Casa Mono in Manhattan, NY – Tapas, Tapas, Tapas!

Last Tuesday I headed into the City to have dinner at Casa Mono & Bar Jamon on Irvington Place & East 17th by the Union Square. Casa Mono serves tapas, one of my favorite food. In general, I am a big fan of Spanish cuisine. I read the reviews on Yelp, studied their menu, and picked out my dishes beforehand. The tapas did not disappoint and were fantastic!! #tapas #spanishfood

Here is the nice baguette with excellent olive oil and olives. I was very hungry when I arrived and found the bread & olives combination pretty awesome. Could be somewhat biased due to hunger.

Buffalo’s Milk Burrata with Amontillado Onion Broth and Crispy Potatoes: The Burrata was more runny than what I like but the broth was good.

Razor Clams a la Plancha: This dish kills. 🙂 Best of the night. Hands down.

Pulpo with Fennel and Grapefruit: This was ok. I like Octopus so it’s hard for Octopus to be wrong for me. Should be grilled instead of fried. Should probably use a slightly larger cut.

Skirt Steak with Romesco and Onion Mermelada: second best dish of the night. Fulfilling, succulent, tender and juicy. All the right things for skirt steaks. If it were not $17 for a small plate, I would have had 2-3 of them. The Romesco was excellent, a bit spicy. Just perfect!

Crispy Pig’s Ears and Squid, Watermelon, Apple Cider Gastrique, Goat Cheese: This is a close third to the skirt steak. The pig’s ear is really crispy and I just love the crunchiness of it. Munch. Munch. The calamari was not as good, too salty. The dish did not really need the squid in my opinion.

This was a great dinner. The restaurant was at a corner and was completely open to the sidewalks on two sides. My friend and I looked out to NYC getting dark and people watched. We also enjoyed a wonderful Rioja. It was tart and oaky. We had the CVNE Viña Real Reserva 2009 Rioja from Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano, Garnacha. Casa Mono had a long and interesting wine list. I loved it. Definitely recommend both the food and the wine.

Only one down side: tapa plates are small so don’t go in hungry.  I ended up wanting to swing by a Korean joint to get some rice cake soup to supplement.

This experience took place at

Casa Mono & Bar Jamon
52 IRVING PLACE, NEW YORK CITY 10003 T: 212.253.2773