Last week, I spent some time in Chicago meeting Ken’s family and spending time with our friends. I met Angie for lunch at Portillo’s to catch up on life and to figure out when she’s coming to visit me in New York again. We ordered a ton of food, including my favorite Chicago-style hot dog:
We also ordered the Italian beef (way too messy to photograph), cheese fries, and a cheeseburger. No cake shake this time because that thing is way too heavy for lunch. So much fun to eat at Portillo’s – the first time I visited was with my roommates (Angie and John) – we did the drive-thru, ordered a cake shake, and the rest is history!
Before my mom left New York, Ken wanted to take all of us out for a family dinner. My mom let me pick the restaurant (she said she wanted something Italian) and I’ve been wanting to check out Ciano for a while, so I made a late reservation for the new restaurant down the street from my office.
We arrived on time for the reservation but the maitre’d wasn’t there to greet us or take our jackets. We eventually flagged someone down and they let us know that we’d have to wait another 15 minutes because the table wasn’t ready yet. It’s annoying when restaurants will cancel your reservation if you’re late, but if they’re late, they don’t do anything and just expect you to wait. We eventually got to our table and were pretty hungry (we didn’t end up sitting down for our 8:30 reservation until around 9pm). We started off with a plate of prosciutto:
Along with some bread:
I’m not a fan of prosciutto on pizza because it’s warm and greasy and sometimes slightly waxy, but the prosciutto at Ciano was buttery without being too greasy.
We also ordered the rocket arugula salad:
My favorite dish of the night was the whipped chicken liver crostini:
I liked it so much that I ended up ordering another crostini near the end of the meal; the ribbons of whipped chicken liver was so creamy and decadent and if we didn’t order any pasta, I would’ve ordered another 5 crostinis.
David ordered the roasted veal meatballs with polenta:
The veal meatballs were really delicious, but not as good as the meatballs I’ve had at The Meatball Shop or Craftbar.
My absolute favorite pasta of the night was the Cortecce:
The pasta came with baby octopus, fennel, pancetta, and breadcrumbs – an assortment of my favorite flavors all combined into one pasta dish. It was from the tasting menu, but we ordered it a la carte.
We also ordered the roasted eggplant ravioli:
My least favorite dish of the night -the eggplant was too rough and it was kind of flavorless.
Ken ordered the duck bologonese parppadelle:
And David ordered the veal cheek for his main entree:
The four of us at dinner:
We didn’t have room for dessert (after eating so much pasta, we could barely move!) but it was a really great meal and aside from the service problems at the front of the restaurant. Ciano is super close to my office so the next time we have a team lunch, I’m definitely going to recommend the restaurant!
David, Laura, Ken, and I set out for a nice group brunch a couple weeks ago to catch up on life and to talk about our apartment situation. We met up at Lani Kai, a new-ish Hawaiian spot in Soho:
I purchased some certificates for drinks and sides so we started off with some of their signature cocktails:
Ken and Laura both ordered the same thing – the Pisco punch and David ordered the Queen’s park swizzle (in the center). Laura liked David’s drink more so they ended up switching, but they were all really happy with their drinks. We ended up ordering another Pisco punch (David and Laura drank it after we left).
We started off with some oysters for appetizers:
They tasted a little funky – not super fresh compared to the oysters I had the previous night at Fish. We ordered a bunch of sides, including the duck bacon:
Potato cakes with truffle creme fraiche:
And a side of grits:
We also ordered some entrees, including their Grass-fed burger with cheese and a small side salad:
Baked eggs with truffle oil, leeks, Parmesan, and toast (one of my favorites – so much Parmesan!):
And my favorite, the grilled chili squid:
The squid was actually very spicy and had just the right amount of zest from their vinaigrette. I ate the majority of the squid because I didn’t eat any of the burger or the other sides (shocking!)
Me and Ken:
I liked the restaurant and it had a cute tiki bar near the back where they were preparing all of the cocktails. It’s a nice place to grab a weekend brunch before heading to Soho to go shopping – which is exactly what Ken and I ended up doing!
I went out for a nice dinner date with Ken last week at BLT Prime. We were in the mood for either fish or steak and I made the executive decision to get steak. I haven’t been to BLT Prime before but I had a pleasant experience at BLT Steak so I made a reservation and we headed there for our weekly date. The restaurant has two levels (we sat on the second floor) and it was quite busy on Friday night.
We started off with chicken pate:
BLT Steak pate was cold and had a layer of red wine on top but this chicken pate was warm, buttery, and very smooth. I actually ate it without the bread because it was so delicious on its own (I’m obsessed wih pate these days)
Next, the waiter brought out the popovers:
I wasn’t a fan of the popovers last time at BLT Steak and my opinion still hasn’t changed. Ken’s popover was also much stiffer than mine (it seemed like the batter was overbeaten and ended up being really tough to chew).
For an appetizer, we were trying to choose between bacon and a salad. I wanted the bacon, Ken wanted something healthier…we decided to go with the salad:
The salad dressing was a little on the light side (I prefer Primehouse’s Caesar salad) but it was a good starter and I didn’t regret not ordering the bacon (especially since I ordered a huge steak).
For Ken’s main course, he ordered the 10 ounce filet:
And I ordered the 22 ounce ribeye:
We also ordered a side of hen of the woods mushrooms:
The ribeye was pretty perfect – nice peppered crust, good marbling, and cooked to a perfect medium rare. It was too much meat for me to finish (I did manage to finish more than half!) and I asked for the server to wrap it up and he ended up placing other dishes on top of my steak before wrapping it up! Completely gross, right? I don’t want anything touching my steak, especially the bottom of a sauce pan that was just on the table.
It ended up not being a huge deal because I checked it in (along with my coat) when I went to a bar to meet up with friends and the coat check employee didn’t give me the bag (I forgot until I was halfway home). Still, it would’ve been nice to have steak and hen of the woods mushrooms the day after. Note to self: never go to a bar after going out for steaks, especially if you have amazing leftovers.
Ken and I are huge fans of doughnuts and I always tell him that I’m going to wake up early to pick up doughnuts from the Doughnut Plant (there’s a new outpost in Chelsea that is close enough that I could run there in the mornings but I still haven’t done it.) I’ve been wanting to visit Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop for a while but since it’s in Greenpoint, I never had the opportunity to make it out there. Finally, I had an excuse and couldn’t pass up a visit to the small shop:
They make their donuts everyday and have great types (red velvet, sour cream, Bavarian cream, and others) – here’s a picture of me waiting patiently in line:
I ended up purchasing three Bavarian cream doughnuts that were topped with lots of powdered sugar:
The shop also has seats so you can order donuts (with ice cream, too!) and a cup of coffee:
Definitely worth a repeat visit – Ken loved the donuts, too. Once the weather gets nicer, I want to bike to Brooklyn and explore more – I had a fun day in Greenpoint and had so much good food!
