Free Pinkberry TODAY!

It’s finally Pinkberry Friday! Head over to your local Pinkberry and try their new flavors (I’m definitely getting the tropical swirl):

Let me know if you like the new flavor!

Dylan Prime

Let me preface this review by saying that I ate in the bar area, not the main dining room. The bar is currently running a special ($35 for their “tasting,” which is an appetizer, main course, and dessert). I went to Dylan Prime because Chris and I discovered that Il Mattone, one of our favorite places to eat, is CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. We had two choices: we could either go all the way to the east village for 99 Miles to Philly, or we could find something in Tribeca. Since we were close by and my friend Felicia mentioned she really liked the steak at Dylan Prime, we decided to give it a try.

The bar was absolutely empty (as was the restaurant) but we were hungry and didn’t think much of it. The $35 menu isn’t too flexible (we wanted to substitute fried oysters for the first course but weren’t allowed to), so we decided that we’d order one $35 meal and a la carte for the other dishes. I started with the wedge salad (from the $35 menu):

Anytime I’m out to a steakhouse for lunch (which is quite often, let me tell you), I see businessmen enjoying wedge salads and I just don’t understand the appeal of eating a huge chunk of lettuce. Not is it just lettuce, it’s ICEBERG. Seriously, what’s the appeal? We ordered the “salad” and it was actually pretty enjoyable – the bacon tasted like buffalo wings and there was enough bleu cheese to make me forget that I was eating plain lettuce. It’s not something I’d order again, but I can imagine that if I were REALLY lazy one day at home, I’d cut up a piece of iceberg lettuce, douse it with bleu cheese dressing, and make a meal of it. Sadly, this was probably the best thing I ate.

The next dish we ate was off the regular menu, the fried oysters:

Do you ever order something off the menu at a new restaurant because you like the way it’s prepared at your favorite restaurant in NYC and you think it’ll be just as good at this new restaurant? If you aren’t completely confused by my last question and know what I mean, let me continue. My favorite restaurant in NYC, Pearl Oyster Bar, makes fried oysters that are seriously out of this world. The tartar sauce combined with some hot sauce on top of the fried oysters is pretty heavenly (well, it’s even better when you know a lobster roll is about to enter your tummy in a matter of minutes). Anyway, I digress. The fried oysters at Dylan Prime were really tasteless and gummy. The fennel that it was resting on didn’t taste too terrible, but the oysters were not good.

The main course, steak, was next:

When the waitress described the steak, I was under the impression that it was still going to be in one piece when it came to the table. Instead, it was cut in the kitchen (if it’s not coming out on a sizzling plate, I’d prefer to cut the steak myself). Also, the steak was entirely too sweet because of the balsamic vinaigrette glaze on the steak. It tasted like the steak was rubbed in brown sugar and then someone put some Splenda on it for good measure. To be fair, the waitress said that the sauce was slightly sweet, but I didn’t think it would be dessert sweet. The steak was tough, there wasn’t enough marbling, and it was not worth finishing.

Fries came with the steak:

They were really greasy and clumped together, so I didn’t bother eating them. Okay, I ate half of it, but it was only because I was hungry and it was the second best thing to eat!

Our side, the truffled macaroni and cheese with lobster, was something I was looking forward to:

The macaroni was entirely overcooked and there was barely any lobster in the dish (isn’t lobster really cheap these days?!) The truffle oil was noticeable, but not overpowering (nothing like the truffled spinach at The Strip House).

For our dessert, we ordered the apple galette with cinnamon ice cream:

Probably the second best thing we had (next to the iceberg lettuce) – ice cream is pretty difficult to mess up and the apples weren’t overcooked. What a positive review, right?

So I know that people are going to say that I didn’t give Dylan Prime an honest chance because I ate at the bar and didn’t enjoy the full experience, but seriously, some of the dishes that we ate were served in the main dining room as well (the worst dish, the lobster mac and cheese, is a popular dish in the main dining room). Maybe I’ll head back one day, but there are so many better steakhouses in the city that I probably won’t even bother.

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream

Now that the weather’s getting nicer, the ice cream trucks are coming out of hibernation, although some Mister Softee trucks were still trolling the streets in the dead of winter (by the way, has anyone gotten soft serve from the Big Gay ice cream truck?) One of the trucks I’ve been meaning to check out is the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream truck; an ice cream truck that might distinguish themselves from the crowd because they specialize in local, fresh, and simple ingredients. When they first opened, they were always parked in Soho by the Apple store, but on the day I was in the mood for ice cream, they were right by the Highline:

The truck was going head to head with Mister Softee (soft serve that will always hold a special place in my heart) and I was really contemplating which one I should get (or if I should just get both) but decided to get Van Leeuwen because I wasn’t sure when I’d see the truck again. The line was kind of ridiculous; we had to wait almost 30 minutes because the majority of people didn’t know what they wanted to order and insisted on getting multiple samples. When we finally got to the front of the line, I ordered two scoops – vanilla and strawberry in a cup with a cone on top:

The vanilla was creamy, but fell apart really easily and was almost a bit icy. The strawberry was also very creamy but icy and I would’ve preferred more strawberries mixed in with the ice cream. The prices are a little steep (2 scoops for $7.50), but they use cups and napkins are made from renewable resources and Van Leeuwen donates one percent of their proceeds to an organization that protects wildlife in the Congo. If you can’t find their ice cream truck around NYC, you can head to Whole Foods because they sell their ice cream in pints (I think it’s about $7/pint). The Van Leeuwen truck was a nice treat, but in the future, I’m going to stick to Mister Softee trucks on the street and Haagan-Daz vanilla ice cream at home.

Stand

After a successful trip to the Union Square farmer’s market on a Saturday afternoon, my friend Ariel and I went to Stand for a quick burger. Since the restaurant was completely empty, we were able to choose our seat and decided to sit by the window (so my newly purchased basil plant could get some sun).

Stand has an interesting looking bar on the left hand side (they serve beer, mimosas, bloody mary’s, and other brunch-type drinks). We weren’t in the mood for anything alcoholic since it was barely noon, but wanted to take advantage of the special (burger, fries, and a drink for $12, which is a pretty ridiculous deal). The menu said it was daily from 12-3, but the server informed us that they just changed it to Monday – Friday’s only and they wouldn’t be able to honor the discount even though the menu still had the printing error. BUMMER.

We decided to order cheeseburgers anyway and I ordered the classic:

One interesting thing about Stand – they make their own ketchup (but they also give you Heinz in case you hate their homemade ketchup because it’s too sweet and nothing like the ketchup you grew up on). The classic burger comes with beef, red onion, lettuce, tomato, white cheddar, and fried pickles.

The burger with fries:

And the medium-rareness:

The burger was actually a bit large for me (something I don’t think I’ve ever said about a piece of meat sandwiched between a bun). The beef was seasoned well, the bun was okay (similar to DBGB’s but since there was more meat, the ratio of meat to bun was a little more even), and the only thing I didn’t like was the homemade ketchup that they slathered on the bottom of the bun (I grew up in Pittsburgh so Heinz ketchup and I go waaay back.) The fried pickles were not my thing, either, but I think it’s because they were slightly sweet (and fried) and if something is going to be sweet and fried, it better end up being a delicious doughnut. The fries were a little on the thin side, but I couldn’t even finish those because of the huge milkshake I finished before I got my burger:

The highlight of our meal was definitely the toasted marshmallow milkshake. I blame this milkshake for my inability to finish my burger because I seriously couldn’t put the shake down! The milkshake has the perfect consistency; it’s thick, creamy, and I don’t even like marshmallows that much but I could NOT get enough. If you want to know what happiness tastes like, this might be it. I told Ariel to try it (even though he was hesitant because of the sugar and calories) but he agreed that the shake was ridiculously delicious.

The next time I go back, I’m going to make sure I don’t get any homemade ketchup on my burger AND make sure I go hungry enough that I can finish the toasted marshmallow milkshake, cheeseburger, AND fries.

New Pinkberry Flavors! FOR FREE!

On the heels of Red Mango’s recent announcement of tangomonium, Pinkberry has stepped up their game by introducing TWO new flavors: coconut AND passionfruit. They’re giving it away for FREE next Friday (5-9pm):

In addition to offering new flavors, Pinkberry has also started offering free delivery (in NYC). AND…they have bing cherries. Your move, Red Mango.