We were there a couple of weekends in January, but I’ve been feeling rushed and haven’t posted about our meals, so a quick detour:
Corima, Mexican in East Village, superb but expensive
Russ and Daughters, wonderful as always
Souvlaki GR, East Village, solid but not memorable, however, Toni would rank it much higher
Goodnight Sonny, Alphabet City (?), disappointing after a surprisingly excellent meal there in January 2024
Spice Brothers, shawarma and falafel in Alphabet City, solidly good but massively overhyped by Pete Wells in the NYT; our local shawarma place in northern Virginia is better
Bar Primi, Italian in East Village, straightforwardly delicious meal at a longtime restaurant now ignored by critics
Txikito, Spanish in Chelsea, tremendous, memorable meal – we also loved our meals last summer at the owners’ other restaurants in Cobble Hill, La Vara and St. Julivert Fisherie
Marseille, Theater District - my first ever pre-Broadway show dinner (my friend John was seeing his 100th Broadway play so I joined him for my 1st ever Broadway show - a very fun lively place with highly enjoyable hearty food, leading to an interesting evening watching Gypsy
As for a visit in the near future, Toni and I are still debating that. I’m lobbying for 30 days around July or so; Toni is still mulling over whether we should break out of our provincialism and try somewhere other than NYC (with LA the leading contender)
I’m so happy to hear Txikito is still great. It’s been at least a decade since we last ate there, and it was actually on a short list of restos for a dinner with friends in late March.
I wonder if we should change our UWS Thai rez to Txikito, since our friends are in Chelsea.
Any chance on you expanding a bit on Corima? We’re thinking of going & have heard mixed reviews. By the way, it’s not the East Village, but Lower East Side or Chinatown, depending on who’s doing the map. Thanks.
Yeah, if we weren’t only in town for exactly two nights, one of which is already occupied with the event that is the reason for our visit, we would totes check out Queens.
However, that is not in the cards this time. It’s also not exactly on the UWS (north of TS, south of Columbus Circle). It just happened to be a convenient place for friends and us to meet. Menu looks great
And trying to find ONE place for ONE meal in NYC is pretty overwhelming, as I’m sure you understand.
By the way, you’re obviously right on the neighborhood. For an outsider like me, that handy NYT detailed neighborhoods map is helpful. It says 72% regard Corima’s address as being the Lower East Side and 21% view it as Chinatown. I tend to confuse the East Village/Alphabet City/Lower East Side for some reason (probably because I don’t live in New York).
My memory of our meal is more than a touch faded since it was a couple of months ago (I’ve been a touch warier about posting about NYC places since last year’s kerfuffle), but I took a photo of our menu and our receipt so I have a record of exactly what we ordered, if not necessarily detailed recollections of each dish. Also, my photos are pretty limited and ugly since my iPhone was no match for the dim lighting.
First, of all, it was really expensive (with a bottle of wine and one post-dinner drink around $110 per person with tip). The service was highly professional and knowledgeable, but that still felt a touch condescending, and a server who did not bother at the end of the meal to disguise how much he wanted to turn the table (we were there well under two hours).
But I honestly don’t care much about service and I thought the food was outstanding at the time, which was the general opinion among the four of us. So I do recommend Corima, fwiw.
We had:
Puntarelle salad - This was a very good version of this, but not particularly Mexican or distinctive.
Beef cecina tlayuda - This was a highlight. It’s a smoked and air drief beef with “edamame guacamole,” on a crisp tortilla. Basically a very high quality charcuterie meat. My only complaint about this shareable dish is that the tortilla coudn’t really be cut without shattering, so you kind of had to heap crispy shards of tortilla over the top of the beef. But well worth the effort. (The photo is harsh, but captures the redness). The great relief was that the menu described this dish as having chapulinas, the Mexican roasted grasshoppers. The only time I’d had those was as a taco filling at Jose Andres’s Oyamel in DC, and I’d burped grasshoppers for days afterward. Here the chapulines were finely ground, and basically invisible within the overall dish, so no burping.
“Akamai and Butterbeans” - That is what the receipt says we ordered and I’m pretty sure this is the photo. But I don’t remember what “akamai” is and some googling suggests it’s blue fin tuna but the photo doesn’t seem to show any tuna. What I can say is that, like many southerners whose mothers forced them to clean their plates growing up, I’m not generally a fan of butterbeans – and I remember saying that these butterbeans were “the best butterbeans I’ve ever had.” So not much help on this one (and Toni doesn’t remember the dish clearly either).
Corima’s $9 tortilla - This one I do remember extremely well. This sourdough tortilla dripping with great butter lived up to the hype and it was huge so it was actually worth $9. I’d go back just for this.
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Hamachi collar zarandeado, chintextle tare, and morita aioli. I loved this, a hamachi collar smeared with chili paste and grilled until charred. To be fair, I love hamachi collar probably too much, so I might not be that objective a judge of this dish.
Surf clam a la diabla toast, Chinese sausage, green tomato - I was very enthusiastic about this one; surprisingly, as thinly as it was sliced, the zingy green tomato contributed a lot.
Duck enmoladas (i.e., in mole), chicharon, and cotilla foam - This was good duck, but not a highlight, possibly because due to my lactose intolerance I had to scrape off the cheese foam.
Fried quesadilla, winter greens, cashew encacahuatado - Due to lactose intolerance I was 100% out on this one.
Wagyu carne asada, charred onion, veal brain foyot - I really enjoyed this, but mostly because of the beef. As rich as the foyot sauce was, it couldn’t hold up to the lush beef. Also, we had a LOT of food (the waiter let us over-order), so we weren’t super-hungry by the final courses.
Thanks for this. I actually booked Corima for my bday.
I kinda agree on Spice Brothers - Its good for what it is, and better than most I tried. And the Sabich and Fries are great. Best Shawarma for me is Shawarma Mia in Brooklyn
Txikito - I liked it too not too long ago, other than the Vermouth
I’m not familiar with that part of town at all. Most of our trips to the city used to center on the South of Manhattan, i.e. around Greenwich Village, East Village, etc.
Sounds like you’re going to Hell’s Kitchen where yes, there are a few very good Thai options such as Lum Lum and Pure Thai. On the true UWS there is Sala Thai.
