Last week, a friend of mine from college was in town visiting and organized a group dinner to East Broadway, which is, wonder of wonders, on East Broadway (at the edge of Chinatown). I trucked on over there on Friday evening, exhausted from a long week of work (and a Thursday night of tequila…) and met up with about 7 other people. 
Naturally, we started with drinks. I will tell you time and again, I love tequila. It’s an upper (at least for me it is) and I never feel quite as disgusting after drinking it as any other alcohol. I ordered the “World Peace” which had tequila, pureed snap peas, and something else sweet that I can’t quite recall (memory loss is a side effect). It was green, smooth, and delicious – rimmed with a little salt to counteract the sweetness.
We all decided to order appetizers as well as main meals. After debating over the “Scared Quail” (this was actually “Seared Quail” but mis-read for a while which led to some questions on if they actually scared the quail to death), I decided to try the Sweetbreads. I have never had sweetbreads before, but I decided to be a bit adventurous (after all, I do write a food blog). They were surprisingly good, and tasted slightly like fried chicken nuggets. But a little gamier. I thought they were delicious and everyone who sampled them agreed. But really, anything that is fried cannot be that bad. Maybe bad FOR you, but honestly, delicious.
For the main meal, I opted for the mussels in a parsley butter sauce. When everyone’s food came out (steaks, burgers, etc.) they looked small, measly, barely enough to survive upon. My bowl of mussels was HUGE and the mussels themselves were HUGE as well. They came with french fries, which were unfortunately brittle, and hard enough to crack a tooth on. I didn’t realize that was even possible with french fries, but I was proven wrong. The mussels themselves were good, but I wasn’t a fan of the sauce. I wanted butter, but it tasted like beer, and mix that in with my tequila drink and I wasn’t exactly pleased with the combination. I also found my stomach hurting more and more as the meal went on – whether that was due to the mussels or something I had eaten earlier, I’m not sure, but it certainly tainted the meal for me.
All in all, the restaurant is beautiful. It is a nicely lit setting, with intimate tables, and not too loud. The clientele while we were there were a bit on the older side, which was interesting. The drinks were definitely the highlight of the meal.
Pats of Butter: 2.5/5
Tags: Butter
