I went at noon today to check out the brand new Mexicue truck parked at 52nd St. and Park Ave. The line was already 25 deep before they could even lift the service door and put out the menu sign. Such has become the norm these days when word spreads around Midtown of a new food truck in the vicinity. I got in a few words with the head chef about the concept and to get some recommendations. He was hanging outside the truck and told me he can’t actually be in the truck cooking until he receives his pending mobile food vending license. Today’s menu featured four different tacos ($3-$4 ea) and three types of sliders ($3 ea). He said his “baby” is the BBQ Beets Taco but that you can’t really go wrong with anything on the menu, especially the Oak-Smoked Short Ribs Taco w/ salsa verde, aged white cheddar and salsa fresca and the Chipotle-Rubbed Smoked Chicken Slider w/cherry smoke, charred poblanos and salsa verde. I took his advice and went with a short ribs taco, a house chorizo taco w/ goat-feta cheese, habanero aioli slaw and cilantro and a smoked chicken slider. After just one bite of each, I had no doubt this marriage of spicy Mexican & smoky BBQ is a winner.

The attention to detail and thought behind each taco and slider combination is readily apparent. Each component brings some serious flavor to the table. The short ribs had a beautiful smoky taste that meshes impeccably well with the white cheddar and salsas verde and fresca. What’s also readily apparent is that Mexicue is not cutting any corners on ingredients. The house chorizo taco is a hit with its bangin’ spicy flavor from the chorizo tempered by a nice habanero slaw and some cilantro. I was also a big fan of the chipotle-rubbed smoked chicken slider. The intense and lingering smoky flavor of the pulled chicken alerts you to the fact that some serious “low and slow” preppin’ must have gone into this baby.

All in all, some pretty amazing flavors popped in each of the tacos and the slider I tried. My only gripe is that I shouldn’t still be as hungry as I was after spending $11 bucks at a food truck. I ate each of the tacos in about two bites and the slider in maybe three. In terms of size, they remind me of what you would expect to get at one of those “Tastes of _____” events where the restaurants hand out bite-sized portions of their signature dishes. You can tell by the picture below just how teeny the tacos are.  To make it more luncher-friendly, I think they should offer some sort of a combo meal for $10. Time will tell if I’m the only one who sees the portion-size to price ratio as an issue. You can’t really fault me for wanting more of a good thing.

I had read about the Diablo Ricky cocktail ($8) on Always Hungry. It’s three parts Dos Equis and one part frozen margarita. I ordered one of those while Jill went with a Spicy Mango Margarita ($10) infused with habenero. The Diablo Ricky is like Gatorade with alcohol.  It’s that refreshing.  I sucked it down in a hurry and ordered up another.  There’s nothing to complain about their margaritas either, except for maybe the size and price.  At $10 a pop, I’m expecting (or at least wanting) one of those oversized bowl-like glasses they have at places El Rio Grande filled to the brim with frozen slushy margarita goodness.  Instead here you get a  glass that holds maybe half that much.  You could probably take an entire margarita down in about 5 huge sips with a side of brain freeze.  Regular margaritas will run you $9 and are made with Sauza Silver, with a selection of higher end tequila margaritas starting at $11. Ok, so in fairness you probably get better quality tequila in your margs here than other places, but I’d rather have a larger one with a less premium tequila. That should be an option at least.

La comida? The bottom line is if you order right, you can do pretty well here. You start with some chips and salsa on the house. If you want another basket, it’s $3. Personally, I would think there’s a better way to deter loiterers who are sticking around just to deplete the chips and salsa supply. But, so be it.  I went with an order of three tacos ($19; or any 2 for $16) – carnitas, fried oyster and grilled steak. Jill ordered the grilled skirt steak fajitas ($19).  While I’ve definitely had more authentic tacos in the city (Pampano Taqueria, Cascabel Taqueria and Pinche Taqueria), it’s been a long time since I’ve had a taco as flavorsome and as well composed as the fried oyster taco with lemon cumin aioli, cucumber, cilantro, sweet, canela and plantains. It’s one part New Orleans po’ boy and one part Mexican taco and entirely delicious. I could eat a half-dozen of these bad-boys. I wished I had saved it for last because while the carnitas and grilled steak tacos were good, they didn’t hold a candle to the fried oyster one.

Jill’s skirt steak fajitas came out sizzlin’.  The steak was seasoned nicely and cooked perfectly medium rare. Definitely not the best fajitas we’ve had in the city, but solid. Also not as much steak or veggies as you would expect from a fajita dinner plate. And notoriously absent were grilled onions.

We were out before 10pm when the downstairs opens, but we hear the  subterranean tequila bar is stocked with a pool table and leather banquets. 

We’d recommed Diablo Royale Este for big groups, birthday parties, a semi-boozy brunch ($5 Ricky’s, $5 Margaritas, $5 Bloody Marys), as a place to start a night out with a group of friends and as a good spot to grab a couple of drinks at the bar.

Diablo Royale Este

167 Avenue A
Between 10th St & 11th St
New York, NY 10009
(212) 388-9673

The Food Hall is almost as much a Dean & Deluca-esque market as it is a place to dine.  You can take home fresh fish filets and seafood, cheese sourced from Murray’s Cheese Shop, a variety of freshly baked breads, artisanal chocolates, specialty foods such as olives and olive oils, vinegars, spices, gourmet coffee, tea and cocoa, housewares and more.  Martin and I both needed to have a relatively quick lunch and were excited to see an offering of $7 specialty sandwiches and paninis on display at the Cheese & Charcuterie Counter. There was a delicious-looking pastrami and swiss on pumpernickel, a mortadella sandwich on french baguette, and a specialty BLT.  But neither of us could resist the house-smoked pork with raclette cheddar cheese on sweet brioche roll.

This sandwich sounded pretty damn good on paper, and it looked pretty good as well.  But neither of us thought it was going to be as good as it was.  In fact, I’m still tasting smoked pork goodness as we speak.  I asked the lady behind the counter if it came with any sort of sauce.  I flinched when she said it didn’t, but in retrospect it doesn’t need anything else at all.  The combination of the house-smoked pork slices with the raclette cheddar cheese and the sweet brioche made every bite enjoyable.  I had mine grilled and Martin had his plain.  We both remarked that they definitely don’t cut any corners on the quality of the ingredients and how we’d be pretty surprised if these sandwiches stay at their current $7 price.  Martin even said that “New York Magazine came out with its list of the city’s best sandwiches one week too soon.” 

Here’s a cross-section shot.  While it doesn’t look big, I promise you it’s a pretty substantial sandwich.  We both have hearty appetites and were plenty full afterwards. 

Here’s a look at the very impressive array of fish on display at the Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar.

And shellfish, too.

Here’s a look at the assortment of $7 sandwiches we stumbled upon at The Cheese & Charcuterie Bar.

Chef English was there himself for some photo opps behind The Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar.  I look forward to going back to The Plaza Food Hall and trying each of the 8 stations one-by-one.

For our main course, we ordered the Wagyu Skirt Steak Churrasco and Black Cod. Both were outstanding and cooked to perfection. I think the Black Cod is even more decadent than at Nobu, where the popular dish first got its notoriety.  It’s perfectly seared, slippery in texture and sweetly and sublimely delicious.  Jill was still talking about the gorgeous, perfectly seasoned Skirt Steak on Saturday morning. They also brought us out the Zengo fried rice that had large chunks of moist pork.  I’ve never seen pork like this in a side dish before.  We haven’t been to a Friends and Family yet where the food and service has been so spot-on.  Those with adventurous palates will find a lot to like here.  Zengo is ready to roll and we have a hunch it’s gonna be around a while.

UPDATE: From Eater, Zengo will be opening to the public tomorrow.

XO Edamame

Thai Chicken Empanadas

Tuna Tacos

Wagyu Skirt Steak Churrasco

The Decadent Black Cod

MidtownLunch told you about their lunch special yesterday — an individual 10” cheese pizza for just $6 before 3pm.  Since we’re booze fiends, we figured we’d tell you about something just as important and closer to our hearts (and livers) — the happy hour deal. 

They are offering 2-for-1 house wines ($5 for 2 glasses) and 2-for-1 selected beers Mon–Fri from 3-7pm.  The wine list has 5 whites, 5 reds and a couple of sparkling and dessert wines.  Wines are regularly just $5 by the glass, with bottles ranging from $20-40. Beers are $5-6.  For all you boozy cheapos that means you can head there around 2:45pm, order the $6 lunch special and at 3pm order your happy hour vino.  $11 total (not including tax/tip) for an individual pizza and 2 glasses of wine is about as good as it gets…especially for damn good brick oven pizza.  Oh yeah, and for dessert they’ve got a house made Nutella Pizza.  We hear brunch is coming soon. 

I was surprised to hear from a friend a couple of weeks back that I had to try TPoutine soon, not just for the poutine, but for their burgers, too.  This past weekend I found myself in the Beer Room at the Whole Foods Bowery picking up a couple of growlers of Sixpoint Craft Ales’ limited release Double Sweet Action.  I was thinking of where to have lunch and remembered that TPoutine is just a few blocks east and is also BYO.  Nice.  What could possibly be better on a cold, winter day than a burger, poutine and a beer? The sign outside the restaurant alerted me to a weekend special — any burger + a side of classic poutine for $9.75.

You order at the counter fast-food style and the space is what you might expect of a Lower East Side eatery — small and narrow, but well-designed (the bathroom is actually quite big).  There are ten varieties of burgers and almost as many varieties of poutine on the menu.  I ordered the Farmer’s Burger (applewood smoked bacon, fried egg and chipotle aioli) to go with my side of classic poutine.  It should be noted that they will cook your burger medium as the default temperature, so if you like medium rare or another temp you need to ask for it.

While I waited, I popped open the Double Sweet Action and poured myself a pint.  And so I diverge for a moment.  The special 5th Anniversary Double Sweet Action pours a very hazy bright orange color and has aromas of sweet malt, honey, caramel and some crisp, citrusy hops. It tastes of sweet buttery, caramel malty goodness with some zesty citrus hoppiness.  It was so good I offered a taste to one of the TPoutine employees to see what he thought.  I may be his favorite customer now.  But back to the food.

The burger had a great char-grilled flavor and the chipotle aioli added a nice kick without being too creamy or overwhelming.  It was definitely a better burger than I was expecting at a place named and known for its poutine.  You should also know that they have several varieties of grilled cheese, hot dogs and ice cream floats on the menu.  The couple next to me ordered the steakhouse poutine (steak, caramelized onions, blue cheese crumbles and the homemade gravy) and it looked and smelled ridiculously good.  But I was really digging my classic poutine.  The fries were nice and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and while I’m certainly no poutine expert, there seemed to be the perfect ratio of gravy and cheese curds.  I will definitely be back to work my way through the other varieties of poutine and burgers.  While many seem to label poutine as “drunk-only” food, I think it’s perfect for any time you are looking for a savory, hearty quick bite to eat.  It’ll definitely be different (and more satisfying) than any burger and fries combo you’ve recently had.  And if you want a taste of Canada during these Winter Olympics, go pick up a 6-pack of Molson and try yourself some poutine.  You won’t be disappointed, at least not until you step on the scale the next morning.  I’ll be in Whistler in a few weeks and look forward to trying and comparing the poutine there.