Flex Mussels Visited 3/21/2011 2.5 Forks

Flex Mussels 154 W 13th St., (between Avenue Of The Americas & 7th Ave), Manhattan, NY 10011

I have always loved mussels so when a restaurant says that they focus just on mussels I got excited.  Outside they advertise that between 5-7pm they offer all-you-can eat mussels if you sit at the bar, which is definitely something to think about.  My initial impression of the decor was that it was much more upscale and nicer than the seafood shack that I had envisioned with a name like Flex Mussels.  

The menu basically consists of 20 types of mussels in different kinds of broth which range from the classic white wine broth to the fancier ones lobster and shrimp broth.  They also offer other seafood dishes such as a lobster roll, grilled fish, fish and chips and an array of appetizers.  We started with the burnt fingers which was a fried appetizer that consists of shrimp (only 2 of them), calamari, and oysters (only 2 also).  The batter was actually pretty light and it wasn't overly greasy tasting which was nice.  I ordered the thai mussels ($18.50) which came with a curry, coconut, and lemongrass broth while Dan got the Mexican which came with chorizo sausage ($19.50).  We also got a side of old bay fries because you can't have mussels without fries! Meanwhile Dan's aunt got the crabcakes and his uncle got the fish and chips.  At first when the mussels came out I was impressed with the presentation.  It comes out in these large steel pots and it gets you all excited about your meal.  But then you look in and the mussels are actually pretty small and most of them were empty.  The type of mussels that I love are the giant plump New Zealand mussels you usually find in Thai restaurants.  These were pretty small and not plump at all.  But I will say that the broth was actually quite tasty and could have stood alone as a soup.  I didn't really try Dan's dish and took a bite of the crabcake and wasn't too impressed.  It has a very distinct celery seed taste and you could see chunks of carrot (WTF?!) in in.  As a total Maryland crabcake snob, I expect 100% crab and 0% filler.  And speaking of Maryland, the old bay seasoned fries were just mediocre.  The fries weren't anything to really write home about (although my experience might have been tainted considering I just came from PJ Clarke's where they have amazing fries) and the old bay didn't really add anything to them either. 

What really made dinner less than thrilling was the service.  There was only 1 waiter for the entire back section of the restaurant, which is pretty absurd.  So as you can imagine the service was slooooooooooow.  It took forever to get his attention to pay the bill and it just made for a very unnecessarily long dinner.  I would consider going here for the all you can eat deal but other than that, my overall impression was a solid meh.