10 Downing Street

I'm talking NYC, not London.

If you've never had chicken pot pie, this one will spoil you. If, like me, the only way, shape, or form you've had one has been from the frozen food/tv dinner section of the supermarket, you're in for a treat! Their signature dish was a Curry Spice & Coconut Pot Pie with chicken & vegetable, kaffir lime, topped with puff pastry ("coconut" and "puff pastry" being the key words here). It came steaming hot out of the kitchen, so as much as I wanted to gobble it up, it was almost impossible to eat. The dish was HUGE - looked like I took about 3 bites out of it before calling it quits. Surprised no one jumped me for the leftovers on my bus ride home. The smell was intoxicating.

While I was savoring my pot pie, everyone else at the table was picking at their Filet Mignon. NOT that the filet mignon wasn't yummy (cause they all said it was), but we'd stuffed ourselves on the apps and Duck Fat Sage Fries (which didn't have the slightest duck taste, but were scrumpcious nonetheless). E & J must not have gorged themselves with the tuna tartare, potato leek soup, and sweet shrimp & cheddar grits, cause they somehow polished their dishes (go family, go!). Everything was a hit, except the mashed potatoes. How they messed that up, I have no idea (hell, I can even make mashed potatoes), but unanimous complaints heard around the table said they were too soft and bland. Eek.

Dessert? Of course we saved room for dessert. The prix fixe menu came with the Lemon Panna Cotta, but $5 more and we could choose off the regular menu. 6 panna cottas? Uh, no. We compromised with three, and added the "Peanut Butter and Jelly" (peanut butter mousse, chocolate ganache, grape-jelly sorbet), Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Holes (marmalade, mocha sauce), and Sticky Toffee Pudding (dates, cream, warm toffee sauce). The PB was heavy and the J was tart - a good combo eaten together, but too extreme when not. Good, but I probably wouldn't choose this again. Especially not with doughnut holes dunked in toffee pudding to eat instead! Oh, HEAVEN. The toffee pudding was, by far, the best dessert of all, and if you don't like toffee then... you're right up there with the non-Harry Potter, non-Ryan Reynolds fans of the world. Just... *gasp*.

If you're a lover of good food, you should pay a visit. If you don't have three hours to sit... maybe another day then.

ps. The door is on Downing Street... just like their address says. justsaying.
pps. It's REALLY hard to take photos by candlelight. Especially with an average ole point-n-shoot. Time for an upgrade? :)

10 Downing
10 Downing St (...duh)
@ 6th Ave.

sweetRevenge

Met up with C for a little preparty C&E style.

Fleur de Sel: Valrhona Chocolate Cake, Salted Caramel Center and Salted Caramel Buttercream with Pecans and Salted Caramel Drizzle.

gimme more.

MUST go back and try all these flavors.


Sweet Revenge
62 Carmine St.

Gelato On a Stick

Utter devastation didn't last too long as the West Village Beard Papa's was replaced with a new gelato spot. (Enter inner strife: HALT. Isn't there already a GROM two stores down? But if it's gelato that comes on a stick, it's totally different. Right?)

Unchaperoned and unadvised, KM and I naughtily made our way in the opposite direction of supper to have dessert BEFORE dinner. KM chose the Hazelnut Pop topped with Hazelnuts, Dark Chocolate & Coconut, while I opted for the Chocolate Pop with Granola, Dark Chocolate & Coconut.

The entire wonky experience took less than 10 minutes, which included deciding, instructing, paying, pictures, eating, and 5 minutes of clean-up. We inhaled those suckers. Not because they were that good but because we had to. It melted so quickly, we can't honestly say the gelato was good or bad. Instead of a small bar to stand at, they should install sinks to drip over and wash up afterwards. Were we satisfied? Hell, no. Did we want to walk over to GROM for a civilized gelato experience? OH, yes. Will we be going back to Popbar? Alas, probably not.

The lament for Beard Papa's is back in full force.


Popbar
5 Carmine St
@ 6th Ave

Bar Pitti

We could very possibly kill for a plate of fresh, wild mushrooms well-seasoned with caramelized garlic. Fortunately, armed with cash, it didn't have to come to that.

You know a restaurant serves fresh food when the waiters lug around a chalk board with the day's menu and your neighboring table salivates over your food. This is a good case in which the pictures speak for themselves. No, we're not being lazy. OK, maybe a little.

Night's Menu:
Appetizer - Funghi (oyster mushrooms in olive oil) special menu
E - Ravioli (filled w/spinach & ricotta cheese) special menu
K - Pappardelle (smoked bacon, creamy tomato sauce)
KM - Rigatoni pitti (turkey sausage, peas, creamy tomato sauce)
Dessert - Tartufo & Tiramisu


Bar Pitti
268 6th Ave
b/t W Houston & Bleecker

WAFEL ON THE RUN!

This picture from Wafels & Dinges is a meager representation of the warm, crunchy, chewy, sweet waffle we had just outside H & K's (think Harold & Kumar-- from NYC) birthday party. KM & I each chose the Liège waffle (described as "soft 'n chewy), one with Belgian fudge and one w/ fudge and strawberries.

I hate to say it, but I'm gonna go and done do it: W&D beats out beer and bar food any day. Yeah, straight up.

Keep your eyes peeled for the yellow truck!

Wafels & Dinges
location varies daily

COMMERCE on Commerce

We stopped by Commerce on Commerce Street for a belated birthday celebration for P. She booked the table after having heard some great reviews from mags & such. Our initial reaction was that the place was a lot smaller than we thought it looked from the outside. There was virtually no place to wait for our party to gather together. Good thing the weather was quite nice. Our second reaction was that the lighting was most definitely insufficient for quality pictures...




Now to the food. The bread! The bread was sooooo good. There were at least five different varieties, and each of us tried different ones. What made the bread so delicious was not only that it was warm, soft inside and crusty outside, but also that each one was seasoned to taste. Enough about bread. For our appetizer, we ordered the mushroom ravioli. Though we are all a bit weirded out by the foam (it doesn't really leave a great texture on the palate) the mushrooms in the ravioli itself were extremely tasty. It's just too bad the sauce didn't exactly stick to the pasta pieces. Finally, as for the main dishes. What a disappointment! After being assured the lamb wouldn't be too game-y, P's baby lamb pasta dish was most definitely game-y, and the pasta was a bit too al dente for our tastes. As for my sweetbreads...let's just say I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Now that I know, I promise I won't be ordering anymore sweetbreads ever again. The texture was like eating fat, and the taste was like liver. Probably the top two things I hate most in food. K's dish was to her satisfaction. However, if you ask me it was a little sparse on the fish. Good start. Bad finish.


COMMERCE
50 Commerce St
n/r Bedford St

Crispo

This Italian restaurant is YUMMY to say the least. From the entrance, it looks somewhat small, and the lobby is entirely too inconvenient for winter coat checks. However, when the waiter led us to our table, we were all pleasantly surprised we wouldn't be sitting next to the bathroom in the back corner. He walked us right past the bathrooms into an open room full of more tables!

I didn't get any good photos of my Gnocchi w/duck, but I can assure you it was quite good. What I did get a good photo of was this appetizer that B + J shared - bone marrow. Sounds interesting, no?


Most important though, is the dessert, and I had quite a tough time choosing. I finally settled on their creme brulee which came with a side of a chocolate taster, and a hot chamomille tea to wash it all down. The chocolate was heavy, and I couldn't get much of it down, but the creme brulee was exquisite! My cup of tea was the perfect accompaniment, and a great way to end the meal.


It was a good atmosphere overall, though the lighting was a bit dimmer than I would've liked for food photos. But we go for the food, not the photos,right? :)

Crispo Restaurant
240 W 14th St

P*Ong

P*Ong is probably best known for its studies in combining sweet and savories. The venue is small. The dishes are small. The prices are not. With that said, I still recommend trying this place at least once. There's lots to choose from, and the dishes don't disappoint. Everything is unique. Between the three of us, we tried the Peaky Toe Crab & Apple Salad (refreshing!), a Warm Mushroom Tart (flaky! beefy mushrooms!), Cod, Chocolate & Pinot Noir Braised Duck, Shortribs (moist!), English Stilton Souffle, and the famous Foie Gras Napoleon (must try-but you can only eat a little). For dessert, we tried the Chocolate Banana Cake, Pineapple Rice Pudding, and the Warm Date Cake. By the time we hit dessert, we were beyond full, but even these ordinary sounding desserts were no ordinary matter...

P*Ong
150 West 10th Street