La Cenita Steak

I went here while in NYC for my friend’s 30^th birthday weekend. This was a last minute choice and, I was really glad we went here as were all the ladies I was with!
The service both at the bar and at our table were impeccable. The drinks… amazing. I LOVED the Sirenita (CORZO SILVER, PASSION FRUIT, AVOCADO, SALT & PEPPER RIM). It was delicious and not too sweet.
To start, the waiter asked if anyone had any food allergies which I really appreciated. He said they got a new chef who was willing to accommodate and please. The food… also amazing! I had the shishito peppers (great starter), charred octopus, esquites (roasted corn with cotija cheese), and the filet mignon with chimichurri sauce. The octopus and filet were perfectly cooked, the corn was so flavorful, and the chimichurri sauce was very fresh.
The waiter brought us all two rounds of shots in honor of the birthday celebration. One of the girls was pregnant so, he brought her a virgin shot and ice cream!
I really had an amazing experience from start to finish. I would definitely go back!

OK I suggested this restaurant recently for a friend’s birthday although the ambience and vibe was great. The food was overpriced and not enough selections. Felt somewhat limited for choices. The guacamole came in a little glass candy dish for $ 14 it should have been filled a little more. I know it’s tapas style but these portions made me get a slice of pizza afterwards
The best thing was the warm churros other than that there are way better restaurants to visit. I probably won’t be back

I like the style that the menu is going for (steakhouse with a Mexican flair). It’s a nice big space in a good spot if you’re planning a night out in Meatpacking, Chelsea, or the West Village. That said, on one particular Saturday night this turned out to be a pretty bad experience for our party of 12…
From the start it was clear that our waiter was overwhelmed. We were seated for quite some time before he took drink orders and that set the tone for the entire night.
1 hour after sitting down, our appetizers arrived.
2 hours after sitting down, we were joking that the entrees were taking so long because they wanted us to spend money on drinks. We were fine with that, but the waiter was barely checking in on us and the drinks were taking forever to arrive. We also realized that most other tables were in the same boat as us. Lots of empty drinks and appetizer plates but nobody was eating dinner.
Nearly 3 hours after sitting down, we got the attention of the manager. He was very apologetic and let us know that the kitchen was seriously backed up due to one of the chefs quitting in the middle of his shift. I’m guessing it went something like this: f*** you, f*** you, you’re cool, I’m out.
Shortly after we threatened to walk out of the restaurant, random entrees started to arrive at the table. It was a little confused/​rushed but they eventually got it right.
Perhaps it was the boozing and the waiting, but everyone thought the food was great and the portion sizes were healthy. They also comped a good chunk of our bill did not include a mandatory gratuity which I thought was a really nice gesture. Doesn’t completely make up for the lack of service, food, or information throughout the night, but it bumped this review up from 1 star to 2 stars.

Never a fan of restaurants operated by Nightclub groups — this one being an EMM group property. All of them have the same kind of theme — mediocre money-​making food priced extremely high. There is an effective business model for these nightclub restaurants and you can be certain they will not be putting all their money back into the quality of the food.
You will be surrounded by promoters and have little to nonexistent service.
Never a fan of having to pay for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.
Never a fan of the below average food where you feel ripped off.
I do not recommend at all.

Very good food – we all shared the queso fundido, tuna, sautéed peppers, and a few other appetizers I cannot remember. Anyway, I had the duck enchiladas, which was delicious. Really, everything was delectable.
However… we had reservations and still had to wait over an hour.
Our server was aware of our extremely long wait and comped us drinks (wait, was it drinks? Desserts? I am not sure what, but the total was significant less than what it should have been).
Five stars for food, five stars for our server, zero stars for having to wait over an hour to eat.

La Cenita
NY: Meat Packing District
8pm Thursday 27^th February 2014
Four Stars
NYC Restaurant Week. They did not have any room on the first floor, so we sat upstairs which was fine, except for the rowdy 20 person tequila shooting birthday party behind us. The service started out kind of slow but definitely became much better throughout the meal. The Hazme El Amor Cocktail: Cane Rum, Lillet Blanc, Pavan, Amaro, and Orange Bitters was bit too intense. The big ice chunk was not cold draft. The old school peel was worthless. The addition of two beverage straws brings this «craft cocktail» down to a club drink.
Our first course of Pescado and Langostino tacos came before the chips and salsa. The Tacos were small but very tasty. The purple tortilla, crispy fish, and pistachio salsa were a of food. The faux lobster taco with roasted corn, and poblano cream was spicy and packed with flavor.
The chips were crispy and great. The Peanut Salsa was the standout. The mescal, fresca, avocado & tomatillo, and habañero salsas were all just mediocre in comparison to San Diego.
The second course was either Chicken Thighs with Plaintains and cotija cheese or Branzino with chantrelles and parsley root. The chicken was moist and enjoyable. The Branzino had crispy skin, moist flesh, and high salt content. The mushrooms were cooked well but the parsley root missed the mark.
The third course was Churros or tres leches cake. The churros were not as crispy as I like them but they were plentiful and delicious. The Strawberry Jam and the chocolate did not do it for me but the caramel was bone-​chillingly good. The 3 milk cake was okay.
Overall, this is the best Mexican food this far away from Mexico.

First off, food is amazing
I had a bad experience here, once, but I decided to try them again. Since everyone does have an off night every once and a while.
The food was great, the queso fundido is probably by the best in the city by far! I had the duck enchiladas, papas bravitas, and a couple other items off them menu I could not remember.
The duck was good but was not able to enjoy it since I ordered too much food and it was cold by the time I got to eat it.
The rest of the food was great, the manager Roxy really made our experience at La Cenita.
Dessert: I had the S’more Empanada, this was amazing and perfect!
I will go back for sure to La Cenita.

Verdict: Hated it, hated it, HATED IT!
What are the ingredients for a sh*tty restaurant? 1) 9 times out of 10, a location in the Meatpacking District 2) Wait staff that doesn’t communicate with the busser staff 3) A manager that scans the room constantly for famous folks and only approaching tables that appear to be occupied by Greek shipping magnates 4) Charging $ 9 for a double espresso. Yes, I said $ 9 5) A waiter that exclaims, immediately upon being seated, «Hayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy girls! What kind of water are we going to have tonight? Still? Sparkling? You’ll want to make sure to hydrate yourselves in preparation for drinking!» To his unfortunate surprise, neither Jean, Ceci, nor I was imbibing that night. And to our unfortunate surprise, that’s when service took a somber turn for the worse. 6) Must I go on?
Get here NEVER!

Had a wonderful meal here. Great ambience, service and food.
Everything we ordered was very good.
Items tried:
Salsa — Good choices
Guac with pomegranate — great
Fish tacos — Excellent
Pork Belly Tacos — Excellent
King Crab Tacos — Very Good
Duck Enchilada — Excellent
Smore’s Empanada — Surprisingly good

The ambiance of this place was super chic and trendy however everything else about this restaurant is blah.
Hostess was very nice & and obtaining our reserved table during peak hours was a breeze.
Our drinks took about 20 minutes to come out and mine took about 30 because it being served in a pineapple (that didn’t hold much liquid) with a splash of alcohol. This was overpriced at $ 22. I guess labor was included to carve out the pineapple?
Guacamole as an appetizer was good but very small for $ 14.
Dinner was a disaster. I asked for the rock shrimp tacos without bacon… It came out wrong so they took it back. Only for it to come back out again incorrect! The waiter then comes out and says that he should have told me earlier but the chef cannot make it without bacon! At that point my friends had already eaten and their plates had been cleared so I decided to not order another dish. I ate no dinner.
For dessert I smores empanada. The graham cracker ice cream on the side was deliciousness however the actual empanada was too chocolately for my liking.
Lastly, we were there for a friends birthday so we asked the waiter to bring out to her a dessert with a candle. When they bought the dessert out (chocolate cake — not so good) there was a candle in it but not lit! We asked why he didn’t light the candle and he replied ‘oh I didn’t know there was a birthday. I didn’t see a candle’
Also, the upstairs dining area has horrible lighting and we could barely read the menus. We had to use our iPhone flashlights.
Overall I didn’t enjoy my night at this restaurant and it is overpriced.

I liked this place. Looks pretty much like it did as Abe & Arthur’s — not a whole lot of changes. Food, drinks, service were all good. We had the Crispy Artichokes — ok, Goat Cheese Crepes — very good, Langosta Tacos — very good, Guacamole — good, Oysters Lopez — ok, Lamb Tacos — ok.
For cocktails had the Sirenita and the Bailando, both were good.

New space of the Abe & Arthur. The place is fairly big, trendy and great lighting. Good spot for a date. The food comes out really quick and our waiter was awesome. The tacos are VERY VERY TINY. Each taco plate comes with 3, but we opted them to give us 4 so we at least had 2 of each. Literally bite size tacos.
–Shrimp: ummm this is no. 1! Fairly bigger then the other tacos and the sauce is so tasteful
–Short rib taco: Delicous and full of flavor, very very small
–Chicken: Also good!
–Brussels Sprout: AMAZING-​cooked in bacon
–Corn: Yummy
–Smores Empanada for dessert was the perfect dessert. I loved it. Way to end a great meal.
The drinks are also very good and fresh.

If you are coming to Meatpacking, you know what you are going to get: overpriced food, loud music, louder obnoxious groups out for ladies’ night and other such nonsense, and generally that whole scene you know I’m talking about.
If you are willing to accept all of that, you can have some pretty great food, which is almost the case at La Cenita. Some of the food is really tasty, but in the end, even for Meatpacking, this place is shockingly expensive.
— Guacamole ($ 14)
This looks like an interesting twist on the usual, with pomegranates and pistachios sprinkled on top. Sadly, it doesn’t really taste all that different from normal guacamole. Still though, it’s pretty tasty and the chips it comes with are excellent — thicker than usual, and perfectly crispy and hot.
— Pescado Tacos ($ 10)
— Chicken Tinga Tacos ($ 10)
— Wagyu Steak Tacos ($ 19)
— Short Rib Tacos ($ 15)
The tacos come with 3 in each order, which sounds hearty, but they are really tiny. I probably could’ve eaten some of them in one bite, but I decided to be a little more human and finished them in two bites. I fell for the novelty of the steak ones, which come with tater tots on them, but at $ 19 these are totally not worth it. They are probably the best-​tasting since they have steak, but you are better off with getting the chicken for nearly half the price. The only hard shell one I tried were the Short Rib, which were pretty good, but again not worth the price.
— Brussels Sprouts ($ 11)
These were about $ 1 per sprout. Same old brussels sprouts with bacon every restaurant has these days.
— Sweet Plantains ($ 10)
Straight mush. I don’t get the appeal of these.
The dessert menu here caught my eye more. Both desserts we got were really nice to look at and just as delicious:
— Chocolate Tres Leches ($ 12)
This was really great, with some nice soft, spongy chocolate cake, covered in all kinds of chocolate and ganache and topped with a delicious scoop of canela (?) ice cream. This tastes nothing like a traditional tres leches, but is great nonetheless
— S’mores Empanada ($ 12)
This was even better. Also served with a refreshing scoop of ice cream, you could pick up the little empanada and bite right into it, to reveal a pocket of hot, delicious chocolate inside. This was the most inventive and best thing I ate here.
As mentioned above, everything else about this place is exactly what you would expect from these types of restaurants in MePa. The service started off all nice and friendly, but the waiter pretty much disappeared the rest of the night and was tough to track down. The food here is pretty good, and fun to try once, but definitely not worth returning for, especially at those prices.

I went there with my friend; we sat down and waited for someone to come with the menus… that did not happen. I had to go and ask for them. Then we saw the prices and I wanted to leave. Too over priced!!! I just ordered a beer, and my friend ordered one of the cocktails. Later on she said, that she regretted not getting a beer because at least there would be some alcohol in it — the drink she got was mostly ice, and a watermelon slice attached to the cup. The servers were not too nice, they brought us the check as if they wanted us to leave ASAP since we did not order anything else. Hey, I know it’s Manhattan, but still there are many places around where it’s a lil cheaper then here…
On the positive note, it is a nice looking place, full of good looking people.

I stopped by with several co-​workers on a Wednesday evening around 6:30 PM, and it wasn’t terribly busy as we entered, but it eventually got quite busy and loud by the time we left. The drinks that I ordered include the Sirenita (pretty decent with the avocado), the Meatpacking Sound Machine (packs quite a kick, but a bit too spicy for me), and the Bidi Bidi Bom Bom (fairly refreshing watermelon drink, probably my favorite).
In terms of food, we split several dishes, and my favorite included the king crab and roasted corn tacos, as well as the lobster tacos. The sirloin was also pretty good, but the rest of tacos were just mediocre and small, while the papas bravas wasn’t that good either. The biggest problem is less about the quality of food and more about the price point – it’s quite expensive overall, especially considering the size of a lot of the dishes. Probably not the first place I’d go to for fancy Mexican in the city.

We came here for dinner for a special occasion a couple of weeks ago without reservations. The place was packed, but the ladies at the front desk scoured the place to find us a table. We were seated almost immediately, so that was nice. It is a big space, with a small bar/​lounge up front, a 2-​story dining room in the back, with an upstairs dining room on top of all that.
We ordered a salad and the el jefe taco platter (9 tacos). The salad and the tacos were all very good. The taco combo we got was 3 each of chicken, steak, and fish. The chicken was meh, but the steak and the fish were very good. The complaint I have is that while salad was a good size, the tacos were mini tacos. $ 65 for 9 mini tacos seemed a bit steep to me. For dessert, we had the s’mores empanadas and the apple pie taquitos. The deserts were excellent, really excellent.
The service was pretty good, too. We had to flag a waiter down a couple of times, but overall the service was good. Aside from our dinner being on the expensive side, it was an enjoyable experience.

Walking in the door I immediately thought I would love this place, however our experience was very different. We were seated by the air-​condition and although we complained multiple times they could not move us or turn it down. Our waiter was very friendly, but the manager definitely did not care to accommodate us which was a big minus in our book.
The food was not all that great, but noting that would WOW us back into this restaurant. The plates are small, the food not particularly good which makes it over-​prized for my taste. I don’t mind paying a lot, but I then also expect quality food and service which we did not get.

Less than a week after the restaurant’s opening, my experience here was odd because I had no idea what I was in for. La Cenita is a restaurant that is all about the scene. Beautiful people wearing all black with lots of eye makeup spending more money than they should at a restaurant that’s just ok.
This is where you go to see and be seen. If that’s what you want, it will be great. The food was pretty tasty, but as the other reviews indicate, it is very over priced. Everything is meant for sharing, although it’s not priced that way. For 15 – 20 dollars you get two mini (emphasis on mini) tacos. No sides, no nothing. Just two, tiny tacos. So on and so forth. For two people, we ordered 5 small plates and two drinks. Total price tag? Around $ 120.
We waited more than 30 minutes past our reservation time to be seated. Perhaps that will be sorted out when they get some experience under their belts. The hostesses really are a disaster. They aren’t nice and they don’t seem to know how a restaurant works. But they are quite beautiful and intimidating.
On the upside, our waiter was lovely and explained the menu to us, although our water was never refilled and we were never offered another cocktail. He was too busy to do a proper job.
So come if you want to enjoy the company of beautiful people and you don’t mind paying for the experience. You’ll like the food, you just won’t love it.

I had heard a bit about La Cenita and actually saw the Michael Strahan shout out on Kelly & Michael. The Chef is from La Esquina, one of my all time faves, and the management also owns Catch, an ever popular celebrity seafood hotspot. I had to try it out.
My overall reaction is it’s good, but not great. It definitely had the feeling that it was new and hopefully there are a few kinks they can work out as I think they have the potential to be great.
Here’s what we ordered:
Queso Fundido
The Good
–liked the variety of dippers, including carrots & jicama as well as crispy & soft tortillas
–cheese was tasty
–portion good to share with one other
The Bad
–Cheesy was watery so a little odd
–not as good as La Esquina
King Crab Crunchy Tacos
The Good
–Ash smoked corn was good
–Crab was tasty
The Bad
–Ridiculously small portion for $ 20 – could have been consumed in 1 bite
Pescado Tacos
The Good
–Tasty Fish & flavor combo
–Optional JIcama wrap was a nice add
The Bad
–Tiny portion
Chicken Tinga
The Good
–Great spice flavor
The Bad
–Tiny Portion
Watermelon Fresca Margarita
–Good flavor, not too sweet
–Strong tequila
OVERALL: 3 stars
The Good
Awesome ambiance.
Really cool space, popular, packed with the pretty people.
Nice hostess, waiter and waitstaff.
All food tasted great
The Bad
Expensive
Small

What is this? A restaurant for ants?
Though tasty, the tacos were smaller than small. Literally could not believe the size of out meals. Not even enough for an appetizer. The hostess was clueless. The wine selection stunk. The server was nice at least.