Mesa Grill

Second visit and just as impressed as the first visit. This visit was pork tenderloin and it was the best I had ever had. Good service, good drinks (try the prickly pear) and great food. Well priced.

The absolute worst experience tonight. The food is fine… but the service is so aggressively rude and the management so disinterested that it’s a wonder anyone goes here anymore. The absolute worst birthday dinner I’ve ever had in my life.
I’d go into specifics, but I’m just so pissed off that I want to forget it even happened. Don’t go here unless you could care less how you are treated.

I just want to start this off by saying I’m extremely sad that they are CLOSED!
I came here last year for RW with Alessa M., because I’m seriously in love with Bobby Flay. I’m almost positive that if he met me, he’d seeing my undying love for him and run away with me. Yes I know this sounds crazy. No I don’t care, and neither do you. Keep reading the food part starts NOW ;)
We got there earlier than our reservation time, but were seated anyway! SCORE! We were seated upstairs and ALL the way in the back. At first the service was excellent! The waiter thought my love for Bobby was cool, and gave us cards with the recipe for the chicken that we ordered. VERY COOL!
My appetizer was the Sweet Potato Soup w/​smoked chiles, maple crema and macron almonds! It was really delicious, that a great consistency. It was extremely favorful and I loved the smoky after taste! (I should hunt down his recipe) Alessa had Sophie’s Chopped Salad w/​special dressing and crispy tortillas… (Random Bobby Fact: Sophie is his daughters name!) Ally liked her salad, it was pretty tasty from the forkfull that I had.
For Dinner we both had Sixteen Spice Chicken w/​tangerine-​cascabel chile sauce, tangerine relish and Chorizo-​goat cheese tamale with sage butter. The chicken was super moist and juicy! It was definitely packing some heat, with the 16 Spices. I have no heat tolerance, but I was able to enjoy the meal. The tamale helped to soothe my palate, in between bites of the delicious chicken. It was an amazing blend of spices and the heat was the kicker, so you actually got to savor the flavors before you reached for the water or the tamale. I do wish the tamale had been a bit bigger but thats me being greedy and wanting more yummy food. lol.
Dessert: I ordered the Chocolate Cake w/​peanut butter ganache and vanilla anglaise. I always order what ever the menu has that says CHOCOLATE. This time I wish I hadn’t, Alessa’s Coconut Bread Pudding w/​Coconut Dulce de Leche was far superior, I literally wanted to lick her plate for her! I think that in a show down, my dessert wouldn’t have even made it to your show…
Everything was good, till our waiter forgot our table existed and took over 20 minutes to bring the bill.

I don’t judge Celeb Chefs until I try their restaurants, Chef Bobby Flay seems like a cool dude but I don’t know if I should care for his cooking skills or his TV persona, in this case he should stick with TV. Chef Flay suffers from making explosives sauces but not really adding much flavor to the dish itself. I feel this kinda tricks the tongue into thinking there is flavor but when the sauce dissipates, there is no nothing left. I also think his food leans a little toward the sweet.
The food:
Chile Relleno– this is one of his signature dishes, it’s definitely a pretty looking dish, especially with the orange sweet pepper sauce. The dish is a chile stuffed with eggplant and manchego breaded and deep fried with a sweet pepper sauce drizzled on top. I really wanted to like this dish, the batter of the chile was nice but the flavors inside were off, flavor seemed kinda strange really.
Spice Rubbed New York Strip Steak– how do you mess up a steak? And he is also known for his grilling to boot. I felt it was super under flavored. The sauce added a teaser of flavor but the steak had no taste.

I am so disappointed with my experience here that my heart breaks even as I write this review. *crying face* I was SO excited about going to Mesa Grill and getting to eat the great Bobby Flay’s food that I dragged my poor tired husband out on a weeknight, just so we could make it for restaurant week. At the end of the night my husband summed up the experience… «What a waste of time and money.»
1 ½ stars off for food:
— Drinks– the drinks here were excellent, I had the cherry margarita and my husband had the blackberry margarita, a bit pricey but they’re Manhattan prices at $ 15 a pop
— Corn Soup– that was delicious! I could have two full bowls of this soup… at this point I was feeling good about coming here and ready to give Bobby Flay 5 stars… until the rest of the food arrived…
— Chile Relleno– stuffed with cheese and eggplant, it sounds wonderfully exciting and delicious… but tastes just… eh… neither my husband or me were impressed *sad face*
— Chicken with Pineapple Glaze and Tamale– yeah the tamale was well bad… all I could taste was the butter and if I wanted to eat just pure butter I could have had some at home! The chicken was crisp on the outside and the pineapple glaze was good but it wasn’t mindblowingly good… heck it wasn’t even yum worthy… plus it just seemed so uninspired… really Bobby Flay can’t you come up with something better than chicken with pineapple sauce???
— Side of Southwestern Fries– well spiced and yum worthy but I’m not going to give Bobby Flay points for getting french fries right… its like giving me points for boiling water…
— Dessert– the chocolate bread pudding my husband liked… me not so much and I’m a chocoholic… I preferred the fruit pudding which was good but again nothing super special
1 ½ stars off for service/​wait:
— We waited 30 minutes to be seated… this was after we had a reservation… but not so bad its alright… happens in Manhattan sometimes.
— Than we had to wait over FORTY FIVE minutes for our entrees to arrive after we had our appetizer. FORTY FIVE MINUTES! I mean what were they doing back there? Chasing the chicken down and plucking each of its feathers one by one??? By the time the entrees came we had eaten so much of the free bread that we didn’t even feel like eating our entrees… which weren’t that good anyway.
— When we mentioned the wait to the manager, he comped our $ 7 french fries… big whoop. Oooo but he did tell us that next time we came back to let him know and he would let us sit anywhere and «hook us up» with some free appetizers… oh goody I thought I get to sit anywhere I want and I get to talked to like a teenager from the 90’s??? What an honor!!! *barf* Seriously, not impressed with the manager’s style of dealing with the situation.
A restaurant of this level I expected better service and a manger that knows how to keep customers happy, especially when they had to wait nearly an hour for their food. I won’t even talk about the ambiance of the restaurant because it was just alright, nothing fancy. To top it off the food just wasn’t that great.
So Bobby Flay… I’m considering ending our little food affair right now… perhaps I’ll visit another one of your restaurants in the future… but it will take me awhile to get over this painful experience…*waves tearfully*

I had dinner here with my mom on a Saturday night. The décor and atmosphere are very cool, with tall columns throughout. The neighborhood seems trendy, but expensive.
We were seated on the second floor, which gave us a great view of the entire place and the kitchen.
Our waiter was friendly and attentive throughout and suggested a great cabernet, which is quite possibly the smoothest cab I’ve ever had.
I ordered the pan-​seared grouper with green chile curry sauce corn-​cactus salsa. Bobby Flay is known for his southwestern sauces and this one was yummy and complimented the fish perfectly. My entrée was delicious and I enjoyed every bite; the flavors blended perfectly.
It’s not a huge place; so a reservation is a must, especially on a Saturday night, but I made it probably about a week before we were there, so it wasn’t too difficult.
Highly recommend for a great meal and a good time.

I went there for lunch. From the hostess to the server, everyone was so friendly and polite. I love NY. :)
I had Pressed Roasted Pork Sandwich. When it comes pork sandwich, it’s normally pulled BBQ pork, so it’s nice to see something different. They brought three or four different kinds of bread with dipping sweet chili sauce. They looked nice, but I was worried if I would be in bread coma considering I already ordered sandwich…
Anyhow the sandwich came. The Ciabatta bread was fresh and light, sliced tender pork meat, nutty arugula, and their homemade ancho-​mayo were creating nice harmony. I asked if they have aioli for southwestern fries, which they brought me ancho mayo as it was the closest thing they had — it actually worked fine. But again it was just too much bread, and I barely had half…
I would give them 4 stars because of the solid service.

3.5 stars. I’m a pretty big fan of Mesa Grill, but not of everything on the menu. I’ve been to this location as well as the one in Vegas, and I believe the one in Vegas is slightly better. My favorites on the menu are the pork tenderloin, lamb chops, and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. The portions are fairly large and can be shared. The jalapeño cornbread from the bread basket is also quite delicious.
–L.

I’m surprised at the slightly low rating for this place, considering. But we went for restaurant week, which could be part of why we had a good experience.
The staff was very attentive, filling waters, making sure the table was clean. The food came out looking beautiful, and tasted in line with that beauty too. We had salads, a salmon cake appetizer, chicken of different kinds for the main courses, and coconut bread pudding and molten chocolate cake for desserts. Each was wonderful, flavorful, moist, all you would expect from a Bobby Flay restaurant.
Though for all this, we probably won’t go back. The atmosphere was too stuffy for our liking. We’re not fans of being tended to every minute for refills and crumb swiping. Oh well. ;)

on a Wednesday night during Restaurant Week Winter 2013. Place is pretty full. Hosts are pleasant. Seated toward the back.
Got the wild mushroom grits — slight kick. Overall tasty. I dont like poached egg in general, but it was good. The pumpkin soup is delicious; rich and filling, very fresh.
For entrees: the mahi mahi was very good. The chile relleno was a little too cheese-​y (there’s a lot of cheese) and the eggplant stuffed inside was fairly small. The cornmeal crust around the pepper was terrific.
Desserts were the chocolate cake and the bread pudding. Both very good, but really sweet — needed to order coffee.
The ambience is great, and our server was very nice and friendly, though we had to hunt him down a few times (to order coffee, etc.). Overall a positive experience. It won’t blow you away (if only because it is pretty pricey).
FYI: I have been here for brunch as well, and it was similarly A-​OK.

I’ve been here for brunch twice with a party of two. Love the ambiance — very brightly lit, well spaced establishment with unique furniture and décor. Didn’t feel cramped at all and found myself with lifted spirits after walking in.
The food is very fresh and the ingredients are hearty and solid. I ordered the Mesa Burger with a side of grits both times I came here and would say that the food was very delicious, well portioned, and solidly cooked. Another amazing thing about this place is the bread basket that they bring beforehand. It’s unfortunately not unlimited, but the assortment of bread they have is really unique and quite amazing. From what I remember, the basket comes with chocolate walnut scones, some kind of corn bread, cheese biscuits, and a coffee cake like bread. These are very yummy.
Portions are alright — more on the scanty side in my opinion but it’s probably enough to fill the average person up. Service is alright too and the prices are decent for what the place is worth.

Exactly as Unilocal stated when I indicated two stars…“Meh, I’ve experienced better.”
This place has been going strong for more than 20 years. Not sure how…
Everything is just average. And for the price, that’s just not enough to get my return business.
We did, however, thoroughly enjoy the bread basket brought at the beginning — and were greatly appreciative of the multiple refills. The service is slightly above average.

I’m not sure if I give into the hype. The service is top notch. The server was kind, patient and attentive. The Chopped Salad was pretty good. Typically I order Chopped Salad for the bacon, but Mesa Grill’s Chopped Salad won’t make you miss the bacon.
Overall the food was only okay and a bit underwhelming. Noticing that a lot of other Unilocalers experienced great food makes me wonder if the kitchen sends out inconsistent dishes.

So after reading a few reviews from friends and other people looking for an average rating — i was a little skeptical about coming here. Thankfully my worries were dispelled from the moment i walked in.
Thursday 6:15 dinner reservation my buddy and I show up and get seated immediately upstairs in their little balcony area, towards the front door — actually in the corner seat. I enjoyed the seat and my buddy enjoyed looking over the edge to people watch for a few minutes as well. The restaurant wasn’t crowded but quickly became crowded and the hustle and bustle was nice since we were mostly away from the heavy foot traffic.
We looked at the wine and drink list and went strait for the margaritas. They were actually very good, loaded with alcohol (which is good so you felt like you got a good finger or two of tequila) and we perused up the Restaurant Week menu.
My order:
The Creamy Wild Mushroom Grits — Really tasty! I really like the wild mushroom combination with the grits and the poached egg was perfectly cooked and the yolk added that touch of flavor that pulled the dish together.
My buddy:
The Sweet Potato Soup — With smoked chilies, maple crema, and Marcoma almonds. It was tasty — albeit not exactly soup hot. It was like soup warm. IE soup made and let sit on the side for a little longer than it should have been. So while tasty — it could have been heated a bit longer, otherwise no complaints (i only had a spoonful and that was good)
My order:
The Mahi-​Mahi w/​Coconut cashew rice — was pretty spicy — my buddy tried it and was like «woah!» Yeah it has a little kick. The coconut cashew rice had an interesting texture which can be construed for «uncooked» rice since you’ll get a bite of the cashew, and it’ll give it that crunch like feeling (if you’ve ever had rice slightly uncooked you’d know what I’m talking about) — otherwise it was a good dish, albeit a little small. (But what do you expect for an RW menu?)
My buddy
The 16 Spiced Chicken — i had a little bit and it was pretty tasty. Had a chinese like flavoring in that it felt like some roasted chicken i had before in my life. My buddy said it was really flavorful and had a good crust on the chicken. She’s good at these things so i’ll leave her comment at that.
Lastly both of us had the Coconut Bread Pudding with the coconut dulce de leche. Wow this was pretty good — if i had to describe it to something I’ve eaten recently, it would be similar to the golden toast from Spot. The bread pudding was toasted on top with a glaze on top, and when you cut into it the pudding portion on the bottom was very tasty. It was sweet and warm and delicious and just all in all a nice sweet ending to a very good meal.
Ok so food — done — Service was awesome. Within moments the waiter was there waiting for us, the busboys were virtually invisible, the drinks came out quickly and the food came out at a perfect pace. A few minutes in between each course to give us time to reflect upon the meal and chat while.
I’ll definitely come back it was awesome!

4.5
The food is outstanding. Is it the best SW/​Tex/​Mex food I have ever had? Quite possibly, but then at what price? They do a really nice job of blending flavors, ingredients, and sauces to create dishes that are extremely creative takes on this particular ethnic food but I always have to ask myself, is it really worth the price? I guess by now you have probably figured out it was good but overpriced. Oh yeah, everything was a la carte so sides are not included.
I know I’m harping on the price a lot but I guess I’ve come a long way from when I thought Taco Bell was both great and cheap. Now it’s not great but pretty good, but still cheap.
Anyway, the food here was excellent. That starts with a bread basket with 2 different rolls and a corn muffin that appeared to be made from several different corns. The server did describe it but I guess I wasn’t really following along. Whatever, it was, they all tasted good.
We had tamale stuffed with shrimp and corn, and tuna nachos for starters. Alison had a steak as her main, Danielle had a salmon, and I had a tuna steak. For sides, we had creamed spinach and a sweet potato dish that was most outstanding of all.
Service was friendly, professional, and most of all attentive and with a smile.

3.5 stars
Bobby Flay warms my heart and my belly. Mesa Grill is good, not great.
I like the theme… high-​end Tex Mex. It’s just missing something and I can’t quite pinpoint what that is exactly.
I went here for Restaurant week and had the 3 course meal.
I started with Tomato Tortilla Soup with Avocado and Queso. One of my favorite soups that I’ve ever had. I love the mix of spicy and creamy.
Then I had the Wild Striped Bass with Roasted Corn Sauce, Jalapeño Pesto+ Charred Corn-​Tomato Salsa. This was well cooked and the sauce was not dominating.
I opted for the side of Roasted Corn with Chipotle Aioli, Lime + Cotija. This was absolutely delicious.
I ended with the caramel chocolate pudding with malted whipped cream which was average.
I would go back and try out some other dishes.

Mesa Grill, I give you a solid four stars.
First thing I noticed from the outside is the fact that I did not notice the restaurant… at all. In fact, the storefront is so discreet that I thought it was just the entrance to an apartment building. The place is much smaller than what I imagined after seeing pictures on various websites. Surprised I was by the size, but disappointed I was not… until heading inside the restaurant and seeing that the tables in the back of the restaurants were all smushed together in a tight area. Walking between the tables, I made doubley sure to keep my arms at my sides so as to not wack a seated diner in the head. It was slightly off-​putting, but not unforgivable.
My party of 9 had a reservation at 8:30PM on NYE, and we were seated shortly after our entire party had arrived. We had one of the tables in the back cramped area, but once we were seated, we didn’t really notice the tight space, which was nice. Despite having to deal with the NYE rowdy crowdy, our server greeted us with a smile and was incredibly patient while our party took nearly an hour to decide on drinks, appetizers, and entrées. The service was good, although they did forget some things, such as the lime for my margarita and the bread basket for the table; not a problem though, as the servers were very accommodating when we brought it to their attention.
I had a tangerine margarita that unfortunately was forgettable. My friend’s peach margarita, on the other hand, was good. We ordered five appetizers for the table, all of which were delicious, albeit slightly pretentious. The fried oysters, shrimp scampi, chicken quesadilla, and lamb skewers were amaaaazing. The lobster tacos, however, were laughable. The tacos were the smaller than the size of a credit card, and came in three’s. Three tiny tacos, nine people. Awwwkward!
For my entrée, I had a lamb tenderloin, which was OUT OF THIS WORLD amazing. Cooked a perfect medium rare as I ordered, it was juicy, tender, flavorful, and not at all gamey-​tasting. Although I’ve always liked lamb, beef had always been my #1… until I tasted Mesa Grill’s lamb. I’m salivating as I write this. Deeee-​lish! I could’ve done without the tamale thing on the side, but who cares; with that lamb, you could’ve put a shoe on the plate and I probably wouldn’t have noticed. My SO’s strip steak was delicious, as well as the pork and scallop entrees I nibbled on from the plates of others.
The prices are definitely steep, but not too expensive considering what some other restaurants in NYC charge. Six drinks from the bar, two bottles of wine, five appetizers, and nine entrees with tax and gratuity still worked out to less than $ 100 per person. Not a bad deal. Oh, and they don’t split bills, but they will run up to four credit cards on the bill.
The lost star was due to several minor factors:
1) Our table was on a slant. And I mean SLANT. Several times, I noticed my knife sliding towards me on the table and I had to catch it before it hit the floor. It was also a bit wobbly.
2) My tangerine margarita neither tasted like tangerine nor tequila, and it was served without the lime. When handing me the drink, the server said «I’ll be right back with your lime,» and she never did.
3) The noise level was a bit high, but this was probably because it was NYE. At our large round table, I was really only able to have conversations with the people sitting next to me because it was too noisy to hear those across from me. Bummer.
4) The servers did not clean the tables between dishes, so we had to brush away crumbs with our hands. All high-​end restaurants should have and use crumbers. Just sayin’.
I will definitely be back. Bobby, where you at???

We had excellent service.
Appetizers were very good and they kept the drinks coming.
I returned my meal. I ordered the salmon, which came burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. It tasted like burnt toast and was yuck.
My girlfriend ordered the steak, and it was a huge portion, but could have been cooked better.
I was kinda disappointed. I expected more from a Bobby Flay restaurant.

I was hesitant to plan my birthday lunch at Mesa Grill due to the preceding Unilocal reviews, but did anyway due to the convenient location and the Bobby Flay novelty factor.
I’m glad I did, it was fantastic from beginning to end!
We started off with the tuna nachos and blue corn pancake. Don’t expect a huge pile of pub nachos because it’s not going to happen. Both appetizers were very small, but delicious and beautifully presented.
For my entrée, I picked the chile relleno. The crunchy cornmeal crust perfectly complimented the creamy eggplant/​manchego filling. The chile itself was not spicy until I got towards where the stem was. It got a little too hot for me, but thankfully I was on my second cactus pear margarita by then (hic). Again, the portions are small, which I am ok with as I hate lugging leftovers around the city.
My dad and boyfriend both enjoyed their entrees: pork sandwich and grouper, respectively.
Dad was sneaky and told the waiter it was my birthday, so my toasted coconut cake had a candle and some fancy chocolate «happy birthday» script on the plate. Nobody sang, which I appreciated, and the cake was yummy. I tried my boyfriend’s sticky toffee pudding (snerk)… I don’t even like toffee, but I liked that. Dad got the chocolate pretzel tart. I never thought spicy ice cream existed, but it does, and it’s delicious.
Zack, our waiter, was more than happy to make recommendations and had a bubbly and fun personality. Each course came out quickly, but we never felt rushed.
2 appetizers, 2 margaritas, 1 beer, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts came to about $ 160 (after tax, before tip). Not the cheapest, but I’d definitely go back for another special occasion.

This visit to NYC wouldn’t have gone without dining at Mesa Grill since the bf and I have been to the Vegas location multiple times.
Naturally, I had high expectations for this one since its the original outpost. Great ambiance with the high ceilings, long bar area and upscale casual feel. Located on 5^th ave near shopping is a plus.
The margarita was just ok. We have no complaints about the food, it was pretty solid actually. The NY steak was cooked medium rare as requested with a nicely charred exterior and juicy, juicy interior. My sea bass had crispy well salted skin and flakes easily with a fork, the mango salsa and roasted pepper grits that came with it shows Bobby Flay’s creative twist to his dishes. Our apple-​spinach salad was as fresh as can be and the crispy squab was superb.
Service started off great and then, she kinda forgot about us. Mind you it wasn’t that busy in our area of the dining room, but we had a diner next to us who looked like a food writer since he was asking a LOT of questions about everything: what kind of steak is this? is it organic? what kind of ketchup do you use? So, yes, he took most of her time but still it doesn’t excuse the fact that you didn’t check up on us, we saw the bussers more often.
Moreover, the lag time between our apps and entrees was just too long, about 45 mins or so. We had to flag her down and ask what’s going on. She was apologetic but this would’ve been a more favorable review if we didn’t have to initiate the follow-​up. We skipped dessert since we had a reservation somewhere else after.
Bobby’s dishes always shine with his tasty sauces and the techniques are executed just right. But for us, I think we’ll stick to the tried and true Mesa Grill — in Las Vegas.