Around Christmas time I went into the city with my mom her boyfriend and my cousin, to walk around see the tree and grab a nice dinner. Though we couldn’t resist a snack. We stopped at Au Boun Pan and I opted for a cheese Danish. Crusty and sweet, the perfect snack. I’m a big Danish fan so this was great.
For dinner we stopped at Tony's Di Napoli, its right by Times Square. A family style Italian restaurant. It was PACKED waiting for a table. While we waited my cousin and I talked to the doorman. When we finally got our seats it was roomier then I thought. I noticed a bunch of paintings of celebrates on the wall, and I could appreciate that. Other than that the lighting was a little to dim (messed up my shots), and the silverware was a little smudged. We ordered...
We started with an order of fried calamari. I liked how there were bigger than usual, thick pieces. The breading wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. It was pretty standard other then the big pieces that I liked so much.
The salad was probably the stand out of the night. It was chopped and tossed tableside, I liked that and honestly it helped the dish. Unique bits were the shredded carrots and the dressing. I was addicted to this dressing. It was just oil and vinegar with onion powder, black pepper and lots of oregano. My mother replicated it and I was addicted, I loved this dressing.
Our pasta was ravioli and they were good, but were way too cheesy. They just covered the ravioli in mozzarella and that made the dish very heavy. Pretty good but again, nothing I haven’t seen before.
Main courses were veal saltimbocca and chicken franchisee. I liked the veal very much, and that was probably due to the sauce. Sage butter and it was made really well. Very creamy and cut the saltiness down of the cheese and prosciutto. It was tender and the prosciutto wasn’t too tough. A good veal saltimbocca.
The franchisee was very standard. You could have gotten it in a pizzeria. The breading didn’t hold up to the lemon and white wine. It tasted very lemony. Very boring.This is really why I don’t like going to Italian restaurants, it’s all the same and I can get it better at home. Sometimes I can be impressed though and that’s what I hope for.
Christmas Eve dinner at Giovanni’s of Massapequa. Another Italian joint but this was better than the place in Manhattan in most ways. It was half pizzeria and half restaurant and I like that. I much prefer and older established more casual environment, the food is usually more suited to my tastes.
Garlic Knots! Who doesn’t love them and these were above your usual fare. They were subtler not bursting with garlic flavor. They were more like rolls and that’s great for me, still greasy lovely little garlic balls but better executed in my opinion.
The salad here was really the only downside of this meal. Very watery veggies and the dressing was blegh. Nothing to say really, didn’t like this at all.
Bruccetta is one of my favorites. This was crusty and brushed with olive oil like it should be. Tomatoes mozzarella and red onion, ah this was great. Awesome stuff!
Calamari this time around was much better. The breading was panko and parmesan and I think it works better for fried food that’s paired with a sauce. The calamari were thin and long instead of thick, I liked it because I could get two bites out of them. The sauce was their universal sauce for the pizza and whatnot. Your usual marinara, good though.
Mozzarella sticks a classic pizzeria item. These were okay until they were subject to the onion ring syndrome. The cheese slipped out.... It made them less than enjoyable. Still okay I guess.
My entree yet again, veal saltimbocca. This wasn’t as good as the other place. It was tougher and the prosciutto was too salty and thick. The sauce was a little watery too. Edible but not something I would order again.
This place overall was better and I liked it better. Merry Christmas!
December 26th! Gill, Alana, Pete, Dom, Dave, my love and I journeyed into Manhattan once more! To go lookin round havin some fun. While by Nintendo World Dave asked where a good place to eat is. We found an awesome place!! Toasties, it was a pizza place and sort of a deli. I had to get a chicken roll, god I was starving that day.
Perhaps it was my hunger spice, but this was the greatest chicken roll ever the crust was sooooo crusty. And sooooooo tender on the inside. GOD IT WAS AMAZING. The chicken was juicy and the sauce and cheese.... oh man trust me on this, best chicken roll ever.
The night before I left for Arizona I went to shogun. It’s a hibachi restaurant right by my house.
Like most Japanese restaurants the meal was started with a soup and a salad. The salad was basic and not bad but nothing I haven’t stated before. The soup however was a chicken corn soup. It was really thick gooey stuff, I loved it. Very hearty, it could almost be called chowder. I love this soup its one of the main reasons I go to Shogun.
The Dinosaur egg... Wow this is unique. Its layers of avocado surrounding some kani salad. This was very innovative and I was honestly impressed with the idea. It tasted pretty good, like your basic avocado salad, but the presentation was fantastic.
UNAGII!!! Lovely lovely unagi. I don’t think I could hate unagi. Especially unagi-don. Its just unagi over rice in a nice little box. This was served with a little bit of pickled veggies and some cucumber. I loved everything about it, tons of unagi sauce nice, sticky rice and the picked stuff. The only bad thing I could say about it is that it was served with ginger and wasabi. IT’S NOT A UNIVERSAL GARNISH. I don’t like either and I don’t think they had any place being in my Unagi. Other then that one of the better unagi dons I've had.
Vegas baby! Staying at the Mandalay bay we got some room service. CHEESE AND CRACKERS!
Tammie did a good job! Asiago, brie, goat cheese, cheddar, pepper jack and Gouda. All excellent quality and I couldn’t be happier! Thanks again!!
The day we left Vegas we grabbed lunch in the hotel at a place called raffles cafe. It was a diner esque place and that’s a good thing for me.
Started off with interestingly enough, chicken corn chowder. This wasn’t like shogun this was creamier and had a lot more veggies in it. Big honkin pieces of potato with the skin still on, god I loved that. It was a great soup especially to go with what else I got..
I'm a sucker for sliders...especially double Decker sliders. Juicy little bits of joy and they had sautéed onions. not 1000 island dressing but 2000 island dressing, I didn’t know what the extra thousand was, but it was good. Some of the best sliders I have ever had. The fries too were extra crispy, even having a really rough texture. Awesome meal overall! I can’t thank you guys enough for Vegas!!!!
That was a hell of an update! AND THERES STILL MORE, Arizona is coming!
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