Here’s the thing about Milonga Wine & Tapas. It really should be called Milonga Wine, Tapas and Italian.
Because the place is not only a tapas bar or a wine bar. In fact, it’s not even only a Spanish restaurant. It’s a restaurant with a bit of an idenitity crisis.
In the main restaurant, there are white tablecloths, a mainly Italian menu with big portions of pastas and proteins, and an outdoor patio.
In the bar and lounge, it’s very dark: almost clubby. The bar is black, and so is the ceiling. The seats are red, and so are the walls. There are globe lights hanging from above the bar, and flat-screen TVs.
But as long as you’re firm in your convictions about what you want, you’ll be fine. In fact, you’ll probably eat quite well at Milonga. I know we did. It just wasn’t exactly where we wanted to eat. More on that, after the jump. But first, a photo of an absolutely beautifully balanced shot of ceviche:
So I went with a few friends after work. It was the Thursday before July 4th weekend and the weather was (finally) fantastic. We were hoping to sit outside on the patio.
As you can see, no one was dining outside. When we asked if we could sit outside, we were told yes, but only if you’re ordering off the dinner menu. That is the same as if you are dining in the dining room:
On a gorgeous summer day, where would you rather be? On that patio? Or here:
Where the crowd is cacophonous and their noise bounces off every hard surface in the room.
We asked why we weren’t allowed to do tapas on the patio, and we were told it was because it wasn’t profitable. People lingering over a couple of tapas won’t bring the check total high enough.
So that’s the bad news. It’s too bad it kind of marred our visit, because the food was very, very good indeed. The tortilla Espanola ($4) was the only dish that wasn’t out of the park. It was good, but when everything else is great, well….
The octopus, on the other hand, was a knockout. Pulpo a la Brasa ($8): Octopus with olive oil, tomatoes and gaeta olives.
Great texture on the octopus. And the sweet octopus with the briny olives worked great.
And this dish was a revelation. Chorizo and figs ($5):
This can sometimes be a big mistake. Not enough balance. Either it’s too sweet or twoo much spicy meat. This was just perfect.
And then the ceviche. It was a special, so I don’t remember the price. But it was terrific.
Tender, sweet, spicy, juicy… my mouth is watering!
So I will definitely give the dinner side of Milonga a try. That menu has a mostly Italian slant (rigatoni Milonga, Fettucini Bolognese), and it does have some tapas on the appetizer list (chorizo and figs, for example), but not many (baked eggplant rollatini, clams oreganata, grilled Italian sausage).
And the last item on the menu? Paella ($29) with shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, sausage, chicken and lobster. Mmm. If it’s anything like that ceviche….
Click here for a PDF of the regular menu at Milonga.
Click here for at PDF of page 2 of the regular menu at Milonga.
Click here for a PDF of the tapas menu at Milonga.
3 Comments
“People lingering over a couple of tapas won’t bring the check total high enough.”
That’s the most absurd reasoning I’ve heard from a restaurant in a long, long time. Was the patio teeming with patrons later on? Did you end up with a higher check total inside, and did they force you to stand near the bar rather than waste a table that could be taken by “real” dinner guests?
I never like being treated as a 2nd class citizen at any dining establishment. If the food weren’t described so intriguingly, I would automatically take a pass on Milonga.
I had the same disappointing experience a week or so earlier. We elected to sit outside on a beautiful evening, even though we came hoping for tapas and Spanish food. What we wanted wasn’t offered on the patio, which was reasonably full, but not overflowing. The Italian food was good, but not extraordinary by any means. In short, just one more in the glut of Westchester Italain restaurants. Too bad.
I had been warned that there would be no tapas in the dining room or outside, so I wasn’t disappointed. They could easily rectify the problem by imposing a minimum at each table.
I found the food to be excellent, but the kitchen was rather inflexible. I was going to order the shrimp dish, but they would not serve it with rice, only with mashed potatoes. This place has the attitude “its my way or the highway”, which is going to lose them a lot of business.
The other problem with the place is that the wait staff hovers. If you put your fork down, they have their hands on your plate ready to whisk it away.
They also need to do something about their selection of wines by the glass. Their chardonnay was terrible – almost not drinkable. If you have your heart set on a chard, better look at buying a bottle.
I had a veal cutlet breaded in cheese in a lemon butter sauce which was excellent. My friend had a skirt steak that was also excellent. But because of the inflexibility and the constant contact with the staff, I won’t hurry back.