To our female vegetarian friends, we’ve got nothing but respect and admiration. Whether your motivation is health or humanity, we’re all about the animal-free lifestyle, if that’s what suits you. But there’s just something magical about a girl who not only craves the occasional steak, but would consume a baby cow’s feelings if they had enough flavor. That’s the girl you’ll find hanging out at The Cannibal. And she’s not as rare as you might think.

All you need is the name of this place to understand what kind of restaurant it is. No, The Cannibal doesn’t serve human, but they do serve all kinds of other delicious mammal parts, along with a mind-boggling selection of beers. As a result, you’d probably expect to find a certain kind of clientele here: men who look like absolute sh*tbags. You know what I’m talking about. A restaurant like this tends to exclusively attract the oh-so-desirable demographic of dudes who shave every two weeks and sweat while they eat. But that’s not the crowd you’ll find in this place. Every time we’ve been to The Cannibal, we’ve observed plenty of classy looking women in the joint, enjoying a Belgian ale and a plate of something that has pig face meat in it. Those are the women we’re here to honor. We love you.

So why the contingent of lady-regulars in a place that you’d otherwise expect to be filled with people who have no regard for their own personal health? The Cannibal attracts a diverse crowd because they do it right. Yes, the menu is full of heavy-duty carnivore feed, like liver mousse and terrines and blood sausage and lamb neck. As a matter of fact, half of the tiny space is occupied by a butcher counter. But everything we’ve eaten here has had a certain touch of refinement that makes it appealing to the causal meat eaters among us – regardless of gender. The pig’s head terrine is less gelatinous and more solid than we expected, and served with an amazing honey-chili paste to bring out the flavor. The beef heart tartare is prepared and spiced so that it tastes more like high-flavor, high-quality meat than squeaky weirdness. Even the slow roasted half pig’s head comes with a bunch of pita and fixins so that you can eat it “gyro style” rather than from the end of a knife like some sort of heathen. Add in a friendly staff to walk you through the menu and endless wine and beer options, and you can see why this place is loved by all walks of life. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be in the corner of the bar watching girls eat hot dogs. Respectfully.

Food Rundown

Pig’s Head Terrine
This is an absolutely fantastic terrine made up of the delicious parts from a pig’s face (all of it). It’s usually a dish we shy away from, just because when it’s bad – it’s bad. But here, the face meat is packed in tight so that there’s very little jiggly gelatin holding things together. It’s nice and firm and full of flavor, especially when you spread whatever condiment they’re serving with it on top. On our visits it was a chili-honey paste that was crazy good.

Beef Heart Tartare
Eat it, even if you don’t want to. You’ll be very surprised at how tame this tartare is, even though it’s made up almost entirely of a f*cking cow’s heart. What you’ll find is a meaty flavor complimented by vinegary things like tobasco and crunchy things like fried shallots. There’s even some parmesan on there for good measure. Oh, and you’ll appreciate the relatively small portion size so that you don’t feel like a Komodo dragon after eating it.

Cannibal Dogs, “Coney Style”
Two delicious hot dogs, covered in a beef and beef heart ragu “chili,” and then topped with mustard and white onions. These are excellent.

Lamb Tartare
We like the beef heart tartare, but the lamb is our favorite. This is again a manageable portion, this time of raw lamb meat that’s been mixed with capers, egg yolk, and a harissa aioli. The lamb is in nice sized chunks, and is neither too lamby nor not lamby enough. Order it.

Roasted Carrots with White Anchovy
The Cannibal actually does vegetables up nicely too, but these carrots are not the vegetable you should order. When we had them, they were mushy and the anchovy was way too present. So it tasted a bit like eating a plate of boneless goldfish that died yesterday.

Beet Salad
There it is. This beet salad with candied walnuts, and horseradish Greek yogurt is awesome. Eat one so you don’t die.

Slow Roasted Half Pig’s Head
Wanna know how we ended up eating some of this? The people next to us at the bar had no idea what they were getting into, and when a giant pan of sliced up pig’s head arrived with a pile of bread, they let us get in on it. That’s the kind of place the Cannibal is – one where people share their horrifying serving of animal head with complete strangers. God bless this place.

Manzanilla is the Big Apple debut of acclaimed Spanish chef, Dani García. García is famous for being one of the first to bring liquid nitrogen into the kitchen and runs a number of stellar restaurants en España including Calima, his multi Michelin starred signature establishment of modern techniques in Andalucía. Being that we’re not massive molecular gastronomy fans, we were skeptical going into this meal. But the menu here doesn’t get too adventurous – it adds bells and whistles to Spanish brasserie classics instead of doing weird sh*t just for the sake of showing off. So that’s good for those of us who actually want to eat food and not science experiments.

We enjoyed a couple of dishes at Manzanilla, others not so much. It’s definitely possible to have a solid meal here if you order correctly, focusing on the starters and appetizers rather than the entrees. That’s where we found most of the good stuff. García’s flair for the unexpected impressed, yet his failure to execute the simple stuff flopped. Manzanilla is big on space and low in character. Despite the chef’s background, nothing about this restaurant made you feel like you were dining anywhere near the Mediterranean Sea. With its big open kitchen and fancy dishware, Manzanilla feels just like any other typical restaurant that probably hired a “creative agency” to design and cater to those with crisp blazers and deep pockets. Only this time, many have Spanish accents.

We wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to dine here, but you can certainly do a lot worse. That being said, if you’re planning a huge dinner, this is your spot. Tables in the main dining room can seat 12-20 if necessary and there’s a massive private lair downstairs for private parties. It’s also worth checking out when in need of a last minute reservation at a “hot new restaurant”; given the amount of space and the lukewarm response this place has gotten from critics, there will be plenty to be had.

Photo Credit: Daniel Krieger

Food Rundown

Tomato Tartare
A fancy way of saying Pan Con Tomate, which is always a nice way to start off a Spanish meal.

Oxtail Brioche
We loved these bad ass steamed brioche buns, filled with pulled oxtail, mushroom, kale and topped with some kind of spicy sauce. We could have eaten these all night long. While the listing seems a bit par for the course, there was something different about them. Definitely order these guys.

Croquettes
One of the most impressive dishes on the menu, and one that’s a must order. These are squid ink and cuttlefish croquettes, which contain a frozen mixture of cuttlefish stew made with milk and mussel juice underneath the fried exterior. Once bitten, an explosion of delicious flavor enters your mouth. It’s quite the party.

Pulpo A La Gallega
If you don’t like the taste of smoke, move on. If you do, indulge. While this octopus sounds very run of the mill, it’s anything but. García’s version of Galician octopus is fun and exciting. Small pieces of blackened octopus sit atop plump potato gnocchi. on which he uses a blowtorch. The kicker though, is the dish rolls to the table covered by a dome, and once removed, a cloud of cherrywood smoke escapes, leaving its smokey mark all over this dish.

Tomato & Cherry Gazpacho
This showcased García’s tricks at their most delicious. Gazpacho is not something we’d normally order, but our waiter gave us the hard sell on it and we’re glad he did. First of all, adding cherry to a tomato gazpacho is genius. A sweeter, fruitier flavor made it feel like a soup worth ordering at dinner. He laced the broth with basil oil too, which added a nice taste bud sensation. Throw in a couple Spanish anchovies, and you a lot going on, but it all worked. He also did something crazy to the goat cheese – it was frozen and shredded on top of the soup, adding a snowflake like texture to the soup. Impressive.

Kale Salad
Everyone’s got a kale salad on the menu these days, and, not surprisingly, this was solid. We weren’t that crazy about the black olive dressing, but points for poached quail eggs and puffed wheat.

Black Rice
Bomba rice filled with so much squid ink that it literally makes your mouth bleed black, Halloween style. The rice has sauteed shrimp, cherry tomatoes, and citrus aioli. We weren’t impressed. The rice didn’t have much texture, and we wished we had ordered something else instead.

Seared Iberico Pork “Presa”
As close to beef as pork gets. This rare cut of pork comes form a pig’s shoulder, and not just any pig. The black Iberian pig is one of the most delicious and expensive pigs in the world. You won’t find this kind of rare pig served in many restaurants in the United States. And we didn’t like it at all. There’s something unsettling about eating nearly raw pig that sort of tastes like beef. We’d rather eat a steak.

Wild Mushroom & Vegetable Rice
This creamy bomba rice with with mushrooms, zucchini, and zucchini flower was way better than the aforementioned black rice. This rice had more texture, and the flavors were spot on.

It seems simple enough, right? All you need to do is order the right stuff and you’ll end up having a great dinner? That’s the case with a lot of restaurants. But it’s not that simple. Not here. The Marrow is a challenge, and it’s one that many people lose. Just read most of the reviews. It’s a mixed bag to say the least.

There are a few things that give The Marrow this unique ability to confuse people, but then main culprit is the menu. The offerings are split into two sections that read like a family tree with two branches. One side lists a whole bunch of Italian things that represent the chef’s Italian heritage from his mother’s side, and the other is a list of dishes reflecting his father’s German lineage. Between the two, there are about 30 different items on the menu at any given time, and many of them change from month to month. So basically, there are innumerable dinner permutations. Order blindly or take your waiter’s suggestions, and we’d say you’ll probably hit one incredible dish and three mediocre ones each time you visit. But this is a restaurant from the same guy that gave us Kin Shop and Perilla. There have to be at least three or four back-to-back home runs somewhere in that vast menu. But how to find them?

Like I said, we’re not exactly sure. We ate a lot of stuff here, and the menu really is tough to decipher. It would be easier if we could tell you that one side tends to be better than the other, like “stick to the German stuff and you’ll walk away happy,” but that’s not the case. There are hits and misses on both sides. We can tell you is that the duck schnitzel is incredible. You want that in the mix no matter what. Same goes for the ginger stout cake. But from there, a meal at The Marrow is a high-stakes adventure. We liked the crab and tomato pasta a lot…but the giant roasted mushroom impressed us less than we hoped it would. The sea urchin and bone marrow is certainly rich, it’s just not all that satisfying. And the pretzel rolls are awesome, but the arctic char isn’t. After a while it starts to feel like Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, except (probably) nobody’s heart is getting ripped out. You must choose, but choose wisely.

Food Rundown

The Bone Marrow
Let’s kick this off with the dish this place is named for. Two shanks are served to you topped with sea urchin and a lemon aioli. It’s a tasty dish, but not any more so than most marrow dishes out there. The uni adds less flavor than you wish it would.

Housemade Spaghettini
This one from the Italian side of the menu is most definitely one of the highlights. It’s a nice light pasta with peekytoe crab and tomato sauce. Make it part of your meal.

Fiddlehead Fern Gnudi
A spring menu item, as evidenced by the fiddlehead ferns. The more we eat those things, the more we realize we dislike them. Here with the gundi they came out slimy and generally unappetizing.

Lightly Cured Arctic Char
This cured char has some German in it, or at least it’s from that side of the menu. We found it to be a little bland.

Pan-Fried Duck Schnitzel
The star of The Marrow. This big schnitzel-ized duck breast is delicious, and it comes on a bed of spaetzle which is also delicious. A must order.

Roasted Whole Hen Of The Woods Mushroom
This giant roasted mushroom has been the subject of much praise, partly just because its such a unique dish. It’s an easy thing to write about. We liked it too – because we like mushrooms and we like steak, and this is a big mushroom steak. But we probably won’t order it again. It’s a bit of a novelty item.

Juniper Braised Lamb Neck
This fatty piece of cute little animal is really good. The meat is super tender and flavorful.

Grilled Baby Chicken
Yes the chicken is good, but we loved the fregula pasta on the side even more. Probably because it had salami in it.

Steamed Blackfish
Much like the chicken, the fish on this plate is pretty tasty, but the big nuggets of crispy lamb on the side of the plate are better. I want a pile of just that.

Ginger Stout Cake
This cake is an absolute must order. It’s like getting kicked in the face by Christmas, and it’s incredible.

For today’s Friday Fives, Yeah Yeah Yeahs vegetarian drummer Brian Chase was nice enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to hook us up with five of his go-to places for eating things. Milkshakes at 2am and the best doughnut in town made the list. We like this guy.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are performing in Prospect Park tonight with The Flaming Lips as part of The Great Googa Mooga Pre-Party, and tickets are still on sale. We forgot to ask Brian which Googa Mooga vendors he’s most looking forward visiting, but we’re gonna go ahead and guess it’s the foie gras donuts from Do Or Dine. God those things are good.

To keep up with the latest, bookmark the Yeah Yeah Yeahs website (do people still bookmark things?) and make sure to buy their new album. Your summer will thank you.

Brian’s “Perfect For” Picks

Dining Solo

Butter Lane (123 E 7th St.) – “What you gotta do, is go into Butter Lane like you’re up to something, and order icing shots for $1. Two is enough, but three will really put you over the edge. If you ever wondered what the difference between French chocolate icing and regular chocolate is — now’s your chance. Take your dixie cups filled with sugar bliss, walk the half a block to Tompkins Square Park, sit on a bench, and dig in.”

Late Night Eats

Veselka (144 2nd Ave.) – “It’s not recommended to eat too late, but if it comes to that, something sweet, soft, and soothing can be OK. One time, after a long day/night, I stopped into Veselka, sat at the counter, and ordered a milkshake. Not that it was the best, but it was good and came with the extra in that big metal milkshake cup — which is important. The best part was that at the counter, they had honey, and I could put all of the honey I wanted to my vanilla milkshake. Milk and honey is a great combination. While having your milkshake, you can look at the menu at all the awesome food you can eat when it’s light out.”

Birthdays

Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse (157 Chrystie St.) – “I can’t advocate eating meat because I’m a vegetarian (to each his/her own), but the communal party vibe at Sammy’s was great for celebrating my brother-in-law’s birthday. Their vegetarian mushroom and barley soup is delish, but go for the schmaltz and chopped liver at your own risk; at least they have Alka-Seltzer for you when you leave. The plates being passed around the table went perfectly with the banter of the one-man entertainer/comedy act in the corner. Family, friends, and generations will be there to applaud you and slap you on the ass as you make your right of passage into your next year.”

Date Night

El Quijote (226 W 23rd St.) – “This classic spot on 23rd street – right next to the Chelsea Hotel and a branch of Doughnut Plant – has got something going. A date I was on told me that it was mentioned in Patti Smith’s recent book, and that rock notables from back in the day would hang out here. The paella’s good, but skip it if you’re on a date. Go for a light bite or share a dessert – two forks for one plate. The place will take you out of the familiar city while still keeping its edge. You can feel like you’ve traveled and focus on sharing the time together.”

Vegetarian/Authentic Ethnic Eats

Saravana Bhavan (81 Lexington Ave.) – “This worldwide chain offers classics of South Indian cuisine, and in addition to being delicious, hits the spot. The dosas are great, as are the traditional ‘crepe’ made from a barely fermented rice/lentil batter – crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Idli, made from the same batter, are the steamed version, in the shape of UFOs so light that it seems like they could float up into space right there. The variety of chutneys and the sambar (lentil broth, soup) add to the flavor/nutrition explosion. A personal favorite is the ghee pongal, a mung dal/rice mash, with an incredible depth of spicing. The almond halvah is a nice option for dessert. The meal can be topped off with a frothy Mysore style coffee, and you’re golden, ready to take on the world…”

Bonus

Doughnut Plant (220 W 23rd St.) – “The Tres Leches doughnut and house-made Chai. Do it.”

“How DOESN’T food get you excited?”

That’s some deep sh*t, Steinthal.

Lafayette is an impressive place. It’s a massive restaurant in a space you’re probably familiar with, previously home to Chinatown Brasserie and Time Cafe. The huge room is populated with cushy booths as far as the eye can see, and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. And even with all that space, people are still spilling out of every crevice, drinking at the bar, having a croissant at the bakery in the front of the restaurant, or gathered in the downstairs cellar/private dining room/late night party lounge. It’s really crazy just to see how much there is going on in this place at any particular moment, and yet Lafayette seems to keep it’s sh*t together pretty well.

Part of that successful execution seems to come because Lafayette is most certainly not cutting corners. Close attention is paid to every detail, and therefore the service is pretty much flawless. And even with all the bells and whistles here, it’s the simple things that impressed us the most. From the fresh baked bread, to the french fries, to the butter lettuce salad, the basic things tend to be the most memorable. From there, scoping the massive menu here is kind of like browsing at your favorite store; you want to buy everything. Raw bar, meats and cheeses, crudo, tartare, handmade pasta, steak frites, bouillabaisse, rotisserie chicken for two, wood fired things, dessert…the options are endless. Just for f*cks sake, we were considering holding this review until we had eaten every dish on every menu. Not because it was necessary, but because we wanted to. Then after four trips and nearly $1,000 spent, we figured we’d stop right there. At least until one of us qualifies for a loan or something.

Lafayette isn’t going to be the best meal you have this year, but it’s definitely going to be one of the most fun. It’s a restaurant that’s “Perfect For” a lot of things, most of which involve scoping out some action and hot people. Recognizable celebrities amongst them, Lafayette is crawling with A-Listers. The beauty is that Lafayette treats you like one, even if you’re not. We have a feeling this blockbuster is going to continue to rake it in at the box office for a very long time.

Photo Credit: Daniel Krieger

Food Rundown

La Riviera with Sweet Peppers & French Breakfast Radishes
Soft cheese, toasted bread, wood roasted sweet peppers and whole radishes…this is a delicious way to kick off your meal.

Maine Crab Tartine
Everything Lafayette does that employs the services of bread is pretty much a win. A light, citrusy Maine crab salad with aioli on top of toast? Yep, this is good.

Maine Scallop Crudo
We didn’t miss a beat with the crudo, either. This raw scallop starter is fresh and delicious.

Local Butter Lettuce
Is it weird if our favorite item at this entire restaurant is the butter lettuce salad? It’s absurdly good. The first time we came here, our waiter was going on and on about this thing like his own mother was back there making it herself. We bought in, and have since ordered it every time we’ve eaten here. Big, soft, leafy green leaves of lettuce are topped with some shaved veggies, roquefort, thin slices of country ham, and a perfect herb vinaigrette. Even if you’re not someone who usually gets down with salad, you should order this.

Frisée Salad with Bacon Maison, Poached Organic Egg
With so much going for Lafayette’s salad game, the frisée wound up being a disappointment. We found the dressing to be way too acidic, and it completely overwhelmed the dish. Also, our lardons were too dried out and hard. We know that’s how they’re supposed to be in a classic frisée, but these just seemed to be overcooked and on a mission to take out one of our teeth.

Rôtisserie Chicken Salad
We’d estimate that 99% of restaurants have some form of salad with chicken on it profiled on their lunch menu. We’d estimate that 0% of those restaurants have one as good as Lafayette’s. We’ll get into their chicken in greater depth below, but it’s served sliced and hot off the rotisserie, on a bed of greens with an amazing tarragon-poppy dressing.

Prime Beef Tartare, Watercress, Bone Marrow
This is about as good as a fancy steak tartare can get. It’s finely chopped with just enough herbs and egg in the mix, and is topped with a little blob of bone marrow. This will be a regular order on every return trip.

Fleur de Soleil
This Spring pasta is incredible. The house made “flower” shaped pastas come in a light cream sauce with snap peas, pancetta, and mint. It’s light, but fresh and full of flavor. If it’s on the menu, you want this.

Spaghetti Niçoise, Rare Tuna, Basil
They do a better spaghetti niçoise than they do salad niçoise, that’s for sure. It’s a cute idea, to lay slices of rare tuna on a big bowl of spaghetti, and it tasted great. But our one complaint was that there wasn’t enough tuna. For a $20+ bowl of pasta, we would hope for a tad more than 4 small slices of fish.

Black Fettuccine with Seafood and Chorizo
We loved this. The dense pasta had a nice balance of crunchy things, spicy things, and fishy things all mopped up in an awesome sauce. We’re still thinking about this one. Order it.

Mediterranean Octopus, Smoky eggplant, Pipérade
As we’ve said before, octopus is either amazing or bad, and sadly this one fell closer to the latter than the former. There was barely any octopus on the plate – we got four chewy tentacles and a whole lot of smoked eggplant. Skip it.

Scallops à la Plancha, Spring Peas, Morels, Tarragon
It was between the scallops and the wood fired dourade, which we saw another table get and immediately regretted not ordering. But once the scallops came, we forgot about all that. They did a great job with these jumbo scallops, stacked high with all kinds of veggies and stuff. You can’t do it much better.

Rôtisserie Chicken for Two
Keep in mind, this isn’t the NoMad or Commerce or anywhere else that laces chicken with foie gras and stuffed black truffles and sh*t. This is simple, straightforward chicken out of a rotisserie, and it’s delicious. No bells and whistles, just juicy, flavorful bird in a big cast iron skillet to share.

Flat Iron Steak Frites
Temperature was a bit of an issue on one of our trips, as we were served a lukewarm steak and cold fries. It was bad enough that we actually had to send it back, which is rarely something we do. They got it right on take two, and while the steak was great, it’s the damn french fries that stole the show. One can get a nice bottle of wine, a butter lettuce salad, an order of fries, and dessert and go home a very happy camper.

Brisket Burger, Caramelized onion, Raclette
Reason enough to come for lunch. The burger is legit. Look at it. You want that.

Dessert
Where to start? Well, since we haven’t eaten our way through too much of the bakery yet, here’s where we’re at: The Apple Tart for two is ridiculous. Order it, even though it’s $19. The light donut holes otherwise known as Beignet Maison‘s are solid, bot life changing. We could have gone for a thicker chocolate mousse for dipping, but the passion fruit butter on the side was awesome. The Chocolate Chip Cookie gets a B-. Not chocolaty enough and too dry. And the best thing we’ve had is the Almond Croissant, which is absolutely incredible.

What kinds of activities, you ask? Many. Got a date night coming up? Zack’s is your spot. Need a place to have brunch with your parents? Zack’s can do that, too. Feel like some solo dining? No problem weirdo, this is a great place for a meal in solitude. And on Sunday afternoon, when places like Black Bear and 1Republik are filled to the brim with wannabe Christopher Moltisantis in Eli Manning jerseys, you can always find an open seat and some respite at Zack’s massive Oak Bar.

Talk to anyone who’s eaten at Zack’s for dinner and they’ll likely recommend the Stuffed Chicken. It’s a quality dish, and we’ll back that recommendation up, no problem. The Willow Sandwich is another standout, and is on our table every time we hit this place for brunch or lunch, alongside a big ass side of french fries. The food isn’t winning Zack’s a James Beard Award anytime soon, but make no mistake, it’s solid and consistent.

More importantly, we can’t talk about Zack’s without mentioning what else it means to Hoboken. When Superstorm Sandy struck this past October, Zack’s was caught in one of the most-flooded areas in the city. The surrounding blocks were filled with sewage and oil-contaminated water that took several days to recede. Zack’s owners and employees worked hard to clean up quickly and get back in business only six days after the storm hit. The restaurant served as a sort of Sandy Sanctuary for some of Hoboken’s locals who needed a familiar place to eat and gather in the days following the storm. Major bonus points to the team at Zack’s for getting back up to full speed quickly and looking out for the community. We pray no one ever has to go through something like Sandy again, but if and when it does happen, we can confidently say that we’ll be back here to hang out, charge up our phone, and replenish our bodies with craft beer and steak sandwiches. You know…the essentials.

Food Rundown

Stuffed Chicken
A crispy breast of chicken that’s stuffed with asparagus, then roasted in a ridiculously tasty sauce and served on top of some mashed potatoes. This is what you order when you’re here for dinner.

Open-Face Egg Sandwich
And this is what you order when you’re here for brunch. It’s not always on the menu, but when it is, it’s a must eat. Topped with bacon, avocado slices, and a homemade garlic aioli, this sandwich needs to be on your table.

Eggs Benedict
Standard dish. Their hollandaise is pretty decent. Nothing wrong with ordering Zack’s Eggs Benedict.

Brisket Blend Burger
They also have a regular hamburger on the menu, but you have absolutely no reason to order it when you can order this burger instead. It’s topped with pastrami bacon, roasted tomato, smoked cheddar, provolone, and pickled red onion. It’s excellent.

Nachos
These nachos are simple and delicious. They heat the chips up to a perfect crispiness and top them off with fresh cheese and some homemade guac that’s very solid. These go perfectly with a side of day drinking.

The Willow
Mentioned above. We love this thing. It’s stacked with grilled shell steak that’s always cooked perfectly, sautéed onions, and mushrooms. We also like to have them add a slice of provolone. We would eat this thing every day if we cared less about our own personal health.

Just as we had finished dropping a very high rating on Kajitsu and remarking what a special restaurant it is, they decided to close up shop and move to a larger space in Murray Hill. We can only assume it was all of that demand that we (and not the Michelin star) created. Either way, it rendered our old review pretty much useless, so a trip to the new Kajitsu was in order. Twist our arms.

We’re happy to report back that the food at Kajitsu is still exiting, interesting, and mind-bogglingly good. The menu is exactly the same: a four course and an eight course tasting menu, exemplifying the all-vegetarian practice of shojin cuisine that originated in Buddhist monasteries. But now this restaurant is exactly where it should have been all along – in a space that properly reflects the fact that high level sh*t is happening all around you. The dining room is situated on the second floor of a townhouse, appointed with beautiful wood paneling, slate floors, and wood tables that look like they’ve been taken from the trunk of some mythical Japanese tree that understands human feelings. It’s a very “zen” room, but it is also unmistakably one where world-class food is being served. And we’re pretty sure that was exactly the point of the move. Kajitsu is such a special place that it deserves to be part of the conversation when it comes to essential New York restaurants. But it wasn’t ever going to get the recognition it truly deserves in its old location, a few steps below street level on a dirty block that ends at Tompkin’s Square Park. This new restaurant is a far more appropriate setting, geographically situated so that more of New York City is likely to experience it, and aesthetically designed so that they can acquire a few more of those Michelin Stars. Which, mark our words, they will.

Food Rundown

Spring Jelly
This was a very, very strange dish. Basically, intricate pieces of green bell pepper, mountain yam, okra, and some other stuff have been set into a dome of clear jelly, and then mixed in with little ribbons of vinegar jelly. It ranges from somewhat unsettling to pretty damn excellent, and how adventurous you are probably determines where you’ll land in the spectrum.

Tofu-Ball Soup
Now we’re talking. This delicious soup includes all manner of things that we could absolutely not identify in a lineup, like gosho-fu, pumpkin-fu, and mitsuba. What we can tell you is that the soup is very delicious, and the tofu balls are sort of like incredibly tasty vegan tater tots. So good and so satisfying.

Onion Gratin with Crunchy Fried Spring Vegetables and Morel Mushroom Sukiyaki
Mind blowing. This plate is anchored with a hollowed out onion with onion goodness stuffed inside, and is then surrounded by fried vegetables, some mushrooms, and a dijon mustard sauce to dip things in. Everything on this plate was so incredibly good, and that dijon mustard sauce on the side at first seemed out of place but then seemed like a stroke of genius. If we could come back and order only this plate, we’d be here every day for lunch.

House Made Soba and Sasamaki Sushi
These house made soba noodles are thinner than the ones you might be used to, but they’re still full of flavor. As for the “sasamaki sushi” on the plate, they are basically little balls of rice that have been doused in the juice of a pickled plum and wrapped in shiso. Very interesting and very delicious.

Seasonal Vegetable with Sesame Cream Sauce
A very simple and beautiful plate of vegetables that sit on top of a mound of “sesame cream sauce,” which is almost more of a thick sesame butter.

Sizzled Rice Casserole
I don’t care if it’s Kajitsu or Benihana, I f*cking love anything that include the words “sizzling” and “rice” in the same sentence. Like those Japanese dishes with a scalding hot rock in the middle for you to cook things on? Sign me up. And probably get me a first aid kit, because I’ll definitely be burning myself. Fortunately, I did not burn myself eating this hot pile of goodness. And it was glorious.

Yomogi-Tofu with Black Sugar Syrup
Japanese desserts are different than ours. And by different, I mean better.

Jones Wood Foundry

Being that it looks like a typical London summer day today, this is exactly the kind of food you want to be eating. Jones Wood Foundry has one of the best English breakfasts around, along with a full menu of other excellent things like freshly baked crumpets and haddock and chips.

Cafe Mogador

You could very easily walk by Cafe Mogador and just assume it’s an unremarkable sidewalk cafe that people who don’t know any better frequent. But you would be very wrong about that. This restaurant is a St. Marks institution that serves fantastic food with Moroccan influences. Get the Moroccan Eggs Benedict, which comes topped with a spicy tomato sauce. There is also a Williamsburg location, though it doesn’t have quite the same charm.

Calliope

We love the French restaurant comeback that’s happening in this city right now, and one of our favorites is Calliope. This place is great for any meal, but brunch is especially awesome, thanks to this German pancake, a very good burger, and even better fries.

Whirlybird

Whirlybird is a quaint little coffee shop that also happens to be home to New York City’s best breakfast tacos. It’s not exactly a brunch spot in the sense that you’re going to be ordering mimosas and gossiping about how stupid Becky was acting last night – so pick something else if that’s what you’re after. This is more of a “leave me alone with my coffee and this taco” sort of scene.

Fonda

Speaking of Mexican food, Fonda in South Slope is a place that should be on your radar this spring and summer. This place has very good brunch dishes that all include the word “huevos,” which is a word we like very much. They also have a nice back patio and good spicy drinks.

The Webby’s have officially become The Grammys for the internet. Now in its 17th year, the awards ceremony honors companies, brands, and content creators that are making a big impact in the web and mobile space. And the man behind the awards is Brooklyn’s own David-Michel Davies, who is both the Executive Director and a freak about food. As displayed in his restaurant picks below, David-Michel does most of his eating around his home of Williamsburg, which makes sense. We hear they have really good food and really good internet out there.

The 17th Annual Webby Awards will take place on Tuesday, May 21, at Cipriani Wall Street in NYC, hosted by the only thing more popular on the internet than cats, Patton Oswalt. Those of us not lucky enough to see it in person can view on-demand at watch.webbyawards.com, beginning at 9:00am EST on Wednesday, May 22. Looks like we’re gonna have to save these Dumb & Dumber tuxes we rented for next year.

David-Michel’s “Perfect For” Picks

Authentic Ethnic Eats

Samurai Mama (205 Grand St. / Brooklyn, NY) – “When we go out, I usually eat food that’s not very good for me (we eat healthy at home). You’ve seen some of the usuals here: steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, candy bars and BBQ breakfast sandwiches. Samurai Mama, on the other hand, is delicious, and it’s probably not even really bad for you. They have great Udon noodles, and you can choose lots of classic toppings like soy sauce egg, pork belly, and shrimp tempura. I also love the Gyoza, which comes served in this big rice paper pocket. My son loves it here so much that when we drive by in the car he’ll scream out, “Samuarai Mama! Samurai Mama!” and he’s only three and sometimes can’t even remember what he did at preschool that day, so imagine how good this must be to make that type of impression on him. And he’s right. It is delicious.”

Damn Good Steak

St. Anselm (355 Metropolitan Ave. / Brooklyn, NY) – “They don’t take reservations, and the line is unbearable. We are talking two hours on a Monday. And I’d be hard-pressed to say that if you stood there for two hours it’d be worth it (is anything worth that?). But you don’t have to wait at the restaurant — there are lots of great bars around where you can grab drinks and check back in (Commodore across the street!). Here’s the real play: take this phone number — 718-384-5054 — put it into your phone, and anytime you feel hungry for a steak and it is a slightly off hour, call and ask them if they are busy. They’ll usually tell you to stay home, or come on by. My friend Mike and I got in without waiting on a Monday at 9:45pm a few weeks ago.”

“But wait, we haven’t even talked about the food. We are talking whole pieces of cow, pork and lamb (among others) on the bone, grilled on what may be the most beautiful physical grill in the City. The staff is super nice, but they are not kidding around. This is Game of Thrones-level business. One warning: if you do wait it out at Commodore, do not betray your mission of eating lots of amazing steak by getting sucked into snacking on that crispy chicken while you’re there, no matter how crispy it is. (is anything out there crispier?)”

Quick Eats

Blue Collar (160 Havemeyer St. / Brooklyn, NY) – “This place makes delicious hamburgers. By delicious, I mean a hamburger that has a relatively thin bun (less than 1/3 lb., preferably 1/4 lb. tops), doesn’t try and impress you by being so towering that you can’t fit your mouth around it, has nice normal soft fresh bread (no brioche or English muffins, please!), and fresh pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce. That’s a good burger. They also have hotdogs, but if that’s your thing, you are better off at Crif Dogs down on Driggs and 7th (their corn dogs are amazing). My wife loves the shakes at Blue Collar too. I’d say best burger in Williamsburg for sure.”

Sports on TV

Iona (180 Grand St. / Brooklyn, NY) – “IONA is one of the last quality, no-nonsense bars in Williamsburg. It can be a little insane at night (and I mean that in the best way possible), but the time to go is during the day. They have a mellow beer garden out back, complete with ping-pong table and BBQ menu. There are hot dogs of course, but also sardines and BBQ sausage breakfast sandwiches in the early afternoon for brunch. Oh, and by Sports on TV, we mean Football, i.e. Soccer.”

Wasting Your Time and Money

Dépanneur (242 Wythe Ave. / Brooklyn, NY) – “Named in homage to the French slang for convenience store (Dépanneur literally means something that “gets you out of a jam.”) this Williamsburg version of a quickie mart is the perfect place to stop when you need a $13 box of pasta, $8 raw coconut water, and have an extra 25 minutes to waste waiting for a cup of drip coffee (if you really want to waste some time, order a sandwich!). If it wasn’t for Mint.com, I may have never realized we were spending $89 a month on Lion bars and Six Point beer. I’m only admitting that I shop here (it’s down the street, ok!) because it is in a way symbolic of living in Williamsburg, where everywhere you go makes you feel a little bit more obnoxious than you did the day before, but where everything is so delicious it is hard to really complain about it (like I’m doing here).”

Williamsburg Bonus

Best Time (the only time!) to ever go to Radegast Hall – “2PM on Saturdays and Sundays.”

Best Taco – “La Superior, 295 Berry St.”

Best Frozen Soup Broth – “Ramen broth in the frozen case at Meat Hook, 100 Frost St.”

Most Important Best Thing Ever / Best Bloody Mary – “Bay Leaf infused Bloody Mary at Isa, 248 Wythe Ave.”

David-Michel’s Twitter People

@mikebodge – Mike Bodge

@pattonoswalt – Patton Oswalt

@CurrentSeinfeld – Modern Seinfeld

@Breaking911 – Breaking 911