Wine bar with great list and some microbrews. Cozy, elegant without being pretentious. Great place to meet with friends or bring a date.
Sun-Thu 5PM-1AM, Fri Sat 5PM-3AM
This restaurant specializes in Sichuan dry pot, which is different from hotpot, in that hotpot is a soup that the diner traditionally prepares by being given two kinds of broth and ingredients of their choice to boil in real time, whereas dry pot has some sauce but is not soup-like, is prepared in the kitchen before being brought out to the diner and can be ordered to go without a notable dropoff in quality or freshness. The restaurant also serves appetizers, but the flavorful, aromatic (and if you order it spicy, quite chili-laden) dry pot is what you should order. You must order at least 3 ingredients in your dry pot, but 4-5 are common for an individual and 7-8 for a couple. Ingredients range from $3-12, but cluster around $4-8, so the price can mount fairly quickly, and tabs of around $24-27 plus tip for an individual and $40 for a couple are common. Tastes vary, but some of the ingredients that stand up well to the powerful sauce and spices are the soup filled beef balls, the lamb, the beef tongue and the lobster balls, and among the better ingredients for enjoying the sauce are the bean curd sheets, noodles and enoki mushrooms. Rice is also available for an extra charge of $1 for white rice and $2 for purple rice. This restaurant has other branches at 41 West 46th St. and 245 East 53rd St.
Mon–Fri noon–9:15PM, Sat Sun 11AM–9:15PM·Mala dry pot: minimum $12 + tax with 3 ingredients
This might be one of the few bars left in the East Village that isn't overrun by frat boys, sorority girls and loud drunken youths from New Jersey. It usually isn't crazy even on weekends. They are not whiskey specialists but have a pretty good and relatively well-priced selection of whiskeys and ryes (though prices have started to creep up, and Sophie's, listed below, is cheaper), among the rest of their drinks. The sound track tends toward country and classic rock, the bartenders are personable and helpful, and the clientele tends to be a quirky, friendly motley crew of various ages.
Daily 8AM-4AM
Serves Moroccan, French, and Middle-Eastern cuisine, all dependably good. The cafe is especially popular for weekend brunch, but a very good breakfast/brunch is available every day of the week. More dishes are on the brunch menu on weekends, but you are likely to wait a half hour or more for weekend brunch during peak hours.