Limusina

From the Quality Branded restaurateurs comes another restaurant in a similar vein to popular hits like Bad Roman, Don Angie, and Zou Zous. The cuisine for this restaurant is Mexican-inspired and has all the snazzy colors to indicate this could be fun. This restaurant is near the Hudson Yards area, and it was very easy to make a reservation for 2 for 6 PM on a Friday night. This restaurant is about 1 block away from the E-train exit off 34th.

Ambiance & Service

The ambiance is very synonymous to the other hip-trendy Quality Branded restaurants. The music is very lively as if it’s a pseudo-club-like atmosphere. The colors are very bold with a lot of in your face “reds”. It’s also somewhat dark too. We saw a few tables open their flashlight so that they can see their menu. Fortunately the sound wasn’t too loud such that we had to yell, but we did have to raise our voices a bit.

The service was good, although I got the sense our server was disappointed we didn’t order any dessert. For some reason they kept pushing the guacamole on us, so we ordered it, and ultimately my partner didn’t have room for dessert. The food comes out pretty fast, and when we left at 8 PM, the restaurant was pretty full of people.

Food

The Matias Riccitelli, Torrontes ($17) came from Mendoza, Argentina 2024. This wine was mild and sweeter than a pinot gris but not by much. It had low acidity to it, and it was largely dry. I think this is a very drinkable wine by itself, especially in the summer time. It definitely was more flat than crisp to me.

The Sangria Picante ($17) came with white wine sangria with mango, orange, and ancho-verde chili. Neither my partner nor I were a fan of this cocktail much. I think the fruit flavors clashed with whatever white wine they picked, so it wasn’t as smooth as it could have been.

The Fresh Guacamole ($19) came with fresh avocados and limes all smashed up. I’m a sucker for guacamole, and unfortunately we ordered this. The chips they served were heavily salted unnecessarily, but overall the guacamole was pretty good. It’s definitely something you can make at home though. There was some acidity to it, but not enough such that it really cut through the saltiness of the chips. On the plus side, the avocados were definitely very fresh tasting.

The Jumbo Lump Crab & Avocado ($28) came with charred gooseberry salsa. The crab definitely was plentiful, and the avocado was very fresh. The one surprise to this dish was the salsa. It had quite a bit of heat up front, but my partner really enjoyed the lump pieces of crab meat. The crab meat reminded me of what you’d get if you ordered lump crab meat from those Maryland crab cake delivery places.

The Benton Lane, Pinot Noir ($23) came from Willamette Valley, Oregon 2023. This was a good pinot noir for me. It was mild and medium body with some black cherry and licorice notes to it. It had a nice tannin to finish, and it had a bit more texture to it.

The Long-Bone Short Rib Quesabirria ($75) came with consomme, mango slices, tortillas, and cilantro. The short rib had some melted cheese on top. The short rib was very tender and flavorful. It had a well-balanced amount of fat to it. When you wrap it with the mango slices and cilantro and dip it into the consomme, it was pretty tasty. There are two notes that are worth calling out. The tortillas they give you are insanely small. Because it barely covers the surface area of a slice of short rib, it means it can be a bit messy with your hands and fingers to eat. Otherwise, the flavor is there, and it was delicious.

Along with the short rib came a small dip of consomme. This flavor wise was very similar to much of the birria dips you can get in the city. Luckily, it was not salty.

The Elote Brulee ($18) came with cotija and pickled serranos. This was surprisingly very good. The brulee does have that same texture you’d often find in the creme brulee dessert. With the corn, it was a nice sweet side that worked well with a savory entree. My only feedback to this is I wish they had more corn in it. Otherwise the flavor of this was also quite delicious too.

Overall Impression

Limusina’s food was pretty good for what it was. There seems to be a trend of more Mexican-inspired restaurants opening in the city. This one is another one where the food quality was good, and the price was on the mid-upper side. It definitely fits that Penn district area vibes, and right now it’s pretty easy to get reservations if you want to give it a try.

Yelp & Google Jabs

The guacamole and queso weren’t bad but we didn’t like the chips - they were on the thicker side and too hard. The corn brûlée wasn’t bad but it was a little too sweet.

The chips were very large thick chips, and I thought they were fine. The corn brulee as I mentioned was slightly sweet, though paired with the right savory dish, it could make everything taste pretty good. With corn in general though, you should expect things to be sweet since corn has a natural sweetness to it.

don’t believe what you see on tiktok (!!!) bc this place was not worth the hype.

I actually didn’t find this restaurant via TikTok thankfully. Unfortunately social media posts like those are meant to drive views, and you were their targeted product.

Revisions

1. Oct 31, 2025 - Initial revision.