Seafood is a major theme on the menu, too, and usually a rewarding one. As loaded with surprises as it was with flavor, this was Mr.
Bricks of meaty and very tender pork belly came with fried plantains, thin slices of honey-cured ham, pickles, garlic and a honey-banana mustard whose sweetness didn’t go over the top. Goat responds well to extra richness, which it got from guacamole strengthened by goat cheese, and from half an avocado cured in sugar.
It’s even better if you eat it alone at the bar, which may be your only option on those nights when reservations are impossible.Ī slab of goat confit, patiently simmered in olive oil, had a clear, clean flavor. The seared skirt steak, served with sweet stewed onions and a romesco that crunches with coarsely chopped almonds, is still one of the most elementally satisfying one-course meals near Union Square. Roasted piquillo peppers filled with juicy braised oxtail were on the menu then, are there now, and probably will be forever. (Marian Burros gave it two stars.)Īndy Nusser, the executive chef and an owner, kept the tapas fairly uncomplicated in the early days. The pleasures of eating there are both richer and more varied than in 2004, when this tiny, perpetually crowded restaurant was last reviewed in The New York Times. The Casa Mono style has spread far and wide, leaving in its wake a trail of cluttered tables, unpredictably sequenced dishes, and diners reduced to asking pathetically, “Will that be enough food?”Īll of this might earn Casa Mono the historical notoriety bestowed on early tremors of annoying or inconvenient trends, like the first spam email, if it weren’t the case that almost everyone agrees that Casa Mono has always been very good. Founded by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich in 2003, it was among the earliest and most influential restaurants to twist the Spanish tapas idiom into what New Yorkers learned to call small-plates dining.
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