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“Cafe Condesa”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	West Village	Cheap Eats	Good

r cooking purposes at least, but nope. It seemed odd. I like a nice juicy wedge of lime with a cold beer, especially in the summertime. But cold beers are cold beers and on a humid sticky thunderous night in the city, they did the trick as we cooled down, dried off from the soaking rain and looked over the menu.

The menu at Café Condesa is described as Latin-inflected, which is and is not the case. I’d say it’s more pan-European, based on selection of quite reasonably priced large appetizer-sized plates the chef is serving from his thumbnail-sized kitchen. To start, there’s a goat cheese galette with red peppers and black olives over mache ($7.25), and a petit camembert fondue ($8.75)—which, while quite good (what could be bad about melted cheese)—is really more of a super melty slab of camembert with toasted bread than a creamy, silky fondue over a flame. There’s also a monster sized cobb salad ($8.25) loaded up with Cabrales, bacon, onions, avocado and chicken breast, and another salad I have not seen on a menu since the days of shoulder pads and leg warmers—baby spinach with portobello mushrooms and shaved Parmesan in a classic balsamic vinaigrette. While dated, it was quite good. For pasta, we had a heaping bowl of fresh house-made fettucini (the chef made pasta at Union Square) tangled up with wild mushrooms, shaved manchego and broccoli rabe ($8.25), a fine dish, though the sauce was a bit too creamy, and in need of better seasoning (read: salt and pepper please).

But pitch perfect seasoning and nice clean bold flavors did show up in the Latin American influenced dishes on the menu. There’s a bright and fresh tomato salsa with ripe avocado puree with tomatillo that tops off a seared filet of glossy pink salmon ($10.25), and a vibrant chimicchuri swiped over a juicy pink lamb chop (listed rather comically on the menu as “rack of lamb” for $12.95) with meaty roasted wild mushrooms and a buttery fingerling puree the texture of heavy poured cream. We also liked the Albodingas (meatballs, $9.50), a wonderful nod to Spain, that were fiercely seasoned with fresh herbs and quite moist and fluffy, but they were served over a rice pilaf that had seen better days. The rice dish, I believe, was left in the oven for about an hour too long so that the rice, which seemed to have once been silky, was now overcooked and crunchy from being heat-blasted. And to top it off, the me ... [more, click below]

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Posted: July 16, 2006

Other restaurants in West Village :
+ Jefferson-- Closed   + La Palapa Rockola   + Sumile   + Babbo   + Tasca   + AOC Bedford   + Home   + The Spotted Pig   + Barbuto   + Numero 26   + Mas   + August   + Alta   + Cru   + Blue Mill Tavern-- Closed   + Employees Only   + Lassi   + Metropol--Closed   + Turks and Frogs   + Bellavitae   + Yumcha-- CLOSED   + Gusto: SEE EARLIER REVIEW; THIS CHEF HAS LEFT GUSTO   + Perry Street   + Home   + Ditch Plains   + The Little Owl   + Cafe Condesa   + Cafe Cluny   + Gusto   + The Waverly Inn   + Morandi   + P*ONG   + Perilla   + Soto   + Market Table   + Centro Vinoteca   + Barfry   + Dell'Anima   + Bar Blanc   + Smith's   + Commerce   + Elettaria   + Bar Q   + Cabrito   + 10 Downing   + Minetta Tavern   + Braeburn   + Scuderia, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Bar Blanc Bistro by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Joseph Leonard   + Bar Henry, by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Kin Shop   + Monument Lane   + Wong   + Bin on Bleecker, by Dara Pollak   + Ristorante Rafele   + Cole's Greenwich Village by Guest Reviewer Claire Jaffe   

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