Best Cosmo Ever

After a most lovely facial at Lia Schorr with Lydia, we made our way across and up to East 58th St to Yuva, an Indian oasis of cocktails and yumminess.

Apple Flash does this drink an injustice!

The sauces that are served with the hummus chips are awesome :

I don't know what they are called but the bottommost red one is very refreshing and sweet but the green to its right is extremely spicy!! Proceed with caution!

9 Different Sauces

Crab cakes were super good with lots of crab meat - real crab meat, herbs and a crispy crust. This is not your typical fake crab cake with filler.

Super good crab cakes.

These were some of the best samosas I've ever had. Flaky, crispy dough filled with chickpeas and potatoes, well seasoned with a hint of spice. Very good!!

Awesome Samosa!

This is not on the take out menu but it is one of the best appetizers ever!! The dough seemed like samosa flattened but the sauce and the stuff on top is so delicious!!! I could eat the whole plate!

No Idea what this is.

Garlic naan!! It was good but not as good as Jackson Diner where there's a lot more garlic punch. Here, you get the hint but not the pungent aroma of garlic. Still, it is a nice bread.

Not-so Garlicky Naan

And finally, the rose ice cream which is like eating frozen rose petals! It smelled like roses and tasted of roses. Delicious!!!

Rose Ice Cream

We had 2 cosmo's which I normally do not love but here, it was really good. I would totally come here again for real food!



Yuva
230 E. 58th St (Between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
New York, NY 10022
tel. (212) 339-0090
Hours:
7 days a week: 11:30 am - 11:30 pm
Weekend Brunch: 12 pm to 3 pm

Black Shack!

Black Shack is a hole in the wall joint on Lexington Ave, between 39th and 40th Streets. You need to be careful going in and coming out of the place because they don't have an actual step but a short barely noticeable ramp (like they started to make a step but changed it to a slope instead).

Once inside, you need to wait on line to order and the menu is at the front in tiny, grayed out forms. Very annoying if you just want to pick out what you want to order while you wait at the back. Also bear in mind that you will not be able to have bleu cheese on your burger if you get the basic. It's only for specialty burgers.

I opted out of cheese and ordered the basic with just fried onions - not raw. Victoria ordered the burger with cheddar but they gave her american anyway.

Though friendly, staff is not too quick on the uptake sometimes.

We shared onion rings.

Clothed burger

My fried burger was fantastic - well-done just the way I like it with delicious fried little onion rounds throughout. I stuck with ketchup on mine. Loved it.

Nooo don't undress me!! Fried onions on the well-done.

Victoria's burger was medium well and it was perfectly cooked. She said it was absolutely delicious for a way cheaper price than the other burger joint closer to our respective jobs.

Fried Onion rings - the real ones!

The onion rings were true onion rings - not the powdered White Castle variety...They were crispy and delicious!

They were relatively quick and we made it back in plenty of time!! So it was a less than 1 hour lunch.

They do pack up quickly so be sure to go before the lunch rush. Their delivery service is too slow though.



Black Shack
320 Lexington Ave (Between 38th and 39th Streets)
New York, NY 10016
tel. 212-213-0042
Hours:
Monday - Sunday 11AM - 10PM

Happy Hour: M-F, 3-7pm $1 off beers & special menu!

A little bit of bliss at Nirvana

For lunch, Dave boxed us into Nirvana, a little Indian place on Lexington.We were literally forced to go because he got a craving for Indian food.

From the outside, it did not look very inviting - dark and cavernous. But once you went up the stairs, you were at a lovely open space with a few tables spaced throughout and very friendly staff. There was minimal clutter and the tables actually was well spaced with plenty of space to walk to the buffet table.

High ceilings give this a spacious feel

Fresh baked naan is served at the table. It is served hot, which is like a big plus. I wish I thought to take a photo of the buffet table but I didn't - so next time I will need to remember to do this.

Fresh baked bread

My heaping plate of yums - the buffet is $12, I think. I took some cabbage fritters, potatoes with chickpeas, saag paneer, rice, chicken tikka masala and something else.

Bunch of yums

Delicious! The tikka masala was white meat with a delicious sauce - chicken was not dry and the sauce was awesome. The saag paneer was uber-yummy with a good blend of spinach and spices which is very delicious. The cabbage fritters actually made me want to eat cabbage...which everyone knows I don't really eat.

I loved the chickpeas with the potatoes and the rest of the items were really delicious. The tandoori chicken was not so good for me so I actually didn't really like this chicken tandoori...but everything else was really delicious.

For dessert was just a tiny bit of selection, the rice pudding was very soupy - but very refreshing and lightly sweetened. The bread dipped in was actually tasty.

Rice pudding

I thought it was quite a bargain - for about $15 bucks each, we ate a lot of different Indian food where as normally, you just get one dish for about the same.

If you liked great and friendly service, Indian food and buffets, then this is the place for you!



Nirvana
346 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10016
tel.212.983.0000
Hours:
Sun - Thurs, Lunch 11:30 am - 3 pm, Dinner 5 pm - 10:30 pm
Fri - Sat, Lunch 11:30 am - 3 pm, Dinner 5 pm -11 pm