Before there was ABC Kitchen, there was Pipa. It's located next to/inside the ABC store and it's beautifully decorated with gorgeous pieces of furniture from the store. Pipa was one of the first tapas places I had been to when I first moved to NYC, so I am surprised at how it continues to still be so busy after all these years.
I walked in at 6pm on a Friday night expecting it to be fairly empty and the dining room was about 1/4 full. However, when I asked for a table for 2 the host told me "yeah, I have a table for you but I need it back at 7:30pm for a reservation. You should be fine to eat in an hour and a half." Now, on one hand I totally get trying to manage to those who have made reservations. I know that if I were the one who made the reservation and found out that my table wasn't ready, I would be annoyed. But on the other hand, it is their job as hosts to properly revenue manage their tables without having to be annoying or rude to their customers. If they know on average that a table takes 1 1/2 hours to turn over, then they should just know that in their head, seat me, and let me enjoy my meal without causing me any anxiety with me while I eat my meal. Luckily my waitress was super nice and never made it an issue. I usually don't like having tapas with just one other person but for some reason this time Lily and I ordered enough food to fill us up while still ordering enough variety to make it fun. We ordered the jamon croquetas ($10), the beef meatballs ($12), the tortillia espanola ($8), and the baby chorizo ($10). The chorizo dish came out first and the 8-9 pieces of chorizo were sizzling in oil in the small tapas plate. After it finally calmed down, I looked at the dish and it really just reminded me of mini hot dogs in a tapas plate. Now don't get me wrong, I like a good hot dog every now and then but this was supposed to be chorizo which should have a more spicy and a bit tougher in texture but the whole time I just thought it was a pig in a blanket without the blanket. Next the rest of our tapas came out. The meatballs needed a bit more seasoning. They just tasted kind of blah and didn't really wow me. Luckily the croquetas and tortilla were both pretty good but since they are Spanish tapas standards and I expect dishes like these to be tasty. The croquetas were nice and crispy on the outside and creamy and rich on the inside. The tortilla had a good mix of potato, egg and onion and was served with a mayo like topping. How can you go wrong with that combination? I do also want to give a shout out to the red sangria. It was the right balance of sweet fruit and red wine. But if you plan on getting more than 2 glasses per person, you're better off getting a pitcher.
While I wouldn't go shouting from the roof about the food here, I will say that it's probably the first tapas place that I can remember in a long time where I actually left pretty full. Almost always when I get tapas with only 1 or 2 other people, I am also left starving after spending $50+. The total bill here with 2 glasses of sangria each was $53/pp including tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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