Clover Eats!
Sharing restaurant experiences through photography!
CloverSnacks: Rice to Riches in NYC Nolita
This is a cute little rice pudding shop, with all types of rice pudding! The texture is good, and it’s fun to experience your favorite flavors in rice pudding form. The location is quite trendy, although there’s a little too much attitude in some of the signs. The sizes are also humongous – the smallest little $5 cups (that unfortunately only comes in 4 flavors) was more than enough for the both of us. They were pretty generous with samples (as we wanted to try all sorts of them), as well as with toppings, of which there was as much of as the rice pudding itself. A fun treat!
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
CloverEats: Sushi on Chapel in New Haven
Ahi Roll – fried tuna, avocado, tobiko, tempura sauce
Ruby Roll – white tuna, avocado, tuna, garlic mayo
Spicy Salmon
We tried several times earlier this month to go to Sushi on Chapel, but they were closed until mid-August. The first time we tried to go, we weren’t sure where it was, and finally found it at the bottom of a set of stairs. We went for an early dinner and were the only people in the restaurant until a few more patrons trickled in partway through our meal. While the staff was attentive, always filling up our water quickly, it was a little uncomfortable as Of the three rolls we got, I actually thought the plain old Spicy Salmon roll was the best. They make an interesting decision to use purple rice rather than the normal white rice, changing up the flavor profile a bit, but not much. The salmon sashimi pieces were thick and generous, and quite delicious. We spent $20 each. Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
CloverSnacks: Uptown Swirl in NYC
We stopped by this froyo/crepe joint after dinner. They’re right in Times Square and open until 1AM, which is great for a latenight snack. There were only two people working, and I was really impressed by how efficient they were; we paused a bit during ordering, and the cashier immediately started stocking things until we were ready. Even the girl cooking crepes did everything really quickly, from pouring to drizzling to folding. It was really intense. The froyo has some interesting flavors including cake batter and Euro tart, which was really delicious, as lately I’ve found lots of froyo places to be too sweet. There’s an upstairs to sit down in as well, although we took our crepe to go. The fillings were generous; we got strawberry, banana, Biscoff, and dark chocolate. I’m sure all crepes are inherently delicious, but this one tasted even better than the usual crepe, maybe because it tasted of New York efficiency.
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
CloverEats: Taste of China in New Haven
Chicken with pine nuts
Taste of China seems to be, like Chao Chao, another nicer version of your average Chinese restaurant. There’s a lot of good stuff offered in their pages, and the setting is definitely classier than the to-go Chinese restaurant a few doors down. The cocktails were mediocre; I’d recommend skipping them and going to a real bar for drinks after the tasty, tasty dinner.
Duck wraps!
I love duck wraps, and the wraps here had a great mild, floury flavor and texture. The duck was tender, flavorful, moist, all the things that duck should be. Fred loved his chicken with pine nuts dish so much that he insisted we come back a couple times in the last few weeks just for more of it. We’ve also ordered takeout from them.
Red bean
Overall, a solid Chinese restaurant, a bit pricey but you pay for the luxury of the dine-in experience. Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
CloverExplores: Nano Ecuadorian Kitchen in NYC Hell’s Kitchen
We woke up a little late and so went straight for lunch. Nano had fantastic reviews on Yelp and was just a few blocks away from where we were staying in the Theater District, with the added excitement of being a cuisine I had little experience with. Also, they offered a fantastic $10 lunch special! Fred got the chicken version, and while the sauce was absolutely fantastic, the chicken tasted like it had been frozen at one point. The plantains and rice and lentils all tasted fresh and delicious. My pork was more flavorful itself, but I found myself dipping it into the sauce that came with Fred’s chicken dish. Unfortunately, the lunch came with some surprise cilantro, which was pretty hard to pick out. The iced tea was very sweet and fruity and refreshing. At the end, we got dessert, which was probably the worst part of the meal, I’d recommend skipping dessert here. Also, it’s a pretty small location, so I could see it getting crowded pretty quickly! Our server was great.
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
$10 Lunch Special – rice, lentils, sweet plantains, sweet iced tea, with chicken
$10 Lunch Special – rice, lentils, sweet plantains, sweet iced tea, with pork
Torta de manqueno – flourless sweet plantain parfait on fruit compote
CloverSlurps: Super Taste in NYC Chinatown
A tiny little hole-in-the-wall, looks dingy but is still Sanitation Grade A, where you sit amongst the handful of tables with strangers, where a single waitress runs up and down the aisle taking orders, her voice hoarse (is it from all that shouting?). I read about this as one of the best place for hand-pulled noodles in NYC’s Chinatown, although to be honest we had originally tried to go to Sheng Wang across the street, but they were closed. No matter. We sit and order spicy beef noodle soup ($6) and bao (3 for $5.75). The bao are soft and slightly sweet, peanutty and with tender meat that melts in your mouth (although Fred found it a bit too fatty for his taste). Such a bargain, filled with locals, delicious hand-pulled noodles (although in retrospect I should have ordered the knife-shiven noodles rather than the regular hand-pulled ones). Check them out on Yelp!
CloverEats: Beyond Sushi in NYC
Strawberry kiwi yuzu juice and orange coconut juice
I had previously seen Beyond Sushi at Chelsea Market, but didn’t actually get a chance to sample this interesting concept. Basically it’s vegetables in sushi form, and it’s awesome. Somehow, they chose really great combinations of veggies, and I think sushi is a really sweet, whimsical vehicle for food. I love how creative little spots like this in NYC are. The juices were okay, I’d say the orange coconut was better than the strawberry kiwi yuzu, which just wasn’t that flavorful or even cold. We got the piece of the month, and while brussels sprouts usually aren’t a big love of ours, this was really delicious. It’d be even more interesting if they made some heated versions of these. At first, our Spicy Mang roll didn’t make it out to our table, but one of the chefs came by to check on us and then quickly delivered it. Although the hand rolls are cheaper, I’d recommend going for the cut rolls, as not only are they easier and less messy to eat, they allow for more flavors in one bite (I always have trouble taking a bite of everything in a hand roll, as things move around and fall out of place). If we lived close by, I’d definitely go here instead of getting a salad!
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
Piece of the month – black rice, cajun roasted brussels sprouts, hickory smoked guaillo pepper and lemon saffron sauce
Kim-Chee Hand Roll – avocado, tofu, kimchi, grilled haricot vert, six-grain rice, sweet soy mirin sauce
Spicy Mang – black rice, avocado, mango, cucumber, spicy veggies, toasted cayenne sauce
CloverEats: BAR in New Haven
In addition to having a great dance floor in the back that has strobe lights, Bar offers fantastic pizzas with toppings that were a great surprise to me. I love the mashed potato and bacon pizza, but every pizza I’ve had here has been great. The space is also really cool, but it can get super crowded and loud, so we’ve taken to just ordering takeout from them. Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
CloverEats: B-Natural in New Haven
B-Natural Cafe is a great little natural cafe that is located in an alley off Chapel St. It offers a wide range of fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies, as well as bowls loaded with healthy ingredients like quinoa and spinach and hummus. I just feel so healthy after I eat one of their bowls! Some parts of the bowl are tastier than other parts, but when mixed together, it feels pretty healthy and very filling. The smoothies are also pretty good, and the whole place has that veggie juice scent. Great for a post-yoga snack!
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
CloverEats: Miso in New Haven
I loved the atmosphere at Miso, with the generous use of wood and the cork-paper menus. The sushi was not bad, our favorites being the Rock’n’Roll (tempura spicy salmon with wasabi mayo) and the Tuna Sandwich (unfortunately not pictured; basically, think spicy tuna unwrapped into sandwich form). The Butterfly Salmon was not bad, but I’d stick to the sushi here. It’s a little pricier than some of the other sushi offerings in town. I’ve also ordered take-out from them before, which unfortunately was a lot worse than our dine-in experience; not sure if they were just having an off day.
Check them out on Yelp or at their website!
Butterfly Salmon – grilled salmon with yuzu miso sauce, side of sauteed green tea soba noodles
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