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(This venue is closed.) My friend Mike and I agreed that the shoestrings and salad with Manon's steak frites ($15) were good, but the steak itself was tougher than usual, and mine had an outer layer that tasted more gritty than grilled. Creamed spinach ($5) was good and garlicky. Crème brulee ($7), served in a relatively narrow but deep bowl, was a "tad eggy," Mike asserted, but it was very smooth and thick under a nice crust.
Manon
132 West Houston St. (near Sullivan St.), Manhattan
(This location is closed.) A very-hot-from-the-microwave codfish empanada (special; $4) had a doughy shell and tomatoey filling, albeit with substantial chunks of fish. Probably would have been better fresh-baked than nuked.
Ruben's Empanadas
505 Broome St. (at Watts St.)
(one of several locations)
212-334-3351
Octopus and potato — an unseemly combo, I thought, till I was introduced to it several years ago at Da Andrea, on Hudson St. — is served here with haricot vert and Yukon potatoes in a lemon dressing that's perhaps just a little too buttery. Sezz Medi certainly serves up plenty of octopus, though; seafood and spud go about 50-50.
A grilled skirt steak (special; $22), medium rare with a nice char to it, was finished with "salmoriglio" sauce, a blend of parsley, pepper, garlic, lemon, olive oil, and oregano that would make it (I imagine) a cousin to chimichurri. More sauce would have been better, though. Shoestring fries and arugula salad were fine, no more.
Sezz Medi
1260 Amsterdam Ave. (at 122nd St.)
212-932-2901
Lamb kabuli palow ($12.95) is another version of pilaf (or plov), served here with a dozen very juicy chunks of lamb, though they largely lacked the woodsy smokiness I love in Afghan grilled meats. The carrot-raisin-almond-pistachio adornment was too sweet for me. Bread was unexceptional; salad, heavy on the iceberg. A side of fresh spinach ($5), simmered with a little onion, was good.
Afghan Kebab House No. 1
764 Ninth Ave. (51st-52nd Sts.)
212-307-1612
Bready chicken turnover ($1.20) from this Korean corner joint.
First Taste Café and Bakery
75-08 Broadway, Woodside, Queens
A parsley hot dog ($1.50), wrapped in a buttery bun, might've been OK if it came fresh from the oven, but this one seemingly strayed from the refrigerator case.
Koryodang Express
72-22 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, Queens
(one of several locations)
Are these two different kinds of cookies in this tray, I asked the counterman? No, he told me, some of them were just baked longer than others. That might have warned me away — most of the offerings were similarly indifferent — but I wanted something sweet, and I liked the look of the lighter-colored sugar cookies ($1). I probably would have fared better with a cookie that was less underdone.
Bermudez Bakery
1875 Lexington Ave. (116th-117th Sts.)
Uninviting restaurant area; not much in the way of groceries, either; scattering of baked goods. Had a Jarritos (400 ml.; $1), this time in tamarind.
Zapotitlan Family Mexican Restaurant
118 East 116th St. (Park-Lexington Aves.)
(This venue is closed.) Featuring the food of Trinidad and Tobago, this little restaurant was uncrowded for an early Saturday lunch, though West Indian music and a stream of takeout customers kept things lively.
(This venue is closed.) Everything at this Filipino restaurant is cooked from scratch, I was told, as the merits of eight or ten dishes were recited for me.
Thank you!
