Tag Archives: Chelsea

Vezzo Thin Crust Pizza in Murray Hill

I’m not a big fan of the neighborhood of Murray Hill. To describe it to a non New York’er, the neighborhood is filled with college frat boys who have graduated yet can’t seem to leave behind the obnoxious sports bars. All of the neighborhoods in New York City ultimately make up the city that I love so much — so if Murray Hill didn’t exist then I think that would mean those obnoxious former frat boys might be in my family-oriented, charming neighborhood of Chelsea. I just cringed as I wrote that.

But since my boyfriend has yet to move out of Murray Hill (hopefully that will happen in the spring time, he might be a former frat boy but his behavior is nothing of the sort), we spend a lot of time in the neighborhood. What’s good about Murray Hill? There’s a fantastic AMC movie theater on 2nd Avenue (there’s also one on the west side right above Chelsea in the Herald Square area, and there is a Bareburger (which has also recently opened in Chelsea as well… I love their salads and I promise to write about them soon). So really, there’s nothing keeping my boyfriend in Murray Hill since everything you could want (and more) can be found in Chelsea.

But, a new discovery we have made in Murray Hill is a pizzeria called Vezzo. This small, packed restaurant has probably the best thin crust pizza I have ever had. Perfectly cheesed and seasoned, the toppings are put on top of the best crunchy thin crust! What was my favorite? While my boyfriend opted for the classic cheese pizza, I order the “Shroomtown” that included: marinara sauce, cheese, portobello, shitake, button mushrooms, and white truffle oil.

If you didn’t already know, the flavoring of truffle is a million times better when it is paired with a dairy product such as cheese. I also don’t know why, but I love the pairing of mushrooms and truffle oil. I’m also not a big fan of truffle oil, but it is more common for a restaurant to sometimes use a truffle oil since it is much cheaper. But, if you ever see “white truffle” as an ingredient you should know that that type of truffle is the best. There are two types of truffles: black and white. Personally, the white is my favorite!

It’s rare that we go to a restaurant to sit down and have pizza. But I would do it again any day at Vezzo! They do deliver as well! Since there was about a 45 minute wait at the restaurant, we will probably end up ordering delivery the next time we want their pizza. But delivery never tastes the same!

Tropicana Heart’s NY

Looks like Tropicana orange juice loves New York! (Or should I say, “orange’s NY”?) I thought this was an adorable way to show some New York City spirit. I spotted it at Brooklyn Bagels in Chelsea the other week when my friend Leah came to visit!
orange juice

A BYOB Spot In NYC — Little Cheese Pub In Chelsea

comfort food mac and cheese in nyc

At the Little Cheese Pub for the first time, I tried the La Pampa Mac & Cheese.

I probably have thrown you a curve ball with the “BYOB” in the title of this post… But I’m not kidding, there is actually a BYOB place in Manhattan. The Little Cheese Pub is waiting for their liquor license and in the mean time you can bring your own booze.
My friend Stef found this spot the other week so we headed over to check it out. Turns out I have been walking by it for several weeks and didn’t notice it — it’s located at 362 1/2 West 23 Street. The half really does mean a half too. There is a reason why “Little” is in the name of this pub.
cheese dish at the little cheese pub in nyc

Almost gone, my friend Stef and I loved the cheese at the Little Cheese Pub in Chelsea, NYC. The cheese on the left was our favorite!


Stef and I ordered a couple of things off of the menu; first we went for some cheese (pick three types of cheese for $13), we decided on the Consider Bardwell Manchester (raw goat’s milk, firm, grassy, Vermont cheese), Casatica di Bufala Lombardy (buffalo milk that’s custardy, rich, creamy and from Italy… This one was our favorite), and Stef ended up getting some kind of stinky cheese that I avoided best I could (I had a very small taste, but stinky cheese isn’t for me). We both love mac and cheese and with it on the menu we couldn’t say, “no.” We both got a different dish — Stef got the Mac Carbonara (Vermont cheddar, sauteed lettuce, and house-made pancetta) and I ordered the La Pampa Mac (Manchego cheese, spinach, and oregano). The cheeses we ordered when we first arrived was phenomenal, so when we got a semi-bland mac and cheese dish we were a bit disappointed. The hand-crafted pasta was great and cooked perfectly, but my mac dish came runny and could have used more flavor.
I will definitely return with my own bottle of vino and order their tasty cheese, but I don’t see myself ordering other dishes off of the menu any time soon.

More on this Chelsea BYOB cheese bar: Daily Candy calls The Little Cheese Pub a “mini queso-worshiping corridor” and rates it as one of the “10 Places To Tickle The Tongue.”

New York City’s Famous Empire Diner

Empire Diner NYC

The Empire Diner in NYC before it closed.

A deserted [and famous] diner still sits only a block away from my home. I pass the former restaurant every time I walk to the Chelsea Market and I wonder what it would have been like to be living in the neighborhood when this popular diner was open. This Christmas I actually found myself watching Home Alone 2: Lost In New York and there was a quick scene of Macaulay Culkin standing outside of the Empire Diner in Chelsea. I pointed it out to those watching the movie with me how the diner is right around the corner my apartment.

From Grub Street, the adorable Empire Diner!


So what’s going on with this place? I haven’t been following the status on the diner to see if and when it will reopen. Any one have any ideas? The diner just sits there and still has the original exterior but brown thick paper covers the windows so no one can even snoop in.
Grub Street New York had this cute blog post up this morning about how you can buy your own mini Empire Diner. I think this is adorable… But I still wish I could experience the early morning breakfasts and have an institutional go-to spot that’s just a hop away.

New York Burger Co. Opens In Chelsea, Manhattan

A new burger restaurant has come to my neighborhood (uh, oh!)… I love hamburgers and the last thing I need is to have a burger joint that’s 2 blocks away from home that has amazing food, friendly service, and an assembly line of speedy workers in the kitchen that can grill and prep my burger within minutes. The only thing this place needs to work on is their organization for take-out and delivery.
I went this afternoon for lunch at New York Burger Co. conveniently located at 23rd Street and 10th Avenue. There are other locations but this spot is so easy to get to from work and home. Since I moved into the Chelsea neighborhood this summer I have noticed an empty retail space. My curiosity to what would fill the space ended about a month ago when I saw a sign for the new burger place in the window. This week, on Tuesday, New York Burger Co. opened it’s doors to the public … and the food is to-die-for. I was expecting the food to be so-so, like a Fuddruckers where you order at the counter then sit-down to eat your [partially] greasy food — but it was the opposite at this new place!

What you see is not the full-size Flatiron/Dallas Burger, it is a mini! Get 2 or 3 minis if you are looking to sample a variety of burgers on the menu!


I ordered the Flatiron burger (it comes in two sizes, so order a “mini” if you care to sample other burgers on the menu or if you aren’t that hungry) and I got a side of onion rings. Note: the Flatiron burger is called the Dallas Burger on their online menu. I loved their portions of Monterey Jack cheese, fire-grilled onions, and BBQ sauce. The burger needed nothing else on it — and to me, the test of whether the food is perfect or not is if I need to add anything else to it (have I sprinkled salt or pepper on my food at Megu, Kingswood, or Hillstone? No way!).
The onion rings were amazing, not at all greasy and the batter wasn’t too thick, it was crunchy too (an important quality), and the serving size could be shared between two people! The french fries looked phenomenal — something I will order the next time I stop in for a burger. Their hamburger buns are a brioche-style bun… the best bread for a burger!
I feel bad for all of the vegetarians out there in the world, they have no clue what they are missing out on!

24/7 Comfort Food in Chelsea — Cafeteria

Soup and Sammie -- best tomato basil soup


Cafeterias growing up were pretty interesting and unusual places to be in. In middle school I’ll never forget wrapping up my retainer in a napkin, accidentally throwing it out and when I realized 45 minutes later what I did my friend helped me put on rubber gloves and dig through 6 trash bags. I can’t remember how it was sterilized before I put it back in my mouth, but I remember having a hard time wearing it after that. In high school I witnessed one girl pour a blue and red slushie on another girl. They started fighting (girl-style) by pulling each others’ hair and scratching each other. They started working their way towards the table my friends and I were eating our lunches at and before we all knew it our sandwiches were sandwiched between the cat-fight. In college people wore their pajamas to the cafeteria — one girl would always wear her Nittany Lion slippers that made a “ROAR” every time she took a step (it really annoyed people on Saturday mornings when every other person was hungover).
Now, I’ve experienced a different type of cafeteria that has saved me from stereotyping the place to be a location of retainer-trash-digging, slushie-cat-fights, and roaring-slippers. Cafeteria in Chelsea has been around for a bit of time but it never seems to be a place were tourists flock to and the food manages to continue to be trendy and delicious.
I’ve officially been to Cafeteria more times than I would like to admit — it’s open 24-hours a day and prices on the menu are nowhere near being steep. On nice days and nights the garage doors/walls are opened to turn an indoor restaurant into a half inside and half outside place to eat. My suggestion when it comes to ordering food — if you are with a few people, try getting a bunch of appetizers like the grilled angus burger sliders, truffle mac and cheese, and the old-school meatballs (a bunch of different flavors to satisfy the snack-attack you have when you get to the restaurant). Breakfast goes late into the day and if you make it in time try either the build your own omelette with spinach, wild mushrooms, and goat cheese (yum!). If you’re in need for an afternoon snack and want some comfort food — order the Soup and Sammie — which is a cup of to-die-for tomato basil soup and a half grilled cheese, bacon, and tomato sandwich with homemade potato chips. I always order the sandwich without bacon because I don’t like anything that comes from a pig. I love Wilbur, but I just don’t like the taste of the little critter (I was given bacon floss as a gag-gift one time… the gag gift made me gag). For dinner, the Cafeteria Burger really hits the spot and it’s nothing like the wimpy burgers I used to eat in public high school. It comes with a thick cut tomato, onions, and a small “salad” that I end up putting on top of the burger, I also add cheddar cheese and avocado to make it a bit more lively.

The restaurant doesn’t take reservations but if they say “30 minutes” for a table the wait really goes by fast. Grab a drink at the bar — they don’t judge you if you drink water when it’s brunch time a.k.a the time you should be drinking either mamosas, or bloody marys — and people watch while you wait.
I know I recently brought up Sex and the City in another post, but I have to do it again. In the episode where Carrie and Stanford go to prom, Stanford runs into Charlotte having lunch with Anthony at Cafeteria. It’s oh so cute that they see each other in Cafeteria and then Stanford goes to prom in the gymnasium.

Buddakan

the room where Carrie and Mr. Big had their dinner

I realized right away when I was walking down the main stairs in the restaurant that I was in the room where Carrie and Mr. Big had their rehearsal dinner in the first Sex and the City movie. The same massive long table was set up for a huge dinner party coming in, the lighting was the same, but Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte were nowhere to be seen.
There was such a large selection of food on the menu and luckily I had a great server recommending several dishes. But it was just me and one other person ordering — we couldn’t eat all 10 meals we were told to get (although we definitely wanted to). We settled on the following: the General Tso’s Dumplings, Chili Rock Shrimp, Tuna Spring Rolls, Charred Filet of Beef, and the Glazed Alaska Black Cod.
I was craving tuna (remember, I am on a tuna-kick and love tuna tartare) but I was a little skeptical to order the tuna in a spring roll. I was picturing the tuna to be deep-fried and have other interesting things falling out of the roll when I bit into it — but I was in for a surprise, it was nothing like I thought it would be. It tasted like tuna tartare put in the middle of a crispy, already fried spring roll. There were only 3 rolls and I wish that there was 10 on the plate — I could put an entire spring roll in my mouth and still look like I had table manners (they were that small).
The Chili Rock Shrimp was tasty but it wasn’t anything special. To be honest, it tasted a bit like boneless buffalo wings from Applebee’s. I’m not a huge fan of shrimp usually so the fact that it tasted like something else made it easy for me to eat. It had a little spice to it — it needed to have some flare since it looked and tasted like a chain restaurant’s appetizer.
The General Tso’s Dumplings came nice and hot in a little round basket. Cute presentation, but I could tell right away it wasn’t going to be very special. It was a little strange because when I bit into it it had a little bit of a soupy texture come out of it. The dumpling tasted like a dumpling and the chicken tasted like chicken. With that being said, it didn’t rock my socks in anyway.
For the main course, the Charred Beef Filet was delicious. The meat was cooked perfectly (medium is what I requested, but at some restaurants the chef in the kitchen may have a mind of his/her own) and the sauces poured on top is what made the dish delectable — I think I may have said “yum” several times out loud. The sauce had a buttery flavor with some extra spices and flavoring added to make it phenomenal.
The cod was also just as good, the chef prepared it very well and there was a good portion of fish on the plate too. After the appetizers came out and they were inhaled immediately, I expected for the main courses to be teeny tiny.
There was definitely some great food at Buddakan, but there were a few things that made me wonder why I would possibly go back again: the great food wasn’t consistent throughout each plate and the ambiance wasn’t the best. I didn’t realize that I was walking into a tourist trap; to make matters worse, the restaurant was so big it wasn’t just a little watering hole for tourists to have dinner, it was an ocean with obnoxious out-of-towners swimming around in it. People were making room for extra friends that couldn’t fit at their table, large groups were very loud (a large restaurant is already going to be noisy, but with such large groups the volume was taken up several notches), and when people make room for more people at a small table and they order drinks or food then the waiters have to serve more and it starts to take away service to others.
There are some legit reasons why Buddakan was possibly a one-time dinner deal — but I still can’t stop thinking about those tuna spring rolls.

By the way … I was so hungry that I kept forgetting to take pictures of the food. I am a horrible food blogger! So the picture of the restaurant is one from the NYT and the other photos of food are dishes of what I ordered, but I tried to put them back together after I dug in and had a few bites. OOPS!

the rock shrimp ... doesn't it look like boneless buffalo wings!?


the cod ... I tried to put the plate back together after I took a couple of bites (oops!)