NYC — Spring 2014: Food Journal (Day 2: BCD Tofu House and Wolfgang's Steakhouse)

Our second day in New York found us in Koreatown (which is basically a single street, 32nd, between 5th and 6th Avenues). My mom had mentioned that she wanted some Korean food on this trip, so my brother took us to BCD Tofu House for lunch:
Raw eggs for soondubu and various banchan
Seafood pajeon
Beef and seafood soondubu
Of course, they started us off with a variety of banchan, as all Korean restaurants do. What sets this place apart is that they also serve each person a whole deep-fried fish (yes, head and tail included) to start as well, which I've never encountered at another Korean restaurant. Kind of random, but I thought it was noteworthy. We started off by sharing a seafood pajeon, which is a pan-fried green onion pancake and one of my favourite Korean appetizers. It was tasty, but not as good as the one we had at Kum Gang San last year, which was thinner and crispier, with the batter more evenly dispersed. But that's not really what you go to BCD Tofu House for; you go for the soondubu, or Korean tofu stew. Here, it is served in stone bowls, the soup still bubbling. You crack one of the raw eggs in the soup and mix it in, so the boiling soup cooks the egg. I got mine with beef and seafood and mild spiciness, though there are four different spice levels (I reckon the spiciest would actually numb all your tastebuds). Served with good ol' steamed white rice, it's tasty, simple, healthy, filling, and comforting.

Fresh mozzarella and beefsteak tomatoes
Sizzling Canadian bacon
U.S.D.A. Prime dry aged steak for three, cooked medium rare
Steak (sirloin and mignon cuts) with creamed spinach and sautéed mushrooms
After a full day of shopping (a.k.a. cardio and strength workouts), we met back up with my brother at Wolfgang's Steakhouse (the Park Avenue location, which looks like a classic New York steakhouse, all dark mahogany and Art Deco-style tiled ceilings) for dinner. We usually don't like to go to the same place twice when we come to New York, and my brother doesn't like repeating restaurants, either, but Wolfgang's is the exception. You can't go to New York and not get a classic New York steak, and there's no better in the city than Wolfgang's (this also coming from my brother, who has pretty much tried all the best steakhouses in Manhattan). We had an 8:00 reservation but were still waiting for a table by 8:45, and my brother was so pissed off that he told the hostess and the manager (who was standing with her) that it was ridiculous that we had to wait so long for a table with a reservation and that we were going to leave to go somewhere else, to which the manager said, "No, no! Just wait two minutes! We will have a table!" Of course, two minutes turned into ten, and we didn't get a table until after 9:00. The manager made up for it by sending us a bottle of wine on the house, but if the packed house on a Monday night (seriously, the entire bar was packed with people waiting for tables) is any indication of how good this place is, then you know it's worth eating here. 
The servers, who are efficient and knowledgable but usually gruff and humourless, must have been warned by the manager and were trying to be extra-nice and accommodating to us. My brother, wanting to be a bit vindictive, kept trying to make conversation with them and making them laugh, knowing how taciturn they usually are (seriously, they want to serve your food and then get the hell away from the table as fast as possible), which I thought made for some pretty funny dinnertime entertainment. This meal is actually exactly the same as the one we had here last year, with the addition of sizzling Canadian bacon, cut extra thick, and ordered by the slice. As we knew we had a massive steak coming, we only shared one slice, but dear god... what this place does for steak is what it does for Canadian bacon. I never gave Canadian bacon much thought until I had this. Smoky flavour, charred in all the right places, so juicy with melt-in-your-mouth pockets of fat... A must-order along with the steak, even if it's meat overload. (You can read a much more thorough review of the other food we ate in this post that I wrote last year, because my thoughts on the food are exactly the same.) Anyway, if you want a good steak in New York (and trust me, you do, unless you're vegetarian), this is the best place for it, and I assure you that it's worth both the wait and the brusque service.

BCD Tofu House 5 West 32nd Street New York, NY 10001 (212) 967-1900
Wolfgang's Steakhouse  4 Park Avenue New York, NY 10013 (212) 889-3369