Le Zie

172 Seventh Avenue

(between 20th and 21s Streets)

A friend wanted to meet for an early Friday dinner, but she is very particular about her food. She’s not particularly adventurous and loves seafood. So to play it safe, I decided to recommend Italian.

Le Zie 2000 is a rustic, moderately priced Italian restaurant that has been around for a loooong time in Chelsea. That cinched it for me as a place to suggest as my friend also has a very sensitive stomach, so if a restaurant has been around for a while, I assume it must be doing something right!

 

The last time I’d been to Le Zie was over ten years ago. Part of my reason for not returning had to do with their uncomfortable old-school seating and design. Since then, though they’ve gone through a renovation, which I would give a resounding thumbs-up!

 

First off: Drink selection! I knew we were going to have a good dinner when our server happily let us sample four (4!) different tastings of red wines. We finally settled on the 2011 Primitivo di Manduria “Calidus” from Puglia ($13 per glass). As usual, the primitivo does not disappoint—with its smooth, non-tannic finish it’s really becoming my favorite red.

 

Since I knew that my friend loved seafood, we started off sharing the Price Edward Island mussels (white wine, tomato, basil, garlic croutons) for $15. Sauce was great for dipping our bread in.

 

Choosing an entrée was a bit difficult for me as there were so many delicious-sound entrée options to choose, and after much hemming and hawing and discussion with our server, I finally went with his recommendation of the orechiette, sausage, broccoli rabe, and chili dish ($20). Final verdict: Excellent recommendation. Loved the combination of the pasta and the crunchy rabe and the spicy sausage—topped with parmesan cheese. Delicious!

 

My friend ordered the linguine and clams, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, parsley, crushed red peppers ($23). I tried a little of her dish and I could definitely taste the clams on the pasta.

 

For dessert, the server convinced us to go with their special dessert: raspberry soufflé with chocolate ice cream on the side ($9). We were advised that we would need to wait a while (as it’s a 10-minute prep), but we were still drinking our wine and in no rush. And it was well worth the wait.

Amazingly light! It was like eating a cloud of raspberry. A perfect finish to a heavy pasta meal.

 

I do want to emphasize the excellent service. From on-point food recommendations and bringing us countless refills on our bread basket (as well as giving my friend a dish of fresh garlic cloves upon learning that she wanted some extra garlic in the olive oil that we were dipping our bread in) to not rushing us out even though the restaurant had quickly filled up with some diners waiting to be seated. I also noticed that there were many obvious repeat customers, as they warmly greeted the host and the servers throughout the evening.

I will definitely be a happy, repeat customer to Le Zie!

Pros:

Friendly, excellent service.

Comfortable atmosphere.

Tasty food.

Cons:

A bit pricey. Wished they had a prix fixe lunch/dinner menu.

Final Thoughts

Will definitely return!

They also have a “Lounge” bar located in a back room with a side-street entrance that I must try.

Subway (Tuna Footlong Sandwich)

Various locations

For the month of February, Subway is offering all of their footlong sandwiches for $6.00. Depending upon the location, though, I would recommend double-checking pricing with the food preparer before ordering. Some places only have some of the footlong sandwiches for $6.00; others offer their entire sandwich menu.

For those on a budget the footlong sandwiches are really good options. I would eat half for lunch and save the other half in the fridge for dinner.

So taking advantage of the special pricing, and to satisfy my salt hankering I ordered the tuna footlong sandwich. Also, if you happen to have the crumbly remains of a bag of potato chips lying around, I highly recommend putting those remains on the tuna sandwich. (In this instance, I used some cheddar and sour cream chips, but my favorite are sour cream and garlic chips.)

Awesome! To get that extra awesome crunch, I recommend using chips with ridges!

Hanjan

36 West 26th Street

(between Broadway and Sixth Avenue)

It was Winter Restaurant Week and in spite of the bad weather, I wanted to try at least one restaurant’s special Lunch Menu ($25 for appetizer, entrée, and dessert).

 

Went to a somewhat-difficult-to-find Korean restaurant, Hanjan. For some reason, on many places online it’s listed as being located between Broadway and Madison? If I weren’t meeting someone at the restaurant, I would have probably just called it a day and went elsewhere! After wandering around a bit perplexed I went west and finally found it between Broadway and Sixth.

Upon entering, I found my dining companion waiting for me at a nicely stocked bar.

 

The restaurant itself is of a calming minimalist décor with a communal table in the center of the room.

Luckily, we arrived when the restaurant had just opened as it soon quickly filled up with other diners taking advantage of the Restaurant Week Lunch Menu.

 

As part of the Lunch Menu special they provided namul (their version of banchan), which they typically would charge for. It came with: Korean sweet black beans, muchae (chopped radish with dried chili pepper), and soybean sprouts. Very tasty and light!

 

For our starters, we ordered the fried handmade pork and chive dumplings (decent, but not the best).

And sweet and sour chicken nuggets (lightly fried chicken breast in “tangsoo” sauce). Would not order again as it did not taste like chicken nuggets.

My main reason for returning would be for the entrée I ordered: the ramen noodles in spicy seafood broth (jjam ppong ramyun). Delicious! Unbelievably spicy and perfect to warm up a cold day. The noodles were of perfect consistency and the seafood was plentiful. Drank to the last drop!

My friend ordered what she always orders in a Korean restaurant: the bulgogi beef bibimbap. She thought it was good, but not the best she has tasted. And as I mentioned, she is a bibimbap lover..

 

And we finished off our meal with the black sesame ice cream and sweet potato ice cream. Decent, but again nothing noteworthy to mention.

For drinks, my friend ordered the popular Makgeoli (unfiltered rice beer). She loved it, but I found it a bit too bitter. I guess because of its milky coloring, I was assuming that it would have a more sweet and creamy taste.

 

So instead I ordered the Hite (draft Korean lager made with mineral water). Very light and refreshing—so perfect accompaniment with my spicy ramen seafood soup!

Pros:

Ramen noodles with spicy seafood broth.

Cons:

Aside from the ramen noodle soup, the food is rather average considering the pricing.

More banchan offerings needed.

Final Thoughts

If I’m in the area and need a quick ramen noodle fix I’ll definitely consider returning.