(0 out of 5 hot dogs)
Loading ...The Village Voice compiled a list of the top ten meals under $6. Mandoo dumplings, xe lua, fried chicken… Check it out here!
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/archives/2009/11/our_10_best_mea.php?page=1
(4 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Silk Road Palace
447 Amsterdam (81st and 82nd)
Time: All the time
Price: Crispy wontons, entrée, and unlimited wine, $9-15.
For over 3,000 years, the Silk Road was an essential system of trade across three continents. Today, the Silk Road Palace is an essential system for transporting cheap booze straight to your liver on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. As soon as you sit at your table, a server brings you a carafe of white wine, which is obsessively refilled every three minutes throughout your meal. If you come during prime dining hours and there is a wait, then they give you endless refills of wine as you are waiting. Just to be clear, I don’t mean actual wine, I’m talking about white Franzia straight from the cardboard box, a dream-come-true for Maggie Griffin and the freshman-year version of myself. But as impeccable the wine service was, it is nearly impossible to get a glass of water in this joint…maybe they don’t have a sink? The food was edible, I had steamed vegetable dumplings to start, and shrimp sha-cha for my entrée. The whole experience was definitely frat-tastic, with an abundance of college sweatshirts and “Chug! Chug! Chug!” being chanted at the table next to ours. Regardless, a little bit of your dignity for a great time and a cheap-wine headache seems like a fair trade to me!
(3 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Yes, your family lives in California. Yes, you still reek of vomit from black-out-Wednesday. Yes, you’re unemployed, and have nothing to be thankful for. But you can’t miss the best food holiday of the year! Check out Open Table’s list of Thanksgiving Prix Fixe Feasts!
(4 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Paradou
8 Little West 12th
Time: Sundays 4-10
Price: Entrée, plus free appetizer and dessert, $21-28
Sunday was a full-on SPECIAL day. I went straight from a boozy sunburnt brunch to dinner for the most dignified division of this undignified blog. Mim and I and a few MMG’s (Mim’s Meals’ Groupies), were seated in the back garden, which is adorable, and open year-round. I started with the Raclette de Paradou, which was certainly heaven-sent. It is a skillet filled with cheese topped with a few fingerling potatoes, baby pickles and French bacon. Something the French Paula Deen would have whipped up for breakfast. Next, I had the short ribs, which were tender and fell right off the bone (although could have used a bit more flavor), served with garlic mashed potatoes. Mim was very excited to order the sweetbreads, a dish that was popular when she was working at Hearst in the 1930’s, but now rarely seen on menus. Sweetbreads, I learned, are neither sweet nor bread. They are apparently the thymus and pancreas of a calf or lamb. Not BAAAAAd. For dessert, I had a chocolate and hazelnut tart. Paradou also has an unlimited champagne brunch (This calls for a ReBlog), and ‘dirty bingo’ (does somebody need to call the health department??) So, ParaDO yourself a favor, and head down to the meatpacking district next Sunday!
UPDATE! 11.25.09 – Just a day after I posted this, a horrible letter from the owner of Paradou was leaked to Gawker. FYI the service was great when I went there, and nobody propositioned me for my email address, and I’m glad!
http://gawker.com/5409080/new-york-restaurant-owners-turn-evil
(0 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Check it out! $30 for $60 of Mexican food on 14th and 2nd!
(5 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Sunburnt Cow
137 Avenue C (At 9th)
Time: Saturday and Sundays 12-4
Price: $18 brunch with unlimited drinks
Crikey! I’ve already blogged about the wonders of Sunburnt Cow’s Sunday counter meal, but yesterday I took a trip down under for the first time to their weekend brunch. You get a main course off a menu of brunch standards, including omelettes, bush benedict, hamburger, buttermilk banana pancakes, etc. And you get unlimited Moomosas and MooMarys (those are mimosas and bloody marys, if you aren’t that punny), Fosters beer, screwdrivers and greyhounds (grapefruit juice and vodka). They also brought us free shots at the end of our meal along with our bill. Because it was crowded/popular, they asked us for the table after about an hour and a half, but we were welcome to stay and continue to drink for free at the bar (See: Above)
URGENT: Sunburnt Cow also has an amazing $20 deal. You can drink unlimited drinks for two hours any time night or day!
(3 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Veranda
130 7th Ave (at 10th St)
Time: Friday, November 13 9-11
Price: Open Bar!
Open. Bar. The loveliest words when spoken together.
(2 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Check out today’s Groupon! Only $15 for $30 value at this diner with three NYC locations. You have until midnight, what do you have to lose?
(3 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...JoJo
160 E 64th (Lexington and 3rd)
Time: Lunch, 12-2:30; Dinner: 5:30-6:30, 9:00 or later
Price: Three course Prix Fixe, Lunch, $26; Dinner: $38
After the rum incident last meal, Mim and I decided to keep it classy with a lunch special sans booze. JoJo (pronounced with a refined soft ‘J’) was crowded because of Veteran’s Day, and all the people with real jobs had the day off and apparently wanted to go out to lunch too. Lame. But the hostess was sweet, and was able to seat me and my nearing-95-year-old-dining-companion in two minutes despite our lack of reservation. The meal began the best way possible: with a basket of warm, toasty bread. My first course was shrimp steamed on a mesclun salad with button mushrooms. It was delightful. My second dish, salmon with truffled mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts was good as well. I then excused myself to use the restroom, but Mim informed me that in her time it was much too vulgar to say so. She always says “I need to go check on the girls.” So after I checked on the boys, our dessert was served, for which we both had the warm chocolate cake with ice cream. Spectacular start to finish. Take advantage of Jean Georges’ Autumn Promotion, a top-notch $26 lunch available at all of his restaurants in NYC!
(3 out of 5 hot dogs) Loading ...Le Bateau Ivre
230 51st (2nd and 3rd)
Time: Sundays 11-4
Price: $17.95 for entrée, drink, coffee/ tea and music
Appeasing my current fondness for French Cuisine, I had brunch at Le Bateau Ivre (meaning ‘The Drunk Boat’ in French). And a fitting name for a brunch spot, with everyone packed together in one room, recovering from the night before, alcohol sloshing in their bellies below. I sampled the French toast (or is it just known as ‘toast’ in French restaurants?) which came with a fruit salad, a cup of tea, and a tart bellini. This is clearly a departure from the glorious all-you-can-chug brunch spots, as you only get one spiked beverage with the meal (and the price is on the steep side). However, it wasn’t the food or the drink (although tasty) that brought me here; a jazz trio the plays live music from 11-4 that is the real draw. With open air from the midtown streets, and catchy tunes thumping away, this is the perfect place to hit up if your parents are in town, or if you’re trying to impress someone, or you’re working the evening shift and cannot get too too plastered before work.
