New Eats Report
We've been eating more outside the hood lately, so we'd like to solicit some feeding advice from the neighborhood experts.Who's been to La Lunetta (old Taku space), Porchetta (since they got a new chef), and the new Thai place in old Tuk Tuk (name is escaping me)?
We've been twice now to the Smoke Joint in Fort Greene and can recommend the wings, the beef ribs and the greens. Not so much the pork ribs or the mac and cheese. They do have the Southern hospitality down pat, though.
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We ate at Porchetta a few nights ago and it was amazing. I'm not a restaurant reviewer, so don't expect any detailed food descriptions from me, but let's just say it was the kind of meal that took me 20 minutes to eat just because I had to chew each bite so slowly to get the most from it! It scores super high points for me on creativity of the dishes as well. The decor was also my favorite that I've seen so far (do I recognize the picture on the upper corner of this page...???) It was sort of a culmination of all my favorites from the latest design mags/catalogs I get, though still soft and relaxing for a nice slow meal ;) Very nice job done by the designer. Then they served Brooklyn gum at the end! I left thinking "gee, Manhattan is so NINETIES compared to Brooklyn". :P
Marsha and I went to Porchetta for brunch the other morning. This has been one of our favorite brunch spots since we've been in the neighborhood. To our surprise, a new chef means a new menu, and our beloved banana walnut pancakes are no more :(
They were replaced with Ricotta pancakes with green apple (which turned out to be pear slices). They were enjoyable, but we were definitely disappointed that our old dish had been removed.
We tried something new called a Frittatta (I think) that is a cross between a quiche and an omelette. We liked this a lot seeing as how we inhaled it in record time.
I suppose we will be going back, but I would love to see the banana walnut pancakes make a return.
The particular dish I enjoyed recently (and the server said was one of the new chef's signature dishes) was the Smoked Sunchoke Soup with Braised Panchetta, Golden Raisins & Fresh Sheep's Milk Ricotta. This is truly an amazing soup and in and of itself would bring me back to Porchetta. Highly recommended.
I love Lunetta (no "La" in the title). They have amazing ricotta that they make there, and the pork belly is pretty much the perfect fall dish. They're really sweet there, too. Our only complaint was that it was a little pricey for the portion sizes.
I agree with the above post about Lunetta. It was pretty good, but not worth the price. The pork belly was a little too greasy and the pasta a little too al dente. For my money, I'll keep going to Carciofi—the food is better, the place quieter and the prices reasonable.
Has something opened where Viola used to be? My wife and I have been hoping that Guisepe was gonna reopen under a new name doing the same type of thing... we loved that place... in fact we had them do the food for our wedding.
:)
Oh Banania brunch. how i miss it. we had such a taste in our mouths for those banana walnut pancakes, a side of fruit (with fresh mint) and a bowl of perfectly friend bacon.... and we didn't get what we went for. I understand new menu, new chef, blah blah, but unless you order granola & yogurt, there are no fruity options on the menu, their bread/muffin basket is no longer free (now $3), and the menu - a little more expensive, but still tasty - has much more lunchy options that breakfasty options. Sometimes, even if it's 1pm, I'd rather not have fries as part of my first meal of the day.
Like adam wrote above, the food was good, just not AS good.
Just had a dreadful dinner at Porchetta tonight...a total miss. Best dish was an oxtail ravioli special, but one tilefish dish was so bitter we couldn't get down more than a few bites. Long wait between dishes, overpriced, uninteresting wine list, pretty much a total flop. Made me appreciate Lunetta even more.
Do you think it was because you went on a Sunday? Maybe the "real" chef was off? I'm always hesitant to dine out on a Sunday if I'm spending more than $10 for an entree ...
We, too had a very long wait between dishes but we were out for a nice romantic weekend dinner with nowhere to be afterward, so it was relaxing. But I can see that having been a problem if we had been in more of a rush.