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$25 AND UNDER
$25 AND UNDER; When One Successful Place Deserves Another
THINK you're seeing double sometimes? You probably are, at least when it comes to restaurants.
Everywhere I look, it seems, a restaurant has cloned itself. Shanghai Tang of Flushing, Queens, now has a SoHo branch, while Le Pain Quotidien of the Upper East Side is now in SoHo, too. Cafe Habana in NoLIta has added Cafe Habana in the West Village. Le Gamin, which started in SoHo before branching out to Chelsea, is now in the East Village, too. Jerry's, a fixture in SoHo, has also gone to Chelsea, while the Barking Dog Luncheonette on the Upper East Side has added a York Avenue branch.
This duplication is not hard to fathom: flourishing operations produce cash for investing, and a good economy encourages expansion. Success does not ensure further success, but here are three clones that are doing their progenitors proud.
The new EVERGREEN SHANGHAI has taken over the space occupied by the Cool House of Loo on the Upper East Side, and the culinary improvement has been immediate. Evergreen is my favorite Shanghai restaurant in Chinatown, and though there are concessions for a different clientele, like a menu full of generic Chinese dishes, the food maintains its high standard.
Pork-and-crab soup dumplings ($6.95) are delicate and briny, and waiters stand ready to recommend ways to handle the spurt of hot broth safely. Aromatic beef ($5.95) is scented with anise, while soft dense rice cakes ($6.95) go well with mushrooms, pork and shrimp, all stir-fried together. The extensive list of main courses includes Shanghai favorites like braised pork shoulder with greens ($13.95), the meat so sweet and tender you don't need a knife, and sauteed bean curd in a mellow crab-meat sauce ($13.95).
While touches of the garish Cool House decor remain, Evergreen has mostly achieved a sedate neutrality.
GABRIELA'S , on the Upper West Side, did not stray far from the original, just 18 blocks up Amsterdam Avenue. It hasn't changed its winning formula of moderately priced, relatively authentic Mexican food, either. The new place is as packed as the original, with crowds herded into a small bar area as a host calls out names. Sorry, no reservations.
Good values abound, like half a roast chicken with a mildly spicy Oaxacan mole ($7.95), and cochinita pibil ($10.50), slices of pork loin in a pungent Seville-orange sauce. Carnitas ($9.95), crisp nuggets of fried pork, go well with a bright tomatillo salsa, while pozole verde ($11.95), a pork and hominy stew made green by spinach and epazote, has chili heat and complexity.
Portions are large, and appetizers like taquitos de pollo ($6.25), tasty shreds of chicken encased in fried tortilla cylinders and dipped in a tomatillo salsa, can be shared.
I can count on one hand the number of good German restaurants in New York, with fingers left over. Now, two of them are called HALLO BERLIN . The new restaurant, on 10th Avenue in Clinton, has the same rathskeller style of the cramped original, with indoor picnic tables and benches, but it is roomier and spiffier, with a bar, too. Best of all, the food, ranging from simple sausages to full dinners, is just as good.
The plump wienerwurst, served on soft rolls with vinegary red cabbage, sauerkraut and fried potatoes ($10), make excellent hot dogs; pan-fried bratwurst and bauernwurst ($10), a beef-and-pork combination, are crisp-edged and savory. Full dinners, with choices like crisp pork schnitzel ($11), lean smoked pork chops ($11.95) and tart tender sauerbraten ($13.95), are served with fine soups, like smoky potato or white bean tinged with vinegar.
Beer, of course, is the beverage of choice, with good special choices like Ayinger Celebrator ($5), a double bock as dark as black coffee.
Evergreen Shanghai
1378 Third Avenue (78th Street), 212-585-3388. Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 11 p.m. All major cards.
Gabriela's
311 Amsterdam Avenue (75th Street), 212-875-8532. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, to midnight; Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. All major cards.
Hallo Berlin
626 10th Avenue (44th Street), 212-977-1944. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to midnight; Saturday, noon to midnight; Sunday, 3 p.m. to midnight. Mastercard and Visa.
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