Shop vs. Factory?

 So a friend asked if I wanted to join him for dinner at Meatball Factory recently. He bought a Groupon deal which was expiring soon (the only reason he asked me to go, but hey, I'm always down to eat) that included a bottle of wine,  two salads, 3 orders of meatballs, truffled mac n' cheese and dessert. Not bad for $39! When we arrived at 5:30, it was fairly empty and we were able to choose our own table. People started to crawl in and full up the place around 6-6:15. The menu is pretty simple. Aside from apps and sides, you can mix and match 7 types of meatballs with 8 different kinds of sauces. Salad was pretty simple, just some mixed greens with a vinaigrette dressing. Our three orders of meatballs is as follows: meatzza meatzza with shroom central, old school with fire roasted marinara, pork with truffle thyme, truffled mac n cheese, pig sticks. I was looking forward to trying the turducken meatballs but they were out. The shroom central and fire roasted marinara didnt wow me. The truffled thyme was great though. Creamy with a hint of thyme, great marriage of flavors. Truffled mac n' cheese was baked to perfection topped with some bread crumbs. You never feel great after a lot of mac n cheese but this was one of the better ones. The dessert was a peanut butter bar that I didnt get to take a photo of but it wasnt all that either. Tasted like dry pb with oatmeal that crumbled in your mouth. I added an order of pig sticks. Now, this was a great idea. Ive been looking for chocolate covered bacon in NYC for a while now and I know its out there but I just hadnt gotten a chance to find any yet. I was excited to see this on the menu but was very quickly disappointed when the waitress brought this out. There were about 6 slices of microwaved bacon. Sauces were barely warm and overall presentation was terrible. If it was up to me, I would have the bacon already dipped in the sauces and add a few sprinkles of Hawaiian sea salt to the caramel dipped ones. I would use Hawaiian sea salt because its slightly mellower and earthier which would be a great combo with the sweetness of the caramel. Anyway, great idea, terrible execution.

Shop vs Factory? Hands down Shop wins! I went to Shop about six months ago and waited about 45 minutes. Maybe the wait makes the balls taste a bit better but even if the meatballs were bad, I'd wait an hour just for the ice cream sandwiches. When I was at Shop, I ordered some naked balls with tomato sauce (figured I'd go classic) with family jewels. Eggs make everything taste better! The ice cream sandwich special was cocoa peppermint cookies with caramel white chocolate ice cream sandwich. Most amazing ice cream sandwich I've ever had. Cookies were baked with crunch on the edges and chewy center. Each bite of the ice cream had all the necessary flavors and it was just simply great. 

The difference? Shop is opened up by an ex chef (Daniel Holzman) who began working at Le Bernadin, and after CIA, worked with Jean Louis Paladin, as well as as Wylie Dufresne (who know owns WD-50). He co owns with Michael Chernow. Factory is opened up by Chef Dave Martin, who was a finalist on season one of top chef. He's definitely a chef with eccentric ideas.