As Ziggy said, its about the alcohol and maybe some sides or dessert/coffees. We hit $100pp pretty regularly these days & even did so at Indian Table this past week with some friends who had never been. $45pp Restaurant Week menu + $15 for a (very nice) cocktail + another $15 for a glass of wine with dinner + tax & tip brought mine to $100. We ordered an okra dish as well.
1 Like
I guess because I don’t really drink and we don’t eat in restaurants where the check average gets that high (because my budget won’t allow it), it just doesn’t happen.
1 Like
I feel lucky that we can afford a meal like that every so often, but I wouldn’t enjoy a steady diet of such expensive meals. I also feel lucky that there are so many great, much cheaper restaurants, often run by immigrants or the children of immigrants.
2 Likes
How did you like thi year’s menu, @SteveR ? Jim and I am planning to hit the RW there some time before the end of the month. Not talking about India Table but obviously for the restos making money is all about the drinks these days specifically cocktails. $18 each at Theodora? I love the alcohol free and relatively cheap pineapple ginger drink that India Table serves whereas to my girly taste very few of the creative cocktails I have had recently have been worth it. But thats what younger folks are drinking - we were at the harvard club and a table of obvious summer interns was brought in. All of them ordered cocktails -(many of which went unfinished - and no wine was served. That certainly would not have been the case back in my day, where we always took advantage of ordering good wines in those situations!
I dont think there was much of anything new. Maybe some presentation differences. My RW app was the pork ribs meat in a soft taco like shell. Very good. I think that both the fish curry & the kingfish were on the previous fish entree platter, but the clams were new to me & were my favorite of the meal. Always worth going, RW or not.
RAVAGH (Madison)
I haven’t eaten in person at Ravagh in many years (just lots of takeout from the UES location) and the Madison location moved since I was last there a few years ago…
It’s a lovely room, and the food was delicious — I always love their kababs, and they are one of very few places that have lamb koobideh, not just beef.
We got both lamb and beef koobidehs, lamb chops, a chicken kebab just for variety, and several dips (incl mast musir) and salads to start.
We were completely stuffed even though we got only 4 entrees for 6 people (plus apps of course), and couldn’t manage dessert despite best intentions.
$60pp with a bottle of wine and a generous tip.
1 Like
The lunch specials at Indian Table are great value. Easy to reheat for dinner. The two of us couldnt finish them
Remembered I took takeout pics last time:
Reminder: Pig and Khao is still excellent. Maybe top 5 for us, and the Chili Pan Mee is top one, which makes it top 20, or something like that. Didnt come here to do math. Big flavors, perfect balance out of the spicy pork ragu with ramen noodles. My kind of dish. Also enjoyed the Sizzling corned beef hash (this was Brunch btw), and possibly the best French Toast I ever had.
5 Likes
HYDERABADI ZAIQA
I have guests in town who wanted indian food. Figured it was a good chance to try this place.
On a weeknight, i was surprised to see a crowd outside. Turned out it was mostly for takeout, but there were still a few people waiting for a table. The two guys seemingly running the show inside nodded at me when I put my hand up for how many, but didn’t want to take a name when I offered. I don’t know how they were planning to remember the order, so the people outside sorted ourselves so there wasn’t confusion (which, of course, there was).
Anyway, the food. We ordered the Gobi Manchurian appetizer, palak paneer, paneer makhani, and goat dum biryani.
The biryani, which should have arrived last, arrived first, even before the appetizer. They were serving another table biryani so why not just plate and serve all of it at once?
The Manchurian arrived after that, and was quite good — freshly fried and crisp, which made up for the sauce being somewhat underwhelming.
The paneer makhni and all the naan arrived after that. I say all the naan because each of the paneer dishes was ordered with one naan.
The palak paneer… did not arrive. It’s impossible to get anyone’s attention in there even though it’s a tiny place, because they are doing 6 other things in the back — pouring water, wiping dishes, answering the phone, etc. So 10 mins later when one of them walked by, I inquired where the dish was. “2-3 minutes”, we were assured. 10 mins later, I flagged down the same person — it will be out “momentarily”. The person eating paneer makhani was finished before the palak paneer ever came out, even after starting late and slowing down.
The palak paneer was good. The paneer makhani was too sweet. The biryani was… okay. No fried onions (birista) or other topping, some of the goat pieces were dried out as if the pot had been left open to the air, and the dish was very dry, though the spicing was good.
I don’t know if the NYT write-up hurt them, but the food wasn’t good enough to make up for the service fails. (They actually snapped at a customer who came in to sit down as we were leaving, and the “rush” that had lasted about 20 minutes was long gone by then.)
11 Likes
Wow - those service fails would have seriously put my teeth on edge and had me considering pointing them out and not paying a service charge/tip.
Canoli cream baba rhum at Leo latticini’s bakery in corona, one of our must stops on the way to the us open.
Truth be told, the pastry selection is getting thin, wonder if it’s in danger of closing. Maybe part of the problem is that they charged me $6 for a cappuccino and a the pastry.
6 Likes
You think $6 is too much or not enough? That sounds like a bargain to me.
$6 for a cappuccino and pastry in nyc, clearly they are overcharging. 
An aside: The sandwich shop Mama’s of Corona (aka Leo’s Latticini) sold the business a couple of years ago. What was called Mama’s Backyard Cafe (not that you couldn’t sit indoors instead) became Our Backyard Cafe. Apart from marginally shorter hours, the sandwich shop seems much the same, but on my last visit the bakery’s display cases did look less than full.
1 Like
Over the years I became friendly with one of the two surviving sisters, I believe they sold the bakery to the baker. He introduced some Latin snacks kept in a warmer at the end of the display case. They seem popular but we haven’t tried them yet.
I believe mamas, the sandwich shop, is still owned by the sisters. Now that we live in nyc and have access to great sandwiches, their sandwiches aren’t the imperative they once were for us.
Interestingly, one of the sisters mentioned that the shea stadium concession wasn’t that profitable for them though it did drive a lot of foot traffic to their shop.
1 Like
Headed to Saranom Thai after the us open. This was our first visit, thanks to @Ike for pointing it out during our elmhurst crawl.
Started with Yum Pla Duk Fu which is ground, fried catfish with fish sauce and fresh mango. They have three spice levels: mild, thai spicy and spicy. And yes, spicy has more heat than Thai spicy! The last time I ordered a Thai spicy dish at sripraphai I had to take two days off from work so mild was an easy decision.
The dish was fantastic, the catfish had a nice crunchy texture and it paired well with the fish sauce and mango. I’ve always thought Sydney to have the best Thai food outside of Thailand but this dish was about as good as anything we ate there.
Next we had Kang Kua Sator which reminded me of khao soi with some sator beans tossed into the mix. The dish can only be ordered Thai spicy, it was very spicy but well within our tolerance, well prepared, we liked it but would probably try something different next visit.
Finally we ordered their mild rendition of Kee Mao Thai which tasted like drunken noodles with some Thai basil…except the mild version was about twice as spicy as the Thai spicy dish we had. Probably wouldn’t order this again, it was well made but a little too spicy for us.
In all, a great meal, wed night and every table taken with a line out the door, still, service was terrific and for food this good, a crazy bargain.
Best,
7 Likes
I’ve visited SaRanRom several times with my Wednesday lunch group, when it’s easier to reserve a table for eight or ten. The food is consistently excellent …
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=61177627%40N00&sort=date-taken-desc&text=saranrom&view_all=1
… especially for the price. And, as Jeff notes, the service is terrific.
3 Likes
Thanks Dave, amazing photos, can’t wait to get back and try some of those dishes!
I went to Saranrom yesterday at 6:00 p.m. with a friend and a long line very quickly developed. It turns out that a social media influencer (maybe on TikTok) has been promoting them. Glad to see they’re doing so well! It was as delicious as ever.
