Following up from my previous post, I had mentioned that I had seen list in Zagat for the best food halls in NY. We already went to City Kitchen, next stop was Gotham West Market. A little out of the way if you aren’t in the area (Hell’s Kitchen), but we happened to be coming home from the water taxi!

The space is industrial and plays the music just a tad too loud for conversations to be had at a normal tone. 9 vendors have space here and all of them looked delicious, it was hard to choose!

Our first stop, Genuine Roadside.

The menu offers a sampling of burgers, pork, chicken and vegetarian options.

Poke style ahi tacos ($13) were top on our must try list. They came with spicy mayo, avocado and border slaw with sesame in crispy corn shells. This puts tacos in a whole new light – it may be hard to go back to traditional tacos after this! Really delicious – salty and creamy, I love everything that was going on in this dish.

I had been dying to try out Ivan Ramen’s Slurp Shop. Ivan Orkin is a world renowned ramen expert and his shop serves classic ramen. If you can’t make it to Hell’s Kitchen, they have a location on Clinton Street.

Here’s what I love about this place, they keep the soup separate until you’re ready to eat it so the noodles stay in tact. I ordered the Shio ramen that came with sea salt, dashi, chicken broth, pork belly chashu and rye noodles.

Tokyo Shio ($12). Don’t worry if you’re not in the mood for ramen, they also have some delicious rice bowls. And, if you happen to be there in weekend mornings, they have a tasty brunch men complete with breakfast buns, rice porridge and even a breakfast ramen.

Choza Taqueria serves up a variety of tamales, burritos, tacos, torts and ceviches.

The burritos are enormous ($8.73) and come loaded with black beans, rice and pico, along with fresh cilantro in a flour tortilla.

The chicken tacos were delicious, they came 3 to an order for $8.04 – double corn tortillas served with citrus marinated chicken and queso fresco.

And how can you forget dessert? Zagat rated Ample Hills the #1 ice cream shop in New York City.

This Brooklyn based company serves up hand crafted ice cream in flavors like ooey gooey cake batter, snap mallow pop, chocolate milk and cookies and peppermint patty.

I had the orange dreamsicle, sherbet made with orange juice, pure vanilla cream and a splash of Grand Marnier. Super delicious!

Nothing starts the day or ends the evening better than a cup of coffee. Blue Bottle has locations in SF, LA, New York and Tokyo. For the serious coffee drinker, not those that are looking for milk and sugar with a touch of coffee, Blue Bottle offers a variety of coffee options. If you’re stopping in in the morning, they also have some delicious baked goods.

Gotham West Market

600 11th Ave., New York, NY

http://gothamwestmarket.com/

The post Gotham West Market appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

Not surprising, there are only about 12 other people here. Most are sitting at the bar, so we get a nice big booth to ourselves. While this place will be great in the summer time when they open up the windows, it is freezing inside tonight.

I like the decor here – leather chairs and banquettes mixed with distressed wood, Moroccan style lamps and (fake) candles.

We start off with the guacamole $10, smashed hass avocado, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro that come with a bowl of chips. I read their reviews on Yelp, and they are getting killed on ratings, most people giving them 1 or 2 stars. With almost no one there, you would think that the service would have been excellent, unfortunately, our waitress seemed disinterested with us. When the guacamole arrived, we asked for salsa (twice) and it arrived after our entrees were delivered. I have the short rib enchilada baked with salsa rojo and Monterey Jack ($18). The food was ok for me, nothing to write home about, but it was certainly edible (and the portion was generous). I’m thinking that you should stick to coming here for drinks after work with friends – they have over 100 different kinds of tequila and $1 beef or chicken tacos during happy hour.

Speaking of tequila, are/were you an #Entourage fan? Remember when Turtle goes into business with a tequila company, #Avion? Avion is a real brand of tequila, and you can try it at Mija. See that Maggie Hoffman, of Serious Eats,  thought of Avion here.

Mija Cantina

Faneuil Hall Marketplace

http://mijaboston.com/

The post Mija Cantina appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

Taco Truck

See the menu here

www.thetacotruck.com

The post Taco Truck appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

I grab 3 barbacoa tacos with guacamole and cotija cheese (cheese and guac are an additional charge). The tacos come with pasilla braised shredded beef with onions, cilantro and roasted red salsa. The meat has some really nice flavor and the guacamole and cheese add a nice texture. Highly recommend that you stop by. Check out their website or follow them on Twitter to find their location.

The Taco Truck

http://www.thetacotruck.com/locations/boston-truck

The post Taco Truck appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

We spent the weekend down at the Cape. It was an unexpected sunny day, so we decided to head down to Woods Hole for lunch. We even managed to get a parking spot right out front, what luck!

We haven’t been to Quick’s Hole in quite some time, but loved the freshness of the food, and the intense flavors so we head back with the intention of getting our fish taco on.

They have a great little patio deck off to the side. Great place to people watch.

There is also bar style seating against the wall and around the perimeter to add additional seating.

We get the lobster quesadilla, it’s enormous! At $21.95 it is not cheap, but it is pretty darn tasty.

After trying a bite of the Baja shrimp tacos, I wished I had ordered the shrimp quesadilla, but will keep it in mind for next time. The tacos come 2 for $13.95. They are bright in color and flavor – really tasty. All in all, really satisfied – a nice afternoon!

Quicks Hole

6 Luscombe Avenue
Woods Hole, MA 02543
(508) 495-0792
quickshole@gmail.com

Hours:  11 am to 10 pm every day in season.
Closed for winter.

http://www.quicksholewickedfresh.com

The post Quicks Hole appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

It was a rainy afternoon, and a weird hour. We had missed lunch and we were running non stop errands. We drove by a Taco Bell and there was a request to stop in. I grew up on McDonald’s…and now when I have the craving and go, my stomach hurts for a month – you have to build up an iron stomach for that stuff. But I draw the line at Taco Bell and am proud to say I’ve never eaten there. The main draw for the stop request was of course the Cool Ranch Dorito Taco. You’ve seen the commercials. I concede to stopping and wait in the car. Here’s what the Taco Bell photo looks like:

Doesn’t even look all that appealing on the website…

Here’s what we got…

There was almost no meat. I had one bite, and while I can’t accurately describe what it tasted like…it did not taste like a Cool Ranch Dorito. So…that was the first and last time we will make a stop at Taco Bell.

The post Cool Ranch Dorito Taco – Taco Bell appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

We had a mishap in trying to find this place before, we ended up next door at Deep Ellum. So when we finally returned, we were ready! We had built this place up in our heads, so we couldn’t wait to dive in. Love the bar, a really simple but great set up.

It was a weeknight, so there weren’t too many other people here. Our waitress was really nice and gave us some good suggestions. The service is what you would expect from a bar.

How do you go Mexican and not get guacamole? ($9)

Chicken Ranchero Tostada, Crispy tortilla house beans topped with ranchero braised chicken, Napa cabbage and crema.

You get the tacos per piece, so they run about $4 a piece. Order a few per person and you can always order more if you’re hungry. We had the Beef Barbacoa: Smoked brisket, pickled red onion, avocado crema, cotija and the Dallas Spicy Beef: Spicy beef with mushrooms and chilis on a fried tortilla with longhorn cheese.

Grilled Street Corn ($6) with Cotija, cilantro, chili lime aioli. Really delicious! We ate so many tacos that it was an expensive night, more money than we thought we were going to spend, but good to try out the place once. It’s location and lack of parking make it kind of pain to get to. The food was good, and if it were more convenient, we would probably go more often.

LONE STAR TACO BAR

479 Cambridge St. Boston, MA 02134
617.782.822

http://www.lonestar-boston.com

The post Lone Star Taco Bar appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

Check out their menu on their site http://www.thetacotruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/TTT_Boston.pdf

I had the barbacoa de costilla tacos – 2 corn tortilla tacos for $5 (pictured on the bottom right) and the arroz red rice with corn ($2.50). Lunch for under $10 and I was full! The tacos have a really nice flavor to them, I was impressed they came off a truck. The meat was a little hard to bite apart in a lady like way at the office, but hey, it was worth it. The flavors were bold without being overwhelming. The rice was tasty, simple but good. I’ve been dying to have them again, this time to try the tacos with guacamole and cotija cheese, but they are MIA. Taco Truck, hurry up and fix your truck, my whole office is waiting for you to come back because I’ve been raving about you guys!

http://www.thetacotruck.com/

To check out where food trucks are around Boston, check out this site: http://www.cityofboston.gov/business/mobile/schedule-tabs.asp

The post Taco Truck appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.

We arrived on a Saturday morning at around 11:30 am. Inside, there are enough seating for about 15 and some counter seats by the window. The space is bright and clean.

There were a lot of college kids there-the price is right after all. You know they weren’t from around the area when you can hear them say that they were surprised that Zaftig’s had an hour wait!

I ordered the breakfast quesadillas, 12 inch flour tortilla with three cheeses, scrambled eggs, & salsa fresca (for $4.50) and for a $1 more, I added spicy portabella mushrooms (you can get House-made pork chorizo, Grilled marinated steak, Grilled marinated chicken, and Grilled zucchini & red peppers each for just a  dollar more). You can also add Guacamole +.75, add Sour Cream +.50, Add Rice & Beans +1.00, and Add Patatas Bravas +2.00. There was really great flavor in the quesadilla-the cheese was melted and the eggs were fluffy and light. I love the spicy mushrooms-they weren’t “hot” spicy, as in burn your lips, but they had  more of a warm spice.

My dining companion had the 2 breakfast taco plate ($6.25) that come with scrambled eggs, salsa fresca & guacamole, rice and black beans. The tacos come with two tortillas each, and you definitely need them because there is so much filling inside-it’s a little hard to eat them politely. The beans also had a warm spice flavor to them-as in, it doesn’t hit you right away but warms the back of your throat.

We had a really great breakfast there-the food was excellent-the service was quick and efficient-and the best part….they serve beer! (and sangria). We can’t wait to go back and try the other things on the menu!

Dorado Tacos and Cemitas

401 Harvard Street Brookline, MA 02446

Open 11AM – 10PM

(617) 566-2100

http://doradotacos.com/

The post Dorado Tacos appeared first on A Little Bit About a Lot of Things.