64 Street Garden Cafe by Monica Lee Inaugural Review #TerrificTakeout #WhomYouKnow @ManhattanPeachy #PeachyDeegan
Owner Monica Lee!
Is there anything better than a fresh Berry Smoothie on a hot day in Manhattan?!
No, if you ask us.
With blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberry juice and strawberries, it is a total winner of flavor and nutrition and it would be a great way to start your day but for us, it is how we started our dinner. You should order about five to take home with you to wake you up every day before work. We imagine this is high in anti-oxidants.
It's not who you know. It's WHOM YOU KNOW and we know Monica and her new creation, 64 Street Garden Cafe! It's brand new as of March 28 this year, and we hope we're her first review. You may know her from the Bryant Park holiday market as she had a crepe business there which has a spot on the menu here as well. The menu is Asian fusion mostly, however, it is a true mix of Monica's personal experience in New York since her arrival here in 1997 from Malaysia.
We were so impressed with their salad selection. There are six. We first tried their signature 64 St Garden salad: Fresh greens medley, almond, green apple, avocado, cucumber, cherry tomato, black olives and parmesan cheese. Each component was fresh and well cut, and we particularly liked the shredded green apple. They thoughtfully put the fig balsamic vinaigrette on the side.
For a more exotic option, opt for the Mandarin Kale salad. Why has no one thought of this before Monica?! Baby kale and greens tango with mandarin oranges! Almonds, carrots, red cabbage and hardboiled egg round out the dance floor that awaits your stomach with both color and nutrition. Spicy yuzu vinaigrette comes with this, and on the side for us. Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit and Korean chili powder also is in the dressing.
Truffle Portobello Tempura is what has been missing from your life. It's perfectly breaded and the right size. The portobello mushrooms are fragrantly enhanced with black truffle salt and served with warm tetsuyu sauce: a ginger fish broth of Japanese origin. We can't wait to eat these again.
With our most sincere regards to Miss Piggy, we must admit we liked the Boneless Babyback ribs and yes, they are pork. They're braised with herbs and spices and fried in a light chili egg batter and kicked up a notch higher with house blended szechuan chili seasoning. Hold onto your hats! Spicy fries and sweet chili aioli, which we loved, bring even more heat.
The rice and noodles section looks amazing. We decided upon Thai Basil Pesto Fettuccine: house pesto tossed with fettuccine, sun-dried tomatoes, and shaved parmesan cheese. With added bacon as an option, this dish is irresistible. Every course has layers of exotic flavors that are interesting without being too much. Anise basil comes from Thailand in this dish, thus qualifying it as Thai.
You have to try the Seafood Lovers Ramen! It puts other ramens to shame and this is actually the first time we ever remember ordering ramen out and Peachy has had it once or twice ever. Grilled jumbo shrimp, littleneck clams, grilled salmon, haruto (japanese) fish cake, baby spinach, bean sprouts, and signature tea egg and wakame seaweed all swim cooked into a shio bonito fish broth.
You have probably never had anything like it if you are a Peachy.
Eating it is like an exotic vacation.
This is part of a huge section of the menu called Ramen.
This is part of a huge section of the menu called Ramen.
Curry Jumbo Shrimp and Vegetables are simply smashing as well, and they are found under Entrees. This boasts a fabulously fragrant vegetable medley of baby bok choy, which we had no idea we liked but we did, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, peppers and onions in a sensational green curry sauce served with coconut rice. This should be your dinner tonight.
Our carnivorous endeavor was the Smoked Tea Braised Beef Short Ribs, another round trip air fare vacation for your American taste buds. It has a wonderful smoky flavor as the beef shortribs are house braised with lapsang souchong, a famous smoked Chinese tea. Here's something else that will surprise you and delight you as well. Seasoned yellow rice and grilled zucchini come to this tea party with their pinkies out minding their manners totally.
And they do all this without their liquor license yet so we look forward to seeing what that brings. Monica insisted we try her famous crepes, and the savory and sweet ones she picked for us were exactly what Peachy would have picked herself. How many owners nail that kind of taste on the first try? Not many.
Life is short, so eat dessert first. Ooh la la Crepe is what this is called and it's aptly named as it contains Belgian dark chocolate and strawberries with almonds well sliced. The savory was Sriracha Teriyaki Crepe, and we are pleased to see Teriyaki making a comeback as Peachy ate Steak Teriyaki all the time at Chuck's Steakhouse in the Hartford Civic Center before games. New Zealand Skirt Steak teams up with onion, mushroom, tomato and mozzarella and obviously teriyaki sauce. Splendid! Superb!
64 Street Garden Cafe has impressed us and we look forward to seeing what Monica and company do next.
