Hunger Strike

The Melting Pot

2008-05-12T15:46:00.002-04:00

We've gone out for a somewhat formal dinner only a handful of times in the last year or so. Puja saw the new Fondue place in Hoboken by the Sinatra Drive while trying to park her car one day and was delighted as we love Fondue. So, yesterday, after some machinations we ended up at this place. We made a reservation which was probably a good idea.

This is probably the most formal Fondue place we've been to. Apart from the usual cheese fondues, it also offers cooking your own entrees in various broths. We, of course, skipped all of that for two servings of cheese fondues (spinach/artichoke and Mexican fiesta) and a chocolate fondue to top it off at the end!

The Fondues were good but our selections sort of turned it into more a 'dip' than a true fondue. The spinach-artichoke dip was more like what they serve at Houlihaan's and the Fiesta was more like the cheese Jalapeño dip that they sell in stores. However, it was fresh and hot and actually quite delicious. The chocolate fondue was of course very good, I mean warm chocolate with various goodies that you can dip in it! What's not to like?

The restaurant is big and new and fresh with a relaxed ambiance, almost business casual. We will certainly end up there again. Not sure when but hopefully within the next few months.

Vezzo

2008-02-25T17:30:00.002-05:00

Another one of those neo-swank gourmet Pizza places that is so popular these days in Manhattan. Vezzo offers decent and somewhat expensive thin-crust pizzas and sort of makes up for the loss of Pinch from the neighborhood. This place is onerously crowded during lunch hours unless you are very early. However, the pizza tastes good and the salads are decent too.

On Lex at 31st

HanGawi

2007-12-17T12:52:00.000-05:00

It doesn't get much better than HanGawi for exotic sounding vegetarian places in the city. HanGawi in the historian Korean district near Herald Square is one of those quite, comfortable (expensive), old school places that come as a total surprise to you. One doesn't, after all, associate vegetarian food with Korean cuisine. However, HanGawi is totally vegetarian which gives you an added piece of mind.

The food is more or less a combination of Chinese and Thai. Though there aren't really any noodle dishes. The recipes revolve around mushrooms and tofu. And being a Korean restaurant, this of course features Kimchi (pickled cabbage) that can be extremely spicy or sour.

We ordered the following items and found them all to be very good but Tofu Kimchi hotpot certainly was the best dish.
- Silky tofu in clay pot
- Tofu Kimchi hotpot
- Spicy chilly mushrooms

32nd St, b/w 5th and Madison

Closing Time

2007-07-02T09:37:00.000-04:00

Within a few weeks my favorite breakfast place (Le Croissant Shop), Pizza place (Pinch), Calzone place and favorite dish (Aachari Aaloo) at Amiya is no more.

This is not the first or the last time that something we really-really liked has been forced to shut down. I wonder if this is a statement on us or is this is a general statement on the declining state of everything.

Masala Bollywood

2006-11-06T13:38:00.000-05:00

Went in for a buffet on Sunday and was appalled by the quality of the food. Stay away unless you have nowhere else to go to. Probably the worst Indian food I've had in New York in a long long time.

108 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10018

Chennai Garden

2006-10-04T12:38:00.000-04:00

This little gem of a South Indian restaurant at the corner of Lex and 27th is a reliable source of consistently good food. I went there today for a take-out from the buffet and I must say I was very happy. I guess also because I was very hungry and the quantity and the quality of food was excellent. I also ate an Indian meal at lunch after God knows how many months. It was quite satisfying. Specially if you consider the "delicacies" that I have day to day. Food such as "Almond-cauliflower" soup or a sunflower-seed burger and a full-card pasta and rice meal. Compare this with warm parathas, uttapam, spicy sambhar, saag paneer and so on.

Vatan

2006-08-13T07:26:00.000-04:00

Vatan is probably the best bet in NYC for sumptuous vegetarian food. The prix fix menu is amazing and the appetizer course will generally be all you will need to get more full then you've ever been which is a good thing because the main course doesn't live up to it anyway.

If it had not been for what is probably the absolute worst reception in the city and rather detached and inattentive wait staff, Vatan would have been such a fun place. The decor is pleasant and uplifting but is weighed down by the long faces and high air of the staff.

3rd Ave between 28th and 29th

Khasiyat

2006-08-12T07:15:00.000-04:00

This amazing little place in Edison, NJ serves some of the fastest if not necessarily the best food on the east coast. Fully vegetarian with amazing variety, this restaurant is probably the easiest place to find stuff to eat. Not everything is good but what is good is actually pretty good. The Pav Bhaji with Masala Pav or Regular Pav is probably the best you can get anywhere. The restaurant also serves what seems to be an impossible variety of Parathas that are served unbelievable hot. Most of them are quite good. Avoid the more esoteric concoctions.

Sukhadia's Gokul

2006-07-16T07:08:00.000-04:00

This newly opened restaurant is another one of those Indian places that has a hugely promising menu and a greatly disappointing food. The food which is OK actually seems much worse because of the lost potential. Desperately trying to be the kind of chat houses you would find in Delhi or Mumbai, this place has everything on the menu: pani puri, sev puri, samosa chat, kachori chat, pav bhaji, vada pav, usal pav and so on. However, everything tastes more or less the same with way too much sweet chutney. The pav bhaji is actually quite good.

The service is good and quick. The decor is as tacky as you can possibly image. Probably because it has just opened you can use the bathroom without getting grossed out. They play very loud music from the 70s, a mix of Hindi and English that can prevent you from thinking let alone having a conversation.

Still recommended for vegetarians who must have some of the items on the menu and don't care to be particular about it.

17 West 45th St
New York, NY 10018

Bukhara Grill

2006-07-10T16:17:00.000-04:00

This Indian Restaurant in midtown between 3rd and Lex is a bit hard to get to but is quite good. Weekend Buffet is excellent with rather delicious pani poori. Works well for vegetarians with a lot of flavorful and spicy foot available. The wait staff is friendly if somewhat over engaging.

217 E 49th St
New York, NY 10017

Brick Lane Curry House

2006-07-10T07:19:00.000-04:00

This restaurant has the perfect setup and the worst execution. A good seating plan with uncomfortable chairs, a great menu that ends up in very poor dishes and very friendly staff -- if you can find anyone.

Brick Lane Curry House could have been a contender if it just took a look at itself in the mirror and had the courage to acknowledge what it saw.

I still recommend this for vegetarians. There is a plenty of food and if you can order it properly you can actually come out satisfied. Beware of the americanized giant cauliflower and zucchini pieces that seems to have become the de-facto standard of wannabe Indian "bistros" around town. The food is hot without being spicy. Chillies are used for a short-term goal without the concept of a flavor in mind.

06 E 6th St
New York. Between 1st and 2nd Avenue's, NY 10003

More info

P.F. Chang

2006-02-20T17:09:00.000-05:00

The vegetarian lettuce wraps are to die for but there never used to be much else. I was surprised to see more vegetarian dishes added when we went there in Columbus on Saturday. Always crowded, POOH Chang is certainly the best bet in decent (cooked in American style) Chinese vegetarian restaurants.

Bertucci's (pick up)

2006-02-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Bertucci's is one of our all time favorite restaurants. This Italian place serves some of the best Pizza and pasta. The dinner rolls and Salads are amazing too. The service can vary from excellent to terrible, though. What would one expect in Jersey City anyway. The Edison outlet tends to be much more consistent in service.

Anyway, we have begun picking up food from them these days. I order before I enter the Path train in Manhattan and I come out at Newport in about 15 minutes, pick the food up, which is usually ready by then, and head home. The experience is generally very good. Though the usually cut on dinner rolls and did not serve pasta with Eggplant Parm as they usually do. One wonders if there ever will be a restuarant where the wait staff will be consistently good. Where there almost isn't a guarantee of at least one screw-up every time.

Jersey City, Newport
Washington Blvd

La Rustique

2006-01-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

This amazing little Pizza place offers excellent pizzas for takeout. We have tried pick-up as well as delivery and were impressed with both. We have only tried cheese pizza and haven't regretted it. We went for extra sauce as we loved their sweet sauce a lot. Very reasonably prized, this place fills a good void in the area it serves.

Morris St b/w Green St and Washington St
Jersey City

Dosa Hut

2006-01-30T10:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, there are more Dosa Huts in the tri-state area than there are types of dosas in this particular Dosa Hut that I am talking about here, but only by a negligible margin. This is a new place where the old Chowpatty used to be in Journal Square in Jersey City. The dosas are spicy and tasty and the sambhar is good as well. Masala idly was our favorite. However, it dead not go well with our stomach. We had a bellyache for a couple of days so be vary if you have a tender stomach.

Newark Avenue, Journal Square
Jersey City

Leela Lounge

2006-01-22T07:40:00.000-05:00

This Indian restaurant just off 5th Avenue on West 3rd St, is actually quite good. Not too many options for vegetarians but the portions are large and the food is tasty. The service is excellent and seems like the owners themselves exclusively serve the guests. This makes a huge difference and makes Leela, while not a great culinary experience, a fine dining experience.

Downtown Manhattan
W 3rd St

Tio Pepe

2006-01-22T07:29:00.000-05:00

This might be some of the worst Mexican food you will ever taste. Bland, uninspired, low key and just plain boring. Citysearch has great things to say about it and I took Puja to this place yesterday and this was such a huge disappointment. Of all the horrible things you can do in a Mexican restaurants, these guys do the worst by serving over-the-shelf and not homemade salsa -- full of preservatives and tasting like tomato sauce and vinegar.

Downtown Manhattan
4w St

Moghul

2006-01-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

Puja really likes the idea of this restaurant. It reminds her of the big and good restaurants we used to go to back home in Indore, India. However, she regrets it everytime she goes there. They always seat us in the most uncomfortable of spots claiming we don't have a reservation while there are several perfectly decent empty tables all around. The food is the usual saltless, medium spicy, oily stuff that you get elsewhere. We still like going here for the ambiance that others seem to enjoy and it does make you feel like you went to a nice place. It is quite far from where we live and we recommend making reservations if you want to sit in a proper place.

The achari aloo and lassi are good and the naans are warm and fresh. The rest is indistinguishable from anywhere else. Seems like Hyderabadi or Bagare baigan is becoming the new cool thing that everyone wants to serve these days. It isn't that good here. It doesn't come even close to Bay Leaf in midtown.

Oak Tree Road
Edison, NJ

Pongal

2006-01-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

Puja and I went to Pongal on Monday night. The south Indian place was what we expected. Good food and moderate to lousy service. I tried the butter dosa and it was delicious. The Moru was also quite good. Puja didn't seem to excited about her Maysore masala dosa but didn't complain either. In general Pongal is a safe bet but not a great bet.

Manhattan
Lex between 27th and 28th

Amiya

2006-01-16T06:47:00.000-05:00

This new restaurant is generally a disappointment. We get delivery from them generally and the food is way too oily and creamy. They seem to be competing in some sense with the very successful Rasoi and not doing that well. They need to make their food more flavorful instead of what they are doing now. Also quite expensive with about $11 for each entree.

Exchange Place
Jersey City

Pinch

2006-01-16T06:39:00.000-05:00

This new-age pizza place seels pizza by the inch. Thin crisp crust and some amazing toppings like sauteed mushrooms and chillies in oil make this quite an amazing experience. It is not cheap but not too expensive either. Customer service is great. It is right across from my office so we often end up ordering this for dinner for the crew during our late nights at the office -- which happens more than we would like.

Park Ave between 28th and 29th
New York City

Rasoi

2005-12-28T11:53:00.000-05:00

Nothing quite beats Rasoi on Journal Square in Jersey City if you are craving for that sinful Indian spicy taste and it has been a while you got to it.

We ordered from there a day before right on our way back from the airport coming back from our Mexico trip.

Good food as always an consistent as always. Sometimes I fear they made everything just once and froze it and keep using it everyday. Not just once but actually also just one thing -- as most dishes taste exactly the same.

I cannot complain though. It has been around for years and has almost always delivered.

Turkish Kitchen

2005-11-22T05:48:00.000-05:00

This mid-scale Turkish restuarant serves great dessersts. That's a good thing if you are a vegetarian because that's pretty much all you will get there. The Turkish tea is pretty good as well.

3rd Ave between 28th and 29th.

Roomali

2005-11-22T05:44:00.000-05:00

This quaint little place has a pretty good concept. It serves stuffed roti-rolls and that's pretty much it. Both Veg and Non-Veg varieties are available. the Veg stuff that I can comment is pretty good. Generally spicy and flavorful, the rolls are great with a soda. They also serve Indian style chai but that is basically just flavored hot milk.

27th between 3rd and Lex.

Ruby Foo

2005-11-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

Went to this Chinese-Thai place on Broadway between 49th and 50th St. with cousins and friends. Quite good food and very good service. The servings were sumptuous and quite tasty. The crispy tofu, fried rice and spicy tofu were our favorites. The crispy tofu, fried rice and spicy tofu were our favorites. Recommended -- specially for larger parties.