Balaboosta

As someone who is very much into food, I've had my fair share of good to even great meals. I've also had my share of mediocre to bad ones too. But very rarely, do I come across a meal that not only satisfied my hunger but also impressed me so much that it left me with the feeling of elation. Balaboosta is one such restaurant. From top to bottom, I was just happy. The food and the service was great. This is one restaurant that I would highly recommend to you even though I haven't even gone through what I had there yet. Yes, it was THAT good.

Balaboosta has been on my go to list for awhile. So when Mr. Matzo Ball's birthday came around, I suggested it. He was as excited as I was. I made my reservation for a group of 6 and happily waited until it the day of the meal. A few days before our reservation, we needed to add 2 more people. No problem, I thought. Oops! It seemed to be difficult for the restaurant as the space is not that big. They'll try to accommodate us but no promises. So as the date crept up, I became more and more nervous. And this is when the front of the house went above and beyond their duty. They made it work for us. They had every right to deny us a table for 8 due to the last minute changes but they worked their magic. The accommodated us in every way and I was very grateful.



And that was only the beginning. Now onto the food! We started with a bunch of appetizers to share. First up, the fried olives with organic labne and harissa oil ($8). These delicious morsels of briny olives breaded and fried until crispy. And the ultra smooth strained yogurt with a punch of chili oil. A really great way to start off the meal.

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Gato

When it comes to birthdays with my sister and her husband, Mr. M&P and I split up the year. The spring/summer is focused on the boys. The winter is for the girls. This past birthday celebration (the boys), we wanted to try something new. Lucky for us, Chef Bobby Flay had just opened a new restaurant in NYC. It's been a long time since he's opened up a new restaurant and we were excited to try all the new influences he's been playing around with.

We decided to share everything so that we may taste more dishes together. To start, we had the White Chicory Salad ($14) with chorizo, egg, fontina cheese, and apricot almond dressing. This was a really nice salad both bitter and luxurious from the richness of the egg and fattiness of the chorizo. The dressing added the slight sweetness that it needed.

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