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Floridita Tapas


Daniel

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Went back last night.. Had a really nice dinner.. Went less with the tapas and more with the traditional "Newark Style" experience..

I arrived earlier then my guests and had a couple of drinks at the bar.. I was happy to see they had Hendricks Gin.. With my drink they brought me a small plate as apart of there happy hour..

Chorizo.. Very nice wine and paprika flavors to it..

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Started with fried stuff mussels..

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Lots of chopped mussels with a mainly pimento stuffing that added a lot of sweetness.. Really enjoyed these..

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Pork on a stick for the little one.. Pork was kind of dry.. Came with Potatoes Bravas

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We didnt know the pork came with potatoes so we got another order.. Still not so bad having too many potatoes..

Then we went with the chicken Villaroy.. Chicken dipped in a bechamel and deep fried.. Whats not to love.. Crunch, bechamel, chicken.. Its hot and gooey chicken..

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Hearts of palm salad which I dont think I even got to try..

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We also ordered a paella valenciana.. Lobster, clams, shrimp, scallops, mussles and on the bone chicken.. This was split between four people.. We finished everything and it was the perfect amount of food.. If you ordered this dish for yourself, you will have food for the next few days..

The rice was incredibly moist and flavorful.. Its very upsetting to get a dry paella.. Seafood was cooked well and not dried out.. A very nice paella..

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Miss K rocked the mousse and nut filled crepes.. They were great for her, I was happy with my one or two small bites.. When someone is glaring at you with a fork in stabbing position, you tend to take smaller bites..

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Eventually she just goes right for the mousse..

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We opted against the flan and went witih the creme brulee. It was very nice..

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At the end of dinner they brought us free shots of something orangish..

I was really happy the place has improved cooking wise.. The service continues to be really wonderful and friendly.. I will be coming back here soon.. The place has wonderful sangria, it has good food, good prices, good service.. It reminds me of how much fun I would have going out with my family to these Spanish/Portuguese places in Newark and other towns in Jersey..

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Dude, that is one rockin' feast. Thanks for sharing. The stuffed mussels are making my stomach growl.

The possibilities.... hmm

"I took the habit of asking Pierre to bring me whatever looks good today and he would bring out the most wonderful things," - bleudauvergne

foodblogs: Dining Downeast I - Dining Downeast II

Portland Food Map.com

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I work across the street from here so have had several lunches at this restaurant.

Every experience has been great. The portions are incredibly generous and the kitchen has a real talent for seasoning and broiling steaks to proper temperature. Really...sometimes it can be taken for granted but I've had the skirt steak here three times and not only is it as long as an anaconda but it has a great charred crust.

My colleagues have had more experience with the tapas menu but the sampling I've had from their plates have been solid as well.

GREAT offerings for this neighborhood.

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It is exciting to hear the steaks are good too.. I guess next time I will go steak and paella and skip out on the tapas.. I also wanted to add that this place is owned by the same people who own http://www.segoviarestaurant.com/reviews.html in New Jersey.. Met the owner on my first visit.. Young guy, extremely friendly and sharp.. He spoke of the pains they had transforming a KFC into this pretty spot..

Steak Segovia N.Y. Cut with Bone.....26.95

3 lbs.

Edited by Daniel (log)
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They have a strange lease if I remember correctly..I think Columbia owns the spot and can kick them out when they want.. I know a lot of the cost that went into the restaurant was absorbed by Columbia.. Meanwhile, going back today as I left my wallet there last night..(I recently started carrying a wallet for the first time in 10 years) I called from the taxi on my way home and tell them.. I didnt feel the need to return immediately, my waiter was that nice I am positive its still going to be there..

Might have to get a g & t and a little chorizo tonight..

Edited by Daniel (log)
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They have a strange lease if I remember correctly..I think Columbia owns the spot and can kick them out when they want.. I know a lot of the cost that went into the restaurant was absorbed by Columbia.. Meanwhile, going back today as I left my wallet there last night..(I recently started carrying a wallet for the first time in 10 years)  I called from the taxi on my way home and tell them.. I didnt feel the need to return immediately, my waiter was that nice I am positive its still going to be there..

Might have to get a g & t and a little chorizo tonight..

What did you do with your credit card and ID before?

Place looks great btw.

�As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy, and to make plans.� - Ernest Hemingway, in �A Moveable Feast�

Brooklyn, NY, USA

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This all pleasantly surprising news. I live a five-minute walk from there and will definitely be trying it sometime in the coming week, obsessed with Spanish food as I am.

I have been to the regular Floridita restaurant there a couple of times, which is a serviceable but absolutely undistinguished Dominican/Cuban joint, so I never dreamed a tapas place sharing the same name could be worth checking out. Thanks, Daniel!

(They don't, by any chance, have orujo, do they?)

Edited by Eric_Malson (log)

My restaurant blog: Mahlzeit!

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  • 2 months later...

It turns out I was being overly optimistic up-thread: I never made it to Floridita Tapas until this evening. I met two friends from the neighborhood there, each in their way as picky about food as I am, which makes it all the more incredible that this place was, by unanimous consensus, a smashing success.

My friends got sangría, which they pronounced quite good, and I got a bottle of Rioja from their rather meagre selection of Riojas (at least on the lower end of the price spectrum, where there are plenty of possible offerings they could stock), and between us we ordered 11 tapas dishes. Among these 11 were no duds, which is already remarkable. Even more remarkable is that this is the only Spanish food I've had in New York that tastes remotely like food in Spain. But I should add that after a lot of disappointments, I gave up trying places several years ago, so there could others on which I'm not current.

In no particular order, we tried:

Pollo villeroy, and the shrimp version of same--perfectly done and delicious. There is a picture of the chicken version in Daniel's post above.

Beef empanadas (actually, they are empanadillas)--good, crispy, fried turnovers filled with seasoned ground beef sauteed with onions and chopped olives.

Buñuelos de bacalao--fried cod puffs. Nice, light, tasty little balls of deep-fried goodness.

Pimientos de piquillo rellenos de bacalao--excellent rendition of the small, sweet red peppers stuffed with a mixture of codfish and potato.

Chorizos sauteed with onion--undistinguished by Spanish standards, but stellar by New York City standards. Picture in Daniel's post above.

Pinchos morunos--the "pork on a stick" referred to (and photographed) by Daniel above. Ours, luckily was not the least bit dry, and quite tasty.

Patatas bravas and alioli--both quite good (the patatas bravas are pictured next to the "pork on a stick" above, in a pleasant but not overpowering, spicy sauce). I especially liked the alioli potatoes, no doubt because of a) the garlic, and b) the significantly higher fat content!

Albóndigas--a small casserole of meatballs in a sherry sauce. Quite decent, if not spectacular... I liked the sauce better than the meatballs themselves.

Pulpo a la gallega--no pulpeiros need fear for their jobs, but it's among the better octopus dishes you're likely to find around these parts.

Boquerones a la vinagreta--white anchovies in a wonderfully fresh vinaigrette sauce that could have used a touch more olive oil. But that's quibbling--these were delicious.

To my mind, the big winners were the villeroys and the boquerones, but my companions were also crazy about the patatas bravas, chorizos and pinchos morunos.

All in all, a very satisfying feast.

We spent, relatively, quite a bit of money but no one comped us any after-dinner anything... :sad: Still, we'll definitely be going back.

My restaurant blog: Mahlzeit!

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I took a client here for a business lunch there last week and again had an excellent experience. We were there for two hours and in that time there was only one other party in the whole restaurant.

I'm seriously hoping they do kick ass dinner business but I can't say for sure.

What I can say is for an establishment that doesn't have a ton of foot traffic the freshness and quality of the food does not suffer at all.

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