If you can tell, I’m a list person.  I document the wines we drank.  The doughnuts we ate.  This year I decided to work my way through Adam Platt’s Top Restaurants in New York.  He’s the food critic at New York Magazine an published the last list 6 years ago.  We’ve already been to a few, but to be fair, we might have to go back so the visit is in 2012.  Let me just say now, we might have to space out Per Se, Daniel and Le Bernadin.  Not all on the list are really expensive, there are a lot of great places that are pretty reasonable.

First Stop:  Danji on Jan 5th (yes, a little late with this post)

I’ve read about this place a few times.  Then Mark’s “in the bar/liquor business” friend mentioned he went here during his last visit to New York.  I learned about Fernet Branca from him and order it every time I see it now. It’s the “bartender’s handshake”, well loved by bartenders. It’s a great after dinner aperitif.

Danji is tucked away in a small spot on 52nd Street in Hell’s Kitchen.  And it’s packed.  It’s traditional Korean with a spin, a little modern and “street food” like.  We shared a few small plates.  Everything was so incredibly tasty.  Lots of flavor.  We had the spare ribs, the Korean bacon “paella”, salad, fried tofu (this was a freebie because we had to wait so long and it was soo good).  And the chicken wings.  I think these were my favorite.  I hate skin on chicken, but this was crisp and covered in spice.  I’ll sum it up by saying everything was excellent.

Washed it all down fruity soju, which I decided was Korean sangria.  Now the question is…what is next??