Thai in the Hood

I talk mad ish about the UES, but I can't escape it. I have no choice. It's where my office is located and that's what pays my bills. It's often hard to get out of the office, but when I do it's because I want to treat myself. Today was that day. I emailed Beautifully Obsessed to say I was craving for some of our favorite Thai. Her response was "Leave Now". I grabbed my coat, told my staff I was out to lunch and made a mad dash for the emergency exit.
Gong was my destination. If you ever crave some some pretty good Thai on the UES, go straight to Gong. Do not pass go and collect $200. It's cheap, the food is always tasty and they have great service. The funny thing is when you say UES, you don't picture the pj's (housing projects to ya'll non city folks).
This place is down the block from the pj's so it's in the mini UESide hood.

I met up with Beautifully Obsessed and ordered our usual. Gong offers a pre fixe lunch menu which is a great deal. For $7.95/$8.95 you get a choice of an appetizer and entree. We always get the spring roll with plum sauce. YUM! Our entrees are different. I always get the chicken pad thai. They make an awesome pad thai. It's not oily or greasy which it can be. The noodles are always cooked right. Beautifully Obsessed always orders the tofu with chili basil sauce.

The service is quick, the food is on point and its a great spot to meet for a quickie. A quickie lunch you pervs! Check them out if you're in the UES hood.

You fancy huh? Dining at David Burke Townhouse

NYC Restaurant Week or Weeks depending on the economy is one of the best deals in NYC. NYC Restaurant Week occurs twice a year. I look forward to it like if it was Christmas. It normally falls in the winter and then in the summer. It is the best time of year to try to cop a reservation to one of those pricey well known restaurants and check out their food for a fraction of the price. This year the dinner deal is $39 pp which includes an appetizer, entree and dessert. Not bad for NYC. So here goes my NYC Latina bullshit-free review of my latest NYC Restaurant Week selection.

Tonight we checked out David Burke Townhouse. Honestly, I had never really heard about it. Yeah, yeah whatever. It's on the UES (Upper East Side for the non New Yorkers). I don't really do the UES. It's way too stuffy and boring for me. One of my friends suggested it and upon the reviews I had read, it seemed like a pretty good choice. Good choice indeed! Reservations for 3 please!

My friend, fellow blogger, Beautifully Obsessed and I arrived there a bit early and sat at the bar while we waited for our organizer. No complaints on the waiting since we had plenty of time to enjoy one of our favorite hobbies....drinking. We ordered 2 different cocktails. I had the Pearagon which was a mixture of Double Cross vodka, pear juice and Chilean wild baby pear. Beautifully Obsessed ordered the Passionate Peruvian. It was made with Pisco 100, passion fruit and Appleton rum.  I was extremely excited to try the Pearagon since I'm a huge fan of the pear. I have to say I was disappointed. It didn't have any pear taste whatsoever. It basically tasted like vodka with a super slight hint of pear. In order to finish it, I had to just down it in 2 gulps. I just wanted to move on and get another drink.

Beautifully Obsessed was obsessed with her Peruvian Passion and encouraged me to try it. It was delicious! It was light, not too sweet and refreshing. It would definitely be a cocktail I would order while I lounged on a deck. She was on the money with her cocktail, so I called over our bartender and ordered one.  While we were chilling and waiting for our friend, we were served 2 little slices of some type of toasted mini baguette with some eggplant....It was extremely tasty.

Our friend arrived and we were seated. We were offered both their regular menu and their restaurant week menu. Both Beautifully Obsessed and I ordered off the Restaurant Week menu, while our other friend ordered off their regular menu. We started off with  pretzel crusted crabcake and sweet chili prawn with confit orange and poppy seed honey. It was off da hook! I would've never thought to cover the crabcake with pretzel sticks. It was definitely a smart move.

My other friend ordered the roasted rack of lamb with grilled octopus served over couscous. Didn't that whole sentence sound boughie? As I was typing it all out, I felt like I needed to say it with a British accent. The rack of lamb was flavorful and not gamey. The octopus was grilled ever so nicely. It wasn't overcooked at all. I would definitely order this on my next trip. That's right folks..it was so tasty that I would order it on a non NYC restaurant week. Boughie!

Beautifully Obsessed and I tried to order different things off their Restaurant Week menu, but since we didn't want either chicken or salmon, we opted for the braised short ribs served over handmade cavatelli, wild mushrooms and mushroom chips. Cavatelli is my least favorite pasta, so I was hesitant at first. I have to admit that DBT made a great homemade cavatelli. It was a nice choice for the wild mushrooms and it held up well under the sauce of the braised short ribs. The sauce wasn't heavy and it was just enough for the ribs to be juicy and tender.

We topped off our great meal with yes several more cocktails, but also with a warm crisp apple tart. I love anything that's like an apple pie, tart or strudel. the tart came with a cider caramel dulce de leche ice cream. It was banging!

For what I thought was going to be a boughie, stuffy and uptight spot, DBT was pretty cool. The wait staff were awesome and friendly. They always made sure we were ok and that our cocktails were always fresh. I'm surprised I was even able to remember this much from our dinner with all the Peruvian Passions I had. I definitely would recommend this place. So go to your Open Table app and with your pinky up, make your reservation because you fancy!