Monthly Archives: February 2013

Whenever I’m in the Annex area, I either go straight to Sushi Couture (see my post here) when I’m craving for some fresh-quality-affordable sushi or I head straight to Guu Sake Bar when I feel like Guu-ing it up. I rarely rarely look around to see what the other restaurants in the Annex has to offer. And so on a random Sunday morning, someone had tweeted me and suggested Insomnia Cafe (@insomniacafe) in the Annex … and well guess what? I ended up here for dinner the same day.

So we decided to order everything from their appetizers menu and share it as tapas!

College Street Pizza ($14.00)

Tomato sauce, italian sausage, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, Spanish onions and mozzarella

Crostini ($8.00)

With roasted garlic and brie

Poutine ($10.00)

Bruschetta ($7.00)

Served with roasted garlic, vine tomatoes, basil and red onions

3/4 lbs. of Mussels ($10.00)

Served in a light garlic white wine cream sauce with baby spinach

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus ($10.00)

Asparagus wrapped with prosciutto, garnished with asiago cheese and a honey pear wine

Mediterranean Platter ($12.00)

Hummus, tzatziki and roasted red pepper served with pita bread

Panko Encrusted Curried Crab Cakes ($8.00)

Served with a chipotle vinaigrette

Fries ($7.00)

Served with garlic aioli

Fried Calamari ($11.00)

Served with tzatziki dipping sauce

Shrimp Cocktail ($9.00)

Five grilled tiger shrimp served with a presto aioli dipping sauce

Cheese Plate for two $15

Three specialty cheeses served with pita bread and fresh fruit

Grilled Calamari ($11.00)

Served in a spicy chipotle vinaigrette with a crispy pappadom

I enjoyed most of the appetizers that evening especially the mussels, crab cakes and poutine. The crab cakes weren’t entirely filled with crab meat but they were super tasty and a tad spicy. The poutine had great chunks of cheese curds and infused with lots of bacon pieces and hot gravy smothered over the fries. The highlight of the meal were the mussels! The light garlic white wine cream sauce in the mussels were very comforting. The mussels + sauce really did it for me. I even finished the remaining sauce by dipping bread into it!

Service was awesome! Our waitress was very attentive and made sure ALL our appetizers arrived at once. She made sure we constantly had clean plates. Overall it was definitely an epic and memorable meal with food in all corners of our table =D

Shake Shack @ New York

February 15, 2013

BBQ / Burgers

3 Comments

On the very last day of my weekend trip to New York City, I dragged my cousins with me to line up at Shake Shack (@shakeshack) first thing in the morning. Although they seemed to hate me during the wait (lol) , it was all worth it in the end when our food came! :D Thankfully our hotel was very close to this particular location at the Theatre District on 8th avenue & 44th street, so it wasn’t THAT long of a wait.

This location opens daily from 11am to Midnight. Many people have said there’s always a huge line so we arrived 20 mins prior to opening. Once the door opens, there’s 2 separate lines: 1 is for ordering cold foods (shakes or ice creams) – for people that are planning to grab something quick and the other line is for ordering everything else!

After you order and pay, they give you a little buzzer – shortly after 10 minutes, our food was ready. Also, there are no combos at Shake Shack, so if you want fries and a drink with your burger then you have to order it separately.

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Their burgers are 100% all natural Angus beef. No hormones and no antibiotics ever. Their proprietary Shack blend is freshly ground. All burgers are cooked medium unless otherwise requested.

Shroom Burger ($4.90 – vegetarian)

Crisp-fried portobello mushroom filled with with melted muenster and cheddar cheeses, topped with lettuce, tomato and Shacksauce

ShackBurger ($4.60 – single)

Cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato, and ShackSauce
I also ordered the Shackburger along with my cousin
It was the perfect size, a juicy beef patty not overbearing or too gluttonous
Despite the amount of orders for burgers going into their kitchen, each of our burgers were made with care

Hamburger ($3,60 – single)

with lettuce, tomato and onions

SmokeShack ($6.25 – Single)

Cheeseburger topped with Niman Ranch all-natural applewood smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper and ShackSauce

Cheese Fries ($3.70)

Crinkle cut Yukon potatoes. 100 % free of artificial trans fats
Topped with their special blend of cheddar and American cheese sauce
I love poutines but I don’t usually like cheese fries because I personally find them too heavy for my liking. However, these were unexpectedly light without being too “gunky”
These fries must be eaten right away or they get soggy really quickly

Of course Shake Shack will be on my radar next time I visit New York! I totally understand the hype about this place and it probably shows why there’s still a hype now even when this Shack Shack “buzz” happened years back. When you guys do check out this place, please be prepared to wait in line (not for too long) unless you arrive when they open!