Chanterelle

When my parents gave me the birthday present of any restaurant in the city, one word popped into my head.  Daniel.  I know that many of you think that I am crazy, and that I am posting about the wrong restaurant, but I'm not.  Stick with me here.  So when I was thinking about Daniel, I thought about four things: food, service, who to take and the cost.  With the stock market failing and all, I thought about going to a restaurant of the same caliber, but that would not cost as much.  I was about to give up when my mind began rambling as it does about every other minute, and this time I began to think about mushrooms, all kinds of them, Shitake, Chanterelle, Crimini, wait, and then I remembered the simple restaurant in downtown Tribeca.  The name evoked fragility, and thus as we began our eight and a half block cab ride, I began to think.  Would I be stunned at the holy goodness, of this simple yet extraordinary french outpost, or would I be disgusted by the rich taste of a french cuisine that I had never experience of my life.  As we entered the restaurant, I was overwhelmed by the simplicity of the decor.  It was almost completely plain, except for the most exquisite bouquet of flowers on the wall.  As we sat observing it, our waiter came and asked if we wanted anything to drink, my best friend Parker and I ordered a virgin cosmopolitan that was very good.  Then the appetizers came.  I ordered a quintette of oysters.  I chose to substitute the fois gras oyster with a second pickled ginger oyster that tasted like sushi.  For my other three, I got an olive oil and fennel infused oyster, a fried oyster, and a trout roe and wasabi oyster.  It was by far the best appetizer I have ever had, other than the risotto at Cafe Grey.  For my entree, I ordered the scallops, which were far too rich for me, but they were still delicious.  And the service was just flawless, our waiter was extremely nice, and helpful, but also enthusiastic and excited to help.  For dessert, my father, Parker and myself all agreed on the same thing.  The chocolate-raspberry mousse.  It was simply heavenly.  I believed that after the first bite, I had an epiphany.  Simple wonderful.  I would love to go back again, even though the meal took almost three hours.  Simply stated though, it was one of the most amazing three hours of my life.  I give Chanterelle a 9.3 out of 10.

Max Fried

Just an announcement to make:
My good friend Max Fried has requested to be my partner in crime, but, do not worry my loyal friends and fans, he will do no writing whatsoever. His job is to help me out and take me to restaurants(jk).
Blogging will resume shortly. All invititations to any restaurants are accepted excluding McDonalds, Applebees, and the like.
Sit tight and wait for the next post.
Thank you all very much.

Lupa

My friend Max has a great taste for food.  So when we decided to go to Tomoe, one of the best sushi places in town, I could understand why he wanted to eat there.  However, when we arrived, the was a twenty minute wait.  So Max and I ran to the nearby Italian restaurant, Lupa.  It was going to be my second time eating at Lupa, so I knew what to expect.  After we were seated, they brought us the menu, which had a full glossary of all the Italian words that I did not understand.  When the waitress arrived, we chatted her up a bit, her name was Courtney, she had worked there for a year, and she had never met Mario Batali.  She brought us our appetizers in a fairly quick time, which were Prosciutto and octupus.  They were both delicious, and the Prosciutto tasted like it had just arrived on the plane from Italia.  After that our entrees arrived, which for me was ear-shaped pasta with pork sausage, escarole, and a butter sauce.  My mother ordered fresh fish that came from the market that she said was delicious.  Max got Gnocchi, with some sort of red sauce that was a little spicy.  Lupa is a great restaurant, and The service is wonderful, the decor is beautiful, and the food is lipsmackingly delicious.  I give Lupa a 8.6/10.

The New List Of Restaurants That I Want To Go To

1. Daniel

2. Union Square Cafe

3. Gramercy Tavern

4. Masa

5. Per Se

6. Le Bernadin

7. Sushi Yasuda

8. db Bistro Moderne

9. Pearl Oyster Bar

10. Jean Georges

11. Gotham Bar And Grill

12. Saul

13. Gordan Ramsay

14. Blue Water Grill

15. The Modern

16. Nobu

17. Le Cirque

18. Milos Estario

19. Del Posto

20. Viand

21.Savoy 

22. La Grenouille

23. Telepan

24. Picholine

25. Chanterelle

Curraschia Plataforma

Most of the time when my grandparents come to town, I go out to dinner with them.  Sometimes it's at very upscale restaurants, other times more casual.  When my grandparents from Belgium arrived they took us to Plataforma, which is a Brazilian restaurant, where waiters bring out long sticks with every kind of meat on it that you can imagine.  We took my friend Max there with us which was a blast because he can speak in Portuguese, so he was able to chat with them which made us all crack up.  There was a salad bar, which had sushi, salad, mushrooms, shrimp and much more.  I took advantage of the Salad bar because, unlike my brother, I am not a huge Carnivore.  When the meat finally arrived, I munched on Sirloin, flank and strip steak, along with chicken, ribs and sausage.  I was not as adventurous as Owen or Max in terms of eating meat, but I definitely enjoyed the salad bar more than them.  After my delicious strawberry shortcake dessert, I went outside with my brother and Max.  Then came the climax of the meal.  Max nudged an enormous light fixture, which weighed possibly 1 ton, and it fell, almost crushing my brother on it's path to the ground.  We quickly grabbed our bags and ran, before the restaurant could sue us.  Plataforma was a great restaurant, and I really enjoyed the meal other than the incident at the end.  Maybe their sushi could have been a little bit fresher. I give Churaschia Plataforma a 8.7/10.

Aquagrill

Looking back onto my list of restaurants that I want to go to, I saw one that really stood out to me. Aquagrill.  Doesn't it just roll off your tongue?  Anyway, I was thinking of that among other things as my family (Big Family) waited patiently to be seated at this densely packed neighborhood restaurant.  The first thing that I noticed as I stepped off the subway was just how blue the outside of the restaurant was.  That was until I remembered that the restaurant was meant to be Aqua, and I continued on my trek towards the best oysters in town. Normally, I'm not a fan of oysters, but when we finally sat down at our beautiful table, and I opened my Aqua menu that I realized how good the oysters looked.  We ordered around forty oysters for the table, and I got my first soft shell crab.  I t was deep fried and very crispy, but overall very delicious.  For my entree, I ordered grilled scallops with mashed potatoes, which was a tad bit overcooked and very plain.  The waiter who we ordered with was very nice and very enthusiastic, but the guy who served us water spilled some on my grandma.  The highlight of the meal would have to be the oysters which were very fresh and very sweet.  This restaurant did not live up to my expectations even though the meal itself was very good. I rate Aquagill a 8.3/10.