Supermoon Bakehouse

I may or may not have played hooky from work to come and snatch a smashed choc-nut brownie cruffin on its last day, and if I did, it was totally worth it.

All of the croissants we tried, even the plain, were perfectly flaky.  I was worried that the sweet stuffed croissants (we tried the pistachio rose and chocolate) would be too sweet, but they were nicely balanced.  I thought the pastrami croissant could've used a bit more pastrami, but the flavor was good.

The only let down for me was the triple black donut; the squid ink brioche itself lacked flavor, and the black sesame filling was also not that strong.

Overall good experience, and bonus points for photogenic pastries + shop.

Pure Thai Cookhouse

Had to wait an hour and cut it a bit close before going to our Broadway show afterwards, but it was worth it.  All of the dishes had such good and complex flavors.  It's a small spot and we were rushed in and back out, but the food was good.

The papaya salad and chicken wings were pretty standard but well done.  The wok roasted chili with shrimp was delicious; great heat but so much more than just spice.  The ratchaburi crab and pork dry noodles were also delicious.  The dish was a little bit sweet, and the preparation reminded me of Cantonese noodles with the roasted pork; it was a good fusion dish.  We also tried the Ayutthaya beef noodle soup (special of the night), which had a bit of a tart broth and lots of goods, including beef balls, tripe, short rib, beef loin and strip. We also tried another special curry of the night, and the flavors there were also spot on.

Overall, everything was enjoyable, and maybe I'll have to add this to the Seamless rotation to skip the wait.

          

JeJu Noodle Bar

Overall really good flavors, although some of the dishes were on the salty side.

Ssam buns -- Every noodle shop seems to offer pork buns, but these were pleasantly different.  The sauce was good, the meat was leaner (a plus for me; I don't like it when there's more fat than meat), and the corn and jalapeno garnishes were tasty additions.

  HDB -- I wasn't sure what to expect but wanted to try it given all the positive reviews, and am glad I did.  It was similar to a poke bowl, with vinegar rice, raw fish, veggies, and seaweed.  It was good but on the salty side.  It would've been more refreshing if less salty.

So-Ramyun -- Very delicious and aromatic (veal) broth.  The garlic chips and garlic oil really made this ramyun dish very fragrant.  The broth was milky but not too heavy, and I found myself sipping the broth alone.  Only negative is there aren't a lot of toppings; only few thin slices of beef and then garnishes.

Fish Coop -- Great complexity of flavors in the broth and the toppings.  The confit chicken was very tender, as was the pork belly, although there was only one small piece of pork belly.  There were also some pickled cucumbers and the thicker pieces of seaweed you find in Korean seaweed soup.  Only negative for this one is the broth, while seemingly light, is actually quite salty, and I wasn't really able to drink/sip this broth alone like I did for the so-ramyun.

In terms of service, there are no "traditional" servers and the chefs take your order, which is sort of fun.  Everyone was friendly, although for some reason, our noodles took a very long time to come out (think our order ended up going to another table first), but we enjoyed the meal overall so won't complain.

Stuffed Ice Cream

I found this to be overrated, unfortunately.  A lot of the ice cream flavors sounded fun and good, but after taste testing a few, the only one I actually liked was the Royal Milk Tea, so I got a Cruff with the Royal Milk Tea and the Cookie Monster just because.  The service was very slow and inefficient, and maybe I wouldn't have minded if the doughnut was still warm, but it was not.  To be fair, the doughnut was a decent vehicle to hold the ice cream in, but I would definitely not eat it as a standalone item, and since I didn't particularly care for most of the ice cream flavors I tried either, I'm not sure I get the hype, personally.

Cocoron

Good casual soba spot that will hit the spot.  There's a very extensive selection of hot and cold sobas / soup and dipping options; possibly too many, actually, as it's hard to figure out what you want.  There's also a number of different appetizers you can try.

Most recently, I tried the mera mera hot soba, mentai mochi spring rolls, and steamed chicken meatballs covered with sticky rice.  Everything was good.  I was most excited to try the spring rolls because I love mochi and have never had mochi in spring rolls before, and that was a good dish, although there was barely any mentai (cod roe).  

Overall everything was tasty though.  May not be your highest quality food, but I don't think it will disappoint either.
    

MáLà Project

Flavors and sauces are all really good, but I would caution portions seem to be on the small side.  For a party of 6, we ordered 4 appetizers and got 28 ingredients for our dry pot (doubled down on 14 items), but I think we all left still a bit hungry.  

For appetizers, we got the pig ears in chili oil, the mouthwatering chicken, the lotus root, and the gold and silver manto (with condensed milk!).  The pig ears and chicken had a kick but were not too spicy, but the lotus root and manto with condensed milk balanced out the heat perfectly. 
I wish we ordered some other appetizers, as there were other things that sounded good too.

As for the dry pot itself, we ordered it mild and asked for additional hot sauce on the side, and I would say that the mild spice is pretty mild.  If you like spice, don't be afraid to kick it up a notch.

Emily

The good items (like the burger) were amazing, but there were also a number of less memorable items (pizzas were hit or miss...feel like there should be a better, more consistent standard for being a pizza place).

The Emmy burger was as good as advertised, and it totally lived up to all the hype, which is rare.  Everything was great, from the meat to the cheese to the sauce to the pretzel bread...and everything worked well in combination.  Most memorable burger I've had in a while.

The curly fries that came with the burger were good, but not nearly as good as the crowlers (curly fries topped with miso queso, jalapenos, scallions, olives).  So yes, I would recommend ordering the crowlers even if your burger comes with curly fries.

Of the pizzas, the Detroit-style pizzas were much better than the round pies.  The square pies had a nice crunch but were not too dense.  The Colony had amazing flavor, but the Pig Freaker didn't live up to expectations for us; for a pizza with kimchi and bacon, the flavors were not that standout.  We only tried one round pie, and I found it too chewy and not crispy enough.  

The shredded sprouts were okay, but the buttermilk blue dressing was too heavy for my taste, and the shishito peppers were not that special either, and the pecorino on the shishito peppers didn't stay on the peppers and instead melt into big pieces that then fell off to the side when cool.  

The duck confit sandwich came on the same pretzel bun as the burger, and the sauce was good, but we did share this sandwich and I didn't feel like I got enough duck confit in my portion to really be able to comment; not sure if it was just bad splitting/cutting on our part.

Areppas

Areppas looked promising with its colorful arepas, but sadly it fell a bit short for me.  I tried the Morningside, Uptown, and Downtown.  I got there about 20 minutes before closing on a weekday, and unfortunately they were sold out of the sol and roja arepas, so I could only try the blanca and verde arepas.

Takeaway is the arepas were all really dry, unfortunately.  The verde arepa also didn't seem to have much more flavor than the blanco; not sure if the roja and verde would've been any different.  The fillings on the Morningside (ham, scrambled eggs, cheese) were nothing special, but the fillings for Uptown (pulled pork, avocado, lettuce, jalapeno, tomato) and Downtown (short rib, onion, cheese) were pretty good.  I would prefer a different carb as a conduit to hold my sandwich together though.

Harry & Ida's Luncheonette

I was excited that Harry & Ida's opened up near work and would be offering healthier lunch plates in addition to their signature pastrami sandwich.  In addition, I was most excited about their burnt sugar babka soft serve, but two visits and multiple phone calls later, that soft serve is still not available, despite being on the menu!

Anyway, the pastrami here is very tender despite being cut in thicker chunks like brisket.  Compared to other places, it's less salty, which I like, and is served on a roll instead of slices of rye bread.  The sandwich overall is great.



Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the lunch plate I had.  For your base, you can choose between turnip noodles, egg noodles, grains, or greens; I picked the turnip noodles, which were actually very good -- thin ribbons of turnip.  The sides were less exciting though.  I got the carrots, which were fine but really nothing memorable, and the broccoli stems, which were extremely bitter and overcooked and mushy.  Fortunately for me, I added the bluefish salad on top, and that was good, because I'm not sure I could've kept eating just the bitter broccoli by itself.

My advice would be to stick to the sandwiches.  And hopefully that soft serve will come soon!

Rahi

The food was actually all pretty tasty, but there were enough question marks around service/choice of presentation that made it a less enjoyable experience (and I rarely talk about service and prefer to focus on food).  I should note that we were a party of 4, which I imagine should be a pretty popular party size, yet many of the items only had 3 pieces, which led to awkward sharing; it would've been nice for the server to let us know ahead of time or give us the option to add another piece.

Madrasi Egg Roast -- Very cute and pretty dish.  While delicious and differentiated, this was one of the items that only came in 3, and it was hard to share since the egg was very small...and they only brought out 3 small spoons.

Chili Cheese Toast -- I quite liked the crispy milk bread and creamy cheese on top.

Eggplant Bharta -- This was also delicious.  The eggplant came in a large jar, but for some reason, there were only 2 small triangles of naan.  We asked for more naan, and no surprise, they charged us for that (but didn't mention anything at the time we ordered).



Inked Crab -- Doesn't look pretty, but the soft shell crab was delicious.  Too bad there were only 3 small pieces for the 4 of us to share.


Charcoal Smoked Salmon -- The spices and sauce here were pretty good, although the salmon itself was a bit on the overcooked side.


Lotus Root Kofta -- This was surprisingly heavy, perhaps because of the paneer, but it was delicious.


Cheesecake -- Pretty tasty, but once again, only 3 small pieces.

Portion sizes for everything were on the small side, but the dishes were pretty heavy and we filled up on the naan and sauce.

Fishwiches

I was very excited to try Fishwiches given the reviews, and I finally made it here before closing on a weekday (they're only open Wed-Fri) and asked for staff recommendations on what to order.  We ended up trying a fried cod sandwich,  a tandoori spiced salmon on tater tots, and the mac and fish.

The cod sandwich was okay; really not standout.  The tandoori spice smelled and tasted delicious, but the salmon was extremely dry.  The tator tots were delicious though.  The mac and fish was a let down too; the fish was also dry and extremely fishy smelling, and the mac and cheese itself wasn't that cheesy or creamy.

In a nutshell, the tater tots were the only things that were really good, but we were disappointed by the fish.

    

Naruto Ramen

An okay ramen place when desperate on the UES.  It'll satisfy the craving, but don't expect to be blown away.  While the ramen is passable, the non-ramen items fall really short.  For example, the takoyaki was really doughy and lacked substance (mainly batter).  The curry chicken was quite plain and is mostly curry sauce; they then sprinkle a measly portion of pickles on top and garnish with the most ordinary salad on the side.

The ramen is better.  I was initially pleased by the healthy portion of veggies on the mega ramen, but then I saw they use frozen vegetables...disappointing.  The broth and chewiness of the noodles were fine though.
  

Patisserie Chanson

**Update: I came back and got the black sesame soft serve with kouign amann pieces on what was quite possibly the last warm day of 2017, and boy was I rewarded with amazing deliciousness.  Two thumbs up!



Beautiful bakery -- the kind where you want to spend an entire afternoon sipping coffee and trying one of everything.  The set-up is clean and chic, and all the pastries in the display case are enticingly pretty.

For a first visit, I got the black sesame kouign amann and tried a bit of my friend's earl grey blood orange chocolate cake; both were great.  The black sesame kouign amann seemed a bit hard at first when I was trying to be delicate and was just breaking off pieces from the top, but the interior was perfectly soft and buttery and airy...so just bite into it and you'll get a nice mix of crunch from the caramelized exterior with the soft interior.  It could've used a bit more black sesame flavor, and I think Dominique Ansel still has the best kouign amanns, but overall this was really solid.