Milkstand is a new brunch place at the old location of the Byrne Dairy. They feature breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but we were there for the breakfast. The most notable thing about the restaurant is the aesthetic. It is almost as if you are eating in some kind of music video, with pastel pink combined with metallic gold everything, down to the silverware.

I channeled Vincent Vega and got a 7 dollar vanilla milkshake, but unfortunately, it was only “sort of fucking good”. The coffee was only ok.

Next, I got a classic - grits with sausage gravy and eggs. The eggs were underseasoned, and not crispy. I guess that is technically what a sunny side up egg is supposed to be, but crispy eggs would have been better with grits. Overall, it was not bad.

Elena got the milkstand omelet, which had cheddar, gruyere, and mozzarella. The best part of the omelet was the hashbrowns that came with it, which were very good. Just a standard cheese omelet - you get what you ask for.

Now, lets talk fries. If you are on a diet, these are great. Containing almost no actual potato, they make you sad when you bite into them. Why you would make fries so thin and deflated is beyond me - fries did not need fixing. Elena, however, thinks these are the best fries she has ever had. Her roommate also said they were good (probably peer pressure).

Overall, my rating is a 1/4 beans. Elena gave it a 2/4 because the fries were “so good”. This leaves milkstand with a 1.5/4 beans. Solid, but certainly not the best breakfast in Ithaca.

Simeons

Simeons plus bonus Mont Tremblant review. Overall, Simeons was good, but overpriced, the garlic bread had a bitter garlic flavor, which made it not very good garlic bread. The lobster Mac was generous on the lobster, and has an overall good flavor.

The bolognese, however, was good, but absurdly overpriced. 28 dollars for bolognese is absurd. The price has to be mentioned even though that shouldn’t have to be the focus of the review.

Overall, 2/4 for food, -.5 for extortion, so 1.5/4 overall. Don’t go here, there are better restaurants less than 3 feet away.

Bonus Review: La Forge Mont Tremblant.

I had the filet with a piece of fois gras on top and a sauce. My meal was very good, with the meat very well seasoned. The fois gras texturally went very well with the filet, which I was not expecting. However, Alex had an absolutely bad bernaise sauce, which leaves no room for an unprecedented 4/4, so overall, La Forge receives a 3/4.

Finally got a reservation at gola. We had a mushroom soup appetizer, which we started eating before taking the picture. The soup was mushroomy, with an earthy finish, like eating dirt, but in a good way.

The lasagna tasted fresh and light, with the perfect ratio of tomato sauce. Elena’s black spaghetti was interesting… fermented chilis and black spaghetti taste good together, but the chili’s were not incorporated as a sauce, just put on top. Also, Italian sausage and picked chili do not work.

Overall, it was a fusion confusion. dessert was good.


3/4 beans (ps, subtract 1 from the 1-5 scale to get our new 0-4 scale Arden).

Elena and I shared a French onion soup as an appetizer. Unfortunately, there was hardly any cheese on the top, and far too few onions.
For entrees, Elena got the gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce, while I got a chicken with mashed potatoes. Elena’s gnocchi was excellent, while my chicken was a little underwhelming. For 25 dollars, you would expect more than just chicken thighs.


The desserts, however, were excellent. The cake was layers of sponge with merengue on both sides, with a plum filling in the middle, which was exceptional. The panna cotta was less exceptional. The actual yoghurt was good, but the raspberries were far too acidic.

Overall, Chris: 2/4, Elena: 3/4, so in total, 2.5 / 4.

Ciao. 2/5. Leave the Arancini. Take the cannelloni.

Mix Social Dining. Dinner started off strong, with the best dish of the night, fried chicken and waffles with a sriracha sauce. The mussels were good, if a little bland for a Thai sauce.

Then disaster struck. 1/4 of the menu was taken up by a butcher block, with five cuts of steak. We decided to go for the filet with a Demi glacé made of port. Unfortunately when the steak arrived, it resembled more of a reduced-for-quick-sale ground beef than a prime filet. Unsurprisingly, it was bland. The asparagus tasted like boiled lettuce.

Luckily, the cheesy potatoes were good. Elena enjoyed the ungodly tomato topped with breadcrumbs. I did not. The Cajun fries were good, but how do you screw that up. Dessert was unremarkable.


Overall, stick to the tapas, stay far away from the beef. 3/5 beans.