08.17.08
Posted in New York City, New York City Reviews, NoHo, rated 7 to 7.5, small plates, Spanish at 06:10 by Dominique
45 Bond St. #A & Lafayette/Bowery, 212-529-8600
Great for: cheese, watching chefs, people on high-sodium diets
I confess to a weakness for this little neighborhood because of the hallucinatory metal sculpture/enclosure/fortification around the new apartment building they’ve just put up there. It looks a bit like a T-1000 that’s been shattered, flung on the wall and somehow suspended there. I enjoy looking at it because it’s simultaneously brilliant and stupid. I can never decide which. Kind of a Schrödinger’s Cat paradox involving my taste in architecture.
We started with the selection of three cheeses. The Monte Enebro goat cheese from Ávila was soft, reminiscent of bleu cheese, and I thought it actually pretty tasty. I found the La Serena, a sheep version from Extremadura, bitter and soft. I didn’t much like that one. The Idiazabal, ovine cheese from Pais Vasc, was firm, not too strong, and delicious. The cheeses come on a nice board with bread and aged jelly. Yeah, I thought that sounded gross too. I couldn’t force very much of the jelly down.
From the tapas section we tried the patates bravas with garlic and spicy sauce. The sauce reminded me of spicy mayonnaise at Japanese restaurants. The potatoes were a bit charred, and the dish is really big, so though I liked it at first, I got tired of it about halfway through. The bombas – chicken, pork and beef meatballs – were minced very finely with a hard potato-y shell outside. They were interesting and yummy but the meat had a disconcertingly soft texture, reminiscent of Gerber’s baby food, which eventually overpowered the taste of it. We didn’t finish this dish either.
Of the embotits (Spanish for charcuterie, I think) we tried the jamón serrano, which was delicious and not too salty. I don’t know why the pá amb tomàquet, toasted bread with tomato and garlic, is in the same category, but it was pretty good.
In the larger dishes (cuiina de Mercat) we went for the vedella amb escalivada, a grilled hanger steak with cheese on top and roasted vegetables. A little tough, it was somehow juicy and too salty at the same time. I was surprised at the large amount of meat; too much, in fact, although sliced into good sizes. The truita, a Spanish omelet with chorizo was also overly salted. I did like the tender egg and creamy cheesy sauce on top. The Maya shrimp with crispy garlic and pimenton were nice and big and a bit too salty as well.
Commodities Broker and I were not disappointed with Avinyo, a rosé cava. It was a lovely ruby color and the flavors balanced well. I was pleased with the service too. The waiters are really nice, more attentive to the level of our glasses than getting the food out – though that’s not such a bad thing. The kitchen forgot one of our dishes, which was fine since we found ourselves stuffed anyhow. There is a sexy wine area catwalk just begging to be used in a runway show or movie.
I thought they used the large space inefficiently – they could have fit a couple more tables – but the decor was nice. There are white tiles everywhere, which, fortunately for the noise level, are offset by all the unvarnished wood and brick. You can sit at an open kitchen area in the middle of the room and watch the chefs. You could also sit at the spacious bar and skip the food. I had a fairly good experience here, what with the nice service and the abundance of champagne, but basically everything from the kitchen was too salty. Have drinks here. Bond St. a few doors down is more reliable when it comes to food.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $260 (2 $55 bottles of rosé cava)
Noise level: not too bad
Chance of walking in: medium.
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12.06.07
Posted in Flatiron, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5, Spanish at 03:53 by Dominique
35 W. 19th St. and 5th/6th, 212-229-2300
Great for: dates, sharing food, catching up with several friends
The Boyfriend and I had lots of double dates in November. This one was with my friend S and her boyfriend. A friend of ours suggested Sala, although it turned out that he meant the one on Bowery. This is a new branch. It’s a surprisingly huge restaurant – there are a few tables in front with a bar, then another bar about midway in before the rest of the tables. We’d made an 8:45 reservation because that was all we could get, but arrived at 8:15 to see if we could get seated earlier. They accommodated us about 10 minutes later. We had a cute corner table that would be perfect for a very romantic date, as it feels kind of sheltered from the rest of the restaurant.
We started with the tuna bocadillo, which came in 2 giant triangle portions of seared tuna with onions. They were really hard to cut – we ended up just eating half and giving the other to our respective boyfriends. They were ok, not great. The tuna was a bit chewy for my taste. The salad de la casa, which had romaine, tomato, white asparagus, tuna and olives, was very good, so that we were politely fighting over the last few scraps. We liked the shrimp al ajillo (in garlic) a lot as well.
From the larger plates, we got the chorizo and paella. We liked the chorizo a lot and wished there was more of it – I guess the grill plates are supposed to be medium tapas. It was savory & cooked just enough to be juicy without getting too dry. The seafood paella was all right, very average. It was big enough for the four of us after all the starters but nothing special.
We had a pretty attentive waitress who made sure everything went smoothly for us while we were obliviously chatting away. I really like the lighting and the way they set up the place as well. It’s very sexy and romantic, but also great for a bunch of friends. The food isn’t the greatest, but when you have enough drinks & dim lighting, it’s lots of fun.
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Our cost: $160 for 4 people (1.5 drinks each)
Noise level: good, considering how many people were in the restaurant.
Chance of walking in: medium, although as people realize there’s a second Sala I’m sure it will get harder.
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11.15.07
Posted in Gramercy, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5, small plates, Spanish at 20:38 by Dominique
37 E. 28th and Park/Madison, 212-213-2328 (closed now)
Great for: medium-size parties, romantic dinners, sharing 10 dishes between two people
I’ve had Ureña (the resto’s previous incarnation) on my list since it opened and kept meaning to go but Alex Ureña, the chef, recently changed it to Pamplona. I’m actually quite glad; molecular gastronomy sounds interesting, especially to a science geek like me, but I’ve yet to like anything that crazy. Tapas is more my speed. And wow, did Mr. Ureña do a great job. The Boyfriend and I tried 5 tapas, 3 entradas and 1 plata principal, 6 of which were amazing. We wanted to get the paella but after looking over the menu a couple times we decided to save that for next time.
We got the shrimp and chorizo skewers over goat cheese toast, meatballs with butternut squash, dates with bacon, mamitaco of tuna and bocadillo de jamon from the tapas column. The dates were almost as good as at Pipa, and everything else was unreservedly terrific. The goat cheese went really well with grilled shrimp and chorizo; I normally detest squash but couldn’t get enough of it here, plus we had to stop ourselves from licking the last drops of sauce out of the dish; the tuna was perfect cubes with yummy sauces; and bocadillo seem to be like panini, except thinner and better. They were all about 4 bites big.
From the entradas (slightly bigger) we got the snow crab, shrimp over manchego rice and the poached egg on asparagus salad. The crab was ground up with spicy sauce and looked kind of like spicy tuna at a sushi restaurant; it was good but a little sweet. We loved the other two. After all this we were still a bit hungry so we got the slow cooked cod entrée, which may have been a tad undercooked. The middle was a little chewier and more raw than we expected. The sauce and the rest of the dish were great though.
Considering this was a Sunday night around 9:30, the host and waiters were incredibly chipper. The host was very nice and our 2 waiters were just the right level of eager without being annoying. The only problem was they forgot our snow crab. We ordered just the 5 tapas and 2 entradas and added the snow crab as an afterthought, so it wasn’t entirely their fault. They handled it very professionally, not making a big deal out of it and just bringing it when it was ready. I wasn’t even sure it didn’t just take longer to make until I started writing this and thought about it.
The presentation of all the dishes was great. Not pretentious or fussy, just neatly and artistically arranged. We really liked the minimalist interior as well. It’s all dark colors, well coordinated, and understated in a very chic way. You could do a business dinner or a date here equally well. We saw a couple parties of about 5 or 6 people who seemed to be having a great time, as well as some couples who looked like they were on good dates. It’s not too expensive, the tapas is some of the best I’ve ever had and the service is great. We’ll definitely be back.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $100 (teetotaling)
Noise Level: probably not too loud even when it’s busy
Chance of walking in: pretty high right now, but I expect that will change as people discover it. (Never mind – it’s closed. Very sad!)
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