Food Maze

The Halal Guys

A MUST if you are in manhattan (especially when drunk :P). Halal food never disappoints, but The Halal Guys is probably the best of the best. They opened up a store on 14th street a while ago, where you have a new option of a smaller sized bowl. It’s slightly more expensive than before, but hey, you know it’s worth it. 

Virage

118 2nd Ave (B/t 7th St and St. Marks Pl), New York, NY

Here we are finally presenting our ABSOLUTE to-go brunch place. (As you can see we have a bunch of pictures of their different brunch dishes!) Everything about Virage is just to the point. They have the best weekend brunch set deal on weekends - a basket of bread, bottomless coffee, one brunch entree AND one breakfast cocktail - for only $16! Another plus of this place is that it's spacious and rarely form a line outside, unlike most other good brunch spots around.

(The name of the dish in each picture is captioned!)

Yanyan's favorite Virage brunch item is their Middle Eastern Brunch. "The hummus is just way too good." I have tried a bunch of different dishes, all of which were decent. The spinach and crab cake eggs benedict was $2 or $3 more expensive than the regular sets but was worth it (though I was full after finishing only one of them and couldn't keep going). The egg white frittata was delicious and healthy. Their french toast was not too impressive after trying The Smith's french toast but still quite satisfying for a sweet brunch craving. 

PAN (Closed)

Katz's Delicatssen - 205 E Houston St, New York, NY

This is probably one of the most famous restaurants in New York. They are incredibly famous for their pastrami sandwiches, and I can finally say I've had one!

The meat was incredible, I still drool just thinking about it. It's wonderfully flavored and not too salty. But omgoodness, it was so juicy and tender, and it tasted so fresh! And the portion is huge!! I don't think anyone managed to finish their sandwich. 

Oh and I was told the NY egg cream is a must try, but I'd say skip it, its just milk, chocolate/vanilla syrup, and sprite. A bit weird....

Saigon Shack - 114 MacDougal Street, New York, NY

It's getting colder and colder in New York, so times we crave for pho is rising at an exponential rate. This is the absolute perfect place to satisfy that craving, its cheap, its good, its filling, what more could you ask for?

The pho is indulging and warming, the broth is flavorful, but light and not overly salty. The meat is a bit weird for all three types we've tried, either a bit overcooked or dry, but the other great things about this place make up for that. 

Umami Burger

432 Avenue of Americas, New York, NY

Oh My God. I didn't even like burgers before. But this is my second visit this month already. They say this place has better burgers than Shake shack and I believe it's true. Can't imagine how burgers can be any better!

We tried four burgers so far. Our favorite[s] are the truffle speciale burger and the manly burger. Instead of medium rare which they suggest, we always get medium, and it was perfect. Every single bite is juicy and heavenly. 

Truffle burger- This is the juiciest burger of all! It has a very pleasant truffle flavor. But the cheese is a little too salty after several bites.

Manly burger- The best. When the season special items are off the menu, this is absolutely a must order.

Truffle speciale burger- This item is on the season special menu. It is made with butter instead of cheese and it comes with a sunny side up egg which just made it even better. It can get a bit messy to eat though.

Original burger- Can't really remember the taste of it. I remember it was a little cheaper so if you don't like truffle or want to save a dollar, this is good choice.

Jane Restaurant - 100 W Houston Street, New York, NY

Alright, another brunch post!

Jane is an extremely popular brunch place in Manhattan, but the long lines have always kept us away. Is it really worth the hype? We'll give you the show down:

Pros: 

The food is incredible and unique. The Benedict Jane (with the crab and crawfish cakes) definitely added a twist to the overall flavor with the seafood taste in there, while the Benedict Johnny's cornbread base definitely gave a sweet kick to the overall salty flavor. I must say, these twists really worked! The home fries were also great, they were flavorful and crispy, some of the best we've had! And brunch dishes come with complimentary cocktail/juice.

Cons:

We had a reservation, and it still took more than an hour to be seated, and then the food took another 30 minutes to come. Also, we were not warned of a 13$ refill of our drinks ('refill' should connote that it is free right?)

Ponty Bistro (218 3rd Ave, New York, NY)

Browsing through all the brunch places nearby, we finally decide to try out this African & French restaurant since that's a comparatively rare combination of cuisines. 

We went on a Saturday morning, and it was quite empty. There was only one waiter for the whole restaurant, as some yelp reviews also pointed out. Anyways he was doing fine. The wall decoration of the restaurant was quite African, also they have a Kenyan beer, Tusker, which made Yanyan super excited! :P

Crab Benedict (left picture)

I really loved this dish, because the crab cakes were just cooked to near perfection and the balance of every component on the dish was excellent! Usually, I leave my home fries, but these home fries are uniquely spiced with the right amount of crisp. They reminded me of these home fries I used to have at school for lunch back in Kenya :')

Maple French Toast (right picture)

This is DIVINE. Both of us have to say this is so far the best french toast we've had, hands down. Two think, chunky toasts are piled together with butter in between. The corn flakes on the top makes the toasts more crispy on the outside, and the crushed walnuts are kind of caramelized, very flavorful. 

A little accident happened here though. The maple syrup the waiter gave me was all moldy/mossy. I didn't see it when I started pouring. Fortunately the moss didn't touch the toast since I was pouring on the side, and they changed the syrup and the plate for me afterwards. 

We were shocked for a little while. But due to our forgiving and loving nature(:D), we still left a nice tip when we left. The taste of food is unarguable and we will go again.

The Smith - 55 3rd Ave (between E10th and 11th street)

Top notch brunch food! Well mostly... 

The Eggs Benedict here is the BEST I've had, and trust me, I've had a lot. It love their substitute for the Canadian bacon, its always nice to have an unique twist. The omelette apparently wasn't very good though...

We came here for a second time after both of us had a massive french toast craving, and a Yelp review said "but the french toast, HOLY MOTHER OF FRENCH TOASTS." Yep, would have to agree with that! So soft, so crispy, so scrumptious, sooooo good. How can bread be THAT good? Must have!

Arang

9 W 32nd St2nd Fl (between Broadway & 5th Ave)  New York, NY 10001

When I went back to China this past summer, my friend took me to a Korean place where had this amazing cheese over ramen and ricecake dish cooked in Korean spicy sauce. I had been looking for something similar in NY for so long and finally, we found Arang!

This place is hidden upstairs with a tiny door. When we went, it was almost empty. First time we ordered the Kimchi Jaeyook Ddukboki with cheese($25)(bottom picture). We also added ramen in it which was a $3 extra. On the menu they say the Ddukboki serves two, but it was so big that we couldn't finish it though we stuffed ourselves. 

Second time, we decided that we don't need proteins, so we went for the Raboki($16, I know, amazing price), which was spicy rice cakes and ramen noodles. And of course, we added cheese on it for an extra $3. We still didn't manage to finish the whole thing. 

Via Della Pace - East 7th Street and Second Avenue, New York, NY

Finally getting to use one of our Scoutmob deals on a Italian restaurant located in the East Village. And with the Scoutmob 50% deal, the price was very affordable for some quality Italian food. 

Our platter of meat and cheese was served with some honey for dipping and boy was it good and filling! 

The main courses took forever to come, and I mean forever. (You can actually see that the meat appetizer came when it was still light outside and the main course was served with candles already lit) Perhaps they make everything from scratch? Anyways, the salad was quite interesting, the walnut almond dressing was very unique and different, definitely ended with a nutty kick at the end. The artichoke ravioli was very delicious but the portion is smaller than expected considering it was worth $15.50. But since we were quite full from the cheese platter, there was no reason to complain. 

Spice

39 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003

77 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003

60 University Pl, New York, NY 10003

Spice is EVERYWHERE! Well, basically, Thai food is everywhere, and it's always so good. Spice was one of the very first restaurants that Yanyan and I would visit regularly when we first came to NYC. What we would always order was the Pad Thai and the Siamese Fried Rice. We would take turns ordering these two dishes! 

In the pictures, there are the lychee thai tea(which they don't add milk in it because, according to them, the combination is bad for your health), thai iced tea(this one is with milk of course, and very good), Drunk Man Noodle with beef(my new favorite!!! A little spicy but super delicious), and the Three-flavored Whole Fish(is also good, according to my friend).

Kambi Ramen House - 351 East 14th Street, NY, New York

Ramen cravings got the best of us, so we went to this cute little ramen place with quite good prices. 

The thing about this place that stood out immediately was that the broth was incredibly rich in flavor. In fact, almost a bit overly rich and overpowering. But it was so indulgent as well. Slurping down some rich ramen on a Friday evening as fall dawned upon us was a great feeling =) Every component in the bowl, the pork, the bamboo shoots and other veggies, and the egg, just added the perfect amount of variety.