Seafood Cuisines
New York’s Best Oysters
The oyster is often overlooked as the quintessential New York food, but there was a time when oyster carts were as common as food trucks and hot dog stands. Times have changed, but there’s still plenty of oysters being shucked across the city, and they happen to be the perfect summer food. Still, a good oyster is like finding a good man, and you can’t eat just any old oyster. So what to look for? Well for starters, freshness. Walk into an oyster bar to find a pile of pre-shucked oysters and you’d be wise to head to avoid the raw bar and head toward another section of the menu. A good oyster arrives artfully shucked with no ragged edges or mangled bodies, no questionable coloring or offensive smells. The perfect oyster lies in a shell its own cool liquid, ready to...
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Best Thing I Ate – North End Grill’s Bacon & Oysters
If you’re one of those people who “never eats above 14th Street” or “never travels below Canal Street,” you’re missing out on some seriously good eating these days. One of the best new arrivals is North End Grill in Battery Park City. There’s a lot to love about Danny Meyer’s newest venture, a modern American bar and grill. For starters, there’s a killer scotch selection with flights and flasks, and a raw bar. The restaurant itself is handsomely outfitted in black and white trimmings with a marble-topped eating counter facing an open kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the surrounding neighborhood. The most compelling draw is what’s coming from the kitchen. Floyd Cardoz, who helmed the kitchen at Tabla (and won Top Chef Masters Season 3), is back in action and better than ever. In Floyd’s hands, the American grill takes...
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Milos
This midtown Greek spot is admittedly pricey, but you’d be hard-pressed to find whole fish as fresh as the ice display here. Start with the grilled octopus and tomato salad and head to the ice display to shop for your dinner. (If you see langoustines, grab them.) If not, there’s plenty of other excellent and hard-to-find options the likes of white salmon.
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Marea
Whoever says fine dining is dead has never eaten at Marea. This elegant CPS restaurant is furnished with a high-gloss rosewood bar, chocolate leather banquettes, and roaming silver trolleys toting liqueurs. The seafood-centric menu is as exceptional as the setting. Especially when they’re mingled with pasta, like the fusilli with red wine-braised octopus, spaghetti with crab & sea urchin and the lobster ravioli.
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Blue Ribbon
How many restaurants offer Matzoh ball soup, grilled sardines and fried chicken? Not to mention that they pull it off effortlessly. Prepare to wait at the Bromberg Brothers perenially popular, no reservations flagship eatery in Soho, where you can sample the raw bar or head straight for paella, tofu ravioli or pigeon. My favorites are the raw scallop served in the shell, steamed artichoke and the smoked trout, but you can’t really go wrong here no matter what you’re craving. If you still have room for dessert, the banana split’s the move.
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Trendwatch: Suddenly Sexy Salmon
For years, salmon got a bad rap as being, well, boring and mostly farm-raised. But with the rise of wild salmon and recent popularity of Jewish-American deli cuisine, we’ve noticed that salmon has come into fashion. Especially cured and smoked salmon, and not just at Russ & Daughters or just Jewish delis. There’s a killer salmon trio at Kutsher’s, standout Danish gravlax smørrebrød at Vandaag, smoked salmon sashimi at Alta and even vodka-cured salmon at Cafe Boulud. And there’s plenty more where that came from. Here’s a few of our favorites… Acme Address: 9 Great Jones St., near Lafayette St. Phone: (212) 203-2121 Website: acmenyc.com Nordic food is having its moment in New York right now and it’s about time. Perhaps the most exciting spot to sample it right now is Acme, where Noma’s co-founder Mads Refslund fortuitously turned...
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The Best Thing I Ate This Week – Mas La Grillade’s Oysters
I have to admit I was never a huge fan of West Village darling, Mas Farmhouse. Don’t get me wrong: The setting’s great, undeniably cozy and romantic, but I was never bowled over by the food. So when the owner and chef, Galen Zamarra, opened Mas (La Grillade), I didn’t pay much attention. That was a mistake. Zamarra’s newest venture sits on a no man’s land stretch of Seventh Avenue South near Little Branch cocktail bar. Step inside and you find yourself in a two-story dining room with an elegant glass facade and a second-story skylight. Really, the most distinguished thing about Mas (La Grillade) is not the decor, but the potent fragrance of all different woods burning over the grill. It sets the tone for the menu, composed of simply grilled ingredients that run the gamut from lamb...
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Best Thing I Ate This Week – Yakitori Totto's Salmon Siokara
There are certain restaurants you wish you could keep to yourself. It’s entirely selfish, but who wants to show up at one of their favorite spots only to find a longer line that usual and have no one to blame but themself? (Well, It’s true.) While I have mentioned Yakitori Totto in passing as one of my stand-by’s, I’ve never really shined the spotlight on it in fear I’d regret it. So I thought I’d start the New Year off right by sharing my devotion to this killer yakitori joint in midtown. A bit of a hidden treasure, Yakitori Totto is a second floor walk-up with a small, street level sign with an image of a rooster on it. Climb the stairs and you’ll feel like you’ve entered into a pub straight out of Tokyo. There’s usually a wait...
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Catch's Dungeness Crab Tagliatelli
Some restaurants are all about the scene, while others have great food and no scene at all. We respect a good crowd, but if we had to choose between them, we’d opt for excellent food. But once in awhile, a restaurant comes along that’s just the right combination of scene and cuisine.This fall, it’s Catch, a new, three-story seafood spot in the Meatpacking District. When you consider the owners also run Abe & Arthur’s and Tenjune, it’s no surprise that they can draw a crowd. What’s more surprising is that the food is as good as it is thanks to Top Chef’s Hung Huynh, who’s overseeing the menu. And if you sit on the second floor, you can watch the chefs in act through the open kitchen as they turn out sushi rolls, raw bar offerings and more creative...
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Summer’s Best Seafood Pasta Dishes
With summer already halfway over, we’re trying to devour as many of our favorite warm-weather dishes as possible before autumn hits. And that means sampling the city’s spectacular array of seafood pasta dishes. This season, Donatella Arpaia’s new pizza joint is making the most of a lobster bounty, while Maialino is introducing New Yorkers to the traditional Roman preparation of spaghetti with clams. And there’s our favorite, no-frills clam bar, Randazzo’s, with its lobster Fra Diavolo, perfect for a Saturday night trip to Sheepshead Bay. And if you really want to revel in summer seafood, consider a visit to Esca for Mark Pasternack’s stellar squid ink spaghetti, mingled with tomatoes, scallions and chilies. That’s just the beginning. Check out these and a few more of our favorites. Esca – Spaghetti Neri Address: 402 W. 43rd St., nr. Ninth Avenue...
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Imperial No. 9 – Not Just Another Pretty Face
I always thought that the “scene” didn’t matter, at least where dinner is concerned. I’d rather eat amazing food in a dismal room than dismal food in an amazing room. But when I stepped into the garden room at Imperial No. 9, I abandoned my philosophy before I even opened the menu. What the restaurant refers to as the garden room looks more like an opulent greenhouse with crystal chandeliers, dangling from a glass ceiling and potted plants scattered around the room. The wire chairs are painted a powder blue and there’s a mirrored communal table in the center of the room. There’s a long oak bar along one side of the dining room and a cottage swing near the entrance, that you can swing on it while you wait for your table. And there’s another, more substantial bar...
Read MoreChoptank – Reviewed
*** – Three Stars Address: 308-310 Bleecker St., at Grove St. Phone: (212)675-2009 Cuisine: Chesapeake seafood Vibe: Refined neighborhood joint Occasion: Oyster binge; Casual date; Group dinner. Hours: Seven days a week. Dinner, Sun-Wed, 5:30p.m.-12a.m., Thu-Sat, 5:30p.m.-2a.m. Don’t Miss Dish: Arctic Char; Fried chicken; Bay leaf sorbet. Average Price: Appetizers, $10 ; Entrees, $20; Dessert, $7. Reservations: Reservations recommended. Capsule: Fine fish shack fare & terrific fried chicken in the West Village You used to have to wait patiently for summer to arrive to get your fix of crab chowder, peel ‘n eat shrimp, and Old Bay seasoned fries. Not anymore. It may be February and freezing, but fish shack fare is in fashion right now. Choptank, located in the West Village, is the latest in a string of newcomers. If you wanted a lobster roll a few...
Read MoreMermaid Oyster Bar
*** — Three Stars Address: 79 MacDougal St., nr. Houston Phone: (212)260-0100 Cuisine: Seafood Vibe: White-washed fish shack Occasion: Oyster cravings, casual date, group dinner. Hours: Dinner, Mon-Thu 5:30p.m.-11p.m, Fri & Sat, 5:30-11:30p.m. Closed Sundays. Don’t Miss Dish: Mermaid Mary cocktail; Sauteed calamari with feta & frisee; Fried clam strips; Roasted mussels. Average Price: Cocktails, $11Appetizers, $9; Entrees, $20; Complimentary Dessert. Reservations: Reservations recommended. Capsule: Back to the beach for dinner. It’s rare to find fried clam strips in Manhattan and even rarer to find some that aren’t overly chewy. So when I spotted them on the menu at the new Mermaid Oyster Bar, I ordered them and hoped for the best. They were even better than that: Tender clam strips enrobed in a perfectly light & crispy batter. Even the aioli that came alongside it was remarkable....
Read MoreHarbour
Cuisine: Seafood Vibe: Nautical chic Occasion: Dinner at sea, cozy date, group dinner Don’t Miss: Maine mussels with cabbage and bacon, clam chowder, butterscotch pudding Price: Appetizers, $12; entrees, $24; dessert, $8 Reservations: Recommended Phone: (212) 989-6410 Location: 290 Hudson St., at Spring St. Do you ever just go out and eat?” a friend asked me at dinner a few months ago. “Rarely,” I answered before returning to the menu. But a lot of people do. There are plenty of people who don’t need to know who the chef is before making a reservation. Can you picture someone walking into their local diner and demanding to see the chef’s résumé? There’s no denying food gets much more attention than it used to. Think about it: food TV, food bloggers, food porn and celebrity chefs with cooking shows. I thought...
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