We’ve been in NYC since Monday and have had some outstanding meals. I’ll list them all here.

Monday – Bello (863 Ninth Ave, corner of 56th Street) – Usually when we stay at the Mid-town Holiday Inn on 57th St, we walk to a local place for dinner the first night. We’d passed Bello several times and have always talked about stopping in someday. Well we finally did. We had no problems getting a table and the service was excellent. The menu is typical high-end Italian. Three items on the specials list that night caught our attention. We split an Avocado Salad, which was very tasty. Sarah ordered the Chilean Sea Bass, which was prepared with a leek and tomato sauce. I had the Rigatoni with bacon and peas in a tomato cream sauce. Both were superb. Sarah’s fish was a sizable portion and was light and sweet. My pasta was perfectly prepared and not overwhelmed with sauce. Not to sound like Hannibal Lecter, but I enjoyed mine with a fine Chianti. We finished up with a piece of Tiramisu and a cappuccino. It was a great way to start our stay in NYC. Five Spoons – High End

Tuesday -Mitali East - 334 E. 6th St – Mitali East has long been one of our favorite places to eat in NYC. I’ve rated it very highly in the past. We invited one of Sarah’s friends with us this time, so I guess we set ourselves up to be disappointed. Always happens that way when you rave about a place and then bring friends, no? There was nothing particularly wrong with our meal this time. It was just missing that special something that makes for a memorable meal. Sarah had the Shaag Paneer, I ordered a favorite, Chicken Balti, and Sarah’s friend had the Chicken Tikka Masala. Sarah’s saag was a bit overwhelmed with a sourish cream sauce. My balti was ok, but virtually devoid of spices. The chicken tikka masala was the same, decent, but lacking zip. The service was, as always, excellent. Maybe it was just an off-night for the chef. Three Spoons – Family

Wednesday – Thai Basil – (860 Ninth Ave) – Thai Basil is another of our favorites. It is also an easy walk from our usual hotel. Thai Basil is a typical NYC hole-in-the-wall eatery. Not much atmosphere, but really good food. Luckily, that hasn’t changed for Thai Basil. We started with Vegetable Dumplings, which were, as you would guess, minced veggies wrapped in lettuce. Very tasty. Sarah ordered Eggplant Basil Sautee (which included tofu) and I went with Siam Beef (which came on fried rice). Sarah really liked her eggplant and my beef was perfectly done. I loved the fried rice that came with it. It was truly rice and veggies fried up in a wok, not some mixture of rice and sauce or the yellow rice we get in the midwest. As always, an excellent meal. Four Spoons – Family

Thursday – Bistango Ristorante - (415 Third Ave at 29th St) – We chose Bistango because we were joining a friend of Sarah’s who happens to have a gluten allergy. Bistango has many gluten-free offerings. They even have gluten-free beer. The atmosphere is dinner casual and very comfy. The service was excellent and the waitstaff was very knowledgeable about every detail of the food preparation, which can be a godsend to those with allergies. Sarah’s friend was very pleased and surprised at the wide choice of gluten-free food as well as the staff’s knowledge. She ordered the gluten-free ravioli, which she said was the first time she’d ever seen it in a restaurant. It looked pretty tasty, which she confirmed. She had started out with the calamari appetizer, which she said was also very good. I’ll take her word for it as I don’t like calamari. Sarah and I split a Caesar salad, which was served wedge style. Not my favorite way to enjoy a salad. The Caesar was ok, but a bit pricey considering it was basically a wedge of romaine with some grated cheese and dressing on it. For entrees Sarah had rigatoni and meat sauce. I had the boneless pork chop. Sarah’s rigatoni was good, although the meat sauce had shredded meat instead of the typical crumbled hamburger. My porkchop was pounded flat and breaded, like a schnitzel. It came with a small portion of mashed potatoes, a large helping of spinach, and was served over sauteed onions and hot cherry peppers. The porkchop was quite good, as were the potatoes. I’m not a big fan of spinach and the onions and peppers were very spicy, so I only had a couple bites of those. We all had the excellent Gelato and Sorbet for dessert. Sarah and I split coffee gelato and mango sorbet. The gelato was creamy and rich. The mango sorbet was eye-opening strong. If you really like mango, you’ll love the mango sorbet. Sarah’s friend had vanilla gelato and blackberry sorbet. She raved about both. Despite my little nitpicks, the meal was quite good, the service was, as I said, excellent, and the atmosphere was enjoyable. Four Spoons – Family

Friday – Molyvos – (871 Seventh Ave) – We originally tried to get into a smaller Greek place close to our hotel, but it turned out to be basically a tiny cheese and wine bar and was, of course, packed on a Friday evening. So we walked on over to Molyvos on 7th Ave, which the bus to the Javits Center passed every day. We were able to walk in and get a table right away. It’s a surprisingly large place. The atmosphere is very upscale, yet comfortable. We were expecting the usual Greek fare with gyros and moussaka and such. No gyros to be found here, although they do have moussaka. The waiter quickly supplied us with warm pita triangles and bread with a spicy feta spread. We also ordered the Tzatziki. We went through the first basket of bread and were promptly supplied with another. Both the feta spread and the tzatziki were excellent. For entrees Sarah ordered the stuffed pepper and I had the beef short rib (Vodino Stifado). Sarah’s pepper was stuffed with eggplant and rice and such. It was very, very good. My beef short rib was melt in your mouth tender and delicious. We split an order of potato kefte, which was quite good, although we really could have done without it as the entrees were more than ample. I had a couple glasses of a really good mavroudi wine, which went perfectly with the beef. We will definitely return to Molyvos. It seemed only right that we should bookend our trip with two fantastic meals. Five Spoons – High End

As you can see, I haven’t posted in a long while. In fact, June was the first month in almost two years of writing this blog for which I have no entries. Much of that is because we were traveling in Canada and New England for half of June. We ate out quite often during that time, but the restaurants either weren’t worth mentioning because they were mediocre AND in Canada, or they were places I’ve written up not so long ago. For instance, we had a great meal with my folks at Isaac’s in Plymouth, MA, but it was a repeat of our visit last year, so I saw no point in writing the same review. The food in Toronto was expensive and not really worth it. Some so-so Indian, a decent Thai place, a horrendous deli (Dunn’s in the theatre district), and a pizza joint. In New England, aside from the aforementioned Isaac’s, we ate at Cugino’s in Newington, CT (written up before). We ended up with so many leftovers from Isaac’s and Cugino’s that we ate in several nights and had pizza and BBQ at Sarah’s parents’ house on two other nights. On the trip home, we ate at Tai’s Asian Bistro in Columbus, OH. It was excellent, although with a fast food atmosphere. I suppose I should have written a review for that one.

In the few weeks we’ve been back, we’ve had great meals at Tuscany in Tuscola (they have a new pizza oven and were packed when we were there), Radio Maria’s in downtown Champaign, and at Bombay Grill on Green St. in Campustown. All three places have a couple of reviews here. We tried the new Buffalo Wild Wings in Mattoon, which had the atmosphere of a high school gym. Not as pub-like as the BW3′s in the C-U area. We’ve been to Angelo’s in Mattoon for their excellent spaghetti dinner special on Wednesdays, as well as the spaghetti special at Pagliacci’s in Charleston, also on Wednesdays. Both are good meals. Plus we’ve been to the old stand-bys like Roc’s Blackfront in Charleston (on the square by the courthouse) and Jerry’s Pizza on 4th and Lincoln right at EIU.

Maybe this weekend we’ll get out to someplace new so I have new blog fodder. 

Last week we were in Bermuda. The island is stunningly beautiful and we had perfect weather for exploring. We also tried a variety of different restaurants. For the most part, the food was ok, although nothing to rave about. Saturday night, because of flight delays, we got to the hotel near midnight, so we took advantage of the hotel bar and split a sandwich.

The next day we had lunch at Frog & Onion Pub at the Royal Naval Dockyard. The Frog & Onion has great atmosphere and excellent service. Sarah had a North Rock Cornish Pastie and I had Fish & Chips and great India Pale Ale (IPA) from the Dockyard brewery. It was one of the better meals we had the whole trip. My rating - Three and a Half Spoons. That night we ate at the Hog Penny Pub, which was supposedly the inspiration for the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston, which in turn was the model for the set of Cheers. Whatever. The hype certainly outweighed the food. Sarah had a curry dish (vegetables vindaloo) which could have been a microwaved TV dinner. I had bangers and mash, which were just ok. I also asked for a good bitter beer, but all they had were the standard American drafts and one German draft. So much for being a British pub. My rating – Two Spoons.

On Monday we ventured over to the south shore and had lunch at the Fairmont Southampton, the sister hotel to the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, where we were staying. I started with a really good Margarita on the rocks and I had a BBQ Chicken quesadilla. Very tasty. Sarah had a Caesar salad which was ho-hum. My rating –  Three Spoons. That night we went Thai and had dinner at Silk in Hamilton. The special that night was Thai BBQ ribs, which I had. Sarah had Chicken Penang. Again, mine was quite good. Sarah thought hers had a lot of flavor, but the chicken was tough and chewy, which became a running joke the rest of the trip (“old bird out back“). My rating - Three Spoons.

Tuesday we went cheap and local and grabbed sandwiches at the supermarket in Hamilton. It was very much like a Whole Foods with a half-dozen different fresh food counters. It was pretty good for the cheapest meal we had the whole trip. That evening we took a cab over to the House of India, which is unfortunately located in the worst part of Hamilton. If you plan on going, take a cab there and have the waitstaff call you a cab when you ask for your bill. The food there is worth the trip, though. Sarah had Coconut Curry Chicken and I had Chicken Tikka Masala, which was served Balti style (in a brass bucket). The CTM was very good, as was the raita and naan. Sarah’s dish was once again, just ok. Not the best culinary week for her. My rating – Three Spoons.

On Wednesday we grabbed a quick lunch at some pub in St. George. Nothing at all worth mentioning, though. That evening we stopped in at the Ristorante Primavera, which was basically across the street from our hotel. This turned out to be the most expensive meal we had in Bermuda. Sarah started with a Spinach Salad with gorgonzola, pine nuts, and walnut dressing. It was tiny and basically tasteless due the paucity of gorgonzola and dressing. I had their Bruschetta which wasn’t bad, but not something I’d order again. Not a lot of flavor there either. For dinner we both ended up with a ravioli dish. Sarah’s was the cheese ravioli special and mine was Ravioli Neri with lobster meat. Both dishes were well prepared and nicely presented, but were sort of underwhelming for the price. The highlight of the meal was the Tiramisu I ordered for desert. It was real Tiramisu with the cake at the bottom soaking in brandy and espresso. It was superb. Still, overall the meal rates Three Spoons, which is sad considering the bill just topped $100.

So there, in a nutshell, was our dining experience in Bermuda. Bermuda is a gorgeous place to visit. Just be prepared for sticker shock at mealtime and don’t expect to be wowed by the food.