The Famous Shopsin’s

Chorizo, eggs and peppers

I’ve heard about Shopsin’s. My friend SC informed me that they had strict rules and their menu is CRAZY. There’s over 200 items on the menu, so it can be bit over-whelming. I met my co-workers PS and SB at the Essex Market. This was a first for me. I’ve walked past the Essex Market a number of times enroute to Sugar Sweet Sunshine. If you can’t tell, SSS is my favorite cupcake place in NYC! Yum. My co-workers agreed to meet me in the LES for lunch since I had to buy a dozen of cupcakes to bring to my friends in Seattle/Portland. Yes, I know, I’m an awesome friend!

Anyhow, after PS and I agreed on Shopsin’s I did my usual menu research. I couldn’t even focus on the menu because it was single spaced and so cramped with items. SC informed me of their famous dishes such as macaroni and cheese pancakes, blisters on my sisters, sneaky pete eggs, etc. I decided I wanted something with eggs and meat. The Zackzuka caught my eye because it had sizzling chorizo. Mmm. When I arrived at the Essex Market, I was a bit lost because I had not realized that Shopsin’s was located within it. I found my dining mates and we arrived at Shopsin’s little nook. There were a few tables available and we were seated promptly. We were a bit nervous because we didn’t want to get thrown out. We survived the ordering process and I thought our waiter was quite nice. PS ordered the Orange Julius so I could try it. I never had one during my childhood. It tasted like an orange juice smoothie, but lighter. It was pretty good I guess! I’m not much of smoothie drinker. When her smoothie arrived in the metal cup, we looked at each other wondering how we’d share it. I told her I was afraid to ask our waiter for a straw. He came by and asked, “What are you afraid to ask me?” So I nervously asked for another straw. He came back with two cups and straws. Wow! How kind.

Our meals arrived soon after. PS got a half order of the mac n cheese pancakes and SB got a BLT sandwich. I tried PS’s pancakes and they tasted exactly what I expected. I think they put in the mac in cheese after they put a portion of the batter on the griddle. It was delicious. It was a bit spicy too since she used some hot sauce. Since I lack creativity, I never thought about combining mac n cheese with pancakes. It surprisingly works quite well. My eggs were delicious. I’m usually not a fan of gooey eggs, but these were an exception. I popped the egg yolks and mixed them into my chorizo and veggies. It was perfect. There was plenty of chorizo throughout the dish. They definitely didn’t skimp!

My first meal at Shopsin’s was surprisingly enjoyable. We did not get thrown out and our waiter was quite friendly. When we left, there was a short line of people waiting to be seated. Please note that they will NOT take any parties larger than 4. If you have a larger party, you better split up and pretend not to know each other. Also, they only take cash. During the weekends, this restaurant is quite busy, so I recommend going for lunch during the week if possible.

Shopsin’s
120 Essex Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets)
South End of Essex Market
No Reservations
Cash Only
No parties larger than 4
Open Wednesday-Saturday: 9:00am-2:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am-3:00pm

Meatball Overload

Beef, chicken and pork meatballs (furthest to closest)

I’ve been reading a lot of reviews about The Meatball Shop in the LES. To be honest, I don’t usually eat in the LES because it’s quite inconvenient for me. The F train rarely runs on the weekend, so I don’t really have an easy way to get there. I could take the bus, but it would take 45 minutes at least. However, I know there are a lot of tasty restaurants in the LES. I usually only go if I need to buy cupcakes at Sugar Sweet Sunshine or if I need to get my jeans altered at Express Tailor for $10.

My friend SC and I decided that since we now work at the bottom of Manhattan (near the Staten Island Ferry), we we would hop on the J train and get our jeans hemmed at Express Tailor. Since it usually takes 30 minutes, we’d then have a tasty lunch at The Meatball Shop. We studied the menu the morning of our excursion. We decided we’d get three types of meatballs: beef, pork and chicken. I was lucky to be given the job to pick our sauces as well. After dropping off our jeans at the tailor, we made our way to The Meatball Shop. We were hoping there would be no people since it was rainy and windy.

When we entered the restaurant we saw the almost every table was full. There was a large communal table in the center of the restaurant. The hostess directed us to our seats at this table. I would recommend trying to get your own table as the communal table was VERY tight. I was literally bumping elbows with my two side neighbors. In fact, I had trouble pulling out my chair because it was that tight. We received our checklist menus where you mark down your orders with a marker. After further deliberations that perhaps the 3 orders of meatballs (each has 4 meatballs) would not be enough to satisfy our hunger, we added the salad of the day.

This was the best sauce!

The salad was pretty tasty. It came with water cress, endives, grapefruit and candied walnuts in a balsamic vinaigrette. Then our meatballs finally came out. We ended up getting the beef meatballs with classic tomato sauce, pork meatballs with spicy meat sauce and chicken meatballs with pesto sauce. The pork meatballs were extremely soft and almost fell apart as soon as I took my first bite. The sauce was delicious. It wasn’t overly spicy, but there was a nice kick to it. The beef meatballs were firmer and the tomato sauce was also tasty. However, next time I would probably get the beef meatballs with the spicy sauce. I guess there’s nothing wrong with mixing beef with pork (the sauce has pork in it)? Lastly, the chicken meatballs were the hardest of the trio, but still juicy. The pesto sauce was good, but I think a more watery sauce is needed for the chicken meatballs as they are the leanest meat. Since we ordered the meatballs “naked”, only a piece of focaccia came with each order. You can also get it with pasta or in a hero.

We finished our lunch relatively quickly. I also heard that their ice cream sandwiches are quite tasty, but I was more interested in getting a cupcake at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, so we skipped dessert. Perhaps the next time I’m there and I’m sitting at a regular table, I’ll at least order a cookie. They had quite an extensive dessert menu. I definitely recommend The Meatball Shop if you’re craving some good meatballs. They do NOT take any reservations, so I recommend coming at an off time (lunch probably would be best).

The Meatball Shop
82 Stanton Street (between Allen and Orchard Streets)
New York, NY 10002
212.982.8895
No Reservations
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Eating Pancakes for Dinner

I found that there was a lot of blueberries in these pancakes!

I can’t remember the last time I had pancakes at a restaurant for dinner. I’ve always enjoyed pancakes since I was a kid, but I’ve always associated it with breakfast at home. Whenever I go out for brunch or breakfast in the city, I always end up ordering eggs because I think it’s more filling and healthy. I heard a lot about Clinton Street Baking Company. I believe my family and I tried to go there for lunch a few times on the weekend, but the wait was much too long. Through the food blog grapevine, I also read about their Pancake Month, where they rotate different pancakes of the day for a full month. As I examined the pancake menu, I found out that they pancakes all day and night. My friend SC and I decided after a screening of “Cedar Rapids“, we’d venture to the LES for a pancake-filled dinner. Through the cold we trudged across town and after 15 minutes, we arrived at a fairly empty restaurant.

When our waitress came by and asked for drinks, I went ahead and asked if they were still serving their special pancake as I didn’t see the pancake month menu. She confirmed that it was still being served. From my seat, I had a good view of the kitchen and did see a huge bowl of bananas. I ordered the Crunchy (Fried) Bananas Pancakes and SC ordered their famous Blueberry Pancakes. Another reason I was interested in trying Clinton Street Baking Company was that I saw them featured on Bobby Flay’s, “Throwdown” show and they unfortunately lost to the cheater. I just think the show is so unfair and that Bobby has the upperhand because he prepares for the throwdown in advance and always ends up using fancy ingredients and taking the recipe up another level. I do recall the audience, who was suppose to be fans of Clinton Street Baking Company (don’t you think it’s strange how all these devoted fans switch teams so quickly?) mentioned that Bobby’s pancakes had so many more blueberries. Before our pancakes even came out, we received a plate of very delicious biscuits. SC mentioned that the two other times she had been to the place they even got free scones. Unfortunately, they were all out of scones, so I guess that’s for next time!

Who doesn't like fried bananas on pancakes with cinnamon chocolate sauce?

Our pancakes arrived soon after our busboy took away our biscuit plates. SC and I split the two dishes and they were both very tasty. The pancakes were fluffy, crispy and buttery. They both came with the famous maple butter. It was already melted so all you had to do was dip your pancake pieces in it if you wanted more butter. Since I found the pancakes to be buttery already, I didn’t use my maple butter that much. I do agree it was quite tasty! Quickly we became full since they take up a lot of space. I looked at the other customers and some had ordered dinner food. I had read that their fried chicken is actually very good. Perhaps the next time I go, I’ll try it since I love fried chicken! Since we were stuffed, we didn’t even look at the dessert menu. I did buy a cookie to eat later. I highly recommend going to Clinton Street Baking Company at night during the week if you’re interested in trying their pancakes and don’t feel like waiting 2 hours.

 
Clinton Street Baking Company
4 Clinton Street (between East Houston and Stanton Streets)
New York, NY 10002
646.602.6263
Cash Only and No Reservations

Another Danny Meyer Hit: Blue Smoke

Tender baby back ribs at Blue Smoke

I’ve been to Blue Smoke several times have enjoyed all my meals there. Not only do they have great BBQ, I am a big fan of their fried chicken and desserts. Also, their sides are outstanding. Their deviled eggs, mac n cheese, hush puppies and sesame coleslaw are all very delicious. I’m sure I’ve had other sides, but these are all I can remember on the top of my head. In April 2010, I made my first trip to St. Louis/Southern Illinois with my boyfriend, JRA. Being the foodie that I am, I did research on famous BBQ in that area. I found that one of the most famous pitmasters had a handful of restaurants nearby. I asked JRA to take me to Mike Mills‘ 17th Street Bar & Grill. We both ordered the baby back ribs and they came with two sides. It was reasonably-priced compared to the Blue Smoke or any other BBQ place in NYC. The ribs were really tasty and the meat came off the bone very easily. Yum! As we left the restaurant, I was reading all the newspaper clippings about the restaurant and Mike Mills. I was happy to find out that Mike Mills was a consultant of Danny Meyer’s Blue Smoke! No wonder it was so good. I later did more research and found out that he is actually a partner and all of Blue Smoke’s sauces are the same as the ones offered at 17th Street Bar & Grill. He also has participated at the Big Apple BBQ!

Just the perfect amount for two people!

Anyhow, I will go back to the delicious food at Blue Smoke. I do not know of many BBQ restaurants in NYC that serve hush puppies (I only know of Virgil’s and Brother Jimmy’s). I always think about the one time I had hush puppies at a random Northern VA restaurant (it didn’t even serve BBQ). Their hush puppies had fresh corn mixed in and there was some kind of jalapeno butter. It was delicious! Blue Smoke’s version is quite good. They are round and fluffy without any fresh corn. However, they make up for this with their jalapeno marmalade. It is sweet and spicy and goes perfectly with the crispy hush puppies. When JRA went last weekend, we tried the St. Louis Toasted Ravioli as an appetizer and it was perfect. Apparently it’s popular to fry raviolis in St. Louis. If you guys haven’t noticed, I love fried foods! Blue Smoke’s ravioli was great. They were filled with meat and the sauce was perfect. Did I mention that the restauranteur, Danny Meyer, is from St. Louis? This is probably the main reason I wanted to try it with JRA, since he says St. Louis is his hometown. He agreed that the raviolis were good and authentic. Yay!

I love how the plating is so simple!

For my main entree, I ordered the pulled pork sandwich sandwich since I heard so many good things about it on Yelp and Foursquare. When it came out, the bun was glistening with butter (grease?) and it looked tasty. I took a bite and the pork was so tender and flavorful. If you’re a lazy person like myself and don’t want to waste time with ribs, then the pulled pork is the ideal dish for you. All the hard work is already done for you! It doesn’t hurt that it’s also delicious. I have never had a coleslaw like Blue Smoke. Usually, I’m not a fan of coleslaw because of my dislike for mayonaise. I gave Blue Smoke’s coleslaw a chance since it didn’t look like it had that much mayonaise. Also, I was surprised to find a lot of sesame on top. It was a bit tangy and I ended up really enjoying the side. I almost finished the entire side (I left some on the plate so our waiter wouldn’t think I was a complete pig).

Besides their entress, Blue Smoke also excels in desserts. I have gotten their Chocolate Layer Cake a number of times. This cake is not for the weak. It’s extremely rich and dense. I love it. They also serve it with a glass of milk, which I think makes it that much better. Nothing better than washing down a mouthful of chocolate cake with a glass of milk. After our very filling lunch, JRA and I decided against a dessert. It’s also because JRA is not much of a dessert eater, so I’d probably be finishing an entire dessert by myself. As we walked out of the restaurant, I noticed that they had a Bake Shop. I stopped by to get a cookie. I ate it hours later after warming it up in the oven, and it was perfect. There was plenty of chocolate chips. I think all cookies should be served warm. If you’re ever in the mood for some BBQ in Gramercy/Kips Bay area, you should definitely give Blue Smoke a try. Since it is a Danny Meyer restaurant, I highly recommend making a reservation on OpenTable in advance. They also accomodate large parties.
 
Blue Smoke
116 East 27th Street (between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue)
New York, NY 10016
212.447.7733
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Reservations are highly recommended

Lobster Roll Mania

I’m sure most people would be surprised that I am a huge fan of lobster (in addition to unhealthy noodles). I remember when I was a child, for my birthday I would beg my parents to take me to Red Lobster so I could have lobster. As I slowly grew into my foodie ways, I started researching restaurants that were famous for lobster. I prefer lobster over crab because it’s so much easier to eat. 90% of the meat is in the tail unlike the crab. I would probably need to painstakingly pick through 10 crabs for me to feel somewhat satisfied. Not to mention all the cuts I endure to eat crabs! I do enjoy a good crab cake every now or then (Legal Sea Foods‘ is da bomb)!

Anyhow, I don’t think I’ve ever had a lobster roll. I thought about ordering one while in Massachusetts visiting Cousin Jane. After I found out that there is mayonnaise in a lobster roll (basically it’s a lobster salad on a roll), I decided on ordering something else. For some reason, the only time I am okay with mayo is when I’m having tuna salad. I am NOT a condiments person. I only just started putting on mustard on my hot dogs. Recently, there has been an influx of lobster roll restaurants in NYC. I read a few reviews on Luke’s Lobster and was even shocked to find that they opened a new location in my neighborhood.

Look at the heaps of lobster meat *drool*

After a very filling dinner at Gyu-Kaku in the East Village with MM and JRA (Boyfriend), we had a few drinks at Angel’s Share. We then found ourselves at Luke’s Lobster after a very scary summer thunderstorm. MM and I each had our own lobster roll without mayo. We had found out a week earlier that at the Mermaid Inn (I will post about that unfortunate meal soon), that their lobster rolls cannot be made without mayo. For a mere $18/roll (or maybe it was $16), we each had our own lobster roll overflowing with lobster meat. They definitely did NOT skimp on the lobster meat. This was a pleasant surprise because I know just how expensive lobster is and I was expecting a higher bun to meat ratio. The only thing that I did not really enjoy was the extremely buttered bun. I think the next time I do go to Luke’s Lobster, I will ask for no butter on the bun. I am now officially a lobster roll fan!

 

Luke’s Lobster
93 East 7th Street (between 1st Ave and Ave A)
New York, NY 10009
212.387.8487
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UES Location
242 East 81st Street (between 3rd and 2nd Avenues)
New York, NY 10028
212.249.4241
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Late Dinner at Westville

Tuesday night before going to bed, Cousin Jane, who was staying at my apartment mentioned that she and my sister DL would be having dinner at Westville on Wednesday and that I was invited. I have looked at the menu before and agreed that I would attend. The extensive list of market sides piqued my interest. Also, I skimmed through the Yelp reviews and there were mostly positive. It also helped that even though they serve market fresh dishes, the prices were reasonable.

On Wednesday, CJ, DL and I met at the restaurant at around 8:45pm. I was the first at the restaurant and I was surprised to see a line of people waiting in the drizzle. I went in and asked the hostess how long the wait was and she said it would only be 10-15 minutes and that I need to let her know when everyone is here. Within five minutes, CJ and DL arrived. I updated the hostess and we waited outside and checked out the list of the daily market sides and specials. There was a seared pork chop that sounded delicious and I actually thought about getting it. Once we were seated (it did take about 10 minutes), we were handed updated menus and to my disappointment, the pork chop was crossed out.

My delicious dinner. I love sides!

I decided to go with the grilled chicken just so I could have two market sides. I ended up picking green beans with almonds and sweet potato fries. I was thinking that the green beans would cancel out the sweet potato fries. DL also got the grilled chicken, but with pesto mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. CJ was indecisive at first and was going to get an entree that did not come with any market sides. In the end she caved and got the four market sides for $13. She picked green peas with shallots and bacon, soy glazed tofu with broccoli, brussel sprouts with honey dijon and mushrooms with leeks and herbs. When our dishes came out I was very excited. I love love love sweet potato fries and these were very tasty. They weren’t too crispy. The string beans were crunchy and tasted fresh. The chicken breast was nicely seasoned and not dry at all. I tried almost all the sides, but was too busy enjoying my meal. I had my first brussel sprouts ever and it was exactly what I imagined it to be: eating a tiny head of lettuce.

Ice cream + cobbler = yummy

DL has been to Westville many many times since it’s probably her favorite restaurant. She mentioned that the desserts are really good here as well. Conveniently there was a chalkboard with all the desserts of the day. There was apple pie, blueberry pie, chocolate souffle and mixed berries cobbler. There was also a list of cookies. For oreo cookie lovers, they had homemade oreo cookies! At the end of our meals, it was decided that CJ and I would share desserts since DL had finished up CJ’s sides and was now too full to eat anything else. CJ and I agreed on the mixed berries cobbler and the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. The cobbler ended up being in one of those souffle dishes, but it ended up being very tasty. Inside, there was strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. CJ and I gobbled up the cobbler with some vanilla ice cream. The cookie was also very good. It wasn’t too buttery or even peanut buttery, but there was still the peanut butter and chocolate flavors. All in all, we were pleased with our meals. I ended up paying $23 for a delicious and fresh dinner!

 
Westville (East Location)
173 Avenue A (between 11th and 10th Streets)
New York, NY 10009
212.677.2933
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The Redhead……Finally!!

LTR here!  So, HTG, MM and I were finally able to get it together and get our butts down to The Redhead last night to taste some of their much talked about fried chicken.  This restaurant has been on our list of places to go for a while but we were always wary of their rumored spectacularly long wait times.  But we thought we might get lucky on St Patty’s day, we all met there at 7:30 and the wait was only 25 mins!  SWEET DEAL!!

Exactly 25 mins later, we sit at our table.  MM and HTG quickly decided on the fried chicken – so I decided to order something different – the low country shrimp (read this as – HTG forced LTR to order something different so that we didn’t look like THE fried chicken table).  haha!

The low country shrimp was SO tasty.  Spicy andouille sausage and big shrimp in a flavorful tomato sauce on top creamy creamy grits.  There was so much of the sauce it almost look like a soup on top of the grits.  This lead to me to ask for another piece of bread so that sop up some of my sauce with it.  YUM!

I also got to eat some of HTG’s fried chicken – crunchy, moist, and delicious but I’ll let her tell you about it…

Well the wait was DEFINITELY worth it! I noticed that all the waitresses were redheads, which I thought was cute! Our waitress was very nice and when she brought out the fried chicken plates, I started salivating. It looked so delicious. I was worried that I’d be disappointed with the fried chicken since there have been some unpleasant reviews on Yelp. I started with the Spinach & Apple salad. It was so tasty and fresh. No wilted spinach here! Then I started with the chicken breast. This is the true test on whether a fried chicken is good. If the breast is moist, then we are all good. I first tasted the slightly salty batter and it was crunchy (I’m a Roy Rogers kind of gal) and that was a check in my book. The breast meat was very moist and tender (double check). I was very impressed because I haven’t found many restaurants that can serve moist and juicy fried chicken breast. I’ve been to many Chinese restaurants and their fried chicken is always very juicy. I have no idea why it’s so difficult for American fried chicken to be juicy? Maybe the Chinese restaurants use special chickens? Anyhow, the fried chicken was really flavorful, crispy and tender. I devoured my chicken breast and most of my chicken leg/thigh. The cornbread was next and it was a bit crunchy on the outside which is just the way I like it. When our waitress came back she asked how the fried chicken was and I said it was delicious! When we got our bill, they even gave us three Redhead Chocolate Chip cookies. They were tasty as well. I looked at the other customers and the majority of them ordered fried chicken, but I did see one woman eating a very juicy looking burger. I’m torn on what I would order the next time I come here. Burger or fried chicken? What a difficult decision!
 
The Redhead
349 East 13th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
New York, NY 10003
212.533.6212
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My love for Alice’s Tea Cup

I have been to Alice’s Tea Cup probably too many times to count.  However, I will never forget my first trip ever to this “every little girl’s fantasy” restaurant.  About three years ago, my co-worker at the time, KG, and I spent a morning at a NYC spa because our boss was treating us for working so hard.  After our massages and sauna time, we were hungry for some good eating.  My friend then suggested “Alice’s Tea Cup”.  In fact, she had mentioned them previously to me about this amazing scones place.  I have never been a big fan of scones since they usually taste dry and are a bit boring in flavor.  However, on this fateful day, I decided to give this place a try.

We walked to the “Chapter III” location.  As soon as we entered this enchanting restaurant, I fell in love with the whole Alice in Wonderland theme.  There was a counter with all these delicious sweets: cookies, scones, cupcakes, cakes, etc.  Also, there were tins of tea.  As pleased as I was, there was VERY limited seating.  The hostess told us it’d be about an hour wait and that we could leave our number and they’d call us when our table’s ready.  We walked around the UES to kill the time.  When the call finally came, we rushed back to the restaurant.  We sat down at our table and drank water from our goblets.  KG suggested that we order the Madhatter.  And this began the tradition of ordering only this feast when I’m at Alice’s Tea Cup.  This set meal for two comes with two pots of tea (you get to pick from their extensive list of teas), two sandwiches, a dessert (your choice of mocha chip cake, lemon tart, or chocolate mousse with a selection of cookies), and most importantly your choice of THREE delicious scones.  Their list of scones changes daily, but they almost always have pumpkin and ham & cheese, which happen to my favorites!

Our delicious Sunday brunch!

When the food came out, we got our own three tier cake stand.  It was  a beautiful display.  The top plate had three over/American-sized scones, the middle plate had cute tea sandwiches and the bottom plate had our dessert (I don’t recall what we ordered) with cookies.  The sandwiches were very tasty, but the highlight of the meal are the scones.  I don’t remember what scones we ordered (perhaps pumpkin), but they were all delicious.  They were full of flavor and moist (maybe with lots of butter).  It was unlike any scone I’ve had before.  After gorging myself with both sandwiches and scones, I barely had any of the dessert.  Oh yes, I forgot all about the tea!  We each got a huge pot of tea of our choice.  I probably ordered the the Silver Needle Jasmine tea since I’m pretty much obsessed with Jasmine tea.

My pot of tea - Lover's Cup

A couple years later, I was at a new company and finally made my first “friend” at work after six months (she happens to be MM, my eating buddy).  We met up on a weekend and were looking for a brunch place.  I mentioned that there is a really cute tea place on West 73rd Street (Chapter I) and that I could take her there.  I warned that there would probably be a long wait, but we’d be able to go shopping and most importantly it’d be worth the wait.  Even though I love ATC so much, I wasn’t sure if MM would enjoy it even half as much as I do.  To my happiness, MM loved this awesome tea place just as much as I do.  In fact, she took all her college friends there and is now quite the regular at this location.  Just two weekends ago, we went since I haven’t been there in a very long time.  The waitress recognized MM and treated her like a celebrity.  We then returned last weekend and received the same VIP treatment.  We ordered like professionals and received our food ASAP.  It was great.

Some words of caution, please don’t expect the typical British Afternoon Tea.  I just visited my scientist cousin in London and we were lucky enough to dine at The Dorchester for Afternoon Tea.  I had a wonderful dining experience there and the service was impeccable.   ATC’s Afternoon’s Tea is like the “younger/hipper” version.  Since this place is usually packed on the weekend and there only seems to be two waitresses, service can get a little slow.  Also, I’ve been to all three locations and I think Chapter I (UWS) location is the largest.  I believe Chapter II (UES as well) has a second floor, so it could have decent seating.  The Chapter III is definitely the smallest.  Oh, and if you are not interested in getting the Madhatter Special, ATC does offer brunch on the weekend until 3pm and also a regular lunch menu.  I honestly have not even bothered ordering anything, but the Madhatter, but I have seen other customers ordering brunch and all the food looks good.
 
Alice’s Tea Cup Chapter I
102 West 73rd Street (between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues)
New York, NY 10023
212.799.3006
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Alice’s Tea Cup Chapter III
220 East 81st Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
New York, NY 10028
212.734.4832
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Are you a Friend of a Farmer?

The roommate and I enjoy having relaxing brunches during the weekend.  Usually, we stay near the apartment, but since the weather was so beautiful yesterday (sunny and about 50 degrees F), we decided to venture out.  VG suggested we go to A Friend of a Farmer.  I was intrigued by the restaurant name and so I was game.   We arrived around 1:30pm.  The hostess told me that there would be about a 45 minute wait and there was no name system.  All you do is wait in line and that’s it.  So we waited patiently. The line was about 10 people deep so we knew it’d be awhile before we sat down. Miraculously, the wait was only about 30 minutes.  There was a very country and rustic look to the restaurant.  It looked like a country house.  There was flower wallpaper and produce everywhere.  It was very cute!

My tasty omelette with Cheddar, bacon, onions and tomato

I ordered the Iriving Place Omelette (bacon, onion and tomato).  VG got the Eggs Bennie (Eggs Bendict w/Smoked Salmon).  We waited a very long time for VG’s juice.  I noticed that a party that had sat only a few minutes before us were already served their food and almost finished.  We stopped a bus boy to inquire about VG’s cranberry juice.  A few minutes later our waiter came out of hiding and we asked where VG’s juice was.  He then asked us if we received our food. Umm, why was he asking us?  Shouldn’t he know?  So we said nope we didn’t get any food.  Soon, a bus boy came with a small glass of cranberry juice.  Then another bus boy came out with a skillet of cornbread.  I confirmed that we would not be charged for this cornbread.  He said it was because our food was so delayed. Then our waiter came by again (to help his other tables) and VG stopped him to ask where our food was?  He said that the kitchen lost our order and it would be coming out soon!  By this time, we were both hungry and annoyed. We saw a table that had sat down after us already done with their meals!  Our food arrived a few minutes after and I devoured my omelette and home fries.   It tasted delicious!  I very rarely order bacon for breakfast, so it was definitely a treat for me.  I also think that since I was so hungry, anything tasted good at this time.

I really loved the apple sauce in the middle. YUM!

Even though we were still a bit dissatisfied by the bad service, we ended up giving our waiter a decent tip.  Hopefully he learned a lesson from us!  With tip and tax my meal came up to $15.  Not bad for a brunch in NYC!  I’d go back, but I’d try to avoid the brunch rush.  I’d go back after 3pm.  It seems to slow down quite a bit by then.
 
Friend Of A Farmer
77 Irving Place (between 18th and 19th Streets)
New York, NY 10003
212.477.2188
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