Baoguette/Pho Sure

There is a Vietnamese restaurant in the West Village that makes me laugh. I'm not entirely sure if it's the menu items named "Pho Real" and "Pho Sure," or if it's the wall of painted ladies flashing side boob, but I'm amused whenever I'm there. It is casual, it is cheap, and most importantly, I enjoy my meal every time. Fo'real.

According to their website, Baoguette is a chain of Vietnamese sandwich shops (though I'm under the impression some of their locations have closed). The location we are discussing today, Baoguette/Pho Sure, is a sit-down restaurant with a take-out counter and a couple two-tops up front. You may therefore sit in a banquette under draped fabric hiding the air duct by the kitchen, or you may check yourself out in the mirrored wall as you wait for your order by the door. Either way, you'll end up with some flavorful food. Fo'sure.

Menu items include a green papaya salad ($6), sticky rice (with barbecue chicken, chinese sausage, scallion and peanuts, $8), various noodle dishes ($8-$13), and of course, the aforementioned Pho Real and Pho Sure (beef soups, $8). The expected spring and summer rolls are also available ($6-$8), as are multiple sandwich options (like spicy catfish, sloppy bao, and a couple vegetarian choices, $6-$8). My personal favorite is the "Baoguette Classic Banh Mi Sandwich," which is pate, pork, pickled daikon, carrots, cucumber, and cilantro on a warm homemade baguette, though I ask that the cilantro be omitted. (Hey, the Food Network's Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, would do the same...because she doesn't like cilantro...or so she mentioned once...I think). You have the option of mild, medium, or spicy, and your answer determines how much Sriracha hot sauce is added. I implore you not to do what my sister did, cherished reader, which was douse her appetizer in Sriracha and then order her sandwich "spicy." That proved to be a sweaty mishap after which she never tasted anything again. Ok, not fo'real, but it was an intense lunch she will likely never repeat.

While you are dining, you might satisfy your thirst with grass jelly soy milk or young coconut juice. I tend to prefer Vietnamese iced coffee with its sweetened condensed milk, but you do you.

Go to Baoguette/Pho Sure when you want an inexpensive dinner in a relatively quiet space, as you rarely have to wait for a table. Otherwise, head over for take-out at lunch when the restaurant tends to be busier. As you wait for your meal, try guessing the age of the older woman who sometimes makes the sandwiches behind the front counter - I think she's 106. Fo'sure.

Baoguette/Pho Sure - 120 Christopher Street, between Bedford & Bleecker Streets

The Meatball Shop

As in fashion and finance, food has its trends. Remember when "small plates" and "snacks" popped up on every menu, even when you weren't in a tapas restaurant? It also wasn't long ago that cupcakes were everyone's favorite dessert - at least until the French macaron came on the scene. So what are we all excited about now? That's right, perceptive reader who checked out the title of this post - meatballs. Varied, tailored-to-your-liking meatballs...and ice cream sandwiches, but we'll get to that later, sweet cheeks.

The Meatball Shop opened in the first half of 2010, and the crowds are as amped as ever, packing into the Lower East Side joint* to get their meaty saucy fix. Be not offended, vegetarians, there are options for you too.

Here's how it works: 5 varieties of ball are available (classic beef, spicy pork, chicken, vegetable, and "special," which of course changes from day to day). These may be paired with any of 6 sauces (classic tomato, spicy meat, mushroom gravy, parmesan cream, pesto, and "special"). The options may be combined in a bowl (4 balls and sauce with a piece of focaccia, $7), as a slider (1 ball with sauce on a mini bun, $3), as a smash (2 balls, sauce, and mozzarella or provolone cheese on a brioche bun, $8), or as a hero (3 balls, sauce, and mozzarella or provolone cheese on a white or whole wheat Il Forno baguette, $9). You can also order side dishes (white beans, risotto, polenta, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, rigatoni, sauteed broccoli, steamed spinach, or roasted daily vegetables, $4), where said sides may be served in a separate dish or under the meatballs themselves on the same plate. Other options include "everything but the kitchen sink salad," which is basically what it sounds like for $8, and "family jewels," which means adding a fried egg to your selection for $1. The mixing and matching adds up to plenty of delicious results designed to your taste for reasonable prices, and that may or may not be what everyone is excited about most of all.

When determining which entree selection is best for your appetite, keep in mind the meatballs themselves are approximately the size of golf balls. No matter how much you eat, though, be sure to save room for dessert - or, don't save room, eat dessert anyway, and regret it later. Like everything else at this establishment, this too is your choice.

Dessert options include ice cream (ok, fine), ice cream floats with your choice of soda (better), and ice cream sandwiches (we haaaaave a winner!) You select which freshly baked cookie sounds best with which homemade ice cream, and allow me to blow your mind by mentioning you may choose two different cookies for each side of the sandwich. I must say, you really can't go wrong, but caramel on brownie and macaroon (the coconutty kind) is so so right.

So sit at the communal table with your roommate when neither one of you feels like cooking, at a two-top with your besty when comfort food is necessary to discuss the uncomfortable topic of how terrible her new boyfriend is, or at the bar with your wife who only knows how to cook ground meat one way (as meatloaf in red sauce, and you're gonna like it). If all seats are occupied when you arrive, the hostess will take your phone number and call when some are finally open. Rumor has it additional seats will be available in Williamsburg and the West Village when The Meatball Shop ultimately expands within the year*. Three places to enjoy the same goodness? They sure do love an option.

*UPDATE - They done did it. The Meatball Shop is now located on the Lower East Side, in Williamsburg and in the West Village.

The Meatball Shop - 84 Stanton Street, between Allen & Orchard Streets
The Meatball Shop - 170 Bedford Avenue, between N 7th & N 8th Streets, Brooklyn
The Meatball Shop - 64 Greenwich Avenue, between 7th Avenue S & Perry Street

Las Ramblas

Just as New York City is itself a relatively small space packed with a staggering amount of activity, so too are some of its great restaurant finds. A handful of these wee joints have been discussed here before (ohwhassup, Against the Grain? Check you out, Prune), and now you can add the tapas spot, Las Ramblas, to the list. Ok, so each part of your body is basically touching someone at every other table in the room, but you will ultimately savor authentic Spanish dishes, grow giddy from a variety of sangrias, and become somewhat mesmerized by the mini water feature streaming down one wall. All in all, not too bad. It's like the tourist who rides the subway for the first time - she finds she is pressed against the man who smells too much of human, but she gets to buy a purse off Canal Street downtown, catch a Broadway matinee in midtown, and cap off the evening with a drink uptown at the Met. If the hassle in either case sounds like too much for the reward, go back to Kansas, Shirleen!

So...Las Ramblas? It is named for the popular pedestrian street in Barcelona, which has more performance artists and less NYU students than the Greenwich Village street on which it is located here in New York. A small faux-street sign displaying the restaurant's name indicates you have arrived at the right spot wedged between noticeably larger venues on the nightlife-laden block. Once inside, the friendly staff will figure out where you too shall be wedged.

The menu boasts such classics as patatas bravas and croquetas de jamon, but the more adventurous eater might be delighted to find chanquetes fritos (fried smelts with a garlic, olive oil, lemon drizzle) or banderillas con chorizo de pato (mini skewers of duck sausage, quail eggs, and pearl onion). Nothing is particularly bizarre, so picky eaters need not fear. The options are enjoyably authentic, and perhaps more importantly, they are prepared well with quality ingredients. For instance, the chicken empanadas are straightforward and satisfying. Additionally, there's not much to a dish of boquerones (white marinated anchovies), but fresh and served over fried leeks, they're fantastic...that is, if you like white marinated anchovies...which I happen to do...though I recognize quite a few of you just dry-heaved a little.

Considering Las Ramblas does not take reservations, your best bet to promptly snag a tall stool at one of the raised tables is to head over for a late lunch, say, when your dad's in the city, and he found a parking spot across the street from the restaurant anyway. Otherwise, swing by for dinner on that "date" with your flirty but slightly crazy coworker who should certainly never ever be your girlfriend ever...probably. Or stop in with Shirleen from Kansas - she had a rough day on the subway and would appreciate a good meal.

Las Ramblas - 170 West 4th Street, between Jones & Cornelia Streets