Dear readers,

In reflecting upon the list of recent meals eaten on the town, I've noticed a couple of common threads among all four restaurants:

• Most are either brand new, or have been open for approximately one-year

• Each (venue) is relatively trendy and tables are highly coveted

• Some aspects of each are over-hyped

This leads me to question, "Are my expectations set too high?"  Some of you are probably quick to confirm my inquiry; I can almost hear your high-pitched "You're damn right!" outbursts.  And you know what?  That is completely fair.  Perhaps I am too picky and/or critical about the meals in which I pay for but, come on, I live in the "restaurant capital of the world!" 

I can count, granted only on one hand, a slew of very memorable and perfect NYC dining experiences.  And do you want to know the common thread amongst those "perfect" meals?  Believe it or not, they were all enjoyed at restaurants that could be classified as "under-the-radar," or "not trendy," or down-right "hole-in-the-walls." 

So, without further ado, please enjoy a tour of my most recent "close, but no cigar" dining adventures.

Southern cuisine takes Gotham by storm

For a while there, I was really getting in to this whole "the South is taking over Gotham" food phenomenon.  That, however, was very shortly lived.  Meal after disappointing meal, I found myself wondering, "Where do these damn Yankee's get off?"  Aside from crappy attempts at making what they consider to be "authentic Southern cuisine," these restaurants are rubbing salt in to the proverbial wound by charging upwards of $5.50 for a single piece of fried chicken!  Don't you dare bark back and tell me that this price inflation for, what has historically been, peasant food is isolated to Manhattan, because the same crap is happening in Brooklyn...and beyond!

Dinner at Peels

*All of my photos from this meal can be found on Flickr

Brought to you by the team behind the Lower East Side's haute comfort-food matriarch, Freemans, comes the very recently-openedPeels.  Set within a large bi-level space, the restaurant is composed of, virtually, two dining rooms - each containing its own bar. Peels' first floor evokes a more casual atmosphere than its upstairs sister, as the room is comprised of various communal dining tables and is more brightly illuminated.  The second level of the restaurant, albeit more visually refined and sophisticated, seems more crowded and chaotic.  Its near-deafening acoustics don't provide much aid to those looking to enjoy a more tranquil dining experience.  

The good

• Trendy, young crowd

• Spacious, ample seating in 2nd-floor dining room

• Affordably priced / varied, appealing food and beverage menus: view *here*

• Cheeseburger: for a modest $12, you get a burger composed of grass-fed beef cooked to your liking, topped with gooey and pungent cave-aged white cheddar cheese, and caramelized onions - sandwiched between a pillow-soft potato roll. Thick, crunchy, and perfectly-salted 'fries accompany the burger.

The bad

• No bread/butter basket

The ugly

• Shrimp & Grits: this dish would have been passable/decent had it not been so "oinked out" - swimming in a deep-sea of smoky pig broth, liberally dotted with bite-sized chunks of pure, unadulterated lard that had been fraudulently coined on the menu as "lasso bacon" (whatever the hell that means)

Dinner at Hill Country Chicken

*Many of my photos from this meal can be found on Flickr

I'd been eagerly anticipating the opening of the Hill Country family's second Texas-themed venture, a "fried chicken shack" aptly named, Hill Country Chicken.  The vison behind this concept?  Well, it's simple: introduce and serve Texas-inspired fried chicken and comfort food to hungry New Yorkers.

Located within a bi-level space - just a block from Hill Country BBQ - the self proclaimed "chicken shack" is hardly that: from its peppy-colored linoleum flooring, kitschy cafeteria-style ordering system, spacious atmosphere, and ample seating, Hill Country Chicken is kind of like a small town's homecoming-queen, or that girl whom you went to high school with that drastically outshone the rest of her less attractive, far less interesting "competition."   

*Note: to date, I have both dined-in and taken-away from Hill Country Chicken

The good

• Spacious setting

• Kid-friendly

• Casual and comfortable

• Since you're basically serving yourself, you don't have to tip anyone

• Bakery on-site

• Cowboy Pie: aside from crack, this heavenly rendition of the "magic cookie bar" is laced with chocolate chips, shredded coconut, butterscotch chips, and pecans - bound together by sweetened condensed milk - and enveloped by a buttery, graham-cracker crust. I'm willing to bet money that this pie will send you in to the most intense, flavor-induced food orgasm that you've ever experienced. I recommend the $3 individually-portioned "pie cup," as opposed to the pricey $5 "slice." Go and get your fix today!

• Biscuits: dense, buttery, and both crunch and salty in all of the right places - if you're looking for "fluffy," then you're going to hate this version

• Chicken tenders: instead of manning-up and bringing my camera whilst "dining-in," I'm going to have to recount this chicken tender moment from memory. For $6.50, I received three mammoth-sized chicken breast strips that had been dredged in, what appeared to be, a Saltine cracker-based breading. The meat was incredibly juicy and moist, without the slightest discoloration or exposed vein. And, all three of my tenders were cartilage-free, thank god. To dip, I chose a honey-mustard sauce (first sauce is free), in addition to a side of ranch dressing that came with a price tag. "This sure ain't Whataburger," I mumbled, while recalling "the good ol' days" back in Texas when chicken-tender dipping sauces were free - even in mass quantities.

The bad

• Pimento cheese: where I come from, this cheddar cheese + mayonnaise + pimento pepper "dip," if you will, is not only spreadable, but served at a temperature that's closer to "room temp," as opposed to "fresh out the ice box." Unfortunately, the version at Hill Country Chicken was dense, too chunky, and disturbingly chilly. I threw that crap out!

• Strawberry-lemonade: to be fair here, I am NOT complaining about the *taste* of this beverage because, honestly, I enjoyed it. I applaud a glass of lemonade that seamlessly combines both sweet and sour. However, I am hard-pressed to believe that the version at Hill Country Chicken is "freshly squeezed," as the menu so claims. There's a suspicious Country Time-esque lingering aftertaste that I simply cannot explain, other than chalk it up to Hill Country Chicken being full of crap. There's not even an ounce of pulp, much less a strawberry seed, floating around! Something smells fishy to me.

• There is no butter or honey to accompany the biscuits.

• Extra dipping sauces come at a price.

The ugly

• While it's a nice break to not have to tip someone every now and again, that doesn't mean that I'm any less disgusted by the prices that Hill Country Chicken is charging its suckers customers:

1. Fried breast of chicken, $5.50

2. Glass of "freshly squeezed" strawberry-lemonade, $3.25

3. Slice of pie, $5

4. Whole pie, $40 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Italy, by way of the A Train

Brunch at Locanda Verde

*All of my photos from this meal can be found on Flickr

Ever since it opened its doors on the corner of Greenwich & N. Moore Streets, I've been very anxious to dine at LV (Locanda Verde).  Set within Robert De Niro'sGreenwich Hotel, LV's bustling atmosphere evokes that of an unpretentious apres-ski lodge. 

Brunch at Locanda VerdeSince we had not made a reservation prior, the Le's and I decided that it would be safest to meet at LV for brunch at 11:30am.  "We should have no problem getting a table that early," I confidently-stated in my pre-meal email to Megan, "I mean, who gets up before 11am on a Sunday, anyways?" 

Do you want to know "who gets up before 11am on a Sunday?"  Just about every resident in Tribeca, where LV is located!  Remember, this is stroller-ville, after all, not the East Village.  Luckily, I arrived on the earlier side of our 11:30am meeting time and took the brunt of our quoted "45-minutes to 1-hour" wait for a table.  When Megan and Hung finally showed up, we were seated within ten-minutes.      

I was certain that, having patiently waited for a table for 50-minutes, this would be one of the best brunches of all time.

The good

• Great interior space and atmosphere, including acoustics

• Friendly and knowledgeable staff

• Affordably priced

• Menu variety: view *here*

• LeeLee Sobieski (+ baby, husband, and mom) was dining next to us!

• Gratis bread plate, pre-meal: light-as-air, pillowy-soft focaccia slices that effortlessly melt in your mouth

• Sheep's Milk Ricotta: drizzled with truffle-honey, coarsely-ground black pepper, and a dusting of herbs - it's hard to believe that this is the same cheese that is used to make lasagna, for the texture is as light as whipped-cream and the flavor is as rich as marscapone. Served at room-temperature, the ricotta is accompanied by buttery slices of burnt-orange toast. This appetizer is, without a doubt, one of the most delicious "bread and cheese" combinations that I've ever had the pleasure of sampling. Definitely something worth adding to your "death row wish list."

• Scampi & Grits: though I found the portion on the smaller side, I appreciated the concept behind this Italian version of "shrimp & grits." Traditional southern grits were substituted with creamy polenta - whole shrimp were replaced with a robust, chunky tomato sauce that was laced with bite-sized morsels of shrimp and coarsely-ground sausage. Two perfectly-coddled eggs completed the dish.

The "not necessarily bad, but definitely annoying"

• Tre-Stelle: while I loved the combination of fruits in this house-made juice (pomegranate, blood orange, and Valencia orange), I found its $7 price tag incredibly ludicrous. But with that being said, I'm the fool who consciously ordered and forked over the cash for this beverage!

• Megan ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes and, after I took one taste of the lemon curd, I asked our waitress if it would be possible to send me home with a small helping. "I know it's a random request, but I am more than happy to pay for it," I told her. I realized that she had probably never had anyone inquire about lemon curd for take-away, but I figured that, especially since I was willing to pay for it, my question wouldn't have been taken as foreign as it was. "Let me go and talk to the head chef," she said, with her eyebrows cinched. Before I could tell her not to get the "head chef's" attention, she vanished. Moments later, she returned to tell me that "the kitchen staff cannot honor your request, I'm sorry about that." While I appreciated her efforts, I found it both extremely odd and passive-aggressive that she insisted upon getting both the "head chef" and "kitchen staff" involved. One thing she did do exceptionally well? Making me feel like a complete a-hole.

No "ugly" here!

Dinner at Scarpetta

*All of my photos from this meal can be found on Flickr

Unless you live in NYC, there's really no way you can explain how unbelievably difficult it is to make plans with your friends.  Take Bryan, for example, whom I met while dining at The Lion...in August!  Since that night, we've been trying to find a spot in the other's calendar.  Due to work obligations and everything in between, it took us nearly two months since that initial balmy August evening at The Lion to get together.And since neither one of us had been to Scarpetta, I made a 9pm reservation for a very long-overdue dinner date.

Bryan and I enjoyed a glass of wine at the bar before being seated at our table.  Between sips and stories, we couldn't help but admire Scarpetta's casual, yet incredibly elegant, space.

The good

• Gorgeous interior space

• Friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable staff

• Free bar snack: homemade herbed potato chips

• Attractive crowd/clientele

• Sommelier on-site

• Gratis bread basket + dipping sauce trio: a bountiful array of freshly-baked, assorted breads was accompanied by a trio of dips: ricotta, caponata, olive oil

• Spaghetti: think simple - handmade spaghetti noodles, fresh tomato and basil. That's it. Sounds boring and uninspired, right? Wrong. Believe me when I say that this is one of the best bowls of pasta that you will have the pleasure of twirling around your fork...this side of Italy. In some cases, mastering the art of simplicity is harder than mastering that of complexity. And this bowl of noodles, dear readers, is one damn good example. Don't be deterred by its $24 price tag - this, I promise you, will likely be one of your most memorable pasta experiences to date.

The bad: there was no "bad"

The ugly

• Cauliflower Panna Cotta: if "ugly" had a picture next to it in the dictionary, I'm positive that it may resemble this atrocious appetizer. "It tastes like the fish department at Kroger!" Bryan squealed. That was a really bad sign, considering that it was he who chose to try Scarpetta's newest "starter." There's just something about chilled, savory panna cotta/pudding/creme brulee that gives me goose bumps - not the good kind, either. Pair that with an abundance of the "fishiest" fish of the sea - caviar, sea urchin, week-old crab meat - et voila! You've got me, the ticking "gag reflex" time-bomb on your hands. The panna cotta was accompanied by two toast points, which I *thought* would aid in mutilating some of the overwhelming flavor. To no avail, I could not even get past one bite. Sigh. I used this near-vomit experience as an excuse/justification to hold the bread basket hostage, proclaiming its contents to be my "appetizer chaser."

…

Until we eat again,

Lindsay, The Lunch Belle