It’s official. The popular UWS restaurant Darna has closed it’s doors permanently. Koshertopia has confirmed that Darna’s last seating on Columbus Ave. was last week. Management cited negotiations over a lease renewal as the reason for the closure. They will still offer off site catering from their new commissary in the Bronx and a new facility in midtown.
Koshertopia has confirmed that as of March 11th, Cafe 76, the kosher cafe at the JCC on the UWS has closed. JCC Management has informed Koshertopia that plans are underway for a new exciting cafe.
Stay tuned for more details.
Manhattan’s well known Japanese restaurant is coming to Teaneck. Estihana, already with a second location in Brooklyn is expanding to Cedar Lane in the space formally occupied by Chan’s, Esme Bistro & Shalom Hunan’s. The Asian fusion restaurant is well known for their Japanese cuisine as well as culinary creations from Malaysia and Vietnam. Koshertopia staff have been told the restaurant should be open for business in two weeks. Stay Tuned for further details.
After an extended closure, the popular UWS late night takeout Alibaba has reopened for business.
Deal of the Week - 20% off at Stand Up NY
Print and show coupon or reference “The Koshertopia Deal” to receive discount.
Note: Stand Up NY is located 236 West 78th Street on the Upper West Side. it is a non-kosher club, and kosher wings are catered by SuperSol and served on paper plates for Sunday football. Please treat the rest if the club as you would any other bar or lounge.
For this Sunday, December 5th, Koshertopia is excited to announce our most fun deal to date. If your looking for a great place to watch the game with friends and have some great wings (catered by Supersol) and Beer (or full bar service and soft drinks) you have to check out Stand Up NY. The world famous comedy club, located on 78th and Broadway in the Upper West Side, converts really nicely into a great lounge to watch football with friends, and other fans. For this Sunday only, Koshertopia users can bring in this coupon and take 20% off their full bill during the games! This includes, Wings, Beer, Cocktails, and Soft Drinks. We really hope to see you there, because the Koshertopia team definitely will be.
Koshertopia has confirmed that Darna on the Upper West Side is temporarily closed.
Stay tuned for more details.
On your way into the restaurant you first pass tables that are enclosed in a glass area. These patrons can easily feel they are eating outside. Great 72nd Street people watching as well! When I was first seated in the front I asked to move to the back part, I just had to have more ambiances and truly explore the place!
As I was led to the back of the restaurant you pass a lot of scrumptious desserts. This restaurant has a ‘tradition’ of having amazing desserts. Years ago they were called My Most Favorite Dessert Company. You can even buy the restaurant cookbook, which lines the shelves strategically before you enter the main dining area. Even though this is a pretty new venue, it has a longstanding history in Manhattan. In the small hallway on the way to the bathrooms the restaurant’s history is highlighted in reprints of Zagat reviews, newspaper articles, and other press clippings. The restaurant is broken up into three areas. The front which I just mentioned looks onto the street, and encompasses the take out area & counter bakery. The partitioned off middle section boasts bright orange booths with bright white walls. I love the modernity of the restaurant’s orange/white combo. They work the accent color so well.
The details are really noticeable in this sleek space. The leather bound menu holder, staff shirts, jazz music, dessert prints as artwork (yum), and the way the butter is presented (you’ll just have to go check it out yourself).
Last I’ll mention my favorite area, and the one I sat in. The back of the restaurant has exposed brick walls and a Garden Room feel. Natural sunlight pours in and you feel like you are outside since the overhead is all glass. A brick pillar separates the garden area from the middle area. Tiny lights are in the ceiling. I wonder how dark it gets at night, because the lighting is sparse in the back area.
The only negative to this space is that the sound echoes a lot in here since it is such an open space, especially if there are loud children. However I now know that is why they wanted us to sit in the front. I can’t wait to come back to see how romantic-ish the back can be with low lights. Also in the winter this will be a nice venue to frequent if I want to continue the eating outdoors feeling.
When I was told I’d be reviewing a vegan restaurant I was apprehensive, to put it mildly. The few lacto vegetarian restaurants I’ve visited have all shared a fatal flaw – a lack of confidence. Embracing a strong fear that vegetable-only menus wouldn’t appeal to the carnivores in the crowd, they served up imitation meals of mock chicken or beef, which tasted like salt and had the consistency of soggy marshmallows. These experiences lead me to believe a great vegan meal was no more than wishful thinking. Thanks to Blossom, I was wrong.
The restaurant’s allure begins with its décor. Blossom has a stylish, somewhat trendy design that features exposed ductwork, natural wood, and minimalist art. It’s not overpowering, and combined with the ample lighting (a restaurant that realizes I want to look at my company and, more importantly, my food) it creates a truly pleasant atmosphere, perfect for a friendly get together or a date.
My friend and I were seated quickly and with good cheer. Upon browsing the menu, I was delighted to see there wasn’t a single “mock” item in sight. We began our meal with specialty juices dubbed Pink Lady – a sublime juice mixture of beet, pineapple, ginger and pear – and Field of Greens – a mixture of spinach, cucumber, apple, lemon, and ginger that was less successful, only because it was a bit tart.
From there we moved onto appetizers, Goldenbeet Carpaccio and Autumn Sweet Potato Rolls. The beets were served with an excellent sweet drizzle (there was a hint of cinnamon) topped with a dab of horseradish sauce. The sweet potato rolls, raw sweet potatoes wrapped around a medley of raw vegetables, were a little underwhelming despite the efforts of a delightful ginger dipping sauce.
The evening truly blossomed (Get it? Get it? Yeah, you get it.) when the entrees arrived. The first was the Shepherd’s Portobello, Portobello mushrooms topped with a parsnip and truffle mash with a subtle peppercorn cream sauce. The mushrooms were cooked perfectly, and were firm, not crunchy or mushy. They delivered the powerful meaty taste that Portobello is known for, which was complimented perfectly by a smooth and light topping.
The Southern Seitan Sandwich, was no less delicious. It is a perfect combination of crispy fried seitan, which unlike many vegan staples has a satisfying texture, spicy chipotle sauce, and amazing rosemary focaccia bread. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed this sandwich.
The real star of the evening however, was the side order of sweet potato fries. No matter what you get at Blossom, make sure you get an order of these delectable finger foods. They may not be the healthiest item, on what is otherwise a very healthy, organic menu, but they are a must have.
I loved Blossom, and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a moderately priced, parve lunch or dinner (our bill came out to $30 per person, a bit more if you choose to partake in Blossom’s extensive wine selection). In the interest of full disclosure I should point out that my meal at Blossom was free. In the interest of even fuller disclosure I’ll let you know that I gladly paid for my meal the next night. Blossom is a unique restaurant, in my experience – a vegan restaurant without an inferiority complex.
Click here for the Cafe Blossom listing
The 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.
I knew it was only a matter of time before I checked out the new Prime KO restaurant. A buzz has been going around about this place and it came highly recommended by a friend, “Finally a kosher restaurant that got it right!” I had to check it out for myself.
Your first clue that this is not just any restaurant is by the sword that acts as the door handle. Once you enter you are welcomed by friendly hosts behind a reservation area – I don’t remember ever seeing this in a kosher restaurant! The lobby’s walls have cascading Japanese flowers screened on them and round stunning lamps hang from the ceiling. I love the look of these and they are carried out throughout the upstairs of the restaurant. The furniture is leather- a very modern look. I was impressed there was an area to sit down, relax, and wait for the rest of my party to join me. It is also separate from the seating area¬, so you are not on top of anyone trying to enjoy their meal! I was already impressed and I didn’t even enter the main rooms.
I happened to eat downstairs and was guided down a stairway, but I did have a chance to review the top level area. Plenty of seating and a few tables that are close enough to the floor to ceiling windows and watch the passerby on 85th St. Your eye also leads you towards the back-lit red burst that is on the far wall.
Downstairs has a sushi bar with seven barstools as well as a cocktail bar with a television. I’m amazed at how many ‘areas’ this restaurant fit into its floor plan. The walls are tufted in sections and the tables are nicely spread out so you are not on top of the other patrons. The lighting is a bit softer and there are even some ‘nooks’ to sit in, dark wooden floors, and screens on the walls. So many things were taken into consideration to make this place feel calm, yet modern.
Some other observations that I noticed included: nice lounge music playing and as the night gets later, the music gets louder. The bathroom also had music streaming through speakers and some nice touches in there, such as Molton Brown soaps.
Now I usually don’t talk about the food, as this is a design review, but the presentation of everything was so artfully displayed. A friend of mine was saying this week that she isn’t a fish person and wasn’t going to go to Prime KO when I referred it to her. I was aghast as she listed another boring kosher venue she was going to frequent. I mentioned even if you aren’t into fish they have other entries and the desserts itself are worth the trip! I hope she took my advice.
