Please Don't Tell...

My mom that I was binge drinking in NYC, after all it’s the city that never sleeps. Please Don’t Tell or better known as PDT is one of New York’s popular speakeasy bars.

Speakeasy bars are bars that don’t have a sign and a bit of pain to get in for those who are not familiar with them. The famous Milk & Honey was my first introduction to speak easy bars. I had to research the hell out to find the phone number of the joint to make reservation, but having a drink made by Joseph Schwartz is so worth the trouble (apparently reservation procedures have changed at M&H).

PDT’s phone number was much easier to locate but getting through is another story. The phone line opens up at 3PM, and you can only make the same day reservation. Noticed that “line” is not plural because there’s no call waiting. You can risk showing up early and hoping that there’s a table open (no standing allowed) but being the planner I am, I noted to call them in my calendar, and when the time came I told my cousin to call as well, so we would have a better chance getting in. After ten minutes after 3, redialing for the millionth time, my cousin managed to get through. Thank God. What a girl needs to do to get her drinks on…

PDT is located in the “secret” room of Crif Dogs in the East Village. You must make a phone call in the booth, and once you are confirmed the wall/door opens up for you to enter PDT. I love it! It’s the perfect bar to hide away!

The bar is cozy; the perfect date place because it’s intimate, and they keep the music at a reasonable volume. I think it has ten tables or less..? They only have two big tables. We were a party of 7.

My choice of booze is very limited…so I passed on their drink list and told our waiter to have the mixologist to make me something with vodka and sweet. He came back with this…

I forgot what the drink was…it’s either a gin cosmo or a vodka old fashion… Note to self: write the drink’s name before sipping…My second drink was some vodka/pineapple concotion.

They also serve food from Crif Dogs. I had to order their tator tots.

The tots certainly helped soak in the alcohol…now are they really special? Honestly tots are tots to me but all the cheese and toppings made it more “special.” Now for their waffle fries w/ cheese dip? I prefer Chick-fil-A’s waffle fries.

Crif Dogs’ hot dog was not bad.

Bar rules are posted in the bathroom:

From what I remembered, Milk & Honey’s bar rules were more entertaining..

Although I enjoyed the atmosphere, I was disappointed with the drinks. At $15 a pop, I was hoping the mixologist would be more adverterous with my drinks. I was giving his time to shine and he failed! Our bill was over $200 (one person didn’t drank alcohol and a couple had beers). Drinks are not cheap here! Nevertheless, it was a neat experience.


Address: 113 St. Marks Place, NY, NY 10009
Phone: (212) 614-0386

The Blue Velvet

A friend had originally wanted her birthday shindig at the Blue Velvet but some rich kid rented the space out and her party was kicked out. This unfortunate situation did not stop me from dining at the Blue Velvet prior to her birthday gala. I had purchased a $100 gift certificate for like $10 on restaurant.com, and all I can say is THANK GOD because the Blue Velvet will leave a dent on your blue card.

The Blue Velvet is located in the less desirable outskirt part of DTLA. They have valet but we found street parking –don’t forget to your lock your doors and put any valuable items in your trunk…The restaurant is sleek and beautiful. You feel you’re in a music video. You enter into the main dining room, to the left is a small lounge-bar area and to the left you can head outside to the pool where you are encourage to take your clothes off and get wet. I am told that it’s a party every weekend during Happy Hours in summer time.

The view of Nokia Live and other downtown buildings is beautiful. It was pretty dead and remained that way until my friend and I left. It’s a good thing they have a good vodka cocktail list to keep us company. The Lychee martini is better than the Creamsicle martini. The Creamsicle martini tastes more like a nauseating orange martini.

We started off with the Filet Mignon Wrapped Asparagus (walnut ponzu reduction). It was a bit too salty for my taste buds but my friend loved it. She loves really salty food.

The Seared Albacore was good but did not stand out from all the other seared albacores that I’ve had.

Now the salmon carpaccio in truffle essence was delicious. This is a must order dish because it will just melt in your mouth, leaving you ravishing for more.

At first I hated the Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass (sake nage, carrot purée) because it was very salty but then my friend pointed out that it’s only the carrots that taste like the Dead Sea. Once the carrots were gone, I would have to say that Blue Velvet’s Chilean Sea Bass is one of the best I’ve had. It was cooked perfectly and had all the right flavors.

The Filet Mignon (thyme infused butter, red wine Bournaise) was good too. The sauce was surprisingly sweet –too sweet for my friend though. I’m sweet and she’s salty, and together we make a great team.

We didn’t have the clams but our busboy wanted us to take a photo of it. I guess he was bored.

For desserts our waiter recommended the Coffee Crème Bulee. It tasted more like mousse, and it was divine.

We also had their homemade plum ice cream. My friend loved that it came with cacao nibs.

Our meal was spectacular! I was amazed that we ate all of our food and still managed to get up easily. The portions are not big, and I guess it’s because the meal was mostly proteins and not carbs? Service was excellent.

I’ll definitely come back --with another Restaurant.com gift certificate!

Address: 750 Garland Ave. LA, CA 90017
Phone#:(213) 239-0061
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The Prince

My friend Kat recently moved to Koreatown, so Banana Wonder and I decided to explore in her hood. Actually I used to live there when I was missing NYC, but there so many restaurants in Los Angeles and so little time. My Turkish intern joined us too –I have to make sure she explored as much of LA as possible before she leaves on Tuesday. We picked the Prince, the most recognizable and easiest to pronounce restaurant in K-town. If you love history and Los Angeles, the Prince is a must. It has been there since the 1940s -50s and the interior remains the same. It’s a bit of culture clash, eating Korean food in an American/Italian style restaurant. They have a full bar.

We got a free pajeon. It was greasy but that’s what the Prince is known for –good bar food.

I was worried when Banana Wonder wanted to order the Kimchi fried rice because spicy food upsets my stomach, but I managed to squeeze in a few bites.

Kat picked the next dish, the super greasy Pajeon in green bell peppers. I could only handle two.

I picked the winning dish, a whole fried chicken. It was finger licking good!



Service was a bit spotty. We sat at a booth where there wasn’t a service button. I think the next time I go to the Prince, I’ll be sure to have a few drinks beforehand.

Address: 3198 1/2 W 7th St., LA, CA 90005
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Tokyo Table

Last Wednesday my Bible study group decided to meet up with another group at Dave & Buster since that’s the G-rated thing to do... It was my first time being at the adult version of Chucky Cheese. The organizer wanted us to eat there since you get a $10 play card with an entrée…but their food did not looked appealing whatsoever. I wasn’t in the mood to eat that shit. A few of us decided to dine at Tokyo Table instead, which is in the same mall and close by to Dave & Buster. I’ve been meaning to go to Tokyo Table and when they shut down their Beverly Hills location, I didn’t think I would eat there. I guess there’s a good reason to go to Dave & Buster.

The restaurant is modern. The height of the booths is slightly higher than normal booths offering privacy but at the same time, it might take awhile to get service. You might have to stand up to get the waiter’s attention. The restaurant is slightly too dark for me. If I’m tired, I will easily fall asleep in dark restaurants/bars, but luckily I wasn’t because I was so preoccupied with their lengthy menu --17 pages! I focused in on their drinks first. The Aiko (strawberry & cream sakatini) was my first drink. Purdy. It’s not sickly sweet but still very sweet.

Katz had the tangerine mojito (alcohol is shochu). Meh. I prefer my mojitos with rum.

Natz’s friend had the Konatsu, which pretty much just sake.

I later switched to the Kikuka, the lychee saketini. It tasted like they just open a canned of lychee and pour the juice.

As sweet as the drinks are, you will still get a buzz. When we left the restaurant, I thought it was cheesy that they made the outside looked like an out-doorsy patio…oh wait…we were outside outside and not in the mall…cough. Rewinding to the part when we were ordering our food… Thankfully the waiter explained their menu and recommended a few dishes. He mentioned that they make tofu every 20 minutes. Wow! Natz had to order their tofu. They should spend more time making a better tofu instead of whipping out subpar tofu. It was no where close to Asanebo's tofu in Studio City.

Katz and I shared the spicy tuna on crispy rice sushi. It was ok, not to soggy or greasy.

For our entrée, we split the chicken katsu gozen. Gozen means “complete meal” so it came with miso soup, rice, cold udon, pickles, and mashed potatoes, and that was certainly a complete meal for us.

The chicken katsu was tasty. I personally think it’s really hard to mess up katsu.

Udon is udon –another easy dish to make.

Drinks were better than food but then again, it might be my fault since I ordered the “whitest” food; Katz is Caucasian. I have to try their sushi pizza and honey toast dessert next time, and I’ll be sure to come after 9:30pm—that’s when their happy hours start, ‘til closing. Drinks are $3 and selected dishes half off. If only I lived closer to Tokyo Table…

Address: 400 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007
Phone#: (626) 445-4000
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Maitreya

I made a fool out of myself earlier this week. I had tweeted to find out if Starry Kitchen was opened for dinner as I was meeting up with my friend for dinner this past Wednesday. Starry Kitchen started out their apartment in North Hollywood and my friend confirmed that they’ve moved to Downtown so I assumed that they were opened for dinner, but then I saw that they open ‘til 3pm on their FB page and you never know if websites are updated…so I tweeted. Sinosoul pointed out “they've never been open for dinner ;)”…I am sure there were a few snickers from him and from others…and I am now noticing that there is a phone number...sigh. So I searched and searched for another restaurant and decided on Maitreya.

Maitreya is located in the heart of K-town at the semi-new City Center mall. There’s free 2-hour validated parking if you come on a weekday. We walked to the restaurant since we live close by and also we were going for their happy hour. Translation? Happy hour = comfort food = heavy = walk off meal.

The restaurant’s décor is modern. I like the bar area. You can totally imagine what this place looks like on a weekend –a bunch of Korean men dressed all Euro and Korean women scantily dressed with their LV purses.

We went to the back where the dining area was or was it the front if you’re coming in from the mall..?

So Maitreya’s happy hour deal is half off on their tapa menu, selected pastas, well drinks, and house wines. My friend and I weren’t feeling the vodka so we went for their wines. They only have a house cabernet and a house chardonnay. If you go for the cabernet, let it air out in your glass for ten minutes before taking a sip.

We started with their French fries. It came with their homemade white sauce that was supposed to have Gorgonzola cheese but we think they forgot it since we couldn’t taste it and it was very watery… tasted like milk . It was so bland that I added salt, pepper and lemon juice to it.

The next dish was their popular Ahi Tuna Tacos. We really enjoyed this dish. I would have been happy if we just ate the ahi tuna tacos for dinner. It was light yet filling.




Our next dish was their margarita pizza. As you can see it’s not a traditional margarita pizza with ricotta cheese. The crust was interesting…thin, not greasy…reminded me of those cheap frozen pizzas that you buy at the supermarket for a dollar. The waiter said they make their own crust but then again he had thought their pastas were homemade.


For dessert, our waiter recommended their Classic Tiramisu. I was surprised since Maitreya restaurant is a Korean restaurant but he pointed out that most of the dishes are Italian. Hmm…he’s right but the chefs are Koreans. He was pretty confident so we ordered it. Like the margarita pizza, the tiramisu didn’t look like a “classic” tiramisu as it was heavy on the ricotta…

but once we got to the middle, it looked like a “Classic” tiramisu. It was actually not bad. Be careful on the first bite though because you might choke on the cocoa powder.

Our waiter was kind enough to let us try their homemade (for real) Focaccia bread. It was pretty good. I dare say it was better than their ahi tuna tacos.

Overall, we would go back for Happy Hour. It’s cheap and close. By the way, if you’re not allergic to crustacean like me, you should order their lobster spaghetti. Everyone in the restaurant was eating it.

Address: 3500 W 6th St, Suite 101, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Phone#: (213) 389-0200
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