My Mesa Grill Dinner
So, I've heard from my share of Bobby Flay haters saying that he's an over-hyped celebrity chef, but I don't care. I went to Mesa Grill last night and had an incredible meal and I'd recommend the place to anyone. Forget the haters, here's my lowdown of the meal.
The complimentary bread was actually mad good, especially this spicy, jalepeno corn muffin type thing.
As an entree, I order the New Mexican Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin which was amazing!! It was so juicy, and succulent and flavorful, it really was a tender loin, it was the best piece of pork I ever had. Very spicy too, which I like, marinated in what I believe was a Bourbon Ancho-Chili Sauce. It came with a sweet potato tamale which was amazing. It tasted like ultra sweet corn bread, with corn kernels in it, and had crushed pecan butter. Amazing, I couldn't get enough.
For dessert, we shared this spicy chocolate ice cream sandwich with caramel and this spicy, hot fudge sauce with an orange kick. Very flavorful, the chocolate ice cream was quite rich as well. However, I wished the cookie part of the ice cream sandwich had been richer and thicker, but it was very good nonetheless. The waiter was very friendly and recommended this dessert to us.
Overall, great meal and I can't wait to go back.
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I went there tonight. The food was good, my starter was barbequed pork and main dish salmon..that was very good. My husband had the tuna tartare and liked that, his main dish was chicken and he was not impressed. My glass of wine at the bar was 14 dollars, and the tables are very close to each other...that is a put off for me. The place was full, and we got the impression we were hurried by the waiters.. while we were finishing our bottle of wine. I am a big fan of Bobby Flay and his food has flavour!
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re: madsen
food is good ..... but for the price, the ambiance and service are both sub-par .... waiters are clueless (for this level of restaurant you would and should expect well-trained waiters) ..... also the tables are literally a foot apart at best ...... for this price range, i would rather go to batali's or jean georges restaurants .....
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The Chowhound Team
Oct 30, 2007 11:50 AM
A post about Mesa Grill in the Bahamas was moved to the Caribbean board:
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Went to Mesa grill for dinner last night, it was just ok. My pork tenderloin was cooked really nice but the tamale that came with it was a sweet mushy mess. I had a chopped salad to start with, nothing special, it was kind of weird with the balsamic dressing, chopped romaine, chick peas, beans and cheese and a random kernel of corn. My boyfriend had the squash blossoms, the blue corn pancake with duck and shrimp tamales, all of which sounded better on the menu than it tasted, nothing special. The service was horrible, the waiter took our drink orders and gave us our drinks and then took 1 of our dinner orders (there was 4 of us) but disappeared after that for over 20 minutes. My friend spilled a glass of water on my boyfriend and no one came over to help us, even though one of the waiters saw it happen, I had to steal napkins from the nearby tables. Later, our waiter also spilled my water, it didn't get on me but I had to use my napkin to soak up the water and he never replaced my napkin. Lastly, he also gave us the wrong bill and only realized after we gave him our credit cards for the 1st bill. The second bill was $100 more than the 1st one. Overall, if it wasn't for the pork tenderloin, it would've been the worst dining experience I've had in a fine dining restaurant in NYC.
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re: lanadai
foodieforthought
Aug 14, 2007 07:00 AM
I also had a good experience at Mesa, it was my first attempt at Flay's cooking (pretty damn good). I just wish the space itself was more appealing (I was seated in the upper deck squished against a wall), but I would go back nonetheless.
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guttergourmet
Aug 12, 2007 06:13 AM
Mrs. GG dragged me in the other day for lunch-one of her old favorites. I always want to go somewhere new. But I'm glad she did. The duck in blue corn tacos, the fried zucchini blossoms, raw tuna nachos and pork quesadillas were (classically) great. Rogue ancho chili ale was interesting too.
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re: seanp
I would give it thumbs up, though a bit overpriced, but he is a celebrity.
Has anyone had the raw tuna nachos? The tuna was fresh, but was lost when eaten with the nachos. I felt the texture of the cubed tuna was an odd match with the chips. The sauces were spread beneath the tuna and were difficult to get onto the chip but now I realize I probably should have mixed up all the tuna and sauces together (they were neatly presented individually) to season and sauce all the tuna and then ate with the chips.
For the overall meal the sauces, ingredients and execution were impressive. It seemed like everything had a tastey, thoughtful sauce. The place kinda felt weird though.
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Went the other night based on skooldya1's suggestion. It was really good. We ordered the Crispy Squash Blossoms appetizer and loved it. Also, ordered the Pork Tenderloins and they were deleicious. My husband ordered steak and wasn't thrilled but overall we had a great meal. Oh and the corn muffins were out of this world. Thanks for the review!
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I totally agree about Mesa Grill!! I love Flay's food so much and I've lived in NYC for 10 years. Other natives always act like I'm a suburban idiot when I say how much I love his food and I can't figure out why someone like Batali or Danny Meyer has a cool rep, but Flay doesn't. I agree with everyone who's been to Bar Americain, which is also incredible. I recommend the sampler of crab and lobster cocktail salads and the homemade potato chips with blue cheese.
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I love Mesa Grill and have a lot of respect for what Bobby Flay produces. Forget the TV image. Recently tried Bolo and that was fantastic. Shared a bunch of appetizers and split one entree with a friend and everything was so definite and tasty. If you want to talk about TV chefs, I don't understand what the fuss is about Mario Batali. I've eaten at three of his restaurants, the food is pricey and uneven and the flavors rather pedestrian even though he goes on and on about it TV. I am never satisfied when I hit the Batali joints, Bobby Flay joints never fail to deliver in my humble opinion.
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