After catching the majority of Top Chef Season three, I’ve slowly become a fan of the crazy reality show (they’re currently taping season 4 in Chicago). I watched a couple episodes from season one and season two, but it’s one of those shows you watch when they have marathons, you know? Anyway, Harold Dieterle won season one and used his prize money to open Perilla in May 2007, a stylish restaurant in the west village. I’ve walked by Perilla a bunch of times (on my way to John’s Pizzeria or Pearl Oyster Bar), but I didn’t notice the small restaurant lining Jones Street until recently.

Large booths, a couple of four-top tables, and a small bar make Perilla for a small get together or a first date. The interior decor is minimal and welcoming and is a great addition to the west village. The hostess seated us immediately (not many people go to Perilla for lunch, apparently, because the restaurant was almost empty). The menu has a couple of options of unpretentious items, but there were only three things that interested us: the duck burger, the cubano, and the french toast. We ended up choosing the first two:

The duck burger has a layer of perfectly melted cheese (don’t you hate it when there’s a layer of grease on top of the cheese?), pickles, tomato, and Boston lettuce that all sits perfectly on top of a big bits of spicy duck. YUM. I’m used to Peking duck and have been disappointed with other ways people prepare duck, but Harold’s burger definitely makes me rethink the way I eat duck.

I ordered Harold’s Cubano:

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t impressed with the pressed sandwich AT ALL. It tasted like something I could ordered at Zabar’s a while back. Also, once you try the Spotted Pig’s cubano, there’s no way to eat another sandwich without getting the feeling that it’s inadequate. I didn’t really enjoy the sandwich but the side salad that came with my order was nicely dressed. I can never get my greens to stay so fluffy after I dress them - they always end up wilty looking (it looks like I cooked them or something). How do restaurants do it?

Overall, the experience at Perilla was very nice and I’d go back for dinner in the future, but probably not again for brunch. It’s convenient to make a reservation through opentable.com, but you can always call to make a reservations as well (I like opentable because I’ve thisclose to getting something for free!!)

How to get to Perilla:

Perilla
9 Jones St between 4th Street and Bleecker
New York, NY 10014
212-929-6868

Happy New Year! Let’s start 2008 off right with a tasty review of Taim’s Falafel’s. Taim is a tiny tiny restaurant in the west village that only seats 4 or 5 (you can eat there alone because all the seats face the window or the wall). The majority of the business is take out and delivery, but we opted to dine-in (we were the only ones there since it was the first big snowfall of the year and no one wanted to leave their apartment). Taim has a surprisingly large amount of offerings (how do they make everything in that small kitchen?!):

If you can read the menu, you can tell that it’s a lot more expensive than Mamoun’s or Chickpea, but everything is carefully prepared by the Israeli husband and wife team that own Taim. Chris and I decided to share the mixed platter (the best of all worlds since you can sample a bit of everything) and an order of fries. Our platter:

The mixed platter is a great deal because you can sample the three different types of falafels - green (traditional), red (with roasted red peppers), and harissa (with special Tunisian spices). Out of the three, I liked the harissa falafel’s the most, but the green and the red falafels were really good, too. The mixed platter also came with an assortment of sauces (the oil that was also brushed on the pitas, a cucumber sauce, and a honey/mustard-type dipping sauce). The hummus was also DELICIOUS (especially compared to Mamoun’s, where I occasionally think my tongue is burning off from the amount of salt they add to the hummus) and the tabbouleh salad is the perfect amount of parsley and Bulgur (the grain).

We weren’t sure if the falafel platter was going to fill both of us up, so we ordered a side of french fries with saffron aoili:

The fries were fresh out of the fryer (yay!) and the slightly sweet saffron aoili was a perfect complement to the salty fries. Chris REALLY liked the aoili…and wanted me to let my readers know that you should get an extra helping of aoili with the fries (that’s how good it is).

My favorite part of the dish was the tasty pita brushed with oil and wonderful toppings:

The pita was HOT, oily, and delicious. The bread was very fluffy (but still chewy) and the hot oil that was brushed onto the pita made it SO much better than the regular pita bread restaurants usually serve. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to return to Mamoun’s!!

Taim also offers a wide assortment of smoothies, teas, and coffees:

It’s a small shop, but it’s definitely worth the trip (and if they deliver to your area, you never even have to step out of your apartment!).

How to get to Taim Falafels:
Taim Falafels
222 Waverly Pl between 11th and Perry St
New York, New York 10014
212-691-1287

Anyone that follows this blog on a regular basis knows that I am a huge fan of cheeseburgers. When I was in college, there was a McDonald’s right outside my dorm window - everyday after class, my friend Susanna and I would order the number 2 (two cheeseburgers, fries, and a drink) with no onions, extra ketchup, and a diet coke (hey, let’s try to keep it healthy here). When the McDonald’s closed (their service was absolutely terrible and sometimes we’d wait half an hour to get our order) I would make my best friend, Brian, drive me to Chili’s so I could indulge in their cheeseburger with seasoned French fries. Brian doesn’t eat cheeseburgers anymore, he lives in Chicago, and I don’t know of any Chili’s’s in New York, so I’ll explore other burger joints around the city (woe is me). On Saturday, Chris and I hit up Rare Bar and Grill.

After reading numerous positive reviews and hearing that it’s great from Chris himself, I decided to indulge a little. I haven’t really been eating too many burgers this month (I’m still trying to work off THANKSGIVING). We decided to order two burgers and share the fries sampler (with no dessert, even though they have FRIED OREOS).

Our M and M burger:

I read a lot of positive reviews about the burger and it sounded like the most popular burger that Rare serves (well, next to the Murray’s cheese burger, but the two sounded very similar). The M and M burger is Rare’s classic burger flambéed in whiskey, topped with caramelized shallots, cheddar cheese & apple smoked bacon. I didn’t taste any difference in the meat because of the whiskey, but the caramelized shallots brought all of the ingredients together. The apple smoked bacon was all fat and salt (yay!) and the cheese was another salty item, but the caramelized shallots were sweet enough to give the burger the kick it needed. Chris and I DEVOURED the burger.

We also shared the Rare classic burger (with American cheese):

I really like the classic cheeseburger; the meat is juicy, the cheese is perfectly melted, and each bite is almost the perfect size to fit into my mouth…the only thing I disliked was the top bun - it was a little too tough for me.

Fries sampler:

The fries sampler is $10 and comes with all the different fries Rare serves (waffle/cottage, sweet potato, and regular shoestring). For an extra $1, you can switch the shoestring fries to the truffle oil fries, but we decided against it. The fries sampler also includes four dipping sauces:

L-R, clockwise from top: regular ketchup, chipotle aoili, honey maple dip, and New Mexican Chili Ketchup. The sweet potato fries worked well with the honey maple dip, which reminded me of Clinton St. Baking Company’s maple butter. Mmmmm sweet butter. The New Mexican Chili ketchup tasted like it had tea leaves in it (Chris said he didn’t think it did but he knew I was going to write it in my review anyway). The fries were really good (my favorite were the cottage/waffle fries).

After our meal, Chris and I were discussing the experience and the overall rating (we always do this so I can bounce ideas off him). Initially, I was going to give the place four Grace faces, but then he said, “Yeah, I was thinking four Grace faces too… but then I was like, ‘Why not five? This place is really good!’” The service was good, the restaurant is cute, and the food is delicious. The place is pretty expensive (in my opinion). The M and M burger will set you back $15 and the classic cheeseburger costs $10 (with cheese). A little expensive, but definitely a treat.

How to get to Rare Bar and Grille:

Rare Bar and Grille
228 Bleecker Street between 6th and Carmine
New York, NY 10014
212-691-7273

I’m at Red Mango RIGHT NOW and I’m updating from my friends BB pearl (huge pain). Red mango is giving away small froyos so get here before 10! The CEO is also here to answer questions. Everyone seems to Like it so far…more later from a real computer.

Update: here’s a picture I took from my curve of the Red Mango opening:

Trippy photo!!

It’s a red carpet opening (but by no means an exclusive event…go in for free frozen yogurt!!)

It’s creamier than Pinkberry, but the green tea definitely has a stronger flavor. I spoke with the CEO, Dan Kim, who told me that Red Mango was started by a bunch of his investment banker friends in Korea. Dan helped them bring Red Mango to the US and is working on opening new shops all over (five in New York - Bleecker St, Roosevelt Ave in Flushing, 14th and 6th, 45th and 8th, and one other location I wasn’t too sure about; two in Illinois - Naperville and Evanston, maybe one in DC, and a couple more on the west coast). I asked if he thought frozen yogurt was a fad and he said, definitely not; Red Mango is healthy and he wants to educate the customers about the benefits of eating yogurt. (yay education!)

Red Mango is open about their ingredients (unlike SOME frozen yogurt chains we frequent) and it has less sugar than Pinkberry (yay less sugar!).

I’ll be doing a more comprehensive review next weekend (following a frozen yogurt tour of New York) and I’m looking forward to seeing how Red Mango does in New York!

If you’re interested in joining the tour, please e-mail me at gracenotesnyc@gmail.com.

Edit #2:

Here are the real pictures from tonight’s opening:

The inside has a lot of open space and different types of chairs (and couches!). A lot of people were at the opening and I’m sure Red Mango gave away a ton of free frozen yogurt:

Red Mango also has an interesting variety of toppings, including super-cute Ghirardhelli dark chocolate chips:

Diagonal from Chris’ house in the west village is a small Scandinavian restaurant, Smorgas Chef. Whenever I walk by the place, I always think it’s a really run-down restaurant because the outside looks unkempt. During the summer, I see couples eating late meals outside (so it can’t be that bad) and we decided to check it out for brunch. Since it was too cold to eat outside, we opted for a nice seat indoors (next to the wall of glass bottles). The exterior of Smorgas Chef:

Well, I think it looks rundown…maybe that’s the look they’re going for.

Smorgas Chef has a prix-fix option for brunch (for $17.95, you can order one main entree, an alcoholic drink, and a coffee) or you can just order the entree by itself (they run from $11 - $20).

Chris ordered the standard eggs benedict:

The standard egg yolk oozing out onto the ham and English muffin make eggs benedict a great artery-clogging breakfast food. Smorgas Chef makes a pretty good hollandaise sauce (although I still prefer Balthazar’s) and the salad on the side was also pretty good.

I ordered cooked eggs with Jarlsberg cheese, spinach, ham, and tomato:

Underneath the cheese, veggies, and ham was a single piece of wheat toast, soaking up the yolk:

The bread was really solid and didn’t fall apart when the yolk flooded the dish. It was a really good; the Jarlsberg cheese was perfectly melted (not too mushy and not too firm), the spinach added a great flavor, and the ham bits were a nice salty compliment to the dish.

My dish and Chris’ dish came with a side of Jansson’s special potatoes:

They’re potatoes au gratin, but they just tasted like plain potatoes to me. Good thing they were free!

Smorgas Chef was a surprisingly good meal for a quick Sunday afternoon brunch. The food was good and the service was friendly….they also take reservations! I’ll definitely be back.

How to get to Smorgas Chef:

Smorgas Chef
283 W. 12th Street
New York, NY, 10014
212-243-7073