I don't know when American small plates became all the rage, but I seem to keep ending up at places lately they are all about small shared plates. In theory I do love the concept of sharing a bunch of plates with friends. In fact, I used to say that if/when I ever got married, I just wanted to have lots of passed hors d'oeuvres instead of a sit down dinner. I used to love tapas when I first moved to the city and they were all reasonably priced in the $6-8 but now it seems like restaurants have taken the liberty of charging $12-15 for what is essentially 1/4 size of an entree but at the same entree prices.
I met up with Joaquin and Nancy there on a Tuesday night and even though it was a random weekday it was definitely packed and the crowd was a mix of young and old scensters. I heard that the Bowery is one of the hipper streets these days and I could definitely get a sense of that up and coming vibe. The waiter told us that it would be best to order 3-4 plates per person which if you did the math seemed a bit ridiculous to us. Ordering 9-12 dishes just seemed extreme and expensive, so we stuck to 6 dishes and 1 dessert. But in the end, I did wish we ordered more food. We tried to order one dish from each section of the menu (raw, small, fish, meat, vegetables and sugar. Note you can order full size entrees from the fish and meat section). We opted for the octopus ($13), squid ($14), pork meatballs ($11), skirt steak ($17), potatoes ($8) and asparagus ($8). It sounded like a lot of food so we thought we would be ok. But upon looking at the dishes, they are really just big enough for 1-2 bites person - especially for our group of 3. I can only imagine that if you had a larger group of people you'd have to order 2 of everything just so that everyone could get a taste. In any case, back to the food. The octopus was served with sunflower seeds and shiso and I actually really enjoyed this dish. The octopus was cooked just right so that it wasn't tough but still had a bit of chew and crunch to it. The shiso added a nice flavor profile to the octopus, which on its own can be bland but this dish was definitely not. Then we moved on to the pork meatballs (there were exactly 3 meatballs) - they came with shiitake mushrooms and then sprinkled with bonito flakes. They were moist but I thought they could have used a bit more seasoning and seemed a bit cold (or that might have been because I got to them last?). Next they brought out the skirt steak, potatoes and asparagus The "steak" was tiny and for $17 that was probably the biggest let down of the meal. However, taste-wise what we did get to eat was quite delicious. It was served with tomatoes, basil, zucchini, and pine nuts and it was cooked medium rare. It was a well-balanced dish and it made me wish that they offered up more of it for what we paid. As for the vegetables, they were actually pretty tasty as well. The potatoes were perfectly crispy on the outside and was topped with mayo and chorizo so it had some nice tang and heat to it. It was very similar to a potatoes bravas you would get at a Spanish tapas restaurant. The asparagus was served chilled with a light foam on top and they were nice and crunchy with the right amount of salt on them. As we finished up dinner, I was still hungry so we decided to split the blueberry, milk, honey, creme fraiche dessert ($8). So one of my biggest pet peeves about the latest food craze is "deconstructed" dishes. I've never been a huge fan of them, especially when it comes to my dessert. So I honestly wasn't a huge fan of this one nor did I think it was particular sweet or dessert like. It had a bunch blueberries on top of what was supposed to be a creme fraiche base and and then drizzled with foam milk and honey. It just didn't work for me and the creativity of it was lost on me.
All in all, the quality and taste of the food here was actually pretty good. What prevents it from getting a much high rating are the portion size and price. I get it, it's tapas, they are supposed to be small. But if that's the case, then don't charge entree prices for them then. If they were either 20% bigger in size or 25% cheaper in price, then I would have a different opinion about it. But it is a pretty cool/hip space, so I get why it's the hot place of the day and I'm glad I tried it, but next time I need to go on a corporate account because I was still starving at the end. Total bill: $50/pp with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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