Date Night: Tacu Tacu - Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Saturday 6/21/2014

His Take: Ahh Tacu Tacu/LuLu’s Lounge, bringing back the glory days!  I used to come to this place when I was a lot younger to drink and eat literally every weekend, and sometimes during the week.  With that being said, one of our old bartender friends was making a return to behind the bar, Eric.  E contacted all of us via Facebook/text messaging (funny how social media works!) And here we were, Me, Ariana and some friends and their girlfriends as well.  One big happy reunion!  When Ariana and I walked in, E came around the bar gave me a hug, greeted Ariana told us we better be staying for a drink!

Any who, back to this evening,  Ariana and I wanted to walk around and just grab some food somewhere that caught our eye.  We had walked past Tacu Tacu and kept looking, but I mentioned to Ariana I could go for the dish I used to get at Tacu Tacu when I used to go there.  Ariana had never had the place before and she agreed.  Plus I told her that the menu was a mix of Thai and Vietnamese.  Well firstly, I was wrong, the menu has changed since I last was there, now Tacu Tacu is a mix of Asian Cuisines plus Peruvian!  The menu has a wide variety of dishes and things to enjoy.  I was happy to see my favorite dish, the Cube Steak Saigon was still on the menu!!!

Ariana and I sat down after a few minutes of waiting and looked over the menu as well as the drink menu. I wish we had gotten to sit in the booth! It was  Ariana started with a frozen banana margarita, which she said was boring, and I got a frozen lemonade which was absolutely amazing.  Tacu Tacu never used to make frozen drinks, so way to step their game up!  We were given a little bin of fried plantain chips with two different dipping sauces, signature Tacu Tacu, and once you pop one chip in your mouth, you eat the whole bin and some, trust me, use Ariana as an example, she literally ate the WHOLE bin!  We ordered a chicken tamale to share for appetizers.  Ariana insisted I try a tamale and I am glad I did, she said Tacu Tacu’s was a different variation on a tamale, but it was good none the less!  Finally on to the entrees, I ordered, you guessed it, the Cube Steak Saigon!  It is diced up steak cut into cubes cooked with soy sauce, onions, and broccoli and served in a steaming hot skillet with a little bowl of white rice. MMMMMMMMMM just as good as I remember (and maybe a little more expensive)!  Ariana ordered the Pineapple fried rice, which is good, I have had it before as well! She enjoyed some of the food as well.  We skipped dessert and continued to drink! The food presentation was excellent and the restaurant is nice too! It has a loungy feeling.

Off to the bar we went were E served us drink after drink and shots as well.  We all had a great time catching up and reminiscing about old times.  Also Tacu Tacu has a downstairs section called LuLu’s lounge which is a more formal karaoke bar.  You walk down and there’s a huge karaoke screen as well as other screens.  We used to hang out down there and drink and sing which is great!  This time we did not head down, but our next time at Tacu Tacu I am sure we will!  Yes there will be a next time back at Tacu Tacu! Go and please enjoy the Saigon Cube Steak!!!!!!

Her Take: This Saturday night started out as "we're just going for drinks" but it ended up turning into and unplanned dinner date.
We had decided to meet up at around 8 pm and just walk around until we found something that caught our eye. We originally wanted to go to Gorbal's Rooftop, a new rooftop bar on the Northside, but Nicky had told his friends about it and they decided to go there but we wanted some alone time first. So we walked, ended up on North 6th and decided to go to Tacu Tacu. Nicky's friends planned to go to tacu tacu that night too, but much later, so we said let's eat first and then meet with them! Tacu Tacu is Thai/Peruvian Restaurant; yes they have both cuisines; i have never been here but Nicky has and he said that they had changed the menu completely. But the menu was appetizing nonetheless. The restaurant has a square bar in the middle and tables all around, downstairs, "Lulu's Lounge" they have karaoke!
We walked in and Nicky knew the bartender from when he used to go there all the time in his "cool youth days" so he said hi and Eric, the bartender, hit him about 482 times (out of love.)
The hostess sat us and we looked through the menu and the first thing Nicky said was "THEY HAVE TAMALES" because he knows I love tamales and he also knows that he's going to be forced to try them... >:-)

So we ordered one chicken tamale, a frozen vodka lemonade for Nicky and a banana margarita for me to start off. I decided for entree I was going to have the Phucket Pineapple Fried Rice and Nicky got the Saigon Cube Steak (his favorite dish from here)
They immediately brought over plantain chips with a red and green dip which I completely forgot to ask the waiter what it was, but it was so good so I gavoned it anyway. My banana margarita was just alright, it could have used some more banana flavor in it, but Nicky loved his frozen lemonade (and proceeded to order those all night.)
The tamale came and it wasn't your traditional tamale. Usually tamales come wrapped in a banana leaf and when you open it up its just the dough and INSIDE the dough is the meat. Their tamale had the chicken and sauce and everything on the outside of in, just laid out on top instead of inside. I assume it is easier for them so they can have a variety of different tamales with different meats so all they have to do is make the dough and then throw the meat of your choice on top.
It was pretty good! the dough needed a little more salt but the chicken and the flavor was pretty good and Nicky liked it! :))) His only complaint was that it was too doughy -_- (he just doesn't like cornmeal)
Then came our entrees and I have to say my Pineapple fried Rice was A+ on the presentation; it was so nice!! The rice was served in a pineapple half with those little drink umbrellas on the pineapple. The dish was decorated very nicely, but unfortunately, the taste was not comparable to the presentation. I wish I would have liked it but the rice lacked taste, it was very very bland and there was TOO much chicken; normally I wouldn't complain about too much chicken, but when it's bland and flimsy and blah, you don't want it! That was disappointing but I ate a bit and I was full. My drinks satisfied me!
Nicky loved his cube steak, he says he gets that every time he goes there! I tried it and it was pretty good.
We ended up spending all night at Tacu Tacu by the bar, drinking and hanging with friends. Tacu Tacu recently changed their menu, so maybe the just need to work on perfecting it a little bit more!
I would go back firstly for their huge selection of frozen drinks, secondly for karaoke and thirdly to snack on the apps and try something new!

 Plantain chips

 Frozen Vodka Lemonade

 Banana Margarita

 Tamale

 Cube Steak

 Pineapple Fried Rice

Us :)

Date Night: Nitehawk Cinemas - Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY - Thursday 6/12/2014

Her Take: I had been wanting to check out Nitehawk for a while now, maybe about a year? Nicky had been there with his friend, Carter, to watch "Killing Me Softly" and he told me that it was a cool experience.
I was seeing the advertisements for James Franco's movie Palo Alto all over, which made me want to go see it! I saw that it was playing at Nitehawk so I quickly told Nicky that we had to go! So we did :) Thursday night, the 7:30 screening.
We walked to Nitehawk, it isn't too bad of a walk unless its SUPER humid out, which it was, so we immediately said "walking was a bad idea." We arrived at Nitehawk sweaty and sticky, but we arrived nonetheless. It was 7 o'clock and Nicky had purchased tickets in advance so the bartender printed them out for us. Yes, I meant bartender. Let me tell you a bit about Nitehawk. It is a movie theater that plays not-your-usual-movies. They play foreign films, indie movies, oldies and a selected few movies that play in regular theaters; but in Nitehawk, you get DINNER AND A MOVIE! DINNER!! The theaters all have a small table per couple with a small menu sticking out in the front of the table and small pieces of paper and a pencil on each side of the triangular table so if you decide you want to order more food during the movie, you just write it down and stand it up on a metal coil attached to the table. A waitress comes around pre-film to take your order. They have a full bar and a delicious selection of food such as sandwiches, salads and appetizers!
We walked to our theater, theater 3, and took our seats in the front row. This theater only had 3 rows with about 5 tables in each row. The screen isn't your typical movie theater screen size, its more like a big screen tv someone has in a home size, so sitting in the front row wasn't as bad as you were thinking. We quickly picked up the menu and of course I wanted everything. We ordered our drinks first because I couldn't decide what to eat yet. I got their version of a Dark & Stormy and Nicky got a Miller High Life. Finally we decided to just order a couple of apps: the cheese fritters which were small cheese balls that were filled with cheese (obviously) and chorizo with chipotle aioli drizzled on top. (That was my choice) and Nicky ordered the steak skewers that came with chimichurri sauce and homefries. They were both really really good! I loved my fritters! Surprisingly we filled up on that.

Now onto the movie. It wasn't really what I expected. I was expecting better due to all the "hype" it got all over social media and Nicky and I read the description of it, and it didn't really sum up the story line. I mean it SORT OF did, but the movie didn't have a well-drawn out, strongly stated plot. It was just alright. I guess the movie's point was to show the generation of today and how it really is to live as a teenager? It wasn't the worst movie, but it was a little depressing in my opinion. I watched the entire thing with a look  of confusion on my face. But hey if you like "teenage-angst-it's-so-hard-being-a-virgin-everyone-does-drugs" movies, go watch it!

Anyway, after we left Nitehawk a little frazzled, we decided to walk yet again, and we stopped by the Roebling Tea Room; another place I've been wanting to go to. We sat at the bar and got a drink Nicky asked the bartender for a beer suggestion and the bartender served him a Kronenbourg and I got some cocktail with tequila, raspberries and spicy salt; my kinda drink. It is a cute place with nice Victorian looking wall paper and woodsy decor. It was cute. Its a bar/restaurant and the food others were eating smelled so good. We walked around the place and discovered that it was bigger than we thought! They have a back room which also has cute little wooden tables and candles and they also have a patio! I would like to go back to sit out in the patio, it was precious. We only had one drink here and we sipped slowly and chatted and enjoyed the end of the night.

Nitehawk was AWESOME I would definitely go back and I most definitely recommend it to all of you. But be sure to go in even numbers since its one table per two chairs and also go early (it fills fast!) you don't want to end up sitting alone on the other side of the theater while your two friends enjoy the movie together! As for Palo Alto, I am gonna let you decide on that movie, and let us know what you thought.
and the Roebling Tea Room, we will be seeing you soon!!

His Take:  Movie dates, a fairly common and popular thing among those who date!  Here I’ll spare you the movie review and talk more about Nitehawk Theater.  Firstly Ariana wanted to see Palo Alto, a James Franco movie (she finds him so “hot” in her words, but hey he’s no ME!) based off a book he wrote “Palo Alto stories” or something like that.  I had never heard of either the book or the movie, but when it comes to movies ill watch anything that is not a sappy love story, because frankly those are incredibly boring!  Movie was a solid movie, nothing special, although I think now I’d give the book a try.

Any who, back to Nitehawk.  So if you’re not familiar with Nitehawk, it is a movie theater with a full bar, and food service, that you can order before and during your movie! I know what you’re thinking, “how uncomfortable to sit with plates of or drinks throughout a movie”, well no, each of the seats are separated in pairs and each pair conveniently has a small table shaped like a pool table rack for you to sit comfortably and eat and drink!  The ordering is pretty cool too, you write your order on a piece of paper, provided to you at the table along with a pencil, and whenever you’re ready to order, you stand the paper up in its “holder” or whatever it’s called!  It stands up letting the waiter/waitress know “hey I am ready to order!”  The waiter/waitress does an excellent job of sneaking and ducking back and forth to not get in the way of the movie.  Pretty cool huh! The waiter/waitress also lets you know they will be closing out your tab 30 minutes before the movie.

As for our Nitehawk experience, Ariana ordered a mix drink and I a Miller High Life.  We looked over the menu, and frankly we wanted everything!  To name a few, we wanted the nachos, the tator tots, the popcorn, the quesadilla, etc. etc. etc.  We ended up settling on the Chorizo and Cheese balls (Ariana’s choice, which she loved) and the Skirt Steak Skewers that had chimi churi sauce and came with some diced potatoes.  The Skirt Steak Skewers were delicious!  We struggled hard not to order the nachos, but we should have!

Not your standard movie theater, and the ticket prices are the same as a regular movie!  Nitehawk is awesome, also their schedule is different.  They play old school movies, new movies, and indie films!  Check out their calendar and head over and there.  I suggest getting the tickets in advance as they do not have many show times.  Also get to your seats in advance, depending on the theater your movie is playing in, some of the seats are limited!  I know I will head back, it’s a great way to see a movie!

Double Date Night: Panna II - East Village, NY - Wednesday 5/21/2014

His Take:  This was an absolutely new experience for me, I had never tried Indian food before!  Panna II was definitely the right place for us to go and have Indian food for the first time.  Ariana and I decided to double date with another couple, and it was Ariana’s friend who had suggested Panna II. Located right on 1st Avenue in the part of the city known as “Little Bangladesh” is Panna II.  Cool little place, but do not be confused, this place is the restaurant towards the top right!  When you go, you’ll know exactly what I mean!  Well anyway, there is four Indian restaurants in the same building, divided by a stair case.  Head into Panna II and be prepared to a duck a little bit.  Literally you may have to walk with a slight hunch or crouch down a bit!  Hanging from the ceiling are low Christmas lights and “chili pepper” lights (literally they’re chili peppers!).  I am about 5’6 so I walked with basically no problem, but any taller and the lights would have dragged across my head.  You might think this Christmas lights/chili lights idea is kind of stupid, but I really enjoyed the look and feel of Panna II.  The place was well lit, but dim enough to make it feel a bit more “romantic” and cozy.  Only knock on the actually place was it is small so the tables are rather close.

Wait before I continue, this is VERY important about Panna II!  They are a BYOB (bring your own bottle/booze) place!  Ariana and I came with a bottle of red wine and the other couple a bottle of white!  Panna II opened the bottles for us, with no uncorking fee!  Thanks for that Panna II!  We sat down and looked over the large menu.  I was worried because I am not a fan of spicy food and here I was in an INDIAN restaurant (not to sound stereotypical but when you think Indian food, you think spicy).  Me taking charge, I was responsible for ordering the appetizers.  I had heard of “samosas” before from people I knew who had tried Indian food before, so we ordered chicken samosas, beef samosas, and veggie samosas.  The chicken and beef ones were both very tastey, but a little too full on the veggie side! I would have preffered them with more meat, but they were good none the less.  I did not eat a veggie samosa because just veggies kind of bores me, and I had more than my fair share of the chicken and beef samosas!  Also we ordered cheese poori for appetizers.  These things looked huge when they came over but they’re filled with cheese and air, and let me tell you, they were absolutely delicious.  Like really really good!

Finally onto the main course we went.  I ordered chicken tikka, cooked in a Tandoori oven (not like I knew what all this meant, it just sounded good, plus I did a little research before heading over to Panna II).  My chicken was well cooked and it was incrediblty tastey.  The chicken was cooked with a dry rub of spices and it was very flavorfull.  Ariana got the chicken makhani and she enjoyed it.  They also brought out a tray of rice for the table that went well with the chicken as well as “naan” bread.  The bread was excellent as well.

Overall, Panna II, I was impressed with your food!  Definitely a great place to go, especially if you’re a first timer with Indian food like I was.  The serving sizes were good and the bill was not expensive at all!  Now that I have tried Indian once, I would like to go back to Panna II and give something else off the menu a try!  Best I not forgot that after our meal we were all served a complimentary scoop of homemade mango ice cream, which was also very good.  Head over to Panna II and you will not be disappointed, you and your date will enjoy the meal and the scene!


Her Take: I have always wanted to try Indian food. I like trying new things and expanding my food horizons. Nicky on the other hand (if you couldn't tell already) is super picky, but he said he wanted to try Indian. Yay!  I had the restaurant Panna II written on my list of places to go but my good friend, Lee said to me she wanted to double date and go to Panna II. So I was like yay perfect, we've been meaning to go there! So we did.
Lee and her boyfriend Dan came to pick us up that night and we had brought a bottle of wine per couple since this spot is BYOB. Lee and Dan white and Nicky and I red, from this cool spot right on the corner of my house. Well the white was just for Lee because Dan isn't much of a "wine drinker". So they swept us up and we ventured in Dan's jeep to 1st avenue. We finally found a parking spot and walked a bit to the restaurant. This place is in a building that is divided into four. Each quarter is a different Indian restaurant and as we walked up the stairs people from each restaurant were grabbing us trying to get us to go to their place instead! After hustling to get upstairs, we entered Panna II and saw that this place was TINY. Of course it was, the building is shared!! We even had to duck a little to avoid getting hit with all the Christmas and chili pepper lights hanging from the ceiling. (First time Nicky and I ever had to duck for anything) but it was cute! They sat us at a table, which was tight because everything in there is packed in and tightly accommodated.
Right away they came to open a bottle of wine and asked which to open first, I said BOTH please :). They brought us 3 different "dips" and a few pieces of thin crunchy bread that looked like long nachos. Of course I was the first to break off a piece and try all the sauces and peppers they gave us. They were all delicious!
They wanted to take our order super fast, so I suggested lets get the cheese poori and some samosas: beef, chicken and veggie for apps. They were all like yea sure!? And I said we needed a little more time to order our entrees.

They brought them all really fast! The cheese poori is like a puff bread filled with cheese! Yum and the samosas are like empanadas! They were all really good. We each ordered our entrees and we all got chicken. I got the chicken makhani and everybody ended up liking my the most! ok everybody BUT Nicky, who didn't want to try it because it had "too much sauce." Along with our entrees they brought out naan bread, sort of like pita and delicious, some rice for the table (I think it was basmati) and a few more dips and cut up onions. I tried it ALL, and I really enjoyed everything, every part of the meal.


We ate and drank and laughed and it was gooooood. I wanted to take some home so my mama could try it because she was excited for us to go try indian food! So I told the waiter to pack up the leftovers and when he came back with it, another waiter brought over complimentary mango ice cream which was so creamy and delicious! I LOVE mango anything! It was a nice closure for our ethnicly awesome dinner.


After we got up, ducking a bit, and once again fighting through the "bouncers" outside, we walked back to the car and decided to go for a drink. Williamsburg it was! Since it was near us and on the way back to Lee and Dan's! We ended up going to Berry Park, which is on Berry Street between N 13th and Nassau Ave. We went straight up to their rooftop because it was beautiful out and we HAD to take advantage of it!
We sat at a quaint table and sipped on out Huckleberry Lemonades (their vodka lemonade yummy) and had some more laughs! Not only did we laugh, but we planned out a whole other night out, which you'll have to read about in our next double date post!! ;)

All in all, Panna II was excellent, if you're hesitant to try Indian, DON'T BE! You wont regret it! Head over to Panna II when you're in the East Village, you will love it!

Pre-Panna II

 The Outside

Dan and Lee

 Cheese Poori (top) and Samosa (bottom)

 Chicken Makhani

 Chicken Tikka

 Chicken Mushroom Masala

 :)

Date Night & Dessert: Cubana Social - Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Wednesday 4/23/2014

His Take: Ok so I am going to take full responsibility for this one.  I did NOT like Cubana Social.  I would not go back.  I was craving some Spanish/Latin American food and decided to look some places up not too far from where we live.  I suggested Cubana Social to Ariana and she was all for it, as we were both craving a dish called Ropa Vieja, which is a shredded beef stew.  Off we went to Cubana Social, which is actually a nice looking place where they play old movies via a projector on the wall.  We sat down right away because the place was empty.  Even if it was empty, it took our waitress a little while to bring over our menus.  Finally our waitress came again to order our drinks, I ordered their version of a Cuba Libre, figured I would try something different.  Their Cuba Libre is a drink with rum and coke with lime, Fernet Branca and other bitters, and the more I drank of it (I did not drink very much) the worse it tasted.  This is not the fault of the place, this is more on me because it was a drink I did not like.  This Cuba Libre had a weird after taste that I could not continue to drink.  I was deceived when I looked this place up on Yelp, and looked at the pictures of the food.  I love empanadas and saw that Cubana Social had them, and I thought “great, a nice appetizer as well.”  Yelp led me to believe they were a lot bigger than the really are.   We ended up ordering 3 (started with 2), 2 beef empanadas and a pork empanada.  The beef ones were just alright, and I have definitely had better empanadas elsewhere, they were not bad, but they were not anything “to write home about.”  I tried a little bite of the pork one as well, and it was more or less the same as the beef.  Obviously when it came to the main course, Ariana and I both ordered Ropa Vieja, the sole reason for us coming to Cubana Social.  I have to say I was incredibly disappointed.  Any time I have had Ropa Vieja I have tested plenty of flavors as it is a stew that should cook for a significant amount of time.  Cubana Social’s Ropa Vieja tasted like NOTHING.  It literally did not taste like anything, not like the beef, the onions, the tomatoes, or the peppers!  The dish came with white rice, black beans, and plantains.  The serving size was a pretty good portion, but how much of bland food could you really enjoy.  Ariana's dish tasted different than mine.  Ropa Vieja is a dish where the flavors all come together and mesh while it cooks, and Cubana Social’s really lacked that.  Our waitress did come over again and noticed that I was not enjoying my drink and that a barely touched it.  She was kind enough to take it off our bill without us asking, because again I ordered it, so I did not mind if I had to pay for it.  We skipped dessert as we had planned to grab ice cream somewhere else not too far from Cubana Social.  Again, it is really hard to enjoy food that lacks taste, especially when it is a dish I know and enjoy!  Cubana Social, nice looking place, but the food killed it for me here!

After our disappointing meal, we headed over to an ice cream shoppe that Ariana had heard of called Oddfellows.  I knew once we were inside why this was the perfect name, their flavors were well, ODD!  There were flavors such as Lychee, Thai Ice Cream, Burnt Marshmallow, just to name a few.  I went with a small Burnt Marshamllow, and it was delicious!  There were little pieces of marshmallows in it and it was really really good.  Ariana got Thai Ice Cream and Chocolate Chunk in a cone.  She seemed to really enjoy her ice cream as well.  The ice cream shoppe was really nice they had little tables and bar stools near the window.  They made different ice cream treats and even cater to parties.  Oddfellows was cool, and I would head back to see what other flavors they come up with!

If you take anything from this post, its simple, head to Oddfellows for ice cream, and you can skip Cubana Social, especially if you are looking for tasty Ropia Vieja!

  

Her Take: I really wanted to like this place, I really did. We were both craving some Ropa Vieja, and we found this Cuban place on the north side and said lets give it a shot! We told my dad we were going there and he said he had heard that it wasn't too good, that we would be wasting our time and that he's always right. So I got annoyed and said nope were gonna like it, you never like anything and you are too quick to judge!
We got there and the place was a nice one; good space and they had black and white movies playing on the wall from a projector. We got the menu and saw that they didn't have too many options but we decided that we would get two empanadas. Nicky originally wanted to get one and split it because he said that they looked big online. I said lets get two just incase, or even three because they had a 3 for $10 deal. He settled on two. One pork with beans and garlic and one ground beef with sautéed onions tomatoes and raisins. Our waitress came and asked if we wanted a drink and we looked over the drink list and I ordered the "Oooh I wanna take you to coco-mojito" ( a coconut mojito) and Nicky got a Cuba Libre that had fernet branca in it. We also ordered our empanadas and one ropa vieja each.
the two empanadas came before our drinks, which surprised me; I thought the food was going to take a while. Turns out the empanadas were small (what did I say?) and Nicky ordered one more beef. They weren't bad. Then our drinks came and mine was pretty good but Nicky did not like his so the waitress took it off the bill.
Our ropa vieja came and it looked decent! It came with black beans, rice and platanos. We were excited to eat it and once we tried it we kinda made the same "eh" face. It didn't taste of salt but it tasted of the acidity of uncooked tomatoes from a can. I didn't like the taste of it so I picked at the rice and beans and ate all the platanos. I ate about half of the ropa vieja because I was really hungry, but couldn't finish the rest because it was giving me a stomach ache. It was no good.
We were disappointed and lost our appetite. Turns out my dad was right....
After our disappointing meal, we were craving ice cream so I suggested Odd Fellows ice cream shop which was a few blocks away. We walked down and I saw they had extra virgin olive oil ice cream and HAD to try it!! it was weird I don't think I would get whole scoop of oil.. but anyway I got a cone with chocolate chunk and thai iced tea; it was ok, I have tasted better. But I was satisfied! Nicky got burnt marshmallow which was veryyy good!! (Nicky is a marshmallow :))

All in all our dinner was disappointing and we were hungry two hours later.. Cubana Social, we will not be going back. Food was pretty bad 2/10, service was nothing special (poor girl was nice)
But we bought a bottle of wine on the way home, drank and ate some chocolate  :)

Cuba Libre and Coco-mojito

 Ropa Vieja

 Burnt Marshmallow Ice Cream

Thai Iced Tea and Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream