Holy Rice-A-Roni!

Rice is a restaurant that I think is suffering from multiple personality disorder. Located in the heart of Curry Hill, I always presumed it was an Indian restaurant. Then, one time when I actually stopped to glance at the menu, I also saw a few Thai dishes. So, I thought to myself, ok, maybe Rice is one of those Pan-Asian restaurants. When I finally went there for diner one night, my friend and I quickly discovered that even that broad category wouldn’t cover all of the types of dishes that Rice has on its menu. This was going to be hard for me to classify for this post! There were Mexican, French, and Lebanese items too! Now I get it…this restaurant includes cuisines in which rice places a big part.

It took us about 20 minutes to figure out what to order. So many dishes sounded really good. We started with the steamed vegetable dumplings and they were delicious. I absolutely love dumplings, but a lot of the times, they are just mediocre with indiscernible vegetables inside and a generic dipping sauce. Rice’s dumplings were freshly made with visible vegetables and were great on their own. Dipped in the sauce, they were even better! The soy-based sauce was so flavorful…a little bit sweet, a little bit tangy.

Next up, we got the Asian slaw, which consisted of shredded cabbage and carrots, sautéed arame seaweed, edamame, toasted sesame seeds, lotus roots, and Asian carrot ginger dressing. We only got a small, but next time I would order that just for myself because it was so good. Really crunchy, fresh veggies and a fantastic dressing.

Now onto our own dishes. I ordered the Mexican chicken soup with avocado, tomato, corn, rice and cilantro. When they served it, I got nervous I made a bad choice because it looked so simple and bordered on boring. But, I was really surprised how hearty this soup was, even though it was just a chicken stock. The corn was really fresh, and it was an interesting twist having avocado actually in the soup. The broth was very flavorful and had a pretty good kick to it. Luckily, I ended up pretty happy with the dish.

My friend ordered the ratatouille, a traditional French stew with zucchini, eggplant, red peppers, and onions. It came with a choice of rice: Japanese, Basmati, brown, and sticky. I tried her ratatouille with brown rice. Having had the dish in France, I can say it wasn’t quite the traditional recipe, but it was really good.

The restaurant itself is sleek and modern and is great for people watching on the main Curry Hill intersection. The lighting fixtures have burlap bags of (what else!) rice as the lampshades…a really creative touch! The service was friendly and fast. Our waitress was really helpful in navigating us through the different cuisines and types of rice on the menu. I am eager to go back to Rice so I can try out more of the dishes, more of the varieties of rice, and more of the ethnic cuisines featured on the menu. Multiple personalities or not, Rice is like a little trip around the world all from convenient Curry Hill/Gramercy location!

Rice
115 Lexington Avenue
@ 28th Street
website
Menu Pages listing

Oh Yes to Food, Ono to Service

I had a friend from home in town this weekend (who was also with me at Pompano) who used to live in New York. This seemed like the perfect reason to cash in some of my AmEx In:NYC points. These points provide gift certificates to a host of restaurants and bars around the city...some of them my friend and I have already been to and are more run-of-the-mill, and some are very upscale and ones I probably wouldn't frequent except for a special occasion. Between having a gift certificate to use at a high-end spot and a good friend visiting, Ono fit the bill.

It goes without saying that Ono is definitely one of those uber-trendy Asian fusion restaurants. Its locale alone (both in the Hotel Gansevoort and in the Meat Packing District) is enough to make this a hot spot. On top of that, as soon as you walk in, you are accosted by trendiness. The lighting is dim, the decor is modern, the DJ is spinning house music, the bar is packed. Pure swank.

We were seated on the 2nd floor next to a huge window overlooking the Ono garden and the heart of the Meat Packing District...such a great vantage point. We started with the cocktail list and both were in the mood to try something unique. I ordered the Raspirinha...a Caipirinha with muddled raspberries, except they were out of raspberries so I got strawberry instead. Cachaca is a very different-tasting alcohol, definitely nothing I'm used to, but it was a really good drink. My friend ordered a cucumber margarita that could only be described as "refreshing."

We began to take a look over the menu and noticed that a majority of it was made up of small plates and sushi, with a few large plates at the bottom. We decided to share a few things (shocker!) and ordered the chicken and scallop robatas, a spider roll, and wasabi mashed potatoes. The robatas were two skewers of each meat served with five dipping sauces. The chicken and scallops were both cooked very well and had a great grilled flavor, but it was really the sauces that made these dishes. We sampled all five and really liked them all: shisho pesto, spicy plum miso, sesame mustard, scallion ponzu, and kimchee. The spider futomaki was delicious...the crab was so fresh and fried to perfection, and the spicy japanese mayo gave it an extra boost of flavor. And as generic a side item as it sounds, the wasabe mashed potatoes were fantastic. They were creamy and garlicky, with a wasabi flavor that wasn't too overpowering. Wasabi peas were mixed in, which gave it a surprising crunch.

I never go into restaurants like this expecting the service to be phenomenal. I think it's part of the job interview that the wait staff has to prove it can be snooty. That is unless the diners are dropping hundreds of dollars, in which case they are your best friend. When our waitress heard that we weren't ordering anything else (even though our tab was close to $100), she went very quickly from friendly to pushy. She left the bill with us immediately and proceeded to stop by three times to ask if it was ready. But, then when we were actually ready to pay, she was MIA and couldn't be bothered.

But, Miss Menu is never one to let mediocre service ruin an otherwise great experience. It was the perfect opportunity to try a great new place with a great old friend.

One quick Miss Menu pointer: If you are planning on dining at Ono and want to make your reservation through Open Table, be sure to go to the site directly, not linking from Ono's website. If you do it via Ono's site, it will tell you that dining points are not applicable to that meal. Sure it's only 100 points, but with all of the dining out I've been doing lately, I'm hoping to have another gift certificate heading my way!

Ono
at Hotel Gansevoort
18 9th Avenue
b/t 13th & Gansevoort Street
website
Menu Pages listing

This Buddha's Belly Deserves a Good Rub

Now, there are dozens of trendy sushi/Asian fusion restaurants in NYC, but there are only a few that fall into the "uber-swanky" category. I usually don't frequent those types of restaurants all that often, but they are great for special occasions like birthdays, graduations, or anniversaries. Friday night, I went out to celebrate one of my best friend's birthdays and we decided to go all out at Buddha Bar.

I hadn't been to the Buddha Bar in New York, but I celebrated my 21st birthday at the original Buddha Bar in Paris. Excited to go to the NYC location, I knew what to basically expect, but still managed to be blown away when walking into the restaurant. To say the decor is phenomenal would be an understatement. They have thought of everything...from the entranceway lined with statues to the 20-foot Buddha at one end of the dining room, the wood-carved dragons to the ornate chandeliers and wood-beam ceilings...the entire place just oozes swank (just take a look at the photos on their website if it's hard to imagine!).

We had a reservation and were seated right away at a fantastic table right next to the Buddha. It gave us a great spot to take it all in...the atmosphere, the food, and the crowd (especially the party of 40 made up mostly of 6'2" models!).

Since there were so many fantastic appetizers and sushi rolls on the menu, we decided to order those, rather than entrees. It was a great way to try a few different things on the menu from each part of the Asian fusion. We each ordered the Buddha Bar Chicken Salad. So, you're probably thinking, "a salad at a place like this?" I k know, I know...but it was really delicious, I swear! Pieces of grilled, marinated chicken were mixed with crispy wontons, cabbage, and an Asian sesame vinaigrette.

I had heard from a friend that the Chilean sea bass was fantastic at Buddha Bar, so it was great to see that there was a specialty roll with sea bass in it. The BBQ Chilean Sea Bass Roll had cooked sea bass that was coated in a sweet miso glaze. On the side was a Japanese bbq sauce to dip the roll in, rather than soy sauce. It was absolutely delicious.

To round out the meal, I ordered a side of Wok Fried Vegetable Chow Fun. I was hoping/expecting that it would be different from the chow fun I order from delivery Chinese places. And, it was...VERY different. The wide noodles were cooked perfectly and the sauce had a great flavor. Even better, there were actual vegetables in the dish (asparagus, red peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, and onions), which differs SO much from the delivery "vegetables" of onions and sprouts.

Since it was my friend's bday, we couldn't pass up ordering a dessert...especially so she could blow out a candle! We ordered the Espresso and Lemongrass/Ginger Creme Brule duo. I'm not a huge fan of coffee or coffee-flavored things, so I only had one bite of the espresso one. But, I really enjoyed the lemongrass and ginger one, which was surprisingly delicious. And, the dessert even came with a "Happy Birthday" wafer on the side.

All in all, it was a night of fantastics...fantastic scene, fantastic food, and fantastic company. If you are looking for a restaurant for a special occasion, Buddha Bars fits the bill...even if that Buddha has a big belly!


Buddha Bar
25 Little West 12th Street
b/t 9th Avenue & Washington Street
website
Menu Pages listing

East Meets West on the East Side

I don't love going to restaurants more than once because of the sheer volume of great restaurants in New York. I almost feel guilty back because it means I'm missing out on trying somewhere new. Since I decided only to write about restaurants I dine at going forward, I made an exception to this rule...since they'll all be new to Miss Menu! So last night, that's just what I did at Chino's.

When I've mentioned Chino's to people in the past, most of the time they've never heard of it, and can't picture having walked past it on 3rd Avenue. But my experience last night was quite the opposite...very memorable. As I mentioned in a recent post, I've been very drawn to tapas/small plates-style eating lately, whether it be Spanish, Italian, or in Chino's case Asian fusion.

My first experience at Chino's was a pleasant surprise...a cool ambiance, creative dishes, and a great value. And last night was no different. We ordered four small plates for two people, and it was the perfect amount of food. They have the service down to a science...bring out the cold dishes pretty quickly, and then after a nice breather, bring out the hot dishes. A much better approach than bombarding a tiny table with too many plates.

Chino's gets it right. They take somewhat typical Asian dishes and give them all really interesting twists. My favorites last night were the Seared Tuna Summer Rolls and Chino's Chow Fun. Rather than being prepared in the typical summer or spring roll style, these rolls were served like pieces of sushi, along with a fantastic green peanut sauce. The tuna was so fresh, and the papaya gave it a great flavor. The chow fun is a complete 180 from the typical chow fun you'd order from your local Chinese takeout/delivery place, with a really flavorful sauce and mix of fresh vegetables.

Chino's is definitely a hidden gem in a neighborhood that lacks great restaurants. So, if you find yourself on 3rd Avenue, make sure you don't walk right past this place next time!

Chino's
3rd Avenue
b/t 16th & 17th Streets
website
Menu Pages listing