Carla
Carla is a local neighborhood restaurant close to Long Island City and Queensboro Plaza. At first glance, the restaurant’s menu seems very basic, but sometimes I think this could be misleading. I had been periodically glancing at the menu, and I noticed it changing every so slightly on a monthly basis. Since we had a lazy Saturday, we decided to try this place out. The restaurant’s motto is all about good vibes. We walked in as a party of 2 around 4:30 PM.
Ambiance
The interior is very comfortable, and it definitely gave very good vibes. The furniture felt very West Elm where you have brass lights, white stone tables, and green velvet chairs. There is also a lot of real plants all over, so it gave it a very fresh / relaxing vibe to it. The music was actually not loud, and in general, it felt very welcoming.
The service was top notch and accessible.
Food
The Adult Capri Sun ($15) came with rum, triple sec, pineapple, maraschino cherry, orange, and soda. I thought it was fun to see it come in a ziploc bag that was similar to a Capri-Sun. They threw in one of those changing light cubes in it as well. The cocktail definitely was good for me and tasted like all its ingredients. Everything complemented each other, and it’d be easy to forget this has alcohol.
The Homemade Lemonade ($4) came nice and fresh. My partner was wondering if it was packaged because it tasted so sugary, so maybe that’s a good thing.
The Tater Tots ($8) came out as our appetizer. They definitely gave us a good sized basket portion of tots, and they were perfectly fried and crispy.
The Chicken Fajitas ($19) came with chicken, onion, bell peppers, cilantro, lime, avocado, crema, and with a side of 4 flour tortillas. I was very surprised by this in that it tasted pretty darn good. The chicken was tender and tasted of cumin. The small tortillas were warm and tasted homemade. This is definitely something you can make at home, but for $20, I thought the portion size and preparation was spot on that I would prefer coming here to eat than to make it at home.
The Beef Brisket Pho ($19) came with rice noodle served with beef brisket, cilantro, scallions, red onions, bean sprouts, holy basil, lime, and pickled jalapeños in their 8 hours home-made beef bone marrow broth. It came with a side of sriracha and hoisin. The brisket was cooked well-done, though I normally prefer rare. Despite that, they gave you a reasonable amount of slices. The soup itself was flavorful albeit very light. It surprisingly was better than Cyclo, a Vietnamese restaurant nearby. They gave you pretty good portions of noodles to broth to meat mixture, and I felt very satisfied at the end. Price wise, this is probably a bit more expensive than some other places, but I felt they did this surprisingly well even compared to some Vietnamese pho places in the city.
Final Verdict
Carla is definitely a restaurant on our list that we would be open to taking our friends and guests to. Don’t expect Michelin star or pretentious foods here. It just tastes good, and the price is very reasonable too compared to city prices.
Yelp Jabs
They added gratuity for the party of 5 or more. So for the 20% that it already added and paid for. The service could have been more attentive and friendly. There was no checking up and following up on the table between courses.
Yes, at the bottom of the menu it says they will add gratuity automatically. I thought the service was attentive and friendly. Personally for me, I don’t like the wait staff coddling me after each and every course.
This is based on my first order which was a delivery. I think that the food might be best enjoyed dining in, but I was happy to support a women run and owned business.
It takes a special Yelper to write a food delivery review and say that food would taste better or be more enjoyable if it was served directly fresh out of the kitchen. Who would have thought food would taste better fresh out of the kitchen!?!?
Revisions
- Aug 20, 2022 - Initial revision.