Immaculate Infatuation

There was a time when this was the only restaurant anywhere near the Upper East side that we would make a trip for. J.G. Melon’s is one of the better burgers in New York City, and it had it’s 30th anniversary long before Shake Shack and Five Guys started opening up locations around town like Duane Reade. Nowadays there are a few more culinary bright spots in the area (namely Cascabel and Flex), but it seemed nessecary that we give J.G. Melon’s it’s due respect.

If you haven’t been, there are a few things you should know: it will inevitably be crowded, you need to drink beers by the bottle (not from the tap), and the service will not be friendly. But before you go running to Yelp to tell all your “friends” about how mean they were to you, consider this – it’s a New York institution that’s been serving burgers since TGI Friday’s was nothing more than a swinging singles bar down the street. Respect your elders and eat.

Photo Credit: Nick Solares/A Hamburger Today

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While The Infatuation definitely feels more at home slumming it around the East Village, we do enjoy throwing down on classy meals every once in a while. We just can’t afford to do it that often (yet). It’s not like this was our first time to the dance. We’ve eaten – and enjoyed – plenty of white tablecloth, prix fixe menu situations before. This one just so happened to be a disaster. Is it possible that my East Village palate isn’t refined enough to properly critique Corton’s four star foam-happy French cuisine? Absolutely. I’ve spent a total of five days in Paris over the course of my life, can’t speak a word of the language and didn’t understand half of the ingredients on this menu. That doesn’t change the fact that my recent meal at Corton was one of the worst I’ve had all year, second only to the infamous Shang.

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Although it has since re-opened, when word spread a few months ago that a fire had closed Great Jones for the foreseeable future, we were concerned. It wouldn’t be right for the lights to go out without an Infatuation review. Having lived on Mulberry and Houston for a couple of years, Great Jones served as a perfect Neighborhood Hang, reliable for a quick burger or Chronic Brunch in a pinch. While the food isn’t saving lives or changing the world, it’s satisfying enough and reasonably affordable. In a NoHo area flooded with sexy “it” restaurants, an Old New York style hole in the wall is nice to have in your back pocket. Respect.

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The owners of Little Giant have a new venture in Chelsea, a “fun” neighborhood restaurant serving “refined comfort food”. We’re not sure that Tipsy Parson feels particularly refined, but it definitely feels overthought. They’ve gone to great lengths to replicate a Southern country cafe in New York City, down to quirky plates decorating the wall, an antique phone, and kitschy old-fashioned desserts and snacks. But that’s just the problem. After a few meals here it’s apparent that they’ve done a perfect job of creating the concept, but at the cost of under-delivering on the food. The majority of the fare falls somewhere between unimpressive and decent – possibly a result of all that “refining”. Comfort food is comfort food when eating it makes you feel like calories make you smarter and your problems don’t exist. Fried chicken with honey and hot sauce on top of a fucking donut. That’s comfort food. Unfortunately you won’t find much of that feel-good decadence at Tipsy Parson. If you’re in the neighborhood searching for a meal to soothe you, hit Cookshop.

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Our discovery of Nyonya was ultimately the result of a discussion over dinner at Fatty Crab. I was eating there with friends well versed in Malaysian cuisine, and they insisted that while Fatty Crab may be good, it’s a travesty to enjoy it without knowing the real deal. Hence, a Nyonya dinner was put on the books, and the experts were going to show us the way. We’re glad they did.

Nyonya is well known as one of the few real Malasyian restaurants in New York City. It is loved equally among people who were raised on food like this, and those that more casually enjoy cuisine of the region. The menu is huge, and you will find traditional Malaysian dishes like Nasi Lamak and Prawn Mee, but you’ll also see Phad Thai and other more well known regional items. The food is excellent, and everything is cheap, which means plenty of room left in your budget for Tiger beers. After a few visits, we’ve decided our friends were right. We won’t exactly be running back to Fatty Crab to drop four times the money on an “interpretation” of the real thing.

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