Bumps in the road, a glitch in the kitchen in pursuit of 2 bargain Manhattan lunches

FOR SEAFOOD LOVERS: A whole local Black Sea Bass (Spigola Nero in Italian), above, and a Mediterranean Sea Bream, below, were highlights of bargain lunches at Manhattan fine-dining restaurants during the NYC Restaurant Week promotion -- 2-courses for $26 and 3-courses for $32, plus tax and tip.  

MOB SCENE: The service at Estiatorio Milos, a Greek restaurant in midtown Manhattan that seats about 200 on three levels, was excellent despite a packed and noisy dining room. I was impressed that the whole fish I ordered was butterfield and deboned, and loved the bread service with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh oregano.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Twice a year, I get such a big kick out of making reservations for bargain lunches at some of Manhattan's most expensive restaurants.

The NYC Restaurant Week promotions in January and July are intended to drive business to hundreds of fine-dining restaurants during their slowest periods, and I've been a loyal fan of these great deals since the early 1990s. 

In keeping with the low prices, I have always taken mass transit into the city, but this time, I encountered a couple of bumps in the road -- literally -- when taking NJ Transit buses from Hackensack to the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The round-trip fare for seniors is a mere $4.10.

Milos and Esca

I met a friend for lunch at Estiatorio Milos, a Greek restaurant where fresh whole fish is displayed on a bed of ice and sold a la carte for more than $60 a pound.

And I took my son to lunch at Esca, where seafood dishes that normally cost $27 each "are rooted in Italian flavors," according to the website.

In 2019, Esca's Executive Chef David Pasternack parted ways with Chef Mario Batali, who had a financial interest in the restaurant until reports that Batali had sexually assaulted and harassed women.

Esca closed, then reopened last September after Pasternack found new partners. 

Overcooked fish

During Restaurant Week, 2-courses lunches are $26 and 3-course lunches are $32, plus tax and tip. Dinners are $42, but the menu is similar to what is served at lunch and they aren't as good of a value.

The winter promotion ends on Sunday.

The only glitch I experienced was that the kitchen at Esca overcooked the monkfish in my entree, reminding me of a disastrous Restaurant Week meal I had there in July 2011.

At that 3-course lunch, which cost $24.07, my entree was a whole John Dory, one of the ugliest and boniest creatures in the sea. 

Bad news. After I posted this, I got an email from Esca, which is unveiling a 2-course lunch for $34 on Feb. 18, and the first fish entree listed is "Whole roasted John Dory." 

NJ Transit

Despite the astronomical property taxes we pay, our streets and roads are in terrible condition, and I felt every bump and pothole riding what appeared to be a decades-old NJ Transit 165 local bus with screeching rear brakes into Manhattan on Jan. 30 for lunch at Milos.

The return trip was equally agonizing, and the beaten-down seat cushions provided no comfort on the noisy, herky jerky ride.

This week, the express bus to Manhattan and the local bus returning to Hackensack my son and I rode were in a lot better condition, and the seats far more comfortable.

Neither here nor there

Speaking about great food, did you see The New York Times' Food section on Wednesday?

In a clear sign of desperation among the editors, the cover story focuses on nudists in Lutz, Fla., who cook, and there's a big color photo of three men and and a woman at a dinner party from more or less their sagging midsections up.

I stopped reading after the woman, who looks like she is in her 60s but still eats artery clogging bacon,  is quoted as saying this:

"Embracing the nudist lifestyle has given me permission to feel my feelings."

This ridiculous article "gave me permission" to turn the page, and shake my head over another Times pasta recipe with 2 tablespoons of artery clogging butter that the dish absolutely, positively doesn't need (Page D3).

GRILLED CALAMARI: At Esca, my son loved his appetizer of grilled local squid with hot red pepper, arugula and radish.

SARDE: I chose House Marinated Sardines with a Salad of Italian Greens dressed in a Caper Thyme Vinaigrette.

PESCATRICE: The kitchen at Esca overcooked the relatively small pieces of local Monkfish in my entree, in contrast to the juicy whole Sea Bass served to my son, who gave me some of his fish. And there was a long stretch of time between appetizer and entree I hadn't encountered at previous Esca lunches. Below, my son wanted a 3-course lunch, so I paid $6 more for his dessert, Chocolate and Blood Orange Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream and Roasted Hazelnuts.

OLIVE SERVICE: We were served a dish of olives at Esca and 2 kinds of bread, but the complimentary crostini with white beans I had enjoyed in the past was missing.

MORE SEATS: The renovation at Esca opened a wall to a second, smaller dining room, and added seats, but I guess I'll have to warm up to it.

GREEK MEZE PLATE: My appetizer at Milos -- tzatziki, taramosalata and htipiti (whipped feta cheese and roasted red peppers) -- with warm pita and marinated vegetables. I followed with that butterflied whole Mediterranean Sea Bream, and didn't have room for a 3rd course.

TOASTED BREAD: Fresh oregano was snipped at the table as part of the bread service.

Bargain lunches are back in Manhattan; Costco cuts price of wild salmon, organics

A moist fillet of Faroe Islands Salmon served on  a cedar plank, above, and a Feta-Stuffed Lamb Burger, below, were our main courses on Tuesday at Blue Fin, a seafood restaurant in Manhattan. Hundreds of restaurants like Blue Fin are offering three-course lunches for $29 during the Summer Restaurant Week promotion in Manhattan.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Two people could easily spend more than $100 for a three-course lunch at one of Manhattan's fine-dining restaurants.

But twice a year during the NYC Restaurant Week promotion (actually multiple weeks starting in January and July), price-fixed three-course lunches are only $29, plus tax and tip.

That's often less than the price of an entree at other times. This year, the promotion began on Monday and ends on Aug. 18. 

Three-course dinners are $42, but the choices often are similar to those offered at lunch, so the mid-day meal is a better value.

Typically, Summer Restaurant Week menus offer a minimum of three appetizers, three entrees and two desserts. 

You can view many of the menus online at NYC Restaurant Week.

Filling meal

Me and my wife couldn't have been happier with our delicious lunch on Tuesday at Blue Fin, a seafood restaurant in the W New York Hotel in Times Square.

We felt pleasantly full and because neither of us eat dessert, we took home a Summer Stone Fruit Upside Down Cake and a Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, both served with gelato, and gave them to our son.

My antibiotic-free Atlantic Salmon fillet from the Faroe Islands was cooked medium, as I requested, and the skin was crisped.

I loved the side dish, a warm salad of charred summer corn, grilled scallions and wheat berries.

My wife's Greek-style Lamb Burger came with terrific french fries and a tasty tzatziki or yogurt sauce with shredded cucumber.

Our appetizers were a refreshingly cold Local Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with ricotta and English pea pesto, and a melt-in-the-mouth Shrimp, Basil and Mango Sushi Roll with avocado and yuzu miso.

With tax and a 20% tip, our lunch cost $74.75, but I'll receive a $5 statement credit for charging the meal to a pre-enrolled American Express  card.

At Blue Fin, our starters were Shrimp, Basil and Mango Sushi Roll, above, and Local Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, below.

Blue Fin is at 1567 Broadway (47th Street) in Manhattan; 1-212-918-1400. Just outside the door is the carnival atmosphere of Times Square, below.

An upstairs dining room at Blue Fin. The light bulbs strung on wires, also found in the open staircase and a second dining room, seemed a little tacky, and I was surprised at how many of Blue Fin's employees wore jeans.

The round-trip senior citizen fare on NJ Transit from Hackensack to midtown Manhattan is the biggest bargain in transit, but the two old buses we took are long overdue for replacement.

Fresh wild sockeye salmon fillets were only $9.99 a pound today at the Costco Wholesale in Teterboro -- the same price as farmed Atlantic salmon fillets raised without harmful antibiotics, below.

Artificially colored farmed salmon fillets can't match the deep red-orange color of their wild cousins or the rich taste.

Costco cuts price of wild salmon

For the third time since the first week of June, Costco Wholesale has cut the price of fresh wild sockeye salmon fillets.

At $9.99 a pound, wild salmon is the same price as antibiotic-free farmed salmon and only a dollar more a pound than the lowest-quality farmed Atlantic salmon in the warehouse store.

On June 5, the first shipment of fresh wild salmon went on sale for $16.99 a pound in Teterboro. Then, the price was cut to $15.99 a pound and, a couple of weeks later, to $12.99 a pound.

When the wild-salmon season ends in early October, Costco "typically will have sold some 7 million pounds of fresh, wild salmon" in its U.S. warehouses, according to the Costco Connection magazine.

The Teterboro Costco also is offering instant savings on nearly 40 organic products through Aug. 6, including extra-virgin olive oil, juices, snacks, salsa, pasta sauce and chicken sausage.

For dinner tonight, I grilled six serving pieces of fresh wild salmon and topped them with Costco's Basil Pesto, roughly chopped fresh herbs from my garden and ground Aleppo pepper. I served mine over a homemade tzatziki sauce.

A sale on organic snacks includes an instant coupon on Kale Chips, right.

A 2-liter jug of Kirkland Signature Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is on sale for $12.99 with an instant coupon. This EVOO was top rated on The People's Pharmacy radio program.

A 59-ounce jug of Suja Organic fruit-and-vegetable juice was on sale for $6.49.

A 2-pound, 10-ounce jar of Organic Strawberry Spread wasn't on sale, but cost only $6.99.

A $29 lunch on Manhattan's East Side; recalling cozy home restaurants in Cuba

Ginger & Pepper Crusted Salmon with cauliflower, beets and celery root puree was one of the lunch entrees available on a 3-course Restaurant Week menu for $29 at Tavern 62, a David Burke restaurant on the tony East Side of Manhattan.

I started with a bowl of briny Seafood Chowder (shrimp, clams, leeks and potatoes), one of six appetizers on the price-fixed menu.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I worked up an appetite taking mass transit to the East Side of Manhattan for a bargain $29 lunch at Tavern 62 on Monday. 

I hopped on an express bus from northern New Jersey to the midtown-Manhattan terminal, then hiked through a long pedestrian tunnel and up several flights of stairs to the Q train.

My stop, Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street, is a relatively new subway station with a police booth on the platform, and elevators and an escalator to bring you up to street level.

Hundreds of fine-dining restaurants in Manhattan are offering three-course lunches for $29 and three-course dinners for $42 -- plus tax and tip -- through Friday.

To get a $5 statement credit on a total bill of more than $35, I charged my meal to a pre-registered American Express card.

You can find price-fixed lunches at many Manhattan restaurants, including Tavern 62, after Restaurant Week ends.

The semi-annual promotion returns in July.

2 farmed fish

At Tavern 62, the Restaurant Week menu offered eight entrees, including Roasted Branzino (fillet) and Ginger & Pepper Encrusted Salmon.

All branzino is farmed, so I asked Anthony, my server, about the other choice, and he claimed the fillet was from "wild Atlantic salmon," an oxymoron.

Still, this was one of the best farmed salmon fillets I've had, cooked medium rare, as I requested, and juicy.

I asked my waiter to hold the whipped cream when I ordered Fresh Berries with Passion Fruit Sorbet for dessert.

An unsweetened iced tea was $4 with a refill.

I was seated in what turned out to be the quieter of two dining rooms on the second floor of the restaurant, and walked past Chef/Owner David Burke holding a meeting in an anteroom.

I was disappointed that instead of bread and extra-virgin olive oil, the restaurant serves small muffins and butter, which is presented on a small block of Himalayan Pink Salt (I buy the same salt in a grinder at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro). 

As I was leaving the restaurant, I saw Chef Burke wielding a blow torch over a plate, possibly a dessert. The New Jersey native, who is said to own more than a dozen restaurants, will be 55 on Feb. 27.

DETAILS: Tavern 62 by David Burke is at 135 E. 62nd St., near Lexington Avenue, Manhattan; 1-212-988-9021. Websites: Tavern 62 and NYC Restaurant Week.

I loved the poem by Billy Collins I saw on the Q train: "As you fly swiftly underground ... remember the ones who descended here ... to clear a passage for you where there was only darkness and stone."

Salads at Casual Habana Cafe in Hackensack are a big draw for fans of Cuban food, such as Ensalada de Espinaca y Remolacha or fresh baby spinach tossed with slow-roasted beets and blue cheese, dressed in Spanish Amontillado sherry vinaigrette ($5), above.

Ensalad Aguacate Tropical or ripe avocado, red onion, fresh pineapple and romaine hearts in a cilantro vinaigrette ($6) is chopped into small pieces that make it difficult to eat. We didn't get a serving spoon with the salads, so it was hard to share them.

Cuba's home restaurants

It doesn't take much -- the sound of Cuban salsa music or biting into a tostone -- to remind me of vacations in Cuba, and the cozy home restaurants where I enjoyed so many great meals.

Late Saturday afternoon, we drove over to the closest I can come in the United States, Casual Habana Cafe in Hackensack, for a tasty Cuban dinner.

Me and my wife ordered two salads and shared a Caribbean Paella with two side dishes, and the total was only $28, plus tax and tip, less than I spent for lunch on Monday in Manhattan.

Minor annoyances included my chair, which was too low for the table; a table that rocked; having to ask for a cloth napkin, which aren't put out until 5 p.m.; and no serving spoon with our salads. 

On visits to Cuba, I enjoyed exploring paladares or privately owned 12-seat restaurants in homes or apartments, where I was served moderately priced meals of pork, chicken or seafood, with salad, rice and beans.

I recall me and my wife getting a tip from a taxi driver at my hotel in Santiago, Cuba's second-largest city, and going to a private home for a lunch of some the best lobster we've ever had.

My last trip to Cuba was in 2004, but I've read that many more home restaurants have opened in Havana, Santiago and other cities.

At Casual Habana Cafe, I ordered the Paella Caribena ($17), which was served in a covered pot, but my wife was disappointed to find only two shrimp, and left all of the mussels, clams and squid to me, below.

We loved the long-grain saffron rice.

Two side dishes come with each entree, so we ordered Platanos Maduros or sweet plantains, and Tostones, twice-smashed and fried green plantains, which are sprinkled with a little salt and served with a dipping sauce.

DETAILS: Casual Habana Cafe, at 125 Main St. in Hackensack, is a BYO; 1-201-880-9844. Open 7 days, metered street parking and a small lot in back, enter through unmarked double doors painted orange.  

WEBSITE: Casual Habana Cafe.

MORE ON PALADARES: San Cristobal, a home restaurant in Havana, from a 2012 post on Guardian.com, "Top 10 Paladares in Cuba."

Three courses plus dessert for $14.95; Amex modifies NYC Restaurant Week deal

For a $1 supplement, I chose Potato-Encrusted Filet of Sole for my entree at Giovanni's Restaurant, where a three-course Early Dinner is $14.95 (cash) or $18.95, if you pay with a credit card.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We grabbed a bottle of red wine and drove to Giovanni's in Elmwood Park for three courses of tasty Italian-American food for under $15 each.

The Early Dinner, served daily between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., offers a choice of eight appetizers; nearly two dozen chicken, veal, fish, shrimp or pasta entrees; and coffee or tea and dessert.

Entrees are served with pasta or vegetable and potato. You also get a small salad or tomato and onion.

On Saturday afternoon, I gladly paid a $1 supplement for Potato-Encrusted Filet of Sole instead of the fish of the day, Tilapia.

A small plate of delicious cooked sweet green peppers in balsamic vinegar comes with the warm, crusty bread the restaurant serves.

I was pleasantly full and just had black coffee. My wife chose tea with her dessert, carrot cake.

NYC Restaurant Week

Hundreds of fine-dining restaurants in Manhattan are offering bargain three-course lunches for $29 and three-course dinners for $42, plus tax and tip.

The semiannual NYC Restaurant Week promotion began Monday and runs through Feb. 10.

American Express also has returned with a $5 credit on your billing statement, if you charge your meal to a registered card.

This year, however, you can't get the $5 credit unless you spend $35 in a single transaction. You can get up to four such $5 credits.

A year ago, you could get a $5 credit on lunch, which cost $25 then, plus tax and tip. 

To enroll your card, click here.

At Giovanni's, my wife chose Jumbo Shrimp Marinara over Linguine for her entree.

We both had a Caesar Salad.

My wife's appetizer was Mozzarella and Tomato. Mine was about a half-dozen Mussels in a soupy Garlic Sauce.

I love the restaurant's sweet green peppers marinated in balsamic vinegar.

You can bring your own wine.

Two crisp $20 bills were all we needed to pay for a satisfying dinner for two, including tax and tip.

Over the weekend, Giovanni's changed its name to Al Dente Italian Restaurant, according to its website: "Originally Giovanni's. Same owners, same great food, only the name has changed."

The outside of the strip mall is being renovated.

Details

Al Dente Restaurant (formerly Giovanni's), 430 Market St., Elmwood Park; 201-791-3000. Closed Mondays. BYO, parking lot. Reservations recommended.

Website: Al Dente Italian Restaurant