Boka and Daydream – Food / Dessert Reviews
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A LONG FOODIE POST.
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Boka
Located on: St. Marks btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave.
Type of food: Asian — Best known for their offerings of bon chon chicken and beer.
Good to know: Service is pretty terrible. Seating not great for big crowds.
Price (for average college students): $$ – you can end up dropping upwards of $12 easily — without drinks.
I’ve been to Boka a couple times now since it recently opened its doors on St. Marks. I must admit that bad service is one of my pet peeves at restaurants, and unfortunately, Boka has had pretty terrible service both times I’ve been there — and it was nearly empty one time!
Sadly to my annoyance and unfortunately for my wallet, the bon chon chicken keeps drawing me back. What is bon chon chicken exactly? It’s korean style fried chicken! Boka offers it in two ways – soy garlic flavored and hot…definitely not your KFC or Popeyes. Now, because I’m a disgrace to the Korean race in the sense that I can’t always hold my own when it comes to spicy stuff, we usually order a combination of wings & drumsticks that are half spicy and half soy garlic. The soy garlic chicken could probably do with more flavor, but it’s still tasty and unique. The spicy chicken won’t burn a hole in your stomach, but comes with a definite kick…so I usually end up shelling the $2 for a bowl of rice. Both come with crispy and not too oily battered exteriors. Sometimes the chicken is your KFC sized drumstick chicken, and sometimes it’s the size of buffalo wings; I’m not sure why there’s a size discrepancy.
Boka offers other cuisine, but again, most people really only go for the chicken and beer. Regardless of that statement, I’ve had some of their other food offerings. The spicy tuna rice cube is pretty tasty ($5), and their sushi rolls ($9+) are supposed to be pretty decent. But I don’t know if I would say it’s worth what you shell out for those dishes. Aside from what you order, they give you a small bowl of korean style non-spicy pickled raddish cubes that are decent, if I do say so myself.
So if you can stand mediocre to terrible service and are curious enough, it’s worth checking out, especially if you like spicy stuff. I’d recommend sticking with the regulars — chicken and beer (there’s also a bar if that’s your thing).
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Daydream
Located on: Corner of 13th St. and 3rd Ave.
Type of food: Froyo aka Frozen Yogurt!
Good to know: Temporarily only taking cash. Frequent Buyer card available. Unique offerings NOT available at Red Mango & Pinkberry. Bigger cup sizes & more generous toppings.
Price: $ – probably $5 or less for a small if you don’t go topping-crazy.
The war of froyo chains in NYC has been duking it out in the streets. It seems that every time a Red Mango opens, a Pinkberry opens up right across the street, and vice versa. But there’s a new kid in town – Daydream! I’ll admit, the brightly lit fluffy cloud decor that can be seen through the windows turned me off from even walking in there…but enough raves about it from some friends and I finally gave in.
First off, the staff is super friendly. As Wesley and I stood dumbfounded at the new menu choices and selections, they noticed our overwhelmed look of confusion and asked us if anything caught our attention. Oddly enough, I had been craving honey recently and after we mentioned their honey selections (amazing!), they immediately started whipping up small concoctions for us to try…and all of a sudden, I wasn’t overwhelmed with the choices, but rather just trying to keep up with the pace they were throwing things at us!
Needless to say, I bypassed their delicious combinations and settled for something that I knew would hit the spot — a small creamy original yogurt flavor with fresh strawberries and drizzles of Tahitian vanilla bean honey. MMM!!!! Wesley opted for banana flavored froyo with cinnamon oatmeal and something else…I don’t quite remember because the smell alone of bananas appalls me, so I didn’t try it. But the consensus was that both were delicious, the samples were delicious, and we are going back!
Other toppings besides your standard fruit and mochi were fruit dusts (dehydrated fruit crushed into powder consistency), three kinds of honey (vanilla bean, spiced clover, pomegranate), smores (complete with blowtorched marshmallows) and different kinds of nuts, candy covered pretzels, etc. etc. They have a number of flavors of froyo (original, green tea, pomegranate), including some that aren’t always on the menu – like banana – and even have the option of “creamy” or “icy” original flavor. Even better, their small is a bit larger than your other froyo places and they’re pretty generous, so it was enough to leave you feeling satisfied.
Although we got ours to go, they told us that if we needed a refill of toppings, we could just ask for more — for FREE! Price-wise, generally speaking, it will run you around the same, if not a bit less than Red Mango or Pinkberry. Their toppings aren’t a set price (like 3 for $1.50), but rather are priced by type. Did I mention they offered refills on toppings?
Hellooooo Daydream!
