Restaurant Review: Kosaka (NYC)

Over the New Year's Day weekend, one of our out-of-state friends came to stay with us and visit NYC. For his last night, we met for dinner at Kosaka (Yelp, Website) in NYC. This Japanese sushi restaurant opened in mid-December, and Cory and I were both excited to try their omakase dinner. Priced at $145 per person for 15-18 nigiri pieces, this is not the most expensive omakase you can get in NYC by a long-shot, but I would group it as mid-to-high-end for omakase.

Spoiler alert: it was awesome, and possibly the best omakase we've had to date. For context, we have had omakase at Ichimura at Brushstroke, 15 East, Cagen, and Kura in the city.

Here are my pictures from our meal, with my notes (but I may have jotted a few down wrong). Let's be honest, ya'll are just going to scroll down without reading anyway. And that's OK. More thoughts after the picspam.


A demure exterior

Restaurant Reviews: A few more eats before leaving Charleston, SC

For our last day, our flight out of Charleston was in the afternoon, so we walked around a little more and picked up a few souvenirs.


Black Tap Coffee (Yelp, Website): This coffee shop is very close to the College of Charleston campus, and there is definitely a hip student vibe here :)


Front door

Restaurant Review: Zero Bar and Cafe (Charleston, SC)

The night of our tasting menu at Zero George's restaurant (Website, Yelp) was finally upon us, and after all the "drama", I was still looking forward to what Chef Vinson had in store for us. We opted for the 5 course tasting menu for $115 (including 4 alcoholic beverage pairings). I was tempted to go with the 9 course to try more things, but realized I would probably burst from overeating. Since I don't really drink alcohol, I had mine without the beverage pairings, but I think that only knocked off $15-20 (I remember thinking the pairing was good value!)

The dining room is the same area that is used by the hotel for breakfast in the morning, but they throw some white linens on the tables and light candles, so it's very romantic. The lighting is very low, though, so if you are a keen food photographer like I am, you may struggle a little (ISO 12800 for these pics O_O)!


Signage

Restaurant Reviews: Eating through Charleston, Day 2

Here are our eats from our second day in Charleston (the one we spent walking around the Historic District).


Husk (Yelp, Website): We had lunch at Husk, and it was simply phenomenal. So tasty. We also ordered fruit shrubs which were interesting! And our server seemed like a very nice Southern boy. I'm glad we loved our food here, and I'm glad I didn't let that snotty girl at our hotel sway us from canceling here completely. Highly recommended.


Front sign

Restaurant Reviews: Eating through Charleston, Day 1

For our first day in Charleston, we dropped off our bags at our hotel, and headed out for lunch and a bit of walking around. Then we swung back to our hotel to check in, before heading out for dinner and dessert!


The Grocery (Yelp, Website): Great brunch, not too noisy. I loved the fried oysters in my omelet. Would recommend!


No wait on a Sunday around 1pm, pretty empty actually

Restaurant Review: BoccaLupo (Atlanta, GA)

I managed to snag a last minute dinner reservation at Bocca Lupo (Yelp, Website) in Atlanta on a Saturday night, but the plan otherwise would have been to grab a seat at the bar (first come first serve). The food was outstanding!


Main entrance

Restaurant Review: Fukumoto (Austin, TX)

For my last night in Austin, post-conference, I went out to Fukumoto (Yelp, Website) with 3 of my colleagues. We ordered some more items than pictured here, but I was too busy eating to take pictures.


Seasonal veg (okra, cucumber, tomatoes)

Restaurant Review: Barley Swine (Austin, TX)

For my last dinner with Cory (which happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving!), we made reservations at Barley Swine (Yelp, Website) for their tasting menu. This restaurant is from the same guys at Odd Duck, so I was very excited! The price is also very good at $85 for 14 courses. Here we go!


Really cool interior - casual, but stylish.

Restaurant Review: Dai Due (Austin, TX)

For dinner, we met up with one of my colleagues from the Seattle office who was also in town for the conference, and we had dinner at Dai Due (Yelp, Website).


They are a butcher shop with some seating for their restaurant. I loved the decor. We got a cute booth for the three of us.

Restaurant Review: Odd Duck (Austin, TX)

Links: Yelp, Website

For our Sunday brunch, we headed over to Odd Duck. It was a really popular place - it seems like a hip place to go. I usually prefer places that are a little more low key, but the food here was pretty good, so no complaints from me!


Exterior


Cool interior with U-shaped bar seating.


Cory's coffee came in a cute mug!


We grabbed this pecan croissant from their pastry selections. Very nice and flaky.


Breakfast sausage corn dog, fried egg foam, chile maple


Cory having a bite


Et moi


Soft scramble duck egg, eggplant, squash, shishito, sunflower sprouts, apple


Smoked chicken hash, duck egg, cornbread


Cream filled doughnut, apple, mesquite, sorghum


Bottom Line: Food was good, but it's not really a quiet Sunday morning brunch spot. Better for groups of friends, I think! Food was tasty though! I would consider coming back for dinner service to see what they've got.



After brunch, we headed over to the Flagship Whole Foods on North Lamar Blvd to see where it all started... (we shop at Whole Foods for our weekly groceries, hah).


I couldn't help myself.

A fun selection of weird squash for Halloween.

This one looks like an octopus!

Restaurant Review: Olamaie (Austin, TX)

Links: Yelp, Website

For our first dinner in Austin, we made reservations at Olamaie. This was actually our first foray into Southern food, and we really enjoyed it! I suppose it's not quite traditional Southern, but it was still lovely, if not a little bit loud in the dining room. A lot of first dates and family dinners!



Super cute restaurant


Salad of Late Summer Tomatoes lemon basil granita, TX olive oil


Salad of Chilled Gulf Crab creme fraiche, tarragon, cucumber jelly, kieffer pear


Summer Pepper Purloo green farro, Thomasville Tomme, chicken jus


"Hoppin' John" zipper peas, pole beans, smoky scape likker, marinated soft egg


Off menu biscuits with honey butter


Lemon meringue ice creameditDelete caption


Bottom Line: The hoppin johns and biscuits were the stand-out stars for me. The tomato salad was a bit boring (good tomatoes taste like good tomatoes), but everything else was super nice. I really enjoyed all the dishes though. The biscuits were SUPER filling. When we finished, our server came over and he poked the napkin in the basket and said "Oh good, you guys finished. I wasn't sure you'd be able to" XD


Since it cooled off, we decided to walk back to our hotel. I don't think we happened upon another soul until we got closer to the capitol... it seems like Austin is not much of a walking city! Here are some pretty pics from the Capitol.

Food Truck Review: La Barbecue and Pueblo Viejo (Austin, TX)

So in October 2015, I had a work conference in Austin TX, and Cory came out the weekend before it started to get in some sightseeing eating.

I thought I would post about two of the food trucks we tried first! There's quite a significant food truck culture in Austin, which is pretty fun.


La Barbecue (Yelp, Website): Of course, Franklin's is the most well known BBQ place in Austin, but as we were flying in Saturday morning, I wasn't terribly keen to wait in line for 3-5 hours after landing, so we headed to the #2 recommended spot: La Barbecue. I also received a tip from the Chowhound boards that they accept email pre-orders, so I made sure to secure a beef rib and minimized our wait time :)




It's hard to tell from the picture, but the line is actually really long. They have free beer on Saturdays, which is nice of them! We didn't partake in the free beer though, since our preorder was ready in just a few minutes.

Sweet baby jesus! Beef rib, a 1/4 lb of brisket, and a small side of potato salad. Delicious!!!!

Afterwards, we walked around a bit and grabbed an iced coffee. Passed this pinata store and recognized one of them...


It was too hot for me, even in October, so after our iced coffee, we got into a Lyft (or was it an Uber) back to our air conditioned hotel.


Pueblo Viejo (Yelp): A few days later, we went to a taco truck and enjoyed some tacos for lunch between my conference sessions. They weren't mind-blowing tacos, but they definitely hit the spot. I saw a few other conference attendees there as well!

Travel: One last day in Portland, OR

For our third and final day in Portland, we stayed in the city and ate and shopped our way until our flight that evening.

Ole Latte (Yelp, Website): We actually came to this coffee cart a few times in the prior two days, but I only took a picture on this third day. They're located on Alder St alongside a number of other good looking food carts :D

Restaurant Review: Le Pigeon (Portland, OR)

For our first dinner in Portland, I had made reservations for Le Pigeon (Website, Yelp). I wanted to try the tasting menu which I had read so much about.

We went with the smaller, 5 course tasting menu. Cory got the beverage pairing, and I opted for the non-alcoholic beverage pairing (the first time I've seen that!). The food was excellent, and the drinks were also really fun. The price was also very good (living in the NY-metro area for 6+ years changes a girl's perspective, I tell ya) at $80 for the 5 course tasting menu, $45 for the bev pairing, and $25 for the non-alc bev pairing.

The food was fantastic; not a single miss. The pacing was also great as well; we tend to eat quickly, and we were glad the kitchen could keep pace!


Le Pigeon from inside the restaurant

Food Truck Review: Altengartz Bratwurst (Portland, OR)

A late lunch / pre-dinner appetizer after our trip to the coast. We love us some wurst, so we were thrilled when this food truck, Altengartz Bratwurst (Yelp, Website), popped up on my Yelp search right near our hotel :3 We decided to just split one (so as to not ruin our appetite for dinner), but I almost wish we just ate here for dinner XD

Restaurant Review: Mugshots Cafe (Portland, OR)

We found this little coffee and breakfast stop, Mugshots Cafe (Website, Yelp), close to our hotel, and I think we came here two more times over our trip. Great food (homemade and not too heavy), coffee, prices and opens EARLY! I would definitely recommend this place!

Restaurant Review: Oiji, NYC (Korean)

So... we visited Oiji (Yelp, Website) in July 2015 for dinner with a friend, and between the three of us, we ordered quite a lot of the dishes on the menu.

The food was good. Not your traditional Korean place, but a lot of really nice dishes. Since it's been 6 months since I ate here, this is just a photo dump. The beef tartare was awesome, and I'm not even a huge fan of beef tartare!


Cold Buckwheat Noodle with Preserved Spring Ramps

Restaurant Re-visit: Cagen Japan Restaurant, NYC (Japanese)

About a year after our first visit to Cagen (Yelp, Website), we came back in May of this year. There were more than a few repeats compared to last year, and I don't know if that's because we ate at the same time of year, or if the omakase does not change too much. Regardless, I enjoyed it just as much as the first time, as the food is all super yummy.

Cagen received a star in the 2016 Michelin Guide as well - well deserved!

Here are the pics from our second visit:


Gazpacho amuse bouche with okra, chia seeds, corn

Travel: A day in DC

Welp, this post is 6 months late. We went to DC and Baltimore as a quick weekend getaway for my birthday in May. Here's a bit of a photodump of the DC part of our trip!

We decided to skip the usual tourist spots this time, and just take it easy.


Dinner at Rasika in Penn Quarter (website, Yelp): overall very tasty Indian, but everything was a little bit too salty. The decor is nice, and they put us in a quieter side room per my request!


Palak Chaat

Travel: Weekend in Seattle continued

Finishing up my extremely overdue posts about our Valentine's Day 2015 trip to Seattle...


Monorail Espresso (Yelp): Cory got his daily fix here which was close to our hotel. He was very satisified with his espresso based drinks, and the older Italian barista was very nice as well.