alice t.'s Profile

I actually patronize this business (what's up with people writing reviews of places they haven't been?) and although I think the "organic" thing is just a sales pitch, I really like Aphrodite. They're very organized and very nice, and they have a standard 20% off on top of their already cheap prices. But, BEST OF ALL, they treat your clothes like they are GOLD! I got a Betsey Johnson wiggle dress back attached to a paper dress form to keep its shape, jackets with the sleeves stuffed with tissue paper, skirts clipped (not safety-pinned) to the hangers. Unlike most of the trashy laundry/dry cleaners in Chinatown, these guys are the real deal. Highly recommended.

Tonight my boyfriend and I decided to go check out this place because, why not, it's a neighborhood joint. Our experience was very mediocre, but in a sort of charmingly clueless way. It seems to me that everyone involved in the running of this place has not only not owned a pizza restaurant before, but perhaps hasn't eaten in many either.

We ordered the spinach salad and the Grandma's pie. First, let me say the menu badly needs revising because it's confusing. We thought we could just order a pizza + toppings, but you have to choose a pie base first, and there are differences between the bases in terms of both size and type of dough and this was just not well explained at all. We asked a lot of questions and the pizza chef came over and warned us that we were ordering too much pizza - he was totally right but honestly, we were just confused. (Also, the waitress should be able to answer these questions, right?)

So then we sit and wait, although there's only two other tables in the place. We finally had to ask for our salad, as it turned out they hadn't ever put it in (although the waitress wrote it down). Salad was okay, spinach + gorgonzola + apples + olive oil, fresh and good nothing groundbreaking. Then the chef brings the pizza out, and he gets to the table and then says, "oops, forgot to put the pepperoni on!" Comes back two minutes later with the pizza.

I agree with Carl G. that the pizza is really doughy, and ours was also not cooked all the way through. Otherwise, the caramelized onions were delicious, and you do get a lot of pizza for the money. My boyfriend pointed out that the pepperoni would have been much better if it had been, you know, cooked with the pizza rather than placed on at the last minute.

Finally, we had to ask for a box for the leftovers, then a bag, then they forgot to bring us our check, so we had to go ask for it. Overall: this place has a lot of kinks to work out, and although the owner was very personable and urged us to come back, the food isn't good enough to warrant sitting through what is sweet, but incompetent, service.

Had a very mediocre experience there last night. My BF and I have been trying to find decent BBQ in NYC (the best so far was Fette Sau in Brooklyln). My roommate, a food maven, had given this place the thumbs-down but we are always into trying the new place so we figured we'd go anyway.

I can't recommend it. Here's why:

1. No bathroom. Seriously, WTF is that. I've eaten at tiny places in NYC where the bathroom is like an alcove with a door behind the dude washing dishes. Not having a bathroom is just gross.

2. They serve Coke, but not Diet Coke. Again, WTF (every beverage on the menu has serious amounts of sugar in it).

3. I ordered fried chicken, green beans (Violet Y. is right, they are terrific), and potato salad. The potato salad was very dill-y but pretty good. The chicken wasn't bad either, except one piece was bloody, red, and raw inside. When I complained to the waitress, she first suggested that it was because of the way they cut up their chickens and that it was marrow leaking into the meat (no). Then the chef came out (a lanky Southern guy with a very sweet manner) who offered to cook me up some white meat. But the problem wasn't that I am an ignoramus who can't tell the difference between dark meat and RAW, BLOODY CHICKEN, the problem was that the chicken was RAW and BLOODY. Needless to say, I didn't eat the rest of the chicken. Which is too bad, because, as I said, it was pretty good.

I also think generally the place suffers from hipster disease, that is, the heartbreak of not giving enough of a shit to do something really awesome. It's a shame because the LES badly needs BBQ.

Good stuff! I arrived around 8:15 on a Wed with my friend and we were seated immediately. The place has high ceilings, is painted yellow, and overall is really cheerful and pleasant. Only one guy on staff.

We ordered sambosas (like samosas, but with ground beef or lentils), the vegetarian combo (great variety) and we asked for the beef/lamb combo with just lamb and chicken, because I don't eat beef, but something definitely got lost in the translation. Oh well, you definitely take a chance when you order off the menu. The combo appeared with the lamb dishes and some of the vegetarian dishes. We had also ordered the sambosas with lentils and they came with beef instead. I sucked it up and ate one (didn't hurt that it was delicious) but I am pretty lax in my no-red-meat rule. Other people might have found that a more difficult mistake to rectify.

Everything was great except I found the lamb pretty chewy and you had to tear the meat right off the bone. The vegetarian dishes were all delicious. I LOVED the injera (my friend calls it "nerf bread"), and they brought plenty of it. The waiter came over and spooned some sort of extra stuff onto our plates at some point, which I always appreciate.

My only complaint is that the service was pretty inattentive- we were the only people in the restaurant and it took forever to get our plates cleared and get the check, as well as the various mistakes with our order. They were busy with takeout orders, which probably means the locals are big fans of this place too.

Total with appetizers, 2 entrees, 1 glass of wine was $40 including tax and tip. Totally affordable. Definitely recommended for a random weekday dinner.

Great place for brunch in the hood. I'm not usually into having brunch in bars because they smell like rank beer from the night before, you see them during daylight which makes you realize what a craphole you're usually hanging out in, etc. but Harefield totally cleans up nice in the light of day. At 3pm on a Sunday (we're late risers, what can I say) we got seated in five minutes. The crowd is hipster/gentrifying locals, everyone about 29 and fashionably unkempt.

$11 buys you coffee or tea, a mimosa or bloody mary, and one of various breakfast entrees (eggs benedict, french toast) or sandwiches (burger, clubs). I had the salmon benedict and it was YUMM. BF had the turkey club which also looked good. The food isn't incredible, but totally solid. Overall, highly positive considering what a time-consuming, expensive and disappointing experience brunch in NYC can be.

On Tuesday my boyfriend and I were grabbing dinner in Chelsea after work, your average evening. We picked Bright Food Shop mostly for its location. It turns out to be a cute little low-key place decorated in retro-diner style. It's basically Mexican food with some Asian influences. On a Tuesday it was mostly dead, mostly Chelsea locals. The service was fine, if a little slow.

I thought the food here was pretty good - the chips and salsa platter comes with salsa verde, pico de gallo and a nice white bean dip. I had the catfish tacos and thought they were awesome, as they're made with asian slaw and some sort of delicious white sauce. I lived in the PacNW for 8 years and miss the mighty fish taco.

However, we basically ordered 1 entree, 1 drink and 2 appetizers and it came to $60. With 2 entrees and 2 drinks that would easily have been $80. The food is totally not worth that much. I understand that holding onto a lease in Chelsea is difficult these days, but if I'm going to eat overpriced Mexican food I'm going to Mercadito, which is just as expensive (if not more) but totally awesome.

On Saturday we overslept and didn't make it out into the world foraging for brunch until 4, at which point Habana, Nolita House and the other usual haunts were shuttered for dinner. Starving and cranky, we went to Sparky's over Noho Star since we figured it would be cheaper.

It's a very small place on the edge of an intersection (triangular). There were three guys working the grill and one at the register and they all seemed unfriendly, laconic, and bored. The interior is lit with bare light bulbs, the uneven tables are made of wood chips and there's not much else, but the huge windows make for excellent Saturday-afternoon people watching.

Sparky's, however, is NOT cheap. We had two chicken burgers, two Cokes (tiny glass bottle size) and a side of mac and cheese for $25. The chicken burgers were okay: I had the club (with bacon) and my BF had the original (with Sparky's sauce). They tasted all right but were really small and the buns weren't toasted. The mac and cheese, though, was really good, made with sharp cheddar and delicious (note that "really good" in this instance doesn't hold a candle to, for example, Dumont Burger's mac-n-cheese). It hit the spot because we needed to eat right that minute, and we entertained ourselves watching an NYU film school project being filmed outside, but it wasn't anything I'd return to.

Overall, generic fast food for non-generic prices; you could go to Wendy's or McDonald's on Broadway for less than half the price or go to Burgr or Stand for upscale burgers that cost the same but are much better.

I love this place and it is my new default place to do homework on the weekends.

Large, spacious, extra outlets, and free wifi, all of which are much appreciated in a neighborhood where coffee shops actively discourage internet users (and then die as a result and then complain that they're losing out to Starbucks). This place is super gay, which is great if you are a gay boy looking to hook up, and is nice if you're a girl and don't want dudes hitting on you while you're trying to work. The staff & music are also great, although tonight they played an ear-splittingly loud version of  "We are the World" which I could have done without.

Minus one star for the crappy food selection- the protein cookies are good, but there are so many awesome bakeries and sandwich shops around that it seems a shame they're not partnering with other local eateries. Maybe in the future.

It seems like most of the other reviewers are big Williamsburg fans who've been here a lot. I am neither, and I've been here only once, but I still think that qualifies me to write a review. Since if you're reading this you may be trying to decide "Should I eat here?" And I was reading the same reviews on Friday trying to decide the same thing, and I decided TO eat here, and I kind of wished I hadn't. So!

The place is on a deserted street in Wburg next to a bunch of warehouses, but it's only about 10 minutes from the Bedford L. PLUS. It's cute inside with retro-Southern-50's-diner decor and a big photo of one of my personal gods, Dolly Parton. PLUS. We showed up at 9pm on a Friday and it was super busy and there would have been an extremely long wait, but all the other waiting couples were put off by the prospective wait and left, so we got seated relatively quickly. However, the staff was all weird and discouragey about us waiting. Since we will regularly wait for 45 minutes at Fatty Crab or Habana, waiting doesn't bother me and I thought that was an odd attitude. MINUS. Although I'd heard plenty of horrible tales of the horrible service, our waitress was a very cute and very sweet girl with no attitude or unwashed qualities. PLUS.

First, the menu is kind of wacked. You can't order fried chicken + sides; you either order bbq pork, pulled chicken, pulled pork, roast chicken + sides or you order fried chicken + stuff they've already decided for you, which I hate. I love how Mama's (in the East Village) gives you a plethora of side options, and their sides are so good that they are the standard by which all Southern/soul food restaurants are judged. So MINUS on the lack of options with fried chicken. I asked the waitress what I should get since I wanted fried chicken but not like ten pounds of food, and she suggested the chicken-fried chicken. My BF ordered pork, mac-n-cheese and creamed spinach.

Our food came out relatively quickly PLUS and was steaming hot PLUS. My chicken-fried-chicken was delicious, tender chicken with nice fried outside. The mashed potatoes were good too. The green beans were overcooked and not nearly as good as they could have been. So, overall, good but not great. My dining partners mac-n-cheese was totally not good at all. Granted, I am a big fan of the classic so I am sort of picky, but underdone macaroni with a tasteless cheese sauce that was kind of sweet is NOT good mac-n-cheese. Even Velveeta on it would have been better. I don't think he was very excited about his meal at all, although he ate all of it (being a boy and all). So MINUS on that.

I think 2 stars might be a bit harsh, but it really wasn't anything special and there are so many southern/soul food places in NYC now that there's no point at all going out of your way for this one unless you're in the area and dying for fried chicken. I will say I thought the chicken was very good.

DISCLAIMER: I am the anti-audience for a sports bar, seeing as I don't like sports and I don't drink. With that said...

There's nothing WRONG with this bar, but there's nothing particularly right about it either. It has lots of flat screen TVs showing sports of various kinds, a menu of greasy bar food, lots of alcohol, and a decent amount of seating. It might be an okay choice if it was the weekend and you were trying to find somewhere to hang out that wasn't super expensive and/or trendy. But I can't say it's charming or anything.