Quickfire Review: Walter Foods

Quickfire Review: Walter Foods

These quickfire reviews are really growing on me...

They're just nice and easy to write up, and I think it's great to expand on restaurants that I wouldn't normally commit a full review to. I eat out a lot, as I'm sure every reader knows at this point, but sometimes it's tough to devote a few hours of writing and proofreading to a night out that wasn't for a special occasion or at a specifically highly touted restaurant. Many of the places I eat deserve praise for different reasons, here's where they'll get it.

Walter Foods, Williamsburg chapter, was the meeting point for me and Patrick on Halloween for some business talk, catching up, and much needed great food. I'd say Walter Foods takes pub fare and dresses it up for a cocktail lounge. The menu offers bar snacks like deviled eggs and buffalo wings, but also items like tuna tartare and a French dip made with filet mignon. They marry these menu items together very well by dressing up common pub items for instance, the buffalo lollipops which used a very classic French technique to make each buffalo wing a little bite sized piece with the bone sticking out like the stick--they were very good. We also got the iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon, the aforementioned French dip, and the fried chicken. Everything was great, right down to the old fashioned that was done up for me the proper way... their cocktails were very classic and all looked great.

Photo Via Kim G. on Yelp

So what's the take on Walter Foods? I'll be heading back soon, I'm sure. If it was closer to me, I could easily see it becoming a staple. If you live close by, make a point of going here for brunch, lunch, dinner, or just to grab an amazing cocktail. 

- Adam from Tipped Mixology

Quickfire Review: Pulino's

Quickfire Review: Pulino's 

Quickfire weekend review

Hey everyone. This weekend I ate at Pulino's, a newish Nolita pizza staple right in my old neighborhood. Pulino's opened right as I was leaving my first NYC apartment, so I never got a chance to eat there. I have to admit, I was drawn when I learned that Food Network's Nate Appleman cheffed there, but he's long gone. I don't know how much of Nate is still in the food, but whoever has a hand in the menu, it's good. Opened by Keith McNally, owner and restaurateur of such restaurants as Balthazar and Pravda in the same neighborhood, Pulino's offers very respectable thin crust pizza with fresh, tasty toppings and fells a lot like his other restaurants. 

We had the burrata pizza which had a simple and fantastic crust with a marinara sauce that stole the show. We also had the braised duck 'gnocchi' which fit the weather with a rich and powerful wine sauce over a polenta cake... not quite gnocchi. We got a hot fudge Sunday dessert only because it came with Amarena cherries, which are heaven sent. The vanilla gelato, whether it was homemade or not, was great as well. Overall, the place was just right; we will be going back.

On a side note, go see All is Lost with Robert Redford... an absolutely great movie that might go unnoticed. 

- Adam from Tipped Mixology