Fall To-Do Dining List

We’re all about trying new things, new dishes and new restaurants.  But we have a few favorites we return to every season because they’re too good to miss, like 60-year old Veselka and its beef borscht.  We discovered the West Village’s new dim sum spot, Red Farm, and its killer rib eye steak as well as Baohaus’ new Union Square outpost and its fluffy bao buns filled with everything from chicken to tempura broccoli.  There’s too many list at once, so we’re offering them up in installments, so you have time to digest. Here’s our first…

Robin Givens Bao Baohaus
Address: 238 E. 14th St. between Second and Third Aves.
Phone: 646-669-8889
Website: www.baohausnyc.com
We may have lost one Baohaus on the Lower East Side, but we gained another in Union Square and it’s even better than the original.   If you’re not familiar with Eddie Huang, he happens to be a character and a talented chef to boot.  At Baohaus, he offers up his modern interpretation of Taiwanese cooking with warm, fluffy buns called bao made for crisp, autumn days like these.  Just like a sandwich, Huang slices his bao open and fills them with everything from fried oysters to beef cheek, pork belly, and even tempura broccoli (great vegetarian option).  Each one comes with different fillings and sauces to complement the main ingredient.  Our favorite right now is the “Robin Givens Bao,” made with confit chicken, peppercorns, daikon radish, cucumber and a sticky-sweet sesame sauce.  At just $3 a bun, it’s one of the biggest bang for your buck in terms of flavor in the city.

Creekstone Rib Steak Red Farm
Address: 529 Hudson St. at Charles St.
Phone: 212-792-9700
Website: www.redfarmnyc.com
We usually stick to ordering a steak at a steakhouse, but we’re happy to break that rule at Red Farm, a chic, new dim sum spot in the West Village. The chef Jo Ng (Chinatown Brasserie) marinates a Creekstone rib steak overnight in a unique combination of soy sauce and papaya before throwing it on the grill.  It’s simply sliced and served with stir-fried bok choy, just the right amount of vegetable freshness to balance out the salty, umami flavors of this killer piece of meat. With its cozy farmhouse vibe and downtown buzz, Red Farm hopes to change the way New Yorkers think about Chinese food.  It’s certainly changed the way we think about steak.

Polpettine Osteria Morini
Address: 218 Lafayette St. near Kenmare
Phone: 212-965-8777
Website: www.osteriamorini.com
Can New York ever reach its meatball saturation point? We don’t think so.  Besides, Michael White makes some of the best polpettine (that’s Italian for meatballs) in the city and now you don’t have to head uptown for a taste of his cooking. Osteria Morini’s version are flecked with prosciutto and flavored with ricotta, light as air, but full of flavor. You’ll want to scoop up the last of the tomato sauce with the toast wedges that accompany it before moving on to the excellent roster of pastas.  Follow that up with the porchetta and a nice, long nap.

Borscht
Veselka
Address: 144 Second Ave. at 9th St.
Phone: 212-228-9682
Website: www.veselka.com
Veselka is one of those rare dining institutions that just gets better with time.  And this sixty year old eatery is about to get even better because they’re opening a second location on Bowery, which is convenient when you’re looking for Ukranian comfort food at three in the morning.  (Veselka is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.)  There are so many homey dishes on the menu, like stuffed cabbage or pierogi, which come with potato, cheese or meat fillings.  Right now, we’re craving their famous borscht, which originated in the Ukraine, so you might consider them experts. This hearty soup gets it signature color from beet root and tomato, and it”s filled with lots of beef and chunks of vegetables.   It’s sour, sweet, tangy and just what we had in mind.

Fall Vegetable Cookpot Adour Alain Ducasse
Address: St.
Regis Hotel, 2 E. 55th St. near Madison Ave.
Phone: 212-710-2277
Website:
www.adour-stregis.com
Tucked inside the ritzy St. Regis in midtown, Adour is known for its elegant tasting menus and haute dining experience.  (There are stools for your purse.)  But what most people don’t realize is Alain Ducasse and Adour’s executive chef, Didier Elena, turn out wonderful comfort foods as well.  One of the best dishes we’ve had this fall is Adour’s “fall vegetable cookpot,”  filled with thin shavings of root vegetables, which have been sealed into their little white cocotte by a strip of pastry. They steam in their own moisture for a few hours before the big reveal when the pastry crust is removed and you get to dig into the creamy, rich vegetables bathing in their own juices.

Cheddar-Chive Scones Harney and Sons
Address: 433 Broome
St. between Broadway and Crosby Sts.
Phone: 212-933-4853
Website:
www.harney.com
Harney and Sons has been our go-to tea for many years, but it wasn’t until recently that the tea company opened up a sit-down cafe in Soho.  Now we can have a proper afternoon tea and snack on crustless sandwiches, like curried chicken and more importantly, phenomenal cheddar-chive scones. They’re served warm and sided with a little pot of honey and mustard compound butter — a perfect afternoon snack or Soho shopping break

RG Writer: Lauren Bloomberg