Earlier this year, we went to Ju Lan Club, a restaurant located where the Limelight used to be that serves upscale Chinese cuisine in an incredible setting. This place is huge and we only saw the main dining room that was beautiful, especially the murals on the walls that added to the aesthetic of the place.

The menu there is quite overwhelming, with specialty dishes marked with a crown. But there are so many that ordering each of them would be a gargantuan meal. They have classic Chinese dishes like…

The heart of Times Square have seen quite a lot of Asian restaurants opening and the last one I tried is Awe Sum Dimsum (pronounce “awesome” dimsum). This casual place is very similar to Dim Sum Sam that I tried few months ago: you order at the counter or on their POS, from a quite large menu and they will tell you when your meal is ready thanks to a buzzer that will be handed over to you after you pay. The Menu has quite a lot of items, but I admit that I was a bit disappointed not to see anything with duck, especially some Peking Duck bao maybe? So I ended up ordering har gow or shrimp dumplings that were perfectly made and delicious, fried eggplant shrimp that were just ok, slightly bland, and…

If you like Italian cuisine, Rossini’s is a great spot to know. Located closed to Grand Central, this Italian restaurant has an old school authentic feel, from the decor (it is fairly big: I counted three different rooms) to the attire of the waiters that is pretty formal.

Food wise, they have classics like the calamari fritti or melanzane imbotite (eggplant slices stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella) that they split into two portions as we were sharing.

We were looking for a New Orleans inspired restaurant in New York, when we stumbled upon 1803. Taking its name from the year the United States purchased Louisiana from France, Napoleon needing money to fund the war with the British, this restaurant serving creole cuisine, opened in October 2022. Spacious, with its French quarter feel and large bar, it has two floors, the second floor being where bands will play live music.

We have been waiting for so long for Kura Sushi to open in Newport, right where the mall sits. You may wonder why and the answer is simple: Kura Sushi is not your classic Japanese restaurant. It is a conveyor belt sushi bar! If you never tried this before, it is fun to do: the kitchen will prepare a series of dishes that will move around the dining room on a conveyor belt. Each dish, preceded by a sign telling you what it is, costs $3.70 (if I correctly remember) and they calculate the bill simply based on the number…

BBQ is one of my favorite meals and it is an artistry that I did not imagine was so involved until I saw The American Barbecue Showdown on Netflix. From the type of meat, the rub, the type of wood to use and the temperature, this is more than just meat on a plate for sure. One of the places I love in Hoboken for BBQ is House of Que.

We walked passed Marty’s in Jersey City quite a few times. Located in an old firehouse, this place serves some quite amazing burgers and shakes. I love the fact that they have a POS (Point Of Sale) when you enter, so it gives you more time to look at their menu and customize what you want, rather than being at the counter and feeling the pressure to order quickly because there are people behind you, probably with the same feeling, waiting.

It is no secret that I love Indian food and we sometimes venture to Newark Avenue in Jersey City for lunch or dinner, in some of the amazing Indian restaurants that are there. One of them is Masala Cafe. This place has an extensive menu with a wide range of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. We went there one Saturday evening for dinner and tried the following:

For appetizer, we had samosa that were crispy and…

When we visited Zaytinya in Washington DC back in 2018, I ended up regretting that it did not have an outpost in New York City. Well, this gap has been closed since July last year and it seems that this place does not stop getting full with a crowd eager to try some Mediterranean cuisine served mainly tapas style.

We were looking for a treat when we stumbled upon Yuki’s Bakery and Coffee near the Monroe Center, an area where we do not venture to that often but that seems to have some interesting places. Opened mid-2021 by Yuki (Aviva) Levinson, this Israeli influenced bakery is a great find. Small, it has some exciting offerings like the rugelach and halva rugelach that are superb. Rugelach are…

After Maison Kayser closed during Covid and sold its stores to Le Pain Quotidien, I was wondering what would come to the Bryant Park location, construction soon starting there for another bakery. Several months later, in December 2022, Heritage Grand Bakery opened. We went few times and I admit that it is a great addition for bread, viennoiseries (croissants, pains au chocolate, etc) and cakes. Their croissants and chocolate croissants (pains au chocolat) are good, but not as buttery and flakey as some others like Chocopain, and I did not like their pistachio honey croissant as there was…

Few weeks ago, we decided to try 30 Burgers, a new place that opened few steps from the path. I am always excited to try a burger place, hoping that they will serve an awesome cheeseburger, especially considering the name. The place, that used to be Pico Taco, has been fully repurposed, with less tables. So when you sit, you cannot not miss the photo of Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis from Top Gun, staring at you while you take your first bite…

I was never a big fan of burritos for the simple reason that I always thought that restaurants were packing them with rice, ordering mine without each time I could. The only exception is probably Orale Mexican Kitchen with its truffle ribeye burrito that is out of this world. Then, end of 2018, we went to San Diego and had lunch at Lucha Libre. The sole purpose of the visit was to try a Cali Burrito and since then, I have been obsessed with this! So, as we were looking for a place for dinner in Journal Square,…

I discovered Sushi by Bou back in 2019 when they opened a location in Jersey City. Sushi by Bou is serving Omakase that is a trend in the dining scene, literally meaning “I leave it up to you”, allowing the Chef to decide what will be served as sushi. I could bring a guest to a media invite and, as Jodi is vegetarian, I went with a friend who I thought loves fish, but, little I knew that he only eats cooked fish, not raw and he did not know what he was coming for…No problem: Chef Andy took care of him whenever possible; when not, lucky for me, I ended up with two pieces of fish!