Food Review: S'Mac (Manhattan)

On the beautifully lit island called Manhattan lies hidden treasures and not-so-hidden treasures withing the city. 

Today's blog is about a great classic dish that challenged me to no end.

S'MAC

The Mac-n-Cheese Restaurant

If you are a passerby, be alarmed: A mac-n-cheese restaurant solely to make mac-n-cheese. What a concept! ;p

It's a favorite dish of mine and I had to be crazy NOT to try it.

With my cheese-loving friend, we walked a couple blocks to share in a delicious and cheesy dinner together.

[*Note][ For first timers, check-in through Foursquare and you'll receive $5 off your order.]

.

.

.

.

.

.

v

When I walked in, it had a franchise-y feel to it. It was clean, but it didn't have that good ol' unique restaurant quality that lots of Manhattan restaurants have. They made it feel like we are one of... many.

We went on a Sunday night around 7:00pm. It filled up quickly! Though they had many seats in the store, there seemed to be A LOT of takeaways.

The menu. They have 4 sizes (nosh, major munch, mongo and partay)

Since we looked up the place before we came, the nosh looked kinda tiny, so we both ordered a major munch!

The selection is quite nice. They do all the normal ones that you would like (cheeseburger, all-american etc) and then they had a special one called, Parisienne. 

.

.

.

.

.

If you know me well, you know I chose the Parisienne. It had melted brie, roasted figs, roaster shiitake mushrooms and fresh rosemary.

My friend got the Buffalo Chicken. It had Cheddar and American cheeses with boneless chicken pieces and buffalo wing sauce. They'll even top it off wit ha crumbled blue cheese if you want.

(Photo above | left: Buffalo Chicken & right: Parisienne)

The Parisienne

.

.

.

v

After I mixed it up

It was extremely creamy and very sweet. I enjoyed it but I found it to be too sweet for a mac-n-cheese. And since the dish was not small, I had to take many breaks in between.

The Buffalo Chicken

And half way through...

Okay, so I have to be extremely honest here. This is not a place you can frequent often. Even though the Major Munch was a little larger than what I can usually eat, this was over the top. 

Even though this is a classic dish for North Americans, the cheese in the Buffalo Chicken was more than the pasta (usually a great thing) making it look like it was a cheesy soup with pasta noodles in it. It was so wet and cheesy that I had to stop less than mid-way through the dish. 

Mac-n-cheese is a classic and a favorite of mine, but I don't know if I can ever come again. =0( 

This was a big fail... on my part! 

Make this your challenge. If you think it's nothing, then try a size up and let me know how it was!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

v

We both could not finish it all (photo below).

After that meal, we walked around for a while. 

The walk was so nice with very little rain. New York City looks so shiny at night with all its lights!

So, if you're up for the S'Mac challenge, let me know how you did!

=)