Every first weekend of the month, several New York museums offer Bank of America account holders to free admission, so I promised my lady to take her to museum. On the free museum list on Bank of America website, we had to choose one among the five of them: Metro art, Natural History, Bronx Zoo, Aquarium, Science hall and National Photography. Beside Metro Art, non of them was interested because she and I like art. Since I could save some money, I asked my lady to go to brunch restaurant. However, to choose the restaurant, I concerned a few conditions; first the restaurant was introduced by well-known guide book, such as New York Magazine or Michelin Guide. Second, the price have to be reasonable. Last, the restaurant should be nearby the museum. There were many restaurant around MET but most of them are pretty much pricey due to fact that the area is one of rich town in New York.
Eventually, I found one that satisfied all the condition that I mentioned. I found it on New York Magazine website. The restaurant is called Metisse, a French Bistro in Upper West Side. Although the restaurant wasn't close from the museum, it was still close from our place. On the website, I couldn't find many restaurants that I can choose from; nevertheless, I did remember that I saw some looking good restaurants when I walked on the Broadway to down town. I am a French cuisine chef, so I love to have some French dishes for Saturday brunch. When I check the menu at Metisse, the price was surprisingly cheap and reasonable. It was almost friendly neighborhood bistro as long as the taste is right.
When we got there, we were waiting at the door to sit. Two servers very busily ran around in the dinning room. One waterless saw us and said we could take a table wherever we want. They looked like busy and it was not a big deal to choose a table for us by ourselves at that time, yet some other problems kept coming likes water keep running out of a whole in the pipe. The table we sat wasn't ready for customers, unfortunately. In fact, I didn't realized that until I actually grab the table. A couple of minute later, a waiter came to us to set the table and give us menu. Guess what I found, I found a long hair between a napkin and a side dish. I told him and he looked very surprised. in the dining room, there were around 15 t0 20 customers and only two servers without a floor manger; therefore service was as slow as snail race. One good thing was that we had "plenty" of time to choose what to eat. A waitress, i guess she couldn't speak English much, did not explain the menu for us. Also, she didn't ask me how I want my egg. My girl was little bit up upset about my complaint about the food service here because all she wanted was to have nice meal with me.
Once I got my dish, by the way I ordered lamb sausage with potato and egg, the dish was quite messy. I understood that the restaurant I went wasn't fine dining, it's a casual bistro. However, every single dish that is served in the restaurant is supposed to be neat and clean on the plate, that is how I understood of restaurant business. In other words, they forget the fundamental. About the taste, egg was alright, egg is egg anyway. Potato, was sauteed with onion and capsicum, was very ordinary and average food. Four pieces of thinly sliced whole wheat bread was neither toasty nor tasty. Sausage was very tiny. these two piece of sausage looked like two baby penises, sorry I don't want to describe anything with a particular body organ but it really looked like that. All together, it wasn't satisfied my stomach or tong. As matter of fact, everything that I experienced in the restaurant ruined wonderful brunch time with my lovely lady.
After 5 hours of the museum trip, we had to find a good restaurant to feed our hungry stomachs. Since we didn't have any device, such as a laptop, to find information, we had to figure out the idea of dinner from our brains. Mandoo Bar was the first restaurant came to our mind. We remembered some media introduce the restaurant. I do like Korean Mandoo, so does my lady. In my childhood, my grand mother often made the most delicious Mandoo, especially with Kimchi. I think that is the only one Korean dish I really like and often want to have.
When we got there, the restaurant was packed with hungry customers. We had to wait but glass window kitchen was really good entertain to watch. Mandoo was very skillfully made; everything was same size and organized. One thing, I would like to point out is that they should not use any plastic bags to keep the food due to absolutely unprofessional and unhygienic to be shown. After we got a table, we ordered Kimch Mandoo, Seafood Mandoo, and appetizer size of Korean spicy soup. Mandoo was as good as its famous. The filling was good beside sesame oil, it has very strong smell and taste that it can almost cover all the flavor, and the dough was little thicker than I used to have from my granny; a simple formula: too think = too chewing. Anyway, everything was enormously enjoyable. After finishing all the dishes, we were still hungry for more. While we were eating, we saw a server mixed Bibimbab; a Korean rice dish that mixed with all the vegetable, meat and spicy sauce, with very experienced hand movement. It was quite good entertaining for customers. We also saw another waiter mixed the dish in the front of customer, yet I think he needs more time to practice to be similar as the experienced waiter. We wanted to see how he mix in front of our table, so we ordered and prayed for that the skillful waiter would mix our dish. The pray was came true!! Not only the dishes that we had was good, but the table service was also friendly and satisfied. That is the restaurant I want to go again.
On Saturday, we had two different restaurant, a good example of Korean dishes and a bad experience of French dish. Even though I usually like to give one more chance to the restaurant before I established the worst restaurant, Metisse wasn't good enough to have another chance. They need a lot of work to be good enough to attract local people, in my opinion. Mandoo Bar was a succeed case of the possibility of Korean restaurant and I like there.
Eventually, I found one that satisfied all the condition that I mentioned. I found it on New York Magazine website. The restaurant is called Metisse, a French Bistro in Upper West Side. Although the restaurant wasn't close from the museum, it was still close from our place. On the website, I couldn't find many restaurants that I can choose from; nevertheless, I did remember that I saw some looking good restaurants when I walked on the Broadway to down town. I am a French cuisine chef, so I love to have some French dishes for Saturday brunch. When I check the menu at Metisse, the price was surprisingly cheap and reasonable. It was almost friendly neighborhood bistro as long as the taste is right.
When we got there, we were waiting at the door to sit. Two servers very busily ran around in the dinning room. One waterless saw us and said we could take a table wherever we want. They looked like busy and it was not a big deal to choose a table for us by ourselves at that time, yet some other problems kept coming likes water keep running out of a whole in the pipe. The table we sat wasn't ready for customers, unfortunately. In fact, I didn't realized that until I actually grab the table. A couple of minute later, a waiter came to us to set the table and give us menu. Guess what I found, I found a long hair between a napkin and a side dish. I told him and he looked very surprised. in the dining room, there were around 15 t0 20 customers and only two servers without a floor manger; therefore service was as slow as snail race. One good thing was that we had "plenty" of time to choose what to eat. A waitress, i guess she couldn't speak English much, did not explain the menu for us. Also, she didn't ask me how I want my egg. My girl was little bit up upset about my complaint about the food service here because all she wanted was to have nice meal with me.
Once I got my dish, by the way I ordered lamb sausage with potato and egg, the dish was quite messy. I understood that the restaurant I went wasn't fine dining, it's a casual bistro. However, every single dish that is served in the restaurant is supposed to be neat and clean on the plate, that is how I understood of restaurant business. In other words, they forget the fundamental. About the taste, egg was alright, egg is egg anyway. Potato, was sauteed with onion and capsicum, was very ordinary and average food. Four pieces of thinly sliced whole wheat bread was neither toasty nor tasty. Sausage was very tiny. these two piece of sausage looked like two baby penises, sorry I don't want to describe anything with a particular body organ but it really looked like that. All together, it wasn't satisfied my stomach or tong. As matter of fact, everything that I experienced in the restaurant ruined wonderful brunch time with my lovely lady.
After 5 hours of the museum trip, we had to find a good restaurant to feed our hungry stomachs. Since we didn't have any device, such as a laptop, to find information, we had to figure out the idea of dinner from our brains. Mandoo Bar was the first restaurant came to our mind. We remembered some media introduce the restaurant. I do like Korean Mandoo, so does my lady. In my childhood, my grand mother often made the most delicious Mandoo, especially with Kimchi. I think that is the only one Korean dish I really like and often want to have.
When we got there, the restaurant was packed with hungry customers. We had to wait but glass window kitchen was really good entertain to watch. Mandoo was very skillfully made; everything was same size and organized. One thing, I would like to point out is that they should not use any plastic bags to keep the food due to absolutely unprofessional and unhygienic to be shown. After we got a table, we ordered Kimch Mandoo, Seafood Mandoo, and appetizer size of Korean spicy soup. Mandoo was as good as its famous. The filling was good beside sesame oil, it has very strong smell and taste that it can almost cover all the flavor, and the dough was little thicker than I used to have from my granny; a simple formula: too think = too chewing. Anyway, everything was enormously enjoyable. After finishing all the dishes, we were still hungry for more. While we were eating, we saw a server mixed Bibimbab; a Korean rice dish that mixed with all the vegetable, meat and spicy sauce, with very experienced hand movement. It was quite good entertaining for customers. We also saw another waiter mixed the dish in the front of customer, yet I think he needs more time to practice to be similar as the experienced waiter. We wanted to see how he mix in front of our table, so we ordered and prayed for that the skillful waiter would mix our dish. The pray was came true!! Not only the dishes that we had was good, but the table service was also friendly and satisfied. That is the restaurant I want to go again.
On Saturday, we had two different restaurant, a good example of Korean dishes and a bad experience of French dish. Even though I usually like to give one more chance to the restaurant before I established the worst restaurant, Metisse wasn't good enough to have another chance. They need a lot of work to be good enough to attract local people, in my opinion. Mandoo Bar was a succeed case of the possibility of Korean restaurant and I like there.
Mandoo Bar: 2 W 32nd St.
Mettise: 239 W 105th St.
