Prune, New York

Last day in New York City, on a sunny Sunday morning, with a flight back home scheduled in the afternoon. How to spend you last morning hours, before the amazing food waiting for you in your 8hrs flight? Maybe brunch is the answer.

As a recommendation of our host, we went to Prune in East Village. The place is small and well known, but according to our host "it's overpriced on the evenings, but definitely a great brunch option on the weekends". We went there, and following his advices, we went to queue for the opening already at 9.40 (the place opens at 10 am). Already few people were waiting there, because the place does not take any reservation.

The team was having their breakfast together while we were waiting outside, kind of team building ritual for them before jumping into the jungle. At 10 am, the doors open and the main waitress is placing people. Strict policy of you need to be physically present to take a table, no "my 2 other friends are coming in 5 min, please give me a table".

Unfortunately we were three people, a nightmare number for many restaurants. If you take a four seats table they kind of loose a seat and a table for two is maybe a bit too small. We ended up in a small corner table (one single table with three chairs). It would have been fine, if we were three tiny teenage girls, but two guys at the table make the space division a bit more problematic.

Again like in many places in the US, the amount of waiters/waitresses working for such a small place is amazing; about seven people devoted to their 30/40 customers at the same time. First thing to say is that brunch is the US isn't the same than a brunch in Europe. While on the old continent it means staying long time in the restaurant and brunch buffet, here it simply means that the menu is different.

So here was our orders:
Soft scrambled eggs (any detail needed?)
Huevos Rancheros (baked egg in tomato, garlic, and chili. With black beans, avocado and lime)
Monte Cristo (triple decker ham, turkey and swiss cheese sandwich)

+ a side order of full grain toasts + coffee + orange juice.

The food was good in general, but nothing so amazing to be honest. And a minus point here as both the Soft scrambled eggs and the Huevos Rancheros were served a bit cold.

Prune itself looks very nice, like a tiny little café, which could be in Europe. It is very bright and there's nothing too much. Many people who came there seemed to be regular customer. Somehow the feeling of this place, as for many other american restaurant we went to, is that part of the food experience there is the 'show' or team spirit provided by the staff.

Without beating brunch places in Berlin, Prune stays a good New York City option.

http://www.prunerestaurant.com/

Veselka, New York

East Village, and its small Ukrainian corner. Usually Ukrainian restaurants offers a simple for tasty and reliable food experience, so what about Veselka?

The place is in the 9 East st and is famous for being open 24/7 365 days a year. The place looks good, the staff is very friendly and as it was just across the street from our home base, it became our first breakfast place in New York City.

Order of the day was:
1 Fried Egg sandwich with bacon
2 blueberry pancakes with maple sirup

Verdict:
Our bacon expert was pleased with his sandwich.
The pancakes were good but massive, one of us just couldn't finish it.

I am usually a pancake lover, I like French crêpes, 'european' pancakes, Finnish oven pancakes, Blinis, but I have to admit that american pancakes are maybe a bit too fluffy for my taste (like most of their wheat stuff which makes your eyes think you will eat enough for four days and your stomach realize that you just ate inflated food).

Anyway we definitely approved this place, if you are looking for good and affordable food in East Village at any time, this might be your place!

We also had another Veselka experience: The Thanksgiving dinner! It was exactly that and our team was satisfied and stuffed.

Veselka, since 1954.

Momofuku noodle bar, New York

New York again!

As very big fans of Asian food, we asked our host where were the best place around East Village to eat ramen noodles. His answer was straight "Momofuku, it's just 2 blocks away, you will see it's always busy".

We went there on Black Friday evening, hoping people would either still be out of town because of Thanksgiving or still killing each others in Macy's for the Black Friday. This was a vain, the place was packed. Momofuku do not take any reservation that for we gave our name, came back after an hour and waited 30 more minutes inside to get seated.

Momofuku was created by an American-Korean chef David Chang, but surprisingly for an Asian restaurant the staff was 100% western including the kitchen. The concept of the place is mostly that it remains a tiny space and the kitchen is open so that you can see what's happening in the kitchen and even ask the guys "hey, what's that?!".

We were seated on the bar just facing the kitchen team. This is mostly the main interest of the place: a hard working team always in a rush, doing the job as well as they can. It's kind of a well organized ballet. These guys make the show and they make you feel that they are proud what they are doing and just there in the front of live audience they put up a every evening show of their cooking skills.


How about the food?
Well we went for:
momofuku ramen – pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg
and ginger scallion noodles – pickled shiitakes, cucumber, cabbage

Unfortunately for non meat eater there are not any real ramen option available so the ginger scallion noodles were served without broth. The food is definitely good, no doubt on that, but to be honest while eating it you realize that you are not eating asian food, but american food. The Momofuku ramen are really tasty, the meat is just melting in your mouth and the poached egg is a very good idea.

Somehow the place deserve it's fame (there is even a Momofuku cooking books). It's nice and cosy, even if it seems to be always very busy and you need to be patient to get a table. Keep in mind that the main interest of the place is actually the place itself and the shows it offers. If you were looking for a true Asian food experience, then you should head to Chinatown or Korea Town.

The Smith, New York

New York, New York, here we are!

Which kind of food do you think about first, when you think about USA? Yes you are right, burger.

Of course there would be plenty of places to get a burger, from McDisgusting or BumgerKink or any small street eateries. An easy way would be also to follow the signs to a restaurant, which has a sign 'best NYC burger' or 'best burger in the world' on a window.

We tried something in the between by crashing at 'The Smith'. A NYC venue which started back in 2007 in East Village and which aim to use only local product to prepare its meals. We did not went to the 'historical' restaurant in East Village, but we opted for the newly opened restaurant next to the Lincoln center.

The place looks nice, a bit like a european bistro from the 30's mixed with a american diner style. A large bar is all along the right wall, tables are spacious enough and at the lunch time the atmosphere is nicely busy, but you don't have a feeling that you were sitting in the neighbour's table and listening his business talks.

The service is really good in the place, but wait a minute...a yes we are in the US, people have to work hard to get their tips.

So here we are, I went for a burger deluxe, which includes special sauce, cheddar and bacon.

Look at the picture and make your opinion. The burger itself looks amazing. And a small detail: for the first time in my burger experiences, someone asked me how I wanted the steak to be cooked!

The home made bread, the nicely cooked meat, the nice choice and proportion of vege, sauce and cheese made it honestly one of the best burger I had in my life. The plus was also the homemade French fries. So far only in two other places you can find better fries than there: Belgium and at my father's.

That was not it. Even if I felt pretty full-filled with this delicious burger, and even if it was only lunch time and wanted to do still a lot in the afternoon, I let myself tempted by the idea of a dessert. I choose  a sticky toffee pudding (skillet baked, medjool dates, vanilla ice cream) which was also amazing even if one could find it has far too much sugar in it.

Others at the table did not try the burger, but one went for the Mediterranean Salad and the other for the tagliatelle (black pasta, sautéed shrimp, scallion, crumbled garlic bread)...and both were also satisfied. The Mediterranean Salads was a huge portion of fresh ingredients. It was very basic and you know what you get. The tagliatelle was tasty and well done, but if you a big man and graving for large lunch, you might leave with the half full stomach.

So if you are in NYC, The Smith is definitely a place to try. One tip though, the 'historical' East Village menu tend to have a few dollars cheaper menu, but to be honest the final bill at the Lincoln centre restaurant was not overpriced at all.

http://www.thesmithnyc.com/