Lunch at the HBistrO

What a crappy, rainy New York Day. At least I didn't have to walk far to meet up with Lindsey for lunch at the HBO commissary. This place rules! It was Indian day, so I mostly loaded up on that. On my main plate I've got a piece of tandoori chicken (unfortunately super dry, yuck), carrot and onion salad, spicy cucumber salad, basmati rice pilaf, yellow peas, roasted cauliflower with a tomato sauce and a handful of mini papadums. There are also some roasted beets and a mozzarella, pesto and sun-dried tomato pinwheel. I also got some fruit - red grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew and oranges - and a solid tasting chocolate chip cookie. Today they also had a mac and cheese station which was especially tempting after I saw a big bowl of bacon bits.

Oh wait, how could I forgot, I also had three mini samosas! I think they got buried under the beets.

Disappointments

DMR had Tuesday off as part of a four-day weekend, so we decided to head over to Palo Santo for lunch. Once again, they were closed and we were foiled. I guess they are no longer serving breakfast and lunch? According to the website, they're open seven days a week, but there's no mention of breakfast and lunch. Menupages has daytime hours as Monday - Friday from 7AM-3PM, but with dinner only served Wednesday - Sunday. I don't understand this place, which is a sad thing because I really liked going for lunch.

Our consolation prize, or should I say, booby prize was to have lunch at Moutarde. This place just isn't very good. It's not terrible, but as I like to say about many restaurants in the area, it's passably mediocre. Occasionally, the kitchen has its shit together and you get a decent meal, but more often than not, it's a combination of lax service and underwhelming food. I ordered a croque madame with fries and DMR went with the banana pancakes with a side of bacon. The bacon, while a generous side portion of about 5 strips, was completely overcooked. The pieces had curled up like ribbon candy. My sandwich came with greens instead of the fries I had requested. Although the missing starch situation was quickly remedied, there wasn't a french fry on the plate longer than an inch and a half. I must have gotten the last remaining fries in the bag. Dan's pancakes were just bad - nothing fluffy about them at all.

Which brings us to the past weekend in Silver Spring, where DMR and I had the blandest Chinese food ever at the China House restaurant, and unbelievably bad service at the Bombay Indian restaurant. Nearly every dish we had at China House was devoid of flavor which apparently customers are ok with, judging by the brisk takeout business. The food at Bombay was on par with or better than most of the Indian restaurants in this area, but the service was atrocious. The restaurant wasn't even that big and there were 3 servers on the floor plus a manager who didn't appear to be helping to pick up the slack when things fell behind. We had to wait forever for menus (which we had to ask for after twiddling our thumbs for 10 or 15 minutes), plates, our food (Stone Groove's entree came out about 10 minutes after everyone else's), refills on water (I asked one of the servers who just didn't want to acknowledge me. When she was again in our vicinity, I repeated my request and she responded with a deer in headlights look) and of course our check. There was a lot of head shaking as patrons got up from their tables to leave. All the tables seemed to have the same combination of amusement and annoyance. In addition to getting into a productive rhythm in the kitchen and the room, these guys could also stand to be a little more generous with the sauces and chutneys. Ramekins the size of pre-portioned creamers cups you get at the diner doesn't cut it for a table of 5, or even a table of two!

Park Slope Gastronome #2

Well I suppose I should have posted this review first since we ate here on Saturday, but I needed to get my disappointment over Cocotte out first. As previously mentioned on the Bibimbop, Amy was in town. She had just turned 21, so we decided to take her out to dinner. We went to Star of India, on 5th Avenue. Dan and I had discussed eating there before but we never made the plunge. The last Indian place we blindly tried was Joy on Flatbush. Someone stuck a delivery menu on the screen door at 375 Cumberland and delivery choices were pretty slim pickings over there. It was decent enough to order from a couple times, but it was soon determined we always got the same bloated burning sensation after our meal. So back to Star of India, Dan was hesitant to try because he never sees anyone in there. While that could be a bad sign, there's hardly ever anyone in Thai Sky further down 5th Avenue and their food is pretty good. We've also had Thai Sky at least a dozen times since moving to Park Slope but we've yet to actually eat *in.* So here we are at Star of India and as we sit down, we're presented with a basket of papadum and the usual condiment triptych of onion relish, cilantro relish and a sweet tamarind sauce. We ordered the Tandoor Feast for two, to be split 3 ways. It included: naan, a double order of chicken tikka masala, two gigantic vegetable samosa, 4 banana fritters, a bowl of coconut soup, a bowl of muligatawny and two deserts. It was more than enough food, but for some reason, we reinforced the meal with an order of paratha, extra rice and two large bottles of Taj Mahal beer. The two least successful dishes were also the sweetest (not counting the desserts). While the fiery red lentil soup was tangy with a lovely textured consistency, the coconut soup that dan ordered was more like a handful of shredded coconut stewed in coconut juice mixed with a bit of milk. The banana fritters, while crisp and not too greasy, were too doughy for me. The dough to banana combination was about 4-1. The paratha and naan on the other hand, was some of the best I'd ever had. Both, but especially the naan was served piping hot and was chewy and crisp at the same time. The chicken tikka masala was tasty, but the sauce was lacking depth. I will compliment the quality of the chicken - nice chunks of white meat, rather than sinewy mystery parts. For dessert, we chose a dish of pistachio ice cream and a serving of rice pudding. The pudding was fair and the ice cream infected with freezer burn so I didn't have more than 2 bites of either.
Food: B+
Service: B+