I recently went to Maya for dinner after not having been in several years. I got a great deal from Open Table, which was a $50 for $25 coupon. I have to imagine that things are slow or that they want to drum up new customers for them to do that...
Maya in on First Avenue on the Upper East Side between 64th and 65th Streets.
Maya in on First Avenue on the Upper East Side between 64th and 65th Streets.
I didn't realize that Maya is actually part of a mini restaurant empire. The chef, Richard Sandoval, has 6 other restaurants with some of them being multi location. Like Maya, for example, there is another one in Dubai of all places!
We started dinner with the Maya Margarita which adds tamarind to jazz it up. Good! The appetizers were so compelling we ended up not being able to decide so we shared three and split one entree. For appetizers, we went with: Tostados de Atun (seared tuna on plantain chips with pineapple salsa), Tacos de Puntas de Filete (soft tacos with organic filet mignon) and Chile Relleno (pepper stuffed with shrimp, scallops, calamari). For entree the Huachinango a la Veracruzana (red snapper with tomato, olive, caper sauce and plantain mash). For wine, to be different (for us anyway), we got a Tempranillo from Spain.
The tostadas had perfectly seared tuna of beautiful quality and were presented in an artistic fashion on the plate. The tacos kind of blew me away because I hardly ever eat meat - - the filet was cooked medium/rare, just how I'd want it, and was a nice amount (not stingy) it paired nicely with the salsa, cilantro, avocado etc. Wow, I wanted to order seconds of that! The Chile was a HUGE pepper with the seafood, black beans, a chili sauce, cheese etc. I had never had this before and it was quite interesting, in a good way. The flavor of the pepper itself was really nice. After all that, the snapper was almost not needed... but we love snapper so we braved on. The sauce had a unique flavor that I can't place, like there was a secret ingredient in addition to the tomatoes, olives and capers. It was good and the plantain mash was a nice accompaniment. No room for dessert, that's for sure! Which is too bad because they looked good. I am a sucker for anything that's served with cinnamon ice cream and that's what comes with their Mexican chocolate tart.. oh well, next time!
We started dinner with the Maya Margarita which adds tamarind to jazz it up. Good! The appetizers were so compelling we ended up not being able to decide so we shared three and split one entree. For appetizers, we went with: Tostados de Atun (seared tuna on plantain chips with pineapple salsa), Tacos de Puntas de Filete (soft tacos with organic filet mignon) and Chile Relleno (pepper stuffed with shrimp, scallops, calamari). For entree the Huachinango a la Veracruzana (red snapper with tomato, olive, caper sauce and plantain mash). For wine, to be different (for us anyway), we got a Tempranillo from Spain.
The tostadas had perfectly seared tuna of beautiful quality and were presented in an artistic fashion on the plate. The tacos kind of blew me away because I hardly ever eat meat - - the filet was cooked medium/rare, just how I'd want it, and was a nice amount (not stingy) it paired nicely with the salsa, cilantro, avocado etc. Wow, I wanted to order seconds of that! The Chile was a HUGE pepper with the seafood, black beans, a chili sauce, cheese etc. I had never had this before and it was quite interesting, in a good way. The flavor of the pepper itself was really nice. After all that, the snapper was almost not needed... but we love snapper so we braved on. The sauce had a unique flavor that I can't place, like there was a secret ingredient in addition to the tomatoes, olives and capers. It was good and the plantain mash was a nice accompaniment. No room for dessert, that's for sure! Which is too bad because they looked good. I am a sucker for anything that's served with cinnamon ice cream and that's what comes with their Mexican chocolate tart.. oh well, next time!
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