Three Hens - New American Restaurant Opens Up in Curry Hill

After walking past Three Hen's store front for months watching the progress of the restaurant being set up and furnished for business, I was finally excited to check it out!

This new american restaurant was written up as being very "Brooklyn" inspired. Located in the heart of Curry Hill, I had to see this for myself. I went on a freezing Thursday night, so this place wasn't too crowded. The ambiance was very cool and different. It was decorated in a rustic outdoor theme. The walls were decorated with leaf wall paper, while random trees were located around the restaurant. Also, candles were lit on every table and there was a lot of natural wood. 

The waitress was really attentive and recommended specials to try and items on the menu that she thought were great. I ordered the special drink of the night, which had apple cider in it and was absolutely luscious. 

My dining partner ordered a drink that he didn't absolutely love, but I thought I would include a picture of it, because it was served in a mason jar! I love when places serve drinks in mason jars. I don't recall which drink he ordered. 

For dinner, I debated back and forth between getting a lamb burger or ordering an actual lamb dish. I went with my guy feeling, and ordered the actual lamb dish since I can order a burger any day. My dish,the "Colorado Lamb", was served sliced, and accompanied by fried eggplant, sauteed spinach, and red pepper coulis. The lamb was cooked to perfection and had extreme flavor. It was super moist and tender. The fried eggplant was simply divine. I have never had fried eggplant before, and loved it! The red pepper sauce provided a very palatable dipping sauce for the whole entree. Also, the spinach was garlicy :) 

Colorado Lamb

My dining partner had a very traditional American dish, the "Free-Range Chicken Pot Pie." I had one bite of his pie, and it was definitely super cheesy and flavorsome. There was also a good amount of vegetables in the pie. 

 Free Range Chicken Pot Pie

Instead of dessert, I decided to order a second drink. I ordered the drink on the menu that I was debating about getting from the beginning of dinner The waitress assured me it was her favorite drink on the menu. I have to agree with her, it was an amazing drink! I ordered the Cherry Soda Cocktail (or something like that?) It definitely tasted like a cherry soda and was served in a cute mason jar. 

I hope this restaurant does well and sticks around! It is definitely one I would return to. Perhaps brunch? 

Club A Steakhouse - A for Ambiance!

After hearing Club A Steakhouse mentioned on Gossip Girl recently, I was so excited that I was going to be going to a place as trendy as that! My foodie friend bought a Living Social prix fixed dinner there.

Upon entering the steakhouse, I noticed the beautiful ambiance of this place! It was dark and romantic, with candles, red velour accents, and many beautiful lights. They actually put up their holiday lights already on the trees outside their restaurant, so when looking out of their huge window panes, you can see a beautiful scene!

Beautiful Lights (I accidentally took a picture of the couple dining next to us! )

Lights on the Front side of the Restaurant

We were each entitled to a 3 course dinner and a bottle of wine for the table. The choices on the living social menu were actually very good, considering the price of the deal.

Living Social Menu

Despite the amazing ambiance and food selection, the service definitely lacked. My dining partner and I waited for almost a half hour before being able to order our food. We also had to ask for our water to be poured. I definitely would rate them 1 star for service. 

My dining partner and I decided to share the appetizer choices, side dishes, and desserts so that we could have "the best of both worlds" dining experience. We ordered our own entrees. 

For the appetizers we ordered the Fried Calamari and the Steak Tartare. We were both concerned about ordering a red meat appetizer when we were both ordering steak for dinner, but this wasn't a problem. The Steak Tartare wasn't too heavy and tasted amazing! It had bits of onions and capers mixed in with a nice citrusy flavor. Also, it was accompanied by a nice salad on the plate. Yay for greens! 

Steak Tartare

The Fried Calamari was actually very good. I use the word "actually" because I tend to get bored of calamari easily. After a few bites, it usually tastes the same, and tastes soooo fried. This calamari had a nice light taste and I didn't get bored of it! I kept wanting to eat more and more! Luckily, when there were a few bites left of it, the waiter came over to ask if we were finished, and I practically handed him the plate so he would take it away. 

Fried Calamari

For our entrees we both ordered the Filet Mignon. We also both ordered our steak medium rare. When our steak came to the table, we both noticed that my steak was so much more rare than my friend's and also that it was so much more moist and bloody. I felt bad for him, because my steak was definitely cooked so much better! He agreed when he tasted my steak that it was better! :) 

Filet Mignon - Medium Rare 

Cooked to Perfection

For the sides, we ordered the Truffle Oil Infused Creamed Spinach and the Garlic Fries. The truffle oil infused creamed spinach was definitely good, but kind of interesting. I wouldn't say that this was my favorite creamed spinach that I have ever had. Even though I love truffle oil, I am not sure if it goes that well with creamed spinach. I almost like creamed spinach made more regularly. Because spinach has more of a bitter taste, the combination of the truffle oil with the bitter spinach made it kind of interesting. 

Truffle Oil Infused Creamed Spinach

 The Garlic Fries were good. They weren't overly garlicy though. I actually think that the garlic fries at the Yankees stadium are better! But if you like your garlic fries to be a little less garlicy and light, than you would probably love these. The nice thing about them, is you didn't need ketchup for these because of the garlic flavor.

Garlic Fries

For dessert we just ordered one of each choices since there were only two desserts to choose from. The Tiramisu and the Cream Puffs were both very authentically Italian. Both desserts were very good, but I loved the tiramisu! Yum! :)

Homemade Cream Puffs

Homemade Tiramisu

I would suggest coming here for a romantic dinner for the ambiance and also the food. If you are pressed for time though, I wouldn't suggest it, because the service was extremely slow! 

Essex : Wow, their brunch went downhill!

I have attended Essex Restaurant once before for brunch, and was happy with my experience. Also, for some reason, "word on the street" is that this place is amazing for brunch. A bunch of friends and I decided to have a girl's brunch to catch up and figured Essex would be a great choice because of their great selection of food and 3 brunch drinks with every order.

I must say, this will be the last time I ever go to Essex for brunch. I ordered the Lobster benedict and was not all that impressed. It came to the table with barely any lobster on it. I am used to ordering lobster benedict with a lot of lobster! There were small shredded pieces loosely sprinkled onto the english muffin and covered in the egg to camouflage the missing lobster. I expected to received many more chunks of lobster.

Lobster Benedict 

Overall, the flavor of the dish was good. The potatoes were also very succulent. But, I  still just can't get over the lack of lobster that I paid $2 extra for. 

To make my experience even worse, the waitress only gave each of us two out of three rounds of drinks and tried to rush us out of our table. Since brunch included 3 drinks per person, I inquired on my third round, and was told that she needed us to pay our bill, and that she would give us drink tickets to get our round at the bar. This was absolutely ridiculous, because when we got to the bar, it was so over crowded, without a seat in sight, or even a spot to get in and order a drink! The waitress could have easily brought us our round while we were sorting our bill, but decided to be unaccommodating. My friends and I just decided to give up our last round and leave this joint because the scene at the bar just seems too stressful. 

So long Essex, you were good while you lasted! I will not be attending Essex for brunch ever again! 

Candela Candela : Cuban-Italian Restaurant

I recently went to Candela Candela in the East Village for a girl's night out dinner. It was the perfect setting for an intimate dinner with close friends. They had a cute bar to wait at, and enough seating for groups around the restaurant.

Even though this restaurant is known for having good mojitos, I was in the mood for an Old Fashioned. All of us ordered at the bar for our first drink, while we were waiting for a few stragglers to arrive. Once we were ready to be seated, we had to close our tab at the bar. My friends, and I both felt that the bartender was kind of a pain about closing our tab. He would not let you pay for our drinks separately and made the whole paying experience a pain.

Finally, once seated, we were ready to eat. I ordered my second Old Fashioned of the night, and when it arrived at the table, it wasn't the same as the first. I had to ask the waitress to have it remade because of its abundance of soda water (Old Fashioneds aren't even supposed to have soda water in them). She was very willing to help out in this matter, and actually asked me which bartender had made the first one, since apparently one of them was better at making drinks than the other. Interesting!

When we received our menus, I noticed there were completely separate menus for the Cuban food and the Italian food. I had read Yelp reviews before dining here, and had heard that they were separate, but kind of had hoped that there would have been some type of fusion between the two. But, they literally were completely separate. I definitely think this is a little bit weird, but a little bit cool. Its nice that as a diner, you have the option to go either way and so do your dining companions. At the same time, it would be more exciting and interesting if the two types of foods were combined in some way with different influences from each culture. I have gone to a restaurant where Mexican and Italian were combined, called Matilda, and thought it was more unique in this way because the Mexican dishes had some italian spices in them, and vice versa.

Cuban Menu

Italian Menu

We were given delicious bread and olive oil for the table, which they actually continued to bring us throughout the night. It was nice, because the dish I ordered had an amazing sauce for dipping! 

Super Soft Bread and Olive Oil

As a group, we decided to order a few appetizers and sharing dishes for the table. We went with the traditional Cuban sides: Calamari salad, Yucca Frita, and Sweet Plantains. The Yucca Frita were tasty, but not as good as I am used to. I am used to eating my Yucca fries in the style served at Pio Pio or Tina's Cuban Cuisine. I mush prefer the Yuca fries from those places because they feel less fried, and have a lot more Yucca, and remind me more of steak fries. 

Yucca Frita

The Sweet Plantains I loved! They were huge and very juicy :) 

Sweet Plantains

The Calamari Salad was tasty, but not meant for sharing in such a large group. Each person got about two bites of calamari and 2 pieces of vegetables. But all in all, it was tasty, but I think I would have preferred more of a ceviche style dish. 

Calamari Salad

For my main entree, I decided to order off the Cuban menu since I can order Italian anywhere. I ordered the Ceviche Caliente because I had seen a picture of it on Yelp ahead of time, and I love seafood! Meanwhile, it came out looking completely different from the pictures I had seen. It was very soupy and was actually missing the potatoes that the menu had mentioned accompanying the dish. Three of us had ordered this dish, and all of us were missing it! When we advised the waitress, she felt extremely bad, and brought out a bowl of potatoes for us, which actually were like icing on the cake! They were so delicious! The actual dish, was very good, but felt like it was missing a starch to soak up the soupy sauce. I felt like rice would have been a nice addition to this dish. Otherwise, the general flavor of the dish made me happy. 

 Ceviche Caliente 

Bon Appetit! 

Grub Street Fair at Hester Street Weekend Fair : The Shaved Ice Shop Splendor

This past summer, I attended the Hester Street Fair for the first time. I had always heard how amazing it is and how it is known for its food and also crafts and vintage items. I enjoyed myself so much, that when I heard they were having an end of the season last fair that was going to be over 3 times the size as the usual fair, and have many more food stands, and call it Grub Street Fair, I knew that I had to attend!

I happened to have made brunch plans for the same day, so I unfortunately could not attend the fair with a hungry stomach. I did love seeing all the vendors there, people watching, and listening to the music.

According to the guide, there were 74 food vendors at the festival. This was one of the better food festivals that I have been to in the city. The lines weren't long and each vendor still had food. Some past events that I have attended, I have waited in line for an hour, only to get up to to the front, and have the vendor run out of food.

Each stand had something special to offer. Because I was so full from brunch, I mainly focused on dessert, since I wanted something sweet. However, I did notice two more savory stands that caught my eye. I noticed a meatball stand that had a super catchy name "Mighty Balls, Not yo Mama's balls." This stand had several different kinds of meatballs in different sauce selections. Had I been hungry, I definitely would have liked to sample these balls.

I also walked past a stand with homemade pretzels. These weren't just ordinary pretzels, they had unique flavors. I saw the word "truffle," and I had wished that I had not had brunch. Truffle Cheddar pretzels! 

Yes, Please!

I also noticed a macaroon table. These weren't the french kind that I have previously written about, but they were the standard Passover style that I am used it, but with an added touch! There were 10 different flavored macaroons with different toppings. It was almost like a sundae, but instead of ice cream, you had a macaroon! 

Flavors of Macaroons 

Macaroons 

Now onto the best part of the food festival! My friends and I have been wanting to try "The Shaved Ice Shop" stand for over two years now. We had attended the Food Truck Festival on Governor's Island two summers ago, and had waited in line for shaved ice, only to have them run out of all the toppings, and the ice cream. We had been told that they were at the Hester St. Fair every weekend, and if we wanted to try it, we could find them there. Since we have not had a chance to attend the fair together until attending Grub Street Fair, this experience was two years in the making! 

The Shaved Ice Shop is a Taiwanese inspired dessert that is made of snowflake like shaved ice, fresh cut fruit, unique toppings, drizzled sweetened condensed milk, and a scoop ice cream. 

With each order, you are given the choice to choose 3 toppings, which include : strawberry, watermelon, mix jelly, fruity pops, caramel corn, bar nuts, granola, mango, red beans, phoenix rolls (cookies crumbs), kiwi, frosted flakes, and matcha mochi (homemade sweet rice bites). Also, you get a scoop of mango sorbet or green tea ice cream. 

The shaved ice is made from getting shaved in the ice cutting machine below

I ordered this mountainous snowflake dessert with strawberries, match mochi, Phoenix rolls, green tea ice cream, and sweetened condensed milk. The mochi, which I've always ordered ever since my Pinkberry days, give a nice soft, gummy texture to the dessert, while the Phoenix rolls add a nice crunch. The condensed milk soaks into the ice giving it a very sweet unexplainable flavor. All in all, this was the most refreshing dessert that I have had in a while! I hope that I can find them somewhere else, now that the fair is closed for season. :( 

So tasty! 

See you next year, Grub Street Fair! 

Yotel : The Best Brunch I Have Ever Had!!!

I ventured all the way over to the west side of Times Square on a very rainy Saturday to experience brunch at a hotel that I had never even heard of! My foodie friend, yet again picked a great place! I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I accepted to have brunch. I was expecting the usual standard unlimited drinks with one entree type of deal. Much to my surprise, Yotel was offering a 2 hour unlimited drinks and unlimited small plates menu for brunch for $35. The menu had very unique drinks and dishes to choose from. Also, the ambiance of the place was very nice. It was bright, airy, and modern. It also had a beautiful bar and outdoor patio that would be amazing to sit on during the summer. It wasn't overly crowded, which was kind of surprising because of the quality of food and great special.

The amazing menu! 

From the variety of drinks to choose from, I decided my favorite one on the menu was the Peach & Bourbon Tea. It was served in a shorter glass, and had such an extreme flavor, as compared to standard brunch menus that just consist of bloody marys, mimosas, and bellinis. 

The only catch to ordering is that each person is allowed to order 2 plates at a time. Which to me, is a fine rule, because how fast can one eat! Also, when the plates were served, the waiter was willing to take an order immediately for the next round of choices. We were never left waiting or wondering when we were going to have a chance to order more drinks or dishes, as with most unlimited brunch places do. So service is something that Yotel excels at. 

The first four dishes we ordered were: The Crunchy Shrimp, The Falafel Lettuce Wraps, Crab Wontons, and the House Ground Beef Burger Sliders. 

The Crunchy Shrimp were coated in lemon sake aioli, sesame, scallion, and masago. They had extreme flavor and a lot of crunch. This dish we actually ordered seconds of because it was so good. They reminded me a little bit of coconut shrimp with an asian flare. Yum! 

The Falafel Lettuce Wraps were served with slow-roasted chipotle-tomato, cucumbers, and onions yogurt. I am a total falafel lover, so I was happy to even see this on a mostly asian menu. My friend also generally doesn't like falafel, and he told me he loved this dish! I loved the freshness of the lettuce and yogurt paired with the fried falafel. 

Crunchy Shrimp and Falafel Lettuce Wraps (shown on one plate, because we dug into the food too fast!) 

The Crab Wontons were served in egg roll form and filled with crab, cream cheese, corn, mushroom, shiso, truffle, and dipped into ponzu. They were definitely good, but not overly full of flavor or necessarily a "must order." I could have gone either way with this dish. 

Crab Wontons 

The Beef Sliders were of course amazing! Its pretty hard to have me not like a burger, since they are my favorite! They were served as a pair with tomatoes, lettuce, red chili, pickle, and manchego cheese. Yum! 

House Ground Beef Burgers 

The next four plates we ordered were: The Wagyu Brisket Benedict, Sweet & Spicy Bacon, Yukon Gold Tostones, and House Ground Meatballs. 

Our Next Set of 4

The Wagyu Brisket Benedict was amazing! It was actually more exciting than ordering a lobster benedict because it had a good amount of Brisket on it. I actually have never seen brisket on an eggs benedict before, so I thought this was ingenious. Perhaps, I'll be asking my mom for leftovers at our next holiday dinner, since she makes the best brisket. 

Wagyu Brisket Benedict 

The Sweet & Spicy Bacon was a little bit of a disappointment. The plate had only two pieces of bacon and they tasted pretty normal. I didn't notice any overly sweet or spicy taste. But all in all, bacon is tasty, so I guess its passable. 

Sweet & Spicy Bacon

The Yukon Gold Tostones were also not what I expected. I am used to Tostones being made from plantaines, so I was expecting something with more of a banana flavor. The Tostones we received were pretty much regular potatoes that were cooked to be extremely soft, and melt in your mouth. I actually loved the taste of the potatoes even though I wasn't expecting to eat potatoes. I would definitely order this dish again, now that I know they are potatoes. 

Yukon Gold Potatoes 

The House Ground Meatballs were served in a kaffir lime-tomato sauce. It more so reminded me of a vodka sauce because of its pink color. Definitely delicious! 

House Ground Meatballs 

After the first 8 dishes, we were starting to become way too full, but we had to continue on! We decided to order something on the lighter side. We ordered the Spicy Tuna Roll, which was pretty much a standard Tuna Roll that you can get at a sushi place. It was great quality fish and I enjoyed it! 

 Spicy Tuna Roll 

Next we ordered the Chilaquiles, which I can't even pronounce. This was a mexican influenced dish. It was basically a fried egg served on nacho chips, with black bean puree, salsa roja, and cotija cheese. I didn't really notice much cheese on the dish, even though it was in the summary of the dish. I also wasn't the biggest fan of this dish. I thought it was sort of on the bland side and was missing some actuall tomato style salsa, which could have added a little zing to it. 

Chilaquiles

Next, we ordered the Hijiki Seaweed Salad because a man at the table next to ours was eating it, and it looked amazing! The Hijiki Seaweed Salad was the marriage of a coleslaw and a seaweed salad. Since coleslaw is one of my favorite things to eat, and I love seaweed salad, this dish was one of my favorites. It blended apples, carrots, seaweed, daikon, and ginger vinaigrette to make a very refreshing dish. Can we say, "Waiter, can I have more?"

Hijiki Seaweed Salad

Since I love eggplant, I was excited to see it on the menu. I usually associate eggplant with italian food, so the fact that they made it Chinese inspired, I was more than enthused to bite into this dish. The eggplant was soaked in miso and covered in tomatoes, red chile, and mint. I thought it was very refreshing and easy to eat. I could definitely taste the miso soup flavor in each bite, which I loved! 

Chinese Eggplant

Since my dining partner and I were running out of dishes that we wanted to try, since some of them on the menu sounded too heavy or uninteresting, we decided to go with something more traditional. We ordered the Bacon Fried Rice. It was topped with a poached egg. It was nice to have the rice at the table, but not necessary to order. We definitely did not finish it, as we were becoming way too full!

Bacon Fried Rice 

Our second to last dish was the Seared Tuna Salad, which was soooooo refreshing. The tuna was seared to perfection and was accompanied by avocado slices, snow peas, shallots, and miso mustard vinaigrette. I definitely loved this dish, and could see ordering more than one of these if my stomach would allow it. I also love avocado, so this made me happy :) 

Seared Tuna Salad 

Our last dish, the Wok-Seared Cauliflower was not that great. We didn't finish this dish because it was a little on the sour and salty side. I generally love cauliflower, but not in the asian way. I would not order this one again! 

Wok-Seared Cauliflower

On our way out, we noticed the hotel was decorated with all these different funny sculptures. I definitely had to take a snap shot with one of those! 

Funny Sculpture Figurines 

All in all, this brunch was an amazing experience. I believe for what we had, $35/person is an awesome price. I will most likely be hitting up this brunch for my birthday brunch this year!!