Picture of the Day!
Guess where this place is? If only I liked seafood. The clams looks and smells great, but I just couldn’t put it in my mouth. Deelish.
A review for Rice will be coming soon as long as softrice sends me the pictures. Sweet.
Lunch @ Almond
Almond Flower (Chinese Bistro)
96 Bowery St
New York, NY 10002
Tel: 212.966.7162
I don’t know what the hell this is.
So it is my first time going to a chinese/french fusion restaurant in Chinatown. There were rave reviews on menupages and NY Timeout magazine, as you can see on the front door, which is practically mounted like an award plaque, but I actually found out to see if it was true.
Okay, so I still don’t know what the hell Chinese Bistro is. Does it matter? Maybe not. Anyways, there didn’t seem to be a problem getting a table at Almond because the restaurant was practically empty! Like what, 2 or 3 other tables with a white guy and a wannabe chinese businessman. Very empty. I arrived late, but my friends were already sitting there chatting it away while eating toasted bread with olive oil. The servers seems to be super courteous and they were. There were like 2 people serving anyways.
I ain’t kid you. This place is very desolate. Maybe because it’s 2pm on a Tuesday?
With a growling tummy and a sense of sleepiness overwhelming my mind, I decided to order something that wasn’t so french. A cheap girl like me, I ordered from the pre-fixe section. Turns out the menu was really a mix of italian, hint of french, and a little bit of chinese. I swear, there was lop chern in my salad which I will discuss more later.
Appetizers!
Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad w/Caesar Dressing
Price: Normally priced at $7, but I got it for pre-fixe that is $15 for one soup/salad/appetizer and one choice of entree.
Design: Look at it! It looks off the hook, very amazing to the eye. It’s the first time I’ve seen salad crushed into one sandwich type of thing. Is it necessary? Eh, I had to mess it up like a normal salad to eat it anyways. But I like that they put some heart and effort into this simple piece of salad.
Taste: The salad did not taste bad nor was anything special. Throughout the whole chewing experience, it was creamy, real creamy for a salad. At least it’s better than most asian salads that’s for sure. There were chicken which was ok and this red piece of meat which I’m sure it’s not bacon – it’s lop chern, chinese sausage. Oh lop chern in my salad…hm…? Maybe I could be wrong?
Recommended: Yes if you’re in a salady mood. It sounds better than the Almond Flower House Salad, which I was told that it doesn’t have lettuce! O_o
Crispy Calamari w/Cardamom Salt
Price: $7
Design: It’s actually the best looking plate of calamari I have ever seen in my life. Too bad I’m not a fan of calamari, otherwise I’d take a bite into this.
Taste: Well my friends ordered two plates and finished it off completely, so I’m assuming that it does taste good. I heard that it was a little salty, but it’s a good kind of salty.
Recommended: If you’re a fan of calamari, why not? Go get it!
Alright, here comes the entrees:
Crispy Spaghetti w/Mozzarella Meatballs & Gorgonzola Garlic Bread
Price: $10
Design: Again, the design is pretty dam good. I have to give the chef a heads up for making my food beautiful!
Taste: Eh… Well, it looks like it taste. And in my case, it wasn’t all too impressive. The noodles was obviously made by egg noodles and the marinara sauce overwhelmed the dish itself. The bread sticking out was obviously not necessary, but it gives it a cute look.
Recommended: No. The only thing crispy about the spaghetti was the part that you see it. I broke that into my wet noodles but, eh….lacking something.
Grilled Salmon w/Asparagus, House Bacon & Roasted Carrot Puree
Price: $12
Design: Good of course. Has not let me down.
Taste: I was told it taste good, I can’t really say.
Recommended: I can’t say, but if you like Salmon, try giving it a shot.
Pasta Carbonara w/Prosciutto & Clams
Price: $10
Design: Well, I’m not a seafood and I don’t think clams should ever be mixed with spaghetti. That’s just a thought.
Taste: I was told it was very bad.
Recommended: No.
Grilled Sirloin Steak w/French Fries & Mushroom Gravy
Price: $13
Design: It wasn’t too bad, but it’s not anything special.
Taste: I’ve tried a piece, the meat is tender, but it’s not the good kind of tender. It tasted pretty dam tasteless and the fries were stale, really stale. There was no potato in it and it was hard has hell. No wonder Amy needed to call for ketchup.
Recommended: Eh, not really but you get what you pay for.
So to sum up guys:
Reservations: Not necessary, especially when you’re going early. Prefixe is before 3pm.
Design: Impressive
Recommended: Still yes, although the food isn’t spectacular. The price is very inexpensive and the design of the food is great.
The Un-Amazing 66 Experience
Amazing 66 Restaurant
66 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 334-0099
*Chinese preferably if you call, but they can understand English.
Let me tell you what nobody told me, if you don’t make reservations here on a friday night or on the weekends, you’ll have to wait 1/2 hr+ to get a seat. It was just mind boggling to have the maitre’d tell you that there’s a 5 min wait and that the nearby table is yours since they’re leaving and then have it given away to some fucken twad with a lipstud and her party of 5 take my table. This is my second time here and I hate this. They shouldn’t even have the reservation system when the restaurant is so tiny! It should be first come first serve, dam, bitch.
Having two buzzed girls from having the chilled sake at Green Tea cafe, it really lengthen the waiting process.
Haha. Vicky and Kimmy were like two children of the backstreet of the car asking me, “Are we there yet? When are we going to eat?” I say 5 mins, and then it became 10, 20, and ultimately 30 mins. Sons of bitches.
So after the long wait there and the day’s wait for Peking Duck, it turns out there they didn’t have any Peking Duck anymore. That really grinded my gears. If that was the case, I should have went to the Peking Duck House that was nearby!!
Sigh, this rainy day didn’t help either. With two people eaters, Vicky and Dawen, there wasn’t much of a choice to eat. This is what it came down to:
Stir-fried Scallops with Vegetables:
Taste: It’s nothing special and this tastes the same any other chinese restaurant. If you like scallops, I’d suggest you to try the baked one. I had two picky eaters, Vicky and Dawen, and they didn’t like anything, more Vicky. Ahh.
Recommended: No
Sern Tawn Dao Mui
(What’s the english equivalent to this?)
Taste: They [restaurant] say this is better than the stir-fried one, but you better think again. This is bland because the soup took away from it. I can make this better.
Recommended: No, get the stir fried one instead.
This is the one you should get!!! This is filled with a lots of flavor. You can actually taste the salt here.
Pan-fried Tofu with Vegetables
Taste: When you bite into the tofu, there’s this gooey thing that comes out. Seems pretty dam fatty, but it’s not all bad.
Recommended: No, you’re better of with hun sui tofu.
Now that is good! This is hun sui tofu!
Fried-paper chicken? Is that what you call jah-jee guy? lol
Taste: Chicken is probably the best I had so far. The chicken doesn’t taste anything special, it’s the same anywhere else.
Recommended: Yes, but you’re better off with the salted-chicken.
This is your Salted-baked chicken. It’s off the hook.
And lastly we have Flounder w/ Salmon
There’s Salmon on top and Flounder on the bottom.
Taste: The salmon and the flounder lacks tastes. Maybe because I’m not a fan of seafood, but I have tried better.
Recommended: No, this tastes horrible to me. I rather just get the pan-fried flounder.
This here is sooo delicious! I would highly recommended.
After a frustrated night and somewhat of a full belly, I was half satisfied. Maybe next time it wouldn’t be bad. The girls were still tipsy, but they seem to have a good dinner.
Sum things up:
Reservation: Yes for big groups. But there might be a wait time during peak hours.
Food: It’s alright, just know what to pick.
Price: For 5 plates and including 15% tip, it was $95. So it’s moderately priced.
I will try to give it another chance. Maybe the chef was out sick, but I will come back because I had such a great experience the first time.
Smokin It Up @ Blue Smoke BBQ Restaurant
It feels a little strange moving onto WordPress since I’ve been housed at Xanga for more than (5) years. Can you believe it? I wasn’t really much of a blogger because I no longer felt the need to post anything about my life because people just do not care. It’s true, period. I had my ups and downs on xanga, like meeting new people and dating them, but that time is over. Crazzyy. Anyways, I’m trying to start a fresh new life here and will primarily focus on the topic of food. Let me tell you, food heals all wounds despite all the bs that you’ve been hearing time and time again. See it’s the excessiveness that will kill you, but not moderation. This is what fine dining is all about. I’d like you to welcome me into this neighborhood and I hope you’ll be good to me.
Ha, maybe not.
To start off, if you think Dallas BBQ on 42nd St and around the city is good, better think again.
