Bobby Flay’s MESA Grill
Saturday night I went to Bobby Flay’s restaurant Mesa near Union Square. I made the mistake of waiting until Saturday morning to make a reservation, so the earliest time we could get was 1015pm. We showed up at the crowded restaurant at 930, hoping for a table to open up earlier, but we ended up sitting at the bar until about 1030. For an appetizer, we had goat cheese queso fundito, which was absolutely amazing. The picture came out a bit blurry because I set my camera to auto in a hurry to scarf down the mouth-watering cheese in front of me, but trust me, this stuff was incredible on the blue corn tortilla chips. For an entrée, I had a mango and spice crusted tuna steak, which I wasn’t overtly impressed with. There was some kind of sauce in the dish that I did not care for at all, so I think this may have just been a personal preference of mine. I’m not big on the whole southwestern food thing as it is, once you start throwing spices and fruits together, so it’s not surprising that I wasn’t that crazy about this. The tuna steak itself seemed a little dry, but the cornmeal blend on the plate below was delicious. My “date” for the evening had a New York Strip steak, which was good, but nothing special. The sauce it came with was too southwestern for me- again with that sweet & spicy. For dessert we split an apple pie a la mode. For $11 you would expect a huge slice of pie that is easily shared between two people. This was not the case. After tasting how delicious this was, I was tempted to buy another one just for myself.
All in all I was decently impressed with the food, but definitely not for the price I paid. If I would have had a different entrée, maybe I would’ve been more satisfied. Southwestern food isn’t really my cup of tea, and I doubt I’ll be going back for anything more than some goat cheese queso fondito and apple pie.
