La Bonne Soupe

FRANCE 🇫🇷

Some 56 years ago, while the United States was still involved in an absolute lie of a war in Southeast Asia and Richard Nixon was president, La Bonne Soupe appeared on 55th Street in 1973. While certain improvements keep the place comfortable, it also retains some of what might be considered the "charm" of any restaurant that has been open this long.

Today in the tight space you might overhear the next table talking about illegitimate wars and terrible Republican presidents just like back in 1973. But then again, this is Midtown, and the likelihood to hear a banker or tourist with the opposite opinion is probably just has high.

When the French-accented waiter arrives to take your order, it is of course the soupe a l'oignon (above) that brought you here, the ancient peasant soup usually referred to here as French onion. As is almost customary in this country, the soup is served gratinéed and is recognized by the thick layer of melted cheese that half-burns onto its ceramic bowl.

It can be enjoyed à la carte, but also as a meal for $26 that includes bread, a salad, dessert, and a glass of their house wine. This seems to be the most favored route of customers old and new. Each component is not as extraordinary as the soup, but makes for a pleasant course. The salad part of the salad is quite forgettable but having a chance to use their delicious dijon-based dressing is reason enough to order the set. Is that chicken broth in there?

They have other, probably unappreciated soups on the menu that can also be turned into this prix fixe, quiches, crêpes, and hamburgers, but do ask about the rotating daily specials.

On a recent evening the list pulled up a very good coq au vin ($23, above), chicken braised in Burgundy and served with some really delightful whipped buttery potatoes. The current chef Michel Pombet draws inspiration from his childhood in Paris, which can almost be tasted in this sauce.

Given two dessert options with the soup prix fixe, the server recommended the chocolate mousse (below), which did enough to satisfy the after meal sweet tooth. Fin.

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MIDTOWN Manhattan
48 West 55th Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Just Pho

VIETNAM 🇻🇳

With only a small ripple, the city's newest entry into a lackluster pho (and Vietnamese) landscape recently opened in the shadow of Madison Square Garden. The promise of "just pho" is almost accurate, as the menu concentrates on four versions of the noodle soup, cooked in the Northern Vietnamese style which you might find in Hanoi.

While the fourth option is a shredded chicken pho gà xé, the first three focus on either cooked or raw beef and a combination of the two. This seems to be the focus of their energy and a natural first order. The bowl below is pho bò tái ($11 for small (shown) and $13 for large), their signature "raw" beef pho which probably translates better as rare despite what it says on the menu.

The thin strips of beef will cook themselves in the bowl, arriving slightly pink but quickly changing to brown. As you will find in Hanoi, the broth does not arrive super complex and full of different savory, sweet, and/or funky elements as a bowl in Saigon might. The soup base is simple and savory, with hints of anise and cinnamon and possibly cloves.

This might be initially off putting to fans of pho, but know that it is intentional, as is the lack of herbs served alongside a bowl. Instead, thinly sliced green onion and cilantro is added before serving. Take a few sips when it arrives piping hot, but then grab the condiments at the side to suit your needs. This is the real magic, as their house made vinegar-garlic-chili sauce (toi ngam giam) is just waiting to do tricks for you.

Flat and wide northern style noodles.

Once the pungency levels are to your tastes, add a squirt of sriracha for the necessary kick and pick up the wide noodles found in northern-style phos. With all of these little things done right, and the background of actual Vietnamese being spoken between the staff, it almost feels like you are not in New York for a moment.

They also do hot Vietnamese-style coffees and an iced green tea lemonade (trà chanh, $3) that is really outstanding. Just Pho is a great addition to the city!

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CHELSEA Midtown
252 West 31st Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Thai Noodle House

THAILAND 🇹🇭

For many years Wondee Siam, while still not quite at the level of the restaurants in Elmhurst that Eater.com just found out existed, has been a reliable source of Thai food in Hell's Kitchen, whether it be for lunch or a group dinner with folks you could never get to come out to Queens. Recently they opened a small noodle house next door, so stopping in to check up on things a couple times was recently necessary.

One side of the menu reads a lot like the offerings next door, but stick to the noodle soups for now, which are the highlight as you can guess from the name. One unfortunate part is letting customers decide their own noodle types for each soup, which actually go better with specific kinds of noodles. If you do not feel comfortable making this decision please ask the server to direct you to a dish's best noodle.

If it doesn't show up on its own, ask for the condiment tray.

For example, thin noodles should be used for the Sukhothai noodle ($13.95, below), a tom yum noodle soup that can be very hard to pull off well. Besides being very timid to put heat in the soups of their customers, the bowl has most everything right. The amount of chilis and sourness can be easily fixed with the condiment tray that should arrive at your table after ordering (above).

A bowl of Sukhothai noodles, named for the central city it hails from, is a masterpiece of flavor combinations and always includes ingredients that can be counted into the double digits. A slight sweetness comes from the abundance of peanuts which are dusted over cuts of roast pork and ground pork. String beans and bean sprouts are populated in the broth with garlic, scallions, cilantro, pepper, and the secret recipes of the kitchen.

Slightly less successful but still satisfying is a bowl of nam tok noodle ($13.95, below), available in both pork and beef versions. This is the soup usually translated to pork blood soup, but despite ordering the pork version there did not seem to be any hint of blood found within. Probably another thing that Hell's Kitchen is just not ready for, unless you ask ahead of time.

After finishing half the bowl, it was noticed that pork blood was nowhere to be found in the listing of ingredients, and as seen below the focus seems to be more on the dried pork skin that covers everything. After a lot of work with chilis and vinegar from the condiment tray, the bowl was in good shape.

Quite disappointing and not recommended is yen ta fo ($14.95, below), which should be requested with flat noodles (sometimes vermicelli is preferred as in the bowl here). This seafood soup in a broth made pink by the combination of spicy, tangy, and sweet ingredients used. Unfortunately, nothing in the bowl was of note to bring the level of enjoyment up.

With 12 different noodle soup options, some were bound to excel and some were bound to fail. Eating these types of dishes in Thailand would probably take you to 12 different noodle shops that all specialize in one specific type, so it is understandable when one kitchen tries to pull everything off it could take a while to tweak.

For now the Sukhothai is the stand out, and if any of the other nine are worth mentioning on return visits, the page will be updated. Do you have a favorite?

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HELL'S KITCHEN Manhattan
792 9th Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC:

bb.q Chicken

SOUTH KOREA 🇰🇷

While only gracing the shores of the United States for the last five years, bb.q Chicken is a company that is almost 25 years old, starting first in Korea but expanding to at least seven countries as the Korean fried chicken craze shows no signs of slowing down. Back home the franchise went crazy even in its first year, with 100 locations opening.

So when it started up in cities here, naturally Koreans were very happy with the additions (in addition to the Koreatown location, there is one in Flushing, another in Brooklyn, and five across the Hudson) but it deserves the attention of everyone.

Sometimes you will see the word "olive" before chicken in the written names online or elsewhere, and this refers to their use of olive oil in the frying of the chicken and cooking of other items. Their signature dish is the golden olive chicken (below), which lets the simple ingredients speak for themselves.

Courtesy of bb.q Chicken DTLA.

The Midtown branch offers a basement level with a bar and becomes a great place to drink and watch sports. The party they threw for one of South Korea's World Cup match last year was fantastic and entry included plates of their fried chicken and beer (below).

With many other options like soy garlic and secret spicy, most fried chicken lovers will be happy here. Most of their locations provide good beer and soju options.

On ground level, they also have grab and go bowls already prepared for quick lunches, and ample room for dining in as well. This space is better for customers on the run during the day.

Grilled chicken bibimbap to go.

One of the best dishes available are the spicy rice cakes known as duk-bokki (below). Cups of these to go or plates to stay can be topped with stringy cheese but regardless they have a really good heat kick, the "soup" full of plenty of gochujang.

Interested in some fusion? The bulgogi poutine (below) is one of the latest mashup poutines in the world to offer a really delicious way to eat fries. This pairs especially well when you come here to have some drinks, and provides a good contrast to plates of chicken wings.

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KOREATOWN Manhattan
25 West 32nd Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

D'Abruzzo

ITALY 🇮🇹 (Abruzzo)

To the rest of the world, any familiarity with the Southern Italian region of Abruzzo is usually through its extraordinary wines like Montepulciano and Trebbiano. A slightly overlooked place in terms of tourism, most of the region is dominated by the central mountains and Adriatic Sea coastline. Despite being considered part of the south of the country, if we use the boot graphic of Italy, Abruzzo would be about the meaty part of the calf. The simple fact of its geographical separation has kept the places here full of what some might call "old world charm."

But travelers to Italy should take the time to drive over the mountains from Rome and explore this lesser-known region for its culture and food, something that the D'Abruzzo stand and pop-up vendor is vouching for. Currently you can find these treats at the Winter Village in Bryant Park, but in warmer months look out for it at food festivals and Smorgasburg.

The top draw here and reason enough to book flights for a Abruzzese vacation are the arrosticini ($12.25 for a small order, above and below), mutton skewers full of fatty bits and unmarinated.

Those fatty bits in between meat not only keep it very tender, they also drop a lot of juice down into the fire and create a nice smoke that makes it way through the park and probably pulls in quite a few customers. Bryant Park is not quite the old world, but if you close your eyes and are guided by only your senses of smell and taste it gets pretty close. My only complaint is that I cannot have a nice Montepulciano to enjoy with this lamb.

This meat needs no marinade or sauce.

Depending on which event you come upon it, D'Abruzzo will have a slightly different menu that grows and shrinks to what the stand can accommodate, but you might find other finger foods and cookies from the region as well.

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BRYANT PARK Manhattan
Pop-up vendor/various locations

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Lions & Tigers & Squares Detroit Pizza

PIZZA 🍕

Detroit-style pizza proves that the pizza emoji is not all-inclusive. In fact, it does not even begin to describe the experience of eating Detroit-style pizza. Humanity has a long way to go with such narrow-minded emoji options.

I often stay away from pizza supremacy battles. New Yorkers can be quite stubborn about what does and does not make a real slice. Folks like to have favorites and be passionate, I get it. My opinion about pizza is usually: "Yeah, I'll eat that."

I do have a soft spot for the thicker entries into the pizza lexicon, though have always been a bit underwhelmed by the most common of these in New York: the Sicilian square slice. It never had enough sauce for me.

Since early September I have had an ongoing repeat client right around the corner from Lions & Tigers & Squares, bringing me to this subway station at least twice a month. I cannot stop coming to this pizza joint, I just can't. So I figured I should finally talk about it, even though we do not do a whole lot of pizza on these pages.

Squares are cooked in industrial pans.

First of all, they do not sell slices, they sell squares. There is a good chance you will hear them have to explain that to a walk-in customer while you wait. Sold in a gut-busting giant rectangle cut into four "squares," bring a friend and share or come very hungry. In all the times I have tried, I have never finished the whole thing in one sitting. The closest I got was avoiding the crust on the last two slices, but then you kind of miss the point.

That crust is crispy and a little burnt and part of what makes the pizza from Detroit. The origins of this were cooking in industrial trays that were meant for other uses and had nothing to do with pizza, creating this unique shape and thickness. While the bottom and sides get crispy, the middle is still chewy and soft.

"The classic" is only $5.

An always generous layer of toppings is laid on top, with a nice double puddle of rich sauce. Most patrons seem to take the meatless "Classic" which turns out to be very economical, but other pies available include pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and a vodka sauce slice just in case you needed everything a little heavier.

Pepperoni $11.

I am officially addicted.

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CHELSEA Manhattan
268 West 23rd Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Russian Vodka Room

RUSSIA 🇷🇺

It is certainly the kind of place that is most frequented by tourists thinking to themselves "Hmmm... this looks like a fun NYC local spot," but regardless, this Midtown lounge has charms all its own. Find a dark corner and avoid their presence, or just grab a seat at the bar and give them an even better impression that they found the right spot and met a local. They are known for their long list of house made vodka infusions, but a full menu is also available if you want to eat hundreds of dollars worth of caviar or maybe just the Russian standards.

Red Bastard $12

Duck liver pate $14

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MIDTOWN Manhattan

265 West 52nd Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Donburiya

JAPAN 🇯🇵

Quick Instagram Dispatch from the Theatre District, Manhattan:
Many Japanese restaurants that cater to Japanese patrons are often times specialists in one type of dish or style. Those with non-Japanese clientele tend to have menus that encompass as much as possible. Despite its name, Donburiya is somewhere in the middle, with a full section of donburi options, but also a lot of other items to cater to the walk-in crowds they are bound to get in a tourist-heavy location. The setting is nice, with a long bar and small tables all seeming intimate in the low lighting. Draft beer and sake flows freely, and it is a nice escape from this area of Midtown.

25oz draft Sapporo

Karaage (fried chicken)

Yakiniku don

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THEATRE DISTRICT Manhattan

253 West 55th Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Itaewon Pocha

SOUTH KOREA 🇰🇷

Quick Instagram Dispatch from Koreatown, Manhattan:
For one city block, almost every address has a busy Korean restaurant on the ground floor, all of which are worthy of exploration. But look up, and the second and third and fourth and fifth floors of 32nd Street in Koreatown come into view. Of the many bars serving food, this mainstay which used to be known as WABar is worth checking out. Along with plenty of drinks, a full menu of bar snacks and entrees are available everyday.

[UPDATE NOVEMBER 2018: The exterior signage and menus have all changed and modernized. The word "gastropub" seems to have been replaced with the word "pocha" everywhere.]

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KOREATOWN Manhattan

28 West 32nd Street

Map of Eat the World NYC: