Spanish/Latin American
Los Dos Molinos in Gramercy
My friend Farah recently introduced me to Los Dos Molinos in Gramercy. Besides guac, I like to judge these Spanish/Mexican restaurants by their chicken. I feel like too often, restaurants try to mask bland chicken under mountains of sauce but it just doesn’t have that kick. This place has it.
Mexican Pizza - small
But I’m getting ahead of myself. As an appetizer, we had their small Mexican pizza, which easily satisfied three hungry girls in this case. I loved my entree — the “Los Dos” Flautas dinner with chicken.
Empanada Mama in Hell’s Kitchen
Empanada Mama in Hell’s Kitchen is one of my favorite default places for a good, cheap meal. I’m a guac fanatic, and tend to gravitate towards their plantains/guac ($6.95) to start. It’s the combo of the two here more than guac here that makes it great.
Guacamole with plantains
I also seldom stray from my favorite empanadas there: their pizza empanada (super cheesy and delicious), spicy chicken (it’s legit spicy), their mushroom/onion baked empanada (only get this if you LOVE mushrooms like I do). Each empanada is only $2.50-$3.
Pipa near Union Square
Pipa is one of those places where I think the ambiance supersedes the food, which is good but sometimes underwhelming. The whole place is outfitted with decor from its neighbor, ABC Carpet & Home, and that’s mostly gorgeous chandeliers (which makes the place look almost dream-like at night, though we went for lunch this time). The food is mostly standard Spanish fare, but that’s sometimes the thing with tapas — while it’s great for family-style sharing, sometimes it can be a tad overpriced and you leave kinda…hungry.
That said, I think the crispy calamari here is excellent. The mushroom croquettes were great too, but wish we had more than three of them. You could probably skip the tortilla Espanola and stuffed piquillos — they were just OK. Price range was from $10-$15/plate. But hey, not bad for presentation:
Crispy Calamari
Sosa Borella, just so-so.
Feels like it’s been a while since I had a food post!
Treated my friends Yasir and Sarah (aka YasRah) to dinner after they got married a while back at Sosa Borella in midtown. The Italian-Argentinian cuisine sounded promising.
I love the outside of the restaurant, all white with an outdoor patio on the 2nd floor; looks like they took a slice of Italy and planted it in NY. It feels like you’re eating in someone’s comfortable, dimly lit, wooden-floor kitchen. The food though, was just OK.
Roasted Beets salad: grilled endives, goat cheese, sherry vinaigrette over mesclun, $14
La Boqueria, Barcelona’s famous food market
My friends Katie and Horacio (aka HorKat) just came back from an incredible honeymoon all over Barcelona and Southern France (jealous much?).
I just saw the beautiful pics, including these from the famous and colorful Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria (or La Boqueria) marketplace off the busy La Rambla street. It dates back to 1217!
Chocolate and sweets from La Boqueria
Sunday Brunch in the City: Essex
Sorry BATF’ers. I was SO tired this morning after staying up all night trying to book my vaca tickets, but I’m finally caught up!
Have you ever been to Essex Restaurant for brunch? It’s probably the loudest meal I’ve ever had in the AM with a DJ spinning while you’re having your tea. Makes it seem like the party is carrying over to the morning. The food is actually an interesting mix of Latin-Jewish fare, and the bi-level space used to be an elementary school gym (true story).
They have an all-weekend brunch special for $16 which is probably a little expensive if you’re not drinking (if you are, this includes 3 bloody marys, screwdrivers or mimosas. We just had a couple glasses of orange juice, but the portions are big so makes up for the price if you’re not drinking).
Crispy Potato Pancakes
