Cuerno Hits Midtown

March 26, 2009

This hip new(er) spot from the U Restaurant Group in Midtown was packed on Saturday night when we arrived with our party of 8. The neighbors in the condos above were out on their balconies having cocktails, complaining of the building wide smoke alarm that the restaurant, Cuerno, had set off - one of many times this has happened we were told. But for those of us crammed into this tiny restaurant, we were grateful there was no fire as we would have had a hard time getting out of our chairs.

The space is very nice - complete with an anatomically correct large metal bull sculpture and some big-ass chandeliers. As we looked around the place, the staff was hard at work gathering extra chairs from some undisclosed location in order to convert our 5-top into an 8-top. Good thing we like each other and do not mind touching strangers because we were all packed in there real tight.

We ordered two pitchers of Sangria which was very tasty and the fruit in the Sangria could put you on the floor. We got a variety of tapas items which included tuna tartar, hot peppers, potatoes, mussels, a beet salad, and an “Americana Paella.” The best items were the tuna tartar and the beet salad -oh, and the Paella. The rest of the food can be summed up in one word - okay. The potatoes were yawn yourself to death boring and I know they are just potatoes, but the sauce was lame and there was nothing tasty about them. The mussels were nice, but really just okay. It was all just okay.

The crowd was a great eclectic mix of sexy people, tourists, and locals. The service was not bad at all considering they had to practically jump over people to get to each table and the price was very reasonable. It was an enjoyable evening out with friends - but I can think of better places to go get tapas next time.

Frank and Ashley get close at Cuerno.