Kittchai - now that's how THAI is done

Don't you just love Restaurant Week? While we don't make as much use of it as we should, what better time to eat somewhere I've always wanted to go!

So we ventured out to Kittichai in Soho for modern Thai. The way to a man’s heart maybe through his stomach, but when the ambiance and the décor are this good, half the battle is already won. It's actually nice to drive into Soho on a weeknight - abundance of street parking everywhere!! (Yes, it means a lot to me because it means No parallel parking ordeal required on my part)

The food was yummy - definitely about 100x tastier than my attempted Thai cooking effort from the night before. 3 of the Foodiots decided to go with the Restaurant week Menu and the 4th Foodiot ordered the Chilean Sea Bass. In her exact words ‘it was a bit sweet but still AWESOME ‘. From the Restaurant week menu, we had the Thai Gazpacho, Coconut chicken in butter lettuce wraps and the Steamed mussels in curry broth. The lettuce wraps were great; don’t forget to ask for the chili dipping sauce on the side so you (not me) can spice it up. For main course, we ordered the Organic chicken in green curry and the crispy catfish. In Sat's words, he was "tastefully delighted" with the catfish. Yea, c-h-e-e-s-y. The green curry was, in the words of Rachel Ray – YUM’O. Reminded me of the curry our cook in Indonesia used to make (that means I just gave it a 2 thumbs up). The Stir-fried Asian vegetables with garlic and ginger-soy sauce were a welcome vegetarian addition to the table. They were so so good that we ordered 2 portions.

For dessert, we ordered the Flourless Valrhona chocolate cake (apparently Valrhona is a French chocolate) and the Banana spring roll with burnt honey ice cream. The burnt honey ice cream was great and so were the Banana Spring rolls. I’m a sucker for anything fried. Suhel devoured the chocolate cake like there was no tomorrow, in all honesty, it was just DECENT. Overall, we had a great time. D&D with the Foodiots is always fun especially because it is always accompanied by a healthy dose of gossip.

Definitely recommend Kittichai to anyone looking to be transported into the elegant and zen-like world of modern Thailand.

Bloggers recommendation: 3/5

Price: $$$

Ambiance: 4/5

Website: http://www.kittichairestaurant.com

Cuisine: Modern Thai

Kefi

After hearing a earful from friends and family I realized that I needed to step up and write on behalf of my wife and stop being lazy. Well in her defense I vouch that she was certainly busy at that time. This will get me some brownie points..hehe

Greek food was on our minds and we decided to hunt for a Greek restaurant. We stumbled upon Kefi (thanks Shira) located on the upper west side on Columbus Ave. This place was recommended by a few people so our expectations were super high..Even the website boldly states “Prepare to be transported to a bustling Greek tavern, where the flavors are big and the value is high ". The place is well designed and is reminiscent of a traditional rustic tavern in a tiny town in Greece (Yea, I haven’t been to Greece but my wife watches Mama Mia just about every time it’s on TV). Regarding the food, in all honesty, we were not thrilled; though the MEZE were definitely yum. We ate the Greek Salad (surprise surprise.. hehe), Selection of Spreads: Yogurt, “Caviar”, Eggplant, Chickpea (highly recommended spread) and the Mussels (very average). So far we were pretty impressed & then came along the big disappointment. We ordered Braised Lamb Shank & Roasted Lemon Chicken, Potato, Garlic, Dill both which were very bland and dreary. To an extent that neither Suhel nor I could finish the chicken, perhaps it was a wrong choice. We would suggest ordering Lamb Chops (think they didn’t have them that day) rather than the Shank, don’t think the shank lives up to chops. Dessert? Can’t even remember it – nothing memorable. We had the ice cream just to be on the safe side. Well all in all I would say we were happy with the appetizers but extremely saddened with the overall experience. So would I go back there? Unless for some GOD forsaken reason I am stuck on 505 Columbus Ave and have a craving for Greek food and all the other restaurants in that neighborhood are shut down, I doubt I would venture back to that place..I mean, the ambiance is nice and the wine list is good, so even if I did go back, I would just order the appetizers.



Bloggers recommendation: 1/5, Anagha’s recommendation: 2.5/5
Price: $$ Ambiance: 3/5

Website: http://www.kefirestaurant.com/

CUISINE: GREEK