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El Cantinero
I never knew El Cantinero had an outdoor garden/patio in the back. It's much quieter than the rest of the restaurant which is almost always bustling. The service is great. The food is good standard Mexican, not anything special, but the prices are right for a neighborhood joint. The unlimited free chips and salsa is actually quite good.
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Mermaid Inn, Beard Papa's, and Cold Stone Creamery
For Stephen's (Lon's brother-in-law) birthday, Kasi chose Mermaid Inn. Lon and I were happy to go again. The menu had changed a little bit but several items were still familiar.
For appetizers, Stephen and I both ordered the bacon wrapped scallops which were incredible. The 3 large scallops were cooked perfectly and wrapped with tasty bacon, also cooked perfectly, and the chef balanced the saltiness very well. Kasi ordered cod fritt...
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Barca 18
Barça 18 is really a well designed space. I loved the lights, the leather tables and seats, and the service was very good. The wait staff was dressed in yellow soccer jerseys in support of the world cup so I'm not sure what they normally wear.
We order 3 tapas and a paella to share. The first one was a crab meat "pizza". It was ok the fried dough crust was flavorless and most of the ingredients were...
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Borgo Antico
Like any other little neighborhood Italian, you start off with bread at Borgo Antico. They offer a regular crusty bread, a focaccia, and bread sticks. The breads are warm and served with a fabulous sun-dried tomato spread.
We ordered the grilled calamari over arugula and cannelini beans to share. It was pretty tasteless but they did something really nice and split it for us onto 2 separate plates. The salad was not dressed at all so...
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Epicerie Cafe Charbon
Crappy food, crappy service, and the place looks ugly too. If you have to eat at Cafe Charbon-Epicerie, first protest loudly, but if you're still forced by friends or family to go (as we were), only order french fries or the shrimp Plancha appetizer.
The french fries were crispy and hot, just the way I like them. The Shrimp Plancha is 5 large shrimp, served with heads and shell on, a little spicy, and cooked perfectl...
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Bistro Citron
On Sat, Lon and I cooked with Kasi at her place for a little family gathering. We had a Middle Eastern inspired meal with hummus, baba ganoush, quinoia, chicken and beef kebabs, salad, grape leaves, and pita. I'll try to post some pictures later. It was delicious.
On Sunday, Lon and I went to Carol's apt to see her new kitten, Twinkie. We couldn't find her for the first 10 min but she finally came out running inside a plastic bag. It was the funniest sight ever. The little ki
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Gonzo
We liked the space at Gonzo and the service was good enough, but the food isn't really worth going back for. We started with the small tasting plate (you can select 3 meats and/or cheeses from 17 choices). We got Ribiola, fresh mozzarella, and Cacciatorini with fig and fennel jam. The Ribiola tastes like a super version of whipped cream cheese. I loved it. The Cacciatorini is a fantastic sausage and goes perfectly with the jam....
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Beyoglu
I haven't been to Beyoglu in about 2 years and I missed the great food. They make the best charred octopus salad and you can have as much as you want of their freshly baked pita straight out of the oven. The octopus was just as tender as I remembered it but the pita wasn't as consistent. We had 3 pitas during our meal and each was a little different. The first one was only slightly warmer than room temperature. The 2nd was a bi...
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Ping's Seafood
I was starting to lose faith in the dim sum in Manhattan. Overall, it's defiantely better in Flushing but since Flushing is a far trek for me.....I still try to find dim sum around Chinatown. Many lack quality, variety, and turnover, but Ping's was pretty good. They have all the usual stuff: shu mai, fish balls, roast pork buns, egg tarts, chicken feet, stuffed eggplant, stuffed...
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Caroline and Eddie Song Wedding
My friends Caroline and Eddie got married over the weekend. It was a beautiful and elegant wedding, simple and well organized, exactly what you would expect of Mr. and Mrs. Song.
The reception was catered by Upper Crust at a nice space on Horatio St. I really liked all but one of the hors d'oeuvres...which is a compliment to the caterers. The presentation of each was beautiful and in order of favorite to least, the hors d'oeuvres were mini crab...