Every time I passed Ladder 15 during the day, I’d say to myself “oh, that’s where Ladder 15 is”. Every time I passed Ladder 15 during the night on a weekend, I’d shudder and run past it as quickly as possible. It’s as if it has dual personalities. I wanted to go and check out their burgers, which have been raved about. So on an early evening on a sunday night, we ventured in. It’s fairly quiet on such a day.
K got the classic burger with bacon. It’s made of prime sirloin, comes on a tall brioche bun, and is served with delicious fries.
I came for the Burger 15. In addition to said prime sirloin and the same brioche bun, it’s topped with a ragu of short rib, mushrooms, onions, marrow, and a truffle sauce. Man alive, this thing was tasty. But not necessarily tasty in a burger way. To me, it was more akin to a hot roast beef sandwich or something. It was just so darn wet, with all the dripping short rib and everything. The juices essentially disintgrated the bottom bun, so I was really left with a whole bunch of innards and a half soggy top half. I don’t like mushrooms, but I barely tasted any here. I really didn’t taste much onion either, now that I think about it. But I certainly tasted lots of wet, shredded short rib, along with the actual burger bit. It was really great, but I can’t compare it to a regular burger. Point is, I liked it! And their fries are darn good too.
But the real mystery at Ladder 15 is why do they put water ice cones on top of all the bottles of booze? Service was ok. The food took quite awhile to come out. But I blame that on us both wanting our burgers medium well. I know, it’s sacrilegious, but I just can’t do bloody burgers! With these burgers being good, I really want to try the tuesday night prix fixe now!

For various reasons, Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney decided to close Bindi, their indian restaurant. I’d never had a chance to go, so we stopped by on their last day in business. I’m happy to say that it was full and hopping. It was a beautiful space! And all of the food was delicious. It’s a shame to see it go!
E’s mango lassi. Who doesn’t like mango lassi?
Papadum with chutney for dipping. You know, it’s like the chips and salsa of indian food. I love this stuff.
We both ended up getting their prix-fixe, which has a limited menu, but pretty much covers most things from their regular menu. It’s not necessarily a better deal or anything, but I’ve just been into prix fixes lately. Here’s E’s spring pea and potato samosas, served with mango-date chutney and raita. These are adorably hot, flaky, and not greasy.
I got the salt roasted beet and mixed radish chaat. It’s a salad of local beets, watermelon, jicama, chutneys, sprouted moong, and yogurt. This thing was awesome. There are so many different flavors in this, it’s hard to describe.
E’s indian bbq braised shortrib with masala roasted potatos, grilled corn-cabbage slaw, and watermelon rind chutney. Bindi’s food is interesting because it doesn’t always look typically indian, and then you taste the intense indian flavors.
I got the seafood goozoo which comes with shrimp, scallops, and mussels in a spicy tomato-tamarind curry, with ginger, garlic, green mango, and lime rice. When I first tasted this, I wondered why this dish was being served at an indian restaurant. Then I moved onto the bottom of the bowl and then all the indian flavors hit me. This had tons of fresh seafood. I really enjoyed this.
The bread we got was a potato paratha. It was a slightly spicy potato griddle bread with ghee, sea salt, and a house raita. I love me some indian breads. They should be part of my daily life.
E gushed about the cardamom cake, so that’s what we both went with. It’s an individual sized warm cardamom cake topped with indian spiced chocolate pot de creme, salted caramel, cacao nib crumble, whipped cream, and a giant shard of sugar glass. Man alive, was this thing amazing! If the salted caramel budino is the must-have at barbuzzo, then this is the must-have at bindi. I hope that they end up still serving this at one of their other restaurants. This entire meal was lovely, and so was the service. I’m just happy that I got a chance to check it out! Bindi, we’ll miss you!

Yummy Lan Zhou Hand-Drawn Noodle House (say that 5 times in a row), not to be confused with Nan Zhou, is the latest hand-drawn noodle shop to open in chinatown. Although it would be hilarious if these two shops were next door to each other, alas, they are not. They’re not even around the corner. So it’s not exactly a Vietnam / Vietnam Palace situation or anything. Perhaps they’ve got more of a Penang / Banana Leaf thing going on. In any case, for your chinese noodle hankerings, here’s another option. It’s got a decent sized dining room. There’s a menu full of noodle dishes. You can see into the kitchen and watch them make the noodles.
Here are the hand-drawn noodles in some beef soup. It’s a big bowl filled with sliced beef, a hearthy broth, and a big helping of hand-drawn noodles. You can’t go wrong with this.
I decided to go crazy and get the shaved noodles instead. I didn’t want thin uniform noodles, I wanted some weirdness. The shaved noodles are thicker and in funkier irregular shapes. And I loved it. I think there’s definitely room for more than one hand-pulled noodle house in chinatown. The more the merrier!