New York Restaurant Reviews – Page 46 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Charlie’s Southern Style Kitchen

2841 Eighth Avenue between 151st and 152nd Streets
212/926.4313
about $15 for two, with two drinks, without tip

It’s hard to find the best fried chicken place in Harlem because there are plenty of places you can choose from. I have to admit, I didn’t even give Charlie’s a chance until I saw a New York Times clipping on their window. But if the Times can make it uptown, there was just no reason why I shouldn’t be eating there, too.

And I’m glad I did. I walked in after 4pm and paid for an all-you-can-eat buffet plate plus a drink for $11.99. Visit before 4pm and the price is $9.99 because it’s not dinner time although I’m pretty sure the food I was paying $2 more for was the same choices from earlier in the day. The fried chicken might not have been freshly fried but it was still delicious. The collard greens and the sweet potatoes were among my favorites. Next door is their take-away store where three fried chicken legs and two sides plus a cornbread cost me $9 another night. If you’re in a hurry, it’s the way to go.

Barça 18

225 Park Avenue South between 18th and 19th Streets
212/533-2500
$130 for three, with a few drinks, with tip

A last-minute decision after a much-needed downpour led us to Barça 18 off Union Square for some stiff drinks and small plates of Spanish food. The spicy chorizo hit the spot and left us hungry for more. We ordered the dry cured pork loin and the Catalan Garrotxa cheese ($4 for two small pieces) before we shared the crab pizza topped with tarragon and roasted peppers, the octopus with sweet pepper confit and the lamb skewers in red pepper chutney which interestingly tasted just like the chorizo. A small pan of paella negra with mussels and shrimps in squid ink sealed our night.

Catalan pizza with crab pieces and parmigiano

The bar is at a first come-first served basis but a larger dining room takes reservations. The waitresses, as soon as you get their attention, are more alert than the busboys because a couple of plates meant for the small table next to us came our way. Suits from the investment banks in the area swarm Barça 18 but for an Eric Ripert-Brian O’Donohoe partnership, I can let that, and some sinewy lamb, slide.

Natural Tofu

34 West 32nd Street between Broadway and Fifth, 2nd floor
212/564-8200
about $100 for two, with two drinks, without tip

Their business card says Seoul Garden Restaurant but you might know it as Natural Tofu. People come here for the tofu chigaes, boiling hot woks of spicy broths with seafood or pork, all with tofu and bean sprouts.

Meant to be shared between at least two people, it’s the ultimate food for those who are just winding down their night of drinking.

What I come to Natural Tofu for, however, is their gae jang, raw crabs stewed in a hot soy sauce. I get into these moods where all I want is raw seafood and if I don’t mean sushi, I go for crabs Korean style.

Del Posto

85 Tenth Avenue on 16th Street
212/497-8090
$810 for six, with a few drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

The latest from the Batali-Bastianich empire, Del Posto’s staircase, marble floors and plush seating all scream money. You walk past the valet (!) through the lobby and it’s like you’re in someone’s mansion outside of New York. Its 18,000-square-foot space is larger than any of their other New York City restaurants and showcase extravagance, if not gaudiness. The menu prices scream dollar signs, too.

The antipasto misto of cheese, olives and prosciutto cost us $66 and the bis, two pastas also divided in six servings cost us a whopping $126. My squab was too rare for my taste but I held back in telling the kitchen because the accompanying wine, Feudi Taurasi 1999, made up for it. The pork chop had just the right amount of sweetness with the figs and caramelized onion on the side and I must say that the lamb loin was very good. The cod was meaty and perfectly tender.

The food could have been from any other high-priced restaurant in the city. Nothing really stood out for me to exclaim, This is so Batali. My lamb sweetbreads were a delight and the calf’s liver–unfortunately served as a main course–were so light and tasty. But where were the lamb’s tongue and the pig trotters I’ve been hearing about? They were probably in the $100 tasting menu we passed up or maybe they were the specials our server forgot to tell us about.

But for an early 6:30pm table of six women, the service was exemplary. Our sommelier needs to be commended for helping us pick champagne (a Philipponnat) and two bottles of red wine without flinching at our budget ($60-$65 per bottle). When we started with the bubbly, we mentioned that we’re celebrating a birthday. At the end of our meal, they brought one of our desserts with a candle without us having to request it. Needless to say, the birthday girl was quite pleased.

The Little Owl

90 Bedford Street on the corner of Grove
212/741.4695
$100 for two, with two drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

We told ourselves we will find another place in the West Village if the wait for a table at The Little Owl was unbearable. Thankfully, we were seated right away when we walked in at 7pm because I would have missed the soft-shell crab and asparagus, the sardines with green beans and the hamachi with coleslaw. Match that with a bottle of chilled white wine and you wouldn’t have gone anywhere else either.

Flash-frying soft-shell crabs are hard because cooking them a second over will give you mushy but chewy meat. Here, they were just the right amount of crispiness. The beans balanced the saltiness of the sardines. I could have done without the coleslaw but I must say that the pink inside of the hamachi gave me joy together with the light onion rings.

What used to be Chez Michallet is now an even sweeter space with white-washed walls and chef Joey Campanaro behind the glass-covered kitchen. Sitting at the bar gave us a peek of the action in the tiny kitchen. Our server was very attentive and never let us see our wine glasses empty. Our orders were always split in two so there was no awkward sharing. It was almost ninety degrees outside but it felt very comfortable inside.