The Meatball Shop & 44 & X

Double menu day! Thanks in part to a guest in town and I love when that happens.

I've been wanting to check out The Meatball Shop for quite some time. I walk past it on my way to swimming and the name alone sounds like they would be meatball connoisseurs, right?

I came here during a late lunch on Thursday with Todd, our guest from LA, and it was fairly quiet since it was post-lunch and pre-dinner. It was empty so we were told to sit anywhere. We sat near the entrance at a 2-person table with only one other 2-person table next to us, which was empty the whole time-thank God! The menus were already laid out on all the tables throughout the restaurant so I already saw an opportunity. I'm sure you already know where this is going.

This is the first restaurant I have been to where you write down your order. It's pretty neat, fun and clever, I suppose, because you can't blame the restaurant for getting your order wrong since you hand picked it. Another thing that I observed is the restaurant staff doesn't do much work except to take the menus from you, input your order into the computer and asks how you are doing from time-to-time. How simple is that? So you think.

I ordered a few meatball sliders (pork, chicken and classic) and seasoned green beans to start. I love root beer, so I ordered one, but it never came. Booooo! She even charged us, but quickly took it off the bill once I said something. After we finished our order, we were still super hungry, so we ordered another round of meatball sliders and included veggie meatballs. They were a bit dry, of course, but pretty decent with the sauce. I tried to mix and match the sliders with different sauces: pesto, tomato, and mushroom. I enjoyed pesto the most followed by mushroom then tomato. The meatballs themselves were seasoned well and juicy. The sliders were small, so if you are really hungry, I suggest ordering half a dozen. Would I come here again? Probably.

Since the staff member forgot my root beer, I figured I would get even by collecting the menu. What kind of logic is that, right? She didn't even bother to ask if I still wanted the root beer, which was bad because had I been the restaurant owner, I'd be pissed because my staff member lost me a couple dollars. I waited for an opportune time when all the staff were in the back of the restaurant and quickly grabbed the menus off the table next to us and slipped it in my bag. Oh yeah, I already knew prior to coming here that I was grabbing the menu. The spot where this restaurant is located has changed restaurants so much that eventually this place will be a goner too. This location is cursed!

FYI: The Meatball Shop has other locations.

The Meatball Shop: 200 9th Ave between 22 & 23 St.
Chelsea, NYC
Website

The Meatball Shop

Off to a Broadway show we go to see Old Jews Telling Jokes at The Westside Theater on 43rd St. It was pretty funny. Without giving too much away, the show basically takes you through the life stage of a Jewish person. I don't know how accurate it was, but the story was funny nonetheless.

Mark made dinner reservations at Buca di Beppo, a family style Italian restaurant that just opened up in the city. We have been to another Buca, in Los Angeles, so we were familiar with the food. However, after the show ended we cancelled the reservation because we didn't feel like walking too far so we went around the corner to 44 & X (ten).

Mark and I have been here before so we were familiar with this restaurant as well. The mac-n-cheese is to die for and one of the best in the city. It is up there on our top 3 places to go for the best mac-n-cheese. The other two places? Cafeteria and Beechers.

I ordered a drink that tasted like a minty mojito. It was called "The Mint-tilla". It had gin, cucumber and mint. All their specialty cocktails had Broadway show title themes like "Kinky Booze" (Kinky Boots) and Lil' Orphan Crannie (Lil' Orphan Annie).

We shared a few appetizers: beats and summer salad with watermelon. Remind me to never order beets again. I don't know what possessed me to order this. I don't eat it and have never liked it. Why I thought it would be fancy and different this time around? I have no idea, but it was gross. I literally had to run up to the bar next to us and grab a cocktail napkin to spit it out. The summer salad was delicious. Long pieces of watermelon on top of bright yellow and red tomatoes sprinkled with feta and seasoning made this summer salad refreshing and light.

For dinner, we did get the mac-n-cheese along with 3 fish dishes: tilapia, cod and salmon. All 3 fish dishes were excellent. I didn't want to go with another meat dish today, since we did have meat(balls) for lunch, so I went with fish.

Collecting the menu was fairly easy. Again, I brought my bag in anticipation of collecting the menu. As I stated in an earlier post, it's easier to collect a menu when there's 2+ people in the group because it's harder to keep track of all the menus given back to the server. My "shtick" is I simply remember my order and stash the menu in my bag. It also helped that we were sitting at the last table in a row near the wall and away from other tables. Oy vey!

44 & X: 622 10th Ave.

Hell's Kitchen, NYC

Website

44 & X