Tia Pol

[jm chen]

I've certainly had savory dishes before where chocolate was among the ingredients, but I've never had anything where it was paired so directly as it was with the chorizo.  Perhaps that's why it came as such a suprise.  I'm used to seeing it in the context of items like mole, where it's with a malange of different ingredients and it's presence is a little more subtle.

←

Yep. I found the same. This will come off as a negative and I don't mean it as such, but the chocolate layer between the bread and the chorizo tasted just like Nutella to me. It was a sweetened chocolate, which I am not used to tasting with savory.

[Eatmywords]

I've certainly had savory dishes before where chocolate was among the ingredients, but I've never had anything where it was paired so directly as it was with the chorizo.  Perhaps that's why it came as such a suprise.  I'm used to seeing it in the context of items like mole, where it's with a malange of different ingredients and it's presence is a little more subtle.

←

Yep. I found the same. This will come off as a negative and I don't mean it as such, but the chocolate layer between the bread and the chorizo tasted just like Nutella to me. It was a sweetened chocolate, which I am not used to tasting with savory.

←

I had it last week and found no semblance to Nutella. If anything more semi-sweet dark baking chocolate. It was odd and yummy.

[lambretta76]

It is a semi-sweet chocolate, but tastes nothing like Nutella. (I actually dislike Nutella immensely, and I love this dish at Tia Pol.) It should also be noted that this dish also uses very thin slices of Korean pepper on it as well, which spices up the chocolate, playing the spicy and sweet, salty and bitter all against each other. Perfectly simple dish with flavors that greatly outnumber the individual ingredients.

[IML]

The chorizo y chocolate is one of the least successful dishes on the menu, at least in my (myopic, sententious) mind, as the chorizo lacks the saltiness and textural thinness to play against the chocolate. For me, a softer meat with more brine would pair better.

Some of the best dishes at Tia Pol are the nightly, entree-priced specials.

il

[lambretta76]

AFAIK - Tia Pol used to use Despana's chorizo, which I find to be fairly salty for chorizo. (But yes, perhaps less so than other meats.) That said, I haven't been in a while, so they may have changed purveyors in the past year or so...

[ASM NY]

We checked it out Friday night, and while it definetly has an original tapas bar "feel", much of the fare is not traditional tapas food (with the exception of maybe the tortilla, patatas bravas, and a couple others). That aside, our group of 6 ordered basically everything on the menu, and found it to be excellent overall. For a tapas bar, we found the portions to be very generous.

I have not been to Casa Mono, but we have gone to Tintol recently. In food terms I think Tia Pol compares favorably (to be fair, Tintol is Portuguese so there is limited overlap in the actual dishes). Some of the dishes were outstanding, like a mushroom carpaccio and a "gallega" octopus terrine. I did find the wine list significantly more extensive at Tintol.

The only remaining comment has to do with the space at this place, it's cramped and a good place to eat at the bar. For a party of 4 or more, it makes sense to call in advance and reserve the only table in the place that accomodates more than 2 people.

Doc, it's not really like a pintxos bar, and I don't recall seeing Txocoli on the list, but still very much worth checking out.

[docsconz]

The real test to see if it is a Donostia style pintxos bar besides Txocoli would be to look at the floor during service to see how much litter there is

It does sound good and is on my list of places to try in NYC.

[ASM NY]

The real test to see if it is a Donostia style pintxos bar besides Txocoli would be to look at the floor during service to see how much litter there is

It does sound good and is on my list of places to try in NYC.

←

Of course!!! Not to mention the cigarette smoke... although that is changing much to the dismay of some locals.

[MBShapiro]

Had as close to a night in Spain as i'm going to get in NY last night. I began with some cava and a few plates at El Quinto Pino and then walked over and had some plates at Tia Pol afterwards. I was really impressed with both places, although I felt Tia Pol was a better overall, more rounded restaurant.

First, El Quinto Pino. This place is really small. I mean tiny. Maybe 8 seats at the bar and 8 more around the perimeter of the restaurant. However, as it was a rainy Sunday night, we had no problems getting seats. We got a few plates, including the now famous uni panini, the pork craklings, white anchovies, eggplant and honey and a special they were running that was described as a pork hash with fried egg on top. The uni panini was as spectacular as advertised, with a good dose of spicy mustard and plenty of rich, sweet uni. It was a relatively small sandwich, but i could eat 6 for dinner and be completely happy. The pork cracklings and white anchovies were both simple, but delicious. The eggplant was pretty good, topped with bonito flakes, but nothing really special. The big miss of the night was the pork special. It was totally dried out and just salty. Even the fried egg on top (two little quail eggs) were overcooked with hard yolks. Not a good dish at all... Anyway, our server, upon hearing our plan to go over to tia pol after, was kind enough to call over and put our name on the list.

By the time we got there, they were ready to seat us. We had a nice table in the back and ordered a few things: patatas bravas, padrone peppers, a foie special, chorizo cooked in sherry, lamb skewers, and the almond tart. Out of all of these, i would say 4 were great, one was good and one was ok. The foie was particularly outstanding - a nice sized lobe seared and topped with flaked salt and plated with what can be best described as gourmet applesauce. The patatas bravas were the best I've had in NY, and while I liked the lamb skewers, my dining companion said they reminded her of taco seasoning (too much cumin i guess). The dessert was also suprisingly good. A moist almond cake with dulce de leche and some sort of ice cream (sorry i forget the flavor). Anyway, these two places were on my list of restaurants to try for a while, and I'm glad I went, as most everything was good to great.