Also get yummy Thai soup and 2 fantastic spring rolls for the lovely price of $5.95 including tax.
The decor is great, the ambience is fantastic, and well located next to all the stores in Sugar Land. Support Thai Cottage!
Loon Wah
Loon Wah
Dim sum for 2: $25
Yuuuuuum. I've been trying to convince Reid, and anybody else to come here for the past year and ahalf. He was a little skeptical at the beginning after reading some online reviews that were not the most *glowing* but after the meal, was a big fan. I am definitely an online review believer too but it's restaurants like these that make me take pause and figure it's better to take a risk and try anything once.
Anyways, we got all the usual favorites- shrimp shu mai, bbq pork buns, shrimp rice noodles, turnip cakes, some kind of shrimp dumpling, and fried shrimp balls. The restaurant also specializes in Mandarin dim sum too. Now before you sputter that there is no such thing as that, just think of the comfort basics like hot sweet soy milk and pan-fried bread. The soy milk was FANTASTIC, better than alot of the ones I've had in Northern China, the pan fried bread was good comfort food, and everything else was in top shape. I have to give a special shout out to the bbq pork buns which are better than most of the other ones I've had in the Bay Area thus far. The only misfire was the weird shrimp dumplings which had some weird stuffing in them, guess we ordered the wrong ones.
Decor is fair to good for a Chinese dim sum restaurant, service was efficient, wish they had done the carts rather than ordering off a menu, but it was nice to get all the plates at once too so we could dig in.
Also just a 20 minute drive from Stanford, closest dim sum restaurant yet, and conveniently located across the street from a Nob Hill which has good organic higher-end food, including the best Cotswald cheese and apple sausages I've ever tasted. End Yummmmmmmmmm.
Dim sum for 2: $25
Yuuuuuum. I've been trying to convince Reid, and anybody else to come here for the past year and ahalf. He was a little skeptical at the beginning after reading some online reviews that were not the most *glowing* but after the meal, was a big fan. I am definitely an online review believer too but it's restaurants like these that make me take pause and figure it's better to take a risk and try anything once.
Anyways, we got all the usual favorites- shrimp shu mai, bbq pork buns, shrimp rice noodles, turnip cakes, some kind of shrimp dumpling, and fried shrimp balls. The restaurant also specializes in Mandarin dim sum too. Now before you sputter that there is no such thing as that, just think of the comfort basics like hot sweet soy milk and pan-fried bread. The soy milk was FANTASTIC, better than alot of the ones I've had in Northern China, the pan fried bread was good comfort food, and everything else was in top shape. I have to give a special shout out to the bbq pork buns which are better than most of the other ones I've had in the Bay Area thus far. The only misfire was the weird shrimp dumplings which had some weird stuffing in them, guess we ordered the wrong ones.
Decor is fair to good for a Chinese dim sum restaurant, service was efficient, wish they had done the carts rather than ordering off a menu, but it was nice to get all the plates at once too so we could dig in.
Also just a 20 minute drive from Stanford, closest dim sum restaurant yet, and conveniently located across the street from a Nob Hill which has good organic higher-end food, including the best Cotswald cheese and apple sausages I've ever tasted. End Yummmmmmmmmm.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
L&L Hawaiian BBQ
3890 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306
650-858-2878
$
L&L Hawaiian BBQ, a chain fastfood restaurant that has a niche market in the Hawaiian food business, recently opened up a small shop down the street from Stanford, and having spent many vacations in Hawaii eating so-called "Hawaiian" food, I knew I had to take Jenny there to expose her to this unique cuisine.
It did not disappoint. For those of you who haven't had Hawaiian BBQ before, let me warn you that it is not for small eaters, vegetarians, or health conscious dieters. Their menu is either meat or seafood. Highlights include chicken katsu, a breaded chicken cutlet with katsu sauce to dip in (tastes like a better version of sweet and sour sauce), or the Hawaiian BBQ mix, which includes Hawaiian beef, chicken, and shortribs. Each dish comes with white rice and macaroni salad. The dishes portions are huge, so for $4.25, the mini-plates will still sufficiently stuff one person. Be sure to also get one of the Hawaiian Sun brand juices - guava is my favorite. They go great with the food.
Bottom line: If you're hungry, come here. If you're looking for quick, cheap food, come here. If you're looking to impress a date, skip it - the styrofoam trays aren't incredibly romantic.
650-858-2878
$
L&L Hawaiian BBQ, a chain fastfood restaurant that has a niche market in the Hawaiian food business, recently opened up a small shop down the street from Stanford, and having spent many vacations in Hawaii eating so-called "Hawaiian" food, I knew I had to take Jenny there to expose her to this unique cuisine.
It did not disappoint. For those of you who haven't had Hawaiian BBQ before, let me warn you that it is not for small eaters, vegetarians, or health conscious dieters. Their menu is either meat or seafood. Highlights include chicken katsu, a breaded chicken cutlet with katsu sauce to dip in (tastes like a better version of sweet and sour sauce), or the Hawaiian BBQ mix, which includes Hawaiian beef, chicken, and shortribs. Each dish comes with white rice and macaroni salad. The dishes portions are huge, so for $4.25, the mini-plates will still sufficiently stuff one person. Be sure to also get one of the Hawaiian Sun brand juices - guava is my favorite. They go great with the food.
Bottom line: If you're hungry, come here. If you're looking for quick, cheap food, come here. If you're looking to impress a date, skip it - the styrofoam trays aren't incredibly romantic.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Il Fornaio
Yummy but not amazing. The lamb risotto that Reid got was especially flavorful, although it's rather asian in taste. My sausage ravioli was good too, rather thin, not puffy like i had been craving. maybe the best part was dessert, zambioni cream with berries and sorbet in a martini glass. Mmm.
All in all, a good restaurant with a nice atmosphere, but rather pricy. Osteria still reigns as our Italian restaurants of choice in downtown Palo Alto. But maybe we'll walk on over here for dessert.
All in all, a good restaurant with a nice atmosphere, but rather pricy. Osteria still reigns as our Italian restaurants of choice in downtown Palo Alto. But maybe we'll walk on over here for dessert.
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