Restaurant Review: Empellon Tacqueria

I went out to Empellon Tacqueria with a large group of girls for one of our monthly dinner adventures. I had heard mixed reviews about this place, and I have to say I feel mixed about it myself.

The space is on the smaller side and they definitely pack in the tables in here. It's a good place for groups since they have a couple of larger tables. Unfortunately, our table was right in front and directly in the path of the freezing air that rushed in every time the door opened (which was often, since it was a busy night). We also were sandwiched between the bar area/walkway to the restrooms and the other tables/walkway to the exit. So, our central location put us in a place to get bumped a lot by people trying to get by, and also allowed all of the sounds to pass through making it really loud and hard to hear anyone but the person next to you.

Now that I sound like an old fart that can't hang, I will move on to the drinks and food. We ordered some margies and beer (I got this adorable "Baby Sol" which was a mini beer) and a couple of guacs + 7 salsas, which is all of the salsas on the menu. The guac was good, once I removed the cilantro! And the salsas were fun. They came in small dishes displayed around the guac in order of spiciness. #1-#5 were good, #6 was really spicy and #7 was insanely HOT, so thank god I only took a very very small taste. I don't know where in the spectrum this one fell, but I especially liked the smoked cashew and chipotle one.

Baby Sol

Guac + 7 Salsas

For dinner, most of us got a variety of tacos, since we were at a tacqueria after all. The tacos come in orders of 2 or 3, and one taco will run you ~$6-$8 each. We all pretty much went splitsies and I ended up with the lamb barbacoa with cucumber and salsa borracha, skirt steak with mojo de ajo, and duck confit with loganiza (type of sausage), avocado puree, red onion, and habenero.

The lamb was my favorite of the three. It was pulled, which was interesting and worked well as a taco. I don't think I have ever had lamb prepared that way, and the cucumbers gave it a nice crunch. My least favorite was the skirt steak. It was cut into chunks and while I know skirt steak is normally on the chewy side, this was just a little too tough and fatty for me. It was hard to bit into as a taco, so I ended up trying to eat just the steak out of the tortilla, but that wasn't working either so I just gave up on that one. The second runner up was the duck confit. It took a few bites to actually find the flavor in this, meaning the duck itself was not seasoned very well, but the other stuff inside helped keep it alive.

Left: Lamb
Center: Skirt Steak
Right: Duck Confit

Conclusion - I probably won't be coming back since I really did not like the ambiance and the food did not help Empellon's case either. You win some, you lose some!

Restaurant Review: All'onda

Jeremy and I had a lovely Valentine's Day dinner at a new place, All'onda. I had high expectations because this spot had a lot of buzz when it opened, considering it is the product of the chef from Ai Fiori and Morimoto and the former partner of Michael White, and it mostly delivered.

We chose this place that night because they did not have a pre fixe menu, as many high end restaurants do on the big day of love. This way, we were able to properly explore the menu.

We started with some drinks, me with red wine and Jeremy with the 697 cocktail - bourbon, honey, bitters, and amaro rinse. Both were fine, exactly what we wanted and exactly what we expected.

To start, we went with the crostino with monkfish liver, persimmon, and caramelized onion. It came on two pieces, one side had the liver consistency you would expect, and the other side was in the form of pate with the jellied persimmon on top. The livery side was SO fishy, it was overwhelming and we were not into it. However, the other pate-ish side was better. The sweetness of the persimmon balanced it out and the "pate" was not nearly as fishy.

Crostino

Next we had the Bucatini pasta - by far the best dish of the night. With homemade pasta, smoked uni (smoked in house) was a main ingredient in the sauce and pieces were throughout the dish which was topped with spicy bread crumbs. This Eatr article is what intrigued me, and thank god because this dish is where it's AT. A must order if you go.

Bucatini

And finally, for our entree, we went for the short rib for two. An unusual move by us, considering we always aim to try the maximum amount of dishes our stomachs and wallets will allow, but Jeremy saw another table with it and he was hooked. This dish is MASSIVE. We were served two huge pieces of short rib, stacked up against each other, on top of a tomato mostarda (basically a yummy roasted tomato spread). In a separate dish, we were served a saffron risotto. The short rib had some pros and cons. 

I will start with CONS: not the tender, fall off the bone texture I was expecting of short rib and very fatty (I had to cut away large pieces of fat throughout the piece). 

PROS: While not cooked how I expected, it was cooked to the perfect temperature and had a beautiful pink inside. After cutting away the fat, the meat was extremely flavorful and the outside was exceptionally seasoned.

The risotto was amazing upon first bite - so rich and creamy. However, after a couple more bites, you start to realize that the reason this so amazing is because you must be eating a bowl of butter and cheese and it starts to be a little TOO rich. 

Short Rib

While we didn't have the perfect meal food wise, I enjoyed the atmosphere and service, and my company was decent as well. The food was good enough to keep me intrigued and I would definitely go back for the Bucatini and to try a few more things.

Restaurant Review: 83 1/2

Jeremy and I didn't feel like cooking one night, so we decided to go back to a place on the UES that we had been to over a year ago, 83 1/2. We remembered enjoying it, but nothing that made us come running back so quickly. It was pretty new at that point, and by now they have definitely smoothed out any kinks.

We had a really delicious meal and good service in a nice, quiet, welcoming place only a few blocks from home. What more can you ask for? Here's the rundown:

We started with 2 appys - Siciliana salad and Tortino di spinaci. 

The salad was made with radicchio, orange segments, candied pistachios, black olives, shaved fennel, and balsamic dressing. The slight bitterness of the radicchio was offset by the sweetness of the candied pistachios and I always love the citrus/fennel combo so that all worked really well together. 

Siciliana Salad

The tortino was a delish spinach cake surrounded by a Parmesan fondue and topped with a crispy egg yolk. This was creamy and savory and glad we decided to add this on last minute.

Tortino di Spinaci

For our entrees we split the ravioli of the day and the Cornish hen.

The homemade ravioli of the day was spinach and ricotta. It came with 8 large raviolis that were perfectly cooked and dressed in a sage butter sauce. 

Ravioli del Giorno - Spinach and Ricotta

The Cornish hen came with 2 large pieces (breast, and leg/drum) with crispy, well seasoned skin, sitting on top of baked stuffing. The chicken was juicy and moist, however the stuffing ended up getting a little mushy from the herb vellutata. That was probably my only complaint and it really wasn't that bad, I just prefer my stuffing a little less soggy.

Cornish Hen

I would definitely recommend this spot for any Upper East Siders looking for a quiet date night, dinner with parents, or a catch up with the girls!