The Smith

Walking into this restaurant, I felt like I was in Israel. There is a very fast and almost German feel to the decor of the room. The high tables and low chairs make one feel like they are in a futuristic home. Probably my favorite aspect of the restaurant was that they had sparkling water on the table for no charge as well as plain tap water. I had the avocado sandwich which was avocado, tomato, cucumbers, sprouts and goat cheese on multigrain bread. The bread was moist as was the rest of the sandwich. I had to add a lot of pepper to the sandwich to give it a kick. My friend got the extremely hard mozzarella sandwich which was mozzarella, tomato, arugula and balsamic on a baguette. The sandwich was so hard and poignant that it almost tasted stale.
The service was friendly although uneducated. My weitor had no idea if the restaurant was actually Israeli but after some group deductive reasoning we decided that it probably is not.
**
The Smith
55 Third Avenue, between 10th and 11th
thesmithnyc.com

Give Me Pancakes Or Give Me Death!

Hey Readers,
A short anacdote in the name of a love for food. Last Saturday I refused medical treatment after being hit by a Rav 4 while crossing the street in Nashville, TN in the name of a good breakfast! For a review of the experience visit http://www.yelp.com/biz/pancake-pantry-nashville. A week later, I am still in pain from the accident but it was worth it for the warm deliciousness of the chocolate chip pancakes with two types of syrup, hash browns and eggs. Maybe this is a Southern thing but the yolk was running partially white. It was slightly disturbing.

Tisserie

Home to the lost yuppies of Union Square, this upscale coffee house has a colorful aray of desserts and salads. I got a very light oatmeal which I topped with strawberries, cinamon and honey because they were out of blueberries and rasberries. The oatmeal was made just right. I also had a slice of dulce de leche cheese cake which was based out of cream cheese but was not good. It tasted slightly stale to be honest and the top layer was much to sweet. I also got some loose tea called serenity which I have yet to make but that put my breakfast at almost $20

**

Hanami

Delicious and well priced, this is a restaurant I may actually return to. We certainly got a bang for our buck. I tried the buckwheat noodles which were excellent. For my main course, I got the sabagari roll which was mackerel and ginger. It was very crisp. I also got the sunflower roll which was spicy tuna, mango and crispy tempura batter with sheet soy bean. This roll was slightly to doughy to the taste. I felt like I was chewing off a piece of fluff from some anime as I was eating it.
There were almost ample refills of green tea which oddly tasted like sesame.

***

Hanami A Japanese Restaurant
525 5th Avenue, NY, NY, 10011

2nd Avenue Deli

The meat at this Deli is so fresh, it practically walked straight out of the farm and onto my plate. Eating at this restaurants was a glorious reminder about why I keep kosher. The matzah ball soup was glazed to perfection, no salt necessary. I got the Everything But the Kitchen Sink sandwich, they certainly were not kidding. The sandwich was at least half a foot wide. When I bit into the half with chopped liver I felt like I was in heaven. I wish I could bring some home but it was to expensive.
The service was not excellent. It was freezing cold in the restaurant and I asked three different members of the staff to lower the air conditioning with no prevail. I also had a bit of difficulty getting my waitresses attention to order tea even though we were making eye contact the first two times I asked her for help and she ignored me.
****

CoffeeShop Bar

I went in for brunch and left very satisfied. Looking at the short two page menu, I was set on ordering the fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich but when I saw the egg breakfasts being brought out, I felt the urge to indulge despite my lessons from the farm animal sanctuary. I got my eggs over easy which is not the easiest dish to make but they did a decent job. The yokes were slightly over cooked however. The meal came with a well done portion of home fries that were not burnt but were actually crunch and a slice of cantaloupe. It was an all around great brunch.
****

Cafe Lalo

Home to the upper west side coffee and cognac loving crowd, Cafe Lalo is a happily energetic place to go for dessert, hot chocolate and cocktails. I have been going there with my family for years and have never been dissapointed. No stranger to celebrities, You've Got Mail was filmed at this cafe. The night I went, so did Alec Baldwin and his family. The service at this Cafe is so honest that they actually seated my party before his. I was quite honored by this.
I was only dissapointed by two aspects of this resteraunt, the fact that they serve evil Crumbs cupcakes and that the creme brule did not taste fresh at all.
But on the plus side, the wait staff was practically our friends by the time we left and I still smell the excitment of being there everytime I light up one of their lemon scented matches.
****

Welcome Note!

Hello and welcome to the blog of a foodie! I just moved into a fabulous new place in Union Square West and have given myself a bit of a challenge for college- to never eat anywhere twice. At this blog, I will give reviews of the places that I ate. Important things to consider- I live a kosher style life (right now at least), must live within the parameters of a college budget and my favorite foods are chocolate, ketchup and broccoli (but not all together).
So once again welcome and thanks for checking out my blog!!!!