Bistro Latino

Everyone should try this place!  We will be back often.

We went on a weeknight, not too crowded, but still lively.  The bar had a few patrons, we were seated immediately.  We were seated with the full wine (bottle) list and informed that bottles were half price that evening.   Its a long list, well worth a look at, but we opted for "by the glass" anyway.  

We had six tapas plates - I remember 5 of them below (with help of their on-line menu), I think the 6th must have been a special that night as its not on the menu.  It was another meat dish.  We shared each plate so everyone had a taste of all.  While we reviewed the entree menu, we opted for the smaller tapas to have more of a "tasting menu" type thing.  

Albondigas de Cordero - lamb meatballs with traditional romesco sauce topped with whipped ricotta cheese

Pechuga de Pato al Sarten - seared Hudson valley magret duck breast over sweet potato cinnamon puree drizzled with chocolate balsamic vinaigrette

Corderito al Guiso - braised baby veal shank, with root vegetables & port wine reduction

Croquetas de Cangrejo - blue crab croquettes with whole grain mustard aioli

Atun al Sarten - seared Hawaiian yellow fin tuna with roasted fingerling potatoes and saffron aioli

Our first out were the Crab croquettes and the tuna, but our tuna was more of a tuna tartare than the description makes it sound.  However, it was terrific.  The croquettes were also terrific.  

Next up were the meatballs and the duck breast.  All I can say is we were licking the plates.  

Last up were the veal and ??.  Again, we licked the plates.  

We did not have a dessert, coffee or anything else, we were very satisfied by the plates.

Our service was good, very knowledgeable about the menu, also knew the wines.  We really enjoyed our experience here and will be back when in the area again.  

Parking here is in a Private lot and plentiful.

Great food, friendly service. I love the hummus & flat bread they give you for a starter. Everything I tried was very good. I would definitely recommend this restaurant & can't wait to go back and eat here again.

What a disaster.  I'm going back about three months on this review.  We dined on a slow Tuesday night.  No valet (good - the valet is very cumbersome) and no crowd.

My dining partner and I walked into hoping to sit at the bar - unfortunately our senses were overcome by the lingering smell of stale beer - clearly cleanliness in the bar room is not a priority.  We were then lead to the dining room which is a major improvement over the former Greenwich Tavern.  This was the only positive note.

A server approached us and asked for a drink order - we requested one minute to look at the list. Which became 5, and 10 minutes.  He had disappeared.  Oh well - we flagged someone down walking out of the near by bar room and they took care of us.  After continuing to wait for another 10 minutes a new server approached explaining the first server had been sent home and he noticed that we looked ready to order.  Thank You.

We decided to order some small plates - Gambas al Ajillo, lamb chops, scallops, osso bucco, some tuna dish(don't remember any details), fried calamari and a braised short rib entree to finish.

The shrimp came out terrible.  5 tiny, mushy shrimp sitting in oil barely at room temperature.  No flavor, gross consistency - no thank you.  Next came the scallops - cooked just right but with no real flavor besides that of a plain pan seared sea scallop.  Alright - not a great start.  Let's see how the rest goes.  Or do we?

We then proceed to wait 10 minutes for the next set of dishes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, we finally get to 35 minutes and we are now the only ones in the restaurant.  The bartenders are breaking down the bar and bus boys are sweeping the floor around us.  We never got the rest of the food and we had no waiter to check in on us.  After flagging down the manager who was happily eating his food on a near by booth we requested everything to be canceled.

I'm pretty sure nothing else was ever put in the computer because our adjusted check was ready without the manager even checking the computer.

This experience mixed with an argument with the valet outside on a previous attempted visit has earned this restaurant a firm 1-star rating in my book.  NEXT!