Ken & Cook is refreshing. What exactly do I mean by that? You have Artan Gjoni, formerly of Mercer Kitchen (a NYC staple) and Norwood (a space that I have rented from to hold work events), who takes an active role in this restaurant. He doesn’t sit around and order a staff to do this and that. Rather, he will seat you at your table and pour your wine. I was in awe when I saw him outside of Ken & Cook, and was amazed when he actually came in to seat P and me and check up on us during dinner. It’s one of those things like when you have a celebrity chef who actually cooks in his restaurant. Refreshing and back to basics, like how they should be. It shows how much heart someone has for what they do. The chef for Ken & Cook is Richard Diamonte, also from Mercer Kitchen, so you know that he knows what he is doing.

I showed up on the earlier side at 7P.M., the bar was full, but the tables pretty much empty. That’s why I broke my usual no-flash picture rule. I hate disturbing other patrons with a camera flash, but since I wasn’t surrounded by anyone, why the hell not? However, Artan knows his crowd, as he has mentioned in articles that the place picks up later on in the night because by the time I left, the entire place was packed. As it got busier, I kept my flash off. So sorry for the darker photos. The restaurant has also hosted a number of celebrities already, from Russell Simmons and Kieran Culkin, to Emma Roberts and Chloe Grace Moretz. I don’t know why I wrote that, I just thought it was an interesting tidbit.

I started the night off with a Hendricks martini. Cold and tasty. When it came to the dishes, we were trying to be good and watch our waistlines, so ordered just one appetizer, the steak tartar, even though my heart desperately wanted to order the squid as well. Magically, steak tartar and squid appetizers showed up at our table. Artan stated that the Chef thought that we should try the squid even though we didn’t order it. God bless that Chef. The steak tartar had a beautiful soft-boiled egg on top, was light and flavorful. However, the squid was the shining start to the meal. Beautifully charred and so tender, it was layered and mixed with yogurt, mint, delicate slices of chili for crunch and greens. It really got your palate going to want to eat more.

For entrees we settled on the short rib that was braised in red wine and sat atop smashed fingerling potatoes. On top of that were crispy tempura onion rings and on the side were dollops of crème fraiche. It was a visually beautiful dish that was flavorful and full of so many different textures. What I really liked about this dish is that you could actually taste the red wine. So many recipes of braised short ribs in restaurants mention the red wine component, but you can never taste it. Here, it was a strong note in this dish that was wonderful. While I enjoyed the short ribs, I have to say that the NY strip steak really stole the show. Dressed in a rosemary-garlic-butter sauce, I couldn’t help but continue to eat it even though I felt my Greylin dress tugging around my rounded belly. So simple, but amazing. It was too dark to see if it was cooked medium rare, but once you bite into it, you were just like, ‘Man, that’s a medium-rare cooked steak.’ No seriously, that’s what I said to myself…and then out loud. I also got one of their biscuits, because I love a great biscuit. Theirs was definitely on the thicker side. I have read other reviews that have complained that it had too much baking powder. But I didn’t mind it at all. I felt like it needed that heft and thickness in order to hold up all of that creamy honey and butter that it was topped with. Every bite I took had honey dripping down my fingers. When of the busboys/runners stopped by the table, he smiled at my request for a wet napkin. Apparently it’s a normal thing.

Of course I had to have a sweet note to end the night. I sipped an espresso and Sambuca while I waited for our beignets and bread pudding to come to the table. The beignets were light and fluffy, but I wasn’t a huge fan of them. Keep in mind that the outsides are a bit dark, but they weren’t burned, I feel like with ricotta beignets vs regular ones, it is just a natural occurrence, so that wasn’t the issue. I think part of it was that on their own, they were a little bit too salty for my taste. I was hoping that the blueberry and lavender dipping sauce would balance it out, but there was a touch too much lavender in it that left a soapy taste in my mouth. And there was this delicious bread pudding topped with vanilla ice cream, however it was very undercooked. We ate pretty much all of it because the flavors were spot on, but it definitely needed to be cooked more. At this point the restaurant was S-L-A-M-M-E-D, so I have a feeling that that had something to do with it.

Would I go back? Absolutely. The staff was incredible. Everyone had a smile and laugh for you, whether or not they were faking it, it seemed natural. People kept coming by to refill our glasses. No one rushed us to leave no matter how busy they got. The food was delicious. Enough though I knew I would have to go home and run on the treadmill, it was worth it. If you can squeeze in and get a table there, be sure to check it out. We went for dinner, but with the wide open front, I can imagine what a great spot it would be for a sunny brunch where you can relax and people watch all day.

7.5 out of 10

Ken & Cook

19 Kenmare St
(between Bowery & Elizabeth St)
New York, NY 10012

-Joyce Huang

I had always wanted to go to Bar 21, but never went. Someone very thoughtful in my life remembered and booked us a table so that I would finally go. How could I say no?

Courtesy of 21Club.com

A little history before I go into the food. Bar 21 is the casual dining area of the 21 Club. The 21 Club is a part of New York City history. You may have noticed all the jockey statues when you walked down 52^nd street, by Rockefeller Center. That is where 21 Club is located. Originally a speakeasy that was the scene of many raids, though never caught or punished for it due to nifty gadgetry according to Wiki, it became a very exclusive hangout where Presidents and celebrities would patron. Ever hear of Elizabeth Taylor, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy? Yeah…they were all there.

Courtesy of 21Club.com

The Bar Room is very whimsical and chill compared to the rest of the club. Toys hang all over the ceiling, and there are a ton of cozy booths and tables to enjoy your meal or drinks in. The food, while pricey, was definitely worth every penny. We talked about the meal for the next week actually.

The oysters were fresh and delicious. I gobbled them all down without saying a word.

And here you have a tender and filling crab cake appetizer that was hard to stop eating, even though you knew you didn’t want to fill up too much before the entrees and dessert. There wasn’t a single bite left.

The grilled filet mignon with polenta was spectacular. You could cut it with a fork, and it was one of those dishes where with each bite you kind of closed your eyes to savor it even more in your mouth. It really was an amazing steak that made you sad when you were done with it.

The ’21′ burger was $32 and let me tell you, it was worth every single dollar. Juicy and flavorful, it was heaven on a plate and worth getting your hands messy for. I was such a happy woman from first bite. I could kill for one right now actually.

The chocolate souffle was baked perfectly. Light, airy and again, another dish that we could not stop eating even though we were stuffed. It took longer than the other desserts to make, but definitely worth the wait, no question about it.

And to end the night, you ended up with a plate of petite fours. There wasn’t anything special about them, but it really didn’t matter at that point since we were giddy from the martinis and our full tummies.

If you are able to stop by Club 21′s Bar Room, I would say GO. Consider it a lesson in New York history.

10 out of 10

-Joyce Huang

Wishing I had some raspberry beignets with vanilla dipping sauce from Butter. They are light, sweet and who doesn’t like dipping things? I know, I know, the picture sucks, but you know I refuse to put my flash on in restaurants. It disturbs the other patrons.

Butter was a hot spot years ago, from the restaurant to the club downstairs. As with everything in New York City, the buzz dies down, but Butter is still a straight-forward and good restaurant. It won’t blow your mind and amaze you, but you will leave very satisfied and happy with your meal. It’s a solid very good. I would still recommend it to others, so if you haven’t been, check it out when you have time.

Duck fat potatoes with sea salt and black pepper.

Colorado rack of lamb.

7 out of 10

Butter

415 Lafayette St
New York, NY 10003

-Joyce Huang

Oddfellows was a cute restaurant that we stopped at on the way to the airport to come back to NYC. The service was friendly, and the food was above average. There’s really not much to write about it because it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t amazing, but still above average. I’d head back there if I wanted to have a nice lunch with my girlfriends, but I would assume that there are better restaurants to head to in Seattle if it’s fantastic food you are looking for.

The deviled eggs were great. I really enjoyed the fried capers that were sprinkled on top.

Their mac and cheese? Very tasty, so I was a happy camper.

While the meatballs were good, I’ve had better ones elsewhere, but still it was a nice dish, especially with the polenta.

The pork and potatoes were homey, but not good enough for me to really want more than a couple of bites of it. There was something blah about it in general. I much preferred the mac and cheese, and deviled egg appetizers to both entrees.

6.5 out of 10

Oddfellows

1525 10th Ave

Seattle, WA 98122-3806

-Joyce Huang

My feet hurt and the restaurant I wanted to lunch at was closed till dinner time, so I was extremely cranky and not expecting much when I walked into the Portsmouth Brewery. Why did I walk into something that sounds and looks like a tourist trap? Because, it’s the only restaurant that serves lunch at 2PM in the area of Portsmouth, NH that I was in. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty everything was.

The Portsmouth Brewery actually makes their own beers, and although I don’t normally drink them, the hot sun had me craving one. I sampled the Coffee Milk Stout, which was like a Guiness, but slightly sweeter, and the Black IPA, which went down so smoothly. I had a nice buzz going on by the end of the meal.

On to the food!

These coconut curry mussels were flavorful and so big. They were meaty and Mr. Juice and I could not get enough of the broth.

For a dish that can be really greasy, I’m happy to say that their fish and chips were light and fresh tasting. The batter was excellent, and after nagging Mr. Juice to try some, he ended up devouring a whole piece by himself. The fries were great too and I chowed down as many as my belly would allow me to.

OK, so the chili was nothing to write home about, but between the beers and rest of the food, I was one happy Asian.

Portsmouth Brewery

56 Market St

Portsmouth, NH 03801

6.5 out of 10

-Joyce Huang

The Franklin Café is hugely popular in the Boston area. I’ve heard tons of hype about the food at this place, but I’m sad to say that the dishes I tasted were good, but they definitely fell short of my expectations from what people were saying about it. It’s tasty, but it really just is a neighborhood restaurant.  The service is great, and the staff is friendly. I’d go there to grab a beer with my friends and if we just wanted to relax, but just like a place like Casimir in New York City, it’s a neighborhood spot that people are familiar with, and in my opinion, probably why they like it so much. It’s not a place that made me excited about the food when I tasted it. Though, on the menu, it does sound quite fancy and unique. Do I need to go back? Nope. Will I probably go back to just chill? Mr. Juice will probably make me, so, yes.

Tuna tartare: The tuna was fresh and clean. Nothing exciting. I loved the idea of serving it with pita chips, but they were burned , as you can see from the picture, and therefore,  could not be eaten with the tuna since it would then overpower it.

Gnocchi (First picture above):  I can honestly say that I don’t remember much about this dish. It was a combination of sweet and salty, but very forgettable. And looking at the picture of it again now, there is a lot going on on that plate, you’d figure that I would have a clearer memory of all of those flavors.

Fried pea shoots: Again, this sounded incredibly interesting on the menu, and combine that with my love for pea shoots, I was hoping that this would be a winner. It wasn’t. The end result was oil pea shoot sprouts that had no crisp whatsoever, and seemed to be cooked unevenly. If you didn’t tell me that they were fried, I would have assumed that they were poorly sautéed in too much oil.

Corned beef and cabbage: You guys know how I can handle a heart stopping dish. Bone marrow, pork belly, bring it on. This classic dish however, was way too heavy. It just tasted as if everything was seeped and cooked in so much fat and oil, and there was nothing there to balance out the heaviness. It made me sad because I love corned beef and was really looking forward to this entrée. Bummer.

So I guess in the end, this place was just a lot of talk and hype, and not much execution. If you are looking for a tasty bite to eat in Boston, head to Toro instead.

6 out of 10

They have 3 locations, I went to the Shawmut Ave. one.

Franklin Café

278 Shawmut Avenue

Boston, MA 02118-2125

(617) 350-0010

-Joyce Huang

Cambridge is so freaking cute, even if I did feel old compared to everyone there. For drinks and snacks, Mr. Juice and I stopped by Russell House Tavern. We sat by the bar in the downstairs area and enjoyed our time there. They had a variety of their own fancy drinks to choose from, and I must say, a great sounding menu. It was so hard to not order one of everything on the menu. I mean they had everything from  steak tartare and deviled eggs, to thin crust pizza and a pork trio entrée. In the end, because we were still full from our lunch, we ended up just ordering the following:

Raw oysters: which were delicious.

The Butcher’s choice: house smoked and cured lamb belly, mushroom and fontina cheese thin crust pizza. Even though it has lamb belly on it,  I must say, it still felt light and well balanced because the crust was extremely thin. Do I think it was a great pizza. No. Was it a good pizza? Eh. I would say that it’s a between between OK and good. I definitely would want to try one of the other pizzas though because I want to see if I would just prefer other toppings, but I have a feeling that it’s their crust that I wasn’t really digging.

Brandt Farms Marrow Bone: Whenever I eat bone marrow, I feel like I’m really to have a heart attack. But it tastes so damn good that it’s hard for me to not order it. If you’ve never had bone marrow before, it pretty much just tastes like fat that’s been topped with salt. Each it alone with a spoon or mix and match it with the sides the restaurant might give to you. Russell House Tavern served it with toasted, buttered bread and a parsley and radish salad.  So good! But remember, bone marrow isn’t for the faint of heart.

The service was great too! We will definitely be going back.

7.5 out of 10

Russell House Tavern

14 JFK St, Boston 02138

-Joyce Huang

Hillstone, Houston’s, whatever you want to call it since it seems like they’ve renamed all of the Houston’s in NYC, Hillstone, — is an oldie, but goodie. This chain always has a reliable and straight-forward menu of burgers, sandwiches, steaks, crab cakes and all of that good stuff. They deviate from typical American cuisine with a sushi section, but I refuse to order from it. Why is that? Put it this way, their California roll starts at $13, which is just crazy to me. I’d rather spend my money on the more filling items like a bowl of spinach dip for $14, a hearty French dip sandwich for $19 or a rib-eye for $33 that lasted me for two meals. Look at my medium-rare steak and loaded potato in the picture above, they’re so purdy!

Sure the menu isn’t really anything special, but I love how I know when I go and eat there, I won’t be disappointed. Make this a go to stop when you don’t know what you want, but want to feel satisfied when you’re done with your meal. Word to the wise, make a reservation because they always get a huge after work crowd. The hostess will ALWAYS tell you that it’s a 20 minute wait. She lies.

7.5 out of 10

Hillstone
378 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010

-Joyce Huang

Hotel restaurants usually have decent food, but the Woodward at the Ames hotel was a great treat. It’s definitely a trendy place to be seen in. Men in suits stand in clusters, while women in high heels stand in clusters, and after about 30 minutes of glimpsing at each other, they converge for the night. A group of us stopped by for some snacks, and I was so happy with the recommendation as I am just discovering what Boston is all about.

We started with the crisp pork belly on a cheddar biscuit with apple compote and picked cherry peppers, which probably was my favorite dish of the night. The pork belly, while obviously fatty, melted on my tongue, and who can say ‘no’ to a cheddar biscuit, besides a masochist? I wish we had more of it to eat.

Next was the short rib tortellini with Madeira (a wine) and truffle butter. Obviously it smelled delicious because of the truffle butter. It was a clean and tasty dish that we all took extra helpings of it. The appetizer portion is tiny, so if you are sharing, make sure to get more than one order of it.

House-smoked veal pastrami with whole grain mustard and organic rye bread. It was good, but too lean. I always enjoy pastrami with a touch of fat and growing up in New York City, you can get picky about what good pastrami is.

Duck confit flatbread with goat cheese and dried cranberries. This was a great dish and I was gobbling up all of the duck. Duck confit is a favorite of mine and I was so happy when the table ordered this.

If you are looking to head somewhere where you know you will enjoy your food, this is one restaurant you will want to make a reservation at and head down to.

8.5 out of 10

1 Court Street

Boston, MA 02108-2617

(617) 979-8100

-Joyce Huang

courtesy of siblingrivalryboston.com

It’s a kitchsy and gimmicky idea, and I fell for it. Sibling Rivalry in Boston is a modern American cuisine restaurant  that is owned by two brothers who each have one side of the menu. Maybe you prefer Chef Bob Kinkead’s appetizer idea, but want Chef David Kinkead’s entrée. Go for it! How cool would it be if the Voltaggio brothers opened a restaurant like this. I would be there in a second! I’m so sorry that I can’t show you my own pictures, but it was so dark in there, you can barely see what’s going on in the pictures.

The food is good, not amazing, but good. The ideas were great, but there were some kinks that could have been easily avoidable. So if you are in the area and want a good place to go, then grab a bite here, but there is no reason why you should go out of the way to actually eat here. One note: our waiter was great!

Hand cut pappardelle pasta with sausage, wild mushrooms, tomato confit and a touch of cream: This appetizer by Chef Bob was my favorite thing of the night. Homemade pasta that is done well is so hard not to eat up.

Vietnamese crispy fried squid, green papaya, duck crackling, cilantro and lime-chili dipping sauce: Another creation of Chef Bob, the first round had to be sent back to the kitchen because there was so much salt on it that we couldn’t eat it, but our fantastic waiter  brought us a new dish immediately. This is very similar to a dish that Chinese restaurants serve for dim sum at times. They’re basically fries, but instead of potatoes, they are made of squid.

Grilled bone-in ribeye with double stuffed fingerling potatoes, spicy onion rings and orange chipotle butter: Venturing over to Chef David’s side of the menu now, it was cooked well and had great flavor, BUT it was so chewy that I couldn’t wait to get home and floss. I mean that literally and when I got home that was the first thing that I did.

Lemon pudding cake with lavender-honey ice cream and lemon curd: Very enjoyable and light, it reminded me of an apple cake.

Orange crème brulee with citron Madeleine cookies: A classic dish that was executed well. I didn’t taste much orange in it though and my cookies weren’t what I am use to Madeleines being so I was a bit confused. Still I ate them.

6.5 out of 10

Sibling Rivalry

525 Tremont Street,

Boston, MA 02116

-Joyce Huang