Mind Over Stomach

My mom found this restaurant and decided it was a must-try while we were in Newport for the folk festival. I wasn’t feeling so great before we headed to dinner so I thought I should be cautious about what I ate. That was hard with the deliciousness that was about to come out.

It’s a cute little house with a few small rooms. Very cozy. Lots of tchotchkes all over the place but well kept and clean. The waitress was such a sweetheart and so accommodating. There was a full page in the menu for veggies – couldn’t be happier! We ordered the bruschette which only included two pieces of bread so she offered to provide us with 1 1/2 orders (3 of us) instead of having 1 or 2 full orders. Thanks for thinking about us waitress, we truly appreciate your effort. It was perfectly baked and delicious. Moving right along to my entree. I had the Ravioli di Zucca (Butternut squash and cheese filled ravioli with roasted peppers, sage, butter and pine nuts). It was excellent. The perfect amount of food, sauce, filling, cheese – everything. It was like heaven in my mouth. I was super impressed.

I have nothing excellent things to say about this fine establishment. Five stars for ambiance, service, food & price was even reasonable. We went here twice in three days and look forward to going back again next year when we’re in Newport.

Mama Luisa
673 Thames Street, Newport

Irving is my favorite street in New York City. One day, when I grow up and own my own business and all – I hope I can afford to live in a nice apartment on Irving. That’s a dream that would be lovely if it came true.

Irving is also the home to Pete’s Tavern – one of the oldest bars in the city. I’ve walked by plenty of times, had drinks there but never thought I’d eat there. It just didn’t seem like it was worth it until I was convinced otherwise. “They have great chicken parm” I was told. Meant nothing to me – I’m a veggie but let’s check out the eggplant parm. If you’ve read my past posts, you know I’m constantly on the hunt for good eggplant parm and Beppe really won my heart.

Sat outside, with amazing people watching. Nicest waiter ever. So friendly and helpful and just accommodating. I ordered the eggplant parm with a side of angel hair (sauce on side) and a side of steamed broccoli with garlic. People watching galore, and my food arrived and looked delicious. It also tasted delicious. Not mushy or chewy eggplant and the perfect amount of sauce/cheese. The angel hair was el-dente and they listened to my “sauce on the side” request. Broccoli was steamed, fresh and perfectly seasoned with garlic.

Between the tasty food, wonderful waiter, manager coming by to see how we were doing and the lovely location & people watching – I was impressed. Seeing as it’s been around many years, hopefully they’ll stick around until I can afford to live on Irving and become a regular there.

Pete’s Tavern
129 East 18th Street

It’s hard to believe this used to be a bodega. A sketchy bodega to say the least. So when Bluebell Cafe opened up, I took many double takes to determine if I should check this place out. It was hot and sticky outside and all I wanted was a delicious cold iced tea. Our very nice waitress came over and took our drink order and told us the specials. The second she said “watermelon” included in a salad, I made it clear we definitely needed that. I love fruit in salad. She brought out the salad and it was sooo delicious. So refreshing on a hot day.

For a main course, I had the veggie sandwich without mushroom and extra pesto. It was delicious and not too cheesy or anything. I wish it came on the french bread that the caesar sandwich came on – that was more exciting looking. The veggie sandwich came on basic bread, and I wasn’t into the crust. It was very tasty though – as were the fries it came with.

Our waitress was really sweet and provided great service (including refilling the iced tea clearly knowing how parched we were). Cute ambiance – similar to Penelope, as it was very homey. I hope to become a regular at Bluebell.

Bluebell Cafe
293 Third Ave

As a veggie, you would think this would be a go-to place for me but oddly enough, this week was my first time there. Walked it, cooler ambiance than I expected – very clean, fresh, and “green.” Four of us were seated and our very friendly waitress informed us that the special soup of the day was a honeydew gazpacho which sounded delicious but when I searched the rest of the menu I wanted so many other things. We decided to share a few dishes because we wanted to try everything!

We started off with drinks. They only had beer/wine/sake so I ended up with a mojito made with sake. It was good, not great. I’m really not a sake fan but hey, it wasn’t bad. We shared the hummus plate which was perfect texture & came with carrots, cucumber and wonton chips. Then we shared spinach & cheese wontons , veggie dumplings, and scallion pancakes. My favorite dish we ordered were mixed veggies and lettuce (to make wraps). So many different flavors of deliciousness. I wasn’t crazy about the veggie dumplings but everything else was great.

Great service, great food, cool ambiance, and finally found a restaurant that has all that AND is decently priced. I hope they deliver to my ‘hood!

Gobo
401 Avenue of the Americas

After a show in Williamsburg, we were starving….we stumbled upon this place and decided it was going to be our dinner spot. The service was fantastic. They were right there when we needed them, constantly refilling water with ice (always bothers me when there is no ice) and just really very pleasant waiters. I asked many questions about altering dishes because they had meat/fish in them and the waiter was more than helpful and willing to change things for me. I had a great glass of wine, and unfortunately don’t remember what it was. I had the Grilled Baby Octopus salad with Baby arugula, avocado, cucumbers, shallot-jalapeño vinaigrette except that I got it without the octopus and avocado. So yes, it was a very simple salad but I was starving and the dressing was great. For my main course, I had the Noqui (aka Gnocchi) with summer vegetables, crisp pancetta, cotija cheese (without the pancetta) and it was outstanding. If you haven’t figured this out by now gnocchi is one of my favorite things ever and usually it’s super heavy. This wasn’t at all. So many delicious tastes.

My friends got the prix fixed meal and loved what they had as well. The risotto (Gorgonzola piccante, braeburn apples, roasted poblano chiles) which was delicious. Considering we stumbled upon this place, it was really quite a treat. When I get back to Williamsburg one day, I will go back here. And you should go too…

Miranda
80 Berry Street (yes, in Brooklyn)

My friend who is NOT a vegetarian OR vegan recommended this place. It’s BYOB and cash only which is good as long as you know that in advance. So we were immediately seated by the lady with the bright red lipstick and opened our 3 buck chuck from Trader Joe’s and read over the menu many times trying to decide what to get because everything sounded so good. The table to the right of us, kept ordering food and in between each dish were eating the chopped up peanuts that were in the container similar to one that would hold pepper. It was quite weird, unless of course, there’s something veganistic to that, that I don’t know about.

Anyway, I ended up getting the miso soup which was very delicious. Very flavorful, enough scallions and tofu for me. Then I got the Thursday Salad which had potatoes and dill and carrots and veggies and all this yumminess. I didn’t know if I would like the dressing so I asked our friendly waitress for a taste of it and she said the salad was premade so she could bring me a taste of the salad. Perfecto! She brought it out in a soup ladle which is one of my favorite utensils. It was yummy so I got a regular portion of it. I forget exactly what my friend got but it had hummus and a selection of veggies and beans and rice and stuff and looked delicious. We were very satisfied with our meal and service and the price. I will be going back here on a regular basis.

Angelica Kitchen
300 E 12th Street

Never heard of this place, or passed it by but a trusty coworker suggested I take my parents here for their anniversary and so I did. I was able to get a reservation on opentable last minute and was beyond impressed. Absolutely love the ambiance, it’s trendy but not fancy, simple not overdone. It’s overall a loud place but somehow at our table we could hear each other perfectly and didn’t feel drowned out by other loud speakers. Anyway, the food. Wow. We shared the artichoke flatbread and orchard salad as appetizers. Both of which were beyond delicious. The nice thing about the salad is that it wasn’t two leaves of lettuce, it was a substantial delicious salad with a ton of flavors. Love apples in salad.

Then came the entree. Butternut Squash Ravioli. Hazelnuts to give it a crunch, brown butter pan sauce was so flavorful, not too cheesy and honestly one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. The flourless chocolate cake was yummy, a bit too sweet for me but I enjoyed a bite and the strawberries on the side.

Waiter was super friendly, nice and cared about how we were doing. My dad asked what imported beers they had and the waiter gave him a look of, I wish we had that but all they had was Stella (and something else, I forget)…..he continued to say “I’m a beer guy too” and came out with a Stella for my dad and poured it so perfectly in the glass. He was in fact a beer guy.

Outstanding service, food and ambiance – just wish it wasn’t so expensive (why is that always the problem?)

The Orchard
162 Orchard Street

Let me start this off with a WOW because that’s how I felt throughout my entire meal at Union Square Cafe. A friend of mine recently told me that they had THE best gnocchi so I felt as a gnocchi lover, that I needed to try it. My favorite Tuesday night dinner buddy and I made a reservation a week in advance and went with high expectations.

We were seated upstairs, a great people watching spot to overlook the tables below. I loved our waitress, Erin from the moment she approached us. We asked her what she recommended and she was extremely helpful.

We started with the Cherry Lane Farm Sugar Snap Pea Salad which they split into two dishes for us (always love that) and was flavorful and delicious and I could have had a larger portion as my main course…although main courses were outstanding. My friend really wanted the Chilled Beet & Strawberry Soup but we had already placed our order of enough food for two. The lovely, Erin, came over with a small bowl and two spoons for us to sample the soup. I hate beets but I was forced to try it – one small slurp, it was yummy but I really can’t handle beets. My friend on the other hand LOVED it.

We ordered 3 pasta dishes appetizer sizes to share (love that there is that option!) We got the Ricotta Gnocchi, Strangozzi with sweet peas and the Caramelized Onion Risotto. Once again, wow wow and wow. Each dish was so perfectly prepared – gnocchi and risotto are two dishes that can easily be screwed up by being under/over cooked but they nailed it! The caramelized onion risotto was out of this world – excellent. The gnocchi was fluffy and marshmallowy and just the perfect amount of sauce (not an overwhelming amount) . The strangozzi was the “simplest” dish we ordered and yet was very flavorful. When Erin came over to ask how our meal is, we raved about the dishes and she told us that the chef got the recipe from his great, great grandmother and when he was out of town or sick or something he made the substitute chef sign a non-disclosure form. Excellent!

Overall the meal was outstanding. Service was superb. Unfortunate thing is that it is extremely expensive…otherwise I’d be there on a weekly basis. Good job Danny Meyer!


As we were walking out, a man pointed to my friend and said “You let people like that in?” (because he was wearing shorts) I couldn’t believe that the man had the audacity to say such a thing especially since my friend called ahead to confirm he could wear them. Sick people out there, sick people.

Union Square Cafe
21 East 16th Street

Another one of the many restaurants that I’ve never noticed although it’s just a few blocks away from my apartment. I thought I was the most observant person ever but apparently not. Friends made reservations here for a group of 6 of us. Very small place, very strong Italian accents, nice waiters. Wine & beer only.

I had the spinach salad with straberries – that was tasty. I’m a big fan of fruits in salad if it’s done “right.” Then shared the jumbo rigatoni with fresh tomato sauce and garlic, fried eggplant, basil, salt ricotta cheese as well as the fig gnocchi in a cheese fondue. SO delicious and the cheese fondue wasn’t even over the top (which I’m fearful of when it says “fondue” that could be intense.)

My friend had the Anelletti Alla Palermitana which came with a popover looking breadlike thing on top of her whole bowl and the waiter popped it and turned it over to “display” the pasta. It was so cool and delicious (the popover was, not sure about the pasta because it had fish or something of that sort).

Downside of the place is because it’s so small, there is no room for the waiters to get by, let alone the people waiting to get in to eat. It got really crowded and overwhelming and they were rearranging the tables and asking us to scootch in some more. My friend and I switched chairs because I got major claustrophobia after a while of people shoving past me and bumping their butt into my shoulder.

But really, food was excellent, just wish there was a little more space. Rumor has it, take out is equally as good as when you’re in the restaurant (plus you avoid the chaos!)

Cacio E Vino
80 2nd Ave

My parents have been going here for a while and I finally said I needed to try it out! We made a last minute rez on Opentable and went for dinner. We waited for my dad at the bar and drank their vodka, lemonade, cranberry cocktail and it was so delicious. I’m not big on fruity drinks but it was delicious and not too fruity. Really nice bartender. They had great music playing too – which always sets the right mood. We were seated at a table near their “presentation area” or so I call it. They bring the food from the kitchen to this area to make it look pretty. It’s cool.

I asked the waiter what he recommended for a veggie and we discussed a great plan (as my parents and I snacked on their outstanding tuscan fries). I had the appetizer portion of eggplant parm and the corn gnocchi. I honestly think that is THE best eggplant parm I have ever had. Thin sliced eggplant and the perfect amount of sauce and cheese. Perfectly cooked. I was very impressed. I then had the corn-based gnocchi (vegan dish!) which was also excellent and not too rich, and just the perfect texture. Gnocci is definitely a hard thing to come by to perfect, and they pulled it off WELL.

Very impressed by the service. the food. the ambiance. the music. just wish it was a bit less expensive so i could afford to go there more frequently. i guess I’ll just have to go with someone who will pay for me!

Beppe
45 E 22nd St