Dinosaur BBQ

Dinosaur BBQ:

646 West 131st Street

NY, NY 10027

Went to Dinosaur BBQ for my roommate's birthday. Dinosaur BBQ was one of the few places we could find that would accommodate a party of 20. The restaurant is large and wooden inside. It has the traditional bbq spot feel. Loud, dark, and a lot of energy running around.

I had never been here before and was surprised at how close it was to Columbia. When I left I told myself I would come back soon. I am writing this post over a month later, and have not been back. Don't know what that says. The place was absolutely delicious, but a little out of my normal lunch price quota and bbq isn't something I normally crave.

One of the hardest things about being a food blogger is remembering to take pictures. Especially before you begin eating the food. Failure this time. Also, the place was dark so picture quality further diminishes. I am still getting a hang of this people!

But, here ya go. LOL. this is a picture of the half-rack of ribs, with sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, and cornbread. Woops, all you can see are some bones and a piece of corn bread. The ribs were better then standard and made you feel happy when eating them. Of course, these were nothing compared to my rib place back home. On a side note, everyone seems to have a "favorite, absolutely best" rib place.

I also offer pictures of other entrees offered at this restaurant. These pics are slightly better. Thank god other people are crazy and don't order ribs at a bbq rib joint! haha.

Someone else got the chicken plate, and then another crazy person got wings.

Rating: 8

ELEVEN MADISON PARK

Eleven Madison Park:

11 Madison Park Ave

New York, NY 10010

So my friend Tiffany and I are two of the cheapest people around. However, once in a while we splurge on some fine dining. On this occasion the lovely restaurant of choice was Eleven Madison Park. Other food blogs had been raving about this place so we decided to give it a try.

The building was STUNNING! LOVE ART DECO ARCHITECTURE! Pastel greens and oranges on the high-ceiling walls, just yummy. The space is quite large and feels spacious. When we got there (a tad early) we were immediately sat. Good job! Waiting, in general, just blows.

The service was superb. We had three servers four our little table. One head server, her bitch that brought the food, and the water dude. Since Tiffany and I had already looked at the menu way ahead of time and knew exactly what we were ordering, that whole beginning process was quite fast. Bread and signature butter was placed on our table immediately, along with a sampling of some marshmellow-consistency like delicacies. The delicacies weren't too yummy.

The bread was great, but I have had better ( like at Jean-Gorges haha).

For the first plate, Tiffany got the seared diver scallop with rhubarb, celery, and yuzu and I ordered the composition of young vegetables with market lettuce and almond. We both agreed to order different items so that we could share each others and get the most (for our money) out of the experience.

As I have been trying new food items that I swore I would never eat as I child, I have come to be quite a fan of scallops. They are still not the first thing I look to order off of a menu, but when they are served there usually tasty. This scallop was delicious! Perfect consistency and not fishy at all. I loved the top part that was harder and crusted.

Salads are not usually something you get at a nice restaurant when attempting to be adventerous, but it the only other plate we could happily agree on. The greens were so fresh, and Tiffany and I were blown away by the snap peas. SNAP PEAS! Later that week I went to buy snap peas from the grocery store just because of how good these were. Sadly, snap peas from the local Morton Williams without any good flavoring are not as tasty.

Then on to the second! We both really wanted the lamb, so we got the same entree. According to Eleven Madison Park, we ordered the Herb Roasted Colorado Lamb with Sucrine Lettuce, Garden Peas, and Pickled Mustard. I love it when restaurants plate food in a cool way. The lamb was served in five different ways. 1) lamb sausage (4) 2) just lamb( (9!!!) 3) fried lamb (5) 4) pasta lamb (6) 5) fatty lamb ( 3)

The ratings next to each type of lamb probably display my lack of high-cuisine taste buds. But, the lamb served that looked the most like "just lamb" was the best. The fatty lamb was REALLY fatty and the consistency was just too much for me.

Sitting at this restaurant I felt important. Of course Tiff and I noticed the impeccably well dressed 25-year old sitting next to us. The other customers were mostly in there 50's. We were only 30% treated like little kids spending our hard-saved money at a nice restaurant. The other 70% of treatment felt like we were just like anyone else, with money.

This picture demonstrates what the plate originally looked like. The sauce on the meat was poured at the table.

The desert cart was tempting, but adding that last plate would have really upped the price. We decided to pass and just hit up a deli-market outside. Tiff got a bag of chips.

Rating: 7