Gabriel Kreuther

By grace.g.yang · June 17, 2016
Under: Dinner,French,Michelin 2016 Guide,Midtown West,My Life,Prix-fixe,seafood,Things to do in NYC



I’m always looking for good restaurants in midtown because Ken is always asking for recommendations for good lunch spots to take clients. Gabriel Kreuther opened back in 2015 and I’ve been wanting to go ever since I read the great reviews (the New York Times gave the restaurant three stars and the restaurant also has a Michelin star). I told Ken about the restaurant and he went with some coworkers and couldn’t stop talking about how great the meal was, so we ended up going together the following weekend.

The restaurant is located in Bryant Park and was very busy on the Saturday night we went. We had a late reservation (around 9:45pm) and the restaurant was still completely packed (even the bar area!) The restaurant has a ski lodge feel with their exposed wood beams (similar to the houses in Alsace, France). They also have floral wallpaper, which looked really cool in combination with the wood.

We went with the tasting menu, a four course tasting with three savory items and one dessert. To start, they brought us their freshly baked bread with their homemade chive butter:

Gabriel Kruether

Next, an amuse bouche served in a sea urchin bowl:

Gabriel Kruether

And another amuse bouche served in a clam shell:

Gabriel Kruether

For Ken’s first course, he ordered the sunchoke soup:

Gabriel Kruether

One of his coworkers ordered the soup at their business lunch and she said it was so good she could have licked the bowl – a pretty strong recommendation for Ken to order it when we went. The soup was velvety and so flavorful – it included black truffles, mushrooms, and puffed rice for a little texture.

I ordered the Alaskan king crab:

Gabriel Kruether

We also ordered the langoustine tartare with Flying fish roe and cauliflower-macadamia purée:

Gabriel Kruether

My favorite dish of the first courses was the sunchoke soup – it had an amazing texture and flavor and was so rich and creamy.

For our main courses, I ordered the baked dorade royale:

Gabriel Kruether

The dorade had a fennel seed-coriander broth and a green tomato marmalade on top. It was a good choice for me because I was already getting full after our first and second course.

Ken ordered the Niman Ranch pork tenderloin with morcilla crumble, pear, and grain mustard jus:

Gabriel Kruether

Along with dinner came some delicious bread and cultured butter:

Gabriel Kruether

After our main courses, we were served a palate cleanser – yogurt with puffed grains of rice:

Gabriel Kruether

For dessert, the server accidentally put in the wrong order so they brought us out the right order and we ended up having three!

We had the rhubarb, strawberry and buttermilk dessert:

Gabriel Kruether

The strawberry in front is white chocolate and has cilantro on top!

We also had the tropical dessert with passion fruit, coconut, dragon fruit and kiwi:

Gabriel Kruether

And we also had the Blackberry Chocolate with chocolate mousse, blackberry gelée, and lemon verbena meringue:

Gabriel Kruether

All of the desserts were awesome – not too sweet and so many interesting textures.

After all of the desserts, they brought out a cacao pod with more sweets – house made chocolates and pocky-like sticks that were dipped in chocolate and almonds:

Gabriel Kruether

After the bill came, they brought yet another dessert – a pop-tart like shortbread with marshmallow and chocolate:

Gabriel Kruether

The service, food, and ambiance were all wonderful – I definitely see this restaurant staying on the Michelin list (and potentially going up to two stars in the next few years). We had such a great meal there and Ken has made it his new de facto restaurant for client lunches!

Osteria Morini

By grace.g.yang · June 16, 2016
Under: Desserts,Dinner,Italian,seafood,Soho



For a girl’s night dinner, we tried going to Pasquale Jones (part of the Charlie Bird family) but the restaurant was closed for a private event. Luckily, Osteria Morini is right around the corner and was able to fit us in for dinner!

We ordered a lot of delicious food, included the branzino with chickpeas, toasted almonds, pickled vegetables and salsa verde and the brick oven chicken with gaeta olives, lemon and potatoes:

Osteria Morini

For dessert, we ordered the Gianduja budino (baked chocolate hazelnut custard with candied hazelnuts and brown butter) and the lemon olive oil cake with ricotta and honey:

Osteria Morini

Both desserts were excellent but the olive oil cake was so good that I had to go back to get more the next week! It’s moist, a little crumbly, and so flavorful. If you’re walking around soho and just looking for a quick sweet bite, definitely go to Osteria Morini and grab the olive oil cake at the bar!

Terra Tribeca

By grace.g.yang · June 15, 2016
Under: Dinner,Drinks,Italian,Tapas,Tribeca



We recently did an office outing for a coworker leaving the company at Terra Tribeca. I made the reservation (which they confirmed but then somehow when we arrived said it didn’t exist). We ordered a ton of food (and wine) for the table and ended up staying out way too late. I started out with Italian wine:

Terra TriBeCa

We ordered a little bit of everything because the menu is made to share:

Terra TriBeCa

The pastas are homemade:

Terra TriBeCa

And some more protein to round out the meal:

Terra TriBeCa

The food was all okay, but none of the flavors really stuck out – and to be honest, kind of blended together. The bill ended up being about $100 per person, mostly because of the wine (although the food was kind of expensive as well).

Dim Sum Go Go

By grace.g.yang · June 14, 2016
Under: Asian,Chinatown,Chinese,My Life,seafood,Things to do in NYC



Before Andrew, Hsiao-Mei and Parker moved, we went to one last dim sum together at Dim Sum Go Go. They are one of the only places in Chinatown that has a decent dim sum and accepts reservations (however, their booster seats are mostly broken so Fab and Parker had to sit on laps instead of their own seats).

The restaurant has at least two floors so they don’t push carts around, instead, they give you a menu to order from (in my experience, that’s a really easy way to over-order!) We started off with three orders of soup dumplings (see what I mean about over ordering??):

Dim sum go go

I put in a list of what we should order and Laura had a list as well – I thought we’d just use mine but we used both Laura’s and mine so we had a ton of food:

Dim sum go go

That was our leftover pile! We ended up with way too much food – luckily, Laura and David were heading back home afterwards so didn’t mind taking it home. The food at Dim Sum Go Go isn’t as good as Oriental Garden but it’s pretty good for a large party with kids.

All of us post dim sum:

Dim sum go go

Grand Central Oyster Bar

By grace.g.yang · June 13, 2016
Under: Dinner,Drinks,Midtown East,seafood



Before heading home on Friday night, we stopped by Grand Central Oyster bar for a quick bite because we were too tired to figure out something to cook. The restaurant was busy but they were able to seat us right away – we sat down and ordered two Manhattan clam chowders and oysters right away:

Grand central oyster bar

We also shared the branzino prepped with capers and olive oil:

Grand central oyster bar

With a side of broccoli rabe and potatoes. I didn’t feel well after dinner – not sure if it was the oysters or the branzino, but Ken didn’t feel great after dinner, either. It was my first time at the restaurant and I don’t think I’ll be heading back anytime soon.


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