Dim Sum In Flushing NY

Jade Asian Restaurant
136-28 39th Ave
Flushing NY 11354

I've been to dim sum almost everywhere in the city from Flushing, Forest Hills, Chinatown and even Chinatown in Philly. Even with trying all these different dim sum places my favorite place to go to is Jade Asian Restaurant in Flushing. If you're planing to try it out on a weekend I suggest going early because the wait can be anywhere from 30-45 minutes. The food is literally that good. From the first time I went there I noticed not only Chinese people go there, but there's a big mix of nationalities that go.

The restaurant is not too far from the 7 train either. It's about two street blocks and half an avenue block. Once you know where to get off on the train it won't be that difficult for you to find it the second time around. Also Main Street can get a little crowded on the weekend as well. Take the train instead of driving in. Parking can take forever even at the municipal parking lot.

Once you get to the restaurant it is huge and can cater to small or large parties. Once you step inside it's like a big catering hall with many tables ranging from 5-10 people. If you go in a small group of two to four people they'll ask you if it's okay to share a table. It really doesn't matter to me if I have to share a table I don't mind doing so.

The best way to describe dim sum is it's brunch with Chinese traditional dishes and everything is a la cart. Some of my favorite dishes are pork shumai, beef tripe, chicken feet, this white noodle wrap like thing with shrimp inside it or fried dough (I have no idea what's it's called, I usually point at it and ask for shrimp or fried dough) spring rolls, etc. They also have baked or steamed pork buns and I usually decide on which one I order depending on my mood. It changes every time I go. Although some people might get grossed out when they hear beef tripe or chicken feet, don't knock it till you try it. The chicken feet especially is made with a teriyaki barbecue sauce and it's really good. Every Chinese restaurant that does dim sum has this dish available, but Jade Asian Restaurant is the best!!!

I think this place is the best because they have so many dishes going around. Some places have the typical dishes and that's it, but this restaurant has so much more to offer. Plus they have all the room in the world for it and there's always an endless amount of carts going around with people trying to sell what they have. There's also other dishes that I haven't tried and I don't have an interest in trying them because I'm content with getting my favorites.

Of course after every meal you have to have dessert and their egg custard has to be one of the best I've ever tried. It just melts in your mouth and the crust is very soft. Some of the Chinese bakeries make the crust a little too hard, but at Jade restaurant the crust is nice and flaky. Every time I go there I always have to get the egg custard. They have different kinds of puddings as well, but I've never tried them before. All of puddings look great, but I'm not a big pudding person.

So if you're in the mood for brunch and want to try something different go check out Jade Asian Restaurant. With so many different choices there's something for everyone at this place. I guarantee you won't regret it and you'll get out of there needing a pillow because the food is very filling.

Below are a couple of pictures I took while I was there the last time which was on Columbus Day.

Some of my Dim Sum faves.

Egg Custard 

Want to Try Something Exotic, Go Eat at Asian Taste 86

Asian Taste 86
81-20 Whitney Ave
Elmhurst NY 11373

From the name you might think this is your regular Chinese restaurant, but it's not. Most of the items on the menu are some of the more popular Indonesian dishes. In New York City there's a few Indonesian restaurants, but I choose the ones I go to by their menu. If they offer something my mom normally doesn't or can't cook then that's where I'll be eating.

I've eat at Asian Taste 86 only three times and I've only had two dishes from there. When you walk into the restaurant it's really small. It only has about five to six tables, but when it gets packed there's also a downstairs area. All the waitresses can speak both Indonesian and English so it kind of reminds you of being in Indonesia.

The first two times I ate there I had the salty fish fried rice (Nasi Goreng Ikan Asin). It was the best fried rice I've ever had. They put noodles in their fried rice. Now that might sound a little weird, but a lot of Asians eat rice with noodles. When you put these two items together even better. Also the noodles are cut up into small pieces so it's not throwing off the rice. My mom has also tried making fried rice with noodles and she was surprised herself that it came out good. If I'm not mistaken the noodles they used in their fried rice were egg noodles. You can also let them know how spicy you want your food to be. I've tried both the mild and medium fried rice and the medium was really spicy. Now I know that when I got there to get everything mild.

The last time I went I got the smashed friend chicken with coconut rice. I got the sauce on the side and I was happy I did because it was very spicy. It's called the smashed fried chicken because you get a 1/4 of a chicken and they flatten it out as much as they can. The skin of the chicken was perfect and it was crunchy too, just the right amount of crunch to it. Then to drink I got the Thai Ice Tea which is a favorite among the family. The tea is not overly sweet even though they use condense milk in it. If you like bubble tea this Thai Ice Tea is very similar to it. You can also order the drink with the tapioca bubbles. Although I've never had it like that since I like to drink this during my meal. The only time I drink it with the tapioca bubbles is when I'm drinking it by itself.

Overall if you're looking for good quality exotic food Asian Taste 86 is a place you should consider. Awesome food and great prices, that alone should make you go and try it out.

Smashed Fried Chicken and Coconut Rice

Thai Ice Tea

Beer Garden In Williamsburg

Berry Park
4 Berry Street
Brooklyn NY 11211
BerryParkBK.com

Berry Park is a beer garden in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY. A couple of  weekends ago I went there for a birthday party and I had so much fun.

Berry Park has an indoor garden with picnic tables like any other beer gardens. The indoor area is very dim. I'd love to see this place in the day time. One thing this beer garden is known for is they have a great variety of craft beers.

Prior to going there that night my boyfriend and I ate dinner at Keg & Latern in Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY (I'll be doing a blog on Keg & Latern as well) and we did a little pre-gaming as well.

So when we got to Berry Park my first beer was a Leffe Blonde. Since I like wheat beers I figured this might be somewhat similar. I'm glad I picked that beer because it was a great choice and was very smooth. So after everyone got their drinks we decided to go to the roof top. It was a beautiful October night to be up on the roof top. Just like every other roof top it had a bar with all the same beers as the bar downstairs, but this time around every table was packed. It took our group about thirty minutes to finally get a table.

Then once I was finished with my Leffe Blonde I switched to the Aventinus which is a strong German beer. The glass it came in was huge and the bartender was right because I had one glass and that was my last drink for the night. I wasn't looking to get bombed, but I had a good buzz going on.

After hanging out on the roof top for a while we decided to go downstairs because that night it felt a little muggy out. When we got downstairs the DJ was playing good music and while you're having the most fun that's when time goes by the fastest. After what felt like just a little bit of time it was already 3AM and it was time to go home. Although the place doesn't close till 4AM, I had to get outta there already. Some of the many joys of being an adult, you have to be semi responsible too.

Overall Berry Park is a great place to go to whether you're going out in a group or on a date. The next time I go there will be for brunch. Their brunch menu looks good and the night I was there I saw some people eating and it looked great.

So there it is another cool spot to go to in Williamsburg.

I can't even be mad at him photobombing my picture. LOL!!!

Breakfast Hot Spot

Bagel Bin
86-10 Jamaica Ave
Woodhaven NY 11421

Every neighborhood has a bagel store that everyone buys their breakfast/lunch from. I think one of the best bagel stores out there is the Bagel Bin located in Woodhaven.

On the weekdays they have an awesome breakfast special. For $3 you can get a breakfast sandwich (with any meat) with a hash brown and coffee. So here and there I'll take advantage of this deal and get myself a bacon egg and cheese sandwich on whole wheat toast. I use to get it on a bagel, but it was too filling. So I've learned that getting it on whole wheat bread will get me full, but not as full as the bagel. Then the other deal they have is for an egg and cheese sandwich with a hash brown and coffee is all for $2.

Those specials are worth it. Besides their specials everything at the Bagel Bin is very affordable. Which is great if you're on a budget and especially with the holidays coming around. Every penny counts. I like to buy my breakfast there and bring it to work because let's face it if I was to get a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with a coffee and hash brown in Manhattan I'll probably be spending more than $5. So I'm saving a whole bunch by getting breakfast here.

Since this is the only bagel shop in Woodhaven Saturdays and Sundays are always packed. I would suggest calling in your order and picking it up. I've been there many mornings on the weekend to get breakfast for my family and it really is worth it.

The Bagel Bin is a great place offering great food and service. If only more places can be like the Bagel Bin New York City would be a even better place : )

Mesa Coyoacan in Williamsburg, Mexican Food At It's Finest

Mesa Coyoacan
372 Graham Ave
(Bet. Skillman & Conselyea)

Earlier this month my boyfriend and I decided to go for a late lunch date at Mesa Coyoacan. It's a Mexican restaurant in Williamsburg. The place is not too small nor too big either. Prior to this it was a restaurant as well. Once you walk in there's a full bar to your left and tables to your right. After the bar there's a booth that sits about six to eight people. Eight people would be pushing it, but it might be doable. Then across the bar there's a large table for guests who have a bigger party. After this table there are a row of smaller tables.The lighting of the place was dim, but not dark where you couldn't see who you were sitting with. At night it definitely has a romantic vibe there.

Towards the back of the restaurant is where the kitchen is located. You can see almost everything that's going on in there. Also there's only one bathroom in the restaurant which makes sense due to the space.

Once we sat down and saw the menu everything looked amazing. The only thing is all the entrees did not automatically come with rice and beans so you'd have to order it on the side. I decided on the enchiladas because that's my go to dish when I eat Mexican food. My boyfriend on the other hand chosen the chicken tacos which was a good choice.

As for the drinks they had the more popular Spanish beers on the drink menu and of course wine and sangria. I'm a big fan of Sangria so I decided to get a pitcher of it. We weren't in a rush so finishing a pitcher shouldn't be a problem. Once the waiter came we put in our orders for the food and drinks. With the food we decided to get a side order of rice and beans.

The waiter was very nice and you didn't get that feeling that you didn't belong there. Certain places in Williamsburg are not as welcoming as others. From the outside you couldn't really tell if this was was going to be like that, but thank goodness it wasn't. All the waiters and waitresses were great. When looking over the menu we had to ask another waiter what one of the dishes were and they seemed eager help us. It seemed like everyone liked their job. It irks the hell out of me to see an employee at a restaurant look like they're miserable and would rather be where else.

When our drinks came my boyfriend had said he'll drink some of the Sangria with me, but of course that didn't happen. It was okay though because the sangria was really good. You could taste the alcohol in it and it wasn't overpowering. The fruits in the sangria made it even more delicious. My boyfriend opt for a Modelo Negro. I've tasted it before, but I'm not a fan of it.

Then finally the food came and we were hungry. My chicken enchilada was amazing. Now I wasn't saying this because I was hungry, but it was simply the truth. My enchilada came with a green sauce on top of it and slices of avocado. The beans that came with the dish was smashed or paste like. I've never beans served like that and I really enjoyed it. I even made a mental note of it so I can try to make it myself. The rice and beans side dish were just as good as everything as. The rice was mixed with corn and it was seasoned with some kind of Spanish seasoning. The rice was not plain and that's what made it memorable. There was absolutely nothing bad that could have been said about the food.

Once we were done with the food we looked at the dessert menu cause I still had about two or three glasses left of my sangria. I wasn't going to chug my sangria down either. My boyfriend is not big on trying new desserts because he has a peanut allergy. So if it's something that he doesn't know he'd rather not try it. Although sometimes he could be a little daring, but that's on his terms. So instead we got salsa and chips.

Once my sangria and the salsa and chips were done it was time to get outta there. After eating all that food I just wanted to get up and walk around. The check came and the prices were very reasonable. I would recommend this place because the atmosphere is great. Whether you're hanging out with friend/ family or on a date this place caters to everyone. The staff was awesome and they made you feel really welcomed. Of course the best thing about Mesa Coyoacan are the food and drinks. I can't wait to go there again and hopefully next time I'll be more adventurous and try something different.

Welcome To My Second Blog... Inda's Tasty Reviews

My first blog is Inda's Adventures. There I'll be writing about the things I do, places I've been to and briefly touch on the restaurants and bar I've gone to. With Inda's Tasty Reviews it'll only consist of reviews on restaurants/bars. Here I'll be going into the details of how a restaurant/ bar was and make the reader feel as if they were with me while I was there. 

I've decided to start this blog separately because originally this is what I wanted to focus my blog on, but decided not to because there's so many different things to write about. I didn't want to stick to one thing. Then as I started developing my blog I thought it would be a good idea to start a new one focusing on different restaurants/bars. New York City has so many different restaurants, bars, street carts, food trucks, and deli's. When it comes to food New York is very diversified and unique. It's rare to find another city such as ours. We have Chinatown, Little Italy, Little India, Koreatown (also known as K Town), and some of these communities have two locations. For example there's a Chinatown in Manhattan, but if you go to Flushing that's the Chinatown of Queens. Also if you're familiar with Queens you know that 69th Street Woodside has the best filipino food. With so many different places to write about I had to go with the idea and create a new blog.

With Inda's Tasty Reviews I'll be rating restaurants/bars on everything such as the food, drinks, service, atmosphere, and decor. Most of the places I've been to have been great and I'd love to put their name out there so people can enjoy it too. Of course this blog will mainly focus on places in the New York City area, but every once in a while I will mention restaurants in other cities.

I mentioned about all the different kinds of restaurants, but there's also a million and one bars in New York City. I'll be putting in the same details in my bar reviews, but what I'll really put in details is their service. With a bar I feel that the bartender makes or breaks the place. If the service is bad then of course you're not going to go there again. That'd be the most visible difference between the reviews. 

As always recommendations are always welcome here. I'd love to hear about a new place that someone thinks has great food. I'm a firm believer that just because one person might not like the place it doesn't mean everyone will think the same.