Ziggy's

Hey guys! So this post is going to be a little longer than usual, but I want to go into details about one of my favorite places in New York City. It is called Ziggy's and is located on 2nd Ave. between 77th and 78th street. Read about it on Yelp.

Ziggy's is open 7 days a week, 4-1am Monday through Thurday, and 11:30am-1am Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The theme is Mexican Beach Bar, so think surfboards and a summery vibe. The whole place is painted aqua blue and the main goal of all the employees is to insure you leave happy (and drunk).

Ziggy's serves Mexican food, so think menu items like tacos, quesadillas, burritos, and a very delicious guacamole that is made in house.  Here is a list of my 5 favorite tacos:

1. Hawaiian Carnitas- braised pork belly served with pineapple
2. Carne Asada- steak served with pico de gallo and roasted poblanos
3. Mojo Shrimp- grilled shrimp
4. Crispy Fish- fried sea bass
5. Downtown L.A- Korean style steak with kimchi 

The food is good, yes, but if you are coming to Ziggy's, it is the drinks that you MUST try. They make a killer margarita both on the rocks and frozen that is sure to have you stumbling home. They have an awesome Happy Hour, which is from 4-5pm Monday through Friday. Their Happy Hour includes 2 for 1 drinks (including margaritas, sangria, and specialty cocktails), $3 draft beer,  $5 muchies (including guac) and $1 oysters.  

They also have bottomless brunch on the weekends from 11:30am-4pm. For $25, you get an entree and bottomless drinks for two hours. Trust me, this is a good deal. 

Another awesome deal Ziggy's offers is Ladies Night every Wednesday. On Ladies Night, all girls drink for FREE. That's right, completely free. However, as a moral human being, you should still bring cash to tip the bartenders, as they work incredibly hard to make all those drinks and don't get tipped well because the drinks are free. 

Ziggy's also offers certain deals all the time. Here is a list of them:

1. The Shot Ski-$25  This is 4 shots of either tequila or whiskey in a SKI. Grab three of your friends and line up as the server counts to three and take that shot. You can even do it with no hands. If you want your Ziggy's experience to go from good to great, this is what you need to order. 
2. The Beach Bucket- $25  The beach bucket at Ziggy's comes with 5 different beers, including Kona Big Wave, Coney Island Pilsner, Liliko'i Kepolo, Leinenkugal's Summer Shandy and Bronx Brewery Summer Pale Ale. It comes beautifully decorated and for $5 a beer, it is hard to beat. 
3. Scorpion Bowl- $24  The Scorpion Bowl at Ziggy's is also a ton of fun. A drink for two or more, it comes in a cool bowl with a shot of 151 in the center that is lit on fire. The alcohol is strong and tastes delicious. 

I went to Ziggy's on my 21st birthday and I was far from disappointed. I was dancing on the bar at the end of the night, which tells you something about the atmosphere. 

So, what are you waiting for? Go NOW. 

Ask for me (Amanda) and if I am there, I will bring you and your table free tequila shots on the house. 

Birthday Adventure

Hey Guys! So last Wednesday, I turned 21 years old and I wanted to share with you how the day went and the cool places I went so you can check them out too!

I started with a nice dinner at Bangkok Cuisine UES because it is close to where I live and if you read my previous post (which you can find here), you will see why I needed to return and bring my family with me.

I had the same thing I ordered last time, which was the Massaman Curry, and it was delicious. However, maybe not the best thing to get in preparation for a night of drinking. LOL

My family all really enjoyed the meal as well, and my mom even mentioned that she, too, wanted to return to this restaurant in the future. This is a HUGE deal because my mother is a very picky eater and usually will not go to a restaurant that isn't basic Italian cuisine.

My next destination was Ziggy's Mexican Bar with two of my best friends, which is located on 2nd Ave between 77th and 78th street. We decided on Ziggy's for one very important reason. Ladies drink for FREE on Wednesday nights. So there you have it.

I have also eaten at Ziggy's before and have to say that their tacos are pretty delicious along with some of their other menu items. On Saturday and Sundays, they offer $10 bottomless drinks as long as you buy a $15 entree (which is three tacos). Totally worth it.

After Ziggy's my friends and I decided to take a stroll uptown to Insomnia Cookies. If you have never had an Insomnia cookie, stop whatever you are doing right now and go get one. (And then eat it while reading my blog).

They are served warm and fresh until 3am. AND they deliver. It's pure perfection.

Last, we ended up at Iggy's New York. Located on 2nd ave between 76th and 75th, it is a NYC staple that is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year from noon-4am. It also has karaoke at 7:30pm every.single.day. How can you go wrong?

So guys, all in all, my birthday went well. Be sure to check out one or more of these places for your next birthday (or just because you can...)

Restaurant Week

Hey guys! It's Restaurant Week in New York City and you know what that means, the food you usually can't afford just became affordable.

From now until August 18th, a variety of 390 restaurants will be participating in restaurant week in all five boroughs. For lunch, the deal is a three-course prix fixe menu for $29. For dinner, it's also a three-course prix fixe menu but it is $42.

Here is a list of my personal favorites.

1. Neta
2. Boulud Sud
3. Morimoto
4. The John Dory Oyster Bar
5. Tavern On The Green

It's awesome, and I wouldn't want you guys to miss out on this, so click here to find a restaurant in your area that is offering a restaurant week deal!

Bangkok Cuisine UES

Hey so I'm back with another restaurant recommendation. It is called Bangkok Cuisine and you must go asap. I found this place on Yelp after having an extreme craving for some good Asian food and this place certainly lived up to its high reviews and my high expectations. Here is what I ordered:

To start, I ordered a Thai Iced Tea, which is an awesome drink to have with spicy food because it cools down your taste buds due to the heavy cream. It was served in a tall glass which I think added to the atmosphere of the place, which you can also kinda see from this picture. Not to mention it was only $3! It was very clean and felt very southeast Asian. To top off the aesthetic of the restaurant, pictured below you will see a golden decoration. Guess who? Buddha.

As an appetizer, I had the Thai Style Pork BBQ. It was insanely good and came with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce that complemented the pork perfectly. It comes with 5 skewers, not three like pictured below. I ate two before remembering I needed to take pictures for my blog. They were THAT irresistible. $13.

Next, I had the Pad Prig Khing with beef. The picture is a little dark, but this dish includes veggies like carrots, string beans and red peppers all sautéed in a delicious curry paste. A perfect combination of flavor, which leaves me with nothing to critique.  $15. 

Finally, the Massaman Curry with chicken. A massaman curry includes coconut milk, butter beans, sweet onions and potatoes. Paired with chicken, this dish is irresistible. I probably could have eaten two, and I will definitely be returning to Bangkok Cuisine for this dish. If you have read my post on Up Thai, you might remember that I had this same curry, however, in comparison, Bangkok Cuisine wins, hands-down. $14. 

I have really no complaints about this restaurant, except one. On my bill, I was charged $3.50 for the Thai Iced Tea instead of $3 like it said on the menu. Although it is only $.50, it displays either a careless mistake, or the restaurant being sneaky and trying to make a few extra dollars. So watch out for things like this at any restaurant you go to! 

Please go here. I promise you won't regret it!! 

How To Pick a Restaurant

Hey Guys! So this post is hopefully going to help the next time you're asked the famous question "where should we eat". I'll tell you about a trick you can use with a friend or a date and I'll walk you through the best way to use Yelp. At the end, I'll include other apps you can use to help pick the perfect spot.

The Trick

Here is a simple trick you can use when you and your dinner companion can't decide on a place to eat. It's called the 5-3-1 tool and it works like this. First, you (or your companion) choose 5 restaurants they would like to eat at. Then, the other person chooses 3 out of the 5 that were just named. And last, the person who picked the initial 5, chooses out of the remaining three and BAM! You have yourself a mutually agreed on place to eat.

But maybe your problem isn't agreeing on a restaurant but choosing one in the first place. That's where Yelp comes in.

Yelp

Yelp is the number one app for restaurant selection in my opinion. It automatically picks up on your current location to list the restaurants in your area. You can type in "Restaurant" in general or a specific cuisine. You can even type in a certain dish and it will list all the restaurants that have that dish on their menu.

Another good thing about Yelp is the amount of filters they let you use to narrow down the options. The most useful choices in my opinion are the price options, open now, outdoor seating, happy hour, and free wifi. But they also have cool options like vegetarian friendly, wheelchair assessable, full bar and so many more. They even have a filter for a PokeStop nearby!

They also have a section where people can write reviews which the restaurant cannot delete. Of course, restaurants sometimes have their employees purposely write good reviews, but I like that they don't allow restaurants to delete the bad ones.

I highly recommend downloading Yelp on your phone to help with restaurant options.

Other Useful Apps

Besides Yelp, here is a list of other useful apps to use to find good places to eat (besides my blog!).

• Trip Advisor
• Foursquare
• Open Table
• Urban Spoon
• Chefs Feed
• Tastemade
• Matchbook

Happy Eating!

Sushi Gama

Hey Guys! So last night was Saturday night and I visited a restaurant called Sushi Gama on the Upper East Side. 

I sat in a corner table with a nice view of the outside. The atmosphere was nice, and it was decently busy for a Saturday. Here is what I ordered:

Ika Butter: This is a grilled whole squid in a butter sauce. It was cooked to perfection and the presentation was appealing. I would order this again, and recommend it to you. $12.

Soft Shell Crab: The whole point of a soft shell crab is so you can eat the shell. This crab was delicious and definitely met my expectations. $8.

Hamachi Kama: This is a grilled yellowtail fish collar. It is the best part of the fish, in my opinion, and this collar proved that to be true. The meat of the fish fell right off the bone and was tender and perfectly cooked. It was so good, the person I was eating with wanted to order a second one! I do feel, however, that presentation could be improved. $14.

Sashimi Platter: Chef's Selection of 18 different pieces of sashimi. This was the one big disappointment of the night. The raw fish they used was horrible compared to other sushi restaurants in the area. The raw salmon was too slimy and the raw yellowtail was too chewy. Overall, this dish left me feeling unsatisfied and grossed out. I do not recommend the sashimi or any of their raw fish after this dish. $24.

Overall, I would recommend Sushi Gama, just not for their sushi. The three appetizers were all delicious, but as I mentioned, the sashimi that I ordered was below par. 

My Rating: *** $$

"I Just Want To Eat"

I hate to call out another blog, but I cannot resist commenting on a blog post I saw on a fellow food blog called "I Just Want To Eat". Rated the #1 food blog on Zomato, "I Just Want To Eat" has been an active blog since 2011. Like most highly populated blogs, the blogger is sometimes invited for complimentary meals to different restaurants so their restaurant is featured on the blog, and receives exposure to large audiences. After reading one post about a restaurant that I too have visited, I was left wondering if the admin is blogging the truth, or is happy blogging positive qualities to continue receiving free meals.

The restaurant I am addressing above is called Uncle Jack's Steakhouse, which is located in Midtown West. You can find the post about it on "I Just Want To Eat's" blog here.

The first thing you see when you look at the blog post is that he (the admin) received his meal at Uncle Jack's for FREE. I am, however, glad that he mentioned this or else I would be even more suspicious of him fabricating the truth.

His review of the restaurant, in sum, was that everything was perfect. Maybe it was. The cooks were certainly aware that they were cooking for a food review and I am certain that they purposely put extra effort into ensuring perfection for his meal.

I visited Uncle Jack's with my mom, as a regular customer and my meal was not perfect. It was decent, but not perfect.

The part of his blog that left me the most astonished was when he said the restaurant offers different size steaks which therefore "makes a steak dinner affordable".

HAHA THAT'S FUNNY. The truth about Uncle Jack's is that is it outrageously expensive. The starting price for a steak is about $45 and it comes with... NOTHING. $45 for a piece of meat on a plate. Each side is at least $8 extra. Can you imagine?

Maybe this place is "affordable" for people who receive their entire meal for free, but for someone who has to reach into their wallet and pay-it is certainly the opposite.

Terakawa Ramen

I want to share with you guys one of my absolute favorite ramen spots in the city. It is called Terakawa Ramen and is located only two block south of Fordham's Lincoln Center campus. Here are some things you show know about this restaurant.

It is meant to be fast-paced. If you know anything about Japanese cuisine, eating ramen is like eating pizza in America. If you don't know anything about Japanese cuisine, check out my previous blog post: The Right Way to Eat Ramen.

It is a quick eat kind of place since it only sits 10 people at one time, and therefore it is not the right spot to go if you are expecting to talk to your friends and sip a beer. However the ramen is delicious! My favorite is the Spicy Tan Tan, which is spicy so beware.

Terakawa Ramen is relatively cheap running between $9-$14 for a large bowl. Also, it is cash only-so come prepared.

My Rating: $ *****

Pil Pil

I'm back with another restaurant review. This place is called Pil Pil and it is a small tapas restaurant on 78th street between 3rd and 2nd ave. The food taste was average and the prices were high.

Here is what we ordered:

The Ceviche: It was a hot day, so I was looking forward to a cold, refreshing seafood ceviche. This was a disappointment for a few reasons. First, I was hungry and the metal cocktail glass that the food was presented in served no purpose except making it difficult for me to put anything on my fork without knocking over the whole thing. And second, both the octopus and the shrimp were extremely overcooked.

The Mini- Paella: I would have to say that this was the best thing that I ordered. The seafood wasn't overcooked unlike the ceviche. The rice was very tasty, as was the shrimp.

The Pulpo (Octopus): In Spanish cuisine, Pulpo is by far one of my favorite dishes. The actual pulpo in this dish was good, however I can not say the same about the other components. The potatoes were EXTREMELY undercooked, not mushy at all and hard to bite into. I'm convinced they were raw.

The Lamb Skewers: I do not particularly like lamb as it is, and this dish certainly did not change my mind. The lamb and the zucchini were lacking in seasoning. The lamb meat was tough which means it too, was overcooked.

My Rating: $$$ ***  (see side gadget for further explanation)

Pil Pil displayed to me a lack of knowledge in the kitchen that should not be there given the price of each dish. The total bill, including tax and tip, reached $80! Not worth it. 

Instead check out Boqueria which is two blocks south of Pil Pil on 2nd Ave. You will pay a similar price, but leave much more satisfied and truly satisfy a craving for Spanish tapas.  

Photographing Food Is A New Trend

It's Saturday night. You and your friends are out to eat at a new restaurant in town. The waitress comes and places all the plates of food down on the table. Yet instead of eating it while it's hot, everyone takes a picture of it for social media instead.

Why has posting food become the new pre-meal trend?

Maybe it's because our generation is obsessed with advertising every aspect of our daily lives on social media, and since we eat three meals a day broadcasting our food becomes essential.

But it also could be due to the fact that food has become 'cool'. Just look at Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg's new show that aired November 7, 2016. Who would have ever expected Martha Stewart, a 75 year old woman who started a catering business in her basement in 1976, to pair with Snoop Dogg, a 45 year old American rapper? See a clip of their show here:

This show is the epitome of what the food culture has turned into in recent years. Maybe it isn't entirely a bad thing, as people are more conscious of what they are eating and care more about things like food presentation. But as people are snapping pictures of their food, they are failing to appreciate the moment as it happens and are once again living life through a glass screen.

I am just interested in how long the trend will last...