Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Dinner @ Rocking Horse Cafe
Located in Chelsea at 182 8th Ave
I’d heard that Rocking Horse was a good Mexican food restaurant. Having never eaten there before I decided to go try their fare with a friend of mine who knows good food places throughout the city.
This place has its charm. The lighting and interior go very well together. In any case once at our table I perused the menu for a few moments while sampling some chips & salsa before settling on something simple. Rocking Horse’s “Street Food” Burrito with KNK farms free range chicken breast.
Meanwhile my friend went to a personal favorite choosing Lamb shank with caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes epazote, over creamy cotija polenta and rice with black beans. Folks two words…Yesss! Yessuh!!!!
While my dish was excellent! I have to say the next time I visit this establishment for dinner I’m ordering the above. Wow is that an amazing dish!!! I had a small bite of the creamy cotija polenta with some of the sauce and a piece of lamb shank and my hands went up in the air without my knowing it. Lol
Rocking Horse scores high marks all the way round. In terms of presentation and taste. Rocking Horse scores a perfect 5 out of 5 dinner plates. OOOOO
I love spicy foods usually but I made a mistake when I bit into that there “devil’s finger” to the left on my plate. My mouth loved the spicy flavor but the onset burn became a bit too much to handle.
For a moment I thought my taste buds weren’t going to make it. I bit a healthy bite into my burrito to marry the burning spicy flavor to the incredibly constructed pieces of happiness that are the Rocking Horse Burrito.
Tequila on the rocks with lime helped to quelch the burning some along with several gulps of water. All that said I recommend Rocking Horse Cafe as a must visit if you love really goood Mexican food. Till next time this has been THEJNSREPORT’S: Rocking Horse Cafe Experience 2014.
Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: El Nuevo Caridad Restaurant Experience 2014!!!
Located at the corner of 116th St. & 2nd Ave.
On a night I decided to go to dinner with a friend we ended up at El Nuevo Caridad Restaurant. I was told to expect really good Spanish food. My taste buds perked up at the thought of what was to come.
Apparently there are quite a few former Pro Baseball Players who have eaten at this establishment. All of whom have been enshrined in the El Nuevo Caridad Restaurants “Hall of Fame” including MLB’s perennial “Hall of Fame” snub Barry Bonds.
Personally I feel Barry Bonds deserves to be in the Hall of Fame regardless of the rhetoric and bias politics the sports media have made as it pertains to his worthiness of entry into the Hall.
Anyway that’s for another discussion. Once inside we thought it fine to sit at the bar and eat. The bar is very small but the atmosphere was cool and down to earth. All of the staff were pretty friendly.
Both my friend and I ordered the Chicharron de Pollo with Rice and Beans but I opted for sin hueso (without bones), while my friend opted for con hueso (with bones). Chicharron de Pollo for those of you who dont’ speak Spanish means Fried Chicken chunks.
The food here is very good. I thoroughly enjoyed my Chicharron de Pollo sin Hueso with Arroz Amarilla y Habichuelas. 😉 The food portions are very adequate and more than satisfy as you can see.
Here’s a look at some of the rest of their interior.
My overall impression of El Nuevo Caridad Restaurant, which is huge in terms of square footage, (as it looks to be the size of two establishments in one) is that for the price and money this is a must eat at destination for lovers of Latin cuisine. I score it 5 dinner plates out of 5. OOOOO
If you’re ever in Spanish Harlem give them a try and let us know what you think. Till next time this has been EL Nuevo Caridad Restaurant Experience 2014 by THEJNSREPORT.
Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: The SEA Thai Restaurant Experience Fall 2013
My sister and I had been planning a trip to eat at this place for a few weeks but due to my being under the weather towards the end of last week that didn’t happen. It was finally tonight that we were able to get together and dine at this “sister” restaurant to Spice Thai Restaurant.
Located at 835 Washington St. directly across from the Standard Hotel sits SEA Thai Restaurant another example of great Thai food to be had in the city.
Initially we thought that sitting outside for dinner would be a good idea. That was until reality set in (with the not so subtle reminder from the evening chill) that it would behoove us to move inside to eat and enjoy SEA’s interior like everyone else dining inside.
While initially seated outside we looked over their menu’s and took our time making our selections. Sis went for a Lychee Mojito to start things off while I opted for a Mandarin & Sprite.
Nice presentation on the mojito no doubt. I wouldn’t want to be the bartender having to make mutliples of these throughout the night. According to my sister they are delicious . This was her first “Lychee” version mojito.
After a perusal of their entire menu I zeroed in on my go to appetizers for Thai food which were the curry chicken puffs, curry duck puffs, and spring rolls. Sis settled on sampling some of my curry puffs and spring rolls while selecting wings and ribs for us to try.
Now that’s what you call a spread.
Behold those golden springrolls.
Golden soft pastry shell curried chicken and duck puffs were just the perfect option to have pre main course. Use of the knife and fork are definitely required if you want to take the time to slice and cut to adequate bite size portions, multiple mouthfuls of this excellent appetizer.
It’s not heavy on the palate and has a great blend of sweet with curry flavor permeating throughout. I opted to try both the chicken curry and duck curry because I wanted to see if I could distinguish which was which. Sis said grace to give thanks and bless our meal then it was on.
Yeah yeah we want dem Ribs!!!! Yessum!!!
Wings?…Sho you right!!!
Once the appetizers were destroyed and no evidence remained out came our main courses.
The Pad Thai Fried Rice…
Drunk Man Noodles Spicy w/chicken. Hawhaat?!!!!
So here’s our overall impression of our “Experience @ SEA” 😉
The overall atmosphere while we ate was great because it wasn’t too busy at the time we were seated. The music playing in the background was audible but not so loud we couldn’t have a conversation.
The wait staff were cordial and attentive but not overly so, which was good because I hate to be kept waiting needlessly nor do I like to be interrupted incessantly during a meal. The best service experience I find to have is the one in which the staff is friendly, gives good accurate & prompt service but is for the most part invisible unless really needed for something. SEA managed to do this near seemlessly.
Appetizer Rating
On our “Dinner Plate” scale from 1 – 5 here are our ratings for each appetizer.
Wings = A perfect score of 5 out of 5 “Dinner plates” OOOOO
Curry Chicken/Duck Puffs = A perfect score of 5 out of 5 “Dinner plates” OOOOO
Ribs = 3 1/4 “Dinner plates” OOO[ The ribs were ok but we’ve both had better and so while the presentation was spot on size and taste were about average.
Main Course Rating
Pad Thai Fried Rice = 4 out of 5 “Dinner plates” OOOO This was mostly due to it being a little bland according to my sister. I had no room left to sample it so I take her word for it.
Drunk Man Noodles (Spicy w/Chicken) 5 out of 5 “Dinner plates”OOOOO This was just a pleasure to eat fork by forkfull. The heat from the pepper added to the experience and had a perfect balance of hot but not intolerable runny nose hot. The shredded pieces of chicken throughout the noodle dish is also spot on in terms of there being enough chicken in the dish that you can have some noodles and chicken in every bite.
Service
Attentive, cordial, and seemless execution. 5 out of 5 for service quality.
Price
The final tally came it at well see for yourself…we included a 20% gratuity and called it a night.
SEA is what you would expect to pay for dining out in Meatpacking. Combined with great service and excellent food it is worth it’s price of admission. Would we have preferred a smaller bill? Absolutely, who wouldn’t? Even so SEA Thai Experience we will be back!!!
THEJNSREPORT
THEJNSREPORT 