One New Thing: Mofongo

Kristin got a Groupon a while back for Alberto's Mofongo House, which has since changed it's name (probably due to all the bad reviews I just read on Yelp).  She asked me if I wanted to go. "Sure!" I said, excited to try a new thing. The next night I heard her inviting Ben to go. "Ok," he said. It went on and on like this for months, her asking one of us and then the other. Pitting us against each other. Well it seems I won out in the end, probably because Ben got tired of her antics. I, however, will never turn down a chance at free food.

Inspecting the Tiki Mofongo God

So today we went on a great adventure all the way up to Inwood! I've never been north of Columbia's north campus when visiting with Kristin. In fact, I thought that was as far north as you could go in Manhattan. Inwood seemed like a nice area. Cute little restaurants and a park (I think that's where The Cloisters are, which will make it into the blog one day).

Getting into the restaurant was also an adventure. We tried the door, but it was locked. So we went to another door, one under a sign with a different name, that led into a buffet area. The waitress heard we had a Groupon and escorted us a back way into a fancy dining area. We were the only people there -- the whole time, which was about two hours of prime lunch time. What does it mean when a restaurant in one of the most populous cities in the world has no people?

First the waitress brought us out little sampler piña coladas. Delicioso! Then we ordered our appetizer of crab cakes. This was a seafood restaurant so things I could/would eat were limited. Thank goodness they had crab cakes.  Crab cakes are a-o-k. But they didn't have them. So we ordered another thing. They didn't have that. Finally Kristin ordered lobster empanadas and they were in stock. I didn't partake.

Mofongo and Pork

Then our main entrees arrived: Tilapia and fried pork mofongo. The tilapia was pretty good. Worth the price without the Groupon good? Probably not. The mofongo was pretty tasteless. What is mofongo you may ask? Smashed up plantains. The pork was mostly fat and fried too much.

I don't think we'll be returning for another round of dining, but we'll definitely have to go back and check out some other Inwood restaurants. And I must add the food presentation was quite exciting. So that's something!

- Megan Leigh

Tilapia

Do some people like deep fried pork? Do you think that the pork was supposed to be big chunks of fat? I'm trying to figure it out. Did we get the worst pork ever, or does somebody actually want to eat that kind of stuff?

Anyway, I agree with Megan. I think they really messed up the mofongo, because instead of mashing the meat and everything up in it (which is the whole point of mofongo), the meat came on the side. I guess it turned out to be a good thing, since it was all yucky fat, but it still made for disappointing mofongo. Also, the sauce was on the side and it was kind of thin, so that also made for bland mofongo! Two thumbs down on the mofongo.

-Kristin