Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

It's not every day that you have lobster and caviar for breakfast. Unless you drop some serious cash at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Midtown for the Peacock Alley breakfast/brunch buffet. Brunch is held next to the sumptuous check in area.  The theme of the cavernous room seems to be elegance in darkness: the walls are rich dark wood, the carpet underfoot is dark, and there's minimal spotlight lighting on some of the food.  In one way, I guess it makes it fun since you feel like you're in an 19th century rich person's Victorian library.  In another sense, I would have loved for it to be a brighter, more minimalist and modern experience. Darkness aside, the spread was spectacular.  From the entrance of this delightful food maze, we have huge silver vats of soups, a veritable mountain range of bread rolls and pastries, and charcuterie plates with tons of meats and cheeses. Next door is a towering rack of little glass tumblers filled with none other than the ...

I just had my mind blown after my birthday dinner at Beauty & Essex!  It was quite possibly the most fun dining experience I've had in a long time! Beauty & Essex is, as the name suggests, beautiful and located on Essex Street in the Lower East Side. It is one of two restaurants by Executive Chef Chris Santos, also known as the lovable tattooed judge on Chopped.  The concept of both Beauty & Essex and The Stanton Social (his other restaurant in the same neighborhood) is to have little plates for sharing: tapas, but without the pigs ears and with a whole lotta fancy. Why is Beauty & Essex beautiful?  The restaurant will puzzle you, surprise you, and take your breath away, quite literally.  Its marquee is a dingy, falling-apart sign that looks like the covering fell off the neon letters, a leftover from the wild days of New York in the 80s.  I wouldn't be surprised if they intentionally made the ampersand dangle at an angle.  The vesti...

Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette, je te plumerai I never learned French in school and now I wish I did.  Not only would it have helped when I traveled to Paris (and as I will travel to Paris again next month!), but I think I would have a different perspective of French food.  Today, Alex and I visited Alouette, a French bistro on the Upper West Side.  I fully admit that I was really tired and didn't feel like shlepping all the way up to 96th Street - and on top of that, I wasn't really in the mood for French food, whatever that is - but this meal had me absolutely repenting and converted. Herby Butter! When we arrived at the small restaurant, I was immediately reminded of a bistro I ate at in Paris, complete with outdoor seating and dark wooden furnishing.  Moreover, there was LIVE MUSIC (!!!), a man looking suspiciously like Anthony Bourdain strumming a guitar at the front of the house (side note: I've read four of Bourdain's books in a row, ...

Peter Xavier Kelly beat Iron Chef Bobby Flay during the Battle of the Cowboy Ribeye.  Bobby Flay, losing at a grilling competition?!  His victor has got to be good.  We found out just how good last weekend at a dear friend’s surprise graduation party. The restaurant X2O Xavier’s on the Hudson is up in Yonkers, a nice train ride from Grand Central on the Metro North.  The décor is lovely, minimalist, and reminiscent of the sea – wavy and curvy glass fixtures – which is appropriate because it sits right at the riverside.  Everything was elegant and beautiful, including the food! First we started with Caesar’s salad and bread.  The bread was interestingly trapezoid-shaped and dusted with a cinnamon-y sugar.  The salad was delicious, if not very remarkable. Then, we picked different items off the menu for appetizers and entrees.  I had wild mushroom ravioli and Alex had the shrimp and asparagus tempura.  My ravioli were a...