I had plans to catch up with Strawberry last night. For some reason, I was craving that garlicky, saltiness that tapas often offers so I suggested we hit up a tapas restaurant if possible. She was down so I suggested El Quinto Pino – I have heard about their legendary uni pannino and have always wanted to try it given that I am such an uni whore.
We met around 7pm and was happy to see that the restaurant was not that full and Strawberry had already scored seats in the back. The space is small and waits for a stool can be long. We sat down and each had a glass of red wine while we waited for our tapas.
We ordered the deep fried local blue fish:
The little nuggets of fish were breaded and deep fried. We squirted the lemon all over the fish. No sauce to accompany which is fine because the fish nuggets were full of flavor. I don’t know if it was the lemon but I found the fish had an extremely sour taste. Strawberry really liked them but I thought they were just ok. Blue fish is a dark meat fish I believe and I prefer deep fried cod or some other fish that is flaky and white.
We also got the fideos with seafood:
I love fideos. It’s a short tubular pasta often used in Spanish cooking. They were doused in a nice garlicky and spicy oil that reminded me very much of Spain. The seafood bits were perfectly cooked – not a rubbery piece in sight. I did find that the pasta was slightly overcooked but the flavors were so great I didn’t mind at all.
We also got the tripe cooked with chickpeas in more of that great garlick and spicy sauce:
The tripe was well prepared. It was slow braised rendering the tripe incredibly tender and melt in your mouth.
The shrimp with garlic, ginger and jalapenos:
This sauce was the best! The shrimp was tasty and not over cooked but it was the sauce that had me begging for more bread. You had the heat from the jalapenos, the zing of ginger that also reminded me a little of Asian cuisine and then the heavy garlic. I got more bread and sopped up every last bit of this sauce. It was exactly the Spanish flavors I was looking for when I requested tapas.
And last but not least, the uni paninno with mustard oil:
The bread was heavily buttered (it was dripping down my hand with every bite), the uni was creamy and sweet and the mustard oil was strong. This is a decadent treat. It’s not a huge sandwich and there isn’t much heft to it but due to the richness of the butter and uni itself, a little goes a long way. It was pretty unreal. I did feel that I could have done without the mustard oil. The flavor of wasabi-ness was strong and overpowered the uni I felt. The oil gives the same reaction of wasabi and cleared my sinuses. Overall, although the pannino was great, I still prefer my uni over sushi or sashimi style because you can really taste the uni when it is provided to you in such pure form. It’s a delicate thing that uni….you have to enjoy it all on its own.
So I really liked this meal. I would definitely come back and I’m happy to be reminded of the many lovely tapas bars located on the west side of Chelsea. I had forgotten about these treasured nooks scattered in NYC and will be back in the Chelsea area to try some of the others: Tia Pol, Las Ramblas and Txikito. But know this, while the others might have similar tapas being offered, El Quinto Pino is the only one that serves the uni pannino.
El Quinto Pino, 401 West 24th Street, New York, NY
