Blue Ribbon (Sullivan and Spring St) The Village

We went there because Jason said it had a really good reputation especially for its bone marrows. So we went there and it did not disappoint us at all. The place does not take reservation unless you have more than 5 people. We walked in and was seated in less than 10 minutes. The waiter was very friendly and engaging. I got the seafood soup ($16, a little pricy) and Jason got the bone marrow. Both were ridiculously tasty! We enjoyed every bite of our appetizers. For our entrees, I got the the fresh fish of the day and Jason got the sweetbread. As you see in the pictures, they taste as good as they looked. The appetizers though still stood out against the main entrees. The price was reasonable and we would highly recommend this place to everyone!

Atlantic Grill: Brunch (77rd and 3rd)

We came here for dinner once, they definitely had good seafood dishes and unique sushi rolls. I think I may have written a review about that. Still I do not think the flavor is as good as blue water grill, but very comparative. I am writing here is about their brunch. We went there one time on Sat, but they did no serve their brunch menu, ONLY Sundays. We took my parents there. First, all the menu choices include alcoholic breakfast drinks BUT after noon (some law of NYC), so go after 12, we just got complementary juice and coffee, still a very good deal. Jason got the bagel and salmon at $16, the salmon was fresh with all the regular combination. I got the Cinnamon Raisin French Toast, it was delicious. The toast was very soft and milky, it was really sweet though. My dad got the breakfast quesadilla and he loved it. My mom got the salmon benny and she enjoyed it very much as well. The place was very professional but a little snooty. My first time breakfast on Sat, we had a pretty shitty waiter, I had to ask for my coffee repeatedly. But this time, the waiter I had was very attentive, so I guess you just have to be lucky to get the good waiter. I would highly recommend trying this place out on Sunday for its brunch.

Hi Life: brunch(78th & 2nd Ave)

We had looked for an inexpensive brunch place a for a while, and had always walked by Hi-Life, so we decided to give it a chance today.  It is actually decent. For the price we paid (egg benedict ~$10 and blueberry pancakes ~$10) comes with a alcoholic breakfast drink for $2.95. Jason said the benedict would be a 6.5 out of 10, it came with some greens and home fries. Decent home fries, but the muffin they used were kinda cheap. For my blueberry pancakes, nothing special but fluffy and filled with real blueberries.  I liked it. The food came out less than 5 minutes from our order which i also liked. SO if you just want to look for something cheap and hearty, i would recommend this place on the upper east side. OH, they also gave us complementary small blueberry muffins and cinnamon brown sugar toasts, they were good, better if they were heated but it was free, so no complaints.

Italianissimo Ristorante (84th between 1st and 2nd)

Since we are trying to save money lately, Jason found another good place for 21.95 with 3 courses and a glass of wine. And the place has really good reviews. The place was actually really small, i would say almost the same size as Pinocchio probably by a couple more tables bigger.

When we got handed the menu, there was no 3 course deals for $21.95 so we asked, and they said it’s only for the time between 4-6. we were little disappointed and still decided to stay. We shared the mussels apptizer. You know i dont like when restaurants serve bad mussels, no matter how wonderful the broth was (which was rich and good), i tasted couple bad mussels and didn’t enjoy my dish as much afterwards.

My entree on the other hand was out of this world. I got the home made flat noodle pasta with sun dried tomato, mushroom, marsala wine sauce with chicken (parpadella alla boscaiola). The combination together was just wonderful. And jason got clam with shrimp in tomato sauce (cappellini italianissimo) also rich in flavor with real blended tomato. They do not have that huge of portion for an Italian restaurant, but big enough.

we definitely enjoyed our entree dishes and will definitely go back for their 3 course meals. You should try it out as well. THeir lighting is not so good at all, so we couldnt take any pictures, but the food was great!

July 4th NYC Fireworks & Landmark Tavern (11th Ave and W 46th)

We really screwed up this year on trying to figure out what to do for July 4th. We were supposed to go to Mike’s rooftop to see the fireworks from his place, then he decided to take off to Buffalo. So at the last minute, my options were paying $150/ticket for standing room at the Hudson Terrace (a 60 feet height place on 11th ave and w 46th with the view of the hudson river), or $250 cover at the press lounge at 187 ft with a wraparound terrace, or the sold out seats range between $79 all the way to $250 i think for the cruises by the piers. We decided to just go to the closest bar and grab food and hopefully we can get a glimpse of the fireworks.

We know we want to be as close to the water as we can say 11th or 12th ave, and between 23rd and 59th st on the west side. We found landmark tavern, actually a very nice bar with their own lagers and ales. Both were pretty good too. We ordered Scotch eggs and they were weird but good (wish they could give us more than just one egg) anyway, we also got a burger and fish and chips. Jason said the fish was fried fluffy so i guess that was pretty good too. The fries are not very crispy. But check out the view from our sitting area and occasionally we stepped out to take a few pictures of the firework.

Next year, if we are in NYC, we would definitely go with a cruise, so we can sit down, eat, and enjoy from the water the fireworks

Mc Keown’s (3rd and 75th)

I occasionally have cravings for a traditional Irish beef stew, so we looked online for a close Irish pub that serves stew. The b-cafe would be a good choice but a little out of our price range (in case you didnt read why we have to go on a budget now “house search”). We found Mc Keown’s. It’s a decent size place with actual dining area and a bar. We sat at the bar after we saw the only people eating at the tables were the older aged people. I kinda felt bad for them somehow… Anyway, they have the normal beer on tap so we grabbed two beers and tried to order a stew. NO! They dont have it in the summer time, so instead i got the shepherds pie, while Jason just grabbed a Cajun chicken wrap. I liked my shepherds pie it was hot and tasty. Jason liked his wrap as well.

So nothing special, it was just a good chilled place to eat some decent bar food.

Manolito Latin Restaurant (2nd ave between 82nd and 83rd)

As we get lazier in our old age, we don’t like to travel to far for our food. Even though we were in the mood for Latin food, we decided to try any Latin place on the upper east side rather than traveling down to the village. As we are doing researches, we realized that there are so many thai, japanese and italian restaurants but no other really good diversified food. Finally we found Manolito and it looked pretty good.

You can get any kind of appertizer, small or entree plates. We went for the more tapas variation. We got garlic shrimp, octopus, mussels and Jambalaya. Everything was delicious. THe garlic shrimp, I would have expected bigger shrimps but the flavor was nice. The octopus we thought tasted like chicken, the texture was almost too different from regular octopus. THen we realized they stewed the octopus so it started to carry a very different texture. And the Jambalaya, had half a lobster in it. The service was awesome too, very white glove-ish.

The price for all those including taxes were $64. A high recommendation from us to try that place! We would definitely go back there again

Peri Ela Turkish Restaurant (Lexington and 90th)

We noticed that there are NOT a lot of Turkish restaurants around the upper east side. We tried Beyoglu and was not very impressed even though it has both good ratings on yelp and yahoo. We wanted to try this place because it was a block away from where we live. For appertizers, we got the octopus salad. I loved their bread with olive oil. There was not too much octopus but the flavor was good. Jason got lamb and rice and he liked it a lot but I am not a big lamb fan, so i thought the flavor of lamb was too strong. I tried to be more adventurous and tried the meat dumpling in yogurt sauce. I should probably just go with my safety. Not into that dish at all. Overall the food was OKAY, it didn’t wow me and I think it is about the same quality as Beyoglu. I admit, i dont know much about Turkish food, so I am more looking at as an average American eating a different cuisine.

Lili’s Noodle Shop (on 3rd and 85th)

We went there because i am craving for some Chinese noodles and this is one of the Chinese places around where we live. I would have to say disappointed. The flavor is a big OKAY but for the price they charge you, that would definitely lower my ratings for this place. I was surprised to see on Yelp they got 3 stars and yahoo for 3.5 stars. I guess my recommendation is if you are a picky Chinese eater like me who really care about the authenticity of the Chinese food, don’t go there. You would be disappointed to pay that much for this kind of food. I ordered the beef noodle soup, and they gave me, even when I asked him in Chinese for the regular white noodle, he gave me cellophane (clear noodles like the Vietnamese vermicelli). Jason got the sizzling shrimp stir fry dish which tasted exactly like the thai basil dish for which I would have paid at least $4 bucks less if i got it at Tiny Thai and better quality I think.

Unless you are very hungry, and the restaurant appeared to you right then and there that you can no longer wait to go to another restaurant or you’ll just starve to death, don’t go.

The Yuca Bar (Avenue A and E 7th St Village)

Karen was in the mood for some Latin food, and Ray (the boyfriend of 7, 8 years) was coming from Boston, so we picked Yuca Bar down the village. They had great ratings and also very decently priced. The place is a walk in if you have less than 5 people (you can call for reservation for a party of more than 5 people). We first got our round of drinks, I got Mojito, Jason got a Caipirinha, both were very strong and $9. The menu has an many choices that took us a while to decide. We went there right after the BBQ festival by Madison Square park, so even though the pulled pork dishes looked very attractive, I still has to pass on those. So for my dishes, yes, i said dishes, I got the seafood salad and steak soft tacos I believe and Jason got the Lobster enchilada and the fish ceviche. Ray got the Mixed Tapas with tons of stuff including empanadas. And Karen got the pork. As you can tell from the pictures, the dishes were huge. We could have easily shared 3 appetizers and they were just awesome. I still have cravings for that seafood salad. At the end, we had a very fulfilling meal for $80 bucks each couple including drinks.

We loved the place and would definitely go back a few times