SUGAR SWEET SUNSHINE

He says:
Let the cupcake wars begin! Magnolia threw down the gauntlet 12 years ago with its delicious $2 cupcakes, setting off a craze that has swept across the country and even infiltrated Atlanta in recent years. Few of Magnolia’s imitators have come close to the original, though. Too often their cupcakes are dry or airy, and the icing just not distinctive enough to justify their high prices.

But with Sugar Sweet Sunshine, we have a contender.

Unlike Magnolia, there is no half-hour line that wraps around the block. We walked right into SSS on a Monday afternoon and ordered our cupcakes and coffee, which is a good thing. Also unlike Magnolia, there are more than three flavors of cupcake. Actually, there are more like ten, and they look amazing. What to choose? The Sunshine, a yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream? Or the Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting? Perhaps the Lemon Yummy, a lemon cake with lemon buttercream? It’s hard to decide because they all look and smell delicious.

From the first bite, it’s clear that SSS’s frosting is lighter than Magnolia’s and the cake less dense. I actually prefer this to the “heaviness” that accompanies Magnolia’s cupcakes. However, the flavored cupcakes are where Sugar Sweet Sunshine really takes flight. The pistachio cupcake was wonderful, the cake simultaneously rich yet not too sweet, with a pistachio current running through every bite. The vanilla frosting was sprinkled with crushed pistachio nuts for enhanced texture and flavor. Awesome. The strawberry cupcake was nearly as good, with fresh strawberry slices baked right into the moist cake.

She says:
Ok, step back. I may be incredibly biased, but the only valid way to assess a cupcake shop is through its chocolate cupcakes, or – to be generous – at the very least its chocolate-frosted vanilla cupcakes. Because what is a cupcake if it does not contain chocolate?

And so I sampled the Ooey Gooey, a chocolate cupcake with chocolate-almond buttercream frosting. My first complaint – the cupcake itself. It was barely chocolate. I don’t even think something that subtle should be allowed to call itself chocolate. Not to mention that the cake was lighter and drier than cake should be. And then there was the frosting, which was way more almond-y than chocolaty, and for a buttercream, it was certainly lacking in richness. Overall, there was nothing ooey or gooey about this “cupcake.”

After the disappointment of my cupcake, I did try a bite of Downtown Boy’s strawberry and pistachio cupcakes to see what he was raving about. My impression? Muffins. That’s right, these imposter cupcakes taste exactly like what they should be – muffins. Last time I checked, a muffin is not a cupcake.

He says:
For their range and expertise in cupcake flavors, I’m going to give the nod to Sugar Sweet Sunshine in this latest round of the cupcake wars.




She says:
Magnolia may only have 3 flavors, but they do cupcakes right – rich, moist, and chocolaty. Unlike Sugar Sweet Sunshine, where any true cupcake essence has been lost in the quest to diversify.




Sugar Sweet Sunshine
126 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002
http://www.sugarsweetsunshine.com/

NYONYA

He says:
On our latest jaunt to New York City, Uptown Girl and I had the pleasure of dining at Nyonya, which is arguably the best Malaysian restaurant in Manhattan and inarguably one of the best cheap eats you’ll ever find. Named after the famous Malay brides renowned for their beauty and cooking skills, Nyonya is a secret gem of a restaurant that most locals – including my parents – picked up on long ago. While their Brooklyn location is equally busy, the Grand Street restaurant is perpetually packed with old Chinatown shopkeepers, Asian teens with gelled hair, and food adventurers clutching their Zagat guides. Even though the scene on a Saturday night borders on mayhem, our party was seated within ten minutes, and five minutes later the first of our appetizers rolled out.

Roti Canai is a super-thin paratha served with a curry chicken dipping sauce. It’s a marvelous combination. The curry’s intense blend of turmeric and masala is balanced with a touch of coconut, and trying to wipe every last drop from the bowl with the paratha is half the fun!

Another of my favorites is Chow Kueh Teow, a noodle dish reminiscent of Pad Thai. But chili paste gives these rice noodles some needed heat, and the ensuing mix of stir-fried shrimp, chives, squid, fried egg, and soy sauce come together with a complexity that I’ve rarely seen in plain old Pad Thai.

She says:
After the Chow Kueh Teow, my favorite dish is the Satay Chicken. The skewers of dark marinated meat achieve that subtle balance of inner juiciness and outer firmness that only comes from the grill. The satay has a slight coconut flavor – possibly from the marinade – and is served with a delicious peanut sauce.

We also ordered the tofu version of this dish, but the tofu, which came in huge airy pieces, was bland in comparison.

We also had the deep fried tilapia in Belachan sauce. The fish, which came out whole (head included) was quite good… tender and fresh tasting. The sauce, on the other hand, was what I would call an acquired taste. It was pungently fishy and salty, and while Downtown Boy and I squeamishly scraped the sauce off the fish, Downtown Boy’s dad couldn’t get enough, slathering extra sauce on his rice. Downtown Boy managed to redeem his manliness, though, by eating the brains out of the fish’s head. For the nutrients, of course.

He says:
We finished our meal with cendol (aka ABC), a dessert of red beans, green rice noodles, and coconut milk covered with shaved ice and brown syrup made of palm sugar. It’s a cool and refreshing dessert, and you shouldn’t leave Nyonya without trying it.

We say:
Most every dish at Nyonya is excellent, and the majority of what we ordered cost less than $7. Ridiculously good food at cheap prices – no wonder this place is always crowded!




Nyonya
194 Grand Street, New York, NY 10013
http://www.penangusa.com/location_nyonya_main.html

TOP FLR

He says:
Top Flr, a small neighborhood bar/restaurant with a varied menu and affordable prices, is a welcome addition to the fast-growing Midtown restaurant scene. Despite its name, Top Flr actually has two floors; a wine bar on the bottom and a casual eatery upstairs. They occupy what used to be an old two-story walkup, and the small rooms, narrow stairwell, and odd layout give the restaurant a far more homey feel than what you would get at, say, Two Urban Licks. The spartan black and white color scheme does make the place look bigger, but if I were the owners of Top Flr, I’d play up the living room angle by cluttering it up with table lamps, old couches, and throw pillows.

She says:
As for the food, we started with a trio of appetizers. The do-it-yourself bruschetta, with a plate full of roasted red pepper, garlic, and red onions, greek olives, grilled summer squash, artichoke hearts, and goat cheese to load onto toasted bread was delicious, although I think I’d rather just have someone make it for me. There also seemed to be some a few oversights, like the bruschetta fixings coming without a spoon (we used our fingers) and the lack of a bowl for the empty mussel shells.

He says:
A bowl for the mussels definitely would have been useful, especially since we were eating them so quickly. They came in an excellent lime and coconut milk soy broth that would have been right at home in a Thai restaurant. It was simple, filling, and delicious. The lamb skewers could have been gamier and rarer, but they were paired well with a creamy daikon taziki sauce.

My entrée of pappardelle with duck confit was good, if not impressive. The chefs were generous with the duck, though the shitake mushroom and pearl onion reduction tasted very much like beef stroganoff. This isn’t a complaint, but it was certainly odd. The pasta was limp and slightly overcooked.

She says:
The wide strips of fresh pasta in the “free form ravioli” were highly reminiscent of Downtown Boy’s paparadelle. Mixed with zucchini, tomatoes, avocado, and corn as well as shrimp, the dish was appropriately light for the season, but still very filling. The food wasn’t over salted, which was a nice change of pace. Overall, it was more satisfying than exceptional.

We say:
Top Flr is a fine neighborhood pit-stop in for a casual bite and drink.




Top Flr
674 Myrtle Street, Atlanta, GA 30308
http://www.topflr.com/home.htm

BONGO ROOM

He says:
Several years ago my grad school roommate, who is always the first to know about everything cool (she knew about blogs, Sufjan Stevens, and Barack Obama at least 3 years before everyone else!) took me to Chicago’s Bongo Room claiming it served the best brunch around. The shops of Wicker Park are filled with funky antiques and avant-garde shoes, but the uber-trendiness surrounding Bongo Room doesn’t hold a candle to what’s going on inside of it …

With a hodgepodge of exposed brick walls, lime green accents, and capacious wooden booths occupied by hipsters and tots alike, the Bongo Room clearly thrives on its eclectic décor and clientele. Its free-wheeling vibe is complemented by the adventurousness of its kitchen, which consistently churns out dishes more daring and creative than any other eatery I’ve ever found. Pancakes topped with nutella and vanilla sauce in a chessboard pattern? Check. A croissant breakfast sandwich with hollandaise and muenster? Got it. That the Bongo Room can reinvent nearly every standard breakfast item with as much verve as it does easily confirms its status as the best brunch spot in America.

She says:
We recently visited the new location in the South Loop of Chicago, and so we’ve now found the other best brunch spot in America. Shiny and new, the downtown location attracts the same crowd as the Wicker Park original. And the food is just as good.

As soon as I saw it on the menu, I knew I had to order the chocolate tower French toast. I believe that they concocted this dish with me in mind. Made with bittersweet chocolate chunk bread stuffed with maple mascarpone, the toast is served with a banana crème brulee sauce and banana slices. The thick slices of bread were actually not that sweet, but with shaved chocolate melting over the top, the dish achieved an acceptable degree of chocolatey-ness. Dipping it in the crème brulee sauce added some needed sweetness. As a whole, it came together quite nicely.

However, as shocking as you might find this coming from a chocolate-lover such as me, I agreed with everyone else at the table that the lemon ricotta pancakes were hands down the morning’s winner. The ricotta created a very light pancake which, when flavored with lemon zest, were like a gift from an angel. Each bite was made even more heavenly by the topping of crushed gingersnap and brown sugar butter.

Another great thing about Bongo Room is you can ask for half-orders, which alleviates the dilemma of having to choose between so many delectable dishes. As a result, on top of our pancake and French toast half-orders, a friend and I also managed to scarf down an order of eggs benedict. The variety we chose came with spinach, roasted red pepper, and a feta hollandaise sauce. It was certainly very good, although less interesting than the other dishes we tried. The accompanying rosemary-sprinkled roasted potatoes were very tasty.

He says:
Bongo Room’s breakfast burrito isn’t as innovative as its pancakes or French toast, but it’s just as delicious. After all, you can’t go wrong with guacamole and a heap of scrambled eggs wrapped in cilantro-jalapeno tortilla. On our most recent visit, a chipotle sour cream served on the side spiced this bad boy up. If there’s a better breakfast burrito out there, I haven’t tasted it.

We say:
Chicago is blessed to now have two locations serving the best brunch in America.




Bongo Room (Wicker Park)
1470 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622
773-489-0690

Bongo Room (South Loop)
1152 S. Wabash, Chicago, IL 60605
312-291-0100

BUCKHEAD DINER

He says:
For several years now I’ve been obsessed with the whole “high/low” craze. Hoodie-blazers? Awesome. Mac & cheese made with gruyere and white truffle oil? I’ll take it! So when I first heard of the oxymoronic Buckhead Diner (Buckhead = high-class, Diner = low-class … get it?!) I knew Uptown Girl and I would inevitably make an appearance at this Atlanta stalwart.

Located right off Piedmont Road, the Buckhead Diner does its best imitation of a 1950’s diner. Counter seats overlook the open grill and spacious booths are pressed against every wall. The overall décor is a subtle Art Deco. But there are touches of upper-crust modernity throughout as well. The tables are a rich mahogany and the booths are upholstered with buttery-soft leather. There is the valet, who insists on taking your car even though there are plenty of open spots in the parking lot. And then there is, of course, the menu.

She says:
You can order a burger & fries off this extensive menu as easily as you can select the mahi mahi tostada. As Downtown Boy said, Buckhead is all about mixing the high and the low. Luckily, our choices were made easy by the $30 prix-fixe menu (we visited during Buckhead Restaurant Week).

To start, I had the chevril scented crab cake, which came with your typical butter sauce. It was average… I’ve had yummier versions with fresher and sweeter crab, but I’ve also had ones that tasted like the nasty dredges of the ocean floor.

I also tried the Truffled Chicken Salad. It tasted like ordinary chicken salad on a bed of lettuce. Wah-wah.

He says:
I don’t usually wax poetic about salads, but Buckhead Diner’s beef sirloin carpaccio arugula salad must be singled out for praise. This “salad” consisted of fresh spring greens garnished with six strips of sirloin steak. Most fine-dining establishments barely give you that much in their entrees, but Buckhead Diner tossed the medium-rare cuts into the salad like so many grape tomatoes. The beef was juicy and complemented the greens better than I could have imagined – it was totally a Downtown Boy dish!

The soft-shelled crab also hit the spot. Deep fried into a golden-brown perfection, the crab was briny and crunchy in all the right ways.

She says:
After my two average starters, the entrée I ordered finally dressed to impress. The scallops were some of the best I’ve had outside of the Pacific Northwest, seared nicely on the top and bottom, and tender within. They came atop a delicious bed of vegetable risotto, and I almost never like risotto! It was cooked through without displaying the slightest bit of mushiness. At the bottom of the bowl was a puree of peas, which was disgustingly salty, but certainly made the dish look beautiful.

He says:
I was starving, so I opted for the meat and potatoes entrée: Flat Iron Steak and Mashed Potatoes. It was ho-hum. The steak was dry compared to the lovely steak strips in my salad, which makes me wonder how a restaurant can knock one dish out of the park and then completely whiff on another? The lump of potatoes on the side were nothing special.

For dessert we split a crème brulee with chocolate chunks, which we both hated. The crème brulee itself was more gummy than creamy. It also didn’t jive with the chocolate bits buried at the bottom of the dish. Worst of all, the pastry chef used milk chocolate rather than dark, which would have offset the crème brulee’s sweetness.

We say:
Buckhead Diner is a fun choice for upscale eats with a downtown look. But there are as many hits as misses on the menu, so choose carefully.




Buckhead Diner
3073 Piedmont Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305
www.buckheadrestaurants.com/diner.html