Foxface Natural (NYC)

I decided I’d come back here just a couple weeks later, mainly to see if I could grab the duck.

• Kangaroo Tartare (warm spices, coriander carrot purée, sardinian flatbread): excellent. Lives up to the hype.

• Dry Aged Duck Breast (wood oven roasted, roasted baby carrot & spring onion, fermented persimmon sauce): I don’t get it. It was extremely chewy! I’m used to duck that is akin to the texture of medium rare steak. Instead, this was hard to fully chew, with no texture or noticeable grain—just mush. Unpleasant. The skin was good, but the meat itself had very little taste. I am confused. Didn’t like this at all. Hours later, it doesn’t sit right in my stomach. But maybe I’m the problem.

My visit to Foxface was once again a mixed bag. Now I will truly let it rest for a while and only think about another dinner there many months from now.

Revisit Rating: 5/10

Aquavit (NYC)

Annual Herring Festival Lunch

• Herring (matjes herring, glassblower herring, mustard herring, spring onion herring, curry herring, fennel & caraway herring, tomato & pepper herring, gentlemen’s delight, matjes herring cake, jansson’s anchovies soup, cheese & boiled potatoes): I enjoyed the food, but the buffet-style presentation wasn’t my thing.

• Swedish Meatballs (lingonberries, pickled cucumber, pommes puree): just sufficient, definitely nothing special. Didn’t eat the last meatball.

• Market Strawberries (cheesecake, mint, almond ice cream): similar desert to what I had at Foxface but prepared so much better.

• Lingonberry Spritz: I’m probably giving the restaurants a crazy margin item when I’m ordering these non-alcoholic drinks, but I can’t help myself. They’re almost always good. Wish they’d give me double the amount of liquid though.

Service as to be expected at a two-star. Bathroom surprisingly messy, water on the floor (not that I care). Nice decor, though I would have liked some original artwork on the walls. I enjoyed the old-NYC ladies who were sitting next to me (“Marsha, look at me. You’ll regret getting that glass of wine. Marsha, Marsha! Don’t be ridiculous!”)

Rating: 7/10

Foxface Natural (NYC)

• Sourdough (cultured butter, pickles, all made in house): very average bread.

• Bluefin Tuna Belly (Chutoro) (crudo, fermented tomato, cured black olive, smoked olive oil): unexpectedly pretty presentation. Didn’t blow me away, but a solid app. Too much raw tuna for one person (not their fault).

• BBQ Boer Goat (smoked low and slow, recado negro, sour orange, polenta beignets): wonderful, meat just falls apart when you touch it. The polenta beignets tied the whole dish together. This is the dish that most lived up to the promise of the OG Foxface.

• Apricot & Sichuan Peppercorn Sorbet (mochi cake, apricot pudding, apricot kernel): this didn’t work at all for me. Mochi cake was extremely chewy and had no taste at all, apricot sorbet tasted straight off the grocery store shelf, and the nuts they threw in there made no sense from a texture standpoint.

The original Foxface is one of my favorite restaurants of all time—they served incredibly creative renditions of the most underrated dish in the world: the sandwich. I was very disappointed when they closed, but I was intrigued when they made the announcement that they would be opening a sit-down fine dining establishment. Ultimately, after this first visit, I’m a bit disappointed. First, the bread was underwhelming and the dessert was terrible. These can be forgiven (especially because of something I’ll mention in my service notes). Second, and more importantly, while the two main dishes I had were quite good, the value proposition OG Foxface had is just not there anymore. I ended up with a $100 bill for a meal that gave me in the end 90% of the satisfaction level that I used to get with their $15 sandwiches. I would love them to bring back the sandwiches (plenty of high-end restaurants serve lower-end food during lunch or for take out, like Kasama which I ate at early this year), but I doubt that will happen. At the very least, they should stop focusing on the raw bar—every single person thinks their restaurant needs a raw bar, it’s so unbelievably unoriginal. Unless you’ve got the best seafood hookup in town, skip serving oysters. Instead, Foxface should focus on the unusual meats and interesting fish. Side note: The ever-changing menu is very frustrating because I see photos of other people’s meals and I can’t have it! I would have absolutely devoured the duck and foie gras donuts!

The lady who used to run the sandwich window served me for about half the time. I assume she’s one of the owners. That was neat. Loud and small venue, not really my vibe, but it’s the NYC standard. I ate about 80% of my goat, and the server asked me if I’d like to take it home. I hesitated then said sure. He took my plate, and I never saw the plate again. A bit odd, but honestly I didn’t need the dregs of my goat dish anyway. Then when I got my bill, I noticed they had comped my sourdough (which I thought was overpriced at $12 but I obviously kept that to myself). They didn’t call my attention to it at all. Was it because they accidentally threw away my goat? Or did I look like I wasn’t enjoying the bread? Who knows. I’ll call it all a wash.

Rating: 6/10

Takumi Omakase (NYC)

• Three appetizers, eleven nigiri, one hand roll.

I can’t name too many specifics about the food since I’m not 100% sure of all of what I ate (see my notes on service for an explanation), but I’ll give the broad strokes. All three appetizers were excellent with the third being my favorite. I can gather from other reviews that the first app was a Kumamoto oyster with yuzu foam. I believe the appetizer that I loved was miso cod. Then of the nigiri, the highlights for me were the various servings of tuna and the wagyu. But the one thing that absolutely blew my mind was the unagi with foie gras (seared with a blowtorch right in front of me). It was the final nigiri, and I will chase that high forever. The man next to me initially gave this nigiri to his companion because he claimed he didn’t like eel. The chef basically forced it on him, insisting that their “eel is different than everybody else’s.” The man relented and took a bite. I didn’t see his reaction, but a couple minutes later, I noticed that the chef was prepping another serving for him a la carte!

Service was excellent. They had two sodas on the menu, Coke and Diet Coke, so of course I had to order a Diet Coke. For $3, they gave me the can and a glass of ice. The server poured the Diet Coke whenever I was low, not something you’d expect when you opt for a $3 soda from a menu where they have $200 bottles of sake. After I ordered the drink, she asked me if I didn’t want any alcohol. I thought at first she was just trying to get me to get something else off the drink menu (no shame with that), but after I said no thanks, she clarified that she was asking if I was avoiding alcohol entirely because they were giving out free sake! So of course I said if it’s free, I’d love to have some. Glass of water, sake, and Diet Coke, I love my liquids. The only negative when it came to service was that because I was a single individual, I got sort of lumped in with a group that had reserved for the same time. When the chef did his spiel about each nigiri, he directed it toward them, and then only repeated himself to me for about half the courses. It was also quite noisy, so I didn’t get to hear what I was eating most of the time. This didn’t really bother me that much, but it’s just a note.

Rating: 9/10

Corima (NYC)

• Sourdough Flour Tortilla (recado negro butter)

• Duck Enmoladas

• Quesadilla of Quesillo

• Pambazo of Papas con Chorizo: this with the tortilla is all you really need. All dishes were quite good, though.

• Tres Leches Cake

• Sakura Lemonade: maybe my favorite non-alcoholic drink I’ve had? Recency bias hitting hard.

Rating: 8/10

La Barra at Mercado Little Spain (NYC)

• Ensaimada Planchada (grilled Mallorcan puff pastry filled with chorizo spread, Mahon cheese and garnish with honey)

• Gamba Roja El Bulli 1996 (Mediterranean red shrimp crudo, caramelized onion cream): got this since it’s got El Bulli in the title haha, but it’s not very good.

• Arroz Cremoso de Setas (Creamy rice with mushrooms)

Rating: 7/10

Sixty Three Clinton (NYC)

Tasting Menu

• Breakfast Taco (Ajitama, hash brown, smoked trout roe)

• Faroe Islands Salmon (Nước chấm, thai basil, cucumber)

• Baked Clam Chowder (Thai green curry, grilled onion, parker house roll)

• Stuffed Pepper (Corn, maitake, mole amarillo): least favorite.

• Pork Carnitas (Sonora beans, roast tomato): favorite.

• Strawberry Piña Colada

• Sticky Toffee Tres Leches

Rating: 7/10

The Port of Call (Mystic)

• Fish of the Day (locally sourced adobo fried monk fish, black rice, black beans)

• Boquerones (vinegar and herb cured local smelt, garlic, parsley, warm bread)

• Ham and Warm Crusty Bread (dry cured prosciutto, think cultured butter, truffle oil, sea salt, sourdough)

Not a blow-you-away kind of restaurant, but I’d visit here frequently if I lived anywhere remotely close.

Rating: 8/10

Goosefeather (Tarrytown)

• Dry-Aged Beef Potstickers (Chinese Mustard Horseradish)

• Crab Rangoon Scallion Pancake (Jumbo Lump Crab, Whipped Mascarpone, Chili Bread Crumbs): masterpiece.

• Hot & Sour Rice Cakes (Three Pepper Impossible Beef, Peanuts)

• Char Siu Berkshire Pork Belly (Local NY Apple, Chinese Mustard)

• Citrus Mochi Waffle (Blood Orange, Yuzu Custard, White Chocolate Ice Cream)

This is definitely the other meal you should have if you’re staying in Tarrytown to go to Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Rating: 9/10

Fet-Fisk (Pittsburgh)

• Scallop Crudo (concord grape, orange, celery, poppy)

• Smoked Sturgeon Pate (seeded crackers)

• Morel Mushrooms (schmaltz, chicken jus, lovage butter)

• Rye Cavatelli (oyster mushrooms, sauce primavera, ramps, farmer's cheese): this was incredible. The best very un-Italian pasta I’ve had. Paired extremely well with the trout—I think they should consider serving the pasta with trout or another fish within the same dish. I saw a photo of the pasta on here topped with apple slices, would have loved that addition.

• Steelhead Trout Filet (smoked almond sauce)

• Ploughman Farm Cider (Arkansas black pet nat cider)

• Caraway Butter Cake (aquavit prunes)

Rating: 9/10