McDonald's Mighty Wings

Nationwide Limited Promotion

McDonald’s launched their new fried chicken line earlier this week. As fried chicken is as American as apple pie, I’m a bit surprised that McDonald’s hasn’t offered it sooner. And as a fried chicken lover, had to go and have a taste.

Available in 3-, 5-, and 10-piece boxes, I chose the 3-piece (for $3.49 in Manhattan) option.

The pieces were rather small and the box disappointing after seeing Hybird’s wonderful presentation.

As for the chicken itself, the skin was flaky and spicy. It did have that annoying tendency to leave crumbs and flakes all over the place. The meat itself was well cooked (so that was a relief) and moist. And while the chicken does have spice, it's not so hot as to make your eyes water (that's another plus for one who doesn't wish to reapply eye makeup after a meal).

I had heard that it would come with 9 different dipping sauces, but the sauce selection depends upon the location you go to. The one I went to only offered the traditional 4 options that would usually come with their nuggets. I chose the honey mustard sauce and it was a really good accompaniment with the spiciness of the chicken.

Overall, it was okay but nothing special. If you have a hankering for some chicken and you happen to be at McDonald’s, I’d say stick with their nuggets.

Intermezzo

202 Eighth Avenue

(between 20th and 21st Streets)

www.intermezzo-nyc.com

Went for two birthday celebrations at this restaurant.

First, a birthday Lunch celebration.

Intermezzo offers a great $8.95 lunch special. You can select an appetizer and a main course.

I chose their Caesar salad. (I was a little disappointed as they used to serve it with anchovies in the past.)

And for my main, I chose the fusilli della casa (bacon, sweet corn, and scallion in a creamy parmesan cheese). Absolutely delicious! For those with lactose issues, the creamy parmesan is a very light sauce.

My friend decided to go off their lunch special menu. She went instead for the traditional linguine and clams. It hit just the right spot for her craving for seafood and Italian pasta.

Lunch also comes with a basket of warm, fresh breads. Their garlic and tomato bread is the best! And it goes great with sopping up the sauces of your pasta dishes.

As it was a celebratory lunch we had to have a drink. And since it was a hot, summer day, we decided to go for sangria. Plus, they were offering a two-for-one drink special on the sangria. Their choices were: peach, white, and red.We tried the peach (not so good). The white (not pictured) was delicious.

Salud!

I then went to this restaurant for a birthday Brunch celebration.

If you are looking for a fun, campy (with a drag queen show!), boozy time with truly bottomless drinks, then Intermezzo would be a perfect go-to choice.

Their $20, brunch drink special is a real deal as they continually top off your drink. It’s for 90 minutes, but we were there for almost 3 hours and they never stopped filling up our glasses. They offer champagne, mimosa, bloody mary, raspberry or peach bellini. And as with their sangria special, they allow you to switch out.

We all opted for champagne (and we stayed with champagne throughout) as it was a celebratory brunch.

For our food, I went for the classic eggs benedict. Perfect accompaniment with the drinks.

My friend chose the Caesar salad with grilled shrimp.

As the restaurant knew that it was a birthday brunch, they surprised us with a comp dessert—tiramisu!—along with all the waiters singing “Happy Birthday!”

And with a DJ playing thumping club music, a drag queen show—which was actually pleasantly surprisingly good, clean fun—and patrons getting up to dance and show off their club moves, Intermezzo was absolutely the perfect party place to go.

Do NOT go if you want to have a conversation with your dining companion as the music is quite loud!

Go for their weekday lunch special instead if you’re looking for a quiet, dining experience.

Sushi Mora (CLOSED!!!)

200 Eighth Avenu

(between 20th and 21st Streets)

Always on the lookout for another sushi restaurant in the Chelsea area (when Asuka is too crowded and has a half-hour wait), I decided to try Sushi Mora up the street.

Initial thoughts—nice décor!

Like Asuka, Sushi Mora offers a drink special: all-night, two-for-one cocktail. You may switch out your second cocktail with a different one if you wish.

I went for their Shanghai cocktail. Drink color was pretty, but I wish that they offered it in a martini glass. (I decided to stick with the Shanghai cocktail for my second drink as well.)

Decided to order my favorite roll, eel avocado, as a way to rate the restaurant. First, the pricing is more expensive than Asuka ($7 vs. $5.50).

And then, the presentation of the roll not as exciting. They should really try to be competitive? The roll itself was okay, but the eel was not warm enough and the rice tasted as if it had been in the rice cooker too long (meaning not sure how much customer turnover the restaurant had that evening).

Overall, I’m glad I only ordered one roll.

Asuka, you still are ranked as my number-one sushi place in my heart!

Tipsy Parson

156 Ninth Avenue

(between 19th and 20th Streets)

tipsyparson.com

Really cute, cozy restaurant offering Southern-style meals.

Went in with a friend for dessert during a weekday afternoon. They only had three desserts available for lunch. As my friend is not a fan of chocolate mint, we chose the Tipsy Parson (brandy-soaked almond cake, vanilla custard, brandied fruit, and toasted almonds):

And the peanut butter sundae (candied peanuts, vanilla gelato, peanut butter crispies, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream):

The peanut butter sundae was amazing. It had a great mix of sweet and salty and crunchy (due to the crispies!). My friend liked the almond cake as it had a festive look to it.

Regardless of our preference, we had no problems finishing off both desserts.

Yummy!

Olive Garden

696 Avenue of the Americas

(between 23rd and 22nd Streets)

www.olivegarden.com

In honor of the publication of food critic Marilyn Hagerty’s Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews and the return of Olive Garden’s unlimited pasta bowl lunch special for $9.99 (the special is a limited-time offer usually running for only a few weeks), I decided to check out for myself the Olive Garden dining experience.

Hagerty came to national attention when she decided to review the new Olive Garden that had just opened in her North Dakota neighborhood. Her review under her “Eatbeat” column soon went viral when it was linked to by other blogs. What made it so unique was that many self-proclaimed “foodies” (including yours truly), traditionally do not frequent food chains much less write a review on one.

I am usually unimpressed by food chain restaurants, but the unlimited pasta bowl special was too tempting to pass up especially for one watching her wallet!

Knowing that the Olive Garden in the Chelsea location usually gets crowded around lunchtime and dinnertime (waits can be half an hour to an hour), I made sure that I arrived a little bit after the rush. I showed up at about 2 p.m., and was rewarded by being seated immediately. Yay!!

Several menus were placed on the table, but I was unable to find the $9.99 lunch option.

Helpful Hint #1: Please note that you must ask for the unlimited pasta bowl special. If you are unaware of the special, they will not mention it to you or make you aware of it.

Once I asked, the waitress pulled out the small menu from her apron pocket.

I also think that what is critical to your dining experience in these food chain restaurants is your server. Is he/she attentive? Does his/her attitude change toward you when they learn that you are interested in a value-oriented special? Luckily for me, my waitress, Kelsey, was very friendly, very prompt, and very helpful.

I decided to go with the neverending salad, which came in a very generous-sized bowl. Plus, I said yes to having it topped off with some shredded parmesan cheese as well. The Italian dressing was probably one of the best I ever tasted.  And Kelsey queried whether I wanted a refill when she arrived with my pasta. So bonus points for her being so observant!

For my pasta I decided to try the cavatappi (corkscrew pasta) with the sausage pomodoro sauce.

It was a really hearty meal as the sausage was pretty chunky. However, the sauce or the meat had a metallic taste to it. As the pasta and the sauce were new options on the menu perhaps they still needed to work out the kinks in the recipe.

Despite the sizable first portion, I wanted to test out whether there was truth to their advertised unlimited pasta bowl. However, I didn’t want a refill of the same pasta. Olive Garden allows you to choose another option (for BOTH the pasta and the sauce) on your refills!!! AWESOME!!!

I went with the penne with the 5-cheese pasta sauce. It was super, super tasty! And as I’m lactose intolerant, loved that it didn’t have a heavy cheese sauce taste. It was actually quite light. The 5 cheeses are: fontina, parmesan, romano, mozzarella, and grana padana.

While eating the first pasta dish, I felt I needed a glass of red wine to assist in cutting the sharp taste of the sauce. I ordered a glass of their house red. It was okay. I don’t tend to like sweet, fruity-tasting reds, but it was a really good accompaniment with the pomodoro sauce.

The lunch also comes with Olive Garden’s usual neverending breadsticks, which are the soft, doughy, garlicky kind that I normally would have wolfed down. But as I didn’t want to fill up on breadsticks, I only had one to help sop up the sauces.

At the end of the meal, you get chocolate mints along with your check.

Helpful Hint #2: Check your bill! An 18 percent gratuity is automatically added.

Helpful Hint #3: Request a doggy bag for the leftovers. I needed boxes for both the salad and the 5-cheese penne pasta dish. It’ll be great for dinner or for a next-day lunch!

Final thoughts: Just for the fact that they allow you to change both your pasta and sauce choice on your refills, the unlimited pasta bowl lunch special at the Olive Garden is a must-try!