SushiSamba 7

Well, once this Nobu knock off was featured on Sex and the City I guess we could have all figured it was downhill from there. SushiSamba's second location brings us to a very awkward area in Manhattan as it lies on the outskirts of the West Village where it almost begins to become Tribeca/Soho. The space of the restaurant is pretty large with a small dining room and lounge on the first floor and the larger dining room and rooftop bar/lounge on the second floor. The decor is strikingly similar to SushiSamba Park, which quite frankly needs to be renovated, and features the large circular lights on the ceiling and brightly colored banquettes and walls. Though the restaurant must have been impressive when it first opened back in the early 2000s, the decor has not withstood the test of time and can't hold up to that of its competition (Tao, Nobu and Ajna Bar for example).

The food is mainly Japanese but with a slight Peruvian influence. The menu attempts to put a Spanish spin on most of the cooked food but it really comes across as more of a Pan Asian menu than anything else. Though on this visit I came to SushiSamba to see how the sushi was in comparison to its other restaurant on Park Avenue South. My visits to the Gramercy location have been mediocre at best and I wouldn't exactly go there unless I were in the area. However, I wouldn't even go to this SushiSamba in the West Village if I were even in the area. I basically ordered the basics, tuna, yellowtail, salmon just to see how it was and it turns out I am very glad I didn't order anymore. The fish was not fresh at all, especially the yellowtail, and the rice tasted strongly of vinegar. If SushiSamba can't even master the basics of a simple tuna roll, why would I return for their more complex specialty rolls.

Though I can not comment on their cooked food, I certainly won't be returning to SushiSamba for their Japanese food. Though it is reasonably priced for an upscale Japanese restaurant, the food does not even come close to its competitors. The decor is outdated and I wouldn't exactly come here for the "lounge" atmosphere (the "No hats, boots or sweatpants after 6 PM" sign at the door of the restaurant is a strong indicator of how it is inside at night). Overall, there are much better places to go for if you're in search of a trendy Japanese restaurant.

Tao

The last time I visited Tao was at least 3 years ago, and many times before that, and it was generally a positive experience. I used to go to Tao often as it was really one of the few restaurants uptown that could combine both style and great food into one restaurant. However, on my recent visit to Tao I've noticed the restaurant has taken a turn for the worse. The restaurant is still beautiful and the giant Buddha sitting at the front of the main dining room is still as impressive as it was when Tao opened back in 2000. The restaurant has taken much more of a club vibe by featuring dancers and electric violinists during dinner service.

However, the menu has had a few changes over the past few years and the cuisine has changed from Japanese and Chinese to much heavier Thai influence. There is still a full sushi menu as well as several Chinese options, but I do see a much larger portion of the menu dedicated to Thai and Vietnamese dishes. Unfortunately Tao cannot fully guarantee there will be no cross-contamination with the food so I had to stick to the sushi menu just to be safe. Since I was apart of a large group, we were served a platter with everything off the sushi menu so I did get a chance to sample everything Tao offered. The sushi was a bit disappointing and I do remember it being much better on previous visits. There was an unnecessary amount of rice in the individual pieces and the fish was not as fresh as it used to be. The tuna specifically was a bit tough and the yellowtail was fishy though the salmon was a safe option. In regards to the cooked food, though I did not get a chance to try it on this visit the presentation did look a bit sloppy but I didn't hear any complaints from the other diners at the table.

Perhaps Tao Group has put more energy into their newer restaurant Lavo across the street or perhaps with time Tao is beginning to deteriorate. While it remains a solid option when looking for a lavish restaurant in Midtown/Upper East Side, the kitchen definitely has seen better days and perhaps Tao could create a peanut/nut free menu since their regular menu is now a lot more dangerous for those who have nut allergies.

Meatball Shop (West Village)

After hearing only great things about the Meatball Shop, I kind of had to try it. Though its not a place that I would normally go to, the fact that an outpost just opened on Greenwich Street, since I rarely go to the Lower East Side or Williamsburg, gave me that extra motivation to finally check it out. The restaurant doesn't take reservations and can get quite packed during prime-time hours as it is a pretty small place. The decor is pretty rustic and homey with a white subway tilled bar and dark wood floors. The front of the restaurant features mostly bar seating while the back has a communal table and a few scattered tables. The open kitchen is also a nice touch as well.

The menu mainly consists of meatball sliders and heros but surprisingly there are a good amount of vegetarian options as well. Meatball Shop offers beef, chicken and pork meatballs and one "vegetable ball". The sliders are $3 each while the heroes are $9 which I would say is quite reasonable. The menus are on a laminated sheet that you check off with a dry-erase marker and then hand to your server. Its a good idea but I did feel like its easy to mistakenly erase something and mess up the order more so than if the server just wrote it down on a pad. The portions are generous and the food is decent. The meatballs, while not the best I've ever had, and the hero managed to stay together the entire meal (nothing is more annoying than when the kitchen overstuffs the sandwich and it all falls apart in your plate). I'd personally go for the traditional beef meatballs but the chicken meatballs are a lighter and good option as well.

To be honest, The Meatball Shop serves food you really can't complain about. Its a step up from normal deli heroes and meatballs and the menu is priced well. Though I'm not running back anytime soon, The Meatball Shop is a great family place or just a good place to eat at when you don't know where to go and are in the area. It won't disappoint you but don't expect anything out of this world either.

Employees Only

Possibly the most hyped bar in Manhattan, Employees Only is located in the West Village. Employees Only has been featured on numerous "Best Bars/Cocktails" lists and it also features a full menu which definitely merited a visit. Employees Only seeks to be a speakeasy that is influenced by the prohibition era during the 1920s and 1930s. Though it really isn't much of a speakeasy, especially since there is a sign notifying you that it is Employees Only, the bar area does look like something straight out of the prohibition era. However, the dining room in the back does not really match the decor of the front of the room as it looks rather dated and dull. There is a psychic in the entrance of the bar which is a tad bit gimmicky for my taste but after the fake pawn shop at Beauty and Essex, I'll let that slide. The bartenders are all very hipster looking and have matching Employees Only tattoos. How does this tie in with the speakeasy/prohibition theme, I'm not quite sure though it is a nice touch.

The menu consits of upscale American bar food with a bit of English and Italian influence as well. Their most popular dish is the Hand-Cut Steak Tartare and the menu also has a few pasta dishes and the an unexpected Elk Loin. Despite a full menu, most people go to Employees Only for the award winning cocktails. The list is split into signature cocktails and "Fancy" cocktails, not that there is a difference really. Despite Employees Only's numerous awards and mentions, the cocktails, I find, are mediocre at best. The Billionaire's Cocktail was quite bitter and I've had a better Pimm's Cup at The Lambs Club. Quite frankly I'd much rather put in the extra $8 and go to the Boom Boom Room for drinks. The Steak Tartare was a more Americanized take on the dish by adding Worcester sauce to the dish. I felt this detracted from the taste of the actual dish but I'm sure the increasingly bridge & tunnel crowd Employees Only has been attracting lately doesn't mind a bit! However, I did enjoy the bar-side preparation of the dish.

I find that Employees Only is mediocre at best and there are much better places in the city to get drinks (Rose Bar and Boom Boom Room are two other and better options). The food is average and so are the drinks. I'll admit the bartenders provide excellent service but if it's a good drink I'm looking for I think I'll venture elsewhere!

Beauty and Essex

After much hype about Tao Group's new restaurant, I had to go try it. Though in an area I rarely frequent, the Lower East Side, I felt Beauty and Essex merited a visit. Beauty and Essex has the same concept as the near by restaurant The Stanton Social, which is also owned by Tao Group. The menu is set up similarly to The Stanton Social's meaning that it features small tapas style dishes and a few entrees. However, the entrees are also small portioned so its best to stick to the small plates and order about two to four of them for a complete meal. Beauty and Essex essentially looks like an upscale lounge more so than a restaurant. Aside from the neutral color dining room with a beautiful skylight, the decor mainly caters to women. To make women forget about the trip down two flights of stairs to go to the bathroom, there's free champagne given out by the bathroom attendant. Unfortunately, men do not get to share that luxury at Beauty and Essex. The pink hued upstairs bar is located next to the small lounge with an ornate chandelier. However, you can not forget the entrance of Beauty and Essex which is through a faux pawn shop. I would say the restaurant is a hidden restaurant similar to that of La Esquina, but the huge lit up "Beauty and Essex" sign kind of gives it away.

Though the decor at Beauty and Essex is nice, the menu and execution of the food is where my visit took a turn for the worse. The menu itself is kind of all over the place and had both an Italian and heavy Asian influence with a bit of American mixed in there as well. The menu ranges from General Tso's Monkfish to Tuna Poke Wonton Tacos to Parsnip Ravioli. The wine list is also poorly constructed and rather pricy. The cheapest wine is $46 and comes with a screw-top (as do most of the reasonably priced wines on the menu). If the menu had some recognizable and notably good wines, such as the $60 Chaning Daughter Rose I had at The Lion, I would have gladly purchased that instead. Also, if I am going to a restaurant such as Beauty and Essex I would hope that any wine I ordered would at least have a cork (I don't think I'm asking for too much). Usually the menu is explained before you order, like at The Stanton Social, but since there is a specific place for entrees, unlike when I visited The Stanton Social, I had assumed that the entrees would be a regular entree portion. Though I am used to small portions, after dining out in New York you begin to become accustomed to half a plate of pasta being passed of as a full portion, but at Beauty and Essex this was taken a bit too far. The Chicken Meatballs, apparently their most popular dish according to my waitress, consisted of three mushy chicken meatballs in a truffle based sauce with a scoop of heavy ricotta cream on top. The Garganelli (similar to Penne) in a bolognese sauce was overcooked and inedible. The setting of the table was also bizarre. Along with the Garganelli we got a giant salad serving fork (used for what you might ask, I still have no idea) and the salad fork was the same size as the dinner fork which is something I have never experienced at a restaurant.

Though the service and decor are good, the food is where Beauty and Essex fails. The menu is too scattered to really be good at one particular type of cuisine and the execution is awful as well. Given how "out of the way" Beauty and Essex is for me to begin with, I highly doubt I will be returning anytime soon.

Armani Ristorante

On the roof of the relatively new Armani flagship store on 5th Avenue sits a modern Italian restaurant mainly built for the tourists that come in and out of the store. The restaurant itself has its own separate entrance from the store itself but during store hours you can access the restaurant through the store's elevator. The restaurant's location within the Armani store looks as if they had a bit of extra space left over and didn't know what to do with it as it takes up a bit less than half of one floor. However, the restaurant itself is decorated very simply with modern looking black chairs and white tables and a few circular booths scattered throughout the restaurant. Its a very chic and modern decor and matches the rest of the store perfectly. There is, however, a bit of a pretentious vibe given off when you first enter the restaurant by the maître d. Even though the restaurant was half empty during my lunch visit, we still had to wait 10 minutes for a table for two but then again when visiting an upscale Italian restaurant there's a bit of attitude is to be expected.

The menu features refined Italian dishes that would please any Park Avenue housewife. Of course you have the essentials for any upscale Italian restaurant such as Beef Carpaccio and an array of salads to choose from but what is surprising is the $33 pre-fixe lunch menu. However, since I was having dinner at Sushi Gari later that evening I chose to save my appetite and just get the Bavette Sul Pesce and the Spaghettini. The Bavette consisted of Bavette pasta, similar to linguini, with an array of seafood in a light sauce. The bavette itself was very al dente, though some people do prefer it that way, and the portion size was far too small to justify the $28 price-tag. The sauce was also very oily and left a very greasy feeling in my mouth afterwards. The Spaghettini was similar to the Bavette except it had sea urchin in it as well. This dish was mediocre at best and featured such a small amount of sea urchin that it was laughable.

Since I haven't heard much about Armani Ristorante I suppose I should not have set my expectations so high. While the space is beautiful, the service is a bit pretentious and the food leaves much to be desired. My suggestion is checking it out once if this is a place you are very interested in or if you really need a nice place to have a quick lunch while shopping on 5th avenue. Frankly the food is not good enough to make this my regular Italian spot. For this price range I'd much rather Sfoglia, Cipriani or even Nello.

Boulud Sud

After a long break I'm finally back to posting reviews. To be honest, this summer I began exploring New York nightlife spots rather than restaurants (which you may see reviews for in the future) but now I think its about time I begin updating my blog again. And the first restaurant I'll review is Daniel Boulud's latest venture: Boulud Sud.

Daniel Boulud's latest restaurant happens to be strategically located in Lincoln Center next to Bar Boulud. Expect a lot of pre-theater patrons and Upper West Side families looking for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern inspired fare. The restaurant is a bit bland when you first walk in with the baige walls and the main dining room that kind of looks like a museum cafe, but the food speaks for itself.

The menu is split into three parts: From The Garden, From The Sea and From The Farm. All three menu portions are then separated into small plates and larger plates. The dishes range from northern European countries all the way down south to southern Italy and Northern Africa. From the Farm I sampled the Chicken Tagine which was served with a side of turnips and spinach. I chose to select a dish with a Northern African influence as I was interested to see what Daniel Boulud would do with a dish that differed significantly from what he would normally serve. I was pleasantly surprised with the dish as it was a much lighter take on Moroccan food. The chicken was very moist and none of the flavors were overbearing and strong like I find some Moroccan food to be.

Overall I was very pleased with Boulud Sud. Though the restaurant is a bit bland looking, the food itself is fantastic. My recommendation would be to go with the Pre-Theatere menu for $55 which is easily one of the best options if you need a quick meal before catching the Ballet at the Met!

Tutto Il Giorno

Conde Nast CEO Steve Florio decided to give the very humble Sag Harbor its own chic Italian eatery of its own. South Hampton has Sant Ambroeus (and now a new Tutto Il Giorno outpost opened by Donna Karan's daughter), East Hampton has Nick & Toni and Sag Harbor has Tutto Il Giorno. Its basically the place to be when in Sag Harbor. The all white wood interior gives a very Hamptons feel to this intimate (38 seats to be exact) Italian restaurant. Tutto Il Giorno is also a great place to people watch as the upscale clientele ranges from those living/renting in the Hamptons to those in the fashion industry (Betsey Johnson was having lunch in the bar area during my visit). The menu is a very "Hamptons Italian" menu featuring more refined, light, Italian dishes such as Kobe Beef Carpachio and Spaghetti in a light Pesto sauce.

To start I had the Papardelle with Bay Scallops, Roasted Peppers in a spicy "Sette Fratelli" sauce. The papardelle was a homemade tri-colored pasta in a spicy tomato sauce with a good amount of fresh scallops. The peppers in the dish were a bit overpowering though the freshness of the ingredients did make up for that. As an entree I ordered the Branzino which was a fresh sea bass poached in a white wine and light tomato sauce. The fish was buttery and obviously very fresh and the white wine sauce made for a very light and simple dish. I would much rather have a very simple dish be excellent than a more complex dish where the flavors don't work well with one another. Another thing I noticed about the food at Tutto Il Giorno was that the portions were very generous. I ordered a half portion of the Papardelle and quite frankly the full portion didn't differ much from the half portion.

I did enjoy my visit to Tutto Il Giorno and will be returning soon when I visit Sag Harbor again. The clientele and the restaurant are great to look at and the food is interesting enough to convince me to have a second visit!