TONY Suggests Sunset Park Restaurants for the Year of the OX

In just a few days, Chinese New Year - this year will be the Year of the Ox - celebrations will begin. Even though Brooklyn's Chinatown has some small celebrations, the best way to celebrate on 8th Avenue will be to eat.

Time Out NY highlights a few places around Sunset's Chinatown. Lucky Eight, on 8th and 52nd, is touted for its live fish tank...pick out your dinner! Don't bother clicking the TONY link in the article. It takes you to some Manhattan restaurant. Sheesh.

Speaking of Manhattan, its Nyonya is mentioned, but we have a Nyonya too. It's had ups and downs, but it's pretty good overall.

Of course Pacificana's dim sum is mentioned. I love this place. If you're planning on going, choose off hours and leave time for a wait. Especially for the next week or so!

Hong Kong Supermarket on 8th and 60th isn't mentioned, but I'm sure you can pick up just about anything you want for the Year of the Ox there.

With that in mind, check out the article from TONY: Time Out NY Article.

No Dine-In Brooklyn for Sunset Park

Apparently, from March 24th through March 31st, Brooklyn is having its own version of Restaurant Week. When I surfed to the official Visit Brooklyn website, I thought how cool that would be for Sunset Park. I mean, there are so many places on 4th, 5th, and 8th Avenue that I'd love to try. Sometimes a little incentive is what I need to leave my familiar trail of elotes and "#7 spicy" sandwiches. I entered Sunset Park into the menu bar, and waited. It reloaded, and then stopped. I figured the page had to load or something. All I saw was "2 for $23 at the following restaurants." Above it was Windsor Terrace, and below it was a list of the places that had what was promised: 2 for $23. Nothing from Sunset Park! Not even the new-ish Maria's Bistro Mexicano was listed. Its original location is participating, however.

At first I was annoyed. Then I realized that most of the places around here don't need to offer $23 (or even 2 for $23) special menus for three courses. Go to Tacos Matamoros on 5th, and you'd have to eat 10-15 tacos to reach the $23 price. Stop in at Nyonya on 8th, and you can already get an appetizer, meal, and dessert for around $23. Well, unless you order the Curry Fish Head or Jumbo Prawns. I suppose Nyonya would have been a good candidate.

And so, Dine-In Brooklyn munches on without Sunset Park. Our gentle neighbors to the north and south have the largest number of restaurants listed. Not too far a trip for someone who wants to support Brooklyn's nod to Restaurant Week.

Considering that we ordered in Maria's tonight, and despite the large amount of food, it was considerably less than $23 per person, I'm satisfied that we're getting a better deal here than everywhere else in Brooklyn will get with Dine-In Brooklyn going on. Eat up, Sunset!

*edit: According to the insert in the Spring 2008 Brooklyn! issue, Maria's Bistro Mexicano on 5th and 39th is indeed participating in Brooklyn's Restaurant Week.