For a limited time, La Esquina is making tacos with pastrami inside to honor Carnegie Deli.
La Esquina is new at this location on 55th and 7th Avenue, and Carnegie Deli will be closing soon.
These babies are pretty damn good, so get in here ASAP to try them before it’s too late.
LA ESQUINA
200 W 55th St
New York, NY 10019
Caliente Cab has been around since I first moved to the city in 2000. In fact, I think it opened up about 30 years ago. It’s become a regular spot for people on the prowl for warm-weather drinks and reasonably priced Mexican eats. I was invited in to take pics of some menu items for Instagram fodder. Take a look below:
Frozen “Miami Vice” (strawberry daiquiri mixed with pina colada):
Fresh corn tortillas for the table, nicely wrapped:
Guacamole (my favorite part of the meal, along with a trio of salsas):
Sampler combo platter, consisting of a short rib taco, a chicken burrito, a steak enchilada, rice and beans:
And a burger topped with pepper jack cheese and chipotle aioli:
The burger was dry due to being overcooked (well done instead of medium), with a semi-hard bun – let the jokes commence… But the guacamole was nice, as was the salsa trio (not pictured). The sampler combo platter was actually decent and nicely priced, though I did develop some heartburn afterwards. But the drinks are really where this place shines. They serve up some really nice flavored margaritas (salted watermelon, in particular, sounded very good). I’d definitely go back for those, along with a nice big bowl of guac and chips.
CALIENTE CAB
61 7th Ave S # 1
New York, NY 10014
I’ll keep this quick and to the point. Me and some old chums from high school came here with our ladies to celebrate the new year. I didn’t take any pics except for one shot of the steak. But pretty much everything we tried was good, from the guacamole to the tacos al pastor, the ceviche to the mole chicken. Albeit pricey, this joint does serve up good quality.
This rib eye was chili-rubbed and cooked to a nice medium rare. While a bit on the thin side for $48, it offered great flavor and everyone enjoyed it. 8/10.
Being under the same ownership as Bowery Meat Co. and Burger & Barrel, it should come as no surprise that El Toro Blanco is good. Give it a shot sometime.
EL TORO BLANCO
257 6th Ave
New York, NY 10014
Type 2 Creative and Be Fat Be Happy threw an awesome holiday bash at Tortaria to help promote the restaurant. But it ended up being the sort of unofficial holiday gathering for all of us foodporn slingers on Instagram.
Everyone slapped on hats and ugly sweaters to crank up the “festive” levels. This one, worn by @StuffBenEats, was by far the clear winner:
And he was even sporting some nice Mexican corn there, which looked like yellow Christmas trees covered with cheese-snow.
Here’s my sweater, in an awesome guac photo that Ben took:
The guacamole here is tight, speaking of. Lots of flavor, and good restaurant quality chips and salsa to go with.
And the pitchers of margaritas? Slammable!
A few interesting new menu items were trotted out for us; the tortas (sandwiches). This one is made with thinly sliced fried eggplant, and topped with chipotle sauce, bacon and avocado. Really nice.
The one I was drawn to most, however, was this short rib torta:
This, too, is topped with avocado. There’s also lettuce, fried onion and jalapeno peppers on there as well.
And of course, tacos!
I’ll definitely be back here. This is a great place to just get blasted and eat your face off. Nothing pretentious about it!
TORTARIA
94 University Pl
New York, NY 10003
My friend Jeff from Foodmento organized an instagrammer event at Pao de Queijo, a Brazilian sandwich and burger joint in Astoria. Lucky for me, I was invited!
This place also slings some really great smoothies and shakes, like this “Verano” shake, with pineapple, coconut and graviola (similar in flavor to a mango).
This hit the spot and was super refreshing on such a hot, sunny day.
With a bunch of instagrammers on hand, there was a barrage of sandwich pics and stack shots going on.
I managed to grab half of two sandwiches/burgers that I was really interested in trying. On the top/right in the pics below is the “X Banana” burger, which is a beef burger with banana, cheese, corn, potato sticks, lettuce, tomato and mayo. On the bottom/left is the “X Brazil” sandwich, consisting of sliced beef, cheese, egg, Brazilian sausage, corn, potato sticks, lettuce, tomato and mayo.
Both were really great. I preferred the burger over the steak sandwich, mainly because the burger was more properly seasoned, and that banana was a great surprise that really drove some standout flavors. The burger patties have herbs and spices in the mix, which make these burgers very unique among the landscape of other burger joints.
“X Banana” Burger:
The “X Brazil” was great in concept. I have two critiques: I think the steak just needed a bit more salt before it hit the grill, and perhaps the sausage should be chopped up a bit before it gets put onto the sandwich, that way your teeth don’t have to work through the snappy casing as much when biting down. Otherwise I loved it, and I would definitely order this again without any second thoughts.
“X Brazil” Sandwich:
The best part about these sandwiches is that they’re properly constructed to minimize slippage and crap falling out the sides, which could otherwise make for a messy eating experience. The bread surrounds the contents nicely, and they’re wrapped compact enough so that it’s easy to get your whole mouth around for a bite.
There is so much more to try on their menu, like a burger with pineapple, or sandwiches with ham and chicken thrown into the mix. The sandwiches and burgers run anywhere from $3.75 for a simple ham and cheese to $12.50 for the “X Brazil.” Very reasonable.
Fries come separate at $3, and they’re really great when you add some of the green sauce on them, which you can find on each table.
But the real star(s) of the “side show” are the restaurant’s namesake: Pao de Queijo, or cheese breads.
These toasty little balls are a bread dough that’s been kneaded and mixed with cheese. The outside is crisp and warm, and the inside is a cross between bread and cheese. So awesome, so soft, so tasty… but beware: these things are fucking addicting.
In fact, as a promotion from this Instagram event, when you go here, if you mention the word “acai” you will get three free Pao de Queijo (three balls).
And speaking of acai, if you’re still hungry for dessert after all that sandwich gorging, or if you’re dieting for some ridiculous reason, then grab an acai bowl while you’re here.
This one has acai puree on the bottom, which was like a cold berry soup, and is topped with bananas, mango, granola and mint.
PAO DE QUEIJO
31-90 30th St
Astoria, NY 11106
My wife and I tried one of each taco here, along with the masa fries. You should skip the mushroom taco, unless you’re a vegetarian douche. It just lacks punch and flavor. The carne asada, carnitas, chicken and shrimp tacos are all legit. Quite difficult to choose a favorite when they are all quality. The tortillas are hand made, soft shell, corn masa style. Not my favorite, since they tend to crumble and fall apart too easily, but they were actually pretty flavorful.
As you can see from the pics above, delivery is pretty cool because they have boxes that are specially designed for carrying three tacos. Very convenient.
The masa fries were a big hit for me. They’re nice and crunchy! Basically, they are like thick, half tender/half crisp taco shell strips. Very inventive.
And the horchata tastes like the milk that’s left over after eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, one of my all-time favorite cereals. Very tasty.
OTTO’S TACOS
705 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019
I’ve been a little bit bummed out about the kiosks available at TurnStyle, the semi-new food hall located underground at the Columbus Circle subway station. It seems to be mostly coffee, candy and merchandise; but Bolivian Llama Party is a different story. This place is serving real food; not some pre-packaged bullshit.
Saltenas, in particular, are their specialty. They’re similar in form to empanadas but they differ in style. They typically consist of a soupy filling and a slice of hard boiled egg inside of a baked outer crust.
Bolivian Llama Party also offers slider sandwiches and interesting drinks. We tried three different saltenas; Beni (beef), Toco (pork) and Chimba (chicken). We also tried two different sliders (triple pork and beef brisket).
Two of the saltenas were a bit too sweet for my liking. One was beef, and I’m not sure if the other sweet one was pork or chicken. We got them mixed up in the bag, and when you bite into these things the filling in one is largely indistinguishable from another. The third, which was either Toco or Chimba (I’m leaning toward Toco), was delicious and packed with great savory goodness. Both sliders were excellent as well, but I preferred the pork slightly over the beef. You can’t go wrong with either of those sliders, though.
Triple Pork full sandwich is amazing!
Roast pork, bacon and pork belly cracklings.
BOLIVIAN LLAMA PARTY
TurnStyle Food Hall
1000S 8th Ave,
New York, NY 10019
NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED!
My sister told me about this place a while back, and she later got me and my wife a gift certificate so that we’d give it a shot. Specifically, she told me to try the “poquito picante” cocktail, made with gin, cucumber, jalapeno and lime. It was really delicious. It had that heat from the jalapeno, but it was rounded out nicely with the sweetness from the lime syrup and then cooled off with the cucumber. My wife tried the “concoction,” a fresh fruit riff on a classic egg white whiskey sour. We ordered both cocktails at the bar while we waited for our table, and we were happy to learn that all drinks were half price for an all-day happy hour at the bar on Sundays.
We started with a hamachi ceviche. This was fresh and flavorful, and garnished with sesame seeds and dried, puffed corn. It had a mild flavor and wasn’t too overpowering on the citrus.
We also shared this trio of fries: hearts of palm, avocado and watermelon.
These were really interesting. The avocado was super creamy, as expected. The hearts of palm had some starchiness to it, about which we were both a bit surprised. They tasted great though. The watermelon was an even bigger surprise, however. It was sweet, yet savory, and crunchy, yet juicy. It went perfectly with the smokey ketchup that was served with these fries.
For her entree, my wife ordered the Lechon Confitado, which is suckling pig with sunchoke-black truffle puree and kale-red chiles.
This was the winning dish. The pork was cooked perfectly – like a juicy pulled or shredded pork without the over-saucing that typically occurs at BBQ joints. The confit coking method surely helps in that regard. It was topped with some greens and pickled red onion. The earthy and delicious sunchoke puree was drizzled around the plate.
I intended to order the rib eye that was listen on the menu, but they were out. Instead, they offered me a skirt steak, so I gave that a try.
It was cooked nicely to medium rare, but just wasn’t up to standard with some of the other places I’ve had skirt recently.
I’d say this came in at about a six out of ten for a combination of flavor and quality. It was juicy, but did have a bit of bleed-out, and lacked a good sear on the outside.
It was served with an avocado, tomato and onion salad, and some yucca fritters.
For dessert, we shared the “panqueques,” crepes filled with dolce de leche and served with a scoop of ice cream. The menu said it would be pistachio ice cream, which we were excited about, but they gave us chocolate instead.
In any case, dessert was delicious. The crepes were made fresh, and the dolce de leche was smooth and creamy.
This is definitely a place worth visiting if you’re in the Alphabet City area and looking for a bite or cocktail.
YERBA BUENA
23 Avenue A
New York, NY 10009
When I’m away from NYC, I love trying new fast food joints that I can’t find back home. In Florida, I kept seeing these Pollo Tropical joints all over the place, so I had to try it.
The menu is pretty simple – chicken or pork, rice bowls, platters and sandwiches. My wife and I tried a bunch of stuff.
First was the guava BBQ pulled pork sandwich, which reminded me of luau pork or achiote pork. The BBQ sauce was good – sweet and tangy with a unique fruity flavor. The chicken sandwich was pretty basic – nothing special there: grilled chicken, cheese and some fixings on a potato bun. The rice bowl we tried was the same pork meat as the sandwich, but on a bed of yellow rice with black beans, onions, and corn. This was the best value, in my opinion. You got a lot of food for the money.
Each sandwich item came with a side. We had fried yucca, and corn soufflé – both were excellent, and easily addicting snack foods.
They even serve beer from the Bahamas. Sweet!
But the thing that really sets Pollo Tropical apart from other joints is the sauce selection, all free to grab as much as you want, to mix and make concoctions of your own, etc. They have things like guava BBQ sauce (as well as regular BBQ sauce), curry mustard sauce (amazing – I know it sounds bad, but trust me), garlic cilantro cream sauce (awesome for the beef selections, if available in that particular restaurant – and it has a hint of lime), pineapple rum (thing “tropical duck sauce”), spicy poyo poyo sauce (great kick from habanero peppers), Pollo Tropical hot sauce, and fresh salsa. You really can’t go wrong with any of them.
In short, I dig this place. If there was one in NYC, I’d be hitting it pretty often.
Right on A1A in Las Olas sits this ocean-side burger and two-for-one giant margarita joint.
The burger was apparently voted “best in Ft. Lauderdale,” but I’m hoping there are better options out there.
The burger was good and juicy, but lacked seasoning on the patty itself. It could benefit from more cheese too, perhaps.
Fries are sold separately, and you can cheese either seasoned curly fries, or sweet potato waffle fries.
The chicken tacos were pretty decent, despite the cheese being your standard bagged/shredded style.
