Feed Me
The dish on Long Island's restaurant and food scene
The Phoenix, Seaford: Chef's night off debacle
Back in April, The Phoenix in Seaford earned a three-star rating in Newsday. A recent chef change, however, motivated a return visit. And a sense of loss. For the food here was certainly not what it once was.
True, I returned on a night when — I later learned — chef Scott Zachman was not in the house. But that shouldn't have made a difference.
Spicy peanut soup ($6) remained a favorite,...
Read more »The week's restaurant reviews
Photo credit: Alessandro Vecchi
Joan Reminick can’t argue with the restaurant’s name, Pretty Toni’s: “Chef and co-owner Toni Clifton is undeniably attractive.” But she’s equally taken with Clifton's “passion, heart and skill” at this Valley Stream spot that features a “nontraditional version of soul food” that avoids “pork products and large quantities of fat and sugar.”
Peter Gianotti visits Wansuapona Musu in Sea Cliff,...
Read more »300 Long Island: Bowling alley cuisine
Photo credit: Newsday Joan Reminick
A lucky strike, finding a creditable Vietnamese summer roll one recent afternoon at - of all places - a Melville bowling center.
300 Long Island is part of a nine-venue group of such centers scattered nationwide, all under the AMF banner, all serving up the identical menu.
At lunch, a friend and I found the place fairly quiet. Seated at high tables, we began with the surprisingly bright...
Read more »Red Robin, Carle Place, launches cell-phone paging app
Photo credit: Joan Reminick
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, a national chain with a branch in Carle Place, just launched a new in-store app called Noshlist that informs you via your phone that your table is ready. This means the end of carrying around heavy buzzers within a few yards of the place. You can also use the wait time to shop nearby.
The app, which is on the store’s iPad, inputs your name, party size and cell number...
Read more »Unique comes to Oceanside
Photo credit: Handout
Unique makes all its own the bi-level Oceanside space that once housed Umi.
Executive chef-owner Andy Yang said he spent a decade working for the Nobu Corporation, opening restaurants from New York to LA to Miami to Las Vegas. Yang also was corporate chef for Nisen in Woodbury and Commack.
As for the restaurant's name, Yang said that the place represents a “new concept,” one that brings...
Read more »Cinco de Mayo opens in Calverton
Photo credit: Handout
Calverton now has its own Mexican restaurant — Cinco de Mayo, which debuted two weeks ago in the space that once housed Crossroads.
Chef co-owner Refugio Iglesias has an impressive non-Mexican resume, having cooked at Manhattan dining spots such as The Harrison and Verbena. Here in Calverton, Iglesias serves the food of his native Puebla, Mexico.
On the still-evolving menu: spicy...
Read more »Blue Agave brings Tex-Mex to Riverhead
Photo credit: Newsday Joan Reminick
Facing onto a Riverhead municipal parking lot that's behind the Japanese restaurant Haiku, you'll find a little Tex-Mex cafe called Blue Agave Mexican Grill. As it turns out, both Blue Agave and Haiku share ownership with Hy Ting, a venerable Chinese restaurant nearby.
Late one recent afternoon, after catching sight of a Blue Agave sign outside Haiku, I headed around back to check out the...
Read more »Grimaldi's Garden City: Pizza conquers all
Photo credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
This is how I know that pizza is really good: I can’t stop eating it.
Long after my hunger has abated, on into satiety and then discomfort, I continue eating. Others have ceased and desisted. Not me. I am embarrassing myself. Then, too, the pizza is now cold. The cheese has congealed and the sauce is more of a tomato jam. I am not finished.
That was the scene at Grimaldi’s in Garden...
Read more »Delhi 6, Hicksville: Off the buffet table
Photo credit: Newsday Joan Reminick
It was lunchtime when a friend and I stopped into the spacious new Delhi 6 Indian Frontier Cuisine in Hicksville.
Everyone in the main dining room, it seemed, was partaking of the restaurant’s large and varied lunch buffet. “What kind of bread would you like; naan, garlic naan or puri?” the waiter asked, assuming we’d be hopping on the buffet bandwagon. Bread, it seems, is gratis in the $9.95...
Read more »Islip: BBQ demo and dinner
Photo credit: Newsday / Joan Reminick
Will Breakstone, Long Island’s much-decorated pitmaster (and owner of the late, lamented Willie B’s in Bay Shore and former bbq maestro at Lily Flanagan’s in Islip) will be giving a demonstration on how to select, trim, rub, smoke and sauce baby back ribs this Saturday.
The demo, held at Long Island Cooking in Islip, will be followed with a three-course dinner made up of ribs (of course) as...
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