Cafe Petisco is in this area that straddles Chinatown and the Lower East Side and I gotta say, I've never really spent much time here except in passing on my way to Golden Unicorn. It's in interesting neighborhood that's still got this authentic New York gritty feel but you can definitely tell that it's starting to get gentrified with a bunch of pretty hip brunch places. Nicole and I tried to first go to Dimes, which is this tiny health focused restaurant but unfortunately as we stepped out to get a cup coffee and they gave our table away. So we walked down the street to Cafe Petisco and I was surprised at how packed it was here too. We had to wait about 15-20 minutes for a table. The menu here has a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean focus which I love. There were tons and tons of delicious sounding dishes (lots of them had avocado in it! who doesn't love avocados?!) that I was a bit overwhelmed. They had a lot of traditional lunch options of pita sandwiches, burgers, salads, hummus platters, cous cous dishes, and a variety of pastas as well as brunch only dishes like eggs benedict, shakshuka, and poached eggs.
I finally settled on an omelet with goat cheese, roasted red peppers, spinach and smoked salmon ($9) and Nicole got the Petisco's eggs ($11) and we both got a side of Israeli salad. Everything comes with a great small mixed green salad that is dressed with a vinaigrette dressing - I loved it because you could really taste the tang of the dressing but it wasn't so heavily dressed that you thought it was drowning in it. The main reason I got the omelet was for the goat cheese and salmon and it didn't disappoint in that they were both very present in the dish. While I'm not a huge roasted red pepper fan, it did add a some nice flavor to the dish. My only complaint about the dish was that I thought that the eggs were a bit overcooked/dry, so it wasn't as soft or fluffy as I would usually like my eggs. But I took bites of the refreshing Israeli salad to brighten up my palate. The salad was a nice combination of fresh and finely diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and parsley. I didn't try Nicole's dish but it looked like a yummy egg pizza - it was a circular serving of egg with asparagus, heart of palm, and tomato topped with a melted mozzarella cheese and an arugula salad.
Overall, I was pretty impressed with this place given its random location. The place was consistently packed with hipsters and older locals, so a nice mix of the old and new generations. The only 2 gripes I would have are that the service is a bit slow and it's cash only. Total bill: $35 total for 2 people including coffee
Photo Credit: Yelp
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