Blue Fin: An Ocean in a Food Desert

I love going to the theatre, but I hate picking pre-theatre restaurants. There are such slim pickings around Times Square that I often say that I feel like it's a food dessert. Which is exactly what I was saying to my friend as we sat on the red steps of the TKTS booth, but then I looked past her and spotted Blue Fin. As if reading my mind she said "You know, there's actually a pretty good sushi place around here..."

Update: Gazala's Place

Spinach Bourekas

It's hard to believe, but it's been a little over a year since I first visited Gazala's Place with my parents. We absolutely loved it (they've even gone back on their own!). So when we found ourselves out again in Midtown West with empty stomachs, we stopped by a liquor store to grab a couple of bottles of wine (it's BYOB), then made a beeline back to this great Israeli Druze joint.

FINally Blue Fin!

Lobster Roll

I remember the first time I went to Blue Fin- it was years ago when I was still in high school. My girlfriend and I were visiting New York City and my grandmother took us here for a pre-theatre dinner. I remember the awe of being in a fancy, modern restaurant in The Big City. So when I was going to see a show with my grandmother, The Mr, and my parents, I decided this would be a great place to revisit. Smack dab in the heart of Times Square, the location is perfect for a lot of theaters.

Stuffing My Pie Face

Pies Glorious Pies 

I was going to see Priscilla Queen of the Dessert with a couple of Australian friends and they suggested  grabbing a bit to eat at Pie Face. Funnily enough, this is their go-to post-work pre-theatre spot, so the pure Aussie awesomeness of it was kind of lost on them.

L'Ybane is Twice as Nice

L'ybane

A girlfriend and I needed a quick, impromptu pre-theatre meal, and I literally just walked around until I stumbled upon L'Ybane. A wine bar with hummus sounded very promising, so we decided to give it a go. 

A Very Gilded Lillie's

Lillie's

I had had a disappointing experience with the Lillie's location in Flatiron a couple years back, but decided to give it another shot at a pre-theatre brunch because I was seeing Once and I'm a sucker for musical/meal pairings. We were immediately enamored with the Victorian decor as soon as we walked in the door. Like it's Flatiron sister, every square inch is lavishly decorated, but this location is much bigger, making it an even larger impact.

A New Go To: Kyotofu

Kyotofu Goodies

I was wandering around Hell's Kitchen with some friends, when one of them suggested getting some desserts from Kyotofu. I was intrigued by this tiny Japanese restaurant/bakery packed with people. I hadn't heard of it before, but I seemed to be in the minority. We fought our way in the door to get our little snacks and ate them out on the sidewalk. I was extremely full from dinner, so just got the cute little Matcha Green Tea Mini Cupcake, but everything looked AMAZING. I have mentally bookmarked this place for a romantic date night with The Mr. sometime in the (hopefully) near future!

Bonded to Bond 45

Bond 45 Exterior

Antipasto Bar

Bond 45 Interior

This is actually my second pre-theatre meal at Bond 45, so I knew what to expect going in. As you walk in the door you walk past the fresh and colorful antipasto bar which gives you a preview to your dining experience. This antipasto bar is so tempting that last time I came I just ordered an antipasto platter as my main dish. I really wanted to go this route again, but decided to check out some of the other options on the menu this time.

Center Stage: Shake Shack (Theatre District)

We here at Newbie Foodies are huge fans of Shake Shack and go to the original location at Madison Square Park on a fairly regular basis (especially The Mr). We have now visited the relatively newer Theatre District location several times now and feel like we can definitely weigh in. Every time we've come it has been later in the evening after a show and there has never been much of a line. We've also only had to wait a minute or two for a table, so not too shabby on those fronts.

What've we eaten? Well of course we've had the burgers and cheese fries and found them to absolutely measure. In fact, since all of our visits have been this winter, the food has been better considering we didn't have to eat them in the freezing cold or wait until we got home until stuffing them in our mouths.

F is for Fantastic: Gordon Ramsay at The London

Filet of turbot rainbow Swiss chard, crosnes, baked oxtail Champagne sauce

An out of town friend wanted to meet for dinner before seeing The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular and I needed to pick a place for dinner. Last time she was in town, she picked Perilla, so the bar was set high. I knew I couldn't just bring her to any cheesy, touristy Midtown spot. Chef Ramsay has an excellent reputation, and his restaurant at The London had fantastic reviews so it seemed like a good selection.

Tell Everyone about Don't Tell Mama

Baked Brie with Apple Slices and Raspberry Sauce 

Fried Green Beans

To end our anniversary date night, we headed over to Don't Tell Mama to enjoy their Piano Bar evening. When we got there the crowd was light, but over the next hour it got packed. It's obviously heavy on the show tunes (I mean, hello, Theatre District), but they did a good job mixing in some oldies too. The whole waitstaff gets in on the act, which is nice since it breaks up the monotony of the one man show. 

Glowing Hotness at The Ember Room

We decided to celebrate our Two Year Wedding Anniversary by redeeming our Thrillest Reward Dinner for Two at Ember Room. This tasting menu pitted Todd English's dishes against Chalermkittichai's. We were ready to be official judges and took our responsibility quite seriously.

Gaga for Gazala Place

My parents are in town and I needed a new pre-theatre place that would be quick and unpretentious. I did a little research and kept coming across this Gazala Place being mentioned. It sounded delicious and low key- perfect for my parents. This place is small, doesn't have much in the way of atmosphere, and is BYOB. All good signs that the food is the main event.

Gazala's Platter

It don't mean a thing at Swing 46

One of my dearest friends came to visit and wanted to share her latest passion with us- swing dancing! With the help of the internets she found Swing 46 a Jazz & Supper Club and we put on our dancing shoes. The moment we walked in, I was enchanted. The lights were low and the band was hot, it was purely the stuff out of movies. Martinis seemed like the perfect accompaniment and we ordered Oysters Rockefeller, Mini Beef Wellingtons, Calamari, and Asparagus as well. I wasn't expecting much out of the food since I figured being a dance/bar setting was the primary function, so was delighted to find the food was delicious. They had a free dance lesson after the first set and The Mr and I were hooked. Looks like we've found our next hobby.

To be clear, I didn't get the impression that this is necessarily the place to find the New York local swing scene. Being midtown, it was definitely geared towards tourists and newcomers to swing who are looking to have a great experience- which fit the bill perfectly for us. However, my friend found herself dancing with the instructor a lot since most of the people were pre-coupled. I would definitely recommend stopping by if you find yourself in midtown looking for some cheap entertainment!

Steamy Russian Samovar

Russian Beer 

Last fall, our Russian friend took us out for a traditional Russian dinner at Russian Samovar. No blog entry appeared, because, well...things got a bit out of hand with all the vodka and beer. This time, we swore not to repeat history. We went back and forth on whether we should order beer this time, but as you can see, beer won out.

Mushrooms & Potatoes, Olivier Salad, and Bliny

Last time we tried the herring and meat platters, but weren't won over, so this time we ordered our favorites. Foreground Right: Olivier Salad is basically the Russian version of potato salad and is therefore delicious. Background: Bliny is a mixture of salmon, capers, crumbled egg yolk, diced red onion, minced egg white, and caviar rolled into a crepe. Soooo good. Foreground Left: some good old fashioned fried potatoes and mushrooms.

Beef & Cabbage Pirozhoks

This time we tried the pirozhoks which are beef or cabbage mixtures in a puff pastry. As stated before on this site, I don't believe I've had anything wrapped in puff pastry that I didn't like.

Dancing

We let our appetizers settle as we danced and enjoyed the live music. I love the feel of the place with it's flowery tablecloths and fringed lamps. It's one of those rare places that makes you miss smoking in restaurants, since it would really fit with the ambience. When The Mr invited me out to dance with something to the effect of 'Come on, let's go' our new waiter friend intervened to show him how to "properly" ask a lady to dance. This was a hilariously welcome intervention at this point, as we had been building up a rapport with him over the course of the evening. It worked like a charm!

Chicken Kiev & Braised Rabbit

After a while we had worked up an appetite for our main course and out came our Chicken Kiev and Braised Rabbit. The quality continued in their entrees.

We had a fair share of vodka

But how can we forget the vodkas! So many amazing infused flavors to try: Garlic, Apple Cinnamon, Coriander, Cherry, Ginger, Chocolate, and Red Pepper...just to name a few. This time, according to our Russian friend, we did things right by drinking our vodka with fatty foods over the course of time and didn't get into trouble.

Honey Cake, Raspberry Napoleon, and Special Tea

Since we were in much better shape than last time, we stuck around for dessert and were so glad we did! The Russian Tea is served with lemon and cherry preserves that you put in to sweeten. The Honey Cake was very good, but the Raspberry Napoleon completely stole the show!

The Going is Good at Ca Va

Bread and First Wine Tasting 

We had a great experience with a Gilt City tasting menu for two with wine pairings at Olives, so when Todd English's midtown restaurant Ca Va came up, I was quick to snag one. We've been quite busy lately, and to my dismay, I suddenly realized that the certificate had expired. I gave them a desperate call and they graciously let us come in and still redeem it. This surprised me and I wanted to mention since I don't believe a lot of places would have done this.

Our meal started with a Bacon Potato Salad: maple glazed bacon, caramelized red onions, fried chick peas, and fingerling potatoes served over a garlic aoili and garnished with powdered sumac. This was my favorite dish and it made me really wonder about the characteristics necessary to classify something as a salad. Don't be fooled, not a whole lot of veggies happening here.

Bacon Potato Salad

CREPINETTE A LA CREVETTE ET QUEUE DE BOEUF

jumbo prawn, oxtail rillettes, horseradish cream

warm fingerling potato salad with mustard seed

This dish was a very close runner-up for favorite. Very intense mustard and horseradish flavors which somehow worked together instead of one overpowering the other. If you aren't a big horseradish or mustard fan, I would absolutely not recommend ordering this. If however, those flavors appeal to you, you might want to run to Ca Va to order this right now.

Lamb Stew

Our third course was a French lamb shoulder stew with peas, turnips, carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, celery, tarragon in white wine and clarified broth. We aren't the biggest lamb fans so weren't as excited about this one, however, it was still quite good.

Dessert Plates

Finally, for dessert there was a chocolate cake with a ganache center served with homemade vanilla marshmallows and homemade graham crackers to create a modern S'mores twist. In case that wasn't enough, they also threw in some petit fours to sweeten the deal. Pun intended.

Like Olives, this is a swanky, modern place perfect for when you want to feel metropolitan and chic. The service was spectacular and the food was incredible. This is a great option when you need a special pre or post theatre dining option.

Solid Thai at Pongsri

While we were out apartment hunting we were cold and hungry so asked one of the building leasing agents where she recommends in the area. Without hesitation she said 'Do you like Thai'? And gave us a glowing recommendation for Pongsri as well as the instructions "order the main dish with the peanuts & shrimp paste. This seemed to be the Pra Ram Long Song.

We started with some hot soup to warm us up. Good solid versions of these Thai staples. Then we split the Pra Ram Long Song with pork. Tasty. Again, just some no frills solid Thai food. They have several locations around the city, so if you are in the mood for Thai I would recommend Pongsri as a safe bet.

Tom Kha Gai

Tom Yum Goong

Pra Ram Long Song

Pre-Theatre at Marseille

I've visited Marseille a few times now for a nice meal before a show. While they are popular, I have not had problems getting reservations. Also, even though while they have a French influence, they have enough American food on the menu to not make it inaccessible. Throw in that they have great food and get you out the door in time for curtain and it's a perfect spot.

Marseille Burger

Moules Frites

Special: Butternut Squash Risotto

Pasta Pesto

The Mr. went in for the burger; my father ordered the Pasta Pesto, his staple; and I split the Mussels & Risotto with my mother. Mind you that the mussel plate pictured above is POST split. It is a huge helping of Moules Frites! We were all more than satisfied with the food and we all traipsed off to our show very satisfied.

Hurley's: Pre-Theatre Prix Fixe

Went to see The 39 Steps with some family members and needed a low-key, basic restaurant nearby the theatre. Hurley's had some good reviews on Yelp so I went ahead and made a reservation. The person who took my reservation actually had an Irish accent, which is a good sign for a place claiming Irish roots. We ordered off of the Prix Fixe Theater Menu and I went for the Baked Stuffed Clams, Veal Moran, and New York Cheesecake for $30.50. Was a really great deal because even though it looks like your run-of-the mill restaurant we were all very impressed with the quality of the food. We were also extremely satisfied with our waitstaff who helped get us out the door in time for our show even though one of the member's of our party was significantly delayed.