Pho at Xe Lua Vietnamese Restaurant- Chinatown, New York

Another restaurant we visited in Chinatown, New York was Xe Lua Vietnamese Restaurant. Pho for 5 bucks?! How could we go wrong?!

Menu

Iced Vietnamese coffee

Matt's drink of choice in the 30 degree weather.

Hot Vietnamese coffee.

So good and strong!

Pho with garnishes.

Pho with their very distinct green chopsticks.

 The food came out fat and hot! It wasn't the BEST pho we've had before. The beef was a little chewy, BUT for 5 bucks a bowl, we were not complaining!

After we ate we looked around at some of the asian markets. We thought this was so interesting.. bins FULL of various dried seafood..

Dried seafood.

We can't wait to go back to find more interesting foods to eat and try!

Iron Chef Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill

Another restaurant we were excited to visit in New York was another Iron Chef's restaurant. Bobby Flay is a very well known chef on Food Network with many shows. We made reservations for Mesa Grill for 7:00 pm but changed them to 6:00 pm since we wanted to catch an earlier train back to our hotel. 

Our server was very friendly and welcoming. She recommended many drinks and appetizers to start off with. 

Prickly Pear Martini

A pretty pink drink that our server recommended.

Assorted breads including a corn muffin.

Nothing special about the bread. The corn muffin was a little dry and cold though.

Cornmeal oysters.

We kind of disappointed about this. We didn't know the actual oyster was going to be fried. The sauce underneath was kind of bland and really had no flavor. We would have rather had a plain raw oyster with lemon.

Venison with a pumpkin tamale.

This was Matt's dish. Even though it looked pretty it wasn't as good as it looked. The venison was a little too tough and the pumpkin tamale was just too sweet. Not one of the favorite dishes during our NY trip by far.

Wild striped bass with clams and a clam chowder sauce.

This was my dish. It was okay but I really was expecting more. The fish was a little dry and tough. My favorite thing on the plate was the clam chowder sauce which was on the bottom.

In the end we really weren't that impressed by Mesa Grill. The food was okay but not for the price tag. I don't think this will be a spot on our next trip. Even though the food wasn't that great the service (hostess and server) was awesome. They had a very friendly and knowledgeable staff!

Golden Unicorn Dim Sum- Chinatown, New York

Golden Unicorn Dim Sum is not like any Dim Sum place in Tampa! When we first walked in a friendly hostess yelled across the room, "how many? and do you want to share a table?" A little confused we replied with, "2 and sure". We were brought to a table with four chairs. Two chairs where on one side and two where on the other. Unfortunately we never go to experience the sharing of tables :( We thought it was very interesting though.

Hot tea, something with shrimp in it, and steamed buns.

Some sort of sweet bean paste.

Fried something with shrimp in it.. DELICIOUS!

NO IDEA what this was. I think it was some sort of taro mixed with meat something? Matt liked it. I thought it was "aiiiight." 

Sticky rice.

The BEST sticky rice EVER. Stuffed with dried shrimp, chicken, and sausage.

Chinese broccoli with roasted garlic and oyster sauce. 

 The environment was very casual and the noise level was louder than any one we've been to before. It wasn't loud in a bad way though, it just seemed like the restaurant was a place for energetic happy people! The Golden Unicorn in Chinatown, New York was a great place to start off our New York mini vacation!