Nougatine (Upper West Side Restaurant)

Last week, we visited Nougatine at Jean-Georges for NYC restaurant week lunch. This is an extremely popular restaurant, as it is owned by a top chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It is adjacent to the famous Michelin-star restaurant, Jean-Georges. We were lucky to snatch a reservation.

We had $29 prix-fixe 3-course lunch that is typical for NYC restaurant week. There were two choices for each course, so we decided to try out everything.

For appetizer, we had sea trout sashimi and creamy tomato soup.

Sea trout sashimi

Creamy tomato soup

Sashimi was quite interesting. It had a great balance between the fatty taste of trout and a fresh taste of mint. The drizzle of olive oil and pistachios added nutty taste on top of it. All of them combined produced a sashimi appetizer that does not leave a trail of fishy aftertaste.

Creamy tomato soup was great as well. It was straight to the basic and flawless.

For entrée, we had flounder and roasted chicken.

Flounder with soy yuzu broth

Roasted chicken

Flounder with soy yuzu broth was a great dish, and we wish we had more. The broth was not too salty, but added umami to the spaghetti squash. The spices on top made this dish more exciting.

Roasted chicken was juicy and well cooked to the right degree. Roasted vegetables were neatly coated with oil and salt, adding just enough extra taste.

For dessert, we had chocolate cake and roasted pear.

Warm chocolate cake and caramel ice cream

Roasted pear

The chocolate cake was an interesting dish. The cake was made entirely out of chocolate, and had a warm “lava” inside. On its contrary was a cold salty caramel ice cream. The pair went well together.

Roasted pear was sweet, and I liked that the whipped cream was not too sweet, so that I could enjoy the taste of pear.

Overall, it was a great 3-course lunch. Every dish was shouting excellency, like an exam paper with 100 points out of 100. It was delightful to enjoy the calculated details of each dish. We would definitely return to try out other dishes as well.

Boqueria (Upper East Side Restaurant)

This is a Spanish restaurant we usually go to for paella. Apparently, it has several locations in Manhattan, and we go to the closest one.

Jamon appetizer

They have a variety of selection for tapas and appetizer. Since their dinner service start at 5:30pm, if we get there too early, we have one or two tapas. In fact, the restaurant is actually famous for tapas, but we always opt for the paella.

Paella de Mariscos

The paella is very delicious. It is full of seafood: calamari, shrimp, clams, mussells, and fish. It does not have much spice, but the flavor from all the seafood is enough to make my mouth water.

Churros con Chocolate

Real chocolate!

For dessert, I highly recommend churros con chocolate. They serve the legit Spanish version of it: melted chocolate and plain (not sugar-coated) churros. It is a must-try for everyone.

Barraca (Greenwich Village Restaurant)

Yesterday, I went to a Spanish restaurant in Greenwich Village, Barraca. The restaurant is participating in the NYC Restaurant week, and is serving a 3-course dinner at the fixed price of $42. After visiting Spain 2 years ago, we fell in love with Spanish food, especially paella, so we made a good use of this deal.

Barraca

It was happy hours as well, with $6 deals on sangria drinks. We ordered Rioja sangria.

Rioja sangria

It was a tempranillo-based sangria. It tasted great and matched well with the food. I think Rioja and Valencia are two most popular sangria in this restaurant, as those two containers were mostly empty.

First, for starters, we had two tapas: datiles con bacon and croquetas de jamon.

Datiles con Bacon

Croquetas de Jamon

Jamon croquette was fabulous. Its creamy texture and savory taste was enjoyable. However, bacon-wrapped date was a bit off-balance: too sweet and too salty at the same time.

Our main dish was paella de langosta.

Paella de Langosta

With the halved lobster on top, it was visually pleasing. It was also full of calamari, mussels, and artichokes. The rice was soaked with flavors from lobster, making us chase after every grain. It was a great paella done perfectly in Barcelona style.

For dessert, we had churros and flan.

 

Flan

Churros

With cookie crumbs and whipped cream on top, flan was very delicious. Churros was a bit disappointing. The churro itself was fresh and chewy, but the fillings were just plain caramel and nutella.

Overall, we enjoyed the dinner and experience. If we come back next time, we would just share a pan of paella and have glasses of sangria.

I highly recommend this place if you are looking for an awesome Spanish food in Manhattan! Hope you enjoy.