Although the name of this restaurant sounds nothing like a real Vietnamese name, this place that our Time Out book recommended turned out to be pretty decent. Easily found with a bright yellow sign, and named after the street it sits on, this restaurant serves some great valued Vietnamese food. Its decor is a little bit dated and a little bit old, but is common amongst most restaurants that offer great value for money seem to share.

One of Doyer’s unique aspects are that they serve a big variety of bubble tea – a popular drink found in Asia that is typically made out of some sort of sweetened black or green tea and mixed with ice and chewy tapioca balls that you drink via a very think straw. Our meal first started with the crab spring rolls that actually could have been a meal on their own since they were so big. Each had been wrapped in the classic Vietnamese rice paper wrapped instead of the standard Chinese spring roll wrapper so their crispy skin had a rougher exterior. The filling was extremely tasty but had a little bit too much of a salt for our tastes. The grilled pork chop and the lemongrass grilled chicken and rice dishes were equally pretty good. The chicken was a little dry but the pork was nice and moist, but at least both were extremely flavoursome.

Details: Doyer’s Vietnamese Restaurant
Found on: 11 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013-5104
Contactable on: +1 (212) 513-1521
Highlights: Cheap Vietnamese food served with a large variety of bubble tea. A good variety of both Vietnamese and Chinese dishes.
Room for improvement: After ordering and receiving your food, expect service that matches the price of the food.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10

When it comes down to American BBQ, I think you always get quite strangely named restaurants, so I wasn’t too worried entering a restaurant called Spanky’s. Found just off Broadway in Times Square, this American BBQ joint is approximately half bar and half restaurant serving good ‘ol Southern food including Gumbo, Steak, Fried Chicken, Crab Cakes, a whole variety of BBQ ribs and Roast Chicken. This restaurant’s walls are covered in bits of strange artwork or memorabilia – such as one wall covered with two large paintings of pigs marked for chopping up by a butcher, and another wall covered by massive bottles of Tabasco sauce. Then each table is covered with the typical red and white chequered tablecloth and has the wide variety of sauces you see in your typical BBQ join including hot sauce, ketchup and BBQ.

We ordered the sampler platter and the southern fried chicken which both came out as extremely massive portions that we couldn’t finish. The sampler platter was amazingly impressive with a piece of BBQ chicken, some pulled pork, beef brisket and some ribs as well. Like usual the beef brisket was extremely tender, melting in the mouth while the pulled pork was soft and slightly tangy in its own sauce. The BBQ chicken was nicely smoked but the chicken breast was a little bit too dry for my taste. I didn’t taste the ribs but the southern Fried chicken was really spot on with an impressively crispy crunchy coating and a moist juicy meat on the inside.

After not knowing what to expect in this restaurant, I was quite impressed with the quality of the food and the decent service that we received. The portions (like most American restaurants) were massive and most of the foods were spot on. The only downsides were probably the vegetables that we had – the collared beans were obviously well overcooked, having almost lost their colour while the sweet potatoes seemed like they’d added tons of sugar or some other sweetener since they were unnaturally and excessively sweet.

Details: Spanky’s BBQ Times Square (Closed)
Found on: 127 West 43rd Street, Between 6th and Broadway Avenues, New York, NY, 10036
Contactable on: +1 212 302 9507
Highlights: Great portions of quality food that was not excessively greasy. The beef brisket and pulled pork were both super tender and the fried chicken was fantastically cooked. Service was average and the atmosphere seemed proper for the style of restaurant.
Room for improvement: Overcooked beans and over-sweetened sweet potato took away from the meal.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10