Kyoto* (#238, 12/11/12)
Rahhhhh!
Since I’m moving towards a vegetarian diet (or at least pescatarian…or maybe non-red meat…or at least less-red meat), I need to explore these sushi places. Having said that, I think this is the fifth one I’ve been to in New Orleans, so that’s kind of weird. Anyway, I hit up Kyoto, which came highly recommended, and it was pretty good. One weird thing is that you have to eat with little pieces of wood, like sticks. Not sure what to make of that, but I gave it a go. Good dinner discussion revolved around what are the elements that make up a restaurant evaluation. We came up with three keys – service, atmosphere and food. And for me, I may be bizarre, but I only give 50% to food. And that may have changed since dinner; sometimes I confuse myself. Anyway, so I’m going with 50% to food, 30% to atmosphere and 20% to service. I do think each of those items can weigh heavier however, which means my system makes no sense whatsoever. Like if service really sucks, then food and atmosphere lose points as well.
Anyway, to get back to Kyoto, I had the Desiree Roll (dynamite, crawfish, and crabstick are rolled together and then tempura fried and served with a creamy wasabi sauce…wait a minute, “dynamite”? Is that an actual food? And that’s not the only weird use of a word on the menu, they also use “crunchy” as a noun). Seems like in New Orleans, that should be called “Street Car Named Desiree.” Too bad my friend Pat wasn’t there, because they had a Yum Yum Roll as well. I also had the Gyoza Dumplings (Ground beef seasoned with fresh ginger, garlic and cabbage wrapped in gyoza skin and pan steamed…maybe that “ground beef” thing conflicts with this vegetarian thing, doesn’t it? Dammit. I love dumplings of all types; no way I could resist). It was all pretty tasty; I will explore sushi further after this experience. So the food was solid. Should I give it points? Let’s say 40.
Then the atmosphere – not too bad. There is a Godzilla poster on the wall, which seems appropriate for a sushi place. Though I was surprised to see lasers coming out of his eyes. Did Godzilla have laser eyes? I don’t think I remember that. Decent music playing, oldies – the Elvis bugged me a bit, but some other good stuff. Seats seemed comfortable; funky painting on the wall and interesting light shades. Solid atmosphere too. Will go with a 20.
And then the service; the service kind of sucked. In the waiter’s defense, he was pretty much a meathead. He ended one sentence with “yo,” which was a little funny, I guess, but shows the issue. As in, “All right, here’s your menus, yo.” Then it took forever for him to get back around to us. He even asked, “Do you have any questions?” We said, “No.” And he said, “Good” and left. Seems like taking order time, but hey, whatever, yo. So in my new rating system, the service is going to get a…5.
Also sampled the hot saki. Not sure I’ve ever had that. And I still don’t really know what to make of it. Usually I avoid all hot liquids, so that probably contributed to my apprehension. Hmm, drink selections/tastes may carry weight at some places too. Maybe I’ll make those a bonus, so no bonus here.
And our final score for Kyoto is…65. Not too shabby. Although since it’s the first place I have actually rated, maybe it sucks. Really need a frame of reference.
GW Fin’s (#237, 11/15/12)
I’ve heard a lot of good things about GW Fin’s - in fact, I even recommended this to people before I even went there. Well, I finally made it, and it was spectacular. Very good meal. I had the wood-grilled grouper with some sort of pineapple glaze, plantains and other good stuff. What’s with the plantains? Been eating them a lot lately. Also had the blue crab pot stickers which were outstanding also (just started and ended that sentence with the same word) and some sort smoked sizzling oysters (nothing special). This is a great seafood/fish stop so definitely check it out – if you’re into that sort of thing.
Carmo* (#236, 11/15/12)
Carmo is a “tropical cafe” and it’s good. Definitely different food here, and supposedly healthy, which I usually shy away from. They have a lot of weird fruits and different Brazilian type items. This is good preparation for me living in Rio. I went for the Rico, which is a fork sandwich; that doesn’t mean it’s made out of forks though, instead, it’s a bizarre sandwich that you eat with a fork. It had shredded pork, which is solid, then cheese and some sort of sauce. But the whacky twist is that it is served on a grilled plantain patty. As I said, very bizarre (though not as bizarre as the miniature donkey/horse creature I saw last night). Anyway, it was a solid meal and pretty close to work, so definitely a potential addition to my lunch rotation. They also have vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options – so sustenance for all!
This was not dinner.
Cafe Abyssinia (#235, 11/12/12)
15 Years of Worry
I am thinking that if I’m going to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans, I’ll have to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans. So time to venture out a little bit and try some Ethiopian food from Cafe Abyssinia on Magazine Street. Interestingly, there are two Ethiopian restaurants in New Orleans. I’m really not sure what to make of that; I guess it just means that I will be eating more Ethiopian food. Perhaps. Having done absolutely no research, I just went for the kifko, which is some sort of beef dish that seemed like it may be spicy. Beef seems good, right? And spicy is always good. Well, hindsight being 20/20, maybe not the best option. I read up on this kifko character and found out that it’s raw beef. Reading on, I find out that those unphased by raw beef can move onto other treats. However, I quickly became distracted looking up mad cow disease, which it turns out isn’t really transmittable to humans. However, it causes something else in humans, which will usually kill you, though the symptoms can take up to 15 years to manifest. So anyway, if anyone notices psychotic behavior, dementia or coma from me from now until 2027, it is likely due to the kifko. Turns out I might be phased by eating raw beef. My point is, next time, I may stick with chicken. Assuming nothing bad can come from eating birds, right?
I guess the basics…the food is served on a big platter and you tear off pieces of thin bread…almost tortilla-like, but not really (if that helps – wait, maybe the picture will help, the bread is the rolled up stuff at the top, and that white stuff is some sort of feta-like cheese, which apparently is good on the kifko. It prevent’s mad cow disease. But I didn’t realize that, so I didn’t use any; again, that damn hindsight thing). Back to the food, so it’s a good skill to properly tear the bread; it shouldn’t be that hard to tear a good and useful square, but I struggled. Anyway, you tear off hunks of bread and then sort of scoop up the food, squeezing up pieces with the bread and eating it. All of the food is essentially mushy. Man, I am thinking this isn’t selling the place. The lentils were good, so it has that going for it. Honestly, it wasn’t bad, I’m just struggling now due to a little dementia setting in.
Oh, it’s also BYOB, so bring some drinks if you like.
As far as the picture, my first effort at a photo on this blog, was described by one friend, “So Ethiopian food is school cafeteria leftovers?” Actually, good guess, but no, what it is, is a lot of raw beef. Mmmm.
Satsuma (#234, 11/3/12)
I’ve heard about this Satsuma place in the Bywater, but hadn’t made it down there yet. Wait around long eneough and I guess it comes to you, because they opened up another place on Maple Street Uptown. So I dropped in to check out the breakfast offerings on Saturday morning. It’s a casual type place where you order at the counter and then just find a seat. It was pretty crowded so a bit of a wait, but overall, I wasn’t inspired by the menu. Seems to be one of those healthy places, which is always going to be a problem for me. I usually prefer the unhealthy options. I ordered a bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich – wanted it on a biscuit, but they were out (a good sign, only fresh stuff), so went with regulat wheat bread. Solid sandwich; it was good enough that I went back on Sunday for another one. But overall, nothing great.
Annunciation (#233, 10/31/12)
Dropped in at another new place for a little Halloween dinner. Annunciation, which was opened by a former chef from Clancy’s, is located on, wait for it…Annunciation Street! It’s in the old Deanie’s building in the middle of the Warehouse District. It’s a pretty cool looking place, well set-up, but not a lot of New Orleans character. Friendly service and good food as well. I had the veal annunciation, figured I should try one of their signature dishes and it was quite good. Veal over pasta, essentially. The drum looked good also, so it may be a worthwhile place to check out again, but it didn’t bowl me over…of course, I could be an idiot in that I may have forgotten the best part of the meal – the oyster appetizer! Fried oysters with melted brie. I like cheese on a lot of things, but have never considered it on oysters, yet it was awesome. Other things that I haven’t tried cheese on/with: ice cream, peanut butter, apple pie and any sort of fish.
Charlie’s Steakhouse (#232, 10/26/12)
Need a fun, old-school place to bring a group of carnivores? Then I would definitely recommend Charlie’s Steakhouse on Dryades in Uptown. It’s likely that as soon as you walk in, you will be greeted by the owner and the service continues from there. Don’t worry about reading the fine print on the menu, because there isn’t any. For that matter, there isn’t a menu. Do you want a big ribeye, a little ribeye or a filet? Be careful ordering the filet, you may take some abuse. Also be careful with the mountain of onion rings they will bring to your table – very good, but you don’t want to get too full. They do serve a salad, and it’s quite good, even better with leftover onion rings as croutons. The sides are solid as well – potatoes au gratin and potato wedges for us. Definitely an excellent stop for old-style steak, don’t expect fancy sauces or anything like that (there might be A1 on the table, that’s about it).
Maurepas Foods* (#231, 10/20/12)
For some reason, this Maurepas Foods place in the Bywater had been rattling around in my head for awhile, so I figured I better get out there and see what it’s all about. Upon arrival, I realized that I had found Hipster Headquarters. The host was clearly a high-ranking hipster, he was dressed in mostly black, with a black vest as well as the essential black glasses, but he clearly established his credentials with the well-coiffed handlebar mustache. Well played, Mr. Hipster. The place has a good atmosphere, though the acoustics are a little off; it stinks when “Tainted Love” is playing and you can’t really hear it. To lead off, the drinks (made by an intoxicologist, not a bartneder, or even a mixologist) were very good. Well, maybe I should say one drink was – the Que Guapo, some kind of tequila concoction with grapefruit juice and other stuff which was one of the best drinks I have had in ages. As far as food, be prepared for small portions (maybe it’s a sneaky tapas joint without warning in advance). One item you may read a lot about are the goat tacos. Not having ever eatne goat, I had to give them a run. Overall, I’m thinking they are just trying to be too cool and say, “We have goat tacos, not those other boring-type tacos.” I would have preferred beef, chicken or fish. And that’s not even because of the various pieces of goat bone included with the meat. It just wasn’t that good. So overall, the place has some character and it’s a cool building, but I doubt I’ll be back anytime soon.
Sarita’s* (#230, 10/19/12)
Checked in at another Freret Street stop for lunch – Sarita’s Grill – a Latin fusion place. Apparently, Sarita’s has been going on Freret Street for a long time – well before all of the hip, new places have come to the area. It’s a solid stop, good prices, decent, casual atmosphere. Also, they have free chips and queso to start, which is always a bonus. The waitress was very helpful, and she was wearing legwarmers, I believe. Either that or some very bizarre socks, hard to say. I went with the fish tacos which various reviews recommended. They were okay, nothing spectacualr; but I liked the looks of the quesadillas, so will probably go back at some point.
Bacchanal (#229, 10/13/12)
Bacchanal is defined as a drunken or riotous celebration…well, this may not have been exactly that, but it is a pretty cool New Orleans place. It has been open for a while in the Bywater, but just recently added a full bar and kitchen. It used to be a great place to go and buy a bottle of wine (it is basically a wine shop that you can browse the different wines), then hang out outside and listen to some live music. Now you can do the same thing, except they have added the full kitchen and bar. We sat a tiny, rickety table that actually looked a bit like a toadstool, amongst some trees and branches – and had a great time. I munched on some bacon-wrapped dates and a flat iron steak (with chimicurri sauce, which I’m liking of late) and we sampled a couple of different wines. Good place to start an evening in one of the more cool, lesser-known New Orleans neighborhoods and while the night may have ended in some chaos, it was still pretty solid.
An added note, from their website: “Bacchanal is a wine retail shop, a wine bar, a live music venue, a New York style deli, an international bistro and a regular shooting location for HBO’s Treme.”