65 Second Avenue (b/w East 3rd & East 4th Streets)
New York, NY 10003
www.barpaya.com
Overall Rating from the Diners of NY's Food Favorites
(Ratings are Lowest -1 to Highest -5):
Food: 2.5
Decor: 3
Service: 2
Overall: 2.5Last Friday, myself and ten other "NYFF" contributors set out for a Tapas dinner as part of our bi-monthly outing. This month we voted based on all of our Tapas favorites and decided to visit Bar Paya.
Bar Paya is not your typical Tapas which originates from sampling/sharing small plates amongst groups of people, usually with Spanish cuisine. Bar Paya actually serves small plates based with a Peruvian theme which definitely makes it very authentic and definitely aided in why it was chosen for our outing. We were all quite excited to try this cuisine since it's not in the usual rolodex of NYC restaurant fare with some of the "more-generic" offerings.
THE FOOD:
The menu splits it's options into Mesa (Starters), Ceviche, Tiradito (Raw Fish), Causa (Covered Yellow Potatoes), Paya (Stew) and Plato/Plancha. At a table of 11, it's safe to say we tried many things. Amongst myself and three other people, we shared the:
- Yuca Fries - Yuca is normally not very flavorful but it was served with three different pureed dipping sauces that complimented it well
- Quinoa Salad -Looked/Tasted more like a baby couscous salad, it happened to be very flavorful and left us wanting more, even though they were small plates
- Cacoa Braised Beef Causa - Probably my favorite dish on the menu simply because of the flavor. You could tell that it was braised and left stewing in it's juices until perfectly ready for serving
- Barbequed Duck Causa - Very flavorful for duck, tasted like it was pulled which gave it more texture on top of the creamy yellow potatoes
- Lobster & Shrimp Ceviche - First time having a ceviche, felt it was good but not special
- Shrimp Aticucho Skewers - The aji amarillo gave flavor to an otherwise regular serving of shrimp on kebab skewers
Some of the other attendees had tried some other various dishes:
- Lobster & Shrimp Guacamole - "I personally like my guac to be chunky with a ton of cilantro. This wasn't, so i didn't think it was that great. however, the plantain chips were really good." - Paul S.
- - "Loved the lobster-shrimp guac... - more cilantro could have been good." - Nora S.
- Beef Hearts Skewers - "The beef hearts were friggin' amazing. Tasted like beef tongue and was as soft as filet mignon. Really loved the marinade also." - Paul S.
- Skirt Steak Skewers - "...perfectly tender and well marinated"- Kantro
THE SERVICE:
While the food happened to be above-par compared with other restaurants in the city, unfortunately Bar Paya failed to deliver on the timeliness of their fare.
With 11 people, we felt it would be easiest at a Tapas restaurant to order separate checks - split into 4:4:3, making it easy to know how much one can owe without having 11 people trying to figure it out on one bill. Unfortunately the restaurant, while trying to accommodate our request, had created a miscommunication with their kitchen and servers. This led to mismanaged wait times for food and disorganization regarding the accuracy of our orders. While one group of people at our table might have received a dish or two they had ordered, another part of the table failed to even get their bottle of wine after waiting 15-20 minutes. Due to this disorganization the dinner took almost three hours from start to finish.
Luckily, Mark (Owner) was able to take care of this and expressed his sincere apologies for the experience as a whole. He took 50% off all of our bills and promised to personally take care of our next outing if we choose to go there again. Many restaurants make you feel that you should be "honored" to be in their restaurant but it's nice to know that the customer service at Bar Paya was managed courteously and professionally since it's hard to always be perfect in all aspects of a restaurant's business.
THE OVERALL:
We were left feeling less than satisfied regarding our experience just because the food that we did have happened to be rather good and unique. Although many of us aren't Peruvian food connoisseurs, we did feel that the food being served was authentic and stood out. We probably won't come back as an 11 person group but I think most of us agreed it would be nice to go back with a smaller amount of people.
Next up will be our outing for BBQ food coming in December
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