New York Nook, cozy space produces excellent food

View from outside

This post is long overdue. Our apologies to our readers and the restaurant.

Following a wonderful day of sightseeing and spending some time in central park, TasteBudA and I set out to find a unique location for a Saturday night dinner in Manhattan. We purposely went into the trip planning on just “winging it” when it came to food. So not having done much research for dinner options, we aimed for a dinner time after the shows would have started, in hopes to avoid the rush. Thanks to a little help from my Urbanspoon app on my Andoid phone, we were ecstatic to have found a BYOB restaurant, Nook, just west of our hotel in Hell’s Kitchen. Although, I didn’t picture Manhattan to have many (or any) BYOB locations, I figured it was worth a shot to check.

The name Nook explains the size of this restaurant. It is a restaurant nestled in between some other businesses. I’d estimate, the dining room couldn’t have been more than 15 feet wide and maybe 30 feet deep with table tops for about 24 diners. Fortunately it was a nice night outside, and there was a bench to wait for our table to open up. And although we waited probably 20 minutes to be seated, it was well worth the wait. The food was prepared wonderfully and the owner/waiter/manager/host seemed to have everything completely under control and the restaurant ran without a hitch.

Spicy citrus-marinated shrimp

Selecting our entrees was quite difficult as everything looked so good coming out of the kitchen – and yes, while sitting there, we saw almost every entree offered come out of the kitchen. To start we had the Mushroom Cigars, pan-seared portabella mushrooms mixed with sage and goat cheese, wrapped in filo dough and lightly drizzled with white truffle oil. It is the only thing not pictured below due to an unflattering picture of TasteBudB holding one. They were like nothing I’d ever tasted and probably the only kind of cigar I’d even venture to pose with.

Stuffed pork with chive mashed potatoes and salad greens.

For our entrees, we decided on a spicy, citrus-marinated shrimp for TasteBudB (pictured above) and the stuffed pork with chive mashed potatoes and salad greens. We found them both to be filling to our stomachs, tasteful in our mouths and even visually pleasing to the eye. I guess overall, that would mean well satisfied.

As you might expect, dining in such close quarters allows you to get to know the folks dining near you, especially for outgoing individuals like ourselves. So, even though we had no room for dessert, after some brief after dinner conversation with the table next to us, we asked if we could get a shot of their dessert, which they happily obliged. Alas, we ate it soley with our eyes.

Nook is a wonderful gem to find on the streets of New York. I think you would be hard-pressed to find somewhere as quaint, delicious, and affordable (under $75 including the pre-purchased bottle of wine).

A picture perfect dessert from the nearby table.

Pizza Pie in New York!

New York City is know for many different cuisine, but Italian flavors rank very high in the Big Apple. On Friday night before seeing a Broadway show (The Addams Family) we decided to try a well known Pizza spot in the city called John’s Pizzeria in Midtown West.

John’s Pizzeria is a very busy spot with a lot of seating and quick service. Our show started at 8pm and we had a bit of a late start to dinner, but John’s catered to us very well in the short time we had to eat. We ordered a 8 cut pie with sausage and peppers.

The Pizza came out very hot, the topping portions, cheese and sauce were perfect all around. The best thing was when you took a bite, you didn’t have the annoyance of toppings falling off, which for me is a big deal. The size of the slices were perfect and between the both of us was a perfect amount to fill us up before the show.

When it comes to price it was the perfect split, especially with our drinks and tip. I definitely recommend John’s for service, taste and price! Also, make sure to let your server know you are headed to a show nearby, which in my opinion helped time our table so we could enjoy our food and have plenty of time to walk over to the show.

John’s also has beautiful architecture as well so you can not only enjoy the company but the view from all around.

Thank you John’s for an enjoyable dinner and a fun start to our evening!

Good Morning New York City!

This past weekend TastebudB and I took a weekend trip to New York City. This was my first visit to the Big Apple and I was excited to try all the good food you hear so much about! We arrived very early in the morning, dropped off our bags at the Intercontinential Barclay and went walking the streets and came across Pershing Square.

Pershing Square is located right across the street from Grand Central Station on 42nd Street. I know we try to find you all more reasonable places to eat that won’t kill your wallet but lets face it, its New York City, everything is expensive but the good thing is that the food is very good!

I ordered fresh squeezed orange juice, French Toast with Bacon and it came with a little side of some fruit. Now, I already have my favorite place for French Toast here in Pittsburgh and no one has ever made it better than the Dor-Stop. But, the French Toast at Pershing Square was an excellent delight. You can’t see in the picture but their are three pieces of French Toast, it was hot, thick and very delicious. The bacon was not overlly salty and cooked well and the fruit added a nice touch to the rest of the breakfast.

Tastebud B ordered a Spinich, Bacon and Cheddar Omelette that came with homefries and wheat toast. The eggs were cooked gently into a thick omelette base and was very good and filling. Both of our choices were a great way to start our adventure around New York

And if you are a tourist stopping in like we were, you will fit right in because the general crowd was a mix of people just in for breakfast, tourists and even some business men and women were having meetings or meeting up with fellow co-workers before work.

If you are in this area of town for breakfast I very much recommend this place! Go check it out!