Joes Ginger
Joes Ginger
113 Mott St, New York 10013
Btwn Canal & Hester St
After reading reviews on this site and others, my GF and I decided to try this place. The whole experience was strange, uncomfortable, and completely overrated.
We walk in and they seat us at a table directly in front of the door and right next to the register. We sit down for a second and i ask the hostess if we can change out seats as it was very cold and drafty where we were. They said OK no problem they had to clear a table off for us. We continued to sit at our current table waiting. As they finish a group of 4 people come in and the same hostess just seats them down there and completely ignore us. We decide to stay where we were seated instead of leaving because of what we read about the food, but that was a problem.
We order 3 dishes. Smoked fish (the NYT writeup said it was good), Shredded Eel and Yellow chives, Drunken Crabs.
The waiter who didn’t speak any English, tried to convey that they didn’t the drunken crabs, fine we would have to order something else, the waiter wouldn’t leave us until we ordered something else. We order calamari with black bean sauce.
Still no water or tea at this point, they bring us the smoked fish, which was full of bones. No problem bones we can deal with bones.
Finally got some tea and water when the waiter came back to tell us they didn’t have the shredded eel. This time we told him to come back in 5 minutes. We were pissed at this point. We decide to just get what everyone else around us and order soup dumplings. Our waiter never came back so I stop someone and ask them for 1 order of crab soup dumplings. He didn’t seem to understand what “id like 1 order of crab soup dumplings” means because he had to confer with someone else just to re ask if we had order it already.
Finally we get all our food and the only really enjoyable thing was the soup dumplings.
Oh yeah, i almost forget to mention that a entire group of people at another table would not stop staring at me and my girl. Even after saying out loud, “are these people staring at us?” They wouldn’t stop. Very weird.
Even though our bill totaled 24 dollars, over all, it sucked.
Dankster Rating: 1/10
Jackie Gets Snackies at Woo Lae Oak
148 Mercer St.
The boyfriend and I made a trip there last Saturday night after a coworker of mine was raving about what a great date she had there as well as the food.
Atmosphere:
Very eclectic, SOHO sleek. Dark and modern. Dark mahogany finished wood tables with sharp edges and tiny lights. Waiters have a little attitude but whatever, its their rent money they are hustling for not yours.
Each table has a mini-hibachi center for each guest to grill it up like Bobby flay….no cheesy hibachi chefs tossing a prawn into their pocket or flaming onion volcanos to be seen.
Menu:
The appetizers are all a la carte so you chose from a variety of sashimi, salads, all sorts of “fusion.” We chose the tuna sashimi and the Chicken drumlettes….tasty.
The sashimi was served on huge block of ice accompanied by the normal ginger, wasabi combo…good times. Then came out the drumlettes…..not quite a drumstick….who knows if it was in fact chicken but it was great. Saturated in a garlic, ginger spicy sauce, we were definitely satisfied with our selection thus far. We then washed it down with some cold sake’ as the waiter turned the fire up on the grill in front of us and the anticipation mounted.
For the entree, you pick from a selection of meats and aquatic life all marinated in sumptuous sauces and order side dishes as you see fit. Not knowing what were doing whatsoever, we ordered filet mignon and prawns with side orders of roasted garlic and seaweed wraps.
When it was served to us, the waiter briefly explained that you just put it on the grill and let it cook…duhhhhh. thanks champ, way to be educated. Anyway, served with what we ordered was a tray of various veggies and rice.
I, of course, got creative and made little grilled shrimp and veggie rolls out of my seaweed wraps as my boyfriend manned the grill and loved every minute of the experience.
You have to be careful though…….there are nice chop sticks and run of mill splintered ones on the table. One set is for the raw meat and fish to be handled with, the other is for your cooked food to be eaten with. Getting too drunk and eating with the chop stick that handled the raw meat could cause a nice bout of salmonella and then there goes the weekend, so be careful.
We of course topped the meal off with some tiramsu and Cappuccino with Frangelico……divine.
Loot-factor:
$$$ (considering the sake, wine and after dinner drinks as well)
-about the cost of a pair of True Religion jeans
To sum up…….Boys, take a girl here if you want to have a great time making things together…even if it’s a first or second date, she will be impressed and you will have something to talk about the entire time…..don’t talk too much though, or you will end up like my friend who burned all their food b/c they were too busy talking and getting drunk. After dinner, she might ask you to take that block of ice with the sashimi on it to go and go back to her apartment and get creative………..
El Paso Restaurant
134 W Houston St
Btwn MacDougal & Sullivan
Mexican/Spanish Cuisine
Bar/Drinks: The worst Margaritas I have ever had. You would think that a Mexican/Spanish restaurant would know how to make a good Margarita. Well I guess they proved that assumption wrong. It’s kind of sad when a chain Restaurant like, Chili’s Margarita Bar and Grill, can put your restaurant to shame.
Service: Non-English speaking employees, enough said. They also did nothing to solve the mystery of the margarita that was the same color as the glass of water.
Food: Not bad overall…still, I would have rather ate at Taco Bell. At least there employees can speak English.
Atmosphere: An Italian Restaurant transformed into a Mexican Paradise, however it was lacking the paradise part. Faux class, not a place you want to walk into post-bong filled with ice cubes.
Dankster Rating: 4/10
(I would never go there again. Save your money kids and eat at Taco Bell)
- Review by Dank Food Consultant, B.R.J. Spencer
Panchitos
Panchitos – on McDougal St. near Bleeker.
I should explain that “Panchito†roughly translates to “little stomach†or “small appetite†in English. I thought this to be an inauspicious name for any restaurant, but one of my companions, an LES rocker and notorious Latinophile, was quick to dismiss my dubious impression as cultural ignorance.
Being the glass-half-full type of dankster that I am, I put aside my initial skepticism, and collapsed into the embrace of a nice, comfortable black leather couch. That’s right, a couch. Things were looking up.
We opted for a pitcher of the house’s unfrozen margarita, conspicuously priced at $43.95. I recall not being unable to decide if this was a reasonable price or not. A day spent at work with a torturous hangover leaves me firmly in the negatory column – we paid 45 bucks for some schwag-ass tequila. At least we got to eat on couches.
It became clear that compulsive margarita slugging dulled my palate, as I dove into my so-called “big†burrito with gusto. For some reason I was expecting grilled steak inside my burrito, but that’s not what goes down at this Mexican mini-franchise. While the burrito’s exterior was smothered in tasty melted monterrey jack, I was bummed to discover an uninviting ground beef filling. Despite the tequila’s diminishing effect on my ability to discern quality, I could readily tell that this was cheap ground meat, even by ground meat standards. It wasn’t terrible though, and for a late Monday night checkered with bong hits and booze it wasn’t going to hurt anyone. I think everyone in the party would agree that the food was really an afterthought to the relaxation offered by the couches and agreeable weather.
For me, the mixture of the potent margarita, the persistent comfort of the dining sofas and the intoxicating fumes of Memorial Day spirit overrode the otherwise mediocre meal to win the day. For you the reader, while I would hesitate to recommend Panchito’s as a top Mexican cuisine option, its moderately priced menu of Cal-Mex comfort food and kitschy décor could make it a force to be reckoned with on a random weeknight in the Village.
Dankster Rating 6.0/10
Stanton Social
99 Stanton Street, NY 10002 – 212 995 0099
We all know and love the Lower East Side for its gritty feel, celebrity guest DJ’s that guy who sells S’mores from a food cart, and dirty bars that are constantly packed full of danksters, right? But what we don’t expect from the LES is a super hip 3 level urban oasis with creative drinks, fusion tapas style dishes spanning from Mexican to sushi to Thai. Rather than offering individual starters & main courses, The Stanton Social serves dishes that are designed for sharing among friends and are brought to the table steadily & continuously throughout the meal. YUMMM. Let me try to express how delicious everything I tasted was.
For a drink, I had the Black Magic which was a mixture of Champagne and Guinness. It smelt like beer tasted like fruit/nut infused champagne. It was a sweet refreshing drink.
For the 5 of us that were dining, we ordered about 8-10 dishes.
Crispy Oysters Rockefeller – Crispy, Lemony and awesome.
Charred Squid and Lettuce wrappers with Miso Butter and Asian sauces – Good, but not as charred or flavorfull as good squid can be. I relied on the dipping sauces and miso butter to make it good.
French Onion Soup Dumplings – Very tasty. Everyone enjoyed these.
Lobster, Chorizo & Artichoke Paella Cakes – Delish.
Tamarind Glazed Scallop & Foie Gras Satays – Excellent. The Foie Gras melted in my mouth and Scallops are a great textural contrast.
Steamed Clams with lemongrass, thai basil broth & Chinese pork sausage – There were plenty of clams and tons of sausage. Very tasty.
Braised Short Rib Ravioli with tzatziki & horseradish beets – The ravioli were crispy on the edges and soft and good on the inside.
Kobe Beef Burgers – Awesome
Lobster Rolls with old bay potato chips – Very Aweosme.
Peking Duck Quesadilla – Three layers of tortilla…duck was luke warm on the inside…only flavored with hoisen sauce… not that great.
All in all, the food was excellent, the atmosphere chill, set by candle lit tables and the speakers pumping the chill out mix. Its a great date place, or just a place to grab drinks.
Dankster rating 7.5/10