I’m always on the lookout for great noodles. We LOVE ramen, udon, and soba, so we decided to check out Sobaya for some noodley goodness. The interior is small but neat and we decided to sit at the counter for dinner. The menu doesn’t have that many options, but you can choose the type of protein you want (duck, shrimp, tofu skin, etc) and the noodle (either soba or udon). Their soba and udon are both handmade and fresh, so we decided to do one of each - I ordered the duck with udon and Chris went with the tempura with soba.

My duck with udon:

The udon was very chewy, but the broth and the duck didn’t taste right (there’s orange zest in the broth, which totally threw me off). The duck also had a lot of fat, and was tough and hard to chew.

Chris’ tempura with soba:

Chris’ tempura shrimp was tasty, but his soba noodles weren’t that good. They were a little overcooked (at least I thought they were).

If we could do it again, I would’ve paired the tempura with udon and the duck with soba, although I think I’d pick a different protein since I didn’t like the duck broth with orange zest. Sobaya has a good deal for lunch (a huge lunchbox for $15 filled with lots of goodies), but they don’t serve it for dinner, so we were out of luck.

Tip: get there early because it gets crazy around dinner time. You might end up waiting up to an hour for a bowl of homemade noodles on any given night!

How to get to Sobaya:

Sobaya
229 E 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
212-533-6966

Back in March when I was looking all over Manhattan for an apartment, I met a broker that used to be a waitress at Aqua Grill in Soho. Even though I didn’t find a place through her, I got some good restaurant recommendations, including a burger joint in Brooklyn - DuMont Burger. I meant to check it out sooner, but getting to Brooklyn is a hassle.

Chris and I took the L train to Brooklyn for dinner, which is a pretty big deal because taking the L train on the weekends can be a huge pain in the butt; there is always some kind of construction going on! We ended up getting to Brooklyn and finding DuMont Burger:

Initially, we walked into the take-out portion of the restaurant (we were a little disappointed because it was a hike from the subway stop to DuMont Burger and we didn’t see any chairs to sit in while we enjoyed dinner), but when we got up to the counter to order, the cashier told us there was an actual restaurant a couple doors down - whew!! DuMont Burger is actually an extension of their restaurant, DuMont; they opened up DuMont Burger because people always ended up waiting forever for burgers and bar food. We walked into the restaurant, took seats at the bar, and ordered a cheeseburger with fries and macaroni and cheese.

Chris’ cheeseburger with fries:

Juicy medium rare:

The burger was actually pretty good - I’d say it’s worth it if you’re in Brooklyn, but not worth the hassle of going to Brooklyn JUST for a cheeseburger. It was juicy, flavorful, and the brioche bun was the perfect proportion in relation to the meat. The lettuce, something I hardly ever mention in burger posts, was very crisp and the perfect size as well (boston lettuce, I think). Their fries were all small bits (similar to Soho Park’s leftover fries!!).

Since I didn’t want to order the same thing as Chris (we because we always switch plates halfway through our meal), I ordered the DuMac and Cheese:

Remember how I said that the burger isn’t worth going to Brooklyn for? Well, the macaroni and cheese DEFINITELY is; it has an amazingly cheesy crust, lots of perfectly cooked rotini noodles, lots and lots of gooey cheese, and bacon. TONS OF HUGE BACON pieces. I was so amazed at how much pork was in the macaroni and cheese (it was even better than Artisanal’s).

The walk back to the subway didn’t seem as far as the walk over because I was so stuffed from the macaroni and cheese and the cheeseburger. I will definitely go back - for their mac and cheese!

What to order: The DuMac and Cheese, tempura onion donuts, and the DuMont burger.

How to get to DuMont Burger:

DuMont Burger
314 Bedford Avenue between 1st and 2nd Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
718-384-6127

Yesterday, Chris and I went to the Olafur Eliasson’s exhibit at the MoMA:

Part of the exhibit is in Queens (at P.S. 1), but we didn’t have a chance to go - we’re definitely going soon because we’ve heard it’s equally interesting there. Here are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday’s visit:

A fan, suspended from the ceiling, floats just above people’s touch:

I forgot this was part of the exhibit and leaned against it:

The artist installed intense orange lights down two halls:

Jumping around a room that changed colors:

For a while, Chris and I were checking out all the major cheeseburger joints in the city. We visited JG Melon and had a mind blowing experience (even with the two hour wait - review coming soon) and wanted to see how the other famous burger joints stacked up. We visited P.J. Clarke’s to sample their cheeseburger and other goodies; the wait wasn’t too long - only about 30 minutes for a table around 3PM on Saturday (which is nothing compared to some of the waits we’ve endured for a burger). We definitely wanted a cheeseburger, but P.J. Clarke’s also has a large menu of seafood items, so we decided to order a cheeseburger and an order of mussels. Our cheeseburger:

It looks like a standard cheeseburger (maybe even a cheeseburger you’d grill at home), but P.J. Clarke’s has a special combination of meat that makes the cheeseburger both juicy and flavorful. The onion sits between the bottom bun and the meat and you have to request other toppings (we asked for a side of tomatoes and lettuce). If I ranked my favorite burger places in the city, P.J. Clarke’s would probably be in my top 10, but nowhere near the top 5; the burger wasn’t juicy enough and it was a bit small for me.

Initially, we ordered mussels with white wine, but later found out that they sold out of mussels for the day (SHUCKS!). Since we were still hungry, we decided to order macaroni and cheese:

P.J. Clarke’s interpretation of macaroni and cheese was more of a Fettuccine Alfredo; they used shells, a cream sauce, bacon, and peas in their recipe and it didn’t resemble your typical mac and cheese. I definitely think it’s mislabeled and wasn’t a fan of the dish; the alfredo was too watery/runny and the shells weren’t cooked properly.

Based on our waitresses recommendation, we ordered hash browns instead of your typical French fries:

The hash browns were good, but didn’t match the rest of the dishes we were eating (it was too much of a breakfast food).

I’m not sure I’d visit P.J. Clarke’s for their burgers again, but I’m interested in trying their seafood offerings since they have mussels with white wine that sound like they’d be pretty good. Hopefully the next time I’m in the area, P.J. Clarke’s will actually have mussels in stock!

How to get to P.J. Clarke’s:

P.J. Clarke’s
915 3rd Avenue between 55th and 56th
New York, NY 10022
212-317-1616

After having a terrible experience at Better Burger, I was hesitant to try New York Burger Company; I didn’t want to be disappointed with another burger place in my neighborhood. On Saturday, after a full day of running around, Chris and I decided to check out New York Burger Co. because we were in the mood for burgers and didn’t feel like schlepping uptown to JG Melon. The windows facing the street have a ton of awards for best cheeseburger, best onion rings, etc., so we figured it couldn’t be that bad (boy were we wrong). I ordered a cheeseburger with cheddar cheese:

First of all, does that even look appetizing? At all? No. Didn’t think so. My burger was slightly ORANGE on the inside AND it was INCREDIBLY dry. The cheese tasted disgusting and greasy (similar to Better Burger’s).

Chris ordered the “Dallas Burger,” which is a burger with Monterey jack cheese, sauteed onions, and barbecue sauce:

Equally disgusting…we couldn’t even FINISH our burgers. There was no juice in the meat and truthfully, it didn’t even TASTE like a burger. We also ordered a chocolate shake and fries:

Let me start with the fries. Truthfully, they weren’t ABSOLUTELY terrible. They were sort of like the fries you buy in amusement parks; greasy and slightly soggy, but not bad (especially compared to the shake and burgers). Not too bad, especially since we had 10 different dipping sauces for them. The chocolate shake, on the other hand, was the grossest chocolate shake I’ve ever tried. It was supposed to be made with ice cream and chocolate sauce - it tasted like it was made with Nesquick powder, milk, and ice cubes.

The best part of the meal was returning the “chocolate shake” - I told the cashier that it was the absolute worst shake I’d EVER tried in my life and that it was pretty terrible that the restaurant was passing it off as a chocolate shake. I will absolutely NEVER go back and I’d probably only recommend the place to my sworn enemies.