If you work or live near my office downtown, you know how awful the food selection has been lately. Ever since they decided to do a multi-million dollar renovation to the World Financial Center and thereby closing down almost every eating establishment while they renovate, it's been quite a brutal few months. The only other options besides the cafeteria are the overpriced and not so great places in the Goldman corridor like Harry's, Wei West and North End Grill. When trying to have a work related lunch, all those places are just swarming with busy corporate folks trying to get in and out of lunch in under an hour. So I was beyond thrilled when they finally opened a new place next to Blue Smoke and it was from the prolific restauranteur Stephen Starr. In case you couldn't tell El Vez is Mexican fare which is a nice since the last Mexican place, Southwest, moved a bit further from work.
I went to El Vez for lunch with some work people and my first impression was that the place was huge! It almost wrapped around the block and they had some nice outdoor space too in front of the restaurant. The inside had a fairly large bar section and then very spacious dining rooms past the open kitchen. So far so good. The menu has your usual selection of guacamole, quesadillas, tacos, nachos, tortas, and enchiladas. We ordered the classic guacamole ($14) and queso fundido con carne ($10) for the table to start. For my entree, I was torn between the oxtail enchilada or the mahi mahi tacos - the fish tacos won out mostly because I just had to give it a try and it seemed less heavy for lunch. Borami got the chicken torta and the rest of the table got chicken enchiladas. The guacamole comes in a giant motar and my initial thought was that it was fine although a bit on the bland side. It could have used some more salt and heat to it. The queso was served with chorizo and while the first couple of bites were good because they were warm and soft after a while it just started to coagulate and had this greasy topping from the chorizo. I've definitely had better queso elsewhere and think they could have put it on a warmer just to keep the cheese from cooling down.
On to the entrees. When I hear tacos, I envision the traditional small flour tortillas that you fold in half. But when my "taco" came out, it was really more like a mini burrito instead of tacos because they were completely folded over (see picture). The mahi mahi was deep fried and served with red cabbage, avocado and a spicy mayo. I personally prefer my fish to either be grilled or tempura battered. I don't like fried fish like I do my chicken. The chipotle mayo was good but (and I can't believe I'm saying this) there was way too much of it - just overkill. Also - there was too much red cabbage shoved into the burrito/taco. As much as I sometimes complain about fancy tacos that are too small and delicate, I've come to realize that I probably now prefer a higher quality taco than to have lots of ingredients shoved into a tortilla. I had a small bite of Borami's torta and the chicken was cooked well but it was definitely a very large sandwich and I can only imagine how sleep inducing finishing a meal like that would be.
All in all, I wasn't that impressed with my first meal at El Vez but I would come back for post-work drinks/snacks and even possibly lunch again only because of its connivence. But I probably would only come back until all the really great places open up in the Tower. Total bill: unknown since someone else paid for it.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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