Food: ☆☆☆ ¾

Service: ☆☆☆

Ambiance: ☆☆☆☆

Cost: $$$

Must try: Grilled Maitake Mushrooms, Raw Shaved Fluke, Guacamole with Grapefruit Salsa

 ABC Cocina is Jean-Georges Vongerichten and executive chef Dan Kluger’s endeavor at inventive, Latin inspired, tapas style fare.

Housed within the stunning ABC Carpet & Home Store, this hot spot is fashioned in abcmkt’s eclectic style – an aesthetic I love (of course everything is available for purchase on the shop floor).

The menu consists of seven sections with choices that range from a “Raw Bar” to “Light and Bright” to “Wood Burning Grill” and more.

The cuisine is based on flavors from Latin America and Spain and is for most part executed rather well. Dishes that blew me away were the “Raw Shaved Fluke with Green Chili Dressing” and the “Grilled Maitake Mushrooms”. Other such as the “Fish Taco” felt lacking in clean flavors and brightness as is was unnecessarily doused with some kind of creamy heavy Russian type dressing. The “Short Rib Tacos” though are a clear winner!

Service was very pleasant but uneven. We were kept waiting for fairly long spells between certain dishes.

I didn’t fall in love with ABC Cocina the way that I did with ABC Kitchen….but the small plate fare piqued my interest enough to make warrant several revisits.

 

Here is some of what we ate:

 

Guacamole with Grapefruit Salsa

  

 

Raw Shaved Fluke 

 

Shrimp with Sizzling Garlic and Chili Oil

 

Short Rib Taco

 

Fish Taco

 

 

Grilled Maitake Mushrooms

 

 

Salted Caramel ‘Impossible’ Flan

 

Soft And Crunchy Almond Cake