Riverpark (brunch)

While Riverpark might be tricky to locate, it is certainly worth the hunt.  My best advise is to tell the cab driver to drop you off at the corner of 29th and 1st (if you are not traveling by foot/subway...once you are there, you can make the cabbie drive you up the ramp or proceed by foot).  If you hit the water, you went to far.  You will see a newly built glass building adjacent to the water.  To enter it, you must use the revolving doors at the top of the ramp, all of the other entrances are locked.

It sounds like a lot of work for a meal but I promise you will be rewarded for your efforts.  If you managed to avoid getting lost, you will notice the Riverpark garden, which grows fresh herbs for the restaurant.  The dark, modern dining room is enclosed by tall glass windows.  The tables in the back of the restaurant face the East River.  Weather permitting, I prefer to sit outside, along the water.  There are communal tables in the sun and individual tables in the shade.  They even have heat lamps (when it's 70 degrees out) for wimps like me :)

The service at Riverpark, like most Tom Colicchio restaurants, runs like a well oiled machine.  The hostesses are attentive and organized, efficiently doling out the choice outdoor tables.  Once seated, your water is promptly filled and you are warmly greeted by the server.  Throughout the meal our server would check in to make sure we were satisfied with our selections and the maitre di stopped by towards to end to ensure we enjoyed our experience.

The brunch menu features traditional brunch cocktails, like Mimosas and Bloody Mary's, and an impressive wine by the glass selection.  There are small pours for lightweights.

We decided to kick off brunch with the freshly baked Cinnamon Rolls, which were warm, doughy and excellent.  I'm a big icing fan so I would recommend asking for extra if you are like me and suffer from a vicious sweet tooth.

What to Eat:

Riverpark does an excellent Grilled Bread & Avocado starter.  A thick layer of ripe avocado is spread over toasted country bread, and then topped with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt. This dish largely relies on the quality of the avocado and finding ripe avocados in NYC isn't easy.  But Tom C delivers.  The Californian in me loves nothing more than a simple avocado toast on a warm spring day (or any day for that matter).

Fara wins best pick at brunch hands down.  The French Toast at Riverpark is a must.  The quality of the ingredients in this dish is even more impressive than the already impressive avocado toast.  A large dollop of home made whipped cream and sweet red currants top the three slices of thick, doughy brioche.  The french toast was so sweet and tasty it didn't even need maple syrup.  It is just the right size if you made sure to share starters and/or sides with your dining companion(s).

Looking for a classy brunch with a view?  Riverpark is perfect for this (and any) season,

Your foodie friend

Poco

Poco is a cute little restaurant in the East Village that is known for it's bottomless boozy brunches.  In need of a bite before a birthday party in the East Village, I thought I would try Poco for dinner.  One would think a restaurant that does a tasty brunch could serve a competent dinner.  Wrong, totally and utterly wrong.

Poco has a handful of tables that run along the length of the restaurant, which was exactly what I was in the market for on the first 80 degree day of spring.  Sadly, that was just about the last thing I enjoyed about this experience.

I ordered a Margarita.  Pretty standard drink, especially at a Pan Latin restaurant.  It was terrible.  I couldn't put my finger on it.  It's not that it was too weak or too sour, it just tasted bad.  Perhaps Poco used bad ingredients???

And then it got worse.  As you can see from this picture, the octopus was scaley and had holes in it (wtf?).  Perhaps the seafood was so far past fresh the kitchen overcooked it in an attempt to avoid killing its patrons.  No one should order this dish, ever.  It was down right offensive.  After picking around the octopus, so I could munch on the tomatoes and green beans to calm the growl in my stomach, I finally gave up.

But the dish sat there, for at least a half an hour.  No one noticed that the octopus was untouched, asked why, etc...My next tapas dish arrived and due to the starvation setting in, I snarfed it down.  Once that plate was empty, the waitress asked if she could take both plates away, somehow missing the fact that the main ingredient in the octopus tapas remained untouched.  I told her that she needed to take it away and take it off my bill because it was terrible and should not be served, to anyone, ever.

What to Eat:

If you end up meeting someone for a happy hour drink, stick to the beer.  For food, I would recommend the Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp sauteed in olive oil and garlic).  This is a dish for garlic lovers.  The fresh, plump shrimp were generously coated in a garlicky olive oil and placed over slices of toasted french bread.  This tapas comes with four shrimp so it would work as an appetizer for one person.  Since I wasn't sick from my meal, Poco's seafood problem doesn't appear to be universal.

Enough Pan-Latin postings? Poco certainly put a halt to my Pan-Latin food kick,

Your foodie friend

Yuca Bar

Since Mitch's cousins are regulars at Yuca Bar on the lower east side, I needed to know why.   Armed with my favorite foodies, we attempted to order half of the extremely large, tapas centric menu family style  The server, however, had the audacity to tell me that we were ordering too much.  If I did, then I would take it home or leave it behind.  And more importantly, the server clearly underestimated how much food I could eat.

Yuca Bar is a typical square box dining room in the Lower East Side. The low ceilings made it necessary to shout across the table, which, as long as you have good hearing, you eventually acclimate (although I felt badly for the servers who will undoubtedly go deaf sometime in the near future).   The better option is the sidewalk seating now that it is FINALLY spring.   Yuca Bar's drink menu had all of the standard Latin themed drinks, mojitos, margaritas, sangria, but the machine making frozen drinks was broken so we couldn't try their revered Yuca Sunrise, a blend of Sangria and Frozen Margarita.   I loved my strong margarita  BUT it was tiny.

Every dish was tasty (and devoured) but a few dishes stood out more than others.  The only disappointment of the night were the desserts.  We ordered three, partly because we were still hungry and partly because the dessert menu listed some of my favorites (chocolate souffle, bread pudding, churros).  The souffle, which was a lava cake, was overcooked, the bread pudding had a strange coconut flavor that was not listed on the menu and the churros weren't doughy enough.  Luckily, the neighborhood surrounding Yuca Bar is filled with bakeries and other fabulous dessert options (e.g. Chickalicious, Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, etc...) so if your sweet tooth is as vicious as mine, you will have no problem finding something worth savoring near by.

What to Eat:

I don't like ribs.  Not sure why, but I never have.  If Yuca Bar's Espresso Baby Back Ribs (Espresso BBQ Costillitas) doesn't turn you into a ribs fan, nothing will.  The meat falls right off the bone.  And the slightly sweet espresso sauce doesn't have much coffee flavor so this shouldn't scare off people like me who don't like coffee.  This appetizer comes with four hearty ribs so it can easily be shared with a group of four.

Another table favorite was the Shrimp Skewers with a Mango and Papaya salad and Coconut Rice (Antucuchos de Camaron).  The chipotle marinated shrimp had only a tiny kick to it which was the right amount for me.  The plump shrimp were grilled to perfection, as you can see from the tiny char marks on the skewers.  The rice served on the side brought back tasty memories of our Columbia vacation. I'd kill for this recipe! 

We only ordered one entree (because the server told us we had already ordered more than enough food), the Brazilian Tomato & Coconut Broth with Shrimp and Octopus (Moqueca da Bahia).   You probably can't go wrong ordering at Yuca Bar but we definitely struck food gold on this choice.  This seafood stew was filled with slices of octopus, medium sized shrimp, and long slices of hearts of palm.  The coconut broth gave the tomato sauce a rich, slightly creamy texture.

Looking for another stop on your Cinco de Mayo Sunday Funday? Yuca Bar will keep the party going,

Your foodie friend

Insider tip:  Yuca Bar offers incredible deals during the week, including: half price tapas until 8pm on Tuesday and half price happy hour drinks on weekday nights until 8pm.