Boqueria is an east coast Spanish tapas chain. The food here is quintessential Spanish shareables, including large paellas. We originally ate here with some friends in the Upper East, but we have also tried this restaurant in Flatiron. Reservations are fairly easy to secure, and it does get busy during core hours. If you have a decent sized party, this is probably a decent restaurant to bring folks that might be into family style sharing.
I wrote back in 2019 that this is one of my favorite Brazilian spots because the food and drinks were pretty good. I revisited this with some coworkers to introduce them to Brazilian food again. Keep in mind that this visit is post COVID, so the menu has changed a bit. Gone are the batidas, but fortunately they had other standard Brazilian dishes to order. It is located in “Little Brazil” in Midtown which is literally very few restaurants situated on half the block.
The caipirinhas were decent.
As usual I dislike the coconut flavored ones but appreciate the passion fruit ones.
The feijoada was the actual star here. It’s much better than some of the other Brazilian places I’ve been to. The meat was plentiful, and the flavor is very good.
The bife acebolado was ordered medium rare, and it was cooked medium to medium well. I don’t understand why Brazilian restaurants have problems cooking the meat less than butchering it again. I didn’t find anything great about this.
This is the main site to the sister site Maison Pickle.
The food here is really good, filling, and not too expensive.
Of course, you have to get the pickles. For appetizers, we got 4 pickles (spicy, green beans, green tomatoes, and regular). We also got a side of fried pickles. I liked them all to be honest, and would love to get the carrots next time.
Walked in on a Saturday at 7 PM with no reservations, and it was packed despite it being pretty frigid outside.
Luckily, we got seats at the bar.
The french onion soup was really good. The gruyere cheese was nice and toasty, and the beef broth with the onions wasn’t salty like typical french onion soups.
The porterhouse of course was cooked a perfect medium rare. The strip side was preferred over the filet mignon. There was some sauce on the side, but we didn’t need to use the sauce on the side because the steak was seasoned well and had a good flavor.
Stumbled onto this just walking around.
Was interested in salted pepper pork chops. All we got for a quick afternoon snack was just pan fried rice cakes with pork and the pork chops.
Nothing to write home about, but the food was good for what we ordered. Note that we did not order the soup dumplings because frankly there are a gazillion other places to order this, so why would you order it here? Aside, there were mostly non-Asian customers for whatever reason. However the food was pretty on point and comparable to Los Angeles’ Monterey Park / San Gabriel cheaper restaurants.
Hirohisa apparently has been around for a while, but they just received a Michelin star again this year.
With that in mind, I felt the price point $160 pp for the 9-course tasting + $70 sake pairing was a decent price for splurging for a special someone’s birthday dinner.
Just a note: they do respect some allergy restrictions. My guest had lobster specific allergies, and they were able to accomodate easy. She did not have any rashes or swelling at the end of the night.
We ordered a slew of appetizers.
The drink fir trade.
The blood sausage, bread, and chicken liver mousse was just OK. There wasn’t much memorable about it. The iberico katsu sandwich was surprisingly very good, and I could probably eat a handful of these easy.
The main course, cote de boeuf, was pretty good. I actually did not care too much about the sauces, but the quality of the meat was pretty good and tender.
This place’s beef noodles was just OK. I’ve had better. The portion size is just ok. I also got a side of bean curd, and it was a little on the salty side.
This place is CASH ONLY as well. Food was pretty good, and it seems like a nice date spot.
I got the steak with bone marrow. The potato (au gratin style) was also pretty good. It also came with a side of brussel sprouts and bacon mish mash. The sauce was salty, but the steak was cooked nicely for a medium rare.
I’d come back here again if I was near the South Village, had cash, and wanted to eat something French. I suppose since I don’t usually carry cash, then the chances are pretty dim.