Txikito

It takes time to figure out how how to pronounce the name of this little tapas restaurant in Chelsea but I get a sense that I’ll be saying it a lot more. Txikito (actually pronounced chee-kee-toe) is a new venture by Alex Raij and Eder Montero of Tia Pol and El Quinto Pino. Once again this duet has brought tremendous new Basque flavors to Chelsea, with top notch service to boot.

The restaurant only has about 28 seats and a sliver of a bar at the front with bright red stools. The space is small so expect intimacy and bring a sense of adventure, there’s a lot to try here. The menu is divided between Ostatutik, Pintxoak, Hotzak and Beroak (from the bar, canapes, cold items and hot items) and each dish is as intriguing as the next. There is a lot of focus on seafood including a myriad cod dishes, anchovy, tuna, mussels and squid though meat lovers will find nice selections including odd parts like trotters, tripe and head cheese. Though a tough decision, we decided to start with mushroom and shrimp grilled cheese sandwiches (txiki txanpi) and atuna, a little sandwich of tuna with sweet onion and olive oil. The atuna was the surprising star, nestled into a mini baguette with slick tuna that oozed with flavor from the onions. The grilled cheese sandwiches had dots of earthiness from the mushroom but lacked the depth of flavor that the atuna had and the bread was a bit dry, they were thirsty for a dipping sauce.

Next came a special for the evening which was chickpea and cod stew with spinach. The yellow sauce of the stew was smokey and rich, so good that we slurped up the last drops in our spoons! Next we had squid in its own ink, a bountiful, deep-black portion served with short grain white rice. Lastly huge, salty lamb chops (chuletillas) with watercress, lemon juice and a decadent layer of fat on each. We asked for bread to cut some of the richness of the food and enjoyed sopping up the squid ink with it. I washed it down with a Basque rose and a redhook ale.

Txikito was a fantastic meal with lots of unique flavors. I can’t wait to go back.

Txikito: 240 9th Ave (betw 24th and 25th)
Cuisine: Tapas
Average Appetizer/Entree Price: Tapas run from $5-$20 with the “Beroak” (hot items) being as large as a regular entrees
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.
Word to the Wise: They do not take reservations but at 9PM on a Friday there was only a 20 minute wait for 2. Give them your phone number and get a beer around the corner at Half King or West Side Tavern!

Bar Carrera

My meal at Bar Carrera last Friday is leaving my head spinning. And it’s not due to the 3 glasses of Spanish wine I had (a Verdejo, an Esmeralda blend of Gewurztraminer/Moscato and a Monastrell), it’s because I have few positive words to say about it, while everyone else on the internet seems to have many. I read so many great things on NY Mag, Yelp, Urbanspoon and other blogs about this little slice of a Spanish wine bar yet my experience was so different.

They seemed desperate for help that night with 1 bartender, 1 busboy, 1 chef, and 1 waiter/hostess in a bustling restaurant filled with about 20 tables of people. Aside from that, the people there were pretty inept. The bartender seemed confused about the Basque wines. I’d heard stories about “Stefan” a waiter there who was amiable, who introduced himself and suggested dishes and wines. If we had Stefan, he was far too swamped to spark up a conversation with us.

We asked for water and were given 1 communal glass between three people because they had run out of water glasses. This is strange of course, but bearable were it ever remedied, or if our communal glass was refilled. Neither of these things happened. Empty wine glasses lingered on the table as did plates, forcing them to be abruptly cleared when new food arrived.

The tapas are served pintxos style which typically refers to a slice of bread with a spread of some kind on it. The pintxos are smaller than regular tapas, though priced as such at about $6 per plate. They were once just $3.50 according to the prices listed on NY Mag and once we saw the portions, I can understand why. Even $6 was robbery for these portions. The best dish of the evening was the smoked salmon on brioche with caviar and a drizzle of honey, though I wasn’t as moved by it as my friend Feisty Foodie. The brioche was bland though the combination of salty sweetness between the salmon and honey was nice. The other dishes were forgettable including a mushroom and morcilla sausage on a tiny skewer and some garlic shrimp which came about half an hour after everything else. Our waiter explained that they had run out of shrimp and had to go next door to get some more. I’m not kidding.

I won’t go back to Bar Carrera but I do wonder, what happened here?

Bar Carrera: 175 2nd Ave @ 11th
Cuisine: Tapas
Average Price: About 6-$10 per tapas
Food: Good
Service: Poor
Value: Good
You Gonna Finish That? Not even worth a doggy bag.

Tia Pol

I finally endured the hour and a half wait and made it to Tia Pol on Thursday night. It was certainly the most authentic tapas I have had yet in the city and I believe my friends, who all traveled abroad to Spain, agreed with me. Unfortunately the restaurant is tiny and the word is out, yielding wait times of two hours, on any given night. They do not take reservations for less than six people.

The decor at Tia Pol isn’t fancy. It is a narrow space with a long bar at the front and daily specials written on a large black chalkboard in the center. The walls are mainly exposed brick with low hanging lanterns dangling from the ceiling. The restaurant is certainly a scene, with people packed like sardines between the bar and the wall behind it, anxiously awaiting a spot at one of the mere fifteen tables in the back.

By the time they were ready for us, we were starving. Luckily the service was very prompt as servers were rapidly bustling from table to table. We ordered a pitcher of sangria for the table- excellent with a perfect balance of tanginess from the wine and sweetness from the juice. We ordered two rounds of tapas, the first consisted of: ham croquetas, tuna croquetas, fava bean puree with beyos cheese on toasted bread, chocolate and chorizo, and tortilla Espanola. The second round consisted of: squid in ink with rice, head on shrimp, Serrano ham with manchego and artichoke and sweet peppers filled with potato salad and topped with white tuna.

Everything we sampled was truly unique but my personal favorites were the ham croquetas, chocolate and chorizo, Serrano ham and fava bean puree. There is still so much more on the menu that I’d love to try. I am so pumped that Tia Pol is a block away from my new place! If you have some time in your evening, I highly recommend carving it out for Tia Pol, you won’t regret it.

Tia Pol: 205 10^th Ave betw 22^nd and 23^rd
Cuisine: Spanish, Tapas
Average App/Entree Price: $6-$16 Tapas
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.