• boerum hill,  burgers,  chain restaurant,  jeans-appropriate,  meat sweats,  vegetarian-friendly

    Can’t Quit You, Bareburger

    I’ve been a pretty bad food blogger lately, in part because I’ve been a pretty bad restaurant-goer lately, in part because I’ve been a pretty great home-cooker lately. (If you’re looking for recipes involving all manner of melting cheese on things you find around the house, I’m your gal.) But my friends and I were all still off our diets on Saturday night last weekend after Thanksgiving, so we headed off to find some sloppy Brooklyn Heights Mexican food. But on the way, my boyfriend decided he wanted Bareburger, because there’s really nothing sloppier. I only had my camera phone with me, so the pictures are crappy, but I think…

  • american,  chain restaurant,  good for groups,  great for dates,  jeans-appropriate,  midtown west,  restaurant reviews,  vegetarian-friendly,  weekend brunch

    The New Brunch Menu at Ted’s Montana Grill

    If you’re like me, you probably think of Ted’s Montana Grill as a place for business deals, happy hours, and big, juicy bison steaks. The Midtown location in NYC is great for all of those things, with its hardwoods and low lighting and intimate booths, but when Creative Communications Consultants invited me in to try a complementary meal at Ted’s Montana Grill, they encouraged me to give the newly-revamped brunch menu a chance. Because Ted’s is in a more business-oriented part of town, I would’ve never thought of it for brunch, and the massive space was pretty quiet when we arrived at 1 p.m. An hour later, though, things were…

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  • chain restaurant,  food events,  great for dates,  jeans-appropriate,  restaurant reviews,  steak,  times square

    “Musical Pairing” Dinner with Barbara Werner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House

    Recently, I’ve been watching the movie Silver Linings Playbook a lot, both because it’s been on HBO and because I’m a sap. There’s this epic scene where Bradley Cooper’s character is desperately trying to find his wedding video in the middle of the night, and Led Zeppelin’s “What Is and What Should Never Be” plays over his frantic search. I try to imagine the scene without the song, and it’s just nothing by comparison. And I’m sure we all have these movie moments where the music mattered so much to us and really made the scene. Chef and author Barbara Werner has figured out that the same can be said…

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  • 4,  burgers,  chain restaurant,  cheap eats,  meat sweats,  restaurant reviews,  west village

    California’s Umami Burger in NYC

    There’s nothing a New Yorker loves more than feigning disinterest in other cities. We have everything worth having here, and Chicago can take its sparkling blue lake and shove it. But somehow, when it comes to food, New Yorkers have a fascination with everything from everywhere. Maybe it’s just that we want to say we’ve had it. Maybe it’s just that we want to be able to intelligently naysay it. Maybe it’s that we want to put it on a cronut. In any case, I found myself at the made-famous-in-L.A. Umami Burger on its fourth day in NYC. Partly because I had planned to go to the park and it…

  • 4,  chain restaurant,  cheap eats,  chelsea,  healthy,  meat sweats,  restaurant reviews,  sandwiches,  tribeca,  vegetarian-friendly

    Muscle Maker Grill – Healthy/Sandwiches – Tribeca

    I know it’s awful to talk about dieting on a gluttonous food blog, but the truth is that when I’m not shoveling sweets into my piehole at fancy restaurants, I’m trying to avoid carbs at home. Not being much of a cook, it can be rough trying to find anything for lunch, so I was pumped to randomly type “low-carb” into Seamless.com‘s search function and find Muscle Maker Grill. With a menu full of items made from lean meats and low-fat cheeses and served on low-carb and whole wheat wraps, this is the kind of place that makes me feel guilty about the food I’m eating until I remember that…

  • chain restaurant,  steak

    Loving Chain Restaurants Does Not Make You a Bad Person

    Last weekend, Dr. Boyfriend and I went to The Modern at MoMA for a tasting menu that included grilled foie gras with champagne-vinegar-preserved strawberries and a harissa tuile: This weekend, we’re going to Outback for a Bloomin’ Onion: The funny thing is that Dr. Boyfriend, I think, is waaaaaay more excited about Outback than he was about The Modern. He’s never been there and is under the impression that it’s just the chain version of Peter Luger. This is going to be awesome.