Choice Eats

Tonight we attended "Choice Eats", an event hosted by the Village Voice, featuring restaurants handpicked by Robert Sietsema of Counter Culture fame. The event was located at the historic Puck Building in Manhattan and included more than 30 restaurants from all boroughs except Staten Island, which didn’t really shock us. Going in, we were not sure whether it would be a clusterfuck or an enlightening, fun experience. Turns out it fell somewhere in between. Below we have listed the night’s winners and losers (in our humble opinion):

"Choice Eats" Winners
Fatty Crab (643 Hudson St.) - Zak Pelaccio's most acclaimed restaurant was handing out short ribs that had the whole building buzzing. So much so, they were the first restaurant to sell out.

Kampuchea (78 Rivington St.) - This LES noodle bar boasted premium pork ribs. While the line was wrapping around the building, we were lucky enough to bypass it telling them we were from the highly regarded blog: Bellybusters.

Pacificana (813 55th St., Brooklyn) - Hailing from BK, this spot brought a Schezuan Chicken that tasted like a combination of sesame chicken and general tso's -- a combo we believe cannot be denied some praise.

Schnitzel House (7319 5th Ave, Brooklyn) - Beef goulash so good it will make anyone a fan of "Ze Germans."

"Choice Eats" Losers
Xuntas Tapas Bar (174 1st Ave.) - With a shot to differentiate itself from the influx of tapas restaurant in this city, they served a boring grilled chorizo. Pretty lame, they certainly did NOT bring their A-game with an outing like this.

Vanessa's Dumpling Bar (118A Eldridge St.) - Both the pork and vegetable dumplings were so bad we couldn't bear to finish them....and we LOVE dumplings

Maremma (228 W. 10th St) - Being one of the few restaurants we had previously been to, we couldn’t have been more disappointed. The thinly sliced ham with beans and olives was almost inedible. There is no excuse for this since we recently dined at Maremma and enjoyed a pretty good meal. Its mind-boggling that they couldn't pull it together for an event like this.

Fette Sau (354 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn) - We could not have been more excited to see what this spot cooked up tonight. We've been waiting to try this place forever after hearing great things from anyone who has ever been. Looks like we will have to wait a big longer: Fette Sau was the only no-show of the event. That, or we took one too many jager shots from the incredibly tempting FREE jager stand and stumbled right past it!