Hangawi (Spice and Serenity)

Though on the edge of K-town, you won’t find communal BBQs at Hangawi, a Zen temple of vegetarian Korean fare. When E suggested we try a Korean vegetarian place he had been to for lunch, I did not expect this level of elegance. After some jerky driver behind me honked incessantly at my cab, I stepped out, walked into Hangawi and felt immediately calm.

Not only is Hangawi beautiful with its soaring ceilings and ornate table settings, but the staff glides around the room with such ease, that your stress lifts away. And boy, does it smell awesome!

A lot of that peace comes from the fact that everybody removes their shoes at the door. You won’t hear any clicking at Hangawi. It was a real joy to take off my heels and tuck my feet into the space below our table. I was amazed at how far the menu could go without any meat. From dumplings to leek pancakes, seaweed salad, vermicelli, and an entire maitake mushroom prixe fixe, the menu piqued my taste buds again and again. Narrowing down our selections was no small feat.

We started with the seamed kimchi buns, two pillows of dough with sweetly-flavored slices of kimchi inside.  The texture was just dense enough with the right amount of elasticity. I’m no bun expert but I know what a David Chang bun tastes like and what an over-processed Zen Palate bun tastes like. These were somewhere in the middle. Even better than the buns were our vegetable dumplings with a pool of spicy/sour sauce (chilli sauce? not listed) Don’t let the vague descriptions  fool you, the kitchen pays great care to detail and the flavors are there.

I appreciated the serene vibe until a LONG pause between our appetizer and entree. People began to leave the restaurant as we crept closer to closing time, with no entree. Our waiter was missing. Eventually we caught the attention of our hostess and magically, our waiter emerged with our Zen noodles and spicy chili mushrooms, served with generous side plates of spicy and mild kimchi.

The hostess felt terrible about the wait and apologized profusely. She asked if there was anything else they could bring. E mentioned a particular type of kimchi he had on another occasion. While they didn’t have it, they brought another side of some marinated, thinly sliced cucumber. The cucumber wasn’t life-changing, but a good effort at salvaging our meal.

Timing mishaps and mistakes occur all the time in restaurants, but it’s possible to recover with grace, as the staff at Hangawi did. This was a truly memorable meal and I would be happy to return anytime!

Location: 12 East 32nd Street
Food: Very Good
Drinks: No expansive wine list here but you will find some sake and sochu cocktails and a couple of beers.
Service: Good
Average App/Entree Price: $11/$21
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.

‘Inoteca e Liquori Bar (3rd Avenue)

Like its sister locations, ‘Inoteca 3rd Avenue is a warm space with high ceilings and blonde wooden tables, churning out big Italian flavors on small plates. Even on a Monday night it was a boisterous scene, proving the decision to convert idle Bar Milano, was a good one. The wine list offers fewer by-the-glass selections than expected for a wine bar (12-14 red and white), though it is made up for in a vast cocktail menu. The wines offered are thoughtful, with unique selections like Aglianico, an Italian Syrah and the often under-appreciated, Dolcetto.

‘Inoteca is a fun place to go with a few people because you can order many small plates and sample a lot, which is exactly what we did! One of my favorites was an insalata di verdure di radice, a heaping pile of roasted root vegetables (brussel sprouts, squash, carrots) cooked in a grainy mustard with crisp carrot chips on top. Our waiter had dissuaded me from ordering it, but I typically go with my own instinct and it sounded great to me. I could have eaten two bowls of these awesome vegetables.

We also had an assortment of Italian cheese including Robiola, Taleggio, and a goat cheese that the waiter recommended (I took his advice on that one). A panini with layers of spinach, gooey fontina and truffle oil was another favorite. The whole restaurant smelled like truffle oil actually, which I warmly welcome. If you like bruschette, ‘Inoteca offers a variety of spreads in assortments of one, three, or five pieces and we had ricotta, tapenade, pesto and broccoli rabe, though their flavor was eclipsed by other dishes. Aside from salads and antipasto, ‘Inoteca also offers spiedini which are skewers of various meat or seafood. My cousin had huge, fresh scallop spiedini and my sister had some juicy quail spiedini served on a bed of barley.

Though the food was great I did have some issues with the service which felt rushed at times. At one point I had a bite of bread in my hand and my plate was removed from beneath my hand. The waiter disappeared and reemerged a few times throughout the meal and he forgot to bring (or write down?) a tagliatelle we had ordered, though we were amply satisfied without it.

In any case, ‘Inoteca is a great addition to a neighborhood which has been starving for a noteworthy opening.

‘Inoteca e Liquori Bar: 323 3rd Avenue
Cuisine: Italian, Small Plates, Wine Bar
Average Appetizer/Entree Price: $8/$15
Food: Very Good
Service: Poor
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.

Ilili

After spending 14 days in Israel, eating more hummus, shawarma and baba ghannouj than humanly possible, the prospect of Lebanese food was less than thrilling. I’d heard mixed things about Ilili, the upscale Lebanese restaurant recently opened in Gramercy. But their lamb dumplings with minted yogurt and fried sweetbreads (served at Toast of the Town, New York) intrigued me.

Ilili is a palatial, narrow restaurant with soaring ceilings and a masculine color palate of mahogany, spotted by comfy red chairs at each table. The expansive menu is split into vegetables, fish, meat, and “grill.” Dishes are best enjoyed as shared items, explained our gracious waiter, who was so doting that he needlessly apologized each time he left the table.

The meal began with an amuse bouche from the kitchen of silky labne (strained yogurt with olive oil, mint and za’atar) with crisps. We ordered an assortment from each section of the menu, steering clear of the traditional and opting for stars like brussel sprouts fried with grapes, fig puree and walnuts as well as manti which is Lebanese pasta stuffed with beef, lamb and yogurt. Lamb chops with z’atar salsa verde were spicy and sweet, falling off the bone in their own juices. A mixed grill of chicken shish, beef kebab and beef kafta was tender and delicately seasoned, served along side inflated, warm pitas. If seeking more adventurous dishes, skip the thinly sliced octopus with hot pepper oil and go for the sweetly spiced kibbeh naya or steak tartar with burghul, onion and mint.

We brought a special wine as my Dad typically does (1990 Chateau Lafite, waa-waa-wee-wa) but later discovered that the owners have a relationship with the family that owns Paumonok Vineyards in Long Island, which explains the bevy of Long Island wines offered up at Ilili.

The meal was a real success and I can honestly say that I adored it. Each dish had a robust flavor profile unlike anything I’ve had before in Mediterranean food. There is a host of Mediterranean restaurants in Manhattan (Periyali, Ethos, Pera, Barbounia, and Thalassa come to mind) and they do a nice job, but I found that Ilili truly stood on its own.

Ilili: 236 5th Ave (betw 27th and 28th)
Cuisine: Contemporary Lebanese
Average Entree Price: $18-$34
Food: Excellent
Service: Very Good
Value: Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.

Country

I wanted to love Country. The dining room is breathtakingly beautiful with ostentatious chandeliers, tastefully cased in glass. The open kitchen adds another theatrical element to the experience. The well-heeled waiters skate through the room, contributing additional levels of charm. Country had all the workings of a top-notch dining experience. My family loved it, but somehow it missed the bar for me.

Country’s menu is a four-course tasting menu, with optional supplements. It changes daily, an impressive feat for any restaurant. On the night we went they had a special whole white truffle which was showcased around the table for us all to smell. For an additional $80, the truffle could be added to any dish. The supplements all featured the white truffle as well. All fine and impressive, but not worthwhile in any of our opinions.

The meal began with an amuse-bouche of a fried frog’s leg in a cream sauce followed by a tiny quail egg, mini sweet potato tarts and some kind of salmon puff. Everyone around the table ordered differently. Duck stuffed with foie gras was a highlight: intensely flavorful and delicately accented with the foie. A butternut squash risotto appetizer was a real hit with my Grandma. All of my dishes were real misses though: a poached egg with proscuitto and frisee, bland pork cheeks, and a striped bass with squid (squid missing in action). It’s hard to place what was lacking but I wasn’t wowed by anything. Dessert was a bit of a recovery with a sorbet intermezzo followed by rice pudding and a chocolate mint dome with vanilla ice cream. The courses were timed well and the service was great. Plates arrived in a well-conceived manner, the real issue was the elements served on them.

Perhaps I ordered poorly and missed the real signature items? The New York Times gave it an excellent. At these prices however, every dish should be excellent.

Country: 90 Madison Avenue at 29^th in the Carlton Hotel
Cuisine: French
Average App/Entree Price: $14/$27
Food: Good
Service: Very Good
Value: Poor
You Gonna Finish That? Meh, you can taste the side.Word to the wise: There is also a cafe below Country, a more relaxed option.

Darna (What a Disaster)

Unfortunately I don’t have anything positive to say about Darna. I took a bit of a risk and chose it for my birthday dinner with my closest girlfriends last Thursday. I wanted to have unique yet affordable cuisine and picked Darna based on some recommendations from Chowhound. Everyone seemed to love it on Citysearch and Menupages as well. Darna serves Morrocan-French food and seemed to have a very lively, fun scene based on the web site.

The restaurant was very small and the decor was drab. Our table of eleven was one of few (maybe the only?) occupied tables in the restaurant on a Thursday night at 8PM. Despite this fact, the service was horrible as well. Soon after sitting down and ordering some sangria, a friend of mine spilled her glass and the waiters stood around baffled before coming to help us. We had to ask them to come over with napkins. Shouldn’t this have been obvious? From there everything was downhill. The food came in a timely manner but we had to ask for everything i.e. more water, side plates for sharing appetizers, cutlery etc. If it was a crowded restaurant I would have understood but the waiters were literally standing around doing nothing until we flailed our arms to get their attention.

We drank our sangria which was pretty disgusting. It isn’t easy to make perfect sangria but it is difficult to make disgusting sangria. Somehow Darna’s version tasted bitter and watery. We ordered some appetizers to share: hummus with avocado, brie tiede with fried grapes, goat cheese tart and grilled calamari. The appetizers were actually quite delicious and I thought things were looking up.

Things took a wrong turn again at our entrees which were either overcooked or bland all around the table. I had a Cornish hen tagine which had no flavor, accompanied by a sauce which was equally tasteless. Some friends ordered lamb burgers and brochettes which were overcooked and needed seasoning. The meal was rounded out by a rousing tune of “Happy Birthday Dear Stranger”- the icing on the cake. This is the first completely bad review I have ever written as I usually try to be optimistic. Unfortunately there was no silver lining at Darna except that I was with some of my favorite people in the world who did a great job of cheering me up. I do NOT recommend Darna. If you are one of the folks who went and loved it please tell me… what am I missing?

Darna: 633 2nd Ave
Cuisine: Morrocan-French
Food: Poor
Service: Poor
Value: Good
You Gonna Finish That? Not even worth a doggy bag