Dining out together is for connecting over food, not staring at screens. That’s why I find QR code menus toxic: they start the meal off on the wrong foot by forcing diners to pull out their phones.

But for all the widespread adoption that QR code menus have had in the past two years, very few of them take advantage of being in a web browser.1 Many are simply PDFs of the old menu, designed to be printed on 8.5” by 11” paper but hard to read on a 5.75” by 3.75” screen. A proper HTML page is a step up. Better yet are menus with links to each subsection (“appetizers,” “burgers,” etc.) for easier navigation. And until my meal at Ivan Ramen, I thought that was as far as it got.

tired: a PDF of the old paper menu. wired: links, images.
tired: a PDF of the old paper menu. wired: links, images.

No one can accuse Ivan’s menu of letting a web browser go to waste. It’s full of video: a twenty-second video introduction to the restaurant; videos of the dishes being cooked and eaten; videos in which the camera circles around a bowl of ramen, picking up the glistening fat on the surface of the broth.

tired wired inspired

You might be cringing right now. You might have a seething hatred of websites that auto-play video. You might remember all of those media companies that pivoted to video and only found disappointment—now restaurants are degrading themselves by pivoting to video, too?

But against all odds, I liked it. The videos were soothing and mildly informative, not distracting. They had good production values. Plus:

  1. You can skip the 20-second introduction and get straight to the food.
  2. There’s no sound by default; all the videos are captioned.

PS: if you find yourself at Ivan Ramen, order the chicken paitan, not the shoyu.

Anyway, here’s the roundup of some of the restaurants I’ve been to since mid-April.

Great, would return soon

  • Rowdy Rooster: I like spicy food but have a poor spice tolerance. Although there were tears streaming down my cheeks while I ate Rowdy Rooster’s pakora-fried chicken sandwich, I was having the time of my life. Much better than Fuku; I hope they expand.

    The sandwich has onions, a cilantro and mint chutney, and yogurt, all of which help to balance out the spice.
    The sandwich has onions, a cilantro and mint chutney, and yogurt, all of which help to balance out the spice.

    There are five levels of heat to choose from, so eating doesn’t have to be a blissfully painful experience. They suggest level 2 or 3 to start, and I picked level 4. Get a mango lassi, just to be safe.

  • Casa Mono is a tapas bar a short walk from Union Square. The average quality of the food was so high! Everyone loved the razor clams. I loved the pig ears and goat confit. Of the eight other plates we ordered, the only unexciting ones were the skirt steak and maybe the sweetbreads.

Good: would gladly go back, but not in a hurry

  • Jua might’ve caught me at a bad time. A week after my excruciating experience at Shion 69 Leonard, I was feeling sick of high-priced tasting menus that are out of reach of many New Yorkers. Everything was well-executed, but I would’ve loved a simpler meal instead: just a big plate of the fantastic black sea bream.

    The black sea bream, buried under greens, along with a little bit of some outstanding asparagus. Photo: TW
    The black sea bream, buried under greens, along with a little bit of some outstanding asparagus. Photo: TW

  • Sanyuu West is a very solid budget omakase meal. Plus, they’re BYOB until they get their liquor license.

  • Sushi Ikumi so recently started serving lunch that their website and Google Maps both say they’re closed at that time. You can still book on Resy, Mondays only. The atmosphere was quiet and laid-back.

    Golden eye snapper, not GoldenEye snapper.
    Golden eye snapper, not GoldenEye snapper, at Sushi Ikumi.

Meh

I may just have no taste, but:

Noteworthy

  • Xin Fu Tang plays around with their bubble tea’s temperature: the tea is cold, the boba is hot, and the brown sugar at the top is blowtorched to a crème-brûlée crustiness.

    Yes: the gold foil boba milk and the brown sugar boba milk are exactly the same, except one has $5.50 of gold foil. I asked.
    Yes: the gold foil boba milk and the brown sugar boba milk are exactly the same, except one has $5.50 of gold foil. I asked.

  • Pig Beach’s Brooklyn beer garden is a great place to have two dozen friends join you for birthday drinks if your birthday falls on a warm day. The brisket is good for NYC. The turkey is moist. The frosé felt not-quite-in-season in mid-April.

  1. JH pointed this out to me a few months ago, and now I notice it everywhere. ↩