Best Thing I Ever Ate : Ippudo NY

Ippudo NY

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65 4th Avenue

New York, NY 10003-5220

I had read about this restaurant on the Travel Channel and The Food Network. We attempted to go for lunch, but there was a 45 minutes wait. So we tried again at dinnertime, this time we faced an hour wait, but figured it was worth it. And it 100% was worth the wait. It's a Japanese Ramen noodle chain, with it's first American chain in New York City. 

We started with the Hiarata Buns with pork. They were seriously to die for. Best pork bun I've ever tasted, hands down! And being half-Chinese, I've tasted a lot of pork buns. The boyf doesn't necessarily love pork, and hates mayonnaise, but LOVED these! The bun was the softest I've ever felt or tasted. It literally melted in my mouth. The "original spicy buns sauce" added the perfect amount of spice. And the lettuce added a great crunch to round out the appetizer. And the pork was perfectly cooked and flavored. Oh man, these were out of this world good. 

Next up was the Ramen. We got the "Karaka Kogashi Miso Ramen", or spicy Miso. It had a great charred flavor with a good amount of spice. It was really delicious! We also got the "Shoyu Ramen", soy flavored Ramen. It was also really good! I added some spicy broth to this to add some flavor and spice. The noodles were perfectly cooked, and apparently are made downstairs. And they give you this huge soup spoon, which is really fun. Now I need to find where I can buy them! 

We also got sake which came in really fun shot glasses with boxes around them! The atmosphere at Ippudo is really fun. It's upscale, but also relaxed. There are separated booths, and communal tables around a fire. The waitresses all yell in Japanese, I think they yell Thank you and Goodbye, when people are leaving, but it's really fun to hear and watch. I loved this place, and will definitely try to go back everytime I'm in NYC!

Best Thing I Ever Ate : Katz's Delicatessen

Katz's Deli

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205 East Houston Street

NY 10002

I had seen this place on multiple shows (Best Thing I Ever Ate, Man vs. Food, etc) so I knew I wanted to grab a sandwich. The place is crazy, the line was out the door when we left. There are 4 lines at each deli slicer, and no one really knows what they are doing. You get a ticket when you walk in and they write what you get at each station. First you get a sandwich, then go to another counter for fries, then another for drinks. It was a mess! But once you figured it out, it worked. 

The boyf and I split a Corned Beef sandwich as they looked huge. And we made a good decision, I barely ate 1/4 of it! It was filled with about 10 layers of corned beef. It normally comes on Rye, but since I'm not a fan, we got it on a sub roll. The sandwich was massive, but really delicious! It came with a plate of home-made pickles which tasted more like cucumbers, but were good.

The other famous sandwich there is the Pastrami, which we will probably get next time. Overall it was a fun experience to see where "Harry met Sally" and all the famous people's pictures on the wall. The deli came up on both our boat and bus tour, so I'm glad I can say I have been and have tasted the humongous sandwiches! 

Best Thing I Ever Ate: Shake Shack

Shake Shack

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Multiple locations in NYC

I heard about this place from 2 friends, one of whom lived in New York City for 5 years. So we made it a point to make it here for a meal. The menu is fairly simple: burgers, hot dogs, fries, frozen custard and milkshakes. We got a burger, fries, and a strawberry milkshake. It was really delicious! 

The burger was a manageable size, which I loved. The pickles were extremely seasoned, which were a little strong by themselves, but took the burger to a whole new level. The crinkle fries were really fun and crispy. And the strawberry milkshake was really creamy and delicious. The place gets really crowded so looking for a table could be difficult if you have a larger group. But the atmosphere is fun. Upon further review of the menu, we spotted the "Great White Way" concrete with vanilla custard, marshmallow sauce, and crispy crunchies and might have ordered it later if we weren't stuffed. There is also a "Preztel! Concrete" with chocolate custard, peanut butter sauce, chocolate covered pretzels, and marshmallow sauce. YUM! Definitely getting one of those next time. But I would highly recommend stopping by this place for a great burger and shake! 

The Big Apple

This past weekend, the boyf and I randomly decided to drive up to New York City for the long weekend. Mainly because he had never been, but partly, just because! We had a great trip, filled with bus tours, boat tours, delicious restaurants from The Food Network and the Travel Channel. Mainly tourist things, which was a lot of fun! I'll be posting about the restaurants later, they were all delicious!