Artichoke Basille's Pizza & Brewery

So, it was the day before July 4th and I got out early from work. Met up with J and had no idea where we're going. Somehow we arrived at Artichoke Pizza shop. I've heard about this place but never actually thought of going there. I mean, artichoke and pizza?

The slice of pizza was pretty big. I had to have it sliced in half so J and I can share it. The slice cost $4.50 which is a bit hefty on the price but it's a specialty pizza and I'm sure not a lot of places are able to pull a great tasting artichoke pizza.

The artichoke pizza was extremely creamy, more so than cheesy. I was hoping it was the other way around. The slice was quite thick and after heating it up, it was so crunchy. By the time you get to the crust, it's so hard and dry that you want to just toss it out.

The pizza was good. Nothing great. I wouldn't go out of my way to get it the second time around but it was definitely something different than your regular tomato and cheese pizza.

Artichoke Basille's Pizza & Brewery
328 E 14th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-2004

Mr. Robata

J and I decided to hit up Mr. Robata for their happy hour which starts at 4pm and that's exactly the time we got there. Made reservation last minute but wasn't needed since when we arrive, we were the only ones dining there for a good 2 hours before people starting walking through the doors.

The service was excellent as the waitress talked to us about the food and suggested which cocktails to get. She even got personal about what she thought of Brooklyn.

J and I tried not to order too much food as our objective was to enjoy ourselves with the drinks.

For the cocktails, we almost tried everything except for 2 since it didn't appeal to us as much.

Touch of Heaven.

Nashi Spice.

Samurai.

Yamamomo Fizz.

Robo-Jito.

Yuzu Martini.
My absolute favorite.

Gardinia.

 I am so upset that I don't remember what this is called. It was pretty good. Not remember is really bugging me...

Black Dahlia.
The special cocktail of the night that is off the menu.

Now it seems like J and I are an alcoholic couple, but we're not! We just like to drink :-)

Spicy Tuna Escargot.

Once again, escargot is in the title of the dish so you know what that means. All the different textures and taste were a bit weird, but a good kind of weird.

We then ordered sushi a la carte. Even though it's more expensive this way, we decide that there were certain sushi on the menu we rather try than the given omakase special.

O-Toro.

Tuna.

King Crab.

Salmon.

Octopus.

Yellowtail.

I have the say that out of the bunch, my favorite were the king crab and yellowtail. Which we ended up getting a second order of. I'm starting to appreciate sushi given that they gave the entire piece of sushi a little twist. It's no longer just a plain piece of fish on top of rice and then dip into soy sauce, but the other flavors that is incorporated into the sushi.

The two rolls which I did not take a close up on are the Misty (on the right side) and Stardust (on the left side).

As the night progresses and even though we finished our sushi, we needed more food to go along with our cocktails.

Grilled Baby Octopus.
Absolutely delicious. The waitress definitely didn't recommend the wrong items. Not as chewy as it seems, the octopus was boiled and then grilled giving it that soft light chewy texture with a great smokey grill scent. The infused mash potato with butter on the bottom was awesome also. Love the presentation and flowers.

Saikyo Miso Chilean Sea Bass.
Another dish our waitress recommended. Light and creamy, so good.

The only issue I have is that the bathroom is dark. I can't even see myself when I look into the mirror, I mean you won't trip and fall but at least put a light bulb around the mirror. Other than that, great food and definitely great drinks. Towards the end of the night, the maitre'd came over and asked if we drove or not, how caring. Would love to come back for their cocktails during happy hour.

Mr. Robata
1674 Broadway
Manhattan, NY 10019
(212) 757-1030

Breakfast: Big Wing Wong

It's rare that J and I have the chance to go out and eat breakfast. We usually don't eat breakfast together but when given the chance, we opt for a Chinese one. There's so many varieties and choices instead of your boring eggs and bacon or oatmeal or breakfast sandwiches.

I barely ever eat at Big Wing Wong because I usually go to Big Wong or Yee Li (which changed names and management a couple of times). I'm very picky when it comes to Chinese restaurants that offers roast meat. I remember back in the days where you would order a rice or noodle dish and there would be greens in it but now...not a single in sight. So far, only Yee Li gives vegetables with their rice and noodles dishes. Do tell me if there are other restaurants that does this.

J likes Big Wing Wong and it's too early to argue otherwise, so I agreed.

Roast Pork Rice Crepes.
I really wanted the rice crepes with the fried cruller but they didn't have it. I didn't want shrimp and beef so we stuck with roast pork. Made fresh on the spot and was delicious as a morning appetizer. Love how they doused the whole plate in soy sauce.

Pork with Thousand Year Old Congee.
J's go-to morning order. I would order congee but I can never finish it and I don't like how steaming hot it is! I get so impatient which then leads to me burning myself and so that would ruin my chance of actually enjoying the congee. Big Wing Wong puts julienne pieces of ginger in the congee, which I'm not a big fan of either.

Wonton Mein.
Simple and yet filling. Dumplings with noodles is the way to go when you have no idea what else there is to get. I was looking around and overheard patrons eating rice for breakfast, way too early for that. The noodles were perfectly cooked, still has that bounce which I absolutely love when it comes to eating egg noodles. The wontons were excellent also. Remember the soy sauce from the rice crepe? Try it with the wontons because it gives it that extra little salty and sweet kick.

Good breakfast? Indeed. Service was fast and ordering was pretty easy once you know what you want. Big Wing Wong is one of the places that opens bright and early.

Big Wing Wong
102 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 274-0696

Snack Asia

Oh man, where should I start with this place? I've been trying to find a place like this in NYC because I just couldn't stand the fact that I would have to travel all the way to Hong Kong to experience the food and all. Somehow I landed at Snack Asia through Yelp and knew that this is the place I must visit.

J and I were surprised with all the times we were in 8 Ave, we never noticed this place. It's pretty much tucked on a corner and without the bright orange awning, you would most likely miss it.

They have different quick eats that you can pick up. If you're in a hurry and want inexpensive Chinese food, this is definitely the place to head to.

Rice Noodle Rolls with Fish Balls.
It was fun eating this because there were no forks chopsticks for this, but skewer sticks. For some odd reason, I actually wanted to eat like that before. Maybe I saw it on TV or something but it's nice to be able to use other forms of utensils rather than the norm. They actually put peanut sauce in this, total win! I know J loves his peanut sauce, that's actually how I got him to come...

Pan-fried Soy Sauce Noodles.
One of my all time favorite. They already had this cooked and just scooped it in the container when you order it. There isn't much going on in the noodles but just the sauce and noodle with a little chive on top. Usually at restaurants, they sauteed the entire thing with some bean sprouts...and I always see more bean sprouts than noodles. But this was pretty good.

Egg Puff.
Please excuse the photo. I actually took a piece before I noticed I haven't taken a photo yet, hence you see the missing piece at the lower right corner. It was so good, like oh my god amazingly good. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with the right amount of sweetness to the batter. I could eat these thing every day. Even J said it's pretty close to how it is in Hong Kong, score!

I'll definitely stop by here whenever I'm in the neighborhood. It's a good place when you're low on money and want some great food. No lie, it's that good! Just writing about it is making me sad because I can't have any now...

Snack Asia
5824 8th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11220
(718) 567-7558

Talent Thai Kitchen

A not-so-quick bite before J had class. I was feeling for Thai since it's been quite a while and you know, gret minds think alike because J felt the same. We didn't want to try anything new new, so we decided to come back to Talent Thai. A place we been to before and couldn't forget because the ambience and food was memorable. The last time we were here I had a voucher and sometimes, I'm pretty glad that I made myself get them because without that, I wouldn't know there's a place like Talent Thai in midtown manhattan.

As usual, we were the first to be seated. Same thing happened the last time we were here, after we got seated and our orders were taken, people starting rolling in. Another reason that got me coming back is the music that Talent Thai played, very mellow and r&b which I didn't mind and J liked. Brings back memories since a lot of them were in the 90s.

Front of the restaurant.

Back of the restuarant.
We were pretty much situated in the middle.

Nothing better to start ourselves off with some wine. If you read my previous adventures, J and I are on the wine wagon now.

We ordered a bottle since last time we kept ordering glasses of the same thing. It saves us money and we don't have to keep telling the waitress to refill.

Peanut Dumplings.
Anything peanut and J would order it, it's like he got a peanut fetish...I was quite surprised that I liked it also. Crushed peanuts with onions and turnips was pretty delicious. The white wrap was perfect, slightly chewy but not to the point where it starts sticking to your teeth.

Fried Calamari.
I initially didn't want this but they didn't have mussels. To settle, I agree with the waitress and ordered calamari. I usually don't order this dish often because there's so much on the menu that would be interesting to try. But, I didn't regret ordering this. It was crispy and the calamri was tender, the spicy chili sauce was also spicy which is great.

Pad See Euw.
I wanted noodles but I didn't want Pad Thai, nor did I want anything spicy so I end up getting regular broad noodles in sweet soy sauce. It was delicious, even though it wasn't spicy it was hot because of the black pepper. For some odd reason, I really like vegetables and tofu with Thai noodle dishes. The vegetables and tofu are coated nicely with the sauce, maybe that's why.

Massaman Curry.
One of the milder curry on the menu. J loves his vegetarian duck.

I took too long to take the shot so my lense got fogged up. Dreamy much?

Sticky Rice.
I was curious as how they did the sticky rice here so I made J ordered it. He agreed since it'll be regular Jasmine rice or this. We eat Jasmine rice all the time at home so sticky rice it was. It was definitely sticky and tough but once it touched the curry, it was perfect because it gave a nice chewy texture.

Talent Thai Kitchen is one of my favorite Thai place to eat at. It's small but the food and service delivers. Something that I will definitely not pass on.

Funny story. First, there was a kid and an adult that came in and said there would be 6 people total so the waiter sat them next to J and I where there were tables free. Somehow the group got larger and we ended up offering a table that was connected to our table. The waiter later came by and gave us another table since the couple on our other side had left. We didn't really need the table because the small table perfectly held everything we had at that moment. Such lovely service, which is why I'm so raving about this restaurant.

Talent Thai Kitchen
210 E 34th St
New York, NY 10016
(212) 725-8888

Heidelberg Restaurant

After months and months of pushing this off, I finally gave in and agreed with J that we would go to Heidelberg. I don't know why I was so against it, maybe it was the photos I saw on Yelp that wasn't totally appealing, or maybe German food never crossed my mine, or because this place is located in the Upper East Side.

Met up with J on a Friday evening after work and walked up to Heidelberg. It was a beautiful day which made the walking a lot more enjoyable. We haven't walk around the city like this in a while.

Once I walked into the restaurant it was like I was warped to Germany. The decor and atmosphere made you feel as if you were actually in Germany and eating at a German restaurant. The staff was insanely friendly and kind.

J and I already know what we were going to order so we jumped right into it.

J and I usually don't drink beer much but he wanted to get the boot filled with liquor, so why not? It contains 2 liters of beer, insane much? Took us about 2 hours to finish...kind of pathetic haha

Sülze.
Headcheese in a vinegar sauce. So good. It taste so similar to pickled chicken feet which I love gnawing at. The headcheese was gelatinous with random bites of meat, cartilage and rubbery skin. Delightful.

Sausage Platter for One.
Three different kinds of sausage with potato salad, sauerkraut and red cabbage. Let's just say that all three sausages were excellent and had their own distinct taste. To me, it seems like the lighter the color of the sausage, the milder the taste.

Schweineshaxe.
A whole pork shank, boiled potato and sauerkraut. This dish can feed 2 people, no joke. The pork was big. There were so much meat on the shank that I was amazed. The skin was crispy and crunchy, J loved that part. The meat was tender and moist, the potato worked with the entire dish...surprisingly. At this point, I was totally convinced that German food is da bomb.

And after 2 hours later (literally), we finished it! It also took us 2 hours to finish our meal. I love how none of the staff came over and rushed us, they did not bother us throughout the entire meal unless we gesture them over. Time flies when you enjoy yourself with no interruptions. I appreciate this kind of service and it's one of the best way to keep your patrons happy and coming back.

Asbach Coffee.
I don't know what compelled J to order coffee because he never does after a meal, maybe it was the brandy that was in it...

...or perhaps it's the whipped cream with grated chocolate.

Homemade Apple Strudel.
I've gotten myself a true dessert. Slices of apple with cinnamon walnuts wrapped with a paper thin pastry crust topped with powdered sugar and a good generous dollop of whipped cream. I'm in total bliss. The strudel was perfect and the whipped cream was so light. I could eat another 2 plates of this stuff.

Absolutely beautiful. I would go back just for this...this.

I was so surprised how much I enjoyed my time at Heidelberg. The food was great and service was superb. This is one of the places in NYC I would recommend anyone to come eat. If you never had German food before, Heidelberg is the perfect place to start with. It's a bit of a travel if you live in Brooklyn but totally worth it. I definitely didn't regret the walk.

Heidelberg Restaurant
1648 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10028
(212) 628-2332