Casa Mono

New York, New York, United States

Casa Mono

Casa Mono is a Spanish tapas restaurant on Irving Place near Union Square in NYC. The best way to experience tapas is to order several small dishes to share with your group.

Tapas are a great way to try strange new foods without committing to a large dish of it, however I felt the prices here didn't really reflect the size of the dishes. I thought the food was OK. There was some underlying flavor that seemed to appear in every dish that I did not like.

The restaurant is very small. There is a bar that goes around most of the restaurant were half the people were sitting to eat. The other half were sitting at tables that were literally next to each other. It felt like communal dining. This isn't the place to go for a romantic or private dinner.

Dress

Smart casual, jeans and a nice shirt are fine. On a hot day, shorts were acceptable too.

Cost

Most dishes are around $15-$20 and they recommend getting 2-3 dishes per person. Our bill came to over $40/person, without any beverages.

Service

The menu descriptions were lacking - half of the items weren't even in English. Fortunately, the waiter was very helpful in describing each item for us (which is really something the menu should have done).

Reservations

The restaurant is quite small and fills up after 7pm. We arrived around 6:30, we got one of the last tables remaining.

Items Ordered

Bread

Bread and dipping oil

We were brought a plate of plain baguette bread slices and some dipping oil. The bread was useful for some of the dishes that we ordered.

Duck egg with mojama

First Course - Duck egg wIth mojama, Pumkin and goat cheese croquetas, Charcuterie de la casa with black truffles

The duck egg was cooked and sitting on top of a bed of potatoes. There were three strips of fish pieces on the side. The fish, being cured, was very salty with an underlying fish flavor. The duck egg, tasted just like a chicken egg.

Pumkin and goat cheese croquetas

This was the best dish we ordered. These cheese and pumpkin balls were delicious! The little balls had a small amount of goat cheese in the middle, surrounded by sweet pumpkin, and then fried with a crispy coating.

Charcuterie de la casa with black truffles

This plate came with quite a large selection. There was the cold cut ham which was alright, some pickled white vegetable whose name I've forgotten, a small salad of greens, some nice toasted bread with tomatoes that was like a bruschetta, and some slices of meat pate with truffle. The meat truffle thing was strange - most of our group didn't like it. It had the nice wild mushroom flavor to it, but I couldn't get over the weird jello-like texture.

Skirt steak with onion mermelada

Course 2 - Skirt steak with onion mermelada

The steak was my second favorite dish, except that I would have like it cooked a little more. They didn't ask us how we liked our steak cooked, and they cooked it rare. The meat had a nice flavor. There was a tomato and nutty sauce on the bottom that was delicious, as were the cooked sweet onions on top.

Quail with summer squash and harissa

Course 2 - Quail with summer squash and harissa, Pork belly with spicy sandia, Patatas bravas

The quail was really small. They are tricky eat, and have such a small amount of meat. I think it tasted like chicken, but I couldn't taste very much of it to know for sure. It was also very salty. I liked the squash vegetable that it was sitting on, although it didn't have anything special on it.

Pork belly with spicy sandia

The pork belly came in layers of various things. There was some very spicy vegetable on top and some slightly spicy watermelon on the bottom. It was an interesting combination, but by this point I had tried so many different flavors I couldn't tell what went well together and what did not. I have never tried pork belly before. I thought it tasted like it was fried and crispy, but it had a thick gummy layer of fat. I didn't enjoy the thick layer of fat - it was very chewy, and made the whole slice very rubbery.

Patatas bravas

The potatoes were pretty normal compared to the rest of the dishes. They did have an odd sauce on them, which had a taste I can't place and didn't like.