Maxies Bar and Grill

We've lived in the area for over 6 years now and never tried out the steakhouse 5 blocks away, Angelo and Maxie's. Even though we love steak!! A couple weeks ago we noticed they had opened a little outpost of their steakhouse called Maxie's Bar and Grill. I walked by it one day and noticed they had a lot of plasma televisions and it looked pretty nice.

Once Sunday rolled around both of us wanted to go watch the football games but we were in no mood to sit around a dank bar all day. We decided Maxie's might be a good choice.

We got there right before 1:00 and only about 3 tables were filled, There was an older couple at the bar drinking large martini's (at 1:00 gasp!). I was a little surprised to see that the bar itself only had a view of one of the TVs. The rest were spread out in the dining area.

Since we were watching multiple games I decided to ask the waitress where our best choice would be to sit. They were extremely accommodating and told us to sit wherever and they would make sure to put on the games we wanted.

So Mr. T and I grabbed a seat, ordered some drinks and settled in.

We decided to order a Caesar salad and some chicken wings to split. Why we started with this order and no beef I'll never know. We were in a steakhouse for goodness sake!

Needless to say the wings were pretty bad. One whiff of sauce and I knew it was Franks Red Hot mixed together with some other sauce that gave it a strange fluorescent orange glow. The wings themselves looked big and meaty but were actually about 50% fat. No good.

The Caesar salad was exactly like you would expect at a bar and grill. Good thick dressing- pretty standard salad except that it was pretty big for $4.95! I would get it again just because it's such a great value.

After our disappointment with our wings we decided to try out one of their burgers. They have about 10 different burgers ranging from a Coffee Burger with Roasted Shallots to a Mexican Burger with Salsa and Guacamole!

We finally decided to order the Snake River Kobe Beef Burger with truffle butter and Munster Cheese. They have about six different cheeses you can choose from including goat cheese which I hardly ever see.





The burger itself was cooked perfectly and super juicy. I honestly expected the patty to be a little thicker but it ended up being a nice bun to meat ratio. As you can see the burger came on a Onion Bun. I actually enjoyed the flavor of this roll a lot but I think they should say something on the menu about it in case people prefer plain.

The burger is also supposed to come with shoestring fries but I asked to sub in their waffle fries which they happily did. They were very crunchy around the edges but could have had a little more crunch throughout the middle. Not to bad though. Pretty decent waffle fries.

One small con was that they had way too many waiters on shift for the amount of people. Our waiter was extremely friendly and attentive but sometimes we felt like the others were just hanging out listening to our conversations. I assume this is something they will change though, as they ease into their new space more and get a feel for the times and crowds.

Overall we enjoyed this place. The burger and salad were very good and cheaper than many other places in the neighborhood. On the way out we noticed they had menus out saying they delivered.

We were so happy!!! Our other go-to bar food delivery place has gone severely downhill and we had been looking for a replacement for months!!

So this means we probably wont be back for a while because we will be ordering it 3 times a week but hey- we'll be giving them lots of business!

Momofuku Ssam Bar

My aunt happened to be in town for a conference the other night and we meet her and a friend out for some drinks at The House. After some great conversation and a couple glasses of wine, Mr Trekker & I found ourselves alone once again and feeling pretty hungry.

We didn't want to venture to far away so we decided to head over to The Smith, which had just opened in the former Pizzeria Uno spot. I had seen they had fish tacos listed on their website so I thought we might check it out.

The place itself reminds of Schillor's Liquor Store with it's black and white tiles. We grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered a couple beers.

They have a good selection of beers on tap and the menu looked quite good but we didn't end up staying more than one drink. Why? Because it was kind of creepy.

It seemed like there were about 50 to 60 people working there. There was literally a busboy per table. They all would stand at the back of the restaurant and stare out over the room. I have never seen anything like it.

I'm not sure if it was opening night or maybe they just thought they would be more busy! We just found it really strange so we decided to leave.

Now we were REALLY hungry and just wandering around the East Village when we wandered right by Momofuku Ssam Bar! I love Momofuku!!! And there were two seats left! Success!

We had a seat and took a look at the menus.





I ordered a glass of the first white wine on the list and Mr T ordered the regular Hitachino Ale. The Hitachino Ale was really nice! I've had the white and red ales before and never cared for either of them so I was surprised to like the regular one so much but I did.

We decided to start out with the bread and butter and some pork buns.



I'm not going to talk about the pork buns because I think everyone knows by now how fantastic they are.

The bread on the other hand was pretty good as well. They served it warm with two kinds of butter. The first was a sea salt butter from Vermont and the second was a goat butter from England.

Both were very creamy and rich. I don't think it was worth the $8 price tag since you get bread for free in many places but Mr. T really enjoyed it.




Then we got our Marinated Hanger Steak Ssam minus the kimchi (I hate kimchi). I loved this dish! A friend had ordered it last time we were there and I was so jealous I hadn't done the same.

The meat was cooked perfect and the sauce was great for dipping.

The funny thing about this dish though is that Mr. T didn't like it. He said it had no flavor!

We ended up getting into a minor argument over the taste since I just thought it was excellent.

How can two people have such different tastes over one dish is beyond me. (I think his taste buds were off that night :)

Anyway after our Ssam we decided to splurge for dessert.



This is their PB & J concoction.

This was kind of disappointing to be honest. The peanut butter was a little too crunchy and the concord jelly was a little too sweet for me. I'm a huge peanut butter and jelly fan but this just didn't do it.

Oh well- I have way too many desserts that I'm already obsessed with anyways!

I woke up the next day and immediately wanted to go back and get another Ssam! I think they put something in their food that makes you crave it. Unfortunately Mr T didn't feel the same way so we didn't. Until next time Ssam!!

Momofuku

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic day of Turkey & Trimmings!!!!

A Punch Brunch

Friends were in town, so we decided to go out to brunch Saturday at Punch. Punch is kind of a weird place. I always feel like I'm at a hotel restaurant when I'm inside and I'm not really sure why. Once you get past the bar everything is white. Tablecloths, tables, walls; it really feels a little too formal for brunch even though that's not what the place is going for.


We've come here a lot though because it has a pretty great prix-fix. For $14.95 you get a basket of fresh baked muffins and jam, a bloody mary/mimosa, coffee and an entree. Not too shabby!


The mimosas are always great as well. They definitely use some decent champagne and a good juice to liquor ratio.


We were seated immediately and got our menus. The basket of muffins came right away which was nice but then it took about 15 minutes before our waitress came over for our order. This seems to be a constant brunch problem in NY. No one ever seems to be on the same page.


We ordered our entrees and got our drinks.


For my entree I went pretty basic- the Grilled Chicken Caesar salad with a side of Applewood Smoked bacon.

The Cesar salad was awesome!! The dressing was creamy without being too heavy and light on the anchovy flavor.

Mr. T was a little adventurous this morning and decided to get the Lobster Crawfish roll.

This was not the best choice. First of all, when it came out there was a noticeable orange hue to everything. He offered me a bite but the color was so weird that I said no. He ended up eating only the french fries because the seafood had a strange taste to it. Not a good brunch choice.

My friend got the French Toast.

This I did try and it was really good. It was nice and gooey on the inside and came with a vanilla syrup that rocked. I have to say it was almost as good as the french toast we had at Jane.

My other friend ordered the Apple Smoke Bacon and Cheddar Cheese Omelet.

This was also pretty awesome. The bacon was nice and crispy without all the grease and grime that you get sometimes and the omelet was nice and fluffy.

Overall, besides Mr T's dish, it was a great brunch. The only problem again comes with the service.

After we ordered our meals we never saw our original waitress again until about 20 minutes after we were done with our dishes. Everything was given to us by various other wait staff.

We had to flag her down so we could get our check and then flag her down again to pay it. No one ever came by when we were eating either to see how our meal was going.

This seems to happen a lot at brunch places but never at dinner. Why is this? Something about the customer turnover in the morning? Wait staff calling in sick on the weekends? Any thoughts?

Which Would You Eat?

So we went to Florida about a month ago and I took lots of pictures of our food and whatnot but never put them on my blog. I feel that since it's called Nyctastes it should only be about food from NY.

Anyway, some of the friends I went with thought I should have used the photos since we went to some really great places! So to appease them I decided I would show a few in the form of a survey which also pretty much sums up our trip.

So...Here goes.

Let's say it's your last day in Florida and you started it off by drinking one of these:



You decide to continue your day by consuming many of these:

Until late into the night when you realize your multiple beverages just won't cut it and you need something to eat.

Unfortunately the only thing open at this hour of night in Florida is the local gas station.

Please tell me. Which one of these would you eat?

Instant Ramen Noodles (chicken flavor), The Cattleman Sandwich (an enormous soy cheeseburger), a Ham & Cheese sub (2 for $5 with the Cattleman), a Stuff-itz (generic pepperoni pizza hot pocket) or a cup of gas station cheese whiz?

Soho Park

So I was out shopping in Soho early one afternoon trying to get some early Christmas shopping done. I HATE dealing with the crowd of people that swarm Broadway between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The holidays turn people into a crazed and unruly bunch. If you don't believe me try walking down Broadway in a week or so. You will never be the same!

So I set out early and went to just about every store imaginable and came up with nothing. I was pretty depressed by the end and my stomach was running on empty. I needed some comforting food fast. That's when I remembered Soho Park.

Soho Park opened about a year ago and is basically just a cafe/ grill sort of place that caters to the SOHO shoppers. I figured I could grab some good food fast and be on my way.

I decided to order some Pomme Frites with a side of Garlic Aioli and a bottle of water.




They gave me this license plate and told me to sit wherever. The license plate was to act as my order number so the waiter could find me.

I thought this was kind of neat and went with the kitschy decor of the place. Since I was solo I just grabbed a seat at the empty bar and got a better look at the place.

For just a grill type place they have a surprising amount of top shelf liquors and some good beers!! For example, they had Kindl Berliner- Weisse, War of 1812 Amber and one of my personal favorites- the Sixpoint Sweet Action!

So I happy relaxing and just taking the place in but I was thirsty. It had been about 10 minutes and my bottle of water had never come. I got the attention of one of the waiters and asked him if I could have my water. He nodded and came back a second later with a glass of ice water.

Now clearly this was not the $2.75 bottle of water that I had paid for. I tried to say something to him but he was gone before I even had a chance to open my mouth.

I figured- oh well- I'll drink this now and get my bottle of water when my fires come. So I sat there and waited. And waited. And waited.

About 20 more minutes went past and I just sat their watching group after group of people get their food. I kept telling myself maybe they had ordered after me. Maybe the fries are backed up. Maybe I'm not invisible!!

Finally I watched a group of six people come in, order their food, receive their food and leave all within about 10 minutes. I had had enough.

Not that I wasn't trying to get someones attention- I was. I had been trying to flag down a waiter forever. I finally got us and went to the counter with my dilemma. They immediately asked me where I was sitting and said it would only be a second. I went and sat back down and my fries came out right away.

Now clearly these were not MY fries. My order had been lost but there was no apology or anything from anyone. I was kind of upset and wanted to complain but I was starving and needed some food.

My basket of frites were decent. Half of them were cooked perfectly crispy and half were a little limp. Sometimes I would get one with tons of salt. Sometimes one with none. I think they must have put an old batch in with a fresh one.

The garlic aioli I didn't care for at all and I ended up using ketchup instead:( So overall, I was pretty disappointed in my meal. In the end I spent about an hour in this place and came out a little less happy than I had going in.

Oh- and I never got that damn bottle of water either.

http://www.sohoparknyc.com/index.php

Cha-an is just my kind of place

So I have a couple posts from a few weeks back ,since our computer decided to break down and we had to send it away. Leaving me a shell of a human being behind!! Just kidding!

Anyway, during this time, I had two of my best friends in the world come visit for a weekend. Yey Me!!! They came in early afternoon on Friday and we kind of just chilled out for a little while and then walked down to the village.

Our first stop was the Stoned Crow for a couple beers. I love the Stoned Crow- It's one of those divey bars where I could chill out at all night and listen to some good music on the jukebox. They have Sixpoint Sweet Action on tap as well, which is always a plus for me.

Once we finished a beer or two we realized we were starving! None of us had really eaten any lunch but we also didn't want to spoil our dinner so we spilt a burger between the 3 of us.

This was actually the first time I have ever eaten at the Crow although I do know the chef is the former burger slinger from Corner Bistro, so I knew it had to be good. And oh boy- it was!!!

Unfortunately there's no picture because we were all so famished we attacked it right away! But it was a perfect medium rare, with a salty char on the outside and a good toppings. A very good burger and pretty cheap by NYC standards as well.

Once Mr. Trekker met us at the bar after work we decided to head over the East Village for drinks at Angel Share. Mr. T felt he had to "catch up" with us since we had been out for a while and sucked down a couple of Groovy cocktails! Man they were good! That place is dangerous with their awesome drinks!

Since the burger did little to cover all of the alcohol we were ingesting we decided to go no further and just have dinner next door at Village Yokocho. We got a table in the back where we could cook our own meat Japanese BBQ style and it was awesome! We ordered WAY too much food and had hardly any room left on the table for our plates! This is really such a great place to go to with a group of friends. Interactive dining:)

We were all incredibly stuffed after dinner but I really needed something sweet. I remembered Cha-an was just down the block so we headed there. The place was full when we walked in but after about a 10 minute wait we got a table.

This place is just a very tiny and cute Japanese Tea House which serves up some of the best desserts in the city.

We sat down and ordered some sake.





This is one of the few places where they pour your sake into a bottle like this. The sake is at the bottom in the clear part and then they put an ice cube in the blue bubble so it keeps the sake nice and cool. Pretty neat!

Then came our desserts!!

Okay, their black sesame creme brulee is to die for!!!! But it was time for something different so this is the Sweet Potato Apple cake with Carmel ice cream on top and the signature cookie! As with all Ch-an desserts this was a heaven!!! The cake itself was super moist and sweet but not sugary (if that makes sense)! Carmel goes perfectly with apples of course and it was just all around tasty!

We couldn't leave without getting one order of Green Tea truffles. I am really starting to become obsessed with the flavor of green tea. Green tea cookies, ice cream, cupcakes (oh yes cupcakes, I'll post about those soon!) The truffles are the most decadent of the bunch and more than one would be too much for me but it was a perfect treat for the end of our meal.

A "Canriffic Saturday"

I've been trying to come up with fun things to do on the weekend that don't involve spending a lot of money. I had read in the paper about this "Canstruction" gallery going on at the New York Design Center. It sounded pretty neat so we decided to check it out.


Canstruction® is basically a design competition held in many cities throughout North America. Teams of architects, engineers, and students compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from canned food. At the end of the competition, all of the canned food used is donated to help in the fight against hunger.


With such a great cause we just had to go. The designs were absolutely amazing. There were so many great pieces- here's a few of my favorites.

Who doesn't love the classic ice cream cone twist!

My favorite game from my younger years! Hungry Hungry Hippo!!

Humpty Dumpty!

This one was my favorite piece of all. With only the naked eye, I couldn't make out what these cans were supposed to represent. As soon as I looked at it though the camera lens however, the Mona Lisa came right into focus. Truly creative and really awe inspiring.

After enjoying such a great show we decided to head down to Union Square and check out the new addition to our neighborhood, Irving Mill, which opened in the spot that previously housed Candela.

Since it had only been open a little over 2 weeks, reservations were hard to come by and we were only able to get a 6:00. I thought we would be the first ones there at this early hour but surprisingly the bar was full and there were about 5 other tables of people already seated!!

First off I really enjoyed the look of the place. They completely changed the decor from the dark, candlelight Candela to a bright, airy place with lovely wooden panels that gave the whole place a great rustic feeling.

Since it was still within the first month I was expecting some hiccups here and there. The first one started at the door. The hostess asked if we wanted to check out coats. I was freezing and declined but Mr. T handed his coat over and it was taken away as the other hostess took us to our table. We were expecting to be handed the usual coat check number but one never came. We thought this was a little odd but decided they probably knew what they were doing and we proceeded to browse the menu.

Our waiter came over and at first I was reminded of the over-the-top personality you sometimes find in an Applebees or Bennigans. He was loud and boisterous, a little too much at first, but truth be told I ended up loving him by the end of the night! He answered our questions and steered us towards a great bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. We had been thinking about doing the tasting menu but it didn't look as exciting as some of the other menu items so we decided to go a la carte.

We placed our orders and a minute later another server came over with a tray of bread and asked whether we wanted white or seven grain. I opted for the seven grain which ended up being the better of the two. The bread had a perfect crisp exterior and chewy soft interior. The butter was also nice in that it was close to room temperature so it spread easily.

Then the kitchen delivered an amuse bouche of Toasted Rounds accompanied by a White Bean and Garbanzo Puree with Radish. I have to say this was pretty unexciting. There was no flavor to the puree and the everything just tasted bland.

Next up came our appetizers.

I ordered the Grilled Quail with Sweet Corn Relish, Cheddar Cheese Grits and Smoked Paprika. This dish had lots of different flavors going on that worked well together. The quail was a bit too salty for my tastes but it was cooked perfectly! The grits had a strange "un-gritty" consistency which was a little odd. If you've ever had the mashed potatoes at Gramercy Tavern it was kind of like that. They tasted good though.

Our other appetizer was the Penne Pasta with Romanesco Cauliflower, Capers, Red Onions, Hazelnuts and Parmesan. I was expecting a little bit more from this dish in terms of flavor combinations and it fell a little flat. The hazelnuts contrasted with the other ingredients and there wasn't enough spice to make anything else really stand out.

For my entree I ordered the Spiced Muscovy Duck Breast. This was fantastic! The duck was a perfect medium rare and came with roasted brussels sprouts, pearl onions and sliced sweet potatoes.

Our other entree was the Beef Short Ribs Braised in Stout Farro, Roasted Tomatoes, Marrow, Horseradish Cream and Stout. This was also fantastic! The short rib was soft and succulent while the horseradish cream played up the rich texture of the meat.

I feel the entrees were where Irving Mill really accomplished what it set out to do. Both of these dishes were not only executed perfectly but clearly focused on the best of the greenmarket while keeping that old rustic flavor. Just spectacular.

But in everyone's life a little bad food must fall. We decided to order a side of Roasted Cheese Pumpkin Purée with Chestnuts, Chestnut Honey and Sage since it sounded interesting. When I asked our waiter to describe it he used the word puree about 4 times and seemed less than thrilled. That should have been my cue that this wasn't a good dish.

This was truly horrible. The consistency was that of watered down baby food and it had a faint taste of burnt nut. Ick!! I think this is a case where the chef has a great idea in theory but it just doesn't work.

I was honestly too full for dessert but I just couldn't help myself when I saw the menu.

I ordered the Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate, Caramel Parfait with Crunchy Meringue and Peanut Brittle.

Holy S**t this was SO good!!! If your a chocolate peanut butter fan this dessert is for you! I was so into eating this I couldn't even pay attention to anything else going on in the room. No conversation's were had during the consumption of this sundae!

So overall I thought the food was great and I intend to go back after they work out some of the kinks. For one, the courses need to be sent out a little slower. I had barely put my fork down on the plate of my appetizer when it was whisked away and my entree was served. When I go out to eat I want to relax and have a leisurely dinner. We were basically inside for a little under an hour from start to finish.

Secondly, they need to work a little better on effective communication between the staff. We got a little nervous about the coat check/no ticket and asked informed our waiter about it before we ordered. He said he would take care of it and we were all set.

Well.. the waiter never brought us a coat ticket and when we got up to leave it took about 10 minutes for him to find our jacket. The place had filled up and Mr. Trekker was basically searching through everyone's coat to try to find his! Luckily he did!

But some kinks were expected and I'm overall quite happy to have this new addition to our neighborhood. I see many chocolate peanut butter parfaits in my future!

Oh- and check out Canstruction to support City Harvest! It's a great cause!

http://www.irvingmill.com/