And yet another one closes. Manhattan’s well known midtown lunch and Saturday night hot spot, J2 is temporarily closed.
Stay Tuned for further details
Posts Tagged ‘Pizza’
Basil Opening New Location – Exclusive
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
Basil, the popular Pizza & Wine Bar that opened in Crown Heights over a year ago is set to open a second location. Koshertopia has confirmed that the new location will be located in the up and coming neighborhood of Dumbo right under the Brooklyn Bridge and will be a meat resturant.
Stay tuned for more details including the address, opening day & other exclusive information.
Broadway Cafe Closed Temporarily
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Koshertopia has confirmed that the popular downtown lunch spot Broadway Cafe has temporarily closed. Management informed our staff they are aiming to re-open this within the next few days. (May be open for business today)
Basil Pizza & Wine Bar
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Previously on the Kosher Kritic I wondered, “Given that there is so much bad pizza out there, where can you go to score a good slice?” In that post I reviewed Rosa’s Pizza – a Pizzeria in the Empire State Building – and concluded that in a casual atmosphere you’d be hard pressed to beat Rosa’s. That’s all well and good, but what if you’re looking for a more intimate setting? To that end I set out to investigate Basil Pizza & Wine Bar, the trendy pizza place in that trendiest of neighborhoods, Crown Heights. And, just to make sure the setting was intimate enough, I went there on a date, but you’re not interested in hearing about that (and if you are, well then, hi MOM!).
A few months back a small publication wrote an article about Basil’s attempts to bridge a fractured society. While that may work for the New York Times (whatever that is), I wanted to delve into Basil purely as a restaurant (I’m a food critic not a sociologist). It is with that mindset that I made the trip out to Crown Heights.
Standing in front of the restaurant, I was struck by how starkly Basil’s modern aesthetic contrasts its surroundings. It has a beautifully paned front window revealing exposed bricks (a Kosher Kritic favorite), a rear wall that doubles as a wine case, and dazzling blown glass light fixtures. My only gripe, and it is admittedly a small one, is that the space is a bit cramped, with tables closer together than would be ideal – chalk it up as the price of popularity.
We were seated quickly and took our time mulling over the large selection of thin crust pizzas. We ultimately settled on “Margherita” and parmesan & white asparagus pies (narrowly edging out the Bosc pear & blue cheese). As an appetizer we had an order of Basil Fries, which were outstanding – perfectly crispy with a smooth center and topped with just the right amount of salt and parmesan – an absolute must have. The parmesan & white asparagus pie, which was also topped with onions, roasted peppers, and smoked paprika, was very good, but the “Margherita,” featuring homemade mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and delicious pesto in lieu of tomato sauce, really stole the show.
To cap off a great meal we ordered tiramisu, which was amazing, and lavender dusted funnel cake, which was as delicious as it sounds, though the basil ice cream it came with was a bit less successful. The meal came in just over sixty dollars, including the tip, which is outstanding, considering the quality of the food and the atmosphere. I can’t speak to Basil’s success in unifying a disparate community, but I can tell you that it has some of the best and most unique pizza around.
Basil Pizza & Wine Bar
270 Kingston Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11213
(718) 285-8777
Rosa’s Open Again
Monday, February 21st, 2011
Koshertopia has confirmed that after a brief closure Rosa’s Pizza is once again open for business.
Rosa’s Pizzeria
Thursday, February 10th, 2011
Cheese, tomato sauce, dough. Pizza, with its three basic ingredients, is really a very simple food*. Why then is good pizza so hard to find? While that may be a good question – possibly even a great or profound one – it is not a question I am going to answer here. Instead let’s focus on something a bit more practical. Given that there is so much bad pizza out there, where can you go to score a good slice?
It is in search of the answer to this question that I sought a guru in India went to Rosa’s Pizzeria, located on the ground floor of the Empire State Building. I’d been hearing great things about Rosa’s for a while, but I just never made my way over there. I can’t say exactly why I didn’t go until now, but I can tell you that I feel like an idiot.
There is no outside entrance to Rosa’s, so you are forced to find your way through the labyrinthine hallways of the massive building’s lobby. Navigation is not my strong suit (I’m a food critic not a cartographer) but I managed to find the restaurant with little difficulty. Now that we’ve gotten directional issues out of the way, let’s talk about pizza!
I tried the plain pizza, a “Grandma” slice (cut in a square with thin crust, loads of sauce, topped with mozzarella and parmesan), a fried eggplant slice, a roasted pepper slice, a broccoli and mushroom slice, a “Margherita” slice (like the “Grandma” but more traditionally shaped), and a tomato and mozzarella slice. Upon hearing my excitement about trying his restaurant for the first time, the owner brought me a batch of fresh-out-of-the-oven dough knots (think garlic knots, sans garlic), which were delicious.
All of the slices were excellent, but there were really two highlights for me, the “Grandma” slice and the roasted pepper slice. The mozzarella and parmesan featured on the “Grandma” complemented each other perfectly and the pepper slice was not only topped with delightfully crisp slices of pepper, it looked beautiful to boot. The sauce on both (which is the sauce they use on all slices) had a unique and satisfying sweetness that managed not to be overpowering despite its robust flavor.
I’ve heard people say that Rosa’s is expensive at $2.75 for a regular slice and $4.00 for a topping slice (though the slices are big and everything is steeply discounted if you buy a pie). Relative to other pizza places this may be expensive, but based solely on the quality of the food, it’s the best kind of bargain. If you’re looking for a good slice of pizza, you really can’t do much better than Rosa’s Pizzeria.
*note: Pizza seems like a simple food, but it really isn’t. There are so many questions: What kind and how much cheese should you use? What flavor should the sauce have? Should that flavor dominate the pizza or should the cheese take center stage? Should the dough be thin or thick? Should it be crispy or soft? But this isn’t pizza-making 101, it is pizza-eating 9000 and it is a robot from the future.
Rosa’s Pizza
350 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10001
(212) 244-7672
Ariel’s of Englewood
Thursday, October 14th, 2010Raise your hand if you’ve heard of this brand new restaurant before reading the title of this review. Odds are you haven’t and you really should fix that.
Walking into the restaurant for the first time my friend and I were greeted warmly by the owner, Craig Solomon, and shown to our table. The restaurant is spacious, very well lit (a restaurant that wants to let me see my food), and stylishly designed with a clean take on classical Italian motifs.
As we were seated, the waitress brought us a basket of delicious, home-made crispy, baked, Parmesan crusted bread. Our meal began with a selection of soups, a classic tomato garlic soup and a zucchini with mint soup that while good on their own, became sublime as vehicles for the bread.
After the soups we got a couple appetizers, risotto poppers and tuna tostadas. The fried risotto and wild mushroom balls served with an oregano mayonnaise sauce were extremely rich and buttery – and as someone who likes mushrooms, I loved them, but they are certainly not for everyone. The tuna was perfectly pan seared and served with cucumber and avocado on a crunchy tostada and topped with an excellent chipotle aioli.
Our appetizers were followed by four mains: pesto pizza with roasted tomatoes, striped bass, feta and spinach stuffed flounder, and cappelletti with fresh mozzarella. Pesto pizza is a tricky thing, it’s often dry, overly salty, or tastes only of garlic, but none of those problems plague this pizza. This is a truly delicious pizza, moist and flavorful. One thing that I was thrilled not to find on the menu was sushi. There is a bit of an epidemic in kosher dining that all restaurants, from pizza stores to steakhouses must have sushi! Craig, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, and trained with Bobby Flay for 2 years, takes his fish dishes in a more elegant and creative direction. The striped bass is seared and served with it’s crispy skin still attached. It is served sitting regally atop a bed of cilantro lime rice and mixed vegetables. Both the presentation and taste were spectacular. The flounder, stuffed with spinach and feta cheese, was quite possibly the first feta cheese dish I have ever enjoyed, since it managed not to be too salty. The homemade cappelletti pasta was served with mozzarella, made in house, that had an outstandingly soft texture, though the sauce it was served with was a bit standard given how flavorful everything else was.
Up until this point the meal was very very good, great even, but dessert is what really put the meal over the edge. It started with an out of this world flying saucer, or ice cream sandwich, made with home made cinnamon ice cream, on a freshly baked chocolate oatmeal cookie topped with a delicious caramel sauce. This was followed by a flourless chocolate cake, one of many gluten free options on the menu, that was as rich as you could possibly hope for. Then came the highlight of the meal, the autumn carrot cake. This cake, teeming with chunks of carrot, was topped with a super rich cream cheese frosting garnished with candied lemon and orange zest. It is an absolute must have.
Ariel’s restaurant may be a bit out of the way – it’s in Englewood – and a bit under the radar, but don’t let those things keep you from checking out one of the finest and most affordable (dishes range between $15-$20) dairy restaurants around today.
Click Here for the Ariel’s Restaurant listing
Perfect for ‘Noi Due’ (the Two of Us)…or the Whole Family
Friday, August 6th, 2010The Italian café Noi Due is on the lower level of an Upper West Side building, so it may be easy to walk right passed it if you’re not paying attention. But once you descend the stairs to the restaurant, it feels nothing like the basement space it’s in. It has a warm atmosphere and manages to feel like both an Italian café and an Italian restaurant.
We were greeted immediately by one of the servers, and were seated in a seat right next to the window. I glanced over the menu and was impressed with how many dozens of options there were. I thought it would be fun to share a few smaller things. We started with the funghi ripieni – stuffed mushrooms with feta cheese, baked in marinara sauce and Parmigiano. They were served with a few slices of toasted bread. The marinara sauce was incredible. It had so much flavor, and complimented the earthiness of the mushrooms and the saltiness of the feta cheese.
Next we had the Mediterranean salad, which had romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, olives, feta, za’atar, and a lemon vinaigrette. The salad was was really good, but there was entirely too much dressing.
A lot of the pizzas on the menu looked great, and it was definitely hard to narrow it down. We finally decided on the Melanzane E Formaggi Di Capra pizza, with marinara, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, eggplant, spinach, and oregano. The pizza was my favorite part of the meal. It had the fantastic marinara that was served on the mushrooms, but also had a great mix of toppings.
Noi Due means “the two of us” in Italian, and it is a great location for a date, whether it’s a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, or a great Italian meal. But it is also a great spot for a group dinner, as long as you get there early enough to beat the crowd. I was there on the early side during the week and by time I left, the entire restaurant had filled up.
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- Mushrooms
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- Pizza
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- Mediterranean salad
NOIDUE: Poco Ma Buono
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010I couldn’t wait to eat at the Italian restaurant Noidue, (as everyone seemed to be raving about it, but I had to SEE the place for myself) and once I did, I have been back several times. The entrance is a bit misleading, as you have to walk down some stairs to gain access to the door. Noidue is still a fairly new establishment, so I’m ok with the fact that their sign is still a hanging banner. Once inside you clearly feel like you are in a unique underground space. Small arches with interspersed bricks and wooden planks line the ceiling towards the back wall. A gorgeous stone back wall with a wood burning oven is the focal point of the restaurant. The remaining walls are painted a soft lime green.
Noi Due
However, paying attention to the details when you first walk in the door, a decadent dessert cabinet catches your eye! The coffee bar takes up a large space on the right side of the restaurant and it’s wrapped in brick and wood. You are able to stop in and order an espresso drink, without having to sit down. While waiting for our table we were served a lemon spice tea. I thought that was such a nice touch to the ambiance and spoke volumes about the hospitality, since we had not been seated yet.
I happened to be there for dinner and noticed dim lighting, with candles lit on each table. There are mostly tables for two, but they are flexible to move tables together for larger parties. I really liked the lamps that extended from the ceilings. They seemed to be handpicked from the artist themselves. I instantly imagined myself taking over a table in the middle of the day here with my laptop. Seemed like it would be a nice place to just order coffee and get some work done. The restaurant is always full at night (not sure what type of patronage frequents during the day).
Being the graphic designer that I am, I was impressed with the layout of the menu and the logo of the restaurant. By the way, Noidue means (two of us) and Poco Ma Buono (means a little bit good) – I asked the waiter since they wear black t-shirts with the name and logo screen printed on them. The pictures on the back wall are of Italian scenes, but could also resemble Tzfat, which I thought was very interesting.
The wait staff is extremely friendly and may I add good looking. Their eagerness to please each patron adds a positive element to the ambiance of this restaurant. There is a definite buzz to this place, as it is usually full and everyone is chatting away at their tables. I usually don’t talk about the food, but there is no question how good everything tastes and is presented. My brother (a hospitality management major) accompanied me on one of my most recent meals and noted how impressed he was with this restaurant. Enough said.
Click Here for the NoiDue listing
Aroma Pizza Cafe to Open
Sunday, October 18th, 2009Another midtown lunch option is set to open the week of October; Aroma Pizza Café is finishing the final touches to its large space on 36th St. (between 5th and 6th).
Aroma Cafe will offer the range of lunch options we have become accustom to – fresh salads, sushi, sandwiches, fish, pizza and hot lunch varieties, but is singling itself apart from the rest with a hummus bar.
Prices are set to be competitive – check it out!