Notes on Food

A late Friday night dinner at Cosme – Enrique Olvera’s new Mexican restaurant in the Flatiron and one of the most-hyped openings this year since it’s his first restaurant in the States. It was still pretty busy by the time we arrived for our 9:30 reservation and it’s definitely a very hip setting but service was friendly and the vibe was casual. We were actually seated at a communal table with plenty of room and started off with some single-origin, just-fried corn tortillas and two salsas (the red one was super spicy even for me) and house cocktails, including a refreshing Paloma with homemade grapefruit syrup and ginger-packed El Ninja (mezcal, gin, vermouth, shiso shrub, lime, ginger and dehydrated pineapple).

Tortillas and salsa

Paloma and El Ninja

Cold appetizers were thinly-sliced raw scallops and poached jicama in a wasabi-cucumber-lime vinaigrette as well as a ripe avocado half piled high with raw seafood and horseradish to add a little bit of zing. Though I’m usually a sucker for anything avocado (see below), the scallops were my favorite of the two due to the clear, bright flavors of the sea and citrus.

Scallops and stuffed avocado with seafood

Our hot appetizers were actually two vegetarian choices: enfrijoladas with ricotta, hoja santa, creme fraiche and onion as well as the mushroom and squash barbacoa, chilpachole and hoja santa. The enfrijoladas had a lot of familiar Mexican flavors but the mushroom and squash dish was definitely an example of Mexican cuisine that none of us had really eaten before.

Enfrijoladas

Mushroom and squash barbacoa

Standouts of the night, however, were our entrees. I ordered the black garlic rubbed NY strip with shishito peppers (one of my favorite things) and avocado-tarragon puree (see?). Super flavorful, tender beef balanced with raw onions and crunchy, sweet peppers and then mellowed with a creamy, smooth avocado sauce.

The duck carnitas to be shared was the favorite dish by far – it came out in its own cast iron skillet, enormous and amazing-smelling, perfectly cooked (crispy skin with just the right amount of fat and meat) with spicy radishes and a punchy salsa verde. I’d definitely go back to Cosme with a friend and sit at the bar (which just started serving the full menu) with a glass of wine and order just that dish. The red snapper with thai curry, plantains and scallions and the half lobster pibil, chorizo, black bean and avocado leaf puree also got glowing reviews.

Black garlic rubbed NY strip for tacos, fried shishitos, avocado-tarragon purée

Half lobster pibil, chorizo, black bean and avocado leaf purée

Duck carnitas, white onions, radishes, salsa verde

Broiled red snapper, thai hoja santa curry, plantains, scallions

Somehow, even after drinks, appetizers and entrees (and we’d actually come from a coworker’s going away party chock full of bar food), we still had enough room for four desserts (definitely took a looooong walk after this meal). Having read early reviews of the restaurant, we all agreed that we’d get the popular and somewhat strange looking husk meringue with corn mousse dessert, which proved to be a good choice. Definitely a unique dish with strong corn flavor without being too sweet. I also really loved the carrot cake riff with cream cheese ice cream and the lemon cake with quince sorbet.

Nixtamalized carrot, cinnamon cake, cream cheese ice cream

Chocolate ganache, mezcal, blood orange, beet sorbet

Husk meringue, corn mousse

Lemon cake, grapefruit, quince sorbet

Word is that reservations for Cosme at prime dinner time are currently hard to come by, but if you can get even a late seating around 9:30 or 10:00 PM or a place at the bar and you have the time to indulge in a long leisurely meal, I’d definitely recommend getting the scallops appetizer, the duck carnitas to share (though honestly, I could probably finish this dish on my own because it was so frikkin’ delicious and I eat like a baby dinosaur) and then a husk meringue to finish.

Two posts within a week! Trying to be better about keeping up with this blog…