Sung Bistro:

Glass slipper—a cocktail with house infused mango vodka, peach liquor and fresh orange juice.

Sung is dangerously close—walking (or stumbling if one has had to many cocktails) distance from our new place. I’ve come a long way in food adventurousness—7 years ago, I would have been hesitant to try out a place like Sung. Since we’ve moved close by, we have been there several times; I like it a lot. They can assert they serve some delicious, tasty dishes.

Sung has house infused sprits, which are nifty. They also make a superb Dark and Stormy and they have a good Pimm’s cup. Their cocktails are all very interesting, a little more than your run-of-the mill cosmopolitan.

Happy hour is Monday though Friday, and runs until 7. It includes half off cocktails (which makes most of them $5.00) and $2 off appetizers. Happy hour is only in the bar, but it is fairly large. It is also underlit by a large red light, which means all pictures we took have a red tint.

Their house sauce is delicious. I request some extra to take home with the leftovers.

We’ve tried a variety of appetizers, which range from $6-$22, including the Ojingau Tueegim (pretty much calamari, $8) and the Gimbab (rice roll with pickle radish, carrot, crab meat, beef, egg and cucumber,$7)

Below are Goonmandu, which are deep fried vegetable dumplings stuffed with tofu, scallions, onion and cabbage. $6.

Dinner entrees are served with a set of six side dishes. I’m not sure what they all are, there’s a seaweed salad, some kimchi and some other things on there, and I am also sure that I can’t pronounce what they are actually called. I recommend sharing the sides, they are like mini-appetizers.

I’ve gotten the Bulgogi ($17) twice, and liked it both times. It’s thinly sliced beef grilled with soy sauce, garlic, onion and carrot. It's very well seasoned, I've actually had the leftovers for breakfast the next day.

This is a very blurry Dolsat Bibimbab ($17), a hot stone rice bowl with all sorts of tasty veggies and a sunny side up egg in it. The Stone bowl is hot enough that when it is mixed, the rice gets nice and crunchy on the bottom. It’s one of the best parts of the dish.

Bar at the Palm Court:

Happy hour at the Bar at the Palm Court is a pretty nifty secret downtown. You don’t hear much about the Bar, located at the Hilton in Carew tower.

Orchids at the Palm Court is the main restaurant, followed by the Grille—which is a little more casual. As far as bars go, though, it doesn’t get much classier. Softly lit with incredibly high ceilings,the 1930’s art deco in Carew tower is very interesting and impressive to look at. An entire wall of mirrors also conceals a door to the kitchen. The staff are constantly appearing and disappearing in to it.

Happy hour runs Monday to Friday, 4-7, with gin and vodka based cocktails ½ price. (Which means $5), and select appetizers ½ off as well. The appetizers featured include the Hummus (normally $8, HH $4.); Spicy sriracha wings ($12, HH $6.); 3 Mini burgers ($8, HH $4) and a few others.

We tried several cocktails as well, including Orchid’s Orange, made with Hangar One mandarin blossom vodka. Hanger One seems to be the bars go-to vodka, and David and I approve. I still am puzzled by Morton’s decision to make their $12 martinis with Smirnoff vodka.

As far as the beer list goes, it’s not spectacular, but it’s not depressingly sparse either. A lot of domestics, a few imports. The standouts on the list include Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Warsteiner, Guinness and Christian Moerlein.

I ordered the mini burgers (very tasty) and the wings, which were more sweet than spicy but still delicious. David went with the tuna tartare ($11). He really liked it. We also got the hummus and a side of fries to share. And yes, we had leftovers.

little tartare sailboat

I like the space that the bar is in. If I stopped by after work for happy hour, I could get two cocktails, mini burgers and be out of there for under $20, including tip. And if I recall the strength of the cocktails correctly, you probably wouldn’t want more than two. They make them strong.

Hamburger Mary's:

Despite a somewhat hectic moving day and the movers dropping a box on my foot, we’re finally getting settled in at our new apartment. Last Friday we walked over for cocktails and dinner at the newly re-opened Hamburger Mary’s.

Happy hour makes most of the cocktails made with well liquor $5, and they have an assortment of lawnmower beers—Hudy Delight, PBR, and Burger Classic for $1.

The inside of the place is fairly large, with two bars—one larger and in the middle of a dance floor to the right of the entrance, and a smaller bar is right by the door.

On the left is the dining room, which has lots of bright colors and space.

I started with a “raspberrita”. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a raspberry margarita. The bartender must have read my mind, because it has sugar, not salt, around the rim. It was pretty good, but also very sugary.

David decided to get not one, or two, but the whole ménage a trois of the $1 beers. Yes, I tried to talk him out of it. I pointed out that HM has Dogfish 60 and 90 minute in bottles. It didn’t work.

Don't do it, David!

Our group did insist he drink them with his pinky out.

See, this is why you should listen to your wife.

I got another cocktail, the “pop your cherry tini” made with red cream soda. It was good, though also very, very fruity and sweet. My friend Janelle got a cocktail made with champagne and red bull, the "Chambull", she liked it a lot.

For food, Janelle and I chose appetizers. She got the nachos. Lots of toppings, lots of cheese. Can’t go wrong there.

David ordered his second beer.

I chose to get the Mary’s Handbag ($13), a sampling of most of their appetizers, and the mini Mary—a mini burger with cheese. ($2) I was a bit surprised when they asked how I wanted it cooked—is it even possible to get anything other than a well done mini burger? I didn’t think so. I was right. Regardless, it was delicious.

Everything on the Mary’s handbag is fried. Chicken tenders, onion rings, wings, calamari, and fried macaroni and cheese. There were a few little pieces of iceberg lettuce on there—which David and I both found funny in juxtaposition with the rest of the plate's contents.

The fried macaroni and cheese is very tasty, and it was probably my favorite appetizer. The calamari was not too chewy, and I really liked the marinara sauce that was served for dipping.

Happy hour Friday shot!

David ordered his last beer, Burger classic.

David says: "They tried to add some flavor..."

"but I'm not sure it went to a good place."

While the Burger classic may not have gone over well, the actual burger, with mushroom and sweet potato fries, did.

My last drink the Mary’s punch, which I couldn’t finish. This was the drink I liked the least—it was incredibly sugary and tasted a little like grape Dimetapp.

The checks come inside shoes, which our server chose based on what she thought we would like. Janelle got a silver one with glitter. It was a good match.

We dropped David back off at the apartment and Janelle and I ended up going back to Hamburger Mary's to dance later. We had a good time, though there was a some sort of reservation mix up--some sort of reservation for two booths for a private party had been booked earlier, and their DJ went rogue and attempted to kick everyone out of the entire bar. I'm sure you can imagine that did not go over well, but the manager was quick to correct the problem and was very apologetic about it--even showing us the actual contract-- when I asked her to explain.

Despite the snafu at the end of the night, we enjoyed our dinner and will definitely be back for Mary-oke on the days that it's held. The staff was friendly and courteous the whole night. I might get a whole plate of mini-Mary's with cheese!