Lunch at Patsy's on 3rd Ave

So lunch buddy, David calls me up and invites me out to lunch with Victoria and himself. Of course, I said yes when I heard it was Patsy's.

Patsy's serves darn good pizza and salads in an area full of bars and bar food.

The restaurant was still empty when we arrived. The place is decorated with pictures of celebrities, fake windows and a lovely copper ceiling.

The waitress was nice and checked in every so often with us. She was also understanding when we got the giant salad instead of the smaller portion we could handle. She took it back and gave us the small one very graciously!

It was nice to get out of the office and sit at a real restaurant to eat instead of going out and buying food to eat at the desk while still dealing with the phone ringing, emails and work.

Anyway, we started off with the salad. I do admit it took a while for them to prepare the plate but it looks darn good, doesn't it? It is the insalada siciliana, which is divine - a green salad made with mozzarella cheese, roasted peppers, black olives, capers, carrots, tomatoes and artichokes with homemade italian dressing. Oh, and if you do not omit it - anchovies. We ordered without anchovies, even though I totally admit not having eaten many anchovies before. The small appetizer is enough to serve three people well. The family size is too big and we ordered it accidentally and had to send it back to be cut down to this more manageable size. It is absolutely tangy, with the saltiness of the capers cutting into the sweet of the greens, tomato and cheese. It is so good!! 

Insalada Siciliana

Since we were all good with any toppings, we ordered a half sausage, half olive pizza pie. It came piping hot from the brick oven in the back and it looked absolutely divine. There were fresh basil leaves through the pie - with a nicely laid tomato sauce. The sausage was not very oily as it is at other pizzerias and it is crushed into little bits strewn throughout. Perfectly seasoned meat! The olives were cut into smaller pieces and spread through out the lovely thin crust. It was absolutely divine. We ate too much, I think because as we walked over, I felt my stomach expand and my weight gained by 5 pounds. It was totally worth it. :) I liked the decor and I love their pizza and salad!!

Half Sausage, Half Olive Pie - Thin Crust

Patsy's Pizzeria
509 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10016
(between 34th and 35th Streets on 3rd Ave)
tel. (212) 689-7500

Hours of Operation:
Mon - Fri 11:30 am - 9:45 pm
Sat & Sun Noon - 9:45 pm 

 

Cu 29 Copper Bar and Grill Brunch Buffet

Another weekend, another brunch. Yes, we just never posted others yet. This time, we went out to support Nissa who ran her first ever marathon! She placed 325ish!!!

After unsuccessfully trying to spot her, the app finally updated slowly and she had passed us and hit the 15 mile mark!

So we walked east along the park and found the Cu Copper Bar and Grill. I think today was some deal too as they had some southwestern theme going.

The service was a bit slow but decent. Our plates and drinks were cleared timely.

 

As we had a groupon for it, we ate unlimited buffet and bellinis. The buffet was serve yourself and the selections were limited.

They served eggs, potatoes, French toast, pork sausage, pork bacon, mini muffins, and fruit salad.

It was warm but not hot. They were very slow in replacing the French toast but the other stuff was replaced more quickly. I even had someone help serve my first plate. o(^▽^)o

The eggs were tasty, nothing special. The bacon extra crispy, and the sausage was alright. The mini muffins were quite delicious - blueberry was blueberry-ish and the corn muffin was yummy. The French toast was okay too. The real bad part is no subs so if you don't eat pork, no meat for you... This kind of made it a no for non porky eaters but for me is cool.

Overall, it was nothing special but two big plates were filling for about $18 a person with the groupon, tax, and tip.

Cu Copper Bar and Grill

232 N 12th St, Brooklyn, NY, 11211

Tel. 347-889-5531

MON-THU: 11:30am - 12am
FRIDAY: 11:30am - 3am
SATURDAY: 11:00am - 3am
SUNDAY: 11:00am - 12am
SAT&SUN BRUNCH
FROM: 11:00am - 4:30pm

Gravy

Gravy

Location: 32 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010
(212) 600-2105
Hours: Sun, Sat 5pm–12am; Mon-Fri 4pm–12am

Southern cooking by Chef Vignola, who you may remember from the show Chopped.

Well, I bought a Groupon special invited some guests and went to the restaurant on a Sunday evening for dinner.

The picture on the left is the fried green tomatoes with goat cheese. This was delicious, green tomatoes usually have a more acidic flavor that can be described as tangy, different than red sweet tomatoes and in combination with the goat cheese which is creamy and tart, I thought this went nicely. I would have this again! The right is their table share Charcuterie, which really hit the spot on so many levels. There were so many combinations of meats and pickled items that I enjoyed and my guests did too. For dinner we shared the grits three ways, mac and cheese and the corn flake crusted chicken. Now, first thing I thought of when I saw the corn flake chicken was that recipe that used to be on the back of the Kellogg's corn flake box and I remember begging my mother to make it...and I never begged her again because it was terrible. So, I approached this choice with some trepidation and surprisingly it was nothing like the corn flake box recipe. The chicken was juicy and the flakes were crunchy and not too sweet.

Well, the meal overall was very good. I would go again except next time I am hoping to try some of the seafood recipes.

The staff was also very attentive and helpful with suggestions.

Banh mi from Foodie

Banh mi Pork Meat Balls

I live for banh mi. There is just something about toasted bread filled with meat and veggies. Today we ordered from Foodie and we all got something different. However, I decided to go for the banh mi (which just translate to bread in vietnamese) pork meat balls. The #6 banh mi is filled with julienned pickled carrots and daikon, seasoned cooked pork meat (they're more like a soft pate than meat balls), cilantro and drizzled with a hot sauce (sriracha hot sauce). 

The carrots and daikon radish is julienned and then left to pickle in fish sauce, sugar and water. They become really tasty and even I, who does not like veggies too much, eat this mix happily. But in a sandwich, it makes the sammich way way better!!! The pork meat balls are made of pork and seasoning - however, these are so soft, that they are mushed in the sammich! Add just a bit of cilantro, cucumber, and hot sauce and there you have it. The best tasting pork 'meat ball' sammich ever!

So good - up close look.

You have to just try it. It is absolutely delicious! Unless of course, you are allergic to pork or any of the ingredients in the sammich!

Foodie is part of the Boi empire but it is the East Side counterpart. They deliver with a $10 minimum and any first orders online come with a 15% off the total. They also have a frequent eater program where 6 points (1 point per delivery) means $5 off your next order.

Foodie

246 East 44th Street
bet. 2nd & 3rd Avenues

New York, NY 10017

Tel: 212.681.6541

And that was my lunch for today!