Last night, Jessica and I celebrated two of her cousin's birthdays (Olivia and Christina), and just hung out.

BoqueriaBoqueria
Boqueria on 19th, having heard good things and noticed that it's frequently busy. Because we went early, around 6, we had no problem grabbing a table for four, tucked away in a corner. I commented on the great tile work and other decoration and Jessica mentioned that a tapas joint with this much light is rare. Well, apparently, the trade off for light is losing quiet. It was so loud by the time we left I couldn't hear anything across a 2.5-foot table. That's ok I guess, as none of us had anything good to say.

The menu at Boqueria is well written and we had no problem finding enticing items amongst plates ranging from $4 to $12 for tapas and up to $30 for large dishes. Our waitress was nice, but she told use about the specials in the same, annoying way many restaurants do: right as you're ready to order.

We selected three tapas plates, one medium plate, and one large plate. The first to arrive was the Cojonudo: fried quail eggs and chorizo on toast. The flavor of the egg and chorizo was good, albeit unseasoned, but the toast they served it on was terrible. Speaking of terrible bread, when I ordered the 18-month Jamon Serrano, I asked for a plate of house bread. The ham showed up, shortly after the Cojonudo, I asked two more waiters for bread before it arrived. I then had to separately ask for olive oil, and then separately for salt and pepper. The ham itself had great flavor, but was cut so poorly off the leg that pieces ranged from 1/4" thick to paper thin shreds. The house bread they brought (late) to accompany was from a 2" wide baguette that tasted like chewy nothingness.

Next our plate of Txipirones arrived. It was a salad of baby squid, wild arugula, garbanzo, olive, radish, and citrus aioli. This was probably the best dish, although the salad was heavily dressed and the aioli was basically pure mayonnaise. The olives in this dish also reminded me of medicine, but the squid was good.

And about a minute later the special: sea bass in beignets with a gerken aioli. These incredibly fried five balls of fish chunks offered little taste and the gerken aioli didn't help.

We realized that we had not ordered enough bad food at this point, so Jessica asked the waitress for a plate of Datiles con Beicon y Almendras. When the dates stuffed with almonds and Valdeon, wrapped in bacon arrived the three pieces were scarfed down, even though they were jet black. The Valdeon overpowered the date completely and even the bacon. It tasted like pure goat cheese and didn't have the tang of blue that would've cut the fat so well. There was also no dressing, perhaps a balsamic would've been good. This mediocre offering was about the best dish.

Finally the main dish, Paella Valenciana: bomba rice, chicken, shrimp, chorizo, clams, and saffron. They didn't list oil on the menu as a key ingredient, but based on the pool of it in the serving pan, they should have. The oddly tomatoey tasting rice had no flavor and no hint of saffron. The two prawn atop the plate were perfectly cooked and enjoyable. The clams and mussels (not listed in the ingredients) were cooked just to the point where the flavor was gone, but at least they were edible. The chicken was dried out, shredded, and then soaked in the oil. At least the chorizo bits were enjoyable, but how could anyone screw that up? I shouldn't be too surprised, I've talked about how bad NYC paella is in the past.

Overall the portions were small, the joint was loud, the service so-so, and the food was bad. We won't be going back to Boqueria. As we walked towards Park Avenue, on our way for some dessert, we passed Sala 19 and Pipa, we cried as those would've been far better choices!


Big Daddy's Diner Big Daddy's Diner
We got to Park Avenue and went in to Big Daddy's for some dessert. As usual the place was hopping with activity. We were seated promptly and our sweet waitress answered a few questions we had.

Jessica and I shared a Cookie 'n' Cream Super Moist Layered Cake. It arrived fast and the plate was decorated with four dollops of soft whip cream. The cake was insanely sweet, but tasty.

I also ordered Daddy's Dr. Pepper Float. Having never combined the Pepper with rich, Vanilla ice cream, it was worth a try. I loved it! Jessica doesn't like Dr. Pepper, she thinks it tastes like medicine (a complaint I've heard from others). Olivia thinks it tastes like toothpaste. And Christina doesn't drink soda. "Ah... all to myself," I thought!

Christina and Olivia shared a Love Lounge Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich, which featured strawberry Häagen-Dazs ice cream sandwiched between thick chocolate chip cookies, smothered in fudge sauce. Our waitress slowly poured that fudge sauce all over the napoleon-style stacked dessert and we waited in...... anticipation. Like our other desserts the love lounge was uber-sweet, incredibly rich and just plain ole American-style dessert. Jessica and I discussed how it's almost impossible to find a dessert in NYC that uses natural flavors of ingredients to delight tastebuds, rather than simple sugar.

As we ate and spoke, Jessica spotted some fries going by, so we ordered a plate. Big Daddy's has good fries, they're cut and cooked Burger King style and they only managed to last a few minutes on our table-- although I did steal a few to dip in the fudge sauce-- yum.

----

As a side note, as I was linking to these restaurants, I couldn't help but notice that both have designed Flash sites. I'm glad to see restaurants spending some money online these days.