El Quijote: A Review

OK, it's been a while, but I'm imbued with a serious feeling of purpose right now, so I'm gonna get right down to it:

El Quijote - Now, if you were new to town, or didn't know of other places, you'd see El Quijote, right there next to the Hotel Chelsea and think, "man, real Spanish cuisine. Right here." Well, before you go rushing off, let me just break it down a bit for ya.

Now, the interior of El Quijote is pretty impressive. Very tastefully done, it's not kitschy or too overly done; the bar is top notch, carrying every liquor I've ever seen--and quite a few I wish I'd had at my disposal as a bartender, lo those years ago--and I'm sure the service is quite good (but I don't know, as I only looked at it through the glass from the dining room).

The wait staff were dressed in their best red outfits, although they did, to me at least, look more like bellhops from next door than garcons at the restaurant itself. They were attentive and quickly delivered our menus, which were extensive. Overall, the wait staff were excellent and deserved the tip that we gave them.

Nowe here's my first nit: if you run a Spanish cuisine restaurant, what, pray tell, is the 1st dish anyone is likely to look for? The pescado valenciana en adobo? No. Paella. And it took me almost 2 minutees of looking at the menu to find it. And that's not just to say that the menu is large and extensive; it is, but come on, arrange it in a way that a layman can pick from it.

Anyway, we ordered a pitcher of red sangria right off the bat: no need waiting around, plus sangria lossens the palette for food. Now, there are reviews out there that El Quijote's sangria is the best in the city, but I beg to differ. It was good, but I'm not gonna rave about it (I actually had better last night, but more on that in a minute). It didn't have much fruit in it at all which, while not the hallmark of a great sangria, at least shows some care went into making it.

Onto the food. I ordered the paella valenciana con arragosta and my fellow diner ordered the fish in a tomato sauce. It took quite a while for our food to arrive--our sangria almost ran out before the food arrived, and not because we were guzzling it--but once it did, well, read on.

I've had paella before and, much to my continual letdown, it hasn't been as good as the valenciana that a friend of mine made me years ago (Kristi, my little Valencian friend, where are you? And why, oh why, didn't I get you to give me your paella recipe?), but I guess that's to be expected when a Valencian chef cooks you a Valencian dish. El Quijote's paella was huge, for a Manhattan restaurant, which I didn't expect at all. So, score one for them. And it wasn't a choice little selection of seafood bits with a lot of rice, either: a lobster tail and a large claw, a few oysters, mussels and littleneck clams rounded out with a hunk of chicken and modest vegetables was what was in the pot (and the fact that I got my paella in a pot was pretty impressive, too). So, color me psyched when the waiter started serving it out. And they put in saffron, as I got a whiff of it as the paella made its way onto my plate. So, I pull out my fork and get ready, completely ignoring the whole fish that they've served my friend across the table. More on that in a minute.

I take a bite of the paella and the letdown hits: everything, including the rice, is overcooked. Dry. Damn. Now, I'm no connesieur of food, but I did however learn through my travels, especially in Italy, that no dish should ever be overcooked. Dry food seems to be a peculiarly American invention, although I think that we Americans may have learned about how to overcook food from the British, but I can't prove that. In any event, as a fan of risotto (as well as many other rice dishes :), overcooked rice really depresses me. I actually thought of sending it back, but couldn't think of anything on the menu that I would have actually tried in place of my order, especially if it was overcooked. So, I drank some more sangria and that made things a bit better, although I'm not sure if that's because it made my mouth wetter or if I just started to get shit faced.

I looked over, to give my friend a bit of my paella and see how his food was. He was astounded by the amount of food he'd been given: an entire fish fillet, bones removed and all. I dropped some paella on the edge of his plate--the lobster was passable, so I gave him some, so he'd have the better part of the dish to taste--and he proceeded to cut off a hunk of his fish and put it on my plate. And the fish was actually very tasty. The tomato-based sauce was neither too thick or too watery and had just the right amount of spice, including a little paprika, which I found a nice surprise. Too few people use paprika, let alone use it correctly, in their cooking. And that's too bad.

We continued eating for a few more minutes and I asked for my paella to get wrapped up. That happened rapidamente, so we cut out. I gave my paella to a homeless guy I ran into a bit further downtown. Hopefully he didn't find it too dry or overdone. Overall, I'd give El Quijote a 2.5 out of 5, mostly because it seemed so hit-and-miss in its food offerings. I'd go to Malaga over it anytime.