Tag Archives: Restaurant

Party Time

It feels like we were just celebrating my brother-in-law’s engagement!  Well, almost five month’s later and it was time for Sara’s bachelorette party!

Bachelorette Party 1

Saturday night, all of the bridesmaids and the bride got together to go out and celebrate.  We started at an apartment with food, drinks and fun games.  Then we headed downtown to Stanton Social for dinner.  From the website: “This modern New York bistro serves multi-ethnic share plates designed to offer guests a chance to experience multiple dishes and flavors throughout their meal.” The atmosphere is young, loud, and trendy, perfect for our occasion.

I started out with a fun drink which is very unlike me.  Normally I stick with a boring vodka soda or glass of wine (I’m not a fan of anything too sweet), but when I saw this on the menu I couldn’t resist:  “Strawberry Fields- Grey Goose Citron, muddled fresh strawberries, lemon syrup, fresh lemon & a Riesling floater”

Bachelorette Party 8

I ordered the drink minus the lemon syrup. It was perfect with a great sour bite and just a hint of sweetness from the strawberries.  Plus, I couldn’t taste the vodka so I easily made my way through two of them;-)

The menu has a huge selection that could be overwhelming, but we were able to get a fixed menu for the party in advance.

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To start us off they brought us Herb dusted Frites and Wok charred Edamame with a spicy miso glaze to munch on throughout the meal

The fries were good- nice and crispy on the outside.

 

fries

The edamame were just okay, I didn’t love the glaze on the outside. It was a little too thick and sweet in my opinion.

edamame

For our first “course”, we got Nori Spiced Tuna Tartare Roll and the Grilled Ovendried Tomato Pizzetta- fresh mozzarella & grana, roasted garlic & chile oil

I don’t eat tuna so I didn’t have any, but I think everyone else enjoyed these rolls.

tuna tar tar rolls

The pizza was okay, not bad but not memorable at all.

pizza

More importantly, with that course we had these French Onion Soup Dumplings

french onion soup wontons 2

The dumplings were my favorite savory dish! They were amazing, French onion soup on the inside, loaded with delicious caramelized onions, and lovely melted cheese on top.  I had to go for seconds!

french onion soup wontons 3

Next was the Baby Spinach Salad with roasted corn, smoked goat cheese & spiced cashews

The salad was a good way to get some veggies into this meal.  The smoked goat cheese had half of us convinced there was bacon in the salad.  I really liked the different textures from all of the toppings and was happy to find that it wasn’t overdressed.

salad

For our final savory dishes, we got Rhode Island Style Lobster Rolls, Kobe Beef Burger Sliders, and Wasabi Pea Crusted Salmon with asian pesto & soba noodle-beet salad

lobster rolls 2

I loved the presentation of the lobster rolls.  They were loaded with lobster meat which was great, but they were also covered in a bit more mayo than I’d like.  It didn’t stop me from eating all of the filling, though.

lobster rolls 1

I was really excited about the burgers because I have had the biggest burger craving for weeks now!  Unfortunately, these left something to be desired.  I found the meat unevenly cooked and less juicy than they appear in the picture.

sliders

This burger would not be Matt-approved!

sliders 2

I was much too stuffed to try the salmon, but the other girls enjoyed it.  It definitely looked cool.

wasabi salmon

Finally, as stuffed as I was, I couldn’t miss out on tasting dessert.

These were warm donuts (actually, they came out super hot) served with three dipping sauces: chocolate, raspberry and caramel.  The chocolate sauce was good but not mind-blowing.  If you like raspberry flavored sweets, then you’d love that sauce.  I was disappointed in the caramel because I didn’t think it had much flavor.  The donuts themselves were good and perfect for donut lovers.

donuts 2

While the warm donuts didn’t leave me in awe, I did become mildly obsessed with these cookies.  The menu labeled them “Jaime’s Cookies”  and I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter.

cookies 1

The cookies came out warm and melted in your mouth.  I actually have no idea what was in them, I just remember comparing them to a warm flourless chocolate cake.

cookies 3

Overall, I’d give Stanton Social a B.  The atmosphere was fun, they played good music, and had fantastic drinks.  The food is served in a creative way but some dishes missed the mark.

Even if the food at dinner wasn’t perfect, it didn’t matter.  Everyone seemed happy to be out for the party in a big group of girls.  Afterwards, we spent the rest of the night dancing at Rivington Hotel, just a couple of blocks away.  It was a ton of fun and I think the bride enjoyed her night!

Bachelorette Party 13

Have you been to any fun bachelorette parties lately?

A Night at Flex Mussels

 

I may have stopped recapping Top Chef Just Desserts, but I continued to watch.  The show actually got better as the drama went away, and viewers were able to get a glimpse at some extremely talented pastry chefs.  The wide range of skills they have is incredible, from wedding cakes, to edible dresses, these chefs are pretty inspiring.

Zac Young is amazing and makes creative, delicious desserts.  He will definitely be getting my “fan favorite” vote:-)  Lucky for me, he happens to work at a New York City restaurant, Flex Mussels.  When one of my best friends from college was visiting last Friday, who also also happens to be a huge Zac fan from the show, I had the perfect opportunity to visit the restaurant!flex donuts

Flex Mussels has a wide variety of seafood dishes, along with over a dozen varieties of mussels.  They also have a chicken dish which was perfect for my seafood-hating friend.  The restaurant has a trendy vibe and is reasonably priced in the nice NYC-restaurant category.

A group of 5 of us went to the Upper East Side location for a 9:30 reservation.  The place was packed which led to slightly slow service, but the food was so good we didn’t care.  Matt and I shared the goat cheese salad plus two varieties of mussels: Italiano and Maine.  I really enjoyed the food, but honestly, was saving room for dessert.

Unfortunately, Zac was in the kitchen at the other location that night, but the desserts were still designed by him so I was ok with that.  Besides, it gives me an excuse to try the restaurant again.

The five of us decided to choose one donut each and have the waiter choose a sixth for us.  He picked salted caramel and I am glad he did! It had a surprisingly complex flavor.  My selection was fluffernutter and my friends picked blueberry, meyer lemon, chocolate and peanut butter and jelly. The donuts were the perfect ratio of filling to pastry, a taste of each in every bite.  They came warm and fresh with a side of some sort of creamy glaze.

flex donuts 2

Of course we also had to try Zac’s famous deep fried whoopie pie.

flex whoopie pie 1

O.M.G.  I now wish I had a deep fryer.  This was not the boring whoopie pie I have had in the past.  It was moist and flavorful chocolate cake sandwiched with cream cheese icing that oozed out as soon as I sliced it.  The crispy outer layer was delicious and added a great balance of textures. I’m not even sure what all of the sides were but I think the big scoop was coffee ice cream.

flex whoopie pie 2

We may have shared this around the table, but I managed to take an extra piece for myself.  It was too good to leave behind:-)  Definitely one of the top five restaurant desserts I have ever had.

Overall, it was a great night at Flex Mussels.  We all left full of delicious food and Matt and I resolved to go back for more mussels and dessert and hopefully catch Zac!

Have you ever met any famous chefs?  Did their food live up to your expectations?