El Born
| Cuisine | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Price | $$$ (31-50) |
| Rating | 5/10 |
| Last Visit | June 23, 2019 |
| Location | New York: Brooklyn |
General Notes
A Spanish tapas restaurant situated just north of Williamsburg. El Born, the name of the restaurant, is also a district in Barcelona, which is apparently famous for its fashion, art, and nightlife. The food here is solid, and I had a good experience here. I would recommend giving this place a try if you're looking for a relatively traditional Spanish restaurant that is reasonably priced.
Positives
> The food here is pretty reasonably priced, at least based off of the few items that I ordered ($7 for the braves el born, and $19 for the seafood paella). They also offer specials: "bottomless brunch" for two for $54, with which you can order 4 tapas + paella or 4 tapas + 2 brunch entrees. Similarly, they offer a $45 fixed-prix chef's menu for dinner.
> The interior is nice, and they also offer outdoor seating in the back! This is also a good option for large parties - they have several large tables/bars. At least when I came here for brunch, it wasn't super crowded.
Negatives
> The brunch tapas are somewhat limited, especially compared to their dinner menu. Realistically though, unless you come with a fairly large party you probably won't run out of things that you'd want to order.
> I didn't have the best experience with the service, which was pretty slow and a bit curt.
Dishes Tasted
- ★★☆☆ Paella de peix -- Tomato, ‘ñora pepper’, saffron, squid ink sofrito, calamari and seafood selection of the day. Definitely an unusual paella, and I'm not a big fan of the squid ink sofrito, which burned at the bottom and created an unpleasantly burnt socarrat. That being said, the seafood was cooked beautifully, and overall the flavor was good.
- ★★★☆ Braves el Born -- Potatoes, brava sauce, allioli, spicy olive oil. The flavor of the sauces were excellent, and the texture of the potato was nice and soft on the inside, with some crispiness on the outside. I would have liked to see a bit more of the flavor bomb that is the brava sauce and a touch less of the creamy allioli.
Paella de peix
