I took a quick weekend trip to NYC to visit Julia and Pouya for the weekend. Unfortunately, the only full-day I had in NYC happened to be one of the COLDEST day ~20 degrees and Julia was slightly feeling under the weather. 

With that said, we still made the most of it… and what I mean by that is, we still ate a ton! 

I arrived there Friday night, got settled into Julia’s apt, and went to dinner with Pouya at La Sirene http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-sirene-new-york, a cute little French place. It was BYOB and Pouya brought a nice bottle of Merlot for us to share. The food unfortunately was REALLY RICH, but still yum <3 My favorite was the goat cheese tart, and the puff-pastry/chocolate-dipped dessert!!!! SO GOOD. Afterwards, we hesitated on going out, but was rather tired so watched the movie, Help, at Pouya’s house. Perfect timing for MLK weekend! Very inspiring movie… I love movies that make you think and reflect afterwards :)

We ended up sleeping in and missed our brunch reservation. Fortunately for us, we ended up going to Shake Shack instead for lunch/brunch. I love that place! Still not as good as In-n-Out in my opinion, but still delicious. 

(waiting outside Shake Shack)

We were going to go ice skating, but it was so cold that we opted for in-door activities. We went bowling, and watched MI4 since I’ve been dying to watch that movie - which I was pleased with! 

Despite Pouya’s shit-talking, Julia and I came out on top <3 

At night, we went to dinner at Stanton Social http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-stanton-social-new-york, a cute little Tapas bar in East Village. The dinner was MUCH MUCH better - highly recommend! It only ended up coming out to $40/person (including tip), although we did not get any drinks. I would highly recommend this place to everyone! *french onion dumpling, *goat cheese-filled potato dumpling with truffle creme, *red snapper tacos, *lobster roll, *butternut squash ravioli (probably my least favorite).

Afterwards, we went to Milk-n-Honey, a speakeasy place in the shady streets of Chinatown. Pricey $16/drinks, but I liked the atmosphere and the flapper-era music. Funny that just 2.5 years ago, we used to opt for 5 shots / $10 before going out to party, but now we drink with our pinkies up with our $16+ drinks. HAHA. So much has changed in the past 2.5 years. I would like to think for the better…? but questionable.

Outside at 11:30PM… waiting in line to enter Comedy Club.. it was FREEZING COLD :( 

… and of course, my trip wouldn’t be complete without Ippudo! We woke up bright and early to be the first birds into the restaurant :) hence.. the scrub / no make up…!