I have been loosing out…technically not accruing vacation days…for the last two months!  So some time off was due!
The boy and I took a day off two weeks ago to do some running and pick up our glasses that were finally ready.

 It was so peaceful at the park in the morning with almost the entire park to ourselves!  :)  And this little buddy we ran into…

After our run and a quick shower, we were off to the  city to pick up our glasses…since the boy needed to have his lenses swapped out, we decided to stop into Cha Chang Tang for a quickie breakfast.   May I present to you…the best spam and egg sandwich I have ever had!

Delish!

So go figure….my vision has been the same for the last five years…and this year the doctor told me that my vision actually got better!  Above mentioned shiny new glasses…

I caught some nasty sun glare driving home the other day…which led me to sitting in traffic for about 20 minutes…exciting life I lead, yes I know…

The boy and I have rediscovered diners!  We had lunch at one of our local diners two weekends in a row!  Nommy! I heart chocolate egg creams!

Ok…so who else out there does this with their waffles???  EVERYHOLEMUSTBEFILLEDWITHSYRUP

We both ran the Bronx Zoo 5k!  It was a lot of fun…and my ‘little’ cousin had a blast!  Full post coming soon!
The start line:

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62 days until the boy and I park our asses on the beach for 9 days!  We haven’t been on a Caribbean beach since August 2010!  This is a much needed break from reality!

I plan on drinking lots of pina coladas and fruity drinks while relaxing by the pool!  I’m more of a chlorinated water type of gal…but under persuasion of the boy I’ll occasionally go into the ocean…

{via}

Some might say 9 days is too long…but if you take away travel days (which don’t really count as part of your vacation!) its only 7 days…we live such busy and hectic lives that sometimes we need a long, relaxing vacation like this to bring everything to a screeching halt!
looking forward for some QT with him…

Got a gel manicure this weekend.  The first time trying the Gelish brand colors.  Like most soak off gel brands (excluding Calgel) the color selection pretty much sucks.  The color I chose is called black cherry.  I’m happy enough with it…and saw a few other colors that I’d be able to tolerate.  But the selection is seriously limited!

Headed to lunch with the boy, E and NinjaCyn…surprised everyone and suggested we go to the diner instead of our usual, Viet!   I got two eggs over easy with Canadian Bacon and waffle fries instead of home fries…and a vanilla egg cream!  The eggs were slightly over cooked – resulting in less runny yolk for my toast to sop up.  I was not expecting the enormous pile of fries that came along with the substitution!  Fries were shared among all!  The boy got a Western omelette and a waffle.  Random? Yes.  Good?  Yes!

After lunch NinjaCyn and I headed to the city for IMATS!  This is the second year it is in NY…last year was awful…this year was less awful.  But we will definitely be skipping it next year.   Not until they have more vendors there.

On Sunday we found ourselves waking up early to go running.  Running?   Yes you heard me right.  Why?  Because Ivy, the boy, and I signed up for the Bronx Zoo 5k!  Do we run?  No.  Should suggestions/fitness challenges be made during dinner and (many) drinks?  No.   The good thing is that we were able to round up some running buddies!  We spent the day at Prospect Park where they have a 5k loop around the park.  It was tough.  I didn’t do the entire loop running.  According to my app, 2.6 out of the 3.2 miles  was spent running.  Which sounds about right since I cycled through my couch to 5k app twice.  The boy’s leg cramped really bad so he had to stop less than half way in.  Mikie could have lapped us if he chose to do another round…and Ron stayed behind with us chatting and catching up!  

Lunchtime!  What better way to reward a hard run than with some good food with good company!
There was a decent selection of trucks to choose from.  We hopped on line to get lunch and only had about a 10 minute wait.  By the time everyone else arrived to meet us the lines were outrageous!  There were about 15 trucks in total and I think between ALL of us, almost every truck was tried!

The boy and I got lunch from the Kimchi Taco Truck.  Taco combo for him, taco bowl for me!  Rice cakes and kimchi rice balls on the side for everyone to share!  Ron and Mikie also got lunch from the same truck…although for the life of me I can’t remember what they got…except for a side of nachos!

It was pretty warm out so we also got drinks from the Kelvin Slush Truck.  Drinks were good.  Would I wait on line for it for 30+ minutes? No.

We found a nice seat (read: hogged an entire bench for the latecomers) right in front of the Grand Army Plaza arch.  :)   Stayed until around 5pm – thank goodness I went back to the car to get the boy’s long sleeved shirt to wear…I didn’t want to catch too much sun…and I had already felt my shoulders getting darker!  Too bad the boy and Ron didn’t do the same.  Can we say LOBSTER???  :)

Luckily I was working in the field that day so I was able to head out to the city at a normal time instead of making the trek in from Long Island!

The plans were to head out to the city earlier with the boy and Pear for some pre dinner drinks and then Ivy would meet us in the city around 8:30.  Pear arrived promptly at 7pm in his shiny new car and we headed out!

I had been given a gift card by NinjaCyn for one of our favorite restaurants – so off we went!

*Note all pictures are from my phone…and my new spiffy Instagram app!  (bout time it came to Android!…now I just have to get a new phone with a better camera…October cannot come fast enough!)

 We took a seat at the bar and decided on our drinks…Can you guess what we got?

I’ve had both the Bellini and Max Mix in the past….and they are both TOO SWEET!  The Max Palmer immediately (obviously) caught my eye.  The drink was good…but not great.  I found it a little bitter either from the tea or the muddled lemons…it could have used more lemon juice in my opinion.  Pear got one too.

The boys deserted me…Pear in the bathroom and the boy went outside to get Ivy…I need to change my foursquare profile pic ASAP…thanks to creeper guy at Max…I told the boy not to leave me alone at the bar but did he listen?….nooOoOOoOoOOo…
When Ivy arrived we were quickly seated at the last available 4 top!  Perfect timing!
A bottle of wine was ordered while we made our dinner decisions…
I am new to drinking red wine.  But after my personal one on one lesson back in December, its been discovered that like white wine and other boozy drinks…I DON’T like it sweet!  The waitress assured me that the bottle Pear had chosen wasn’t too sweet and it was a good wine.  Obviously my attempt at a picture of the name is a complete fail!  You can see a glimpse of the boy’s iced tea in the picture too…I had it for the first time last year…and it was good!

CHEESE! <3

Max always has daily specials posted on the boards in the restaurant.  Can I say how ecstatic I was when we saw burrata on the menu?!  One order of burrata and one order of calamari to start.  The calamari comes with a spicy marinara sauce that is delish!   No pictures of the food because…well I dunno…just because, ok?!  Bad blogger I know…
For entrees Pear and Ivy got the same dish – squid ink pasta with shrimp in spicy marinara…good as always!  And yes, squid ink makes your poop black.  Like JET BLACK!  And for that single superficial reason is why I no longer order squid ink pasta anywhere.  Ivy texted me the next day to confirm her findings!  She’s a nurse.  And a mom.  She is used to gross stuff like that.  Your ears would probably bleed if you heard some of our conversations!  Wow look at that tangent!  See I guess thats what happens when I don’t have any pictures to show you!  The boy and I both got specials from the board.  For him – lobster ravioli with spicy marinara and for me fettuccine with mushrooms and TRUFFLE OIL.   Thumbs up all the way around!

Waiting for our noms….Ivy and Fifi have matching bangs…LOVE IT!  I should tell her dad that I want to join in on the party the next time I go see him for a haircut too!  lol

After dinner we headed over to Bar 89 for some more drinks.  Ivy and I were chatting in the car and wound up driving uptown!  The boys beat us there by a long shot!
Whenever I say that we’re going to Bar 89 most people give me a look and say “again?!”….Pear and I have been going there for over 10 years now.  It’s our spot!  (Don’t get jealous boy! )  Until I find another bar that has table service, good drinks and a well stocked bar, this will be my go to spot!

CHEERS!  <The boy was here too…just hiding from our antics…I can embarrass him sometimes when I have a few in me >

We ended up somewhere else after this….but for the life of me I can’t remember where or what the name was…I am thinking it was somewhere on the LES.

It was a LONG night…O.o

The next morning:

Yeah I totally drank tap water from the bathroom.  Yes it is gross.  But you know what is even more gross?  Throwing up because you are hungover.

Till next time…
The end.

Max
181 Duane Street
NY, NY 10013
212.966.5939
www.max-ny.com

Bar 89
89 Mercer Street
NY, NY 10012
212.274-0989
www.bar89.com

Nothing too exciting over the last few weeks…

I spent the last three weekends visiting cemeteries.  As each year passes, the visits hurt less…yet I miss everyone even more.
Some of our loved ones have been with us for so long that not having them here anymore feels odd and out of the ordinary…

While others did not get to spend enough time with us here and were taken away far before their time was up…

A sure sign the spring is here!  The cherry blossoms in the neighborhood have started to bloom…and just as quickly many have already shed their blossoms…

I finally joined ebates!  Yeah…thats totally a referral link…but at least I’m honest, right?  So go sign up!  You’d be surprised at how much online shopping you actually do!  I rarely shop online, but from the instances that I have, I’ve already earned $13 back!  So go ahead and go sign up…and if you use my link we BOTH get a bonus $5!  When I first signed up they were running a promotion for a free gift card…so I picked a Target one.  (and yes, it has already been spent!)  Now go sign up!  After your first purchase, you’ll get the $5 deposited into your account!

The boy said I should eat breakfast.  So I bought some Laughing Cow cheese wedges at Costco last week.  I didn’t bring my lunch baggie into work on this day because we were having a catered lunch for a meeting that I had to attend.  So I put it in my jacket pocket.  Then I rethought the idea and moved it  into my purse.  Bad idea…both times!

I was walking around Costco during my weekly visit…and in addition to their usual sample offerings they had detergent samples!  Detergent, stain remover and brightener all in one little pod!  I brought it home and mom loved it!  So much so that she sent me back to buy her a container of them!  It makes it a lot easier she said so she doesn’t have to lift the giant bottle of detergent.

My parents were raving about this new sushi place they found in Bensonhurst…mainly because it is one of those ‘all you can eat’ type of places but you are not limited to ordering just sushi – you can order small dishes of cooked foods and appetizers as well!  It sounded like a place similar to where we went in Toronto so we decided to give it a shot.  It was only okayyyyy…concept is there…delivery is not!  And the wait was ridiculous!  I did appreciate that they had 5 different types of tobiko though!

Mutant apple???  Sometimes I bring an apple into work for breakfast.  I always cut up the apple at home…this apple didn’t turn brown after being exposed to the air for 2+ hours!  I got distracted and called away for something and left it out in the open…expecting to come back to a yucky brown oxidized apple, I was shocked!  Apple was Fuji if you were wondering!

I had to run to the mall after work one day to pick up a gift for Fi (who turned 2 on 3/26!) and as I was walking towards the build a bear store I passed by this in the mall….can we say EXCITED!?  Lets just hope that the sales girls aren’t as annoying as the ones in the city!

On a recent obscenely warm day for March I decided to go the liquid lunch route…and it helped that I had a $5 birthday credit on my RedMango card!  :)  So this cost me a whopping $2.15!  :)

And here’s a sneak peek at FiFi’s cake!!

We arrived about 30 minutes early for our reservation and were given the option of hanging out at the bar or being seated right away since they had tables open. We chose the latter and were whisked away to a table right in front of the open kitchen!

Once seated, we ordered some drinks to start off with.  I can’t find the drink menu online so here’s what I can vaguely remember of it…
Pear chose a martini with sake and calpico as the base.  Slightly citrus-y…light and refreshing!

I chose another sake based drink.  It appeared to be a twist on a mojito.  Completely opposite of what I usually order…this drink was sweet and fruity, but not overwhelmingly so.  I was again reminded why I don’t like muddled drinks…I like my drinks to be clean and crisp.  Here I found myself quietly spitting out pieces of mint leaves into my napkin.  I don’t think I’d order this again, but I would recommend it. 
I almost forgot about the boy’s “drink”.  He decided to order a pot of tea.  When he asked the waiter about the selections the waiter rattled off a pretty long list and the oolong sparked his interest.  One pot of peach oolong tea on the way!  I tried a sip and thought it had more fruit flavor than tea.  But the boy seemed to like it enough.  Later on during the meal the waiter came over to ask if he’d like the pot to be refreshed with hot water.  The boy happily obliged.

Now onto the food!
The boy’s goal is to eventually try everything on the menu here.  I have faith that we eventually will if we keep up our somewhat frequent visits!  Its hard to try different things though when we clearly have our favorites.

One of the appetizers we have to order every time we come is the spicy king crab – tobanjan aioli, micro cilantro.
The price of this dish has gone up over the years.  It now comes in at a hefty $34 – I think the first time we had this years ago it was about $29.  But in our opinion, worth its price!  This dish seems simple enough to replicate at home – crab legs with a spicy mayo sauce mixed with some tobiko and lightly heated through.  Morimoto executes this dish so well and we love it so much that we prefer to just have it here instead of attempting it at home.

Pear thought the lamb carpaccio looked interesting and decided to give it a try.

I don’t eat raw but the boys seemed to enjoy the dish.  Lamb carpaccio – shiso buds, scallion-ginger dressing

The final appetizer we decided on was the tempura calamari salad – white miso dressing, crispy shallots. We’ve ordered this salad quite a few times in the past as well.  Another dish on our favorites list!  Crispy calamari, field greens, light and tangy dressing…delish!

In between the appetizer and entree course, we decided to have some sushi.  We knew that we’d be bordering dangerously on full by the time our entrees arrived, but how can you go to Morimoto’s and not get some sushi?!  Especially since we were seated right in front of the bar!

Soft shell crab roll – deep fried soft shell crab, asparagus, tobiko, avocado, scallion, spicy sauce.  This was the first time we ordered this and most likely won’t be the last!  I could have done without the avocado and found that the end pieces were extremely hard to eat because of the size, but in the end we all gave it a thumbs up!

Spicy tuna roll – chopped tuna, scallion, spicy sauce.  Unlike our local Japanese restaurants, the spicy tuna roll here does not consist of pulverized fish drowning in a heavy sauce.  The tuna here is chunked in fairly large pieces and lightly dressed in the spicy sauce.  The boys enjoyed the roll from what I could tell!  The boy commented that you can actually taste the fish instead of it being overwhelmed by sauce.

Onto the entrees!

The last time we were here the boy ordered the surf & turf – wagy filet & hamachi ribbons, herbed potatoes, crushed citrus & avocado (prepared tableside)  He was so floored by the potatoes he decided that he had to have it again!  The dish arrives with the surf portion prepared tableside.  The waiter quickly dresses the avocado and hamachi with a citrus dressing and tosses it together.  I tried a piece of the boy’s steak and it was good.  But I’m not a huge red meat eater so I don’t have the same appreciation as he does for it.  As a sidenote…the last time the boy ordered this dish we both fell in love with the potatoes.  We couldn’t pinpoint the spice that was in them so we asked the waiter what it was.  He said he’ll be right back…we had assumed that he went to ask the kitchen.  Instead, he returned with a slip of paper printed with all of the ingredients in the dish!  <the spice was star anise by the way!>
One thing that was different this time around was that they used baby potatoes instead of fingerlings like last time.  However the potatoes were just as tender and good!

Pear ordered the braised black cod – ginger-soy reduction.  Nothing bad to say about this dish!  Moist, flaky, YUM!

The last few times we’ve been here I’ve ordered the same dish.  Because it is THAT good!  I guess I’d consider it my favorite!  Seafood ‘toban yaki’ – half shell lobster, king crab, mussel, clam, diver scallop, red miso-sake broth.   Gosh…where do I start?  Hmm…well how about not using the word gosh again?  The term toban yaki loosely translates to ‘roast on a ceramic plate’.  Morimoto executes this perfectly!  The miso broth is gently flavored with all of the juices from the seafood.  That broth…oh how I love that broth!  I usually order a side of rice so that I could spoon the broth over and eat it!  In my experience though, almost every time the scallop has been overcooked.  But that’s ok because I can never finish the dish anyway!  Now this is something I need to learn how to replicate myself at home!

The carnage.

To pretend to be healthy we ordered a side of the Chinese broccoli.  I would definitely pass on these next time.  They were weak.  Limp, greasy and bland!  I dredged them through my miso broth and it helped bring them back to life a little bit…but overall not worth it.

We were all too full to even think about ordering dessert!  Again, Morimoto did not disappoint!  Almost everything was done perfectly and presented beautifully.  We WILL be back!

Round 2 with another avocado and this time removing the pit was a success!

And that avocado soon met some tomatoes, fresh mozz and balsamic vinegar for another healthy salad for mom!

I finally got my Influenster Love VoxBox!  I was a little worried that my box might have been lost in the mail because others in the area had gotten theirs more than a week before I got mine!  Contents post coming soon!

Took the bikes out for the first time this season!  It was a…uhh…nice…ride?  It was probably the COLDEST day in weeks.  And when I say cold I mean it was 31 degrees when we STOPPED biking according to my phone.  Mind you we were right next to the highway and ocean…with bone chilling winds coming at us from all directions!  But nonetheless we had a good time!  It was nice to get back out!  I also ordered a new helmet and some gear that was on clearance for our future rides!

Look at this adorable manicure set my mom picked up for me!  I doubt the tools are any good…but I’m keeping this at the office for emergencies!  There have been so many times I’ve drawn blood while trying to fix my cuticle or a hangnail!

I found these Green Tea Mochis at the market.  I was so happy because not only was the mochi green tea flavored, but the filling was also!  Usually its red bean or some other strange filling I don’t like.  I ate one and forgot the rest at the boy’s house.  I said I’d pick them up next weekend…and he gave me the look like “yeah right like there will be any left by the time you come back!”

Fear not!  I returned to the market only to find a JACKPOT!  They also had custard filled mochi!  SCORE!   Or so I thought…my brother tried one…and hijacked the package from me after I had one.  Oh well…I don’t need all those sweets anyway!

Pear took me out for my birthday dinner.  We tried to go to The Farm on Adderley in Ditmas Park but when we got there we were told it was going to be about a 45 minute wait!  The host suggested that we walk around and find a bar and then he will call us when a table would be ready.

We ended up walking over to Purple Yam  and were able to get a seat over there with a minimal wait.  After looking over the drink menu, we decided on a guava martini for me and a thai chili martini for Pear.  The boy had a root beer   We watched the bartender make Pear’s drink…he took some thai chili’s and muddled them…then into a shaker with sake and ice!  I tried a little of this drink and it was SPICY!!!

I love the photoscape program I found to edit pictures.  Its 823867286 times simpler than Photoshop and Lightroom!  Although I’m sure the pro’s would argue that the results are no where near as good.  But for my untrained eye, it makes my pictures a little more appealing…and thats what matters, right?!  Here I’m working on the dinner that we had at Morimoto’s to celebrate Pear’s birthday.

Its been about 2 years since I’ve last used my curling iron!  I’ve been using my curling wand and flat iron to curl my hair as of late.  So I decided to dust it off and give it a go this weekend.  Curls were a little too tight in my opinion and my new haircut with the layers didn’t help with the poofiness/volume.  But it ended up falling nicely by the time I left the house.  :)

Its Lent so that means no meat on Fridays…and mom can’t exactly run over to McD’s or grab a slice of pizza anymore.  So I decided to make her some tuna salad and an avocado salad so she could bring it in for lunch.  I hate avocados.  I have never bought them or dealt with them before. I’ve seen them deconstructed plenty of times on tv…but in real life it was a disaster!  I stuck the knife in to pull the pit out….and the pit split!  Getting that pit out was such a challenge!  At the end of the day I had one perfect avocado half….and the other looked like guacamole.

The DOT has been doing some major construction on the Belt Parkway.  They must have been working on the drawbridge too…because out of the 4 days I went into the office last week I got stuck at that damn bridge 3 days!   One day I got stuck there twice!  Once about 1/4 mile away…another time just a few cars away.  So 1 week.  4 drawbridge incidents.  FML

I decided to have breakfast for dinner one night.  Sunny side up egg, toast and a bowl of frosted flakes!  I made the most PERFECT egg ever!  :)

I got my birthday drink from Starbucks!  I love this app!  Grande green tea latte on the way!

The boy’s sister got me some birthday cupcakes last weekend from Crumbs.  Delish!  Raspberry swirl, Vanilla and Cookie Dough!  Obviously I forgot to take a picture before digging in!

I finally made it over for a much needed mani/pedi at the salon.  I was hesitant in going there for a while because I saw a for rent sign up…so I thought the quality might be lacking since they weren’t going to be there much longer.  The sign is now gone…and it looks like they’re staying! Am I the only one that HAS to have matching polish on their fingers and toes??

The boy and I went out on Saturday night to watch The Lorax.  I must confess…I didn’t know what the movie was about until that day.  All I knew was that I HAD to see it because the characters looked so cute!  Especially the bears!  I’m totally partial to bears   Between our dinner plans and the showtimes, the only time we could make was the last showing of the movie in 3D.  Tickets are $17.50 EACH now!!!  I wouldn’t have minded watching the movie on the regular screen – the 3D didn’t do anything for me. The only 3D movie that I’ve seen that I think is worth it is Avatar…and I didn’t even like the movie that much!

After a long day…taxes in the AM…shopping at Woodbury in the afternoon…we decided to have dinner in Williamsburg with Rach since we had to drop her off at home anyway.  It was a Saturday night and it had just finished raining.  We wanted to go out somewhere for dinner and after seeing that the local Thai places all had at least a 30 minute wait, we decided to walk around checking out the posted menus at some other places before making our decision.

I wanted to love this place.  I really did.  We all did.  It looked so promising.  Quaint.  Nice ambiance.  Fancy…but still low key. The first sign that caught our eyes was the specials board that was posted outside.  THEY HAD BURRATA!!  Not just any burrata…but they served it with truffles too!  We were sold!!  For those of you that don’t know…burrata is a type of cheese that’s basically fresh mozzarella on the outside and inside is a cream.  So light…so creamy…delish!  I’ve never really been able to find it on the menus at restaurants in the city so we were ecstatic when we saw this!  With only my camera phone in hand…off we went.

First sign something was wrong…we walked into a half empty restaurant and I asked if they had room for a table of 4.  The hostess says “do you have a reservation?”  Umm…no dipshit…if I had a reservation I would have given my name and stated that I had a reservation.  I asked you if you could accommodate our party of 4.  We were brought over to a table and handed menus.

After our orders were placed a runner brought over bread and plates for our appetizers.  But he only brought three.  And then he forgot to bring the fourth.  How do we know he forgot? Because we saw him doing things at other tables!  Crisis averted…someone finally brought us the elusive plate…

Don’t let the bread fool you.  It was pretty bad.  Probably the worst focaccia I’ve ever had.  So dry…so bland…so yuck.  But bread baskets are really iffy sometimes.   Underneath the focaccia was some of the crustiest bread I’ve ever had.  Terrible.  But we ate it anyway because we were starving and needed something to spread the burrata on!

The burrata ($28) came to the table and the waiter presented the whole truffle to us and began shaving…and shaving…and shaving…it was snowing truffles!  The burrata was perfect.  Creamy…soft…mild…they also drizzled it lightly with olive oil which made it even more decadent!  If you ever see burrata on the menu I highly suggest you give it a try especially if you are a fan of fresh mozz!

Next to arrive at the table was the cheese platter…odd…because we ordered the meat and cheese platter ($24.50).

This was a little…uhh..sad looking.  There were 4 cheese selections.  How are three of them versions of pecorino?!  One was plain…one was flavored with white wine and the third was flavored with mushrooms…The fourth cheese on the platter was a gorgonzola.  Pear said that the accompaniments for the cheeses were really good but I had to pass on all of them.  After about 10 minutes we asked the waitress where the meat half of the platter was.  She looked at us and said that she thought we only ordered the cheese platter.  Not sure how this happened because she REPEATED our order for us after taking it and all four of us heard her repeat the correct order.  *sigh…
After being acquainted with the cheese platter we weren’t expecting much from its meaty half ($14.50).
It was so unmemorable.  They didn’t even tell us what the three meats were.  Whatever.  I was soooo over this place by now.

When we were done ordering the boy decided that he also wanted to add another appetizer to the list and told the waitress before she collected the menus.  We added the polenta and sausage.  It never came.  We asked about it and she thought that he wanted that as his entree.  We cancelled it and told her that he actually ordered the same entree as Rach.  Maybe she was having an off night??   Save your off nights for the weekdays!  Saturday should be your biggest/busiest night of the week!  The restaurant wasn’t packed so its not like she’s overwhelmed by having to wait on a lot of tables…and she wasn’t even the one bringing out the food – she only took the orders!  Anyway….

Pear got the fettuccine alla amatriciana ($16.50) – pasta with cured pork cheeks, onions and San Marzano tomatoes.  He liked the dish.  I tried it and thought it was ok.  I was glad to see that the pasta was homemade.  I was not so glad to see that it was slightly undercooked.  I like my pasta al dente…I usually take my pasta out before I drain the rest because everyone hates how undercooked I like my pasta.  This pasta was bordering on raw.

When I see gnocchi on the menu I have to get it.  HAVE TO.  Unless its made with butternut squash.  Or has nuts/raisins in the sauce.
This dish sounded PERFECT for me!  I was so excited.  Gnocchi all’aragosta ($21.50) – Potato gnocchi with lobster in a light tomato sauce.

Oh. My. Goodness. I have never had gnocchi this terrible before!  (And the boy tried to make me gnocchi for my birthday last year!)   The texture was so strange….gummy and slimy on the outside.  Dry and dense on the inside.   And I didn’t appreciate how they were not rolled on a gnocchi board or the tines of a fork.  They were just sloppily cut and unevenly sized too!!  The lobster was…can you guess???  Overcooked!  And the sauce was so bland.  I shouldn’t have turned down the fresh pepper when they came by with it.  :(   Major fail.

The boy and Rach ordered the same dish.  I don’t have a detailed description or price because it was a special of the day.  Pappardelle  with lamb ragout, arugula and goat cheese.  Promising?  Yes!  I tried some and this pasta was cooked much better than Pear’s was.  The sauce was a light cream based one.  It was good enough.  Passable but by no means delish.

Normally I wouldn’t have even posted about this.  But this place was so terrible.  I couldn’t let it slip.  We all really wanted to like this place.  But in the end we just couldn’t.  And to make matters worse….we ordered the meat and cheese platter which should have been $24.50.  Instead we were charged separately at $14.50 each.  Even if the portions were different for the combo, they should have charged us for the dish we ordered.  Not the one we were given.

I don’t like to give bad reviews or to talk badly about poor service at restaurants.  Everyone has their off nights.  Waitstaff…cooks…dumbass hostesses.  But to have it all in one place.  And  for it to be demonstrated dish after dish and to have so many errors in service and with our orders is just unacceptable.

This further confirms my distaste for Williamsburg.  I don’t blame Rach for wanting to get out of the neighborhood ASAP!

THUMBS DOWN

Osteria il Paiolo
106 North 6th Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-218-7080