Nov 21

Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer – New York, NY

248 W 14th St

New York, NY 10011

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Located near the Chelsea Market, Black Tap serves up a variety of burgers as well as crazy shakes. On this visit, we stumbled inside with empty stomachs and a desire to get to dessert. The hostess quickly sat us at the bar and provided us with menus. The bartender brought us water as we reviewed the menus. Having already decided to order dessert, we eventually found what else we wanted to order as well.

Today, we decided to order the bison burger, the Texan burger, and the cookie shake. I ordered my bison burger with sweet potato fries, which arrived fresh and tasty. The bison was cooked medium as requested and came with lots of arugula and slices of fresh mozzarella, which made the burger taste extra healthy. The burger as a whole tasted delicious and the sweet potato fries went well with the meal. The Texan burger arrived with a large onion ring and barbecue sauce on the side. After assembling the burger, it was quite hard to take a bite due to the sheer height of the burger, but it tasted delicious, but not as healthy as the bison burger. The main event of the meal had to be the cookie shake. The shake arrived towering with cookie crumbles, cookie ice cream sandwich, and topped with whipped cream. The vanilla shake beneath it all was delicious, but most of the shake was whipped cream. The ice cream sandwich was a nice touch and came with creamy vanilla ice cream. The cookie crumble sides were more decorative than delicious as the frosting really held onto the cookies on the side of the glass.

Overall, Black Tap Craft Burgers and Beer churn out pretty good tasting burgers and even cooler looking crazy shakes. The servers are nice, but the kitchen is a bit slow for burgers. Given another opportunity, I would like to try out some of the other crazy shakes just to see how they look in person, but the prices tend to be high for what you really get. If you are in the mood for a crazy shake, then Black Tap has what you need.

Nov 14

Joe’s Steam Rice Roll – Flushing, NY

136-21 Roosevelt Ave

Flushing, NY 11354

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Located right across from the New World Mall in Flushing, Joe’s Steam Rice Roll serves up traditional dim sum rice rolls in larger portion sizes with a variety of different toppings. As we walked into the shop, we noticed that the space further into the food stall is shared with other retail, and there was construction going on right across from the stall for another vendor, which was quite annoying. I quickly made my order for a simple BBQ pork rice roll, and took a seat at an available chair. There were options to add vegetables or an egg, but I opted not to for this visit. After a short wait, the rice roll was ready, and I was ready to devour it. The portion size for a small was actually quite fulfilling. There was not a lot of meat filling in each bite, but I really liked the freshness of the rice roll with the savoriness of the sweet soy sauce. Overall, the price is great for the amount of food received, but the ambiance of the eating area was unappealing. If I come back to Flushing, I would give this place another try for different meats and toppings, but I would probably take the meal to go. If you like rice rolls from dim sum, you should definitely give this place a try.

Nov 07

Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao – Flushing, NY

59-16 Main St

Flushing, NY 11355

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ 

Located just south of the busy Flushing Chinatown, Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao serves up delicious Shanghainese cuisine including pork soup dumplings. As we entered the restaurant, we were quickly greeted and provided menus as we sat at our table. A server provided us with hot tea as we reviewed the menu. We quickly knew what we wanted to try, so we were ready to order.

Today, we decided to order the pork xiao long bao (soup dumplings), wontons in spicy sauce, scallion pancake, and Shanghai pan-fried noodle. The wontons in spicy sauce arrived first, and it looked quite interesting as this was the first time we seen peanut sauce used as part of the sauce. The peanut sauce cancelled out any of the spice from the pepper sauce unfortunately, but the wontons were still tasty. The scallion pancake was quite thin, but not flaky. Each bite did taste a bit oily though, which is normal. The pork xiao long bao all arrived without any leaks or damage, which was impressive. Each dumpling was filled with tons of delicious soup that was very steaming hot. The dumplings went well with the soy-vinegar ginger sauce that was provided. There were generous amounts of pork inside the thin wrapper. The Shanghai pan-fried noodles came with a lot of cabbage, which was unappealing, but the actual noodles and pork did taste good; unfortunately, the dish ended up being mediocre.

Overall, Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao excels at the pork soup dumplings with the large volume of soup inside of the perfect thickness of skin. The remainder of the meal was quite mediocre, but the great service and decent prices really make a visit here worth it. If given another opportunity to visit again, I would definitely order more soup dumplings and nothing else. If you are in the Flushing area for whatever reason, make Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao a stop for some delicious soup dumplings.

Oct 31

Ichiran – Brooklyn, NY

374 Johnson Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11206

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Located in a fairly sketchy part of Brooklyn, Ichiran serves up traditional tonkotsu ramen to the masses. Known for their solo-seat flavor concentration booths, Ichiran focuses on their pork-based broth to enrich the souls of their visitors. As you enter the restaurant, you will see a light-up board with all of the available seating at the booths. The hostess quickly provided us with two available booths, so we took a seat there. When we arrived, a server from the back provided us with water as we reviewed the ordering menu that was at each of our booths.

Ichiran offers a set meal that includes the ramen, ramen refill (kae dama), egg, and dessert. We decided to order one of the set meals, and then also order a ramen, ramen refill, and egg. I opted for a medium rich stock with a full clove of garlic without scallions with pork with some spicy sauce and with soft noodles. The tonkotsu egg arrived first cut in half in a bowl. The egg was cooked perfectly and you can taste the pork broth infused in the egg itself. The ramen was amazing. The stock was so delicious and rich I wanted to keep drinking it, but I had to save the stock for the ramen refill. The pork was savory, tender, and delicious. The spicy sauce took away from the pork flavoring a bit, but added a small kick. The noodles themselves tasted fresh and had a perfect texture. It was not long before I had to request for my ramen refill. I placed the metal refill trigger onto the sensor, and the server brought over the refill of ramen. We also ordered an additional order of pork to go with the refill as well, and that tasted equally as delicious as our original pork slices. Even with the refill, I finished the entire bowl of noodles including the soup. At this time, we decided to order the desert that came with the set menu by placing the metal plate on the sensor as well. The server brought over the green tea pudding, which tasted quite refreshing after eating the rich ramen. I was not a huge fan of the dessert, but it did go well with the meal.

Overall, Ichiran really knows how to cook Tonkotsu ramen to perfection. Their flavor concentration booths are very nifty and the servers behind the curtain are on point. The ramen and broth tasted amazing and was worth every penny. Prices here are quite high at $71 for just the two of us, but it is well worth it. Ichiran is a no tipping establishment, so you can expect the prices to be higher to accommodate. I just wish they would bring a location to the west coast. If you are in the New York area, you must give Ichiran a try.

Oct 24

Nathan’s Famous – Brooklyn, NY

1205 Riegelmann Boardwalk

Brooklyn, NY 11224

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Located on the Coney Island Boardwalk, Nathan’s Famous serves up their classic hot dogs along with many other items at this convenient location. On this visit, my main goal was to order an original hot dog and some drinks, so I opted for an original Nathan’s hot dog along with a lemonade and orangeade. The hot dog had distinct crunch to it, but was quite smaller than a Costco hot dog. Unfortunately, I did not taste anything significant about the Nathan’s dog that made it particularly special at all. The lemonade was quite delicious and sweet, which was a great turn of events as I had a very bitter lemonade at Shake Shack the night before. The orangeade was even more delicious and sweet, which definitely quenched my thirst. Overall, Nathan’s seems like a great place to grab a bite, but there really isn’t anything special about the place. There is another location near the main road at Coney Island, which is the larger and most famous location, but I doubt my thoughts about the hot dog would be any different. In conclusion, I would not suggesting going out of your way to eat at Nathan’s if you have a closer option available. However, it was nice to enjoy a cold beverage at the beach.

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