After the Supper Club's Hudson Sky Terrace party last night, champagne and ri-fueled cocktails left us very, very hungry. What to do when ravenous around 10:30pm? We headed to La Palapa, an old favorite of mine. Dinner is served until midnight every night of the week - and going on the slightly later side will help shield you from the throngs of people all in on the La Palapa secret (that it's the best Mexican spot in town). Though we'd been drinking all night, a watermelon margarita proved to be irresistible.
I grabbed this pic from the website, but we had everything on it. The guacamole is incredibly creamy. And the salsa incredibly fresh. Waiters will also bring three other types of salsas to augment any dish. One is spicy beyond belief, another smokey and the third is a green salsa that's both cool and piquant. The salsas were ideal paired with our appetizer, the setas a la diabla - my all time favorite. The dish is comprised of a large portion of chile-stewed portobello mushrooms and comes with a basket of corn tortillas with which one can make numerous mushroom tacos. Add some of the smokey salsa.... Bliss!
We also had the camarones con mole rojo (pictured) and a side of platanos. We cleaned both plates. The red mole was outstanding.. even the rice and beans are made to perfection. Ditto goes for the fried sweet plantains. Sure, we can never get enough plantains but it's hard to cook them well - not a problem at La Palapa.
Surveying the room on the late Tuesday night, I noticed that everyone seemed very happy in the world of La Palapa. Perhaps it's something about the architecture of the restaurant - meant to mirror a Mexican palapa, a beachside, palm-thatched hut. In Mexico, it's shelter from an often oppressive sun; in Manhattan, La Palapa proves itself everytime as an oasis from the hustle and bustle of city life.
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