I've been going to Faicco's lately for their deli case offerings instead of their sandwiches. The meatballs, lasagna, sausage with broccoli rabe, and chicken rollatini are all good. And then there's the sausage… their cheese-and-parsley is first-rate. I cooked up a bunch of this to use with various dishes. Also picked up some of the sweet fennel sausage. Great stuff, but if you go on a weekend, go early before the tourists descend upon the place, because when that happens they often don't have anyone dedicated to the counter and you may have to wait on line even if you're not getting what the tourists are getting.
I was used to Pommes Frites' poutine, and wanted to try this place just for comparison. It wasn't bad, exactly, and while I know Pommes Frites isn't the absolute best poutine in the city or anything, it still beats the pants off this. Bel-Fries' fries are overly salty for my taste, the gravy isn't as flavorful, and you get less for $14 than you do for $10 at Pommes Frites. The scallions are a nice touch, and I'm glad I at least tried it, but unless you're desperate for poutine and already on the LES, I'd say pass on this one.
Lori Jayne, which was previously at Alphaville over in Bushwick, moved to the new Time Out market by Union Square and took their fried shrooms with them. To be honest, at $9 it feels like you should get a bit more but they really are good enough to have at least once, and I'm glad they're more easily available to me. Haven't tried any of LJ's other stuff because I was laser-focused on these, but I'm sure I'll be back for a burger or something. If you do go, get the "LJ Sauce".
Wasn't expecting anything special from what seemed like your garden-variety neighborhood spot, but they did a great job with my BEC. Really piled on the bacon, cooked the eggs over-easy just as requested, and put in enough ketchup to make me notice. Solid.
This is my usual watering hole, and the soft pretzel won't blow you away or anything, but it's only $8 and the spicy mustard it comes with is very good. A couple of extremely strong beers plus one of these and my evening has started off right.
Lamb noodles, pork noodles, and a lamb burger, split with two friends. Now, I love pork, but at XFF I find it hard to get anything but the lamb because they do it so well. And the lamb burger, at just over $6, is still a crazy good value, as well as a reasonable size that won't stuff me like a big pile of noodles. Definitely recommend that if you haven't had it before.
The classic peanut noodles with the sour veg (mustard greens) and a large order of pork and chive dumplings, split with a friend. At $8.50 this is still one of the best buys in the city.
by eldersveld
Dining and Cooking