Ken and I have been making an effort to eat in the neighborhood more because there are so many great restaurants in Gramercy that we haven’t tried even though we’ve lived here for four years! On Saturday, we visited Yama, a sushi restaurant that’s on the basement level of a townhouse on Irving. We always walk by Yama but have never been inside, mostly because we have our favorites for both delivery (Nomado 33) and sit down (Neta, Sushi Yasuda and Morimoto to name a few).
We decided to order the sushi salad, the sushi for two and some rolls. I wasn’t super hungry and probably should’ve asked more questions because we saw the sushi chefs behind the counter preparing two very large plates and realized that was the sushi for two:
The sushi for two and our rolls in the background:
There was a lot of food to get through – the sushi for two comes with a few rolls and nigiri. We also ordered an eel roll, a roll with tuna and salmon and another specialty roll that we definitely didn’t need. We ate about a quarter of it (the sushi for two also comes with miso soup and a salad) and were too full to keep eating. The food wasn’t particularly good; it was a little on the bland side (even with soy sauce, wasabi and ginger) and all of the fish tasted the same.
We have been trying to add more neighborhood restaurants to our rotation, but I don’t think Yama makes the list.
A relatively new pizza place opened up a few blocks away from my apartment. Rocky Slims has a sit down restaurant and attached in the back is a quick take out option that I visited last week. The owner used to work at Roberta’s (in Brooklyn) so I figured the slices would be pretty good. The open air space works well for the area (right by Baruch College, also close to an NYU dorm):
They pre-make the pizza and once you order, place it in the oven to warm it up:
I was in the mood for a plain cheese slice:
For $3, I thought it was a little pricey but the quality of cheese and crust were better than the usual 99 cent pizza stands around the city. They also have grandma slices that I would’ve ordered if I had seen earlier, but there’s always next time. The pizza doesn’t taste anything like Roberta’s; it’s not as chewy and the cheeses are different (although whenever I get Roberta’s pizza, I always order the bee sting with mozzarella, sopressata and a drizzle of honey). I’m not sure it’s my favorite pizza, but it hit the spot when I was walking by and I’ll probably try their grandma slices if I return.
For our second wedding anniversary, Ken and I flew to Chicago to stay in the city and visit family. We went to dinner at Bavette’s (we ate at the downstairs speakeasy, which was too dark for photographs) but decided against getting dessert there because we wanted to walk a bit before enjoying dessert. We walked to Firecakes, around the corner from Bavette’s:
We saw their selection and weren’t too excited about any of the options, but ended up getting the ice cream donut sandwich. We were actually walking out when they asked Ken what we wanted and he just blurted out the ice cream donut sandwich. They take a rectangular glazed donut, cut it in half, add a pre-sliced piece of vanilla gelato, then drizzle some chocolate syrup on top of the gelato before closing up the donut:
A really fun concept, but when we ate it, we thought the donut was too greasy or it was stale and then the gelato was too icy. Not a smooth flavor we were looking forward to, but it was also probably our first (and maybe last) time having a donut with ice cream.
In July, Ken’s family came to visit us because we recently moved into a new home and they wanted to see it! Ken’s parents and his sister, Teresa, spent about a week in the city and we loved showing them around. One of the first dinners we had was at Novita, a restaurant near our new apartment. Ken and I have walked by the restaurant for over five years without visiting and finally made a reservation because we wanted to stay within walking distance for dinner.
We shared a bunch of breadsticks and bread:
We also shared two mixed green salads before making it to our hot foods. We decided to order a bunch of pastas to share, including the spaghetti freschi con vongole (a homemade spaghetti with clams and zucchini flowers in garlic and extra virgin olive oil):
We also shared the tagliolini all’aragosta, a homemade white tagliolini with lobster ragú, asparagus and tomato cream:
And the pappardelle con ragu d’agnello, a homemade pappardelle with lamb ragu and porcini mushrooms:
All of the pastas we had were really delicious and each one better than the last. The portions were also very hearty, so three pastas were enough to share amongst the five of us.
For our mains, we ordered the sea bass with vegetables:
The sea bass was okay, but not worth reordering.
We also shared the filet mignon with potatoes:
And the pan sauteed diver scallops with shrimp and broccoli rabe:
We were saying that after ordering the pastas and salads, we didn’t even have to order the entrees because it was way too much food! There’s outdoor seating for the spring/summer time. You should visit just for the pastas – they are definitely worth it!
Ken and I are always on the hunt for good fish tacos. I prefer them to be lightly battered and fried and Ken just wants them to be delicious. We were in the mood for tacos and close to our house so we decided to check out a new place we’ve never visited before – Dorado Tacos. It’s located right next to one of my favorite places, Tortaria, and they have two types of fish tacos – fried and grilled. I went with the fried fish taco pork al pastor and Ken went with the grilled taco and the steak taco with a side of rice and beans:
Their tacos are freshly made to order (so you might have to wait 5-10 minutes for you food) and they’re so lightly fried and crispy that I wanted another one! They ahve a great fish taco day (I think it might be Wednesday’s) when tacos are practically free! It’s close to NYU and Parsons so I’m guessing it gets a lot of foot traffic from a younger crowd, hence the awesome promotion. Definitely check them out if you’re in the mood for tacos!!!
