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: Juliana's Pizza & Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory - DUMBO, NY - Wednesday 5/14/2014

Her Take: So as I have said before, I love pizza, but also I love ice cream. We had the PERFECT date! We had talked about taking the ferry to DUMBO so I suggested we do it to grab some pizza from Juliana's and get amazing ice cream from Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory! We were to take the 7:00 pm ferry at Kent avenue on the north side so Nicky and I met up at 6:30 and took a nice walk there. We made it just in time for the 6:45 ferry; we saw it docking and we ran to get tickets and literally ran inside. (We did a lot of running for ferries as you'll see) we got lucky! The ferry was very nice, spacious and fun! We went outside and took pictures like tourists and enjoyed the scenery. It was a bit cloudy that day but it was still really nice! The wind felt so good!
We arrived at DUMBO in 10 minutes, super fast. We walked off and straight to Juliana's. I don't know if you guys have heard of Grimaldi's? Well the originally owner Patsy Grimaldi sold his restaurant and name and since that restaurant moved to the corner, Patsy came back and opened up a new pizzeria again! Voila Juliana's! Patsy was standing right in the doorway and he seated us at a little bar overlooking the pizzaioli and the coal burning oven. We already knew what we wanted to we ordered right away: two Stella Artois on tap and a large margherita pizza with half pepperoni! We could see the pizzaiolo (pizza man) making our pizza and I was literally drooling. Our pizza was done quickly! Thank God cause I was starving, and the girl brought it right to us. We dug right it.. DELICIOUS!!! Just how I remembered it from when I was younger. So so so yummy I didn't even take a break I gobbled my whole half of the pie up. I was super satisfied and so happy that I had the deliciousness in my mouth and tummy. Nicky loved it too!! We weren't too full so we had enough room for ice cream. We turned around and saw that the place had FILLED UP! It was packed and a line was forming outside! We felt kind of bad so we asked our waiter for the check and he said no no no take your time! He didn't want us to leave, so we enjoyed our beer.
We finally got up and squirmed through the people and started walking toward the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Oh my god yes I was so excited because I had been craving their ice cream forever!!!! Luckily it's only down the block :)
We walked in and I already knew what I wanted: CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHUNK two scoops in a waffle cone please!!! Nicky got one scoop of vanilla chocolate chunk in a waffle cone and we tasted it and our tummies smiled because its just THAT AMAZING!!! So creamy and the flavor is just right. They chocolate isn't too overwhelming it's milky chocolate goodness with big chunks of chocolate mixed in; OMG YUM I want some rightttt now!!! We ate as we took a walk through the DUMBO park, it was so pretty and by the water. It started getting a little chilly and misty so we went back into the ice cream shop and Nicky used the bathroom as I sat at a little table. We weren't sure what time the last ferry was so we peeked outside and saw the ferry docking! Once again, we ran for our lives for it!! We almost didn't make it! I ran with my ice cream cone in my hand and my studded loafers on my feet... Not a good combo. If I dropped my cone I would I have picked it up thrown it at Nicky and left him there for making me run!!!! But, it didn't come down to that :)))
We made the ferry just in time and relaxed until we had to get off and walked to a candy store since Nicky wanted something. He only got a pack of the gum that looks like cigarettes because he's a big kid. We walked home holding hands as he "smoked his cigarette" and digested all the yummy food all the way home to my house :)
We had a great night! The ferry was a cute and fun idea, I think everyone should ride it at least once, especially when the weather is nice to stand outside and enjoy the scenery! Pizza was amazing and the ice cream was to die for; definitely, definitely recommend both!! CHECK THEM OUT IF YOU LOVE PIZZA AND ICE CREAM! (but then again who doesn't?)
Links are in my post :)

His Take: Ariana and I love pizza, especially Ariana! We decided to do something a little different rather than the old "hey let's just go get pizza!" One of Ariana's favorite pizza places had reopened, Juliana's (the old Grimaldi's) in Dumbo, Brooklyn. They're pizza used to be great and it's coal oven pizza, which is absolutely delicious! Rather than just head over to Juliana's and give it a try, we took the East River Ferry. It as a decent day weather wise, I mean was supposed to rain but luckily it didn't! The Ferry was beautiful, we had caught it at the perfect time. From our neighborhood to Dumbo it is two stops on the ferry, a quick ride, perfect because we were hungry! We bought our tickets ($4 each person per way), and boarded our ferry. I really loved the ferry, on the way there we stood outside and watched as we passed both the Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridges. I did the real touristy thing and took pictures and it was cool. I plan on taking the ferry again to it's other stops or even back to Dumbo.

Next stop, Juliana's. Off our enjoyable ferry ride we walked right to Juliana's and were lucky enough to walk right in. By the time we were done with our food, there was line of people waiting outside for their turn! We got to the door and the original owner greeted and seated us (Ariana had remembered him!). We sat at the counter top right next to where they make the pizzas. While normally I prefer tables, this time it was pretty sweet to sit and watch them make pizzas! Ariana and I ordered a large margherita pie, with half pepperoni. A large pie may sound like much, but for us two, it was perfect. We also order two Stella Artois and watched our pizza be made. Shortly after our pizza came and we feasted! This pizza was PERFECT. It really was absolutely delicious.  Mmmmm thinking about it now I could go for a slice or two! We ate the entire pie and almost forgot to take a picture! We finished most of beers and departed for dessert!

On to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory! If Ariana doesn't tell you this I will, she was the happiest I've ever seen when we decided to go here to! She absolutely loves this place, loves it more than she loves me! And I can see why, the ice cream was delicious! I got a vanilla chocolate chunk, one scoop that was more like three and Ariana ordered two scoops of chocolate chocolate chunk, which looked like four! We enjoyed our cones and walked the park on the pier. When we walked back we had to run to our ferry home because we were unsure of what time the last ferry was! We ran back and laughed as we got on the ferry just as it was leaving!

This was one of my favorite dates. The ferry, the food, the ice cream, and my date were all beautiful. I enjoyed everything about this date! The ferry is cool, and beats the more common means of transportation. The pizza was amazing! It really was so good. The ice cream was a nice finish. But most of all, my date was the best part! Enjoy guys!

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

Date Night: Il Mulino - Taj Mahal - Atlantic City, NJ - Tuesday, 4/15/2014

Her Take: We finally went back to Atlantic City and I was sooooo happy! Much needed trip! Anyway,  we wanted to extend our anniversary and wanted to go to a nice restaurant to celebrate again in a more romantic setting. Nicky told me he wanted to take me to Il Mulino because he really liked it and knew I would too. So we made a reservation on Open Table and Nicky wrote "anniversary dinner" as a special note. When we went down they told us that we had actually made the reservation for the fine dining section so they walked us (next door) to the right place. We could definitely see the difference; the lighting was a bit dimmer, the tables had tablecloths, the glasses all set up and the tables were all candlelit. Also, the waiters were all dressed up with bowties and nice tuxedos. The hostess quickly took us to a nice round table against a wall but what was weird was that she did not give us menus. (hmmm?)
The first of our waiters quickly came over with a huge wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano and with his cheese knife and gave us each a nice piece. He then offered to take a picture of us with the cheese because he saw how excited we were! Right after he asked if we wanted a cocktail to drink and we said sure! I ordered a rum and pineapple (not rum and coke because I had given sweets and junk up for lent) and Nicky a vodka and sprite.
Once he left, another server came over and dropped a plate of thin zucchini "chips" that were drizzled in oil and garlic. I LOVE THOSE!! And then another server came, dropped off sopressata, and offered us bruschetta (yummm), I said of course and Nicky said no thank you. Right after that man left, ANOTHER one came over and dropped off spicy garlic bread, regular bread and focaccia. I was so excited, we hadn't even ordered yet and food just kept coming!! We got our drinks and we cheered "to us." We ate and ate (and unfortunately I couldn't taste too much because I was sick and stuffy, I was PISSED) and were a bit confused because we had never been to a restaurant like this, plus we didn't even have a menu! I was like "Nicky, what if they just give us whatever food they want?" and he was like "they can't do that what if we don't like something??" I was really confused and for some reason, nervous, so I told him to google Il Mulino and see what it said!! HAHA! we're so embarrassing! But just as he was about to, our second waiter came and asked how we were enjoying our complementary antipasti and asked if we wanted to wait a little bit or if we would like the menu. Ah-ha! There we go, our question was answered! *phew* We said yes we'll take a look at the menu now, acting all nonchalant as if we knew what was going on. When he gave them to us and left, we died laughing.
To be honest I was already pretty full from all the food they had given us, and you know me I HAD to eat it. But you can't NOT eat at a beautiful, fancy restaurant like this, you can't make them think you only came for the complementary appetizers and say "ok thanks see ya next time!" NO! So we decided on having a bowl of Tortellini in brodo each, I wanted the pollo encrusto and Nicky spaghettini carbonara. When the waiter came to take our order, Nicky asked if they had meatballs (which he had had last time in the other side of the restaurant) and the waiter said that if we wanted an order of meatballs, he could make that happen! So we got an order of meatballs, two tortellini, one chicken dish and one pasta dish!
I don't know where we thought we were gonna fit all the food we had just ordered because we were both already filling up, but we couldn't stop eating. Anyway, we got our soup first so we could take our time and drink on it slowly, I wish I could have tasted :( the tortellini I couldn't taste at all but the soup felt good for my throat and Nicky said it was really good! Then we got our meatballs, which came 3 to an order. I could vaguely taste them but from what I could gather, they were yummy! after having a meatball each, we were already exploding! The waiter came and asked us how we were doing and I guess our faces told him how full we were and he laughed and said he'd give us some time to digest before our entrees came out. YES, THANK YOU!
We sipped on our drinks and held hands and chatted about how great this place was; I have to say I was very impressed. Just then our entrees came out. My pollo encrusto was a huge breaded chicken cutlet in lemon, white wine sauce. It was very good, but just too big for me! I had to take a break and sit there for a while. I cut small pieces and ate little by little, I think I ate a good amount before I literally could not eat any more.
The waiter came over and saw we were done and we did a pretty good job! He asked if we wanted any dessert or coffee and I said I'll have a tea please! Nicky got an espresso. They also said that they give complementary grappa or limoncello and asked which we'd prefer and I said we'd take two grappas perfavore! They brought over a beautiful wooden tea box so I could choose which tea I wanted! I chose pomegranate green tea. They brought over a little pot of hot water, Nicky' espresso and the grappa. Not long after, they came over with a cheesecake and fruit with a candle and they sang happy anniversary to us! We had forgotten that we had mentioned it on Open table! They sang so nice and everybody in the restaurant clapped for us! We said thank you and one waiter said "What? No kiss?!! Come on!!" So we kissed and they clapped  :))) It was so sweet and made me so happy! We picked at it, I ate the fruit and whipped cream since I couldn't eat dessert and Nicky had a little of the cheese cake! It was very sweet of them! So many complementary things, and they were so good to us! (we left them a niceeeee tip ;)) We had the grappa, well I had it, Nicky didn't like it (too strong for him haha) But I understood; grappa is grain alcohol with a high proof so it is very strong.

I have to say that I was incredibly impressed with Il Mulino. The ambiance and atmosphere was amazing and beautiful, the service was perfect, the food was delicious, their restaurant mission is very well portrayed through their impeccable staff, food, presence and mannerisms. In my opinion, Il Mulino was the best dinner date that we have had! They we excellent I have absolutely no complaints except that I'm a little upset that I couldn't taste everything 100% but its ok, it only means that we'll have to go back :)))

His Take:  Ariana and I decided while we were in Atlantic City that we would go out somewhere nice to eat.  I had mentioned to her that I had eaten in Il Mulino at the Taj Mahal before and that I really enjoyed it.  That’s all it took to convince her.  We made our reservation using open table, and I added a special note that it was anniversary dinner (because Virgil’s as you know was no anniversary enough for me).  We arrived at Il Mulino and were immediately seated and greeted.  Il Mulino is set up beautifully.  This is truly a great romantic date spot.  The tables were set up with flowers and candles and it really set the mood we were looking for.  Immediately after we were seated, one of our waiters, yes we had two, came over with a giant wedge of Parmeggiano cheese.  My eyes lit up when I saw this.  I LOVE PARMEGGIANO CHEESE.  Our waiter sliced us both a healthy size piece right from the giant wedge, but mind you I probably could have eaten the whole thing.  We ordered our drinks, I a vodka and sprite and Ariana I believe a rum and pineapple juice. Next our waiters provided us with some bruschetta (toasted bread with diced tomatoes that are seasoned), some fried zucchini slices that were cut into chips, a few slices of salami, and three different types of bread.  We literally feasted on these and then realized, we had not even got our menus yet!  We wondered if maybe Il Mulino forgot or was just going to serve us until we could not eat any more (not a bad thing).  On cue our waiter brought over our menus and asked us if we enjoyed their complimentary foods while we waited.  Yes, complimentary foods, as in FREE.  Not only was this first wave of food free, but it was absolutely delicious.  Our waiter also told us if there was anything we did not see on the menu, we should inquire about it and he would try to accommodate us.  Last time I was at Il Mulino, the same one in Taj Mahal, just the other side of the restaurant, I tried their meatballs and they were amazing, so I wanted them again!  I did not see them on the menu, so I asked our waiter and he told me it would not be a problem.  Ariana and I also ordered a Tortellini in chicken broth each as an appetizer.  Our waiter was kind enough to suggest bringing just the soups first before the meatballs.  What an excellent idea. The tortellini in chicken broth soups were just as excellent as everything else!  And it was a great size portion, ordering one each was the way to go.  Plus the soup was perfect because Ariana was not feeling so well.  The soup was tasty, and I love tortellini soup! Next came the meatballs! Ariana and I enjoyed our three meatballs (sorry there is only one in the photo, we forgot to take a picture before diving in).  These meatballs were just as good as the ones I remembered eating last time.  For our entrees, Ariana ordered a Lemon Chicken and I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara.  I tried Ariana’s chicken and it was delicious and very lemon-y!  Mind you her piece of chicken breast was pretty big.  Now onto my dish! Spaghetti Carbonara is one of my favorite dishes.  It is spaghetti served with pancetta, onions, cheese, and egg.  I was excited when I saw the amount of cheese in this dish as well as adding more.  Il Mulino made my Spaghetti Carbonara perfect.  I really enjoyed it.  Ariana liked her chicken, but could not finish it because she ate most of the complimentary food.  When our waiter asked us if we wanted desserts he was shocked to hear us say no, but understood that we ate a lot.  He asked us if we wanted any coffee or after dinner drinks.  I ordered an espresso and Ariana a tea.  Pretty standard espresso for me, but Ariana was brought out a tea box and let her choose her own tea!  I thought this was pretty cool.  Ariana also suggested we order a Grappa each, which is an Italian after dinner drink.  I had heard of Grappa before and could have sworn I had it, but after tasting it I was pretty sure I did not.  I did not like Grappa!  Remember how I mentioned I had put in the note on open table that this was our anniversary dinner?  Well Il Mulino served us a complimentary (more free!!) cheese cake slice and they sang anniversary!  We were surprised by this and it was an overall nice cap on dinner. 

Il Mulino was truly the perfect date.  The place was great, the service was excellent, and the food was even better.  There are two other Il Mulino’s in New York and I promise you I will not hesitate to go back at some point in the future.  Il Mulino might have been the best place Ariana and I have been to.  I loved everything about Il Mulino.  Head over there and you have my word that you will not be disappointed.

Date Night: Knicks Game - Madison Square Garden - Midtown, NY - Wednesday 4/2/2014

His Take: Remember how I mentioned that Ariana got me Knicks tickets as my anniversary gift? Well here we are!  I was as excited as a kid in a candy store once we arrived at the world's most famous arena, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN.  Quick tidbit, I have been a Knicks fan as far back as I can remember watching basketball.  The New York Knicks were my first sporting love.  I grew up watching plenty (and I mean MOSTLY) bad Knicks teams.  I remember the Ewing Knicks, the Sprewell/Houston Knicks, the Marbury Knicks, and most recently the David Lee Knicks (yes they were that bad that David Lee was the marquee player).   I grew up hating the Bulls (I HATE MJ), the Pacers (I HATE REGGIE EVEN MORE), the Celtics (honestly who likes the Celtics anyway), the Miami Heat (PAT RILEY) and finally the cross town rival, New Jersey Nets.  Tonight's game was perfect, it pitted my Knicks against the now Brooklyn Nets. Any who back to the game, we got to the Garden with a boat load of people and made our way to our seats, Section 212, Row 16, Seats 10 & 11.  On our way up, the Knicks were kind enough to be handing out orange "NY Made" T shirts, which were awesome, even if was an XL and fit me way too big.  We found our seats and our view was great, a little to the left of center court, but we could see the whole court.  After finding our seats I went and fetched us two beers, you cannot go to a game and not enjoy a nice beer.  $11.50 for a twenty four ounce Stella Artois in a plastic cup with a straw? Sure why not!  Ultimately we had two beers each because its a mission to get to and from your seats to the beer stand as well as the bathroom!  The game was amazing, and I got Ariana into basketball!  She took a liking to Tyson Chandler, naturally the tallest guy on the court, the complete opposite of me.  We cheered and screamed along with the couple next to us, because at a Knicks game and you are cheering for my Knicks, you are my friend.  The Knicks beat the Nets by nearly 30 so as any fan knows, this made the game 100000 time better.  We really enjoyed every minute of the game.  Even the half time show was funny.  Nick Cannon came out to pull some stunt of him making a full court no look shot, and rather than cheer him on, the garden faithful booed him and chanted "we want Mariah!"  I left the game smiling from the game and the amazing time.

After the game we looked at the time and it was still early!  It was my suggestion that we walk to Times Square and just enjoy the beautiful weather.  We ended up going into Dave & Busters and playing some games.  This made the night even more enjoyable!  It was half price game night, so all the games cost half the points they usually would.  We played plenty of games and we both hit a ticket jackpot on each game!  We could not decide on what prizes to get, because Ariana hated everything except the sweets (which she could not eat) so I picked Ninja Turtles ball and a gold fish ice tray (don't judge me, it looked kind of cool). We left Dave & Busters and got home around midnight.

I cannot, and I can not stress this enough, CANNOT wait to go to another Knicks game next season with Ariana.  Unfortunately this season was cut short and the Knicks missed the playoffs.  What a perfect gift, and what an amazing time.  Ariana is now a Knicks fan and maybe she will enjoy sitting and watching the games with me.  If you are a couple who are into sports, or even if one of you is into sports, head over and watch your team play.  If not, go check out the Knicks at Madison Square Garden and enjoy visiting a landmark of NYC.  And always remember, Lets Go Knicks!!


Her Take: So for our anniversary, I got Nicky tickets to the Knicks Nets game at Madison Square Garden. He was so excited and I was too because I had never been to a basketball game before. I thought the seats I got were pretty good actually; we could see everything! The game started at 7 so we grabbed a quick slice at San Marco pizzeria around the corner from my house and then hopped on the train. Nicky was so excited he basically took the plate under my pizza to throw out before I was even done! Anyway, after reprimanding him about that and also telling him to relax a bit on the train after he got stuck between the closing doors of the C train, I pushed some lady out of the way with my hips so we could get off at our stop! We got to MSG at 6:30 and as we walked in, the place was already mobbed. We went through security and metal detectors and finally headed up the escalators where we received free "NY Made" t-shirts (mine fit me like a dress.) We got to our section and we quickly migrated towards the BEER! We got two Stella Artois and went to find our seats. Thank goodness we got there early because once we sat down our row filled up!

All in all, the game was soooo much fun!! We ended up having two beers each, lots of laughs and a lot of fun! and the Knicks won! :) Nicky (and I) had a great time and he was so happy and I was glad that I got him the perfect gift. After the game ended we walked outside, me with my NY made dress on, and we started walking towards Times Square. Apparently we always end up there, I haven't gone to Times Square this many times until we started dating!!

We ended up in front of Dave & Busters and decided to go in! Plus it was half off games Wednesday! So we went up, realized how packed it was, ran to get a card and started to play like the big kids that we are! It was a great time, we both love playing games and we get so into it! We were there for a couple of hours and we won like 892,435,742,582 tickets! So Nicky got a stupid TMNT ball and some other random thing and we headed home.
We got home around midnight, we had an amazing time!! the entire night was a lot of fun!! I would love to go to another game! :)

 I actually won 500 :)

Date Night: Virgil's Real BBQ - Times Square, NY - Monday 3/31/2014

Her Take: For our anniversary we wanted to celebrate with some BBQ! There were a couple options but we decided on Virgil's because it was close to FIT, right in Times Square, so I could meet Nicky after school. We had both been craving good BBQ, so we were excited to try this place. We got there early, even though we had reservations for 6:30. We were seated quickly in a corner and it felt like we were in time-out. We wanted to exchange gifts right away because we were both giddy and excited so we did and I got a beautiful bracelet made in Italy and I got Nicky Knicks tickets. :)) The waiter came right away and asked us if we were ready to order, when we obviously weren't so we said if we could have a minute. He came back in literally one minute so we rushed our drink and food order. I got a pineapple mojito and Nicky got a some Ciroc punch. We put our gifts aside and as we were about to make a toast and cheers, our appetizers came out, holy fast! We ordered Trash Ribs and biscuits. Nicky had most of the ribs and I attacked the biscuits, and just as we were halfway into our apps, our entrees came!! SO FAST AGAIN! REALLY? That annoyed me. I let it slip the first time when the waiter was rushing us to order, and let it slip when the apps came fast, but the entrees too? come on, we wanted to enjoy our time and eat slowly and look into each others eyes and be romantic, but this place was not made for that. They were too rushy rushy. We put aside our apps and decided to try our entrees. I ordered the combo with pulled pork, brisket, corn bread cheese grits and mac and cheese. To be honest I was kind of disappointed because I wanted good BBQ and mac and cheese!! the mac and cheese was ehhhh the grits were alright, the brisket was hard to cut and eat and it was cold, and the pulled pork was dry; definitely needed more sauce, so I put some BBQ sauce on it, but it was still eh.
They came 8423984 times to ask if we were done with our food, no sir i'm just taking a break since you threw a hundred pounds of food at me at once!! Then when we wanted the waiter's attention, he was nowhere to be found. Anyway, we decided to wrap our food up and take it home and we ordered another round of drinks just so we could sit there a while longer. We literally ate in a half hour. I don't mean to rip this place apart, but the service was eh, too many people working and asking if you'd like anything wrapped and they give you no time to eat, they want you in and out! I don't like when restaurants throw the food at you and then give you the check right away, it make you feel like you aren't welcome and like they area throwing you out. The food wasn't terrible but it could have used a little more TLC. I think my favorite part was the biscuits...
Atmosphere I would give it a 6 out 10, service a 5 out of 10 and food 6 out of 10. It wasn't a good place for an anniversary, it's more of a "hey lets grab a QUICK bite" (emphasis on the quick)

His Take: Happy Anniversary to me and my wonderful girlfriend Ariana.  We decided to head out and celebrate our 1 year anniversary!  What better way to celebrate then with food and drinks.  I have to admit I was really craving BBQ/Southern food.  I Yelped some places and came across Virgil’s.  Ariana met me there and inside we went.  Virgil’s is really easy to get to and it is located right in Times Square which is an added bonus.

 

I had made our reservation for 6:30 PM on and naturally we arrived early.  We got to Virgil’s at about 5:50 and the hostess sat us right away.  The place was fairly empty but as our dinner progressed more and more tables came in.  We sat down and were immediately handed our menus.  Our waiter seemed like a nice guy, my apologies but I forgot his name!  Since it was our anniversary, we exchanged our gifts before even opening the menus.  Side note, Ariana got me two Knicks tickets to the upcoming game on Wednesday and I was super excited (more to come on that later).  Any who back to dinner, we started out just by ordering drinks while we looked over the menus.  I ordered a fruit punch drink that had Circoc vodka in it, and it was excellent.  Finally we ordered our appetizers and entrees.  We settled on an order of Trash Ribs with a side order of biscuits for appetizers.  Shortly after we ordered them, our appetizers came out (which was nice because I was hungry!)  The Trash Ribs were excellent, the meat was tender and fell right off the bone, and the ribs were covered in Virgil’s trash sauce.  The portion was a good size, Id say about 8 ribs that me and Ariana split accordingly.  The biscuits were your classic biscuits that came with a side of whipped butter.  Now here comes my first complaint with Virgil’s, we were still eating our appetizers when our waiter brought our entrees.  We did not want to send our entrees back in fear that they would get cold.  We literally only finished about half of our appetizers when the main course came.  For our entrees, we both ordered the Virgil’s combo, mine being Brisket and BBQ pulled chicken, with a side of mac and cheese and mashed potatoes, and Ariana’s being Brisket with BBQ pulled pork with a side of Mac and cheese and cheese grits.  The dish size was huge and full of food.  The BBQ pulled chicken was delicious and typing this now I could go for some more!  The Brisket was just OK, and I have definitely had better.  The Mac and Cheese was good, baked mac and cheese just a little bit to go with the food.  The mashed potatoes were good, but then again its kind of hard to mess up mashed potatoes in my eyes.  And yes of course with dinner we doubled up on our cocktails and ordered another!

 

All in all I was satisfied with the food at Virgil’s.  I was a little disappointed that we were sort of rushed in and out, literally dinner took maybe 40 minutes in total.  Also I regret choosing this place for an anniversary dinner, but it is definitely a nice date out.  I would go back to Virgil’s for some more BBQ food and drinks, but I would hope that they let me stay and digest and enjoy their good food!

 

Date Night: Alligator Lounge - Williamsburg, Brooklyn - Monday 3/17/2014

His Take: St. Patty's Day! What do we do?!? DRINK!  OK so Ariana was having a rough day and really wanted to go for a drink, like really bad, so being the wonderful boyfriend I am (and frankly you don't really need to twist my arm to go for a drink) we went for a drink.  I suggested we go to The Alligator Lounge.  I will start by saying this, the first time I went to The Alligator Lounge, I HATED IT!!! But the more I went, it grew on me and I really like it there now.  Little did we know that Monday nights at the Alligator Lounge is TRIVIA NIGHT!  The way it works here is teams of however many players answer 4 rounds of trivia, and the top 3 scores win a prize.  1st prize was a $30 bar tab, 2nd prize was a $15 bar tab, and 3rd prize was a grab into the mystery bag.  Today being St. Patty's Day, all the questions revolved around the Irish and St. Patty's Day.  This trivia game was awesome.  Also in between the trivia rounds they ask shot questions and random prize questions.  Name the artist who was nominated for three awards or something like that! GREEN DAY!! Winner winner chicken dinner, I won me a free green "bite me" T shirt!  The coolest thing about The Alligator Lounge is that with every beer or alcoholic beverage you buy they give you a free coupon for one mini personal pie of pizza (toppings extra).  I mean the pizza is not great, but when you are drinking and having a good time, free fresh made pizza is a nice touch.  I had a special type of a loaded corona, which I have named a Lee Corona (after the bartender who first made it for me).  A Lee Corona consists of a regular corona but you fill the neck with Bacardi orange and orange juice.  give it a mix and bam, a new twist on a corona!  It's basically a corona with a shot of alcohol in it!  A few of these and I promise you you will be off your ass.  Team #hashtag signed up for trivia and boy did we enjoy ourselves.  The rounds got a little difficult but it was cool.  They asked all kinds of questions from music and bands to questions about Lucky Charms cereal!  After sticking it out through the whole game Team #hashtag came in second place!  There was a couple there that was also playing trivia that we became friends with because each team switches papers in order to grade the answers.  Ariana and I headed over there just to kill some time and next thing you know we were there for a few hours enjoying shots and drinks.  After winning our $15 bar tab, we treated the other couple to a shot in celebration with us!  We left here pretty drunk and had a good time.  We also enjoyed quite a few pizzas!!!  The Alligator Lounge continues to grow on me, and we will definitely head back.  For a random Monday night (well it was St. Patty's Day) we had a great time, always is when it's date night!!!

Her Take: Monday Blues, I was having a bad day- one of those days where you just need a nice, cold beer to relax you. I had class till 5 and asked Nicky if he wanted to meet me in the city for a drink after he got out of work. I had completely forgot that it was St. Patrick's Day soooo bad idea! When I got home I asked him instead if we could grab a drink around the neighborhood later on after dinner and he said yes. I REALLY needed that drink! Nicky suggested Alligator Lounge and I said yea sure! We had been to Alligator Lounge a few times, its like a neighborhood dive bar with a brick oven that holds activities each day of the week- nothing fancy, just a hangout spot and it just so happened that Monday night is trivia night! We came on the perfect day! We arrived at around 8 o'clock for an early drink so we could get home early as well. Of course it was packed but luckily we found a spot at the bar. Nicky got a loaded Corona, with Stoli orange and orange juice in the neck and I started with a Lagunitas IPA. With each drink you get, you receive a ticket for a free pizza, yes that's right free pizza with each drink!!
The solo lady at the bar got up and left so we quickly took her seat and the one next to it and just in time for Trivia! The host (with an awesome game show voice) handed out papers to fill in our teamname, the #hashtags, and our answers and told us that the questions would be related to St. Patty's Day and the color green. There was a whole round on irish artists and we had to guess the bands and the song title from a few seconds played of the song. We were awesome at this round, we listen to a wideeee variety of music ;) (U2 and the Cranberries I love ya!!) In between rounds the host asks questions were you just need to shout out the answer and who ever shouts it first wins a free shot or free green t-shirt that says "bite me." The answers had to include the color green and the last question was who was nominated in the tony awards or something? Nicky shouted out GREENDAY!!! and he won the t-shirt!! of course he did, as if he needed any more tshirts! But yay him! :)
Nicky ordered another Loaded Corona and I got a Stella Artois and then he went and got two pizzas and we attacked them as we answered the trivia questions. And to be honest, the pizza wasn't bad at all!
Good thing we wanted to be home by 10:30, it was 10 and we still had 2 more rounds left, we weren't going anywhere!! at the end we had to switch papers with the team next to us, and the couple we switched with were such nice people and they said they were rooting for us! We handed in our papers and the host started from 14th place, saying the number of points and the team names! He was at 3rd place and still had not called our team's name, we made it to the top 3!! Turns out we won second place, which meant we won a $15 bar tab!! yay!! The first thing we did was tell the bartender we won 2nd place and that we wanted 4 shots of whiskey, two for us and two for the sweet couple next to us! They were surprised but happy. After that we decided it was time to go home! Nicky had work in the morning and I had to go home some time right? We stumbled drunkenly home and laughed at the night we had, it was a fun unexpected night, those are always the best!!
Alligator Lounge is always a good time and its always a good choice when you're bored at home or when you really just  NEED A BEER!! You'll meet cool people, have great and cheap drinks, eat decent pizza that's FREE and have lots of laughs!