Yesterday evening I went out to have dinner with a close friend to exchange holiday gifts, catch up and gossip. Dinner was at this sort of hidden gem of a wine bar in Hells Kitchen called Kashkaval (56th and 9th). On the outside Kashkaval looks like a gourmet cheese shop. In fact – just the other week I had walked by it and thought it was just that. However, tucked in the back is an intimate wine bar. Surprise, surprise!
Kashkaval
Running a few minutes late I didn’t know how long the actual wait was but from what I heard from my friend – it wasn’t too bad. The backroom was dark, candle-lit and very intimate. Need a good place for a date? I recommend this place. A warning though, the backroom is tiny so be prepared to occasionally knock elbows with fellow foodies.
The short wine list favors inexpensive vintages – primarily from California and South America. My friend and I enjoyed a wonderful bottle of Malbec (my favorite). The menu is heavy on the tapas, which I found out later while looking around is one of their most popular orders. Don’t worry about the prices on the menu. The dishes are all reasonably priced and affordable. – the I think the most expensive dish is $15. Anyway on to what I ate because that’s the most important part, right? I ordered chicken kabab with orzo. Sorry folks, no picture of the dish … but let me say that it was beautiful. Along with the kabab and orzo was a delicious salad containing olives, spinach, amazing vinaigrette and a bunch of other goodies that I don’t remember. Ha. The chicken was a bit dry unfortunately. Although I was pleased with having two sticks of meat, I was a little disappointed on how dry it was. The orzo was my favorite part of the dish next to the salad. It was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. I kind of wish I had ordered from the tapas side of the menu. Looking around at the other tables, the tapas looked amazing. My friend ordered the feta and spinach borek. While she enjoyed the dish, she exclaimed that the borek had too much breading and took away from the spinach and feta. For desert, my friend and I shared chocolate fondue. I definitely recommend this because it’s perfect. We dipped slices of apples, bananas, strawberries and tiny marshmallows into the chocolate sauce. My inner fatty wished the marshmallows were the normal size.
The wait staff at Kashkaval is a young attractive crew. They were incredibly attentive. While making sure our meal was good they would be lip syncing to the soft music playing in the background or playfully dancing with each other. Oh, by the way, the music they were playing somewhat bothered me. It wasn’t the type of music that annoyed me – what got to me was that they were playing music … FROM THE RADIO. I didn’t know places still do that. Another thing that got to me was that when my friend and I were finishing up – they were trying to get us out. Maybe it’s because we had a two hour dinner or maybe it’s because there was a line of people waiting to be sit … but regardless, don’t hurry me out of my seat.
Besides the minor faults, my overall experience at Kashkaval was positive and I would definitely come back sans tequila shots.
Bread’s Rating (out of five slices of bread): 3
Tags: Bread
March 8, 2010 at 11:32 am |
[...] kabab with orzo and a bottle of red wine. If you don’t remember my review, check it out here. Recently a close and very reliable source told me that there were roaches in the food. Kashkaval [...]