IntroCabrito - Highly Unrecommended
50 Carmine St, New York 10012
Btwn Bedford & Bleecker St
Phone: (212) 929-5050
50 Carmine Street has been the home of many locations the past couple of years. My first encounter with the location was the Italian Restaurant 50 Carmine which was pretty solid. The next restaurant that took over the location was BarFry, a fun tempura joint that lasted maybe a year. Now, we have Cabrito a wannabe hip taco joint - a project by the dudes from Fatty Crab. I love Fatty Crab, but Cabrito not so much. Hip place serving overpriced tacos is not my idea of a good time. Overall I give the restaurant an 50/100.
Our Menu
1) Huitlacoche mexican "corn truffle"*
2) Cabrito sour orange, garlic and chili rubbed goat, slow roasted and served chopped with salsa borracha & warm flour tortilla
3) Ensenada-style Fish beer battered and fried
Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way
1) Huitlacoche is a fungus grown on corn that has a flavor that is earthy and sweet and tastes like mushrooms. Unfortunately, this was covered in crema, cabbage, and cheese (an immediate uh oh this is going to suck when I saw it), so you can't really get too much of the huitlacoche flavor.
2) Their signature dish is also the namesake. Cabrito is a slow roasted goat, which sounded phenomenal. Problem was the goat meat here was slightly colder than room temperature. In addition, the meat was pretty dry and didn't have great goat flavor. Also, the sour orange did not pair at all with the rest of the flavors. The best part of the dish was the mexican crema (aka sour cream).
3) The fish was definitely colder than room temperature. The flavor was Ok, but cold fish tacos is not really appealing. Plus, this had the same tired accompaniments from the previous dishes - loads of radishes and red cabbage.
Overall Restaurant Experience (50/100)
- Food 6/10 – Eating this food did not remind me of Mexico at all. Plus, most of the dishes had average flavor or were really dry. Corn tortillas did not have great flavor and added to the dryness of most dishes.
- Service 6/10 – Service was slightly below average. The waiter was rushing things and it took him a while to come over to take our order. The food took a while to come out also.
- Atmosphere 6/10 – The place was packed on Friday night filled with a younger crowd all dressed up to go out. Music was pumping with I think techno music and it was hard to hear. Couldn't see that well since it was a tad dark so couldn't make much of the atmosphere. Got there at 7:45 and had a 45 minute wait.
- Price 2.0/10 – WTF in a bad way. $6 for 1, yes...1 cold fish taco that's hella small. Completely ridiculous. Even the goat entree was hella expensive. $25 for about 3-4 small tacos.
This place looks like it maybe around longer than BarFry judging on the crowd. It shouldn't be though based on the food and service...
2 comments:
$25! eeks... not a value meal at all!
well, if the food sucks, and it's pricey, nature should take it's course and give it the pink slip.
perhaps(most likely) there's bad karma left from the kitchen staff of BarFry...
"oh snap!"
or, you caught a bad break. We go all the time, and have a great time. great margs, interesting signature drinks, and really, the food is spot on every time we go. I dont know what happened. But dont worry if you wanna give it a second chance, they aint goin nowhere. Value menu???? If you wanna eat crap ingredients, and spend 10 bucks on a plate of slop there are plenty of options in this town. Cabrito can be spendy by mexican food standards, but worth it.
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