El Mariachi

Mmmm margaritas.  El Mariachi has come up several times when I've asked about fun drinks and patios, so when my parents were in town on a stunning 80ish degree day that turned into a high 60s/low 70s evening, we knew we had to sit outside.  I don't know about you, but I always find that with good service, adult beverages, and outdoor seating it's hard for me not to like something.

El Mariachi had pretty good guacamole, and the salsa that comes with the complimentary chips had a nice kick.  I enjoyed the chicken mole (good, but needed to be hotter temperature wise), mom had fajitas, J had steak with onions and garlic, and dad got something with chicken that I don't remember.  But he liked it, and that was all that mattered, because we were celebrating his BIRTHDAY!!! Yay! He really didn't want a big to do for his 60th, so he and mom decided to come up to our house for Friday-Sunday, then leave after breakfast to see my sister in Boston until Tuesday.  Child touring, they call it.

When we walked in there was a line 3 parties deep to even check in with the hostess.   She was running back and forth to seat people, and with existing reservations going on I figured we'd have a huge wait.  Nope, we were seated on the patio right away (after waiting 10 minutes while she sat other people and ran around).

Service was great--our saintly waitress was patient with my chatty dad who doesn't like peppers or onions, unless they are well done, in which case onions are okay but not peppers.  He doesn't really like picking off a menu, he'd prefer someone tell him what to get.  And she did.  Thanks!  Also, she brought him a very heavy authentic-looking festive sombrero and flan with a candle in it.

You can get margaritas by the pitcher AND by the half pitcher, so if that second pitcher is just a little beyond reach? No worries, you're covered.

El Mariachi
289 Hamilton Street
Albany, NY

Birthday Weekday Evening @ NWBB

I hope you had a lovely Memorial Day weekend!  Even more so, I hope you extended it (like we did). 

Speaking of celebrating, we at Cap2Cap celebrated BOTH of our birthdays this spring (early and late) at New World.  We love N. Dubz.--it's not that there are never any misses, but I'd argue that the clear majority of dishes hit the mark and some are simply divine.  Plus all the local, seasonal, organic, etc stuff that I like AND servers who are knowledgeable and seemingly excited about aforementioned zazz.  I learned a bit about how they source their salmon!  [Also: we can walk there.  Let's be honest for a second about how big of a factor this is.]

We started with an okay, probably-not-worth-$10 appetizer: the duck prosciutto bruschette.  I easily peeled the fat off mine, since I didn't really understand why it was there.  I'd prefer just the crispy duck part!  The duck prosciutto itself was dark and salty and had a good bite, and the fig jam was fun, but I felt like it all could have been put together differently.  The bruschette situation wasn't best.  Let's be honest, I just want to crunch that duck all over a giant salad and dollop the fig jam on it.  J wished we had gotten the blackened green beans instead; they are famed.

Now on to DELICIOUS, totally on the mark: Thai Italian Love - Panang curry bolognese.  Look at that papardelle!  A little spicy, but the heat kept me on my toes.  It wasn't overwhelming, and it didn't last very long on my tongue.  I could move on and enjoy myself.  I want this again today right now.

J had a special, the South Indian Fish Fry, which was light (I know, for fried fish!) and tasty, with some friendly veggies and a bright sauce of mild yellow curry.  
 
New World Bistro Bar
300 Delaware Avenue
Albany, NY

We skipped dessert because I hustled my booty over to Cheesecake Machismo after work before carpooling home with the birthday gentleman.  I proceeded to take the menu I nabbed out of my pocket right in front of him once we got home...I'm smooth.

Cookies and Cream and Smoked 'Smore.I reallllly liked the 'smore situation, but J felt like one bite was enough.  He didn't dig the char flavor, he said "I don't want to feel like I'm eating a fire."  To me it was like eating a super toasted marshmallow, one that has been charred.  AND I LIKED IT.  Different strokes, etc.

They have no web site. I usually am against this, but meh Facebook, they are a dessert place, I'll let it slide this time.  Also, their name is basically amazing. 

Cheesecake Machismo
 293 Hamilton St
 Albany, NY

Van's Vietnamese

I'll break it down for ya:  Enormous portions.  Very friendly service.  Jam-packed by 7pm on a Friday night.  Room for a few more tables but does not put them there (not sure if it's for fire code/zoning reasons or for my comfort, but I'll pretend it's for my comfort and for that I say THANK YOU).  Tasty food.  That, in a nutshell, is Van's Vietnamese.

Granted, we have not tried their pho yet.  We recently lived near one of the most hyped up pho places of my knowledge, Pho 75 in Arlington.

Crispy vegetarian spring rolls,  crispy duck, and lemongrass chicken.  I'm pretty sure they gave me an entire chicken, or more.  This meal was dinner, dinner again (+ new rice made at home), and then part of my lunch.  The quantity here is out of control. 

I'm looking forward to trying the pho and other dishes recommended by happy diners.  You just have to hope that you like what you get; you know, since it'll be enough for three to five meals.

Van's Vietnamese
307 Central Ave

Albany, NY

Food Happenings Around Town

 

 [It looks like it's warm enough to eat lunch outside, but really it wasn't.  Yet.  Bonus: the top of the river defrosted.]

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!  Take a sip of iced coffee and say hello to Monday morning.  Whew....we're rolling into busy season, and I don't just mean for work.  We've got travels, challenges, epic journeys, and food events coming. 

Here's what's on my local events calendar for the next month-ish--I can't make them all, but you should try.*

4/2: Glens Falls Brewfest
4/3: Jewish Food Festival. See also, FLB, HVGS, TU**
4/9: Tour de Soft Serve
4/30-5/1: Tap NY Craft Beer & Fine Food Festival 
5/7: Tulip Festival (OK, you can't eat them, but hopefully it'll be warm and toasty for tulips + brunch).

What else should be on the calendar?  Whatcha got?  Also, Montreal is quickly approaching--any last minute tips?




*No one gave me anything (free tickets, hugs, ice cream cones, dollar billz) to mention these events.  One person did ask me nicely, though.
**I was told there would be challah.  Hence the bold and asterisk.

Creo

Brrrrrrrrunch!  Yay!  We recently had a shmancy brunch at Creo and it was divine.  What makes Creo shmancy in my opinion is its cool copper-y tables, open kitchen, modern decor, large space, careful service/plating (including cleaning shmears off of the outside of the plate), aaaand the fact that we didn't wait in a crowded vestibule for 40 minutes.  In fact, we made a reservation on this new-fangled city slicker contraption called OpenTable. 

Look at the size of that coffee cup. And that cute little mini muffin - there were 3 in a basket that was meant to hold 10.  I appreciate free food, regardless of its presentation.

I faced the pretty open kitchen and the hottt pizza oven while J faced the rest of the cavernous restaurant.

Look at that monster.  It's freshly cut roast beef (think more like sliced prime rib than the deli stuff), tomatoes, over easy eggs, crispy prosciutto, and Swiss.  It's insane.  That bread is toasted ciabatta, by the by.  It's innocuous name is "egg sandwich," but really it is so much more.  It may be one of the most ridonculous brunch item I've ever enjoyed, along with the likes of the ropa bennie at New World or the brisket hash in Austin.  But, it's a close call, and NWBB is way closer to our digs.  Walking distance in a town where walking is practically verboten. 

Another angle, half eaten.  Seriously, with the sauce and the egg yolk making friends with the crispy bread...

J had a slice of charred bread with his duck confit hash and poached eggs.  His hash a little more shine than Ii'd like, and I wasn't really getting much duck.  There was a vaguely Asian flavor to it that I enjoyed in my few bites, but it seemed too potato-y to me.  I'm such a hater these days (of potatoes). J agreed that I had clearly won in the Battle of the Order, even though his sounded superb on paper. 

We'll be back to Creo.  Even if it's for drinks and apps--the bar is nice, and it's away from the main dining room (which probably makes weekday dinners less noisy).   I'd also like the breakfast pizza or the bananas Foster pancakes--the latter would be ideal for after a nice run.  Delmar Dash perhaps?  Or maybe we'll go somewhere closer to the neighborhood. 

Creo Restaurant
1475 Western Avenue (Stuyvesant Plaza)
Albany, NY

Pearl Street Diner

 

Pearl Street Diner, or PSD, is my favorite greasy spoon lunch place near the office.  There's really not much competition in the area--Greenhouse is a Chop't-type place with hard, cold seats and fake cubed turkey; Franklin's Tower is ok, but the menu is small, it's sometimes freezing in there, and I've never *loved* my order; Victory Cafe is good, but lunch will set you BACK!  [Obviously because I want the gigantic salad with a protein on it, $14.  The specials are good and more reasonable.]  Granted, I have some more exploration to do.  Particularly when it's above freezing, maybe sunny, and I can cross streets at intersections without hurdling over a pile of snow or more recently, an enormous slushy puddle.

So PSD it is.  Close, cheap, and usually pretty tasty.  For about $7 I can get a decent portion of chicken souvlaki in a pita with a Greek salad.  One out of four times the salad might be over-oily, but the service is friendly, it's a lot of food for a little price, and we've never waited long for a table.  Sub souvlaki for gyro and there are my orders.

Souvlaki!

The chicken salad club is double-decker and enormous.

Visitor S had chili and fries when he came with us to PSD.

Now, the name Diner is a misnomer.  It's not open 24-hours.  It does not serve breakfast all day.  If it did, I'd be there more often.  But it's inexpensive, the service is friendly, the wait is short (if it exists), the portions are great, and thus it has my weekday loyalty so far.


Pearl Street Diner (does not really have a web site...)
40 N. Pearl Street
Albany, NY

Miss Albany Diner

This little diner is TFC.  The food is good, the service is friendly, and there are interesting things on the walls.

Exhibit A:

Downstaters/DCers, please take the above as a lesson in NY geography.  I live nowhere near Buffalo.  It's 5 hours away according to this very official signage.  Hawaii seems too close...

And the food.  So here at the MAD they toast your cinnamon bun.  Even though I usually wouldn't order one of these delectable definitely-not-breakfast (DESSERT) items, I was intrigued by the toasting.

Let's get close.

That's the stuff.  This is basically criminal.  For real. I'm pretty sure slathering it with butter will get you LWOP.  A little crunch goes a long way, particular because it's caused by a crispy bread outer layer AND the crackling of the thin, sugary film. 

Corned beef hash, over easy eggs.  Classic us.  Delicious.

Cool huevos with chutney, some mint and mango.  I liked it more than J did, so we ended up switching about halfway.  His plate was definitely cooler.

I need to remember to ask for my toast dry.  I really don't need the butter--the rest of my choices do enough damage, and I prefer jam or preserves to butter anyway.  SO FORGETFUL.

PS, this joint closes at like 2:15pm or some crazy time like that.  You can get there for late breakfast, but not J&A-style 4pm winter weekend breakfast...we lazy.

Here's to continuing our tour of the Capital Region's best diner breakfasts.  Happy Monday everyone!


Miss Albany Diner
893 Broadway
Albany, NY 12207 

Cafe Madison

We found a delicious and inexpensive brunch that we now crave all the time.  Let me be clear that by "found" I mean everyone else who has lived here for the past 40 years (according to the bartender) already knew--we read a lot of advice telling us to go there, and today we finally did.  And by "finally" I mean it took us 2 months.  I'm too hard on us.

FIRST VISIT:

Anyway, we've been to a few diners, so there's no shortage of breakfast.  Our Sunday Times in tow, we headed to Cafe Madison post-spin class but pre-Williamstown adventure.  It was pretty packed; I spotted two seats at the bar, asked if we could eat there (sort of knowing the answer), and nabbed 'em.  A girl had just come outside to the doorway to tell her boyfriend that the wait was a half hour, that doubt in her voice about whether he'd want to wait.  Girl, whatcha waitin' for?  We LOVE to eat at the bar.  No wait (or short wait), it's just the two of us, and did I mention not having to wait???  Y'all know I love this tactic.  There wasn't quite enough room to spread out with the paper while we waited for our food (which actually took a while--longer than for the people next to us who arrived later and ordered shortly after us), but we huddled over the crossword puzzle together and made some moderate progress.

 [Strawberry Basil Mimosa?  Can you say T?!?!]

The breakfast specials looked great, but I went for the two + two--two eggs and two pancakes, a variety of choices.  I had apple walnut.  Y'all know I'm not huge on pancakes (usually).  If anything, after a long run I want something eggy + something bready, usually French toast.   But these pancakes were thick and fluffy, and you could taste the buttermilk.  My over easy eggs were a little less done than usual, but not in a bad way.  In all, it was so much food and I could not believe it was only $6.  I felt like a thief.  And I don't want extra toast and potatoes to come with my food--this was more than enough!  I couldn't even finish the last few bites of pancake.  Again, very unlike me, but I was stuffed.

J had the corned beef hash (obviously, one of us had to have it).  I had a few bites and what I noticed was that the hash itself was well done on the edges--it had a crisp.  YUM.  Just the way I like it.  J had a bunch of options for bread, all made in house.  He got cinnamon swirl, and it was so thick and delicious it almost tasted like French toast. It made other toasts feel embarrassed.

After this visit I was crushing on Cafe Madison.  I had visions of going almost every weekend with the same situation repeating itself, delicious and easy.

SECOND VISIT:
This past weekend did not play out the same way, so I'm updating this post to share with you.  J joked that Cafe Madison is great....if you have nothing else to do all day.  I joked that I could have finished the socks I just started knitting on size 1.5 needles while we waited.  [Haha knitting joke haha.]  At least five people sitting at the bar hung out there for 20-30 minutes waiting for a table before deciding they'd eat there.  They totally have the right to sit there without eating.  I was just dreaming of our first visit, and wished I could sit at the bar and order food instead of watching them sitting and not ordering food. 

Let me be clear: I'm ok with a wait when I know it's happening.   Remaining at a crowded restaurant is consent to wait patiently with a smile.  But the 15 minutes our hostess told us turned into 40, no space opened at the bar, and after we sat down we ordered within 2 minutes--no need to think.  Our food took another thirty minutes to arrive.  Pancakes, hash, toast, eggs.  And this isn't a place where you get a roll or a muffin.  We were late to pick up a friend at the airport, but beyond that, we were starving.  Starvation and lateness guilt meant we scarfed down our food in about 6 minutes, not exactly savoring.  We paid the bill while cleaning our plates and rushed out.  It's not that I believed the hostess that it would be 15 minutes, it's that I was hopeful that even if the wait was an hour we'd be sitting at the bar in less than 10 minutes. 

Our food was delicious, and for the quality it is dirt cheap.  J's pancakes were well-done the second time, and I liked them better with some crisp.  The cinnamon toast is really a cinnamon bun pretending it's toast, aka awesome.  Service is friendly and coffee is quickly refilled.  I just think that if there's a wait--any at all--and you are really hungry or have somewhere to be in less than two hours, then you need to sit at the bar within 10 minutes or go somewhere else.  Otherwise you will have what I call Delicious Yet Least Relaxing Brunch Ever. DYLRBE.  Which you may notice, starts with DY aka die aka I thought I was going to die because I was so freakin hungry.

P.S. Brunch is 7:30am til 3pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 


Cafe Madison
1108 Madison Ave
Albany, NY

Debbie's Kitchen

We needed a quick but cute lunch when my outlaws were recently in town.  We needed to sit down, eat a quick, reasonably priced sandwich, and then head out to the New York State Museum.  (It's free.  It's freezing.  There's a carousel.  Why not?)  We considered Scratch Bakery Cafe, but it was a little too small for this time around.  A few doors down is Debbie's Kitchen.

[How do you like those icicles?]

Little did I know at the time that Debbie actually sold her Kitchen in 2010, and now it's Tom's kitchen, really.  

Whoever's kitchen it is, it's a nice one. You can get half a sandwich with a small soup as a combo (you know how I love combos, or really, the opportunity to eat more than one dish). 

We had tasty sweet potato coconut something soup, the roasted red pepper soup, and a lentil vegetable, too.  We were all souped up, you could say.

I almost followed FIL with a Thanksgiving-ish turkey/cranberry sandwich, but then I picked turkey, garlic mayo, tomato, spinach, and dill Havarti.  On PUMPERNICKEL.  No one EVER has pumpernickel!!! I was so happy that I took a bite before taking a picture.

J had corned beef, pastrami, Swiss, and slaw (his third Reubenesque sandwich of the week, and I'm not talking ladies with curves), and MIL had the tuna salad with apples, nuts, and cheddar.  She was very pleased by the texture and flavors, and it led to a discussion about how the heck the people on Chopped (not to mention Iron Chef, Top Chef, and just chefs generally all over the place) know what acid to add or spices to mix in order to get that wow factor.

We'll definitely be back to Debbie's kitchen for a yummy, fresh, quick lunch.  And next time we'll get one of the delicious looking treats from the display. 


Debbie's Kitchen
456 Madison Avenue
Albany, NY

 

Kinnaree

Before we even moved I started subscribing to some area blogs, including Albany Eats! (exclamation point not added as emphasis. It's original.)  When she said that she (and guests) went to Kinnaree, the new Thai/Korean/Japanese/Fusion/Whatever place on Lark Street and had savory hot noodley warmth, I wanted it too.

We were out pre-celebrating J of J&J's swearing in at the NY bar.  Ohhh memories of swearings in past, how you haunt me.  But anyway:

Veggie dumpling potsticker friends, aka gyoza.

Bowl of curry liquid with a wee bit of chicken, too.  If it was spicy, poor J with his icky cold couldn't tell.  We were hoping it was zap/clear him back to life.

My J had chicken with udon noodles.  Very tasty.  I might get it in the future.  

I took Albany Jane's suggestion with the rad nah with tofu.  I ate "Buddhist's Delight" every Thursday for nearly a year in NJ at Tung Hsing House, so I'm not stranger to bean curd, I mean, erm, tofu.   It was delicious.  I hate to say it, but I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing.

Overall, I'm really not sure whether the portions weren't that large or we were just starving, because we all pretty much cleared our plates (besides some curry liquid on J.Esq's part). Service was prompt and friendly, food was tasty, the prices are reasonable: in a nutshell, we'll definitely go back to Kinnaree.

Kinnaree
193 Lark Street
Albany, NY

74 State/Marché

Recently, J.Esq (of J&J) graced us with his presence, and his lovely parental units let me and my J join them for a celebratory lunch.

Can we start with the bad and end up happy with the good?

1.  Where the heck did I eat?  Marché?  Bistro/Bar?  Is one the upstairs and one the downstairs?  Why do both menus say Marché?  What kind of a name is Bistro/Bar?  Why is the name of your hotel the address?  It's almost as confusing at Capitol to Capital/iEatDC.

2. Why is the service so slow even when there aren't so many people there?  It took 45 minutes to order and get our lunch food, and that was sad for the one of us that had to leave early for a work call.

3.  Do you really mean to tell me that restaurants near Empire State Plaza don't know when 800+ people are going out to lunch with their families after the swearing in ceremony? 

4. We got a coupon for staying at the hotel that we were told over the phone we could use for our lunch reservation (made at the same time as the room), but it was really for dinner only, and we didn't receive the promised coupon until we asked for it several hours before check-out and at the lunch where we weren't supposed to be able to use it (more on this under GOOD).

Moving on to the things I liked about eating lunch upstairs at 74 State.  I loved that for lunch you can "pick 2" for $10, like you're at Panera or something (but much tastier selections in my opinion...sorry lovers of Panera [LS!!!]).  Half a sandwich/soup/salad, any combo of those.  This method is totally up my alley because I can have more than one thing without being a piglet.

I had half of a chicken sandwich with mozzarella, prosciutto, and arugula and the Market salad with pickled beets and pecans.  I'd do it again, quickly.  This meal costs less than a salad with chicken at Victory Cafe, but the feel of the place is more upscale, if that's what you're looking for.  Also, Victory's salads are enormous, but that's a different story.

J.Esq's salmon on salad was good, but the salmon was overcooked.  He had specified medium rare, but it was definitely cooked through and beyond.  The grapefruit in his salad was exciting.

The parental units had salads and the soup du jour, a vegetarian mushroom soup that was less vegetable-laden than we expected.  So many veggies were listed in the description, but the cup was mostly broth.  And the bleu cheese was extremely funky--I didn't want to taste it just from the look of it; unfortunately getting new dressing took so long that the naked salad was mostly eaten by the time we received it. 


Desserts were fun--we had a chocolate torte thing that was just okay, but the cheesecake situation you see up there was a good time.  Cinnamon quince, pumpkin, berry, chocolate mint.  It was fun to have a variety to taste.

In the end, we explained to someone who looked authoritative about how we were convinced over the phone to book a hotel reservation at 74 State along with the lunch reservation (originally the parents planned on staying elsewhere), and we'd get a coupon for lunch, etc, and he let us use the coupon anyway.  But we embarrassed the guys at the table who wanted to leave it all alone.  I'm with J.Esq's mom here, though--if you're promised something, and it's used as a selling device, you should get it.  That's good customer service.  Our server was super nice and seemed puzzled by the influx of people at 2pm.

So some good, some missteps, but overall a pretty reasonably-priced, tasty lunch at 74 State.

Marché
74 State Street (obviously)
Albany, NY

New World Bistro Bar

WWJD in Albany without NWBB?  Cry, for sure.

Yes yes, the chef is Ric Orlando, who recently won Chopped and came back for Chopped Champions.  And he's got another restaurant in Saugerties, an hour or so south and much closer to some people who love us.  We visited NWBB twice in the past few weeks, both times to favorable results.  Forgive the iPhone in the first visit and low light combined with impatience in the second.

I appreciate the humor.  It really is cold outside.

The Ropa Bennie: Cuban pot roast (a New World dinner entree, btw), topped with poached eggs and guava hollandaise.  This was divine.  The only error was by me--I failed to fork my second half until the egg had pretty much set.  I was so busy savoring the first half.  The meat was tender and flavorful, but not saucy.  It's apparently roasted overnight, said the waiter to me as my eyes rolled into the back of my head with satisfaction.  The hollandaise was only somewhat sweet, a beautiful contrast with the meat.  The potatoes that came on the side were totally unnecessary--you get a TON of food, and I'm not even the biggest potato fan anyway.  Waste of belly space.

Dishes like this make me reiterate to people: BRUNCH!  It is a great way to get a taste of what a place is like at dinner time, but for less, and with the rest of the day ahead of you.  Ropa Bennie: $12.  Ropa Vieja (dinner, with a different set up of course): $21.  We will go for dinner eventually, and I think I'll try the jerk chicken or the Latino steak frites.  Mmm.
 

THREE eggs on J's corned beef hash.  Not two.  Now that's value.  The hash was very good--you could see pieces of corned beef, not just flecks in between potato.  The whole brunch was fabulous, right down to the service. 

We returned on Christmas with my parents for some later night beer and appetizers.  Let's face it, the only thing to do this weekend was eat and watch movies, so a proper dinner seemed unnecessary, especially at 9pm.

I'll hit the low point first.  I've always said that at a truly great restaurant every dish will be flawless.  Maybe not flawless, but at least yummy.  It might not be my personal favorite, but it should be yummy to someone.  The vegetarian tapas platter is decidedly not flawless.  Or yummy.  It's extremely and utterly meh.  Don't get it.  Now I want to move on before I get depressed, because besides this dish, everything we've eaten there has been above and beyond.

A skinny crispy flatbread (New World Pie) was an easy crowdpleaser--who doesn't like sauce, mozzarella, basil, and romano on crispy bread?  But the winner, the ultimate, was the mussels and frites.  Now, we've never seen this before--the frites are IN with the mussels, not separate.  They are kind of floating around in there.  As my mother would (and did) say, these mussels were out of this world.  Everything about the sauce (garlic/butter/white wine/crack cocaine?) made me want to dive in.  Our obliging server took heed of this desire and gave us each a roll with which to sop up the ridiculosity that is the crack-laden broth.  (You know I'm exaggerating, right?  They don't actually put drugs in their food.)

PS I'm starting a new tag for Gluten Free (GF) to signify that the menu has labeled gluten free options or a separate GF menu. 

P.P.S. The first thing I did after leaving brunch at New World was text and email friends in DC to let them know the following: "I FOUND GOOD BRUNCH!! EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE FINE."  In all caps, just like your mom would write it.

New World Bistro Bar
300 Delaware Avenue
Albany, NY