Buena Vista

Summary

A friend was in town around the Hudson Yards area, and we wanted to look for something around the area. The menu here looked pretty decent, and it was on my bookmarks for quite a while.

The bread came with some type of tomato olive oil medley. It reminded me of bruschetta toppings but more akin to diced tomatoes out of a jar. The sauce itself was alright.

The octopus appetizer was pretty good. The octopus was not as good as other places I’ve been to as the texture was a little chewy and spongy. I felt the octopus could’ve used a little more grill on it. The dish felt a little watery and soaked, such that the consistency on the octopus came out more like a soup.

The branzino was a special of the day and came with some type of citrus sauce and pomegranite seeds on top. I thought the fish was cooked ok. It was soft albeit on the wet side of things. It had skin underneath, but with the way it was cooked, the skin was soggy. I felt if they would’ve crisp the skin, texturally the dish would’ve tasted a little better.

The surf and turf was another special of the day. I think it was just a rib eye with 2 pieces of shrimp on it. The steak itself was cooked medium rare, and it came with 2 sauces. The red sauce reminded me of a red wine reduction sauce, and the other was forgettable. I found myself dipping into the red sauce much more. The meat quality itself was fairly decent, although the cut itself had a lot of fat and tendons on the side. It was served on some purple potato mash which was pretty good. The purple potato mash had some sweetness to it, but not as much as yams.

The Angus rib eye steak came tenderized with papaya juice and roasted lingon potatoes. The steak was pretty good, but the potatoes were very oily. The chimichurri sauce was good too, but we found that we kept going to the red wine sauce instead.

The service was prompt, and the prices are pretty good for Manhattan. You can have a decent meal without paying an arm and a leg in Manhattan.

Final Verdict

If you’re around Hell’s Kitchen and are looking for a decent Spanish / Argentinian meal that isn’t too expensive, this could be worth a shot.

Yelp Jabs

Um.. what? I ordered a Sandwich De Puerco Asado via mealpal on a Tuesday afternoon and I seriously did not get what was advertised/ pictured.

This Yelp Elitist is rating the restaurant based on their Mealpal experience. For those that don’t know, Mealpal is basically a carry out meal plan that many NYC restaurants participate in. Reviewing a restaurant based on their mealpal item is basically the same as reviewing carry out Chinese food. You don’t if you had any common sense.

I found that they had a great deal on pulsd for a 3-course bottomless brunch, and my friends and I purchased the voucher… Nowhere on their site, on pulsd, nor on the voucher itself does it say that brunch is only on Sundays.

First mistake was pursuing the “deal” of a bottomless brunch. Second mistake was not asking about the voucher directly. And third was getting burned by brunch.