Marica

Marica is a seafood oriented restaurant, and neither of us are particularly into seafood. So we called in our favorite fishatarian friends, Tim and Jody for help.

DISCLAIMER: When we showed up with our giant cameras, the waiter asked us what we were taking pictures for, so we told him about our blog. We maaaaay have gotten some special treatment. We'll try not to let it influence our opinions of Marica, but it probably will. Other College Avenue restaurants, take note!

Appetizers
Clockwise from upper-left: shoestring fries, fried calamari, mussels, and Caesar salad.

All the appetizers and salads were fantastic (not pictured: a mixed green salad). The Caesar salad had a reasonable level of anchoviness. The fries were beautiful, although they were cut so thin that it was difficult to get enough of them in your mouth so that you could taste them. The mussels were awesome, Briana and Steve even tried them. Briana was pleasantly surprised to find that they mostly tasted like the delicious lemon-garlic sauce. Everyone liked the calamari*, although Tim thought it was maybe a little overcooked.

*Side note: Briana thought that calamari was octopus until last night.

Steve's Entree: Yucatan Sausages

Steve was planning to branch out and order seafood, but the Yucatan sausages were calling to him, plus the waiter recommended them. They grow some good sausages in the Yucatan Peninsula. We don't remember what was in them, but if you go there and order them, you won't care.

Jody's Entree: Grilled Salmon

Jody said it was "warm and comforting." Not mind-blowing, but all the parts of the dish were satisfactory.

Tim's Entree: Seafood Soup

Tim's only complaint was that it needed a little salt. Easily fixed! Briana wanted to rip the souffle off of his plate, but it was covered in fishiness.

Briana had grilled chicken with peanut satay sauce and cucumber salad (not pictured). It was just OK. You would think that a ton of peanut sauce would be a good thing, but this was just too much. The sauce just wasn't quite tasty enough to warrant such flagrant sauciness.

Chocolate Souffle: YES! This one was a unanimous success. Get one. The only problem was that it overshadowed the other desserts, which were also wonderful.









Creme Brulee: Totally solid creme brulee. This one had blueberries on it.

Panna Cotta: Briana loved this one the most. Everyone else was too distracted by the chocolate souffle.
















We give Marica 4 Sabuys (out of a possible 5 Sabuys).






The food was mostly excellent with just a few misses. The service was totally amazing. Speaking of which, our waiter, Austin, enlightened us as to what a Sabuy actually is. Apparently it means "happy", which works out well for us. Thanks, Austin!

Official fish-tasters, Tim and Jody (not drinking fish in this picture)

The bar.

Steve ponders the menu.

Good to know!

Next stop Khana Peena!

Currylicious

We invited our friend Emily to join us for our trip to Currylicious. We had heard good things and were excited to try it because we love the name.

We started with veggie samosas which were good, but we're not sure we'd go as far as to call them samosalicious.

Briana got Chicken Tandoori . The spices were great. Big chunks of tender chicken. Tandoorific! It was served on bed of sauteed onions and peppers.

Emily had the Sada Bhindi (okra with tomatoes and spices). She gave it a thumbs up, but we don't know if she would call it okralicious, Em?

Steve had Chicken Tikka Masala. It was OK, but Steve thought it was a little too salty. Briana thought it needed more flavor. We'd say it was Chicken Tikka Masalaverage.

The naan was kind of a let down; bland and papery. Definitely not naantastic. On the plus side, Currylicious offers free bottomless chai tea. We can't think of a pun for chai, but we don't blame the restaurant for that.

Prices are very reasonable, but the portions are kind of small. Good if you have a problem with eating Indian food until you feel sick, like we often do.

The front section of the restaurant is small, but there is supposedly a big room in the back, which was closed for a private fashion show the night we went. I know, weird right?

We give Currylicious 3.5 Sabuys (out of a possible 5 Sabuys).






The food didn't blow our minds, but was great for the price. We're tempted to give Currylicious an extra half-Sabuy just for the name.

Emilicious!

so-so-mosas.

Tandooridiculous

Sada Bhindi

Currylicious

Kitchen Crew

Good to know!

Next stop Marica!

Christopher's Burgers

We decided we needed some fellow burger enthusiasts to help us review Christopher's Burgers. We asked our friends Jimmy and famed eater and cartoonist Thien to join us.

If you like burgers with less fat: this is the place for you! Unfortunately, this is not the place for us. Christopher's markets itself as a "healthy" burger joint. But... it's burgers! The patties were simply lacking much flavor. Bri got a guacamole burger and she could not even tell there was guacamole on it, she had to double check.

But the bacon on the bacon cheese burger was crispy and salty, everything you want in a bacon. To quote Jimmy, "The bacon!" The fries were crazy delicious, they were the only thing that really stood out. Perfectly fried on the outside, cream on the inside.

The problem with "healthy" burgers is you don't get the flavor while you eat them but you still feel gross and full when you are done. To be fair, when we scanned the menu we noticed that Christopher's Burgers has a bunch of odd and interesting looking items (Yucatan chicken and pork sausage burger?) that we didn't try. We might not have given them a fair shot by ordering three bacon cheese burgers and one guacamole burger... But that is what we were in the mood for.

We hate to keep handing out mediocre reviews but we're going to have to give Christopher's Burgers 2.5 Sabuys (out of a possible 5 Sabuys).






We're looking forward to getting further down College ave., and to some of the better (and possibly worse) restaurants.

Bacon Cheeseburger (note the delicious looking bacon).
How healthy can it be with all that cheese and bacon? C'mon.

Ketchuping the burger.

Mayonaising the burger.

Perfect french fries.

"What's that, Mr. Hamburger? You want me to start fires?"

WE DID IT!

Good to know.

Next stop: Currylicious!

College Point Cafe

We weren't expecting much from College Point Cafe. The exterior and sign made it seem like this would be a sterile, cookie-cutter style place. So we were pleasantly surprised to find that the cafe does actually have some charm and character once you get inside. Kind of like an NYC bodega.

It's sort of a weird combination of pre-packaged snacks, and greasy-spoon sandwiches. There are about six tables inside, and one on the sidewalk. There was one woman working there when we went; she seemed friendly and didn't mind our picture taking at all.

We both ordered egg and cheese sandwiches on English muffins with sausage, and medium coffees. The food was enjoyable for what it was, and the prices were reasonable, but don't expect anything too bougie. Here's the level of fanciness; the cheese was actual sliced cheddar, not Kraft Singles. Steve appreciated that they have Cholula hot sauce instead of Tobasco. Coffee was pretty standard weak diner coffee.

All things considered, we give College Point Cafe 3 Sabuys (out of a possible 5 Sabuys) for exceeding our expectations.







Here are the pictures:

Cooking with chopsticks and hotplate.

Good to know

Egg and cheese with sausage and coffee

Steve pines for Peet's

Roaaaawr!

Next stop: Christopher's Burgers!

Sabuy Sabuy

OK, we've eaten at our first College Avenue restaurant, at the corner of Broadway and College; Sabuy Sabuy!

We don't know what a Sabuy is, but we do know what they serve. Thai food.

What we ordered

Appetizer: Chicken Satay - Decent. Chicken was tender, but the peanut sauce was a little bland. The little bowl of cucumber salad was tangy and crisp.

Salad: Beef Salad - Tasted exactly like hamburgers. It was weird, but we ate most of it. Would probably not order this again.

Main Course: Green Curry - We ordered it spicy, and they did not mess around, which we liked. Pretty standard coconut based curry with lots of hot peppers.


Oh, Sabuy, Sabuy, Sabuy. The service is great, really nice staff (except this one lady made a weird face at Bri). The food is... fine. There is just nothing to set this apart from other Thai places; nothing to make us want to go there again.

All in all, we give Sabuy Sabuy 2.5 Sabuys out of a possible 5 Sabuys.

Singha Beer

Green Curry

Next stop... College Point Cafe.

P.S. Sabuy!