High hopes for a new restaurant

When Vallesol restaurant on Murphy avenue closed - everyone I knew was disappointed. It had a great casual atmosphere, great prices and even better food.

When my friend mentioned that a new Mexican restaurant had opened in the same place I had high hopes.

This should have been a warning sign (pun intended):

Instead of having a sign with the restaurant's name they just had a generic sign out front.

The chips and salsa were a disappointment. The chips were cold and seemed like they were straight out of a bag and the salsas seemed like they were poured out of a jar - yuk.

I ordered the tostada salad which was OK but not great. 

And the veggies that were in the salad were an odd mix of peas and carrots which I imagine was from a frozen bag mix...

The best part of the tostada salad was the shredded beef which was warm and nicely seasoned.

My friend ordered the cerviche.

My friend said she enjoyed this dish and that there were plenty of shrimp. Her complaint was about the side of rice and beans she ordered. 

I took a taste of the beans and they were very bland and without a hint of heat. My guess is the beans were dumped straight from a can and then doctored up with cumin - not a great dish.

She also commented that the rice seemed dry - like it had been sitting out for hours.

I really hope this restaurant turns it around. There are tons of great restaurants on Murphy Ave. This new restaurant will definitely have to step up its game if they hope to compete with the rest of them.

On the plus side, the prices were very reasonable but again - this does not really work in their favor since there are a lot of cheap taco places in the area that make everything from scratch.

Shopping on 5th Ave. and mini nachos

Sunday was my last full day in NYC. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do so I just went for a walk and ended up here:

I am not a big fan of shopping - sure, I love new clothes but actually having to wander around in stores and trying things on? I am not a big fan - but since it was my last day I figured I should do some shopping on 5th ave.


Saks 5th Avenue was not a fun experience. Sure, the store is gorgeous and the clothes are beautiful but there are sales people every five feet and they are all aggressively friendly. 


I know some people believe that the 'I will pretend to be your best friend while I get a commission' sales style = great service but I, for one, would rather be left alone until I have a question. 


Yeah, I only lasted about 5 minutes in Saks.


Then I ended up here:

H&M was way too crowded for the sales people to be pushy - ahh, this shopping experience was much more enjoyable. And they were having a big sale!

On the way back to the hotel (with my many shopping bags) I finally managed to find (stumble upon) this iconic NYC landmark:

Rockefeller Center

The ice rink looked a lot smaller than I remember.

And for those of you that love oatmeal - I found a restaurant (it was closed on Sundays) that specializes in organic steel cut oatmeal - amazing but true.

When I got back to the hotel I got a text from my sister asking if I had gone to the Uniqlo store in Soho.

Using my handy dandy smart phone I looked up the store and discovered they were having a grand opening for their new flagship store on 5th avenue that weekend!

You can guess my next stop:

The line of people waiting to get in went around the block!

The crowd inside the store was unbelievable and the store was huge.

They were having a store wide sale for the grand opening. I picked up a cashmere sweater, a wool turtleneck sweater, some long sleeve t's to layer and some black skinny pants. 

All of the tops were navy blue which I was pretty excited about. I look great in navy and I have had a hard time finding it in stores this season - Uniqlo had tons of navy blue items.

The check out line was really long but since they had lots of extra cashiers hired in for the opening weekend the line moved fast.

I wandered around later that evening to hunt up some dinner. 

I will admit that I didn't manage to hit any really amazing restaurants while I was in Manhattan. It seems around the touristy areas (where my hotel was located) there aren't any stellar food places.

I found out later that I should have headed over to the West side of Manhattan where I would have had a lot of great restaurants to choose from.

But I was determined to make this trip as much of a walking one that I could. And this is why I ended up at a not-so-great Mexican restaurant.

Tortilla salad.

Ugh, the tortilla salad was awash in some bland, greasy dressing and the chicken had a gross rubber-like texture. I quickly put the salad aside and made nachos with the side dishes.

Guacamole

Beans and rice

Mini Nachos!