East Village Sustainable Omakase’s Chef Is ‘Strikingly Inventive,’ Critic Says

Hello Kitty food truck visits NYC Saturday

The popular, nationally roving food truck packed with Hello Kitty snacks is returning to New York this weekend. It’s a cutesy pink specimen that will be parked in Flushing at the Shops at SkyView Center, at 4042 College Point Blvd. from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Returning items include a macaron box set and merch like thermal water bottles and Hello Kitty cafe shirts. New branded foods include a giant Hello Kitty chef cookie and new petit fours.

East Village sustainable omakase Mayanoki is “strikingly inventive,” critic says

New Yorker critic Hannah Goldfield dug the $95 omakase at Mayanoki, an eight-seat restaurant in the East Village that aims to only serve sustainable fish. Chef Jeff Miller has “both a strikingly inventive palate and a gift for storytelling,” Goldfield writes. A standout course is the Newburgh shrimp, which is cured in salt and sugar and torched; the shrimp itself is farmed in a former mattress factory in Newburgh, New York. Lionfish, meanwhile, is accompanied by a pamphlet explaining “the urgent need to consume the monstrous-looking species,” which have invaded Florida waters. “This mission seems not remotely sanctimonious, only thrilling,” she writes.

Most restaurants have “A” health grades now

When the health grade system first started in 2010, only 57 percent of NYC’s restaurants had an A grade. But now, 93.7 percent of New York’s 24,000 restaurants received the grade, up from 93.3 percent last year and and 85.4 percent in 2012. Restaurants, though, are still getting fined and complain about the strictness of the Department of Health and the level of fines. But a bill hoping to prevent minor violations from impacting grades has gone nowhere.

5 Boro Pizza Challenge takes place Saturday

The annual competition to eat pizza in all five boroughs happens on Saturday, an event where teams of pizza lovers try to visit one restaurant in each borough over 10 hours — without taking cars. It’s a fundraiser for Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit advocating for public transit, biking, and walking in the city. Participants try to eat a slice at each designated spot while finishing first.