Offal

[babenash]

Where are the best places in Manhattan to eat offal? I am here from out of town and would love to eat something unusual.

[cimui]

Hmm, I'm surprised that Deb Van B was the only person who mentioned Lupa. That was the first restaurant that came to my mind, since it specializes in odds and end body parts that early Roman butchers figured out how to prepare deliciously because no one would buy them.

Blue Ribbon Bakery has some nice preparations, including pickled tongue (or is offal only innards?), *great* sweetbreads, and various liver pates.

And of course, I have to agree with Kobetobiko about Yakitori Toto: I am really partial to chicken offal and no one does that better than Yakitori Toto!

[erica]

Not sure if it is considered offal but Landmarc in Tribeca has fantastic marrow bones on their menu. I did not like their calves liver too much, though.

[Deb Van D]

The tripe dish at Lupa is one of my favorite, second only to that served at Al Di La in Brooklyn. Three versions of chicken livers that I love in three different ways:

Sauteed chicken liver with tiny poori at Banjara on First St--I really love this a lot, although I am less impressed with other things on the menu there.

Arnavut Cigeri at Turks & Frogs in Tribeca, cubes of calves liver with onions and parsley, delicious.

And the Fegatini Con Aceto Balsamico at Bianca on Bleecker St. is a very favorite dish.

I also recently had sautéed sweetbreads at Minetta Tavern, nicely done.

[bronwen]

21 has fantastic liver and onions!

[foodmonk]

Various Vietnamese joints, including Nha Trang, have Pho with tripe.

[Lucia]

Babbo
Momofuku Ssam
Casa Mono
Crispo (bone marrow)
I recently read about the liver at Peasant but haven't had it yet.

[MMRuth]

My husband had some delicious bone marrow at Cafe d'Alsace last night.

[MMRuth]

I believe Casa Mono usually has several varities.

[UES Mayor]

Gyu Kaku has couple of great offal dishes on menu-you barbeque them-very tasty esp with miso sauce. they call it Hormone-have no idea of the origin of the name since it's obviously not the hormone word we all know. My favorite!!!

[kobetobiko]

For offal, go to Momofuku Ssam Bar for Asian fusion (and in case you have doubt about fusion, this is exceptional in many ways and you will not be disappointed)

You can go to Yakitori Tottos for Japanese style offals like chicken hearts, gizzards, butts, etc. They have gyu-tan (beef tongue) as well.

At Babbo you can find lamb tongue salad (excellent), some tripes and testa, and lamb brain pasta or goose liver ravioli. Also have sweetbread as entree. The offals are usually disguided (except for the appetizers and sweetbread). They are all incredibly delicious.

Chinese restaurants in Chinatown usually have plenty of dishes with organ meats, like pork liver, goose intestine, pig intestine, tripes and tongue (pork or duck), even fish maw, etc.

I think there should be a lot of ethnic places that serve offal dishes, but I am not too familiar, so may be other chowhounders can help!

[thegreekone]

This may be the perfect time to venture outside of manhattan to, say, queens. If you are really interested in offal....you may want to consider taking this to the outer borough board..

[kathryn]

Momofuku (Noodle Bar, Ssam Bar) - sweetbreads, pig's head, tripe, veal head, etc.
Blue Ribbon (Brasserie, Bakery) - bone marrow
Resto - they grind fatback into the burgers, pig's head into the mayo
Spotted Pig

More:
http://www.foodistcolony.com/Restaurant-Review/New-York-Eating-Offal-in-New-York/l-9441
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/din...

[sam1]

there isnt an offal-y lot to eat here aside from the gateway to offal...sweetbreads. im not a huge fan of the restaurant, but degustation makes my favorite sweetbreads...they're fried nearly like tempura...very good stuff.

ive had chicken hearts in a few south american places but theyre totally not my scene...very chewy...as they sound.

id be interested myself where i can chew on some pig's head.

[kobetobiko]

I think if you order the whole hog at Daisy May BBQ, you can definitely chew on the head!

[JungMann]

There's tons of places that serve offal in the city! Momofuku is loaded with variety (meats), Grand Sichuan serves terrific tripe, Babbo and Del Posto go hog wild for every part porcine, Despaña has great blood sausage, Bayan Cafe serves blood stew and chopped pig face. Dim sum in Chinatown promises chicken feet. Pakistani restaurants often serve lamb brains. It's not very difficult at all to eat head-to-tail in the city.

[kobetobiko]

Hi JungMann,

Can you name the Pakistani restaurants that serve lamb brain?

[JungMann]

I'm afraid I can't. I used to stop in random spots on Lex in the 20s when I worked over there and found a turmeric-rich lamb brain curry at a steam table one block south from Curry-in-a-Hurry. The place is one flight above street level. Perhaps someone else knows where I'm talking about.

Maghaz masala, though, is easy enough to make at home. When I was younger, it was a frequent visitor on our table, though now that I've just had my cholesterol checked, I'll be eating a lot less of it.