You may find that Fat Rice is too off the beaten path to go there but not going would be a serious mistake. Surely, when you think about Chicago, especially when you are a tourist, you are more inclined to try the deep dish pizza that the city has to offer and I admit that if we would have not seen the season finale of Top Chef in Macau (the finale was in Macau, not us unfortunately, although I visited this place many years ago) last March, we would not have gone there.

We were supposed to meet our friend Alison for a brunch on Sunday in Chicago and Jodi booked a table at The Dearborn, a restaurant serving an interesting brunch: it is not everyday that you see a place serving bone marrow and soft scrambled eggs! It did not take me long to want to try this dish, intrigued by this unusual pairing and its description: Parmesan gratin, crusty bread, cheese eggs, fresh herb salad and chipotle sauce.

For our last evening in Chicago, we decided to go for an early dinner as we wanted to watch the finale of Game of Thrones at 8pm, worries that otherwise we would have this last episode spoiled by social media and news outlets, rightfully so. Our choice was Giordano’s, near Millenium Park that boasts lots of pictures of people lifting slices of their deep dish pizza with long, very long strings of cheese attached to it. When we arrived, we thought that we would have to wait a long time, people waiting outside, but, they just announced 15 to 20 minutes of wait time that was quite surprising and reasonable.

After our disappointing lunch at Pizzeria Uno, I admit that we were a bit anxious to find a good deep dish pizza in Chicago. Not that we thought it was impossible, but, being there few days, we really wanted to go to a good place that would erase our past experience. And we did. After a walk to the Navy Pier, we looked up pizza places and ended up at Gino’s East, a homegrown chain that serves an amazing pizza. I know that the term chain gives a negative image of the place, but, in this case, it should not. They have places in quite few cities, except unfortunately New York, but who knows, maybe one day!

When searching for the best deep dish pizza in Chicago, I saw some recommendations for Pizzeria Uno and, at first, ditched it, because I thought it was a chain. But then, i read that this is this place that created the deep dish pizza back in 1943. At that time, the owner of the restaurant, Ike Sewell, decided to create a hearty meal by combining, on a pizza, large quantities of ingredients, like vegetables, meats and cheese. That is what you get when you order the Numero Uno, …

Located on the Upper East Side, Heidelberg is one of the last German restaurants in Yorkville, reminiscent of the German neighborhood this area used to be. Next to Schaller and Weber, the old school German market, it has kept, some opening in 1936, its rustic and comforting atmosphere, serving a fairly large menu where pork is the star. But no worries: if you are vegetarian, they offer several options like the popular giant pretzel, that I wished was served with a cheese sauce rather than just mustard or the potato pancakes, these crispy thick patties made of grated potato, onion and garlic that are fried, traditionally served with apple sauce. Perfect to share.

There are places like that that mark your memory because of their originality. Brooklyn Chop House is one of them. The name surely indicates a meaty meal made of steaks and burgers, but it also surprisingly offers Chinese dishes. Not so surprising when you know that the person who runs the place, Stratis Morfogen, was one of the people behind Jade Sixty, a restaurant on the upper East Side with the same concept that had to close due to a water main break (too bad because I did not get a chance to visit it!). I tried the ribeye at Brooklyn Chop House and was blown away: their meat, aged 50 to 60 days is tasty, tender and juicy. And they surely know how to cook it!

I often tell people that I love so much coffee that it is probably this dark juice that is flowing through my veins. I have been drinking coffee since I was a teenager: I love the smell of the freshly ground beans and the strong taste an espresso has, but not the bitterness that is sometimes in the bottom of a cup. So it was with excitement that we went to The Mill few times as we were in Long Island City. This quaint joint with its rustic feel serves artisanal coffee, sweets and sandwiches in a relaxed atmosphere. They have good espresso and macchiato, but if you are not into coffee, you can opt for a tea. In term of sweets, …

When I think about creative desserts, I immediately think about Spot Dessert Bar in the East Village. This place is amazing and proposes truly original desserts crafted by Iron Chef of Thailand, Chef Ian Kittichai, like the matcha lava, a warm dark chocolate cake filled with matcha ganache and served with matcha green tea ice cream, or the Golden toast, a warm crispy honey buttered toast served with strawberries, and condensed milk ice cream (this is so buttery!). We recently went back after Jodi saw their coconut monkey bread on Instagram. This dessert is a monkey bread covered in fall spices, thai tea drizzle served with coconut milk ice cream. It comes sizzling hot and they will pour the Thai tea on top of the coconut milk ice cream. This was quite good, but not as good as…

Its been a while since we went to Two Little Red Hens on the Upper East Side, but, as we were having lunch with our friends Jen and Gary at Heidelberg, next door to it, we decided to stop by for dessert. And what a treat! This tiny place has so many delicious desserts that it was hard to choose and I went from thinking about ordering the banana cream pie, then the pecan pie and finally settled for their NY cheesecake that was very good, not as good as Junior’s (less dense also), but worth trying, with…

Each time I pass in in front of Jacques Torres, I cannot resist it! For me, it has the best hot chocolate, better than Max Brenner or even City Bakery that is considered by many the best in town (their chocolate chip cookie is though). It is literally like melted chocolate, not bitter but quite rich. So, recently, we were walking around in Dumbo when we saw Jacques Torres has a location there and ended up having their hot cocoa and a delicious chocolate chip cookie that had lots of chocolate and was buttery.

There will soon be as many Maison Kayser than there are Starbucks in the City! It is as if they were opening one in each corner of New York. Not that I am complaining, this place being delicious, serving fantastic bread (they won the title of Best Baguette in NYC recently), succulent pastries and viennoiseries (croissants, chocolate croissants, etc), as well as some pretty decent food. So we decided to go on a Sunday for lunch, before celebrated my birthday for dinner. So yes, we limited a bit what we ate as we knew we would have a feast (well, mainly me considering we were going to a steakhouse), but, as you will see, we had quite a few items…Here is what we had:

I just realized that I completely forgot to post about our visit last September at Supermoon Bakehouse in the Lower East Side: yes, It has been a while, but still, it is worth mentioning this place that sets itself apart from other bakeries by proposing creative baked goods like the cruffin, a croissant and muffin or the banoffee croissant, a banana and toffee croissant, names that seem to be inherited from the cronut invented few years ago by Chef Dominique Ansel. Still, Supermoon Bakehouse is trying to stay original, without copying what others are doing.

For our birthdays, Jodi and I are always picking where we want to have dinner and not surprisingly, I always choose a steakhouse…So this year, it was Charlie Palmer Steak in the Archer Hotel. I was looking forward to it as I heard so many great things about that place. Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. The steak was just ok: I ordered a ribeye, my favorite cut, medium rare; it was cooked medium and when I mentioned it to the waiter, he first denied it but upon my insistence, apologized and sent it back. The bone-in ribeye is a $65 dish, so, it should be cooked well, especially in a steakhouse and if not, I think it is normal to send it back.

I often crave Italian cuisine and, as we were passing by Da Andrea, we decided to stop there for dinner. A light dinner as I like to call them: no appetizer, only entree and dessert…And the entree was superb: I went for the Tagliolini neri alle vongole, a homemade squid ink tagliolini with clams, cherry tomatoes in a garlic white wine. I loved it: the pasta was really good and the sauce delicious, so good that I dipped some focaccia bread in it…And yes, I always put cheese on my pasta, even if it has seafood in it: this seemed to have shocked the waiter who did not want to give me any cheese before, until I insisted.

Holidays are the best time to go to noisy places and we were glad to end up at Proper West on Good Friday: it was literally empty! This place is pretty big with large TVs on the walls of the main dining room and I cannot imagine what it is when full. Anyway, this allowed us to enjoy a quiet dinner (there was just some music in the background), sharing various dishes vegetarian and non-vegetarian typical from a bar. Here is what we had:

When people think about Hell’s Kitchen, they often think about 9th Avenue, neglecting the great restaurants 10th Avenue has to offer. The Harrow is one of them. This farm to table restaurant that serves new American cuisine is a true find: great atmosphere, courteous and efficient service, and delicious food are their recipe for success. If not for food, it can be a nice spot for cocktails with interesting creations like the Queen V, made with blended scotch, lemon juice, plum shrub and cardamom bitters. More interesting is the fact that they mention the type of glass it is served in.

When I picked Valerie for a Friday evening dinner, I did not know what to expect: French firstname, description on Opentable saying they propose an American fare and menu featuring Asian inspired dishes like the Korean BBQ fried chicken sandwich. I was at a loss. And did not expect either to end up on such loud place, the saving grace being the end of the happy hour!

Located in Dumbo, One Girl Cookies is the kind of place that you are looking forward to visit, expecting, based on its name, to get giant cookies that would make you be unreasonable and defy your doctor for a minute or two. But no, no big cookies, rather tea treats smaller than the size of a dollar coin if you discard cupcakes, whoopie pies (the red velvet one is delicious) and the linzer torte that is not to be confused with the linzer cookies with its crumbly cookie and confectioner sugar: …

We were looking for a Mexican restaurant Midtown Manhattan when we found Vida Verde on Opentable. So we decided to go there on a Friday evening, not knowing that it would be so loud, the noise level making the entire experience there a bit painful. This bi-level restaurant with a rooftop would definitely satisfy margarita lovers and other guacamole aficionados (it is made table side but do not expect a cart coming to you like some places do: there is not enough space between tables to allow that and they simply put all the ingredients in a bowl, mixing them in front of you).