Tom's Restaurant - Manhattan, NYC

My friend Wilson, his wife Ing and their friend Fiona from Toronto was in town visiting two weeks ago, so we decided to meet up for dinner. Wilson and Ing now lives in Sdyney and it's been 8 years (back during our college days in Subang Jaya) since I last saw Wilson. I've never met Ing and Wilson also never had the opportunity to meet Kevin, so it was good that we had a chance to meet up.

Initially, we wanted to take them to one of the 'nice and chic' restaurants in either the Hells Kitchen or Greenwhich Village area but decided to have dinner here instead. We figured that there are nice restaurants in Sydney too, so we opted to take them somewhere a lil more touristy, to give them the full NYC experience :P Can you recognise this restaurant?

Here is a close up. Looks familiar? Well, it's Tom's Restaurant, or better known as Monk's Cafe in the ever popular TV sitcom Seinfeld! This is where Jerry and his friends would go to eat, in the show. It's located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, nearby to Columbia University. Early Seinfeld episodes showed the entire neon sign but later on, to avoid paying royalties, the Tom's part of the neon was cropped out, showing only the "RESTAURANT" wraparound.

Ahhhh, the group with our food. Just like the 'Cheers' pub in Boston, the interior looked very little like what we see on the show, as indoor scenes were filmed on a set in California. However, the walls of the restaurant were adorned with Seinfeld memorabilia, taken from the original set. So, how was the food, the service and was it expensive? Well, all five of us ordered from their daily specials. We got to choose a main from 11 different dishes that changes everyday and it comes with a cup of soup and a green salad. I initially ordered Roast Leg of Lamb with Mint Jelly ($10.00) but the waiter came back to tell me that they were out of that. So, I changed my order to Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Sauce ($10.00). I believed Wilson and Fiona also ordered that. After 1 min, the waiter returned, apologised profusely and said that they only have one more serving of Pork left. Also, they were out of Roast Turkey with Cranberry and Stuffing ($10.95), Kevin's order. Sooooo, we all had to look at the menu once again and this is what we had.

Everybody got Cream of Turkey Soup and a Green Salad (part of the daily specials). Kevin took the last order of Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Sauce ($10.00) and chose mixed vegetables and mash potatoes as his side. It looked dry to me but he said it wasn't that bad.

Ing had the Shish Kebab ($14.00) that was served on a bed of rice, with some mixed vegetables. That looked pretty good actually, I believed she liked it.

Wilson and Fiona both had fish, the Broiled Fillet of Sole ($14.00) with potatoes and vegetables for Wilson and the Stuffed Fillet of Sole ($15.00) for Fiona. Her sole was stuffed with crabmeat and baked. I guess both was alright, not the greatest but not bad either.

I ended up having the Stuffed Mushroom Dinner ($12.00) - royal mushroom caps stuffed with crabmeat. Again, it was just alright. Nothing stood out, it was just alright.

Overall, the food wasn't the best but the waiters were really friendly and the price was pretty affordable. I guess it's just the thrill of visiting the 'Seinfeld cafe'. I would recommend the place if you are a big Seinfeld fan. There are many cool memorabilia on the walls and if anything, just to get your photo in front of the restaurant. If you don't really care for Seinfeld, then there are many other diners with better food around town. We had a great time catching up with Wilson and meeting Ing as well as Fiona for the first time. Let's hope it will not be another 8 years before we can go out to dinner again! :D

Tom's Restaurant (Monk's Cafe from Seinfeld)
2880 Broadway (corner of Broadway & 112th Street)
New York, NY 10025
Tel: (212) 864-6137

Night Mini Golfing in Wildwood Highlands

I wanted to post this a loooong time ago but I never got around to it. Well, I guess late is better than never :P We met up with Chris and Amanda for some night mini golfing (we initially couldn't decide between this, night fishing or going for a drive in movie) when we were back in Pittsburgh for Nicks confirmation back in June. There were a few mini golf courses to choose from but we decided on Wildwood Highlands. I personally feel that Wildwood is one of the better mini golf courses in Pittsburgh.

By the time we got there, it was already close to 8pm. No worries though, it's open til 11pm. However, most of the other stuff (bumper boats, kiddy rides, go karts, laser tag) were already close. Didn't really bother us, we were there for the mini golf :P

We decided to play 18 holes, since it was already kinda late and we were not sure if we could finish 36 holes by 11pm. I think it was $6 for one course and $9 for two courses. If we were a little bit earlier, it would have been worth it to go for the two course special :D

We got to choose between the Castle Course or the Tropical Course. Since we tried the Tropical Course the last time were there, we went for the Castle Course.

It was a nice course, with little wacky looking buildings and lots of greenery. We actually took a photo in this exact spot about 6 years ago, when we first started dating. We still have that picture..we haven't changed much. Well, maybe now we are little heavier and have a little less hair...but yeah, for the most parts, we still look the same :P

Here are some photos of the course. We were so lucky that we were the only ones there, so we could take our time playing and not have people waiting behind us for their turn.

After finishing the course, we went to get some ice cream from the vending machines and just sat around goofing around and catching up for the longest time. Felt like we were in high school once again, a bunch of teenagers...out on a Saturday night :P

We had a great time hanging out with Chris and Amanda (as always :D) and we look forward to seeing them again soon. Maybe we can go fishing or to the drive in this time around! Miss you guys!

Short update from Pittsburgh!

The past few days has just been jammed packed with activities for both Kevin and I. We had a pretty decent drive from NJ to Pittsburgh on Friday night. We managed to leave at around 5:15pm but we got stucked in the rush hour traffic jam while trying to get out of Newark. Apart from that, it was generally a good drive :D We even had time to stop at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Restaurant somewhere in PA ( just off I-78) for dinner. The food was really good, I'll blog more about that after I've uploaded all my photos :D

We went to Kevin's sister's house for dinner yesterday. She will be turning 40 next week, so we had an early birthday celebration with the family (since we will not be around next week). We had a great time hanging out while eating some yummy burgers that Ron grilled up and also had fun watching the Penguins vs Red Wings game (even though we lost) later on that night.

We went to Bakerstown United Methodist Church this morning to witness Nick's confirmation and stayed on for lunch in church. We went out with Chris (Kevin's best friend) and his girlfriend Amanda for some Night Mini Golf at Wildwood Highlands later in the day. It was really fun coz we were the only ones playing and we could just goof around and take our own sweet time. We haven't seen Chris and Amanda since Christmas last year, so it was good to catch up.

We'll be leaving for home sometime in the late morning tomorrow. Even though it was a short trip, we managed to do quite a lot of stuff and had a whole lot of fun with our family and friends. I will blog more about the things we did in Pittsburgh (complete with photos) when we get back to NJ! :D

Southern Hospitality BBQ & Bar

We were in the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Saturday to meet up with some of my friends for a late lunch. One of my ex INTI college friend Sabrina was in NYC, visiting from Atlanta, Georgia. Also, another ex INTI friend Audrey, just had a baby girl (well, not JUST, she is about 3 and a half months now) and we wanted to meet baby Meryl.

We decided to meet at Southern Hospitality which was on 2nd Ave, between 76th and 77th St. It was already almost 2pm when we arrived. The restaurant was kinda packed but the waitress was really good and got us a table really fast. There were 9 adults and a baby but she still managed to get a big comfortable table for us on the stage.

Truthfully, Kevin and I didn't know how popular this restaurant was until after we came home and looked it up online later that day. All we know is that Sabrina told us the food is pretty good and the Mac n Cheese rocks (it's really cheesy). For those of you who are as blur as us, Southern Hospitality is owned by Justin Timberlake and the Executive Chef is Ray Lampe, also known as Dr. BBQ. He is supposed to be one of the best BBQ chefs ever. There are also quite a lot of celeb sightings in Southern Hospitality (though we didn't see any celebs while we were there). I think Lindsay Lohan and Chance Crawford was spotted hanging out in SH only last weekend.

Anywayyyy...all this young celebs all don't interest us much lah. The important thing is...is the food really that good? We had the brunch menu that day. The food offered in Southern Hospitality is Memphis Style BBQ. I must say that the food selection wasn't really that large..maybe cause it was the brunch menu.

Here is a photo of baby Meryl while we wait for the food. Isn't she such a cutie? She is such a good lil girl. She just sat there in her stroller and didn't make a fuss at all while her parents enjoyed their meal. We were there for about 2 and a half hours and I only heard her make a fuss once!

Another photo of baby Meryl and Aunty Sabrina, all the way from Atlanta.

It didn't take very long for the food to arrive. I ordered Fried Chicken and Waffles ($11.95). The Belgian Waffles were really nice. It was served with syrup and butter. I wasn't really impressed with the chicken though. It's supposed to be Southern style buttermilk marinated chicken but it tasted just like any other fried chicken. Yes, it wasn't oily and stuff but it was a lil bit burnt and over fried.

Kevin had the Pulled Pork Sandwich ($10.95). It's a slow smoked Memphis style pork shoulder that was hand pulled and piled onto a sesame seed bun. Kevin seemed to enjoy it and a few other friends of ours who had it said that it was good too. Most of the food had positive reviews, well, except for Eugene's Chicken Fried Steak n Eggs ($13.95). He said that the steak cutlet was rubbery and they messed up his egg order. He ordered scrambled but he got fried egg instead. Audrey who ordered the Smoke Pit Huevos Rancheros ($10.95) had ordered fried eggs but got scrambled instead. I guess they mixed up Eugene and Audrey's order. Hahaha.

Overall, we had a great time. The bill came up to $167 for 9 people. That's not too bad at all. It was good to catch up with old friends over brunch. We also noticed that our topic of conversations has changed over the years. Back in the day when we were still in INTI college, we would talk about where to go clubbing that weekend or where is the hot and 'happening' spot for that season. These days, everybody just got so excited talking about their favorite chef on the Food Network and which bakery has the best HK style pastries in Chinatown! I'm glad that we are still in contact after all these years and it was still fun to hangout with them. I'm certainly looking forward to the next time we head out for lunch or dinner again :D Oh before I end, here is another photo of baby Meryl. She is just so cute! She looks so comfy and warm in her stroller, all ready to face the cold winter chill. She must be thinking, "When can I go home? All this aunties and uncles talking non stop..I am so bored!" Hahaha!

Southern Hospitality BBQ & Bar
1460 Secod Avenue (between 76th and 77th Street)
New York, NY 10075
Tel: (212) 249-1001
Web: http://www.southernhospitalitybbq.com/index.php