Brunch at Westville

Westville 
210 W 10th St 
New York, NY 10014 
www.westvillenyc.com

This is a quaint little restaurant with outdoor seating, so it’s the perfect place to come here for brunch with your pup. I love brunching outside on a beautiful day in the city… I get to people watch and doggie watch. It’s also a vegan friendly place filled with a long list of fresh beautiful veggies to choose from. There’s about twenty plus items on the market menu and if you like, you could even pick four items as your meal. The market sides are so amazingly delicious! If I could have this every single day, I would swear off meat. My waistline would totally appreciate it.

Market sides - sauteed kale with shallots, honey dijon brussels sprouts, roasted beets with goat cheese, and fried plantains with cotija cheese. I love the vibrant colors. They were all so fresh and very delicious!

Breakfast burrito with a side of hash. The hash was a spicy creamy mash potato with a Mexican twist. It's not your typical hash and I loved it!

The inside of our breakfast burrito. Lots of diced chorizo tucked inside the fluffy scrambled eggs, topped with salsa and avocado. 

Westville breakfast - poached eggs with Canadian bacon, and sauteed spinach on an English muffin. I didn't like this very much.

The breakfast burrito was large in portion and filling, however, it needed plenty of ketchup and Tabasco sauce to bring out the flavors. The side of hash on the other hand was quite tasty. It was a spicy creamy mash potato with a Mexican twist. I immediately wanted seconds. I also ordered the Westville breakfast because I enjoy a classic eggs benedict, but this one was just mediocre. Doh!

Saying hi to Teddy, who was brunching next to us. :)

The wait staff at Westville weren't very friendly and quite frankly not very attentive. They seemed frustrated when we asked that they change our drinks because two of our cups were dirty. But it’s ok… I forgive them for having fantastic veggies. I will definitely come back here for more market sides and try their famous mac and cheese. Just thinking about their veggies, is making me drool. The wait here can be a little crazy during the weekends, but there are a few things that make it worthwhile.

Mickey’s ratings: 7.5/10 
Price range: $$

If I could rearrange the alphabet, I would put u n i together

Soto 
357 6th Avenue 
New York, NY 10014 
www.sotonyc.com

Last week was opening night for the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It’s a documentary about a 85 year old sushi master Jiro, who’s lifelong passion revolves only around sushi. With all the amazing sushi visuals, it's inevitable that this movie would leave me mouthwatering and falling in love with sushi all over again. 

Jiro Dreams of Sushi at the IFC Center.

Good thing I had one of the best sushi meals of my life at Soto, right before I went to see Jiro! With a full tummy, I controlled the sushi monster within me from unleashing inside the theater. If you're a sushi lover and haven't seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi yet, go see it! It's an inspiring story with beautiful cinematography. I truly enjoyed every moment of it - Jiro, you're my hero. :P

The facade of Soto.

Sushi Chef Kosugi prepares our sushi with a stern face.  

Hands down, this place is amazingly good. Does it seem like I say that about every sushi restaurant? Well it's true... even though Soto received mixed reviews and I've heard stories about Chef Kosugi, whom many patrons called “crazy”. He's known for having a bad temper with his staff and I even witnessed it. But I think he's just a serious man, who’s serious about his craft and knows exactly what the foie gras of the sea is. This place was unilicious! Unicredible! Uniful! Unirrific! Uninomenal! You get the point right? I walked right into uni lover’s paradise, where all uni lovers should UNIte!

Uni tempura with uni powder

Uni tempura close up - apparently when you deep fry uni, the unique flavor of uni disappears. It tasted like sweet potato. I think I'll stick with uncooked uni.  

Uni cocktail in a martini glass - it's indeed happy hour time.

Uni cocktail close up - sea urchin with soy reduction and fresh wasabi. This is my favorite uni dish. Make sure to get your own. I made the mistake of sharing one!

Uni and Yoba - black soy bean milk with uni served with shitake broth. I loved the depth of flavors and textures in this, and the cold broth was refreshing.

Uni Ika kelp roll - minty with good texture.

Steamed lobster with uni mousse

The steamed lobster with uni mousse was not only visually beautiful but tasted wonderful too. The lobster was cooked medium rare, full of flavor with a delicate sweetness that complemented well with uni, truffle oil, caviar and paper thin vegetables. Best lobster dish ever! This nearly stole uni's thunder. 

Lobster sashimi

We didn't know about this dish, until we saw Chef Kosugi intricately composing 5 of these lobster sashimis at the sushi bar. We immediately ordered it without hesitating, knowing that we wanted to try it, just because everyone else was having it. The sweet lobster was perfect, covered in a ginger vinaigrette with seaweed salad underneath. Wow!

Fluke

Isaki

Salmon sake

Red snapper

Striped jack  

Toro

We ordered the 8 piece omakase last, essentially letting the chef decide what to feed us. Sometimes I enjoy that surprise element, where each piece of fish is carefully and thoughtfully prepared by our chef. The best piece in the house was the toro. Oh... how I love thee! The toro was so heavenly, that it transmitted this indescribable euphoric feeling inside my body. I was giggling over the rich fatty flavor of the tuna belly melting in my mouth. It tasted like butter. We even skipped dessert and ordered one more toro sushi to cap off the evening. It's so gooooood.

So here are a few things to keep in mind, if you ever decide to dine here. Do not come here if you’re in a rush. Otherwise, you won't enjoy the full dining experience. The service is a little slow with only one sushi chef. The portions are small and the prices are expensive, but you're getting what you pay for - quality. Think about it, you get a taste of Japan without actually flying there. How awesome is that? I think Soto is one of the most inventive and most unique in flavors, in all of the sushi restaurants I've been to. I’ll never forget this incredible three hour meal.

3 things you must order here:
Uni cocktail – don't share this one!
Steamed lobster with uni mousse - so decadent and good!
Toro - this orgasmic piece of fish is kind of a big deal. Best toro I've ever eaten!

Mickey's rating: 10/10 
Price range: $$$$