La Esquina

In desperate need of a margarita, I headed to La Esquina.  This restaurant has been around for over ten years and is still packed on a Saturday night until after 10 pm.  Luckily, I wanted a late reservation so when I called around 9:30 pm and intending to arrive around 10 pm, they offered us a reservation for 11 pm.  Turns out our table became ready half way through our first drink.

While waiting for our table, I snagged a couch and sent my husband to the bar for a round of margaritas.  The small bar area, adjacent to the dining room downstairs, is set up as a lounge with couches and seats tucked into the walls.  The dim lights and mix of fun, blaring music in the bar area make you forget you are in a restaurant.

While waiting for our table, I was stymied by a bartender unable to make a decent margarita.  It's a margarita, readers! At $15, there's no excuse to F this up.  Luckily, when we were seated, our server asked if we wanted a drink and we shared our prior disappointment with her.  Equally horrified, she told us never to accept a bad drink and that she would make sure the next round was up to par.

And it was, thankfully. 

What to Eat:

Start with the Rotisserie Chicken Tacos.  The two small corn soft taco tortillas were piled with tender, chunks of chicken and then covered in a spicy green sauce.  

For a side, go with the Grilled Green Beans. Olive oil and kosher salt apparently work miracles because my husband actually ate the green beans and agreed with me that they were delicious.  Green beans are probably my favorite vegetable but I had never tried grilled green beans before.  The light char, when paired with a coating of olive oil and kosher salt, was fantastic.

For an entree, we went with the Fish of the Day, which was a dorado smoked in a banana leaf.  The fish was deboned and stripped of the banana leaf when it arrived on our table.  The dorado was surrounded by a slightly creamy pistachio sauce and topped with an exotic, sauteed vegetable medley (okra, zuchini, lima beans, etc).  The rich pistachio sauce was decadent and the white flaky fish melted in your mouth.




Need a fun night out (or drown your sorrows) with good food, good music, (and in my case, good company)?  Make sure not to settle on a bad drink, lesson learned,

Your foodie friend

Insider tip: Make a reservation, walk ins were turned away, even after 10 pm.  Also, La Esquina's air conditioning is lacking, perhaps a better spot after the NYC heat wave ends, in September.