I want to preface this by asking - why do we have Restaurant Week? Isn't the whole point so that people can taste test restaurants they normally wouldn't, for one reason or another? And wouldn't you, as a restaurant, want to put your best foot forward in this case, so that you can gain another longtime customer?

I had a horrible, HORRIBLE experience at the Smith & Wollensky location in Midtown on 3rd Avenue. Now mind you, we've been to some quality steakhouses - Peter Luger's, Morton's, Quality Meats, The Palm, just to name a few. And yes, I AM name dropping, just to prove my point. NEVER have we ever been so disrespected nor served such disgusting fare as we had at S&W. NEVER. And to top it off, my review of the place was subsequently ridiculed by possibly one of their staff. How's that for constructive criticism?

Let me rewind. I will be posting snippets of my Yelp review since I'm a bit tired of telling and retelling this story.

On Sunday July 19th, we arrived at S&W for our Restaurant Week dinner. Walking in, we were greeted by a guy with a clipboard and instructed to go upstairs. We went up, and stood there like morons for a good 5-10 minutes before someone noticed us. He led us to our table, which was right smack in the middle of the dining room. There was a lot of natural light, which I definitely appreciated, since most steakhouses tend to dim their lights for ambiance or effect.

We were greeted by a John Goodman look-alike waiter. Gave us a bunch of menus and then not more than 5 seconds later asked us what we wanted to drink... dude, we didn't even have time to get to the beverage page?!?! So we just said water for now, and it seemed like after that, we were doomed for the rest of the meal.

After 10 minutes or so, we were greeted by yet another waiter. Let's just call this guy J; he was of Chinese origin. To be quite honest, we felt like we were given the Chinese dude 'cause of our youthful Asian appearance (we are professionals in our late 20's and still get carded for lotto?!) and the fact that it seemed like we were not going to be big spenders... this greatly disturbed me. But I was willing to give him a chance.

However, here's a sample conversation with J:
K: "One of each oyster please (pointing to the menu)"
J: "Whaa? 1 Kumamoto and whaa?"
K: "No, one of each (pointing down the list)"
J: Blank look
K: (Points his finger down the list of each oyster)
J: "Oh. 4 oysters (writes on a piece of paper like in a Chinese restaurant)"

Now, I NEVER like to complain about Asian waiters and J must've done SOMETHING good to be hired at this well-known establishment. But there was just no professionalism, no courtesy, no friendliness. And you would expect that from a place like this, no?! He did not seem to have a firm grasp of the language, nor did he treat us like guests. I tried to notice whether or not J was taking any other table's orders. Nope. He only took ours. In fact, it seemed like his main job was to bring dishes to customers' table and clear tables. So in other words, he was a glorified bus boy. It seemed quite discriminatory how they shoved us into the care of J, who was obviously ill-prepared to to be a professional waiter.

I ordered the garden salad and the 14oz steak, he ordered the calimari and the soft shell crabs and J had to ask K what he wanted again. I really felt like we were eating in a Chinatown restaurant and not at a place that seemed to have good ratings and rave reviews. J was just about to walk away when I said, "Uh I'd like my steak medium rare?!" and he quietly notes that on his paper. I don't understand why he didn't ask me how I wanted it? Isn't that the first question you ask when someone orders steak?

But I digress.

The Restaurant Week menu was quite lame, to say the least. Appetizers were either soups, salads or a calimari. The entrees were steak, beef hash, soft shell crab and I think a poultry of some sort. Desserts consisted of cakes and pies.

John Goodman NEVER talked to us again, until I asked him about my steak and its doneness.

When our entrees came out, J set them on our table and then said, "Sides are not included, do you want sides?" .... weren't you supposed to ask us that BEFORE when you originally took our order?!

TASTE: The steak was only passable. I think I've had better steak at APPLEBEE'S; that's how passable it was. Don't even get me started on the soft shell crabs. They were 4 very small, very illegal size looking crabs that were so fishy and disgusting that they just tasted unfresh.

We were offered no steak sauces, no condiments, nothing.

Towards the end, our table was finally cleared and our desserts presented to us. Our bill was flung onto the table by John Goodman as he walked past to goto another customer. I'm not sure what was worse -- John Goodman's outright rudeness/lack of professionalism or J's incompetence as a waiter.

As a last note, I think that S&W has some serious sanitary issues. If you have a big party, or if there is a lot of food coming out at once, they roll carts out with the food on them. These are narrow little carts that can probably hold 10 dishes on the top. So what happens if there are more than 10? Well, they are laid ON TOP of the original 10. How disgusting is that?! Why would you want someone else's food sitting on top of yours?

Seriously, this place really disgusted me. You can bet I will NEVER come back here again and will forewarn everyone I know.

So, what happened, you ask?

I wrote to management. I got an answer and satisfactory action was taken on their part. However, I come onto Yelp, and what do I see, but a personal attack from a "Linda W" who has never posted and suspiciously just joined Yelp this month!?

Here is what "her" review said:

I'm a frequent customer at Smith and Wollensky. I am a huge fan of their steaks and wine. I normally order a simply grilled 10 oz. Filet Mignon or New York Cut Sirloin medium rare with a nice bottle of 05 S&W Napa Valley private reserve red wine. Their wine is a perfect accompaniment to every meal. I always feel a warm tinge on my throat after one sip. Delicious! The crab cakes are to die for-huge chunks of Alaskan King Crab meat over a delectable sauce! Huge praises for their desserts- cheesecakes and mousse cakes are my absolute favorites! This is definitely a place to go for die hard steak fans who has a deep appreciation for real savory steaks. In response to Annie's comments to Smith & Wollensky's food and waitstaff is a real misrepresentation of their quality and service. Her review is completely biased which only centers her personal reflection of feeling discriminated as an Asian person catered by an Asian waiter. In all of my visits to S&W, I have observed that a majority of the waitstaff are Asians. The waitstaff has always been outstanding in delivering a well-informed menu and service to my table. I have never encountered any personal issues with the quality of food, presentation or waitstaff of S&W. This is certainly not a restaurant for people who are looking for cheap eats hence Restaurant Week to appreciate its full value and experience of S&W. I highly recommend this restaurant for serious diners who are well-informed and knowledgeable of steaks. It is definitely not for steak amateurs who compares S&W to Applebee's which is degrading and insulting to an upscale restaurant as Smith and Wollensky. Annie's review is unprofessional and should not be taken seriously at all. It is an ill-representation of the waitstaff and restaurant.

This is a joke, right? Are we in like a Communist country where freedom of speech (or of opinion, for that matter) is not allowed? Who the fuck are you, "Linda W" to personally attack me and my integrity? And you must be fucking joking that the "majority of the waitstaff at S&W is Asian". Maybe you don't know what "Asian" means then... because all I saw were Caucasian faces EXCEPT for that one Chinese waiter. Unless... you think Caucasian must mean that because it ends in "asian" that means Asian... I see... how interesting.

Smith & Wollensky, you have lost ALL credibility with me and negated all the good you have done with your quick response and action to my situation. I am horrified by how you have acted to an honest review and disgusted that you have the gall to personally attack someone who didn't like what you did to them. I will make it a personal mission to make sure that anyone I know will never step foot into your restaurant ever again.

We ordered the Harata Buns... which is seriously indescribable. You just have to eat it and you will know what I mean. SO GOOD. I am salivating as I recall the memories of it, haha. They are little steams buns (in Taiwanese, we call them "gua bao") filled with fatty pork bellies and a little bit of lettuce, drenched in a spicy & sweet sauce. It's very similar to Peking duck, but even better because it's not as oily as Peking duck. They are quite expensive though - 2 for $8... but I think it is definitely worth a try (or two or three...) We will definitely have these in the future, despite the high price tag.

So K ordered the Classic Ramen, while I ordered the Tori Ramen. The only thing that seemed to be different from the menu description was our broth, which is really what makes or breaks a bowl of ramen. His was just the regular tonkatsu, while mine was chicken soup with tonkatsu. (Classic on the left, Tori on the right)

I made a few changes to the recipe:
• I made the crust exactly as described, but with vanilla wafers instead of cornmeal; I thought of using graham crackers, but I wasn't sure how that would taste with green tea, so stuck to vanilla wafers.
• I halved the recipe for the filling since I felt like there would be TOO much cream cheese.
• Instead of the lemon zest and lemon juice it called for, I used green tea powder dissolved in warm water.

As you can see, I had a little trouble getting the cake out of the springform pan. I'm not sure what it is, but when I tried to slide a knife between the cake and the pan, it would pull up the cream cheese filling? Why does it do that?! It made my cheesecake look really ugly, that's for sure. Even K was like, "Uhhh what did you do to it?"

So after nearly destroying it with a knife, I put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I also had a LOT of trouble trying to get the cake OFF the bottom of the pan. What a nightmare. I actually had to cut out each individual piece in order to get them off, so I'm not sure how I would fare if I had to serve this as a whole.

HOWEVER, all this hard work really paid off, because the cake came out really good (taste-wise, of course). It was creamy, yet not too cream cheesey, which I think a lot of cheesecakes tend to do. It wasn't heavy due to the mascarpone used and the green tea flavor was subtle, not overwhelming and just really added to the taste.

Now, if only I could perfect the aesthetics.....

I picked Aquagrill for our group dinner to celebrate Babe's birthday. It was the big 2-8, afterall!

Keeping in mind the last minuteness and the fact that not everyone ate everything, I picked Aquagrill due to 1. everyone ate (and enjoyed) seafood and most importantly, 2. it had really great reviews on Yelp (also we were able to get reservations was a big plus too).

The restaurant is located on the quieter side of Spring Street; it wasn't the SoHo area that everyone associates the street with. There seemed to be ample parking in the area, but like most New Yorkers, we parked at the first spot we saw on West Broadway and had a 7-minute walk which was perfectly fine with me.

Aquagrill is located right on the corner of Spring and 6th Avenue; one of the guys had said there is a subway station right across the street but I didn't notice it. The ambiance is very lively, but not too trendy-noisy. We were seated immediately and greeted by a waiter. Throughout the night we were greeted by different people, so I'm not sure they have assigned waiters/waitresses or anything.

We started off with a delicious bread basket full of corn bread, biscuits and warm rolls, accompanied by a fragrant olive oil.

The restaurant is known for it's selection of oysters, which is what we started with. We asked our server to recommend some rare oysters and she brought over the top 5:

1. Chincoteague
2. Carlsbad Blonde
3. La St. Simon
4. Pemaquid XL
5. Canoe Lagoon

And if you ask me now, I wouldn't be able to tell you which was which, or which was the best, but according to Babe, he loved 1 and 5 *shrug*.

We also had a delicious plate of Clam Steamers, which was steamed and then dipped into Pilsner beer and garlic butter. SO DELICIOUS! The clams were very fresh and plentiful, so much so that it was recommended that we share, which we did. I cannot stress how much I loved this starter dish and that it will be something that I will order everytime I goto a seafood restaurant. Yes, it was that good.

My entree was the Chilean Sea Bass, with a crust of some sort. Unfortunately this was off the specials menu so I cannot look it up on their website for more details. Whatever it was, it was great. The fish was so tender and light, on a bed of peanuts and spinach with a light white wine sauce. The portion might be small for some, but it was definitely more than enough for me.

Babe's entree was the Striped Bass, which was also off the specials menu. It wasn't as good as my Sea Bass, but still pretty good. The little round of green off to the left? That's creamed spinach and THE BEST creamed spinach I've eaten. EVER. I finished it since he doesn't like veggies (he really doesn't, I swear!)

Some other dishes ordered by our friends were the Sea Scallops (medium rare, done just right) and the Bouillabaisse, which is basically a stew of lots of seafood in a garlic saffron tomato broth.

We ended the meal with the Chocolate Tasting Plate, which had a warm dark chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse and milk chocolate ice cream. Delicious and beautifully presented, this is one of my all-time favorite desserts.

A wonderful meal with an attentive staff and a friendly atmosphere. This is a place that I would definitely come back to.

Aquagrill
210 Spring Street (corner of 6th Avenue)
New York, NY
http://www.aquagrill.com/

As per the previous post, this meal was for Babe's birthday, but this time, it was just the two of us. I wanted to try a "well-known" restaurant and someone had recommended a David Burke joint. Now, I knew that David Burke was famous for his steakhouse in Chicago, but could he pull off fish? We decided to take a chance on Fishtail.

We were presented with this amazing bread basket. The croissants were flakey and crusty but soft in the middle. Those "pocky" sticks were his favorite... I did not taste it (I think I forgot to?!) Yes, those are carrots. Why they are in a bread basket is beyond me, but they were by far the sweetest mini carrots we've ever had.

We started off with raw oysters (for him) and fish tacos (for me).

Fishtail by David Burke
135 East 62nd Street
New York, NY
http://www.fishtaildb.com

January 2009
Newark to Beijing, Japan to Newark
Economy Class

Food & Drink: I can't even remember what they fed us, so it must not have been that memorable or good. But this was the first time I've ever been given a cheeseburger and icecream for a snack, which was definitely a welcome little meal. The cheeseburgers were pretty hefty and who doesn't love Haagen Daaz, right? The biggest grievance for Babe, however, was the fact that alcohol cost money. Not only that, but you had to purchase some ridiculous card BEFORE you boarded so they could swipe it on-board. What is this nonsense about 1, charging your long distance flight customers for ANYTHING and 2, a pre-paid card?! Ridiculous. Never heard of such penny pinching.

Attendants: Were friendly, in that American-I-Have-To-Be sort of way. This was also the first flight I've been on where there were 3 rows sectioned off in the back for the attendants to rest. We've flown overseas many times, on Cathay, EVA, China Air, Northwest, United... and I've never seen this before. Apparently Continental attendants are lazy.

Check-in: We had no major issues.

Flight Time: Was on time for the most part. But it didn't matter much to us since we were going direct.

Amenities: Free ear phones.

Side Note: The only reason we chose to fly Continental, and out of Newark (since it's such a hassle for us from Queens) is that they were the only ones that flew direct to Beijing and back from Japan. There was no way I was spending a big part of my trip in the airports transferring, especially on the way home. Our flight home, however, was the most uncomfortable flights to date. There was turbulence during 12 of the 13 hours we flew. It got me so sick I couldn't eat or sleep. I'm not sure if turbulence is something the pilot can control, but I'm pretty sure it's something he can try to avoid or at least fly over/under? This was a really bad experience for both of us and we probably will stay away from Continental for long-haul flights in the future.

I've always admired Morimoto on the Food Network; he was such an amazing and inventive chef, yet he was just so humble.

I had visited the first Morimoto restaurant in Philly a few years ago but did not get to meet the chef himself. On a special occasion two months ago, we got to visit his NYC location.

We were seated promptly even though we had arrived 15 minutes after our reservation time.

Ambiance: There was a very clean feel to this restaurant. If you are looking for old school Tokyo, then you will be disappointed. All the staff are dressed in black and there is a lot of white in the restaurant, with dim lighting and special pink/purple/blue lighting effects. There is an area that is quiet (which is where we were seated), and then there is a more "happening" area towards the middle of the restaurant and into the lower level, where there is a bar.

Food: We had originally planned to order one omakase and then an appetizer and entree to share (which is what we did for Nobu). It just doesn't make sense to order two of the same things. However, we were told that in order to get the omakase, the whole table had to order it, which we ended up doing. I didn't particularly like this, since when I was in Philly, we had one person order the omakase while the rest ordered their own entrees.