East Village meals under $5
I found two new good eats in the East Village today. Both are locally run and make their ingredients fresh and on-site.
Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches (150 E. 2nd Street). Fresh warm baguettes, savory meats and dark coffee. Up here in Manhattan, I don't get a lot of good authentic Vietnamese sandwiches and most of the joints are run by Chinese management. Nicky's follows the trend, but hey it's still pretty good. I ordered a BBQ pork sandwich ($4.50) and two summer rolls ($3.50). The bread is crisp, the stuffing is generous and the drip coffee pretty decent. Ok, so the summer roll dip was nuoc mam (fish sauce) instead of the peanut/oyster sauce combo but I'll overlook that cause there's a couple of tables to stretch your legs. Plus, they deliver! (3/5 stars)
East Village Ice Cream Shop (224 Avenue B). Not an online presence yet but hey, they make their ice cream (only 4 flavors) from scratch each day from their very own machine. Milk is delivered fresh daily. When I went in and ordered one scoop of coffee ($3.00), they sat me down and made me try all the flavors before deciding. That's what a neighborhood vibe does for you – that and a new joint eager for repeat customers. The scoop was actually two huge helpings. All in all, the product could use a touch more cream and hopefully they'll add more flavors beyond vanilla, chocolate, coffee and butter pecan but it beats anything that you can get from a bodega! (4/5 stars).
Hey, so where'd you end up moving to?? East Village?! I've heard of Nicky's, but haven't tried it yet... now I really want to! There's one place I really like in the EV but it's a semi-splurge so it doesn't really go with the theme... but if you get a chance, check out Mercadito (on Ave. B). Really good mini-tacos, really good ceviche. Tiny place, and tends to get crowded tho.
Posted by: sanguine smile | March 19, 2007 at 06:50 AM
ooh. go eat yuca fries from yuca bar. they are crunchy crunchy. so delicious.
Posted by: moon | March 19, 2007 at 01:22 PM
mmm. yuca fries. yeah, i'm trying to find places that are cheap but then again, i'm turning into a fatass so maybe the fries will be my splurge. def look into mercadito though.. i love me some ceviche...
Posted by: j.fisher | March 19, 2007 at 01:24 PM