Because everyone is a critic...

Blend
47-04 Vernon, Ave. LIC

The parents were in town and against my mother's wishes to go to Target the day after Thanksgiving (seriously??) I decided to show them good ol' Long Island City (or the 3 blocks as I call it). Mr. Broad sadly had to work. We ate at Blend which is a "blend" of Latin/American. Get it? I think Fusion was taken?

My parents were eager to go to a restaurant with me as they fully support my new blogging hobby, they were quick to make comments.

"The decor is nice"

"Did you get that? Take another picture!"

"Ooh, the menu looks good- make sure you write that up!"

"The coffee! Take a picture!" (Sorry, but at the end of the day it was coffee)

They had a brunch menu which had much more than your typical eggs, however we all went for just that- the eggs.

Me: Turkey and Spinach Omelet.

Pretty standard as for an omelet goes. Hard to screw this up and I was hungry so it tasted that much better. The omelets all come with a side of potatoes (a mix of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes done "breakfast" style). I tried to get a side of fruit salad instead but it never came. Arg.

Mom: Spanish Omelets with a side salad.

Sorry Mom no picture but like I told you, it REALLY did look a lot like the picture above.

Remarks by Mom: "This is good but the square plate they put the salad on is too small for the salad, lettuce keeps falling off. Make sure you write that up." Um. Okay.

Dad: Arepas Benedictos or Eggs Benedict with the latin influence-- Poached eggs on white corn cakes with turkey or ham topped w/a cilantro hollandaise sauce

Remarks by Dad: "Ooh, mmm mine is very good. What is this on the bottom of the eggs. Aah it's a corn cake. It's very good, I like that taste, it compliments it very well." Thanks Pops.

Review:

Service at Blend is S-L-O-W. I'm not generally one to complain about service but wow. There were not a lot of people in the restaurant and if I didn't go up to them personally to give them my credit card, we might have still been waiting. And of course? They had my fruit salad on the bill. Which I never got. They apologetically took it off the bill and then took off an extra 10% for the error! However, they also saw me take some pictures of the food so it could have been due to that which would be SO COOL! Regardless, I'm a sucker when people do a little extra to make things right. Outside of the 10% off, the price was very affordable for brunch for 3.

The place is slightly trendy, maybe more modern?, but not over the top. The food was good - they serve dinner too and I think the place gets a bit more trendier from what Mr. Broad and I have seen when we walk past. We'll have to check it out.. however definitely not when we are in a rush.

Grade: B

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Keepin' it Local

I have been traveling a lot for work recently and when I come home around 8pm on Thursday, starting the oven is the last thing that me and Mr. Broad want to do. So we stayed around our area for a cheap(er) meal.

Lounge 47

4710 Vernon Boulevard

This is on the main drag in LIC (Long Island City) and is also rated "best hipster burger" by ohso fun websites that also declared White Castle is the best fast food burger. I've never been there but judging from Mr. Broad, that's an accurate claim soo the burgers at Lounge 47 MUST be hip too!

There was quite a crowd already at the place (fist pumping for LIC- Hell yeah!) but no problem getting seated. So onto the more important stuff- dinner and the review.

We were both famished so we started off with one of the cheaper appetizers- Taquitos. A bit different than what we normally would get but always up for trying something new.

It was much different (and dare I say, healthier?) than what we expected...

But very good. Loaded with onions (things to mention on your MENU) I spent a good 3 minutes picking them all off. More like mini tacos but very good.

Dinner-

I went with the Shrimp and Avocado salad. Presentation sure was pretty... or shall I say... Hip? Guesses for what the hole of the avocada was filled with? At first I thought it was cheese and mmmm how I love cheese but then realized that it was the salad dressing. It looks a lot "thicker" in the picture than it really was. The salad was good, shrimp was yummy, however I think the salad needed a little something else. Cheese maybe? ... (PS- I realize that glob on the avocado doesn't look that appetizing. It was I swear!)

Mr. Broad went for the Burger with some bacon on top of course. Talk about food envy. And so Mr. Broad? How was it? He could barely stop to open his mouth to declare the greatness of burger. Cooked exactly how he wanted it, I gotta say it looked mighty fine.

Review:
Score one for LIC! Service was friendly, food was great, and the place was hoppin'. Definitely a great place to go locally for us. Not sure if I would go out of my way for this place but if I was in the area (or eh hmm live down the street)... worth it for sure.

Grade: B+

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