The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

[Show as slideshow]

Last week we checked out a new restaurant in Alphabet City - Matilda, which opened a couple weeks ago. The space is smallish, but fun - a little rustic and a little modern, but a successful blend. The food is a mix of Italian and Mexican, in some dishes it seems to be a true fusion of the two cusines, other stick more closely to one or the other. The service was good, the waiter was around when we needed him, and left us alone to talk at the end of the meal.

We had the Burrata Con Pomodornini , Tacos with filet mignon, Al Chorizo Panini and La Cucaracha, skipping all of the main courses and pastas entirely. I would rather order a little creatively and get to taste more things and go out more often then feel the need to actually order main courses every time.

The burrata came with oven roasted cherry tomatoes, and for all I am very excited about how common burrata is becoming in NY, I do not think this was one of the more successful incarnations of it. It was a very generous helping, but the burrata was cold - straight out of the fridge cold, which deadened both the lovely milky flavor, but also the texture, which was more like butter then cheese. The tomatoes were hot - straight out of the oven hot, which was helpful when I dumped them on top of the burrata to try and warm it up. And when that worked and the cheese became a little melty and warm, it was good. The tomatoes themselves were good, but very acidic, they begged for something a little sweet to balance them out - which the cheese should have done, if it had been warmer. It was close to being successful, but didn’t really work for me.

The tacos had some rucola and some shavings of a hard cheese with them, and came with a fair dollop of guacamole on the side. The meat was good, and the hard cheese was a really interesting addition, but the taco as a whole really shone with the guacamole was on it - it was far to dry without it. A very nice dish, and I think the best example of the fusion at work.

The Panini was very tasty, although it did not really look so at first - the bread looked burnt and very hard. But the chorizo was complimented nicely by the tomato jam on it, a great sweet foil to the spiciness of the chorizo. There was a salad with some jicama on the side, which again was a nice sweet note, especially with the spiciness of the other dish we had. Except for the side salad needing some sort of a dressing, it was a very successful dish.

The Cucraracha was lighting cooked, very spicy mixed vegetables - carrots and cauliflower and jimaca . They actaully reminded me of pickled vegetables - which I really like, except these were very spicy, which we had been warned of by our waiter. Had we gotten these as a side with some main courses, I think they would have been excellent, but they were so spicy, esp. with the chorizo sandwich, it was a little much for me.

Thy do not have a very extensive dessert list - one special and ice cream and sorbet. The special the night were were there was a cake with jalepnos in it, which sounded interesting, but my mouth was so much on fire I went with the orange panna cotta ice cream. It tasted like orange Smarties! (British Smarties, the ones like M&M’s) In a very good way, and the ice cream itself was very creamy and thick.

I like Matilda, it had a nice feel and an interesting menu. If it were closer by, I think I would check it out again, but there are so many restaurants to try, I am not sure we will head over again.

B