Valentine's Day: Rosa Mexicano - Lincoln Center, Manhattan 2/14/2014

His Take: I will start with this, I am not one who goes crazy for Mexican food, but Rosa Mexicano is excellent and I would most certainly return.  Ariana and I have been talking about going to Rosa Mexicano for some time now, ever since Ariana's mother mentioned it as a great date spot.  After speaking with Ariana about Valentine's day, I called Rosa Mexicano about 3 weeks in advance and made the reservation for 2 at 8:15.  We arrived at Rosa Mexicano at around 5 to 8, and by 8 o'oclock we were told to go see the person at the top of the steps and we would be taken to our table.  Let me tell you, the Rosa Mexicano in Lincoln Center is an absolutely beautiful place with a great ambiance.  This place is really set up to take a date.  We walked up a long stairwell that was lined with a waterfall.  We arrived at our table and the waiter explained our menu options as well as brought us some water (which Ariana later spilled across the table ;) )  Rosa Mexicano had a special Valentine's Day menu which was perfect and there was 2 options, pre fixed or a la carte.  We decided to order a la carte because let's face it, we do not like the pre-fixed meal selection on our food!!  We ordered our drinks while we continued to decide what we want to eat, I ordered a red sangria and Ariana some special Valentine's Day drink.  For starters Ariana insisted we try the guacamole, which on the menu it stated that Rosa Mexicano was famous for theirs!  This was my first time trying guacamole and it was excellent.  I like to consider myself a "dainty dipper" and not someone who scoops the whole dish up (unlike my date ahem ahem), and just getting some of that guacamole flavor on the chips was perfect!  The guacamole was made fresh right in front of us by a chef with his guacamole cart, and it was excellent.  Rosa Mexicano also served the guacamole with a little bin of tortillas which was great.  To go with our guacamole we ordered the melted cheese fondue, which was incredibly amazing and delicious.  I love cheese and this Spanish cheese was absolutely delicious.  This also came with another little bin of tortillas, which were perfect for making our own little cheese fondue quesadillas.  For entrees, Ariana ordered the short rib mole enchiladas where as I had the "pollo y carne asada" which is simply put chicken and steak.  The chicken and steak came in a little skillet with peppers and onions, as well as 2 small cups of Mexican corn and a bean tomato paste.  This also came with a small bin of tortillas!  This entrée was just as excellent as the appetizers!  Everything in my dish was worth ordering again!  Finally on to dessert we went, and we split an order of churros which were just as good as everything else.  The churros came with 3 different dipping sauces (boy do Ariana and I love options), a chocolate, caramel, and a raspberry sauce.  All the sauces were great, but I am a sucker for caramel so I stuck with that one!  How could I forget that while we waiting for our food, Rosa Mexicano had an authentic singer walking around with a guitar singing popular Spanish tunes!  Ariana absolutely loved this because she knew some of the songs and words and he sang them right to her.  Be sure to tip the musician because he is worth doing so!!

To close I will say this,  Rosa Mexicano is definitely a top notch date spot in NYC! I highly recommend heading over to Rosa Mexicano in Lincoln Center, but I am sure any of the other locations are just as good!  Ariana and I will certainly be heading back to Rosa Mexicano for some more of their delicious food!  So head over, enjoy your Mexican fiesta and maybe you will run into us while you're there!

Her Take: I have been wanting to go to Rosa Mexicano for a very, very long time; ever since my mom went and told me to try it one day! One day I finally got a cute boyfriend to take me to try this infamous Mexican restaurant. Nicky and I had talked about going for some time, we just never got around to it, and when he asked where I wanted to go for Valentine's Day, I
MEXICANO! There are 3 different Rosa Mexicano restaurants: one in union square, one on the upper east side and one near Lincoln center, we went to the Lincoln Center one! I must say it was the perfect choice. I have not one thing to complain about; everything was magnificent; from the space, the atmosphere, the service, the food, the drinks, the people, the timing, it was all perfect. Nicky made the reservation for 8:15 and we arrived 15 minutes early, our table was ready and it was up the beautiful stairs. The wall next to the stairs was a waterfall with small diving statues all over, it was sooo pretty. Upstairs the space was bigger than I imagined and the host lead us to our table near a window. They had a special valentine's day menu which I thought was excellent (I freakin love Mexican food) and we decided to do a la carte instead of prefixed. I decided to try the special cocktail, La Pasion Picante (spicy passion) which was Jalapeño-infused El Jimador  Blanco, passion fruit, pomegranate and lime and it was delicious, soooo yummy, I love jalapeno infused cocktails!! We started with Guacamole en Molcajete, which is prepared right in front of you and comes with nachos and fresh tortillas, and I forced Nicky to try it (since he's never had guacamole before) and he actually liked it!! I was so excited and proud of him!! I had to take full advantage of this and made him try the poblano sauce and guess what? He liked that too!!!!! (I get super excited because he's very picky) yay! Then for appetizer we had the Queso Fundido (cheese fondue) which also came with tortillas and we had to get it plain for mister pickypants. You could have gotten it with chorizo and peppers, but we settled on plain and it still was so so so yummy! We finally did the right thing this time: only two appetizers instead of ordering a vast array and then not being able to eat our entrees and hating ourselves because of how full we are. (Besides, we wanted dessert!) Then for entrée I got the Short-rib Enchiladas, yes that's right, SHORTRIB! You know how much I love short rib an yep you guessed it I LOVED this dish! The two enchiladas came with mole sauce and the shortrib was so tender that the whole thing melted in your mouth. Nicky got the Pollo y Carne Asada dish "skillet style" which he loved and he made a little taco and showed me to make me even more proud :-) For dessert we got the Churros with 3 different sauces: chocolate, caramel and raspberry. Everything was delicious and what made it all better was that the courses were perfectly timed out, we had time to digest a little between courses and they gave us time to sit and hold hands for a while and be cheesy before we were too busy eating! The staff was all super friendly and they all joked around with us and of course I had to show off that I speak Spanish to win them over ;) Our waiter was so nice, he sent over the singer they had that night to our table to play us some Vincente Fernandez to get us in the mood; he was wonderful. The entire night was wonderful, I enjoyed every second of it. We spent two hours in Rosa Mexicano and we left happy, satisfied and soo in love (with not only eachother, but the food as well) We will definitely be going back to try their complete menu!! Maybe we'll try a different location!
Rosa Mexicano, in my opinion, was the best date we have been on! I loved everything about it, especially my date :) :) :) :-*

Date Night: The Rum House - Theater District, Manhattan 2/6/2014

Her Take:  Nicky and I decided to go back to our "thursDATEs" last night; this is something we came up with two semesters ago when we started dating. Since I get out of class around 8:30, we figured why not? So last night after my macroeconomics class, Nicky met me outside of school and we ventured to our chosen destination, The Rum House. We had been thinking about a nice place to go where the music isn't too loud , where we can sit down and have good conversation without being rushed and it isn't just a sports bar with drunk college students and old guys everywhere. Nicky came across this place in the Theater District right in the Edison Hotel just near Times Square. The reviews were great and it seemed like the type of place we were going for! So that was our place for the night. When we walked in we KNEW it was exactly what we were going for, the feel was so "date-night-esque" with dim romantic lighting, vintage atmosphere, cute quaint and round two-top tables for couples to admire each other and the night and nicely suited bartenders. We took two seats at the bar and hung our coats and my heavy bag on the hooks under the bar (YESS I love when bars have those) and we took a look at the drink menu which had a variety of classic drinks along with fancy shmancy ones (not your typical rum and coke and vodka club choices.) I would have liked to try one of each but we let Abel (our super amazing bartender) make us two surprise drinks of his choice. Abel did a GREAT job! He made me a rum based drink with ginger, cinnamon, lemon and lime with a candied ginger on top, I LOVE GINGER!!!! It was like I knew him forever. Nicky got a bourbon based drink with orange and an eggwhite (don't knock it till you try it) which gave the drink scrumptious foam. We obviously had to have a snack while we were there so we first tried the soft pretzel which was AMAZING and then we had popcorn which was a little too salty for me. Pretzel I would definitely have again but popcorn ehhh (unless you really like salt.) Abel decided to make us different drinks for our third round and this time he made me a Hemmingway Daiquiri, which to be honest I couldn't tell ya what was it there I just know it was very refreshing and lemony! and Nicky had another bourbon based drink; we ended up switching (I guess we know who likes bourbon better.) We stayed there all night and we had a great time and a live band played 1920's music while we laughed and chatted and kissed :) It was a perfect night I would go back in a heartbeat! Oh how nice it was to drift into the Roaring Twenties for a night...

His Take: Looking for a more casual romantic bar-date?  Well The Rum House is your choice!  The location is great, right in the Theater District which is walking distance to Times Square.  The Rum House is right in the lobby of the Edison Hotel.  Ariana and I decided to just grab a drink after she got out of class, and I googled some places, and yes sometimes Yelp helps.  We came across The Rum House and were immediately sold on the place.  We walked right in and grabbed two seats at the bar.  The place was moderately crowded and people kept coming and going all night, but we never changed our seats from the bar.  We were served by a bartender named Abel, and I’ll start by saying this, he was easily one of the best bartenders I have ever had.  Ariana and I were not sure what we wanted to drink, even after looking at the cocktail menu.  Which by the way the cocktail menu is littered will classic drinks, most of which I have never tried.  Feeling adventurous Ariana and I asked Abel to surprise us with two drinks.  Abel worked his magic and you could tell this man knew what he was doing.  He whipped me up a bourbon based drink that had a great orange flavor, and he even rubbed the rim of the glass with an orange peel before dropping it into my drink!  Ariana was given a rum based drink that had some ginger and cinnamon in it, and she absolutely loved it!  After our first round, we doubled up on the same drinks because they were delicious.  We thanked Abel and joked with him all night while we stood at the bar.  We ordered some munchies ( OF COURSE!! ) to snack on while we drank.  The warm fresh pretzel was excellent and the bag of popcorn was nice, but rather salty, and goes good with your drinks.

 

The Rum House has a very vintage 20’s “Speakeasy” feel which Ariana and I loved.  Better yet there was even a live band playing, including a cello and a flute player.  The place was dimly lit but was not dark by any means.  The crowd of people ranged from your everyday after work New Yorkers to plenty of folks from out of town.  If you are looking to grab a drink, I 100% endorse going to The Rum House, enjoying a cocktail, kicking back and enjoying the 20’s vibe and having a great time!

 

 

 

Date Night: Fushimi - Williamsburg, Brooklyn 2/1/2014

His Take:  Hi guys, so we decided to FINALLY go back to Fushimi!  Just a tidbit on Fushimi, Ariana and I shared part of our first date here.  We've eaten here on other occasions, but never as a date just the two of us.  First and foremost, GET THE SHORT RIB.  This is by far my favorite appetizer on the menu.  The portion is small (or maybe my appetite is large) so Ariana and I ordered a short rib each.  We also ordered Edamame beans to start with, and for someone who does not really like beans, these are great to pick at and enjoy.  As you well see in more of our posts, Ariana and I also like to enjoy a nice drink with our meal, whether it be wine or an alcoholic beverage.  Tonight's drinks were a Classic Mimosa (OJ and Champagne) for myself, and a Pink Bubbly for her.  The Mimosa was a nice touch with my meal.  For entrée I ordered something simple, Chicken Teriyaki.  Nice size portion as well as a side of rice to mix that extra teriyaki sauce with!  No dessert this time, but have no fear, dessert is my FAVORITE part of any meal!

All in all, the décor is great at Fushimi and the atmosphere is great for any date, whether it be a first one or just a date night like hours!  Expect a little bit of a wait if you're heading there on the weekends but it is worth it.  If you're not interested in a meal, sitting at the bar is nice while listening to the music and they also have smaller candle lit tables with stools to sit at and enjoy your beverage.  So YES I definitely suggest making your way over to Fushimi and enjoy a nice fine evening.

Her Take: Yea... what he said... no but really Short rib. We didn't come her to reminisce about our first date, nope, we came here for the short rib. SHORT RIB.
Basically, we came here one night with Nicky's family and they ordered the short rib as an appetizer, and that was the moment that my life changed. I couldn't get enough; I needed short rib in my life and I needed it soon. SO finally, we decided to come on February 1st and quench our thirst. YAY!!!!!! Yes so we were both overly excited to enjoy our dinner and drinks because Fushimi is a really great Japanese place. if you like sushi, DEFINITELY go to Fushimi. We expected a wait so we quickly approached the bar to order my usual, Pink Bubbly (rose champagne and vodka and a cherry, YUM) and Nicky decided to switch it up and get on my level and ordered a Mimosa; it was a champagne night meaning yes we were drunk. I believe that Alcohol really accompanies the meal nicely; anything involving alcohol compliments my meal so bring it on, and Fushimi brings it ;) We sat and waited for about 10 minutes which was great because we got to stare at each other googly-eyed and drink and hold hands before spending 10 hours gazing at the menu deciding what else to order besides short rib.
Ah, finally at the table and we order 2 short ribs (one each) and edamame. I really wanted to order another short rib for my entrée but I didn't :( now I regret doing so. instead I order yaki udon noodles with beef and it was pretty good (but it sure wasn't no short rib) and Nicky (as he stated above me) got chicken teriyaki. everything was yummy yummy. we also got about 6 drinks each and decided to make it a fuuun night, and yes indeed it was!!

Did I mention get the short rib??

Here's some pictures :))))))))