Niu Noodle House

A few weekends ago when I was visiting NYC, Daniella and I stopped by a Chinese ramen-house for dinner. Most people associate ramen with Japanese cuisine, but it (like all other noodle dishes) actually originated in China.

Niu Noodle House is located in the West Village near the NYU undergrad campus, and aside from ramen it also offers a selection of dim sum dishes (albeit at a price double or triple what you would pay in Chinatown).

For starters, Daniella and I got two types of dim sum dumplings:

Crabmeat and pork soup dumplings:

Watercress dumplings with shrimp:

For entrees:

I chose the Niu Beef Trifecta: beef shank, flank steak, and short ribs with egg noodles and beef broth:

(Look at the adorable cow that's holding my corn and chopsticks! Daniella insisted it was a pig, but I'm pretty sure those are horns on it's head)

Daniella decided not to get ramen, and instead chose the oven baked rice with seafood and cheese:

The restaurant was surprisingly not very busy - especially considering that it was a weekend night in a popular neighborhood typically swarming with undergraduates (and the bottomless pits that are their stomachs). The dim sum was decent (although you can certainly get better soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai) and the short ribs in my ramen were delicious, so I can't really explain the lack of clientele...


Overall rating: 7/10

15 Greenwich Ave 
New York, NY 10014

Doughnut Plant

Eating delicious doughnuts from Doughnut Plant while people-watching on the High Line...

 

                                                               (Coconut cream)

Is there any better way to spend a sunny Saturday???

 

(Creme Brulee)

 (With one of my fave NYC inhabitants)


Doughnut Plant
220 W 23rd St
(between 7th Ave & 8th Ave)
New York, NY 10011

Tremont 647

Lesson I learned yesterday: finding parking in the South End sucks. Unless you live there and have a South End resident parking sticker on your car. In which case ALL of the parking is reserved for people like you.  Lucky you. But then what do the rest of us do when we want to go to one of the yummy restaurants in your neighborhood for dinner?

I'll tell you what I did - I drove circles around Tremont and Columbus street for about half an hour and came very very close to pounding my head on the steering wheel. Eventually we made it over to Tremont 647, which was another restaurant recommendation from my friend Meghan

The front part of the restaurant is dominated by a bar, where 4 of us spent a few minutes milling around when initially the hostess refused to seat us until our entire party had arrived. We didn't have to wait long though, after Aaron decided to pull the doctor-card: "Our friend [Ammara - and by association - Colyn] got stuck in the operating room but now she's on her way. If you could just seat us now..."

In retrospect I don't know if the doctor-card actually worked, or if instead the hostess simply didn't want us irritating the customers at the bar. Or, maybe it was our offer to purchase drinks and appetizers that got us seated almost immediately afterwards.


When we finally became a complete party:

 Both Colyn and I ordered the wood grilled hanger steak medium rare:

The steak was prepared well, and also came with a side of two jumbo tater tots (not pictured because I forgot, and I ultimately gave mine away anyways)

Aaron ordered the lamb, which came with ricotta gnocchi:

There was only one vegetarian entree on the menu, which was a Vietnamese-inspired wrap with coconut jasmine rice (Ameeka obviously went with this option, since she doesn't eat anything that can stared back at you before you butcher it):

According to Ameeka, the rice was very good, but the vegetable wrap not so much. Figures, since Tremont 647 describes itself as delivering "Adventurous American Cuisine" and "American"-style restaurants don't generally do a great job of duplicating Asian food. Not racist - just stating a fact 


Spyros ordered the 1/2 pound "Burger Daddy" which came with a mountain of fries. Seriously - a MOUNTAIN OF FRIES:

Ammara opted for the buttermilk fried chicken which came with a delicious-looking rosemary biscuit: 

(+) points to Tremont 647 for not over-cooking my steak. (-) points for not having parking and nearly making me blow an aneurysm in the car


Overall rating: 7/10


647 Tremont St. 
Boston, MA 02118