I had been to Empellon in the West Village and thought it was ok, so to be honest I wasn't 100% excited to try the East Village version, but hey, you never know, right? The concept here is very similar to Empellon, fancy small Mexican plates. You won't find giant burritos or enchiladas here. Since we were a huge group, we told the waitress to just order whatever she liked for us (yes, it was that kind of dinner). We started with the Guacamole, Masa Crisps, Pistachios ($12). The pistachios gave it a nice twist on your regular guacamole. We then tried chips with 7 different kinds of salsa ($3 per salsa): Sikil Pak (the mildest salsa - zero heat, came with pumpkin seeds), smoked cashew (very smoky with a hint of chipotle), salsa borracha (I don't think I tried this one), tomatillo chipotle (the tomatillo flavor was subtle but the heat does hit you afterwards), salsa de arbol (also didn't try) and the spiciest of them all, the salsa habanera (many people had tears in their eyes after trying this). After the salsas came the Roasted Carrots, Mole Poblano, Yogurt, Watercress. Honestly I am not a huge fan of carrots, but this one was pretty darn good. The carrots looked very rustic, almost like they were just pulled out of the ground and they were roasted to the point where it was soft but not mushy and I thought the yogurt was a great touch. Next up was the Swordfish Ceviche, Herbs,
Salsa Veracruz ($15). Normally I don't think of swordfish as a ceviche and this seemed less of a ceviche than sashimi to me. When I think of ceviche, I think of it marinating in lime and cilantro but this one was served on a plate and didn't really have any acidity to it. It was fine because I like raw fish but it wasn't a wow plate. After this dish, we had the Mezcal Cured Ocean Trout, Cream
Cheese, Roe, Sal de Gusanos ($18). Even though it was trout it was orange and looked exactly like salmon. I loved it because it felt like I was eating salmon sashimi or even lox with the cream cheese garnish.
At this point, I was so full but the food kept coming out. Next was the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, Black Bean Vermicelli ($18). I usually love Hen of the Woods Mushroom, but this dish didn't do it for me. It might have been because by the time the dish got to me, there wasn't a lot of either the mushroom or vermicelli on the plate. I just got the remnants/ends and didn't get the full experience of the dish. After this dish, we had the Melted Tetilla Cheese, Lobster, Tortillas ($19). This was the dish that I was most excited by mostly because it had lobster in it. The tortillas were great, super thin but sturdy enough to hold all the cheese. But the actual cheese and lobster mixture was too heavy on the cheese that I felt like I was just eating a cheese quesadilla. I mean, I know lobster is expensive but I really had to dig for the lobster in that plate. At this point, I really felt like I couldn't eat anymore and then all of a sudden the Tongue Sopes, Refried Beans, Salsa de Arbol ($11) appeared in front of me. I really was so full at this point that even if you had put my favorite food in front of me, I would have said no. This dish was like a mini tart filled with meat and beans, except that the meat is tongue. It really didn't gross me out nor did I think it was weird, but I was just so maxed out that I took one bite and had to stop eating. You think the food would stop there or at least we would go straight to dessert. But no. Out comes the Maine Diver Scallops, Surryano Ham, Chilaquiles ($19). Now I am not one to say no to scallops because I love them to death, so I had to try at least 1 of them and it was delicious. I will say that for $19, you would expect several scallops on the dish but this dish only had 3 scallops on the plate. Thank god I wasn't paying for dinner. I was especially happy I wasn't paying for dinner when I saw the Grilled Wagyu Flat Iron Steak, Creamed Corn, Tamal Fries ($45) and Pork Belly Pibil, Pickled Red Onions, Achiote Mustard ($36) roll out. I really really wished that I had room for these 2 dishes but I literally felt like I was going to explode. I did have 1 same piece of the wagyu steak and it was fabulous. It was perfectly red and rare in the middle and if I had room I would have demolished that plate. It broke my heart when we couldn't finish the dish and the waitress took away an almost full plate of food. The pork was on the other end of the table, so I didn't get to try it. But several people at the end of the table were screaming at how inedible it was because it was pure fat. Now I know that pork belly should have some good percentage of fat on it but by the looks of it, it looked to be almost all fat and really turned people off. Finally, 3hours later and 6,000 calories later we were done with dinner. Just as I thought we were going to get to go home, someone made a comment how we didn't order dessert. Oh my god. I just wanted to get home and lay on the couch. But I couldn't be rude. So I stayed for dessert but didn't even try any of it.
All in all, these kinds of gluttonous dinners are great every now and then. I have no clue how much the bill was but I can only imagine that it was $500+ given that we had 2 of everything above (except for the steak and pork belly). Similar to what I thought about the West Village Empelllon, the food was way more expensive than it needed to be and the dishes too small. But if you have the budget for it, it's worth trying out at least once.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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