GOOD EATS NYC 2024 (A Blanket Thread)

Four of us ate a pre-Thanksgiving meal at Eyval (we are scattering for the actual holiday). Ate our way through much of the menu: both breads, mushroom borani, citrus, date, cabbage salad, lamb ribs, octopus kabob, kabob chenjah (wagu beef), tahdig, lamb rack, ice cream sandwich, and sponge cake with strawberry and rose crème fraiche. Not a clunker among them. We can’t wait to go back. Also had a mix of fantastic cocktails. Sorry, no pictures!

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CHALONG

A nice addition to the Thai options on 9th Ave.

Yum Som-O / Pomelo and cured & fried branzino salad — I love pomelo salad, this had a bit of crunchy fish added. The dressing was slightly too intense with what seemed like reduced fish sauce, but it was a good dish overall

Phuket Pak Mor / Rice dumpling stuffed with peanuts — Pass. It was fine, but I would rather have eaten several other things.

Pla Tod / Fried whole fish — This was nice, though pushed on us as “the most popular dish”, which we ordered because our pescatarian was spooked by the server’s unnecessary spice warning about the crab curry we had selected.

Kee Mao Seafood / Rice Noodles with shrimp and squid — very well-flavored and well-spiced, but a bit light on seafood.

Goat curry — flavorful and well-cooked, similar to rendang (which makes sense as it’s described as a southern Thai prep). The rotis were well-made, not greasy, and a bit charred, which I enjoyed (learning opportunity for Tatiana folks on both curry and roti counts). I could have used a bit more sauce for the roti.

The Hor Mok wasn’t available, otherwise that would have been on the table too.

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Interesting. Its about time a Thai restaurant opens in Hell’s Kitchen

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Bad pictures, great meal at Smithereens, an almost-all-seafood place on E. 9th. Our group of five pretty much swept the menu, but unfortunately it’s super-dark in there. A lot of interesting and creative combinations that mostly worked.

Beets with seaweed and rose oil. This was fantastic. The beets were incredibly beet-y. I don’t have a picture of the swiss chard dish we had, but it was likewise intense. I don’t know how they get so much out of vegetables, but they do.

Tuna with cherry blossom and pear. Very nice, but not one of the standouts. I might be kind of over raw tuna.

Lobster roll, very modest, very demure. We had to get two of these to feed everyone. The lobster was excellent, the roll was too buttery.

Cauliflower, obviously, and I forget what else.

Monkfish and sweet potato. Both excellent. And don’t they look alike?

Hake and clams. Not the most attractive of dishes, and rather muted in flavor.

One of our desserts was a celery ice cream float. It took some getting used to (as I think all celery desserts do), but once I got over the initial shock I was able to appreciate its sweet / salty balance.

Overall, this is a great place, especially for the price. I just wish they’d up the lighting some.

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Please enjoy these blurry, dark pics from ALDO SOHM WINE BAR.

I had not been there in a while, and their food menu expanded to that of a full restaurant in the interim. Actually, the food was better than the wine.

The country pate was delicious but unexpectedly loose. Excellent portion.

Beet terrine was good, we needed some vegetable component andb this fulfilled it.

Merguez was probably the weakest of what we ordered, but still good. Served with an eggplant dip and a yogurt dip.

And finally, but not pictured, confit duck leg over a bean and fennel stew. The last time I had this was at a bistro on the UES, and this was 50% better at 50% the price. Tied with the pate for my favorite bite of the evening.

I wanted to get one of the tartes flambee, but it would have been way too much (it already was).

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These pictures remind me of Cologuard instructions videos for some reason

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Indeed. See this:

and this:

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Chama Mama brunch. Excellent, despite inexplicable lack of bloody marys.

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Looks great. Whatcha having (besides the obvious fried egg and roll)?

It’s a thick tomato pepper sauce with herbs and aromatics. Not shown: super crispy potatoes, kachapuri, various spreads.

Ah, so akin to shakshuka, sorta.

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Very close. But it’s called Chiji Piji with Adjapsandali and try saying that five times fast.

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I’m fluent in Georgian cooking terms :wink:

Georgian’s the cuisine de rigueur in Berlin these days. Can’t throw a cat w/out hitting a new Georgian joint.

I’m good with that.

Party of five this morning at Golden Wonton King in Flushing, where there were a lot of discrepancies between what we (thought we) ordered and what hit the table. While we were discussing what to get, @Saregama noted that we always seem to end up with too much fry. So we deliberately ordered a judicious amount of fry. But fry found us nonetheless.

Rice rolls, leek & shrimp (fine) and beef with fried cruller. As expected!

Snow pea leaves with three kinds of egg. My fave of the day. But I love this dish, it’s probably always going to be my favorite, if there’s no har gow around.

Salt & pepper squid, also as expected! Decent version, nothing earth-shattering. Could use some of those jalapeno slices to jazz it up. Note that this was supposed to be the sum total of the fry.

Radish cake, also fine.

The menu lists fried fish cake with celery and clams, but the celery and clams were MIA, as you can see. Fish cakes were good, and served with a sauce I had not had before. I am at a loss as to how to describe it.

Dumplings with chives and supposedly shrimp, also pretty much MIA.

@davecook was surprised when the grouper arrived, fried. I’m not sure which of the preparations he asked for, but probably not this one.

Ditto the lobster, which was ordered Cantonese style. I assumed that would be with the eggy sauce. I assumed incorrectly.

And the room.

All in all, a fun outing - I don’t remember the last time I took a bus to a train to a train to a bus. And we hadn’t seen each other in a while, so that was very nice. But I’m pretty sure I can get the same caliber food (albeit a bit more expensive) at Wu’s, which is just down the street from me.

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The rice rolls & dumplings look great. I adore snow pea leaves but never had them in this prep. Will have to be on the lookout for it, although I’m unlikely to replace har gow with them :slight_smile:

I am crazy about century eggs. Well, all eggs. I will take whatever eggs you want to give me.

I got none to spare, sorry. And I bet you’d politely decline my ‘poached’ eggs.

The other preparations are sautéed grouper fillets, with vegetables or with string (beans, we gathered). Barring indications to the contrary, I expected the adjacent “house special grouper fillet” to be sautéed as well. But, no.

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The grouper you got is the dish that I intentionally order at Wu’s (although Wu’s version looks better - and bigger). Sorry I couldn’t join you all but T’giving shopping was a necessity.

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