Meat feast in NYC!

23 Apr Meat feast in NYC!

This is one for the carnivorous amongst us ?When you think of American food, steaks and barbecued meats are top of the list. Knickerbocker Bar & Grill is a classic NYC establishment, serving diners for the past forty seven years! There is a variety of main courses on offer but the specialty here is their ‘famous’ T-bone steak. My aunt and uncle used to come here with my cousin when he studied at NYU – they advised to share one portion between two as it’s a LOT of steak for one person. True American sized portions! You’re able to bring your own wine here, my family brought a few bottles of a Chilean red which went well with the meat. For sides we ordered creamed spinach (which turned out to be more cream than spinach) and fries. The T-bone was cooked to perfection – medium rare, seared and peppered on the outside which gave it great flavour. The inside was super juicy and one of the softest steaks I’ve had in a long time. This is a must visit when you’re in the city!

Next on my list is a restaurant recommended on the Independent’s eleven best restaurants in Manhattan. Jongro BBQ in Koreatown is super lively, full of people chatting and grills sizzling. Googlemaps lies when it says around fifteen minutes wait at 6.30pm, we had to leave our number and wait for a text forty five minutes later. Once you get the text you have five minutes to get to the restaurant or your tables disappears – this is how much people want Korean barbecue! The menu is full of different cuts of meat such as pork belly, neck, beef galbi (short ribs, without bone in this case), skirt and more. As well as pork belly and marinated beef galbi we got a kimchi pancake. This was both crisp from being fried and had substance from the kimchi and spring onions.

Like traditional Korean barbecue, you get a selection of side dishes called ‘banchan’. These include large lettuce leaves for wrapping up the meat like a parcel, pickles, spicy beansprout salad and of course, kimchi. Pleasingly they get refilled for free! Service here is super quick and attentive so you never run out. We were also given an egg mixture which was heated up on a small burner, like a savoury steamed egg custard which you eat with rice.

Each table has a large hot plate on which the meat gets cooked. First off was the pork belly. The waiters kept an eye on it for us so we didn’t have to do anything other than eat it! Once it’s grilled, he cut the pork into bite sized pieces and portioned it out on the hot plate for us. I like wrapping the meat in lettuce with a little rice, kimchi and gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste). The great thing about this is you can eat it however you like, everything works together so there is no wrong way to do it! The pork had so much flavour and the small slivers of fat on it made it super succulent. Once we’d finished with the pork, the hot plate was replaced with a wire grill on which the beef was cooked. Again, this was wonderfully soft and the soy marinade gave it a sweet and salty taste.

I always love Korean barbecue because the whole experience is so fun! Wear easily washable clothes as you will smell smoky after this (in the best way possible!). If you leave feeling inspired to try more Korean food, H-mart down the road will fulfil your needs  ?

Last but not least is Mighty Quinn’s. With six locations around NYC, their no-fuss approach to barbecue is hitting the spot. On a weekday night, the East Village location was pretty chilled around 8pm. No brainer choices were the beef brisket and pulled pork. They gave us a slice each of leaner brisket and a mound of the fattier version which was glorious. You can’t beat proper barbecue done well! Each table has a bottle of their barbecue sauce – you would do well to dunk both beef and pork in this. Underdog of the night was the beans – they look so unassuming but this is where the magic happens. Subtle hints of paprika, smokiness and the occasional chunk of burnt ends make these beans ‘not just beans’. We also got dirty frites which are fries doused in chilli-lime sauce, red and spring onions and the omnipresent burnt ends.

Hopefully you’ve made it through without getting meat sweats yet! These three restaurants come with local recommendations and I can wholeheartedly say they were absolutely right. They’re all getting saved with golden stars on my Googlemaps for my next trip! ?

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Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, 33 University Pl, New York, NY 10003