Night 1:

Turkish Dervish

Small place on 47th near Times Square ... actually, all of these places are near Times Square. It was at least half full if not more. I walked in and they got me a table right away.

Like most places, it's long and narrow with a partial 2nd floor loft type area and a bar.

I noticed on the way in that they had free delivery. Throughout the evening I saw a couple of different delivery folks grabbing bags and taking them out. They both seemed to use bicycles.

The food was great as was the service. I had an appetizer that was much like tzatziki -- it was yogurt with cucumber bits and spices on top. A glass of chianti was sipped on through my entire meal.

Dinner was spicy lamb kebobs. See, I tried to go to an Afghan kebob place, but it was closed, shuttered, and up for rent, so I was kind of looking for kebobs. Besides, it was excellent and was accompanied by great bread, some rice like dish, and some lettuce for a sort of side salad.

Afterwards I ordered a dessert that was described as a corn-tasting pudding. However, I was totally stuff so I ordered it to go since I knew they could do that.

A couple of hours later back at the hotel I enjoyed this very wonderful dessert, which was actually even thicker consistency than flan, but with a similar sauce on it. It was very good.

Night 2:

Cabana something, brazilian

Again, a small place but this time right on 45th across from the hotel. It was a bit later so I walked in. I had thought they had a dinning room upstairs since I remembered seeing it, but a little walk upstairs got me all nervous as I didn't see anything obvious. So, I went back down to the bar area. This place wasn't as full as Turkish Dervish, but it was also about an hour later.

I went in and was greeted nicely and given a table. After that, the service wasn't so great. First, they'd given me a table right next to some other people even though the rest of the place was practically empty. The menu was practically tossed at me. I got some water right away, but the person didn't stick around to hear my answer for what I wanted to drink. Then, some other people came in, got a table, and got water, drink, and bread before I even got bread.

After a couple of minutes I got bread and ordered a brazillian cooked steak. After a couple of minutes I was told I could get some salad from the salad bar, so I did so.

Not too long later, I got a humongous slab of meat with quite yummy "home fries." Actually, I think these were crispy slivers of sweet potato. They were excellent. A huge plate of rice and a large bowl of black beans also came with this. The steak itself, and the sauce the was on it, were very good. However, the whole thing was soo large by the time I finished I didn't have room to try any dessert. So, I paid and rolled across the street to the hotel.

Overall, it was not a great dinner experience and I probably wouldn't go back, but the food was good.

Night 3:

I tried to go to Firebird, a Russian restaurant. Curiously, the block it was on had Italian, Irish, Brazilian, Japanese, Chinese, American, Russian, Thai, and probably some others I can't remember. I do remember that I wanted to try the Brazilian Churracuria (sp), it looked rather nice (as in, much nicer than the previous night). I finally found the Russian place. It was the least marked yet most elegant and nice looking place. However, when I walked in they informed me they close early during the weeks (it was well after 930 and they close the kitchen at 8 on weekdays but 11 or 1130 on weekends). They did have a menu I could look at; the food and caviar selection looked great and the prices weren't bad either. I want to try it out.

So, I walked around a bit and decided on the Japanese place. It looked nice and the menu had a bunch of selections that sounded great.

So, I wondered in and was offered a table immediately. The place was fairly small and it was late so the chefs were taking turns eating at the bar. After a bit, though, nearly the entire place was full. Well, I guess some of the Broadway shows had gotten out.

In any case, I ordered a miso soup, gyoza's (spelled gyoze), a Magic Roll, and a small hot sake. The roll was on the chef's specialties and it had tuna, eel, salmon, and avacoda. Yummy. And yummy it was. So were the gyoza's, which came with a marachino cherry. After finishing that off I was offered dessert. I chose the fried banana, which came with 4 chunks of tempura'd banana, a bunch of green tea ice cream, and some cherry sauce on top of it all as well as some whipped cream. This was very good, as well.

When I left I wasn't stuffed like either of the previous nights. This was probably the best overall meal experience as the service and food were both great, as was the environment.

I would go back to both the Turkish Dervish and this Japanese place. However, I think more likely I would want to try a bunch of other places. There were enough for a couple of weeks of trying things just on this one block (around 365 West 47th).

Posted by Shane on June 2, 2005 7:40 AM | Permalink