Urena In Or You’re Out (Closed)

— Urena is now closed —

Reviews are so polarized on this place, I thought for my first post on my culinary adventures, I would chime in on my experience. I went last week after my weekly wine class and met Mom there. As has been previously stated in a multitude of foodie sites including my ever-trusted “underground food lair”, this place is in desperate need of a makeover. Now I am certainly not an interior decorator nor am I someone who loves to watch shows like Trading Spaces. However, even a decoratively challenged person such as myself can tell that this place needs work.

Here we go: Upon entering the narrow restaurant you first notice a lovely bar area lined with a glass tabletop and hardwood floors beneath. Take a couple of steps in and you enter a world of distate and poor decisions. Rather than maintaining the beautiful wood flooring, the designers chose to cover the floor with a horribly tacky carpeting which seems to have been borrowed from a Ramada Inn or the downstairs at PS450. There are some crappy looking sconces but besides that the restaurant is bare. Despite these issues, the walls are lined with comfy banquettes that are filled with couples who seem happy as clams. What’s so special about this place? I wonder. And then we get to the food….

Mom and I are promptly handed menus (one of my touch points) and are overwhelmed by a list of wondrous options. I love coming to a restaurant, perusing an inventive menu and being forced to make a tough decision between many appealing dishes. Goat cheese ravioli with braised rabbit, foie gras three ways, beef cheeks with foie and field green salad, braised short ribs, and tuna with chickpea puree all smiled back at me. They also have a tasting menu which looked great as well but Mom doesn’t like nibbling through her meal. The waiter brings bread and a delightful looking olive oil with parmesan and what appears to be a cilantro-pesto. Mom and I dig in as we go through our tough decision making process. The bread is OK. Supposedly it is baked on premise though I imagine it was baked on premise a few days ago, if you catch my drift. The waiter returns to take our order. Mom decides on the goat cheese ravioli as an app and the duck breast as an entrée and I choose the beef cheeks and tuna with chickpea puree- ordered black and blue.
The manager comes by to help us with the wine list and I deal with my usual pride issue of wanting to dissuade help by a sommelier- even when I may need it. However, in this sea of Ribera Del Dueros, Riojas, and a plethora of other Spanish wines I must admit I had to welcome the assistance. I describe to the manager/sommelier that we were looking for a light, fruit forward red wine given that Mom was ordering duck and I was ordering tuna. He recommended a really nice 2004 Torres Ribera Del Duero which complemented our choices perfectly.

After a healthy pause, our appetizers arrive which were both sublime. Plates were licked clean. Mom’s duck breast was a bit odd as the pieces were cut into rectangular shapes- off putting if you ask me . The meat needed more seasoning as well but the cinnamon-scented sauce added some flavor. My tuna on the other hand was perfectly seared the way I like it and the chickpea puree was delightful.No complaints on the service. I did not have to do my elbow-crook-head-scratch once. This is where I scratch the back of my head and crook my elbow to get the waiter’s attention if things go awry. Those who know me and love me despite my quirks are all-too-familiar with the ECHS. Maybe I’ll call it that from now on. Anyway, this is a signature move which I have honed over the years to gain the attention of waiters/waitresses. Waiter beware: if you see the elbow-crook-head-scratch you have veered off the path of good service. Figure out how to get back on or you will have an unhappy StrumErika at the end of the meal. Anyhoo, I digress. The meal was rounded out with some tasty petits-fours of chocolate lollipops and orange gelee. Lucky me that Bybil doesn’t like sweets.

Though it may be the ugly duckling of the restaurant world, Urena was a great experience in the end. In a Manhattan culinary world filled with gigantic Buddhas, pseudo-Ninja waiters, and cheese caverns, it was refreshing to visit a place for the most important thing: THE FOOD.

Urena: 37 East 28th Street (betw Madison and Park Ave)

Cuisine: Tapas with a French flair

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