Filed under: Food, New York City | Tags: jean-georges, New York City, union square cafe
Ever since I’ve been to Germany, I’ve been trying to be thrifty for the second half of my Euro trip. Everytime I smell a big piece of steak grilling during those summer festivals, I go drooling inside and I think about the great restaurants in New York. I miss New York already. And of course Singapore and her great food culture. Tian Tian chicken rice, Beach Road Char Kway Teow, Katong Laksa…
But to regress, this is about 2 great restarants in New York I had the fortune of visiting before I left for Germany. First up is the world famous Jean-Georges at Trump Hotel. Jean-Georges cost an insane amount for dinner, so we settled for lunch which was a very affordable US$30 for 2 dishes. Every extra dish cost $12, I believe, and that will fill one up nicely. I think it’s a bargain to eat at a 3 Michelin star restaurant for $50.
Since it was our first time at such a high end place, we were a little uncertain about photographing our food and we decided to play it safe. According to Chubby Hubby, it is perfectly ok to photograph your food as long as you ask the waiter and don’t act all fobby and disturb the other patrons. So expect more photos from my food adventures in the future 
. We had a plethora of dishes and I especially love the squab which was cooked so tenderly and perfectly that you could feel the meat just melt in your mouth. The sea scallops with a caper emulsion was also extremely tasty and I love how the capers went with the natural sweetness of the scallops. However, the show-stealer was desserts. I love love love the home-made mushmallows and the granny smith apple ice cream. Oh and not to forget the home-made chocalates. That said, here’s the final on Jean-Georges:
Food: 1.8/2 thumbs
Service: 2 thumbs/2 thumbs
Value: 1.8 thumbs/2 thumbs
Overall: 1.8 thumbs/2 thumbs
Frankly, the reason why I love Jean-Georges was the desserts. The salty dishes were great and you could tell that they deserve their 3 stars, but they did not exceed my expectations as I hope they would. Maybe it’s because I had so high expectations, what with all the raving from friends, news reports and the Zagat guide. But I think for me, desserts exceeded my expectations in every way and I’m not a huge dessert fan. Oh, and interesting fact: Jean-George Vongerichten is credited for bringing the molten chocolate cake to the States in the late 80s, now a must-have on most menus.
Next up is Union Square Cafe.
What can I say about Union Square Cafe? Just that it was so so so good. From start to end, I loved every dish. I think my favourite has to be the mussels in that butter cream sauce (I’m not sure if it’s butter. I always had a problem recognizing flavours). The sauce was so good that I couldn’t help but mop it up with bread which was probably unbecoming but screw it. There was none of that fishy mussel smell most steamed mussel dishes have so props for that.
The seared tuna was also great. Union Square Cafe did my tuna really well and I love it. I usually end up disappointed with seared tunas in most restaurants but this was an exception. So the final on Union Square Cafe is:
Food: 1.8/2 thumbs
Service: 1.8/2 thumbs
Value: 1.9 thumbs/2 thumbs
Final: 1.8 thumbs/2 thumbs
If it was a toss-up between Jean-Georges and Union Square Cafe, I would have to say I would go back Union Square Cafe again. Firstly, Jean-Georges was value for money only during lunch. I think dinner would be a different experience altogether. Secondly, I like the nice and casual atmosphere Union Square Cafe has. And Union Square Cafe has really some damn good food that will please anyone.
Filed under: Food, New York City | Tags: babbo, Food, joe's shanghai, New York City
As fans of Iron Chef America, we decided to head down to NYC for a day just to try Mario Batali’s Babbo. That has to be one of the craziest things we have done in a moment of rashness, since we were banking on faith that Babbo would be worth the 4 hours drive there and back and braving NYC’s crazy traffic.
We 4 foodies travelled down on the Saturday in the middle of exam period. Kudos to Ku (haha, rhymes eh?) since he had a crazy amount of finals the next week but he still gave up a Saturday to join Chris, Junch and I on our food adventure. Our first stop was lunch at Joe’s Shanghai, nestled in one of those messy lanes in NYC’s Chinatown.
The staple food everyone has to order at Joe’s Shanghai is the Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings). It’s not the best I had, but it’s cheap, really filling and so all in all, really value for money. Get the Xiao Long Bao with crab roe, but be sure to share it because it can get uncomfortable after 3 or 4 of those babies. I’m not sure how dinner is like, but lunchtime can be really busy so you have to get there early to get a table. Oh, and be prepared to share tables with strangers since the waiters will rush your group to a huge round table meant for 10 and plonked you right next to someone you don’t know. So with a few awkward glances and nods, we sat down with strangers and attacked our food with gusto. It was immensely satisfying. And the waiters are extremely curt and efficient. The moment we finish our Xiao Long Bao, our waiter swooped down and gathered the basket, leaving us almost no time to attack the Nappa leaves at the bottom. And did I mention the late Ong Teng Cheong visited Joe’s Shanghai before?
And so, here’s the final on Joe’s Shanghai:
Food: 1.3 thumbs/2 thumbs
Service: 1 thumbs/2 thumbs
Value for Money: 1.5 thumbs/2 thumbs
Overall: 1.3 thumbs/2 thumbs
After walking off lunch around NYC, it was with great expectations and excitment when we finally went to Babbo.
Rumor has it that Babbo is constantly packed and has only 6 tables and 10 bar seats for walk-ins daily. We decided to play it safe and started queuing at 4 pm when the restaurant opens at 5.30 pm. But to our surprise, we weren’t the first and we were beaten by these 2 old ladies. That only served to raise my expectations because I have never queued for a restaurant for one and a half hours. Ku and I spent the time trying to memorize the tasting menu in Italian, much to the embarrassment of Junch and Chris.
Fortunately, queuing so early was a good idea. There was a long queue when the restaurant finally opened and we managed to get a table. I would hate to be eating at the bar. Guess those rumors aren’t unfounded. When we finally got to our table, we were greeted by this really curt Asian waiter who seems displeased to serve us. Boo. Thumbs down for service. I’m expecting to be treated like a god, but I feel like someone who doesn’t deserve to dine at Babbo. So anyway, we decided to try the tasting menu as Junch pointed out there’s where a restaurant makes its name. And since I had such an awesome experience at Morimoto in Phily where I had the tasting menu too (which I will blog about once I get my hands on the food photos, but believe me, it was VERY VERY VERY good), I figured we can’t go wrong with that.
The food was good. I thought the pork was interesting since they used a risotto made of barley (called a barlotto), but it had a slight smell that was a bit of a turn off. The pork had an excellent texture though. The pappardelle with porcini and thyme was a show-stealer but I thought the duck tortelli tasted like lamb which was weird. I liked the prosciutto dish but I felt that it didn’t say much about the chefs’ skills since it was a dish that relied mainly on the quality of the ingredients. Desserts were awesome and wowed us more than the salty dishes.
Since we were paying $75 per pax, it was only fair that we were expecting something of high quality. Babbo met the expectations but did not exceed it as I was hoping it would. I’m blaming it on expectations raised too high. Here’s the final on Babbo:
Food: 1.5 thumbs/2 thumbs
Service: 1.3 thumbs/2 thumbs
Value for Money: 1.4 thumbs/2 thumbs
Overall: 1.4 thumbs/2 thumbs
The next time I’m going Babbo, I’m ording a la carte because that menu sounds so much more appetizing and exciting.
