Food: ☆☆☆ ½
Service: ☆☆☆
Ambiance: ☆☆☆☆
Cost: $$$$
I recommend: stir fried mussels with chili jam and crispy shallots, seared duck breast in a soy broth, flourless valrhona chocolate cake
Food: ☆☆
Service: ☆☆☆ ½
Ambiance: ☆☆☆
Cost: $$$
Good for: Hipsters
Dishes not to miss: Crabcake, Burger
Special notes: Eat at the bar during their tasting hour for well priced drinks and bites.
(I recently heard that the New York Japonais may be closing down)
Japonais is just one more of those prodigious, Japanese inflected restaurants that you find all over New York City these days.
You enter and know that you’ve “been there, done that”.
Food: ☆☆☆☆ 1/2
Service: ☆☆☆☆
Ambiance: ☆☆☆☆
Cost: $$$
I recommend: Big Eye Tuna Tarts, Spicy Crispy Shrimp, Spicy Tuna Rolls,
Lychee Panna Cotta
Dévi is the home of artful forms of Pan-Indian cuisine created by two Indian super chefs and co-founders, Suvir Saran and Hemant Mathur (who has since left to open his own restaurant – Tulsi).
Over the years, Devi has managed to create quite a buzz as being one of the “it” Indian restaurants in New York City. Its one of those hot Indian food spots one goes to where you get (and pay for) more than an “Indian buffet’ experience.
The chefs are certainly masters of their craft but the food to me was temperamental. Some dishes were stunners like the Tandoori Prawns with crispy okra salad, the Tandoor Grilled Halibut and the Corn Chaat. Continue reading
Chef and owner of Mickey’s Place, Michio “Mickey” Moroi has been serving up great sushi for well over two decades now. Housed in a tiny spot, opposite the LIRR in Bayside, Queens, Mickey’s Place never fails to satisfy a craving for sushi.
It definitely beats all its competitors in and around Queens by serving really solid, good, Japanese food. Continue reading
Mumbai was the birthplace of the extremely popular street snack known as a Frankie, which is somewhat like a kati roll. It is a chapatti roll with or without egg that has options of different filling such as mutton, potato, chicken, and so on. Continue reading
Who doesn’t like to have fun with their food?
Well that’s what Mamagoto, in Japanese literally means – “play with food”. Continue reading
The China Kitchen at the Hyatt Regency is one of my favorite restaurants in New Delhi. It is on my to-do list every single time I visit.
China Kitchen offers authentic tastes of the grace and subtlety of Chinese food. Continue reading
The Spice Route journeys from the Malabar Coast in Kerela, India to the ends of South East Asia touching on the tastes and flavors along the way.
Set in the gorgeous Imperial Hotel, the restaurant Spice Route has been designed by Rajeev Sethi. It was painstakingly created over a period of 7 years. Based on the principles of Feng –Sui, the space is filled with striking, intricate elements, antiques and details from all over South East Asia. The results are quite stunning and really worth experiencing.
BaoHaus, is where owner Eddie Huang merges the age old Taiwanese street snack Gua Baowith the all natural, environmentally conscious spirit of today. Continue reading
Golden Dragon – the Chinese Restaurant at the Taj Coromandel Hotel has always been considered the crown jewels of the Chennai fine dining scene. It was one of the first Chinese restaurants, to introduce fine Sichuan cuisine, to the city.
It has reigned supreme in the promise of a terrific dinning experience all the way from its orange beaded curtain days in the seventies to the newly renovated space created recently. It reached it’s heights of popularity when Chef Hardy Cheung, who was considered one of the best Chinese Chefs in India, took its helm in the nineties. Continue reading
Got a craving for soup dumplings?
Let me offer you a fabulous alternative to Joe’s Shanghai… Continue reading
If you ever visit the beautiful pink City of Jaipur in India, you must make a pit stop at Niros for a meal.
Conveniently located on the bustling MI road, right in the heart of the city, Niros is a food haven for locals, tourists and celebrities. Continue reading
Meet BeeBee Martinent – one of the hardest working gals I know. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to eat at her table, you would know that she serves some of the best Malaysian Chicken Rice in the city.
Hey Delhites..how many of you have been to Pitampura?
I for one had never even heard of it until two nights ago when honestly….what I saw there knocked my socks off.
Malls that are more modern than anything in South Delhi (what I’m used too) and gargantuan eateries that were packed with people at all odd hours of the night. Continue reading
Stall # 36 marks the spot for Xi’an Famous Foods which is housed in the basement of the Golden Mall in Queens. Here’s where you will find some really incredible hand pulled noodles. It’s best known for its Liang Pi “cold skin” noodles, Savory Cumin Lamb Burger and Lamb Face Salad. Continue reading
Shiro is set in the beautiful Rodgers mansion of Novi, Michigan. It is a real surprise to find a Japanese restaurant in this grand home that pays homage to Antebellum architecture. The interiors are adorned with early 20th century decor. It’s rather quaint to see a sushi bar with large lace valance! The place is very charming and has a lot of character.
The wait staff were very friendly and helpful though a bit disorganized. We ordered sashimi which never came and our waiter would sometimes disappear for long spells of time.
The food was decent (I cant compare it to New York Sushi) but considering where we were – I was pleasantly surprised.
We really went there to eat rolls only.The problem I found with the selection of rolls was that a lot of them had some deep fried element in it and I wanted to try more combinations of fish that were not fried or cooked. I thought that a lot of the sauces and dips accompanying the rolls were a little too sweet.
Here is some of what we ate:
EBI SHUMAI
This was pretty standard shumai but was served with honey mustard which was interesting.
SHRIMP & VEGETABLE TEMPURA
We tried an appetizer of the shrimp and vegetable tempura. I thought that the batter was a little too thick and the tempura was too crunchy. Really good tempura is a very delicate dish, where the shrimp and batter just melt in your mouth.
ATLANTIC ROLL
Their Atlantic roll had grilled tuna, scallion , cream cheese and was wrapped with avocado and topped with their house special BBQ sauce. I thought these were the best rolls I tried there. The combination of everything made for a really delicious roll.
KISS OF FIRE ROLL
This roll was made of crab meat, spicy tuna, jalapeno, avocado and topped with a hot sauce. This is one of the rolls that s touted as being spicy but it wasn’t. I thought it was a little too sweet but the combination was good. It could have done with more of a hit of spiciness.
CANCUN ROLL
This was a shrimp tempura roll topped with chopped jalapenos, mango and sweet and spicy sauce. For me, this roll was entirely too sweet though the extra crunchiness of the shrimp tempura worked well in this roll.
CALIFORNIA ROLL
I thought their California roll was really badly made. The rice was terribly uneven and it was just not appetizing to look at or eat.
SPICY TUNA ROLL
Their spicy tuna roll was sublty spiced and tasty.
MY RATINGS FOR THIS MEAL
Food: ☆☆1/2
Ambiance: ☆☆☆1/2
Service: ☆☆1/2
Price: $$
Overall experience: ☆☆☆
I recommend: Atlantic Roll, Kiss of Fire Roll“Osha” is the royal Thai word for delicious which is what I kept repeating after sampling the food at Osha Thai Restaurant on 2nd street.Osha! Osha! Osha!
Osha Thai is located in the up market SOMA area of San Francisco. The huge space is impressively modern , with many Thai decorative touches.
In 1996, Osha Thai was started as a tiny food spot on Geary by the combined efforts of two sisters, Wassana Korkhieola and Lalita Souksamlane. It has now morphed into an empire of hip-new age Thai cuisine with locations all over San Francisco city.
The food is stylized Thai cuisine. The dishes served at Osha, preserve the authenticity and essence of Thai food and yet focus on being inventive. They use local, seasonal greens and continue to change their menu offerings with new renditions of creative dishes.
In my book, at Osha Thai, they have perfectly blended traditional Thai with the progressive sensibilities of San Francisco. I did discover though that all Osha Thai’s are not equal. I tried the one in the Embacadero and found that the food there was not as good.
Here is some of what we ate:
TOM YUM SOUP
This traditional soup is a bit different at Osha. It tastes like a combination of a Tom Yum and a Tom Kha Kai, which gives it an interesting edge.
ANGRY PRAWNS
In this dish prawns are sautéed with curry paste and Kaffir lime leaf served over fried eggplant in hot plate. It is cooked with fresh Thai green peppercorns, which really adds great flavor to this dish.
LEMONGRASS CHICKEN
This sweet and sour stir-fried chicken dish was good but must be eaten spicy.
GRILLED SEA BASS
This was the best dish of all. The sea bass was flawlessly cooked to a silky tenderness and complemented with a tangy flavorful sauce that enhanced the dish perfectly.
CRAB FRIED RICE
This fried rice was made with egg, onion and green onion with fresh crabmeat. It was really “osha”!!
DESSERTS
Both the desserts were disappointing. Really not worth wasting the calories on – I’d just order more food next time.
Vanilla Sky
This had a crispy roti that was served with vanilla ice cream. The roti was not crispy – it was kind of soggy and too oily.
Chocolate Soufflé
This was a warm chocolate cake, which was meant to have with a heart of creamy ‘A’ grade chocolate. It was over-baked and there was no creamy center.
MY RATINGS FOR THIS MEAL
Food: ☆☆☆1/2
Service: ☆☆☆
Ambiance: ☆☆☆
Cost: $$$
I recommend: Lemongrass Chicken, Grilled Sea Bass, Crab Fried Rice
While slurping is considered bad table manners in the West, it’s quite the opposite in Japan. To express appreciation for a delicious bowl of noodles, slurping is perfectly acceptable, in fact complimentary to the hosts. Continue reading
Just a few minutes away from San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, lies the picturesque waterfront community of Sausalito. It’s in this charming area that Yoshi Tome opened his highly acclaimed Sushi Ran.
Having received a prestigious Michelin star, the chefs at Sushi Ran work hard at the ever-changing menu that combines traditional Japanese and Pacific cuisine.
The fish here is very fresh and the cuisine is inventive. The service was friendly and efficient.
The restaurant has a sushi bar and main dinning room and an adjacent sake bar too.
Here is some of what we ate:
CALIFORNIA SALAD
This was a true California cuisine salad. It had fresh crab, cucumbers, avocado, tofu and crisp mixed greens with delicious sesame dressing. Everything was just fresh fresh fresh! Outstanding!
CRUNCH ROLL
This roll was highly recommended by our server and he was right on the money with this one. It was the best roll we had. The eel, spicy crab, shrimp and avocado melded beautifully with each other while the tempura flakes added a perfect bite of crunch to it.
SALMON & AVOCADO ROLLS
These were very good. The salmon was fresh and melted with the avocado in this roll.
NEGITORO
These rolls made with fatty tuna, grilled green onions and fresh scallions were really interesting. I loved the play of the grilled and fresh scallions with the fish.
SPICY TUNA ROLL
This was a different take on the traditional spicy tuna roll. Served with chunks of tuna, miso aioli and togarashi – it was rather unique – not exquisite but interesting.
SOFT SHELL CRAB ROLL & EBI TEMPURA ROLLS
I wasn’t very impressed with their soft shell crab and tempura roll.
SALMON & TUNA SUSHI
Their sushi was not as impressive as their rolls.
MY RATINGS FOR THIS MEAL
Food: ☆☆☆ ½
Service: ☆☆☆ ½
Ambiance: ☆☆ ½
Cost: $$$
I recommend: California Salad, Crunch Roll, Salmon and Avocado Rolls