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.

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.

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)

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.

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.