Stanton Social

When my friend Josh told me that we were going to go to Stanton Social, I was a little bit apprehensive.  I thought that he was going to take me to some sort of ritzy social club.  At first, his mom Joanne, my mom Alison, our fathers, Stephane and Fred were taking Josh and I to Sushi Yasuda.  But since they were closed on Sunday, we had to revise.  So Josh came up with Stanton Social.  After an extremely long culture day, which included the Met, MoMa, and a really bizarre organ concert at a church,  any good meal was readily welcomed.  Stanton Social was located in the lower east side, right on Stanton street, as the name suggests.  Stanton Social's philosophy is to share dishes, and to make it a very warm restaurant. I was just excited for the sliders.  We ordered around twelve dishes, which, if I wrote about every single one in detail, would probably take me around three or four hours.  So, I'm just going to write about my favorite five or seven.  As we entered the chic, but reformed restaurant, I noticed that the service was rushed, and they made very little eye contact.  After ordering, one of the most interesting dishes of the meal arrived.  It was the french onion soup dumplings.  It was a dumpling filled with an intense brown liquid, and with some cheese. It also included crouton stuck on top for texture.  They were delicious, but weird and strange at the same time.  I only had one.  Next came the tuna tartar sushi roll.  It was spicy, but sweet as well.  I ate two, and wanted a third, but my dad took it.  My mom ordered the edamame, but it was basically mine.  When I was done with it, I had a stack of skin around three or four inches tall.  It had a sauce on it that was positively mind-boggling.  Then the tuna carpaccio arrived.  It was located on a bed of Avocado, which is probably my least favorite food in the world, and it had a few jalapeno peppers on top.  After gingerly removing the tuna from the avocado, and putting the jalapeno pepper right on top of it, it was finally ready to eat.  It was juicy, and soft, and it almost melted in my mouth.  It was an extremely exquisite tuna, and Oy Vey, it tasted like one too.  Next came the most important part of the meal; the kobe beef sliders.  Josh scared me by saying they were disgusting.  Then he broke into a smile, and said:  " I got you.  Now eat the goddamn slider, you're making me jealous."  As my teeth pierced the hard outer skin of the burger, and into the medium rare meat inside, I felt bliss and happiness for the entire earth.  It was so good.  After finishing it, I said: "Ok, nothing can beat this.  Bring on the rest."  Boy, I was wrong.  The "old school" meatballs arrived with the mac and cheese, and as I began to eat my first meatball, and if I had any, my Italian roots began to show.  The mac and cheese was good, but one of the weak spots of the meal.  Mac and cheese is a hit and miss dish, and the kitchen just could not quite execute it.  Then came the donuts.  They had three dipping sauces:  Raspberry, Chocolate and Caramel.  The donuts were crispy and hollow, and covered in sugar.  My least favorite dipping sauce was the chocolate sauce, because it tasted like coffee.  My favorite one was the caramel.  It was flavorful, and it worked perfectly with the donuts, while the raspberry sauce tasted artificial.  After a great, and hearty meal, with mediocre service, and a beautiful decor, I give Stanton Social a 8.1/10.