Alsalam Restaurant & Meat Market

 

	15 East Sit at the sushi bar for the optimal experience, where you can watch chef Masato Shimizu create some of the best sushi in the city. The chef is friendly and knowledgeable, and might even ask you to grate some wasabi root for him. Everything is as it should be: the fish room temperature, the rice body temperature. Try Maine sea urchin, needlefish, or one of the many mackerels. Maki rolls are few, and austere. Read More » African Grill This prime corner spot on Burnside Avenue in hilly Morris Heights (looks like San Francisco!) offers what is probably the world's largest African steam table, over 50 feet in length. That means you can ignore the immense and confusing menu on the wall at African Grill, and simply have heaped onto your plate whatever looks good to you at the moment. The choice of mashes includes rice-based omotuo; plantain and white-yam fufus; and stinky, fermented-cassava banku; among many more. Stews of beef, lamb, and chicken in peanut, palm nut, and leaf-based sauces are available, but so are simpler fried dishes such as tilapia and guinea fowl. A convivial fenced-off dining room in the rear provides seating. Read More » Ai Fiori Go big or go home must have been Michael White's thinking when he opened the sleek Ai Fiori on the second floor of the Setai Hotel just a few months after debuting Osteria Morini. Luxury abounds on the Franco-Italian menu-begin with the butter-poached oysters topped with caviar or the "mare e monte" (a marriage of scallops, truffles, and bone marrow) before moving on to the toothsome pastas or the robust veal chop with sauce perigueux. A la carte dining can run steep (entrees hover around $40), but a $79, four-course prix fixe lets diners sample a range of dishes at a (slightly) discounted rate. But truth be told, this refined, sedate space is meant for expense-account dining. Read More » Al Di La Trattoria Named after a pop song and now a venerable 12 years old, Al Di La remains one of the most exciting Italian restaurants in the city. The menu takes regional recipes from the northern half of the country, and faithfully renders them with few needless innovations, and those that are introduced are just the kinds of embroideries you"d find in the home country. Served with a grilled toast, the Florentine-style tripe is remarkable for its rich flavor and simplicity, and the braised rabbit with olives and polenta is bunny perfection. Also worth trying are the tortelli-misshapen stuffed pouches, a type of pasta rarely seen here. Chef Anna Klinger fills them with truffled ricotta and bathes them is a simple broth. The wine list is loaded with interesting Italian bottles. Read More » Ali's Trinidad Roti Shop There's a line out the door at this popular roti shack, where the marquee invites "Hurry, Hurry, Come for Curry." Of the rotis, our fave is conch-a plenitude of tender gastropod vying with potato for domination of the brown, thyme-inflected gravy. Or pick from curries of shrimp, goat, oxtail, and beef, any of which can also be poured over peas and rice. A particular favorite is the vegetarian corn chowder, mobbed with okra, taro, carrots, and microdumplings, and thickened Chinese style with cornstarch. Note that the sweet and frothy peanut punch is much better as a dessert. Read More » Allswell Occupying the former Raymund's space, and retaining something of its Tudor cottage feel, Allswell is the project of Spotted Pig alum Nate Smith. Sawing away at the local and sustainable violin, he explores the frontiers of gastropubbery, with wildly inventive dishes, such as whole pig ear fried and presented with a salad as an antidote to all that porcine luxuriance; and lamb's tongue on toast with kumquat marmalade. But don't worry, these things are more normal tasting than you might expect, and the short menu changes daily, so if you go on one occasion and don't like it, it will be completely different the next. The desserts, via Smith's wife Sophie Kamin, are as wonderful as the savory fare. Read More » Alsalam Restaurant & Meat Market The chicken shawarma sandwich is the best in town-fresh cut from the homemade rotating cylinder, jammed in a pocketless pita with lettuce, tomatoes, sumac-dusted onions, and a powerful garlic sauce. With the surprise addition of split cornichons, it's then rolled in butcher paper and zapped in a Cuban-style sandwich press. This Middle Eastern lunch counter-cum-market-where you can get replacement supplies for your hookah, in addition to staple groceries-also features rotisserie chicken and spinach cooked with pine nuts and mujadara, and rice tossed with lentils and frizzled onions. Read More » Am-Thai Chili Basil Kitchen As the name implies, the place really is just a kitchen, with a single table inside and another outside. Nevertheless, the Thai food is splendid, favoring the fare of Bangkok and the southern peninsula. This food tends to be rich in coconut milk, and most of the recommended curries are laced with it, including a Panang curry (get it with beef) heaped with such fresh herbs as basil and shredded lime leaves. Heavily flavored and colored with turmeric, yellow curry is earthier (pick the chicken). And don't miss getting something made with duck, or the wonderful "mock duck," a vegetarian substance that cooks up dense and fibrous. Our favorite dish: "duck Thai herbal." Read More » Ambiance Caribbean Restaurant This roadhouse, with a glitzy banquet room in back, offers a greatest hits of Haitian cuisine. The entrees are voluminous, well-plated, and exquisitely prepared, and note that there are no appetizers, sides, or desserts. Ambiance means business! Top of the charts is the griot, a confit of pork chunks marinated in citrus and shallots, then fried to crispness in the rendered lard. Though it means simply "vegetables" in French, "legumes" is a splendid cook-up of green leaf vegetables and meat, demonstrating the African underpinnings of Haitian food. The fried chicken is as good as any in Brooklyn, decorated with a few lonely onion rings. All entrees come with an introductory salad and your choice of various combinations of rice and beans. Read More » Annisa A devastating kitchen fire closed Annisa last fall after a nine-year run; now it has reopened and the food is better than ever. Roughly half the menu from before the disaster remains, including a pullet with a pig-foot dice inserted under its crisp skin, with a truffle-driven savor, and a Japanese custard dotted with morel mushrooms and gingko nuts. Newfangled stuff includes a roasted rack of lamb flaunting South African flavors, adding an extra continent to chef Anita Lo's reach. A further theme to menu is provided by a Middle-Eastern dish or two, including squab with fava beans ("Annisa" means "The Women" in Arabic). Dining is on a gently lit raised platform, and the platings are like miniature sculptures. Read More » Aska This modern Scandinavian spot in Williamsburg is one of the city's most exciting young debuts. In the back dining room, Frederik Berselius and his band of lean, serious cooks offer six-course tasting menus by reservation for adventurous diners, highlighting the chef’s emphasis on wild, esoteric ingredients, micro-seasonality and devotion to technique. Berselius made a name for himself at the pop-up, Frej, but Aska is a more sophisticated full-time venture. Those looking for something a little more low-key should walk in for a more casual menu of cheap eats at the bar, like the Swedish-style hot dogs served with mashed potatoes and hot potato soup. Thirsty and curious patrons in either dining area should seek out the advice of sprightly beverage director Shiraz Noor, whose oddball cocktail concoctions include spiked vegetable juices and boozy energy drinks. --Tejal Rao Read More » At Cafe Sim-Sim Sim-Sim is one of New York's rare Azerbaijani cafes, and just in case you've forgotten, Azerbaijan is an oil-rich former-Soviet republic in the Caucasus Mountains, a region sandwiched between Georgia and Iran. There are excellent charcoal-grilled kebabs, of course, of which our favorite is the ground-lamb lulya kebab, but also direct your attention to meal-size soups like dushbara, which immerses meat-stuffed dumplings in a mint-laced broth. The chicken tabaka ("road kill chicken") is available in a deluxe edition featuring a yogurt-garlic dipping sauce, and you can also score the legendary "jiz biz," a stir fry of French fries and random lamb organs, a favorite of the Organ Meat Society. Finally, find a novel slaw of green radish and shredded lamb tongue. Ouch! Read More » Atera Matthew Lightner is the chef at this exquisite Tribeca restaurant, but diners may wonder if he's also a crafty park ranger or a whimsical magician. Behold the airy white macaron filled with black, shining sturgeon caviar or the deeply flavored raw-milk ice cream that melts into a gorgeous lump of candied tomato. Is that a burnished mound of coal on your plate? A cut through the blob's gritty shell will reveal that the burnished exterior is merely a foil surrounding a brilliant red core (the dish is a slow-roasted beet that's dried over charcoal and served with trout roe). Your meal -- 25 or so courses that will set you back $150 before alcohol -- is a three-hour exercise in studied elegance, an experience that can feel exciting and slightly exhausting. Lightner is at the cutting-edge of New York's fine dining, and his food shows us how cooking can be nature plus science, rather than a war between the two. Embark on the dining adventure with an open mind and an empty stomach. --Tejal Rao Read More » B & H Dairy Restaurant This vestige of the theater district once known as the Jewish Broadway is also one of the few kosher dairy restaurants remaining in town. Their dreamy soups--mushroom barley, borscht, cabbage, and vegetable, in descending order of preference--come with two thick slices of buttered challah bread made on the premises. The blintzes and pierogi are the East Village's best. Read More » Bab Al Yemen The first Yemeni restaurant to open outside of downtown Brooklyn is also the most comfortable, with curtained booths at the back for observant families, and a menu featuring wonderful roasted lamb. Most meals begin with a free consommé and salad, and huge rotis -- delivered hot and charred from the oven. Haneez is an assortment of lamb cuts, but you can also opt for the set of five lamb chops, both shareable entrees inexpensive by most standards. The foregoing represents Yemeni banquet food, but there"s home-style fare as well, including saltah (a bubbling stew with a fenugreek emulsion on top, dip your flatbreads) and asseed, a giant dumpling swimming in broth. Read More » Balaboosta Mulberry Street used to mean suffering through bland penne alla vodka or lackluster veal Marsala. But now it"s an oasis for omnivores, in part thanks to Balaboosta, Einat Admony"s lively and unpretentious Mediterranean bistro whose name means "the ideal housewife" in Yiddish. Small plates and appetizers shine--try the quinoa with lemon and dried cranberries, the smoky eggplant bruschetta, and the grilled pizza topped with bright carrot puree and goat cheese. The carnivorous, meanwhile, should tuck into the grilled lamb chops dressed with Persian lime sauce. Yep, Little Italy just got a little less Italian. Read More » Banana Leaf Banana Leaf is the third in Manhattan's gradually expanding collection of Sri Lankan restaurants, offering one of Gotham's most comprehensive takes on the cuisine of a country that lies at the crossroads of many ancient trade routes. Starches like hoppers (bowl-shaped breads), string hoppers (noodles), and pittu (cylinder of rice and grated coconut) underpin many of the entrees. Don't miss the celebrated black curry of the island, made with pork stewed in curry spices that have been toasted for a darker color and extra flavor. Lampreis is a meal sealed inside a banana leaf, and said to have been inspired by the Dutch. This restaurant is probably worth visiting if only for the oddball beverages, including a drink made from a fruit called wood apple. Read More » Banh Mi Saigon Bakery Once ensconced in a stall under the Manhattan bridge, this distinguished Vietnamese institution was reinstalled in the rear of a jewelry store. One thing they do with the extra space is a lot of baking, including bright green mung bean cakes stuffed with coconut, chewy sweet beef jerky, and, best of all, the demi-baguettes on which the sandwiches are made. The bread is reheated, stuffed with cukes, pickled carrots and radishes, homemade Chinese sausage, cilantro, bologna-like pork pate, and, at your request, hot green chiles. There's no better lunch in town. Read More » Bark Hot Dogs Bark seeks to elevate hot dogs to gourmet status, and partly succeeds. The franks are proprietary links made near Syracuse, New York, with a pork-beef combo, exhibiting a thrilling snap when you bite into them. The toppings stay on the conservative side (our fave is the "pickle dog"), and the weenies come in at around $5 each, which may seem a little steep. You can probably recoup some of that cost if you order one of the off-price beers. (Taps come from nearby Six Point Ales in Red Hook.) While the onion rings suck, the fries--especially the gravy-cheese "disco fries"--are definitely worth ordering. A handful of seasonal specials (such as the sandwich of fried pork shoulder, jowl, and cheek) betray a greater ambition than just wieners. Read More » Battersby On first glance, Battersby looks like every other twee Smith Street eatery. But something's different. A peek at the menu reveals none of the holier-than-thou artifice that often mars the Brooklyn dining experience. Chef-owners Walker Stern and Joseph Ogrodnek put out a constantly evolving menu that's elegant and refined (without pretension), not to mention spunky and inventive. Begin with the kale salad, featuring both raw and pan-fried crispy leaves under a spell of Thai basil and fish sauce. Then dig into the pommes puree with braised oxtail or the veal sweetbreads à la meunière. The desserts tread safer waters, but they're about the only predictable thing that comes out of this restaurant’s kitchen. Read More » Bennie's The windows of the subterranean Bennie's face a cityscape mural, as if you needed something to look at besides the excellent Thai fare--multiple rad yums and noodle dishes with flavors sharper and prices lower than you expect. The avid clientele is mainly Wall Streeters, disproving the old saw that a Thai restaurant can't be good unless it has a Thai constituency. Read More » Bobwhite Lunch & Supper Counter While the experience is decidedly more down-home than downtown, the expert, pressure-fried chicken at the tiny Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter might be the best in the city. Find the crispy birds in a wonderful sandwich lined with bread and butter pickles, or invite three friends to join you for the fried chicken supper with hot biscuits and cold tap beer. Other satisfyingly greasy, Southern classics worth a try are the pork chop sandwich (made with meat from Bev Eggleston's EcoFriendly Foods) and grilled pimento cheese on Orwasher's bread, which will leave you licking your fingers. Read More » Bosna Express What may be the world's greatest hamburger flips on the gas grill at Bosna Express, a Bosnian restaurant in a closet of a space under the elevated Forest Avenue M stop, in a quiet neighborhood with an almost rural quality. The burger in question is called a pljeskavica, a patty the size of a hubcap made with a lamb/beef mixture laced with onions. The wonderful homemade bun is a variation on the pocketless pita, and optional toppings include raw onions, ripe tomatoes, lettuce, ivar (red pepper paste), and kimek (a sort of sour cream). The burger demands to be shared by two people, and you'll never forget it once you've tried it. Read More » Brasilia Grill The appearance of this excellent churrascaria corresponds to an uptick in Brazilian immigration to Newark's famed Ironbound neighborhood, which still retains much of its Portuguese small-town feel. The mile-long buffet at Brasilia Grill has good stuff and mediocre stuff, and it's your duty to distinguish between the two, but there's no mistaking the prize meat that comes around on swords with frantic periodicity. Top sirloin, bacon-wrapped turkey, and "roast beef" are the most compelling cuts. Wait for them. Read More » The Breslin Bar & Dining Room Chef April Bloomfield's project The Breslin Bar & Dining Room is a pub connected to a hip hotel in Manhattan's gritty wholesale district, a darkened maze of dining rooms with a barroom up front, slinging some of the richest (you may also say "greasiest") food around. The stuffed pig leg for two is one of the most over-the-top selections, but you may also groove on the exceptional lamb burger, which comes with a novel cumin mayo on the side. Other menu highlights include head cheese fried in little cubes, raw oyster service with pickle-juice mignonette, and a seared sea-bass filet that recalls Bloomfield's happy but short-lived days at the John Dory. Read More »