Ramen Takumi

J and I walked past this place on the same day we had Rai Rai Ken, but because it was packed we ended up going to RRK instead - which ended in a big disappointment.

This time around, I wanted to come here because it was late, cold and I was hungry (and you know how fast ramen can be served up). I felt a blast of warm air hit me as I opened the door and as I sit longer, it started to get really hot. The waiter asked us if we like to take the seats by the bar and of course we said yes. J and I have no problem sitting anywhere, as long as the waiters don't forget us and we get to be served.

I ordered the Syo-yu Ramen, J got the Curry Ramen and we both shared a plate of Gyoza since it's been a long time.

The Gyoza ($5) was mediocre, there wasn't enough meat in the filling. Although the sauce that accompanied it was really good, not too salty which means I can take the whole piece of dumpling and drown it in there. I learned that don't eat your gyoza right away when they serve it, wait for 5-10 minutes for a guarantee crunch, if it don't crunch then you found yourself a bad gyoza place.

I really liked J's Curry Ramen ($11.50). The bowl was so aromatic with curry flavor. Extremely flavorful without the crazy spicy taste to it. Straight noodles was being used in the bowl of heaven.

I stuck to a simple Syo-yu Ramen ($10.95) because I really needed to wash away that icky memory of RRK's horrible experience of a ramen. Thankfully, even though it wasn't 100% great, it was still a lot better than RRK.

They used the wavy noodles which I find to be a bit odd but other than that, the noodles were delicious. Perfectly cooked with that al-dente bite to it. The pork meat was good also, nice seasoning with the right amount of fat circling it.

I still prefer their Curry Ramen over anything because it's that dam good, probably one of the best curry ramen I've ever had. Now if only they put the wavy noodles in the curry bowl...*drools*

Ramen Takumi
90 University Pl
New York, NY 10003
(212) 229-2752

San Soo Kap San

I was craving for some Korean BBQ and after my coworker told me how good this place was, I knew I had to go. J and I arrived at SSKS on a Tuesday night around 8:30pm. The restaurant was pretty empty but I definitely didn't mind it.

We got down to business and ordered asap.

There was a wide selection of banchan and every single one of them tasted excellent. I loved the kimchi the best, they even refill your banchan. Beside the banchan, there's also complimentary miso soup, grilled mackerel and steamed egg. My favorite part is definitely the sauces, love me some miso paste dip.

First up, is the Sam Geup Sal ($20.95). They give you 3 strips here instead of 2, so the awesomeness of this place just went up because we get an extra piece. It also tasted a lot better here for some reason, must be the freshness or the cut of the meat.

I mainly wanted to come here for their Angus Kalbi ($29.95).
We also ordered the Haemool Pajun ($15.95), you can probably see that in the photo below...

The beauty of BBQ-ing. The kalbi was extremely tender and flavorful, no need for sauces here.

The way I eat the pork belly. Lettuce, kimchi, pork belly, miso paste - put into mouth. Heaven!

Our meat piled on the side of the grill. So friggin delicious!

I'm definitely returning. Everything about this place was pretty dam amazing.
The waitress helps you cook tableside so you literally don't have to do anything. There's a free salad bar with unlimited amount of yummy oranges for after the meal. They even have a TV screen that was displaying soccer, win!

Probably the best thing would be how laid back it was. No one rushed us and I truly appreciate that. I rather go on a weekday when it's not busy at all rather than the weekends when you're literally fighting at the salad bar. This place closes at 2am so plenty of time for some great late night grilling.

San Soo Kap San
17110 Northern Blvd
Flushing, NY 11358
(718) 445-4850

Rai Rai Ken

Rai Rai Ken was a staple for J and I when we wanted a quick fix of ramen. It was a small tight spot but the service was quick and the food was pretty dam good.

It's been a while since we gone back to RRK and the fact that it moved over 2 storefronts made us have mixed feelings if we should go and give it a shot.

After a blistering night and morning of me having a hangover, J thought it would be best to have something hearty and soup-y for dinner. We chose Rai Rai Ken. Upon arrival, there was already 2 parties ahead of us and we had to write our name down on the pad that is hung on the wall, I sense they trying to be like Totto Ramen.

The wait wasn't long but as we were waiting outside, we overheard a passerby saying "this place taste pretty awesome when you're totally wasted," I would totally disagree with him just because you can't just eat ramen, you need to truly taste ramen. We got called in and seated in about 10 minutes, which isn't a bad wait.

The new RRK is a lot bigger and has a lot more space. They even have individual tables for 2 than can turn in a larger area for those with bigger groups. They have new items on their menu which is fine, since bigger storefront usually mean a more extended menu.

I don't know if it was because J and I were hungry, but the Rai Rai Ken Salad ($6) was pretty good. Consisted of jelly fish, vermicelli, shredded chicken, cucumber, cilantro, carrots, bean sprouts, and lettuce in a sesame dressing. Tasted quite light and refreshing and a great starter.

Another new item on the menu beside the salad was the Pork Buns ($7.50). I've definitely had better pork buns but what I liked about this was the soft and fluffy texture of the bun. Aside from that, the pork was extremely small and it was loaded with hoisin sauce that really took away the true taste of a pork bun.

My Shoyu Wonton Ramen ($10.50) came and the first thing I noticed...

...the wontons are friggin tiny, the fillings are the size of a pinky nail and it was pretty bland. Actually, everything in the bowl was bland. The broth, which is soy sauce based was flavorless, where is the soy-ness?! My beloved bamboo shoots was bland also, I was so happy when I saw the amount they gave but the quality was pretty bad.

I think the most disheartening aspect of the bowl of ramen are the noodles. It was really overcooked and bunched up together like a coagulated mess. The only best part of the bowl was the egg, sadly to say.

J's Shio Ramen w/ corn and butter ($11). His seafood broth was a tad bit more flavorful than mine but the noodles were still below par.

After finishing the whole meal, I realized that the passerby words were correct. I probably need to be wasted to be able to enjoy this, well maybe not enjoy but I most likely wouldn't even care what I eat. RRK has showed that expanding doesn't make them better, hence the lack of patrons in the restaurants, especially Japanese patrons.

I probably won't be coming back unless a miracle happens.
RRK had truly lost us.

Rai Rai Ken
218 E. 10th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-7030

Pie Face

Friday night, J and I was going to grab something small because he has to get home and have dinner with his mum for her birthday, how sweet! I had no idea where he was going to take me since I thought we were going to KoreanTown and if we did, there's mad food around there. Little did I know he was taking me somewhere else...

He told me Hooters and yet again, I fell for his trick! Why is he so sneaky?!

We ended up at Pie Face, a place that I mentioned to him a few weeks back.

The outside of the small shop was extremely flashy. It would fit perfectly in Time Square. Good thing there wasn't much people but I did wish they had chairs instead of stand up counters.

The menu was actually on the right side against the wall. The menu that is smacked in the middle is all about coffee, I assume this is a big breakfast spot in the morning also.

They have about 4 different monitors to ring you up on your purchase and each had their own "card swiper thing," yea I have now idea what's it called but you know what I mean. So you look up at that monitor, see how much it is and just swipe away on the bottom screen whenever you're ready. Almost as if it's self paid.

The cute selection of pies. Each different flavor has their own face which is adorable. They also ahve the mini versions if you don't feel like getting the regular size pies.

The cute box and sticker. The packaging is so awesome here.

Yum Yum Yum. I had the Mince Beef Stack ($7.90) and J got the Thai Chicken Curry Stack ($7.90). Stack basically means "the works" which includes mash potatoes, mushy peas and gravy. It's pretty good and quite filling.

Look at that sexy food porn shot.
I love the colors and the layers that are incorporated here.

The way to chow down here is start in the middle. You don't want to start on the side and messing up everything. Dig a hole in the middle and get some of the filling with mash and mushy and gravy, it'll taste awesome.

Texture is quite mushy but the flavor wasn't so bad. I love how the crust of the pie tasted, flaky and buttery.

J also got the Chicken and Bacon Mini Roll ($2.95). Again, the flaky pastry was amazing but the filling wasn't that great. They need to put more flavor into making it savory rather than bland.

Oh and if you get the stack, you get a free bottle of water. Not a lot of places does that and I really appreciate it. I mean, an $8 meal and FREE water...woohoo!

Although as a pie place, they really got the crust part down - it's pretty great but the filling for the roll and the pie seem to lack just a tad bit. If they master that also, then this would be some pretty awesome pie.

Pie Face
1691 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
(212) 247-9065

Sushi Yasuda

This is my second time at Sushi Yasuda, the first time with J and we sat by the sushi bar. This time around, we came in a group of 5 and sat at the table. Both experience were extremely different and it made me decide which I liked better.

WARNING: There will be a ton of photos...some possibly repetitive, because I can.

Got seated right away because we made reservations a week in advance. There was 3 girls and 2 guys in total and we all ordered differently, which was just a tad bit confusing. Two ordered the omakase, two ordered from the a la carte, and one chose a prixe fix meal.

We all started with a small amuse bouche with pickled daikon, carrots, cucumbers, and seaweed.

Ordered a plate of Flash Fried Tuna. I thought it was just ok, nothing too special about it. Wish they had fugu instead though.

Lovely display of ginger and wasabi. You're suppose to have a piece of ginger after each sushi piece to cleanse your palate but I never do that since I'm not a big fan of ginger. As for the ginger, the sushi doesn't even need it because the chefs already tucked a bit of it in the sushi, sneaky indeed!

My beautiful table set up. Just thought it was cute and so neat. Lame but neat.

Starting off with my friend's dishes. She ordered a prixe fix (I assume) which she chose sashimi and was given a piece of paper to decide which type of fish she would like. She also ordered 4 piece a la carte because it was so tempting after seeing J and my dish (which you will see later on).

Our other two friends that ordered the Omakase had about 3 rounds of food coming and this was their first dish.

Of course, they couldn't resist and ordered more also.

This is J and mines. Went a little overboard but was totally worth it.
In no particular order, we ordered -- Big Eye Fatty Tuna, Little Tunny, Warasa (Yellowtail), Kanpachi (Yellowtail), Fluke, Sea Trout, Coba (White Fish), King Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, King Salmon New Zealand, White King Salmon, Coho Salmon, Sanma (Mackerel), Cherrystone Clam, Oyster, and Sea Urchin.
If you're able to match up the names with the pieces, congratulations because we can't for the life of us.

We ordered two more of our favorite pieces. Mine was the New Zealand King Salmon and J's was the Cherrystone Clam, the only place he eats clam raw.

Decided to get the Freshwater and Saltwater Eel sushi because our friend had it with their Omakase. I wasn't going to order it but it looked so appetizing and I just had to have it. Looks sure are deceiving because it was more on the bitter side since they used sake soy sauce instead of the sugared sweetened soy sauce glaze.

Finally, to end the meal we all ordered a piece of uni for ourselves. The uni was especially fresh and delicious that day. They only had the Santa Barbara Uni, a bit disappointed they didn't have the east coast but overall still extremely satisfied.

Our Omakase duo ordered the Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream. Nothing special since I remember having this the first time with J. It's good but the green tea powder can really dry up your mouth.

Our bill for 5 wasn't as bad as we thought. I remember the first time here with J, we easily spent over $300 for two people so either we held back this time (which I doubt because we're not cheap when it comes to food) or our stomach shrank, I like to think it's the latter.

And because we're Asians and we can, we divided up the bill into 3 hence the 3 credit cards. We even did the math for them and wrote it on the to of the bill. I was so proud at how organized we were. *thumbs up*

A good meal but not the greatest that I had here. Definitely interesting eating with a group and I look forward to it in the future.

Personally, I like sitting by the bar better because you get the full experience. You get to communicate with the sushi chefs and they can make you pieces of sushi according to your appetite and liking. They even give you some off the menu items which J and I had last time but not this time around since we weren't by the bar.

This is one of the places where I will find myself coming back, regarding if I go broke. Sushi Yasuda proves that great quality does come with high prices.

Sushi Yasuda
204 East 43rd St
New York, NY 10017
(212) 972-1001

Hill Country Chicken

J has been bugging me about this place for a while. He's wondering when he can take me here cause they make some kick-ass fried chicken. Knowing that I love fried chicken, he always ask me when would we go there together.

So finally on a night after a couple hours of shopping, we stopped by here. It's basically cafeteria style where you order at the counter and find a seat to munch on your food. Almost like, gourmet fast food. I had J do most of the ordering since he knows it better and I'll probably look like a fool if I was the once ordering it.

We had some special meal of the day which included 4 pieces of Hill Country Classic Fried Chicken, 2 sides, 2 pies, and a drink ($25). You might think it's a small meal for two but it just hits the spot.

Onto the Hill Country Classic Fried Chicken, the chicken that J has been waiting all along for me to try. Verdict? I didn't really like it. I was eating it and saying, why does it taste weird, like kind of sweet. He told me it's the spice rub. Yea, I don't like the spice rub. I like my chicken savory but the fact that the spice rub was on the sweeter side, kind of threw me off. This was a no go for me but they do have the Mama Els' Recipe which is just a regular fried chicken without the rub, definitely looking forward to that.

But overall, the chicken was cooked perfectly. Very moist on the inside and a nice crispy skin. Even the breast aren't dry which is always a good sign because you can easily overcook the breast.

For sides, I chose the Mac and Cheese while J chose something else. It was ok, nothing special but I did like how they use cellentani pasta instead of the generic macaroni.

J ordered the Cheesy Fried Mash Potatoes, indeed a killer side. It wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be and actually tasted quite light. Quite an excellent side.

The pie we both chose were the Banana Cream Pie and the Bourbon Pecan Pie which I didn't try neither because I was so full after the meal and I had J take them both home. So, next time I need to get Mama Els' Recipe and pies!

Hill Country Chicken
1123 Broadway
New York, NY 10010
(212) 257-6446

Seoul Garden

After an evening of shopping, it was actually just a couple of hours but it was getting closer to 8pm so J and I need food. We were suppose to either go to Food Gallery or Woorijip but ended up at Seoul Garden. It took us a while to find it because we were on the wrong side of the street, no wonder we couldn't find it! Then we have to walk up 2 flights of stairs which felt like 4, and when we got up there we saw the elevator working...

We got seated right away. The restaurant is extremely spacious. Their menu was like any typical Korean restaurant, but J wanted the Samchi Gui, Korean grilled fish. And I wanted something barbeque, mostly I wanted the banchan.

After our order was taken, our banchan came out in no time.

Six plates of yummy banchan. I'm starting to like kimchi a lot more than I use to. Love the spicy crunchy cabbage. One interesting banchan of the night which neither of us had before was the gelatinous plate of, well, jello. Literally smacked right int he middle of the photo was that dish, kind of gives you that skeptical feeling but it was delicious. The sauce brought it together because the jelly looking thing was just bland.

In this photo you see the lettuce also. Comes with the barbeque dish so you can do your wrap-thang. It's exactly what I wanted plus I get my favorite miso paste sauce along with it. That stuff can get really addicting.

The Samchi Gui came with the Seafood Soon Tofu ($19.95). Grilled king fish was bland which was why they give you a lemon that burned the crap out of my fingers. It is true, all you needed was the lemon because the fish already had a taste to it and you don't really need anything else to mask that.

Our favorite part of getting the tofu stew now is breaking the egg into it. I'm sure J feels the same as I, though I do wish they gave us 2 eggs. J accidentally ordered it "medium" when we were actually thinking of "spicy". So the dish came out as not spicy at all to us, bummer indeed but it was still good. Lots of tofu pieces in there which is a plus.

And finally, my Duk Galbi ($25.95) which is said to be prime beef. Come to think of it, it's quite a hefty price for that portion but then I factor in the banchan that supposedly free and my oh so awesome miso paste!

Seoul Garden was good, but not great. It's a solid place for Korean food and I wouldn't mind coming again. But next time, I'm taking the elevator.

Seoul Garden
34 W 32nd St, 2nd Fl
New York, NY 10001
(212) 736-9002