The Spotted Pig

After rating a few French fry places it was time eat some real food & what happened to be around the corner?  The Spotted Pig...yum!!  We settled for a burger with Roquefort cheese on top, it was delicious but towards the 3rd bite it became a little overwhelming.  

I would love to go back and try a few more of their dishes like their Pan Roasted Striped Bass with tomatoes & saffron, Fried Zucchini Blossoms with cherry tomatoes & basil and/or their Walnut, Chocolate & Amaretto cake for dessert.


It's a great place to grab a beer or wine with your friends & an excellent place to people watch.  Look out for their regular clients like Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Kate Hudson, SJP, & Jay-Z (he own's the building, btw)


The Spotted Pig
314 West 11th Street
New York, NY  10014
tel: 212.620.0393


-S&B

Cask

Cask Bar+Kitchen recently opened on 33rd between Lexington & 3rd Avenue.  If you live around the neighborhood this is definitely the spot to call you "neighborhood bar."  They have a great bar scene for an after work crowd and an even better party room downstairs.  This is not your typical Murray Hill bar which is so refreshing!  The crowd looked to be 25+ and everyone was dressed well, no frat boy look...sorry.

Starters:

Frommage - White Cheddar, Gorgonzola, & Pepper Crushed Goat    

        

Dinner:

Wild Mushrooms Flatbread - Spinach, Fresh Mozzarella, Parmesan & Truffle Oil

Coriander Crusted Salmon - Crispy Potato Cake & Garlic Sauté Spinach

B's review: The food was great.  The cheese platter was presented very well and came with olives, grapes, jam, & crackers.  I would definitely order the frommage plate again without the gorgonzola cheese - just not a fan.  It's a great way to start the meal.  The mushroom flatbread was amazing! The fresh mozzarella & truffle oil made the dish.  The salmon was good, cooked perfectly & had lots of flavor.  The potato cake tasted like mashed potatoes that had been fried on top...yummy; the spinach = not a fan.  I would definitely go back there.  It was a great place to grab dinner.  It had a great scene, excellent service, & great food options.

Cask Bar+Kitchen
167 East 33rd Street
New York, NY 10016-4641
(212) 300-4924


P.S. they have a Country Style Brunch Saturday & Sunday with homemade muffins & breads, roast sirloin beef and whipped potatoes.


-S&B

La Esquina

La Esquina is one of our favorite places to eat. Conveniently located in SoHo La Esquina offers 3 different locations the Taqueria, Cafe, and their secret downstairs location, the Brasserie.

They have so many delicious things at each location but the Brasserie offers the complete menu. Our favorite things are the sopa de tortilla, ceviche acapulco, tostadas contramar, taquitos de pollo rostizado & La Esquina mole negro. They recently acquired a new chef, Akhtar Nawab, and he's added more delicious fish options to the menu, like last night's special Sea Bass wrapped in banana leaf, yum! Sadly our favorite salad was taken off the menu, ensalada de nopales, which is a cactus salad w/jalapeños, onions & cotija cheese. He also fixed the dessert menu, THANK GOD!! He added a mouth watering pastel de chocolate - cafe de olla, it's a must have.

Overall it's a fun experience walking into the Taqueria & being greeted by a bouncer & doorman then walking downstairs in what feels like a storage unit. After walking down the stairs you give your name again to the hosts, walk through the kitchen and wala...the bar!

Spotted @ in the downstairs dungeon: Alicia Keys & John Mayer


Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart
John Mayer - Clarity

La Esquina - Must Try, NYC Hot Spot, Fun Experience walking into a the Taqueria.

106 Kenmare Street

New York, NY 10012

-S & B

Cienfuegos

When UrbanDaddy announced this hot spot back in April we got excited! A rum bar, LES, old school feel rooms that are pink = new spot for us! Yippie!! Getting there is a pain in the ass, really if you don't have a private car, take a taxi, a scooter, well then get ready for the 10 minute plus walk from the subway. The day we visited was like every summer day in NYC, 90 degrees plus 100 degrees of humidity, not fun. We stepped into this tiny bar and gave our name to the host.

After waiting for an hour we were finally brought upstairs to a room packed with people and no A/C...fabulous! We quickly opted for two punch bowls, 6 Toe Punch & Cuba Copana. YUM!! 30 minutes later the punch bowls were wiped clean. Dinner was next, we ordered 3 orders of sloppy joes, plantain chips, a simple salad and veggie empanadas. Let's just say the drinks are way better then the food and we would definitely go back but not in this heat.

Cienfuegos - great punch bowls, good for groups, rum lovers will be feliz

443 E6th Street

New York, NY 10009

-S&B

Hint: they do not take reservations, get there early.

NYC Restaurant Week - July 12th - 25th

SM's review of One if by Land, Two if by Sea...

One of our best friend tried this amazing restaurant. We hope you enjoy her review, we did!

A little snip-it about SM: she's a foodie, a social-lite, and chic lady with calendar packed with spectacular events. She never forgets to invite and her smile & laugh will get you in the mood to party. SM's review:

Fighting to get a reservation on OpenTable, I was delighted to get a 9:15pm slot. With prix-fixe normally being $80 per person, restaurant week was a steal. We ordered a bottle of prosecco to kick off the night.

For starters we ordered:

Cucumber Gazpacho w/organic cumin yogurt, mint, dill, cilantro, balsamic

Entrees:

The Hubby - Wild Red Snapper w/kalamata olives, preserved lemon risotto, & herb salad

SM - Homemade Summer Squash Fettuccine w/rustic peperonata sauce, oregano, parmigiano reggiano

Dessert:

The Hubby - Gianduja Mousee w/caramel bananas, banana bread ice cream

SM - Almond Milk Panna Cotta w/sable breton, fresh strawberries, & strawberry sorbet

Off the regular menu we ordered the truffle oil polenta - incredible & he ordered the gruyere pretzel.

Low down: Atmosphere was tres romantic, we had a corner table, the piano was playing beautifully, and our waiter was wonderful. My favorite dish on the menu was the “Famous” Pretzel Bread with Gruyere Cheese. While this place is rated in the top 5 of most romantic in the city; I can't say it would make my top 5. The restaurant is gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, and the food was delicious, but that’s not my idea of most romantic. For me, I’d go with the private dining room at Philippe Marie. Don’t let me sway you from eating there- One if by Land, Two if by Sea is definite must in this city.

Next on the list…Barolo, a West Broadway fav, and The Oak Room at the Plaza.

-S & B

p.s. thanks SM for the fabulous review!

NYC Restaurant Week - July 12th - 25th

One of our girls tried hot spot Shang for restaurant week, she wrote this kick ass review. We hope you enjoy!

A little snip-it about BK - She's a nut about restaurant week and usually goes to 3 or 4 restaurants per season and make this nasty (in a good way) Excel spreadsheet that evaluates the menu, regular price of the restaurant, whether they usually have prefix menu, and if it's generally worth it. For example, $35 for a menu full of pasta = not worth it.

Being a huge Top Chef fan, honestly who isn't a Top Chef fan, she was hoping Shang was on there and it was! Susur Lee was a finalist on Top Chef Master. She went with her fabulous roommate & foodie friend. The menu was the following:

Starters:

Salt & Pepper Calamari w/habanero chili dip

Vegetable Spring Roll

Singapore Slaw w/salted plum dressing

Entree:

Top Chef Chicken

Marinated Skirt Steak

Cantonese Wok Fried Pearl Noodles

Sushi Plate (5pcs)

Dessert:

Mango Panna Cotta w/double dark chocolate mousee

Asian Pear

BK's opinion:

The Venue: Very chic. They have beautiful, huge golden lanterns when you walk in. It's a great place to grab a drink by the bar and then order food, which is served family style. There is a terrace outside which is an awesome feature and a great place to catch some fresh air.

The Food: To start, my roommate and I both ordered the slaw, our friend, J, ordered the spring rolls. I know this sounds kind of unimpressive, but I do have to rave about the slaw. The slaw had 19 different ingredients in it and was such an interesting combination of flavors - especially the ginger and some sort of flower petals that complimented the plum sauce nicely. The presentation of it was also beautiful, as it almost looked like a bird's nest full of different ingredients.

For the second course, I ordered the Top Chef chicken (I remember when he made it, it looked so good), while the other 2 ordered the skirt steak. Both had a kick to them and were great, but I think I made the better choice with the chicken. The chicken was complimented by a mint puree (and I usually hate mint, but it was oddly sweet) and curry, and had candied cashews over it with a light sauce. This was definitely the right choice. The flavors went so well together and it was a totally different take on chicken than you normally see. Susur did not disappoint.

Last was dessert. It was tasty, but it is everything you would expect from the description. I have a huge sweet tooth and I found it to be too sweet for my liking, so take what you will from that.

Shang - great food, great atmosphere

-S&B

p.s. thanks BK for the fabulous review!

S's Birthday Party - The Delancey

S's birthday was celebrated at The Delancey roof deck located at 168 Delancey Street, Lower East Side. B picked up S at the nail salon with KL, the three of them took a sketchy black cab down to the LES. As we moved downtown in our town car S's birthday crew was busy putting candles on her mini cupcakes. We pulled up to The Delancey and rushed inside to be greeted by Mumm, Whit, Justinien & ALiu with 36 cupcakes on fire! S quickly made a wish only to be tricked by trick candles...thanks Mumm. We laughed as the candles quickly melted into these tiny cakes only be lite again and again and again.

Shortly after we all indulged in pumpkin, sunshine, & black & white...just right cupcakes we headed to the bar. We quickly learned that they were having a $5.00 BBQ, yum! We had burgers, hot dogs, and potato salad, not bad for $5 bucks. Every Wednesday!

The space is actually great. Since the weather report said there was a 90% chance of precipitation we knew the roof deck idea might fail but luckly The Delancey has a retractable roof. That was fantastic except for the fact that they also had a huge grill on, so the air inside the space was...let's just say smokey, as noted in the photo. The set-up was intimate and it allowed us to stay within our group. We had a great time catching up.

Roof Deck:

Space - good for parties, nice view, LES crew

Music - dead

After we drank upstairs we decided to take our party downstairs to enjoy some A/C. We were greeted by Scooter Pie from Sugar Shack; burlesque dancers that perform ever Wednesday, who knew?! Their show is called "Shaken & Stirred" and we definitely got that impression. Definitely some talented ladies, but we were turned off by the creepy men who thought 2 girls dancing around on a stage was hot. The show started around 10:30. The first girl was tall, pale skin, and thin. She did a cute number which ended with her in her red undies & tassels. The 2nd girl, we won't mention her at all. Loo, S, B, & Justinien had some great laughs as they imagined S showing up to work wearing only tassels on her boobs and making copies...hilarious.

Downstairs:

Space - could be good for parties

Burlesque Show - good idea but let's try to keep the creeps out

Music - Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough & Little Richard - Tutti Frutti

- S&B

S's Birthday Dinner with B!

We sat down to dinner with Naughty By Nature's O.P.P blaring over the stereo. Don't get the wrong idea, we love a good NBN song any day - just a little unexpected at a Pan-Latin restaurant. Maybe the typical Sergio Mendez, Girl from Ipanema, song was a bit too typical? Maybe they wanted to shake it up a bit; our only thought was that this might turn into a club at any minute!

So we ordered the following:
Guac Tipico w/Lime Cilantro & Shaved Red Onion - $11
Ensalada Verde w/Manchego & Papaya Ginger Vinaigrette - $8
Bacon Wrapped Dates - $7
Yellow Tail w/Asian Pear & Citrus Jalapeno Dressing - $16
Pollo al Carbon - $19

B made a money menu choice by ordering the Guac - the shaved red onion was just the right amount. Who seriously wants onion breath? even if we weren't kissing any boys last night.
Also, the Pollo al Carbon, as the main course, was super moist and full of flavor. It usually comes with potatoes but they were nice enough to switch it for cauliflower, delicious but covered in butter.

So the Bacon wrapped dates were a suggestion by someone off of FourSquare and we will not be reordering them. Actually, a good portion of the menu has bacon listed as an ingredient to the dish. If you're a bacon lover - you'll totally enjoy, if not - stick with the Ensalada Verde for your app or main - it's enough for either.

Agua Dulce - excellent space, Tanteo tequila, good bar scene, food - let's just say you won't be seeing us dining there again :-(

TimeOut Magazine review - not nice

- S&B