At Fork in the Road this morning, Robert Sietsema unveils his list for the best East Village restaurants circa 2012.
Here's the list. Please go over to Fork in the Road for his explanations and critiques of each...
10. Downtown Bakery
9. Dirt Candy
8. Back Forty
7. Zabb Elee
6. Vandaag
5. South Brooklyn Pizza
4. Il Buco Alimentari and Vineria
3. Ramen Misoya
2. Momofuku Ssam Bar
1. Prune
His list prompted more than 50 comments here the last time (in 2010). What do you think of these choices...?
Note: Per Fork in the Road, Sietsema is friends with the chefs at Goat Town, Porsena and Porchetta, so they were not considered for the list.
Zabb Elee is great! I've only eaten at their original Jackson Heights location but it's worth the trip to Queens. They don't serve pad thai or curries. It's strictly Isan (northeastern) Thai cuisine. The catfish larb, beef num tok are my favorite along with the best papaya salad I've ever had.
ReplyDeletesorry but i don't get the fascination with prune. "Owww, bone marrow!"
ReplyDeletedon't care
ReplyDeleteBack Forty is fucking awful. i made the mistake of having brunch here once. never again. they managed to bring me the wrong food and THEN bring me the wrong check, all while maintaining a you're-lucky-we-let-you-eat-here attitude. i'll stick with Rue B next door for brunch, the food is several orders of magnitude better and the service doesn't suck ass fumes.
ReplyDeleteya, I can think of 100 places in the EV that better than Back 40, that place is beyond over-rated. And the rest of this list makes me suspect of this guy's credentials.
ReplyDeleteHearth?!
ReplyDeleteThe inclusion of Downtown Bakery is very interesting... it's a quality place for sure, and the people working there are great. It's not the kind of place I'd walk more than a couple blocks for, but it's nice to see it earn some recognition.
ReplyDeleteI do remember during last year's Christmas snowstorm, they were the only place open, though. They really embody a neighborhood, low-key, consistently-good-but-not-too-good quality.
Lists make me sad. Imma just order another eggplant parm from Vinny Vincenz for the millionth time.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with South Brooklyn Pizza.
ReplyDeleteVandaag is great if you like paying through the nose for cocktails that taste like penicillin and plates of dried mud with a dollop of swamp foam.
ReplyDeleteel maguey y la tuna should be on anyone's list.
ReplyDeleteoh yeah Hearth is ovepriced. they should add Bueons Aires to that list too.
ReplyDeleteBack 40 and Vandaag are ridiculous choices. How about Kyo Ya or the Beagle?
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see the few truly "best restaurants" in the East Village were not divulged on this list. I'll still be able to get a table and enjoy the good company of the regulars for awhile longer... ;-)
ReplyDeleteOnly been to 5 of these 10. And of those 5, the only one that I ever returned to was Downtown Bakery.
ReplyDeleteVandaag is great. Back 40 is a joke. Downtown Bakery is great. Ill have to go to South Brooklyn Pizza. No Northern Spy? I like Sietsema, he knows the village, and seems to be pretty grounded, unlike some other food critics. Sietsema, Sutton and Immaculate Infatuation, all you need to know.
ReplyDeleteI experience better cooking at home and at the homes of my friends who cook..no woop woop--real authentic recipes and food made with love. Can't do better than that. That does not put down fine dining establishments. Lists are lists.
ReplyDeleteMy 10 would include Pylos and Hearth. Irregardless, I trust Robert Sietsema more than any other food writer.
ReplyDelete...I trust Robert Sietsema...
ReplyDeleteMe too.
I like Downtown bakery and I have noticed that they take care with their food but...hmmmm....I dunno, are they better than, say, Strecha's Ukrainian Kitchen? They are definitely open more hours of the week. I guess that counts for something. I'm glad Sietsema mentioned them but I'll stick with Vesulka for my comfort food.
I'd include Takahashi on that list. Sure, they've been around the block and, no, they are not unique but I'd rank the daily donburi special as the best $10 meal in the 'hood.
Abraço's food is a bit sparse but it's interesting and generally overlooked for their coffee.
I've been underwhelmed by Back 40 but...the Savoy was my favorite restaurant in NY so I'm willing to cut Peter Hoffman some slack and trust that eventually Back 40 will work out. The service there is sometimes weird but when the food is on, it's not a bad value.
It's hard to tell if I'll think the same in a year but this week, I'd put BobWhite in the top five.
Vandaag has a fantastic non-douchey brunch on weekends. I think that's really the time to go there.
ReplyDeleteMust be a joke Satan. The Beagle is a disgusting restaurant that serves foie gras. The people are a bunch of disturbing yuppie trash from uptown. Disgusting place. Disgusting people. I have no respect anyone who would even step foot in a place that serves foie gras. It's banned in California. Other items include pressed pig's head and other disgusting colon rotting things.
ReplyDeleteOther restaurants that serve foie gras are Lucien at 14 1st avenue. I think that Edi & The Wolf originally served it too. Bunch of ignoramuses.