New York City Restaurant Week is a staple event of the winter season here in the Big Apple. For the second half of January, various restaurants around the city offer prix fixe lunch and dinner menus ranging from $30-60. The self-proclaimed week-long tradition actually lasts from Jan. 16 to Feb. 4, giving city dwellers plenty of time to try out several different restaurants over the course of three weeks. The event is advertised as a great opportunity to try some of NYC’s expensive and famous fine-dining restaurants. Participating restaurants include some famous spots such as Central Park’s Tavern on the Green, Jean Georges’ abc kitchen and Gramercy Tavern located in the Flatiron District.
A typical meal at some of these restaurants may cost you anywhere from $50 to $200 on a normal weekend, making the NYC Restaurant Week offer a pretty good deal. However, many of the other participating locations don’t quite fit the category of fine dining. Some have menus that average closer to $20 for an entree and $10 for a dessert. This makes the $30 prix fixe dinner deal feel a little less impressive. In addition, the Restaurant Week deals rarely, if ever, include drinks, and the prix fixe menus often include only the cheapest options from the regular menu in each course.
While the event offers aren’t as cheap as they may appear at first glance, it is still a great opportunity for NYC restaurants to advertise and encourage residents and visitors alike to try new foods. So despite the lackluster deal, I had to take advantage of the less-than-average prices and check out a new restaurant.
New York City Tourism & Conventions published a website highlighting some of the city’s best attractions, including NYC Restaurant Week. They offer a comprehensive guide to all of the participating restaurants, their locations, their menus and their hours of operation. In the sea of options that is New York dining, a guide like this is invaluable to an indecisive eater.
I enlisted a couple of my friends to help me peruse the site and choose where to eat. Eventually we settled on a locally-owned restaurant in East Harlem called Bar Goyana. The restaurant, owned by a Brazilian-Belgian couple, is bar-focused with a large selection of Brazilian cocktails and Belgian beers. It serves Brazilian-inspired dishes plated with flowers and tropical bird motifs. It is also attached to the MOJO Mousse Bar, which serves delicious, small-batch Belgian chocolate mousse. The various mousse flavors include options like passion fruit and matcha, which make for a perfect dessert after your Brazilian-inspired meal at Bar Goyana.
We made a reservation for a Thursday night and opted for their $30 prix fixe dinner menu, only offered during Restaurant Week. The menu gave three different options for your appetizer, four options for your entree and four flavor options for a dessert of MOJO Mousse.
I opted for a prosciutto and herbs cheese stuffed pao de queijo for my appetizer. Pao de queijo, sometimes called Brazilian cheese bread by American recipe websites, is essentially a small bun stuffed with various ingredients. The appetizer was on the smaller side, but it was delicious. The bread was fluffy and the herb cheese didn’t overpower the prosciutto. When I go out to eat, I typically skimp on the appetizer to hold onto my cash, so the Restaurant Week deal allowed me a pleasant exploration into the life of an appetizer-ordering woman.
I chose to follow up with an entree of Brazilian chicken fricassee, which is chicken thigh and mozzarella cheese served with white rice and small fried potato sticks. This entree was truly the star of the show at dinner. Something about me… I love cheese. I believe that it’s not really a meal if it doesn’t include cheese. For my vegan and lactose-intolerant friends out there, my heart — and stomach — ache for you. The mozzarella cheese covered the pulled chicken thigh like a heated blanket, keeping the chicken warm and injecting it with the creamy deliciousness that is expensive mozzarella cheese. The white rice and potato sticks on the side provided a great base for the chicken-mozzarella casserole. The rice had a somewhat similar consistency to the chicken and mozzarella, whereas the potato sticks added a nice crunch to each bite.
Finally, I chose the passion fruit mousse for dessert. I figured it would be a nice addition to my meal of Brazilian dishes, but I ended up not finishing my portion. The flavor felt slightly out of place with the consistency of the mousse for me, but one of my friends ordered it as well and loved it. Another one of my friends ordered the dark chocolate mousse, which I much preferred. Regardless, the sweet but not-too-rich mousse was a great way to close out the meal.
My experience at Bar Goyana was nothing short of fantastic. The restaurant is beautifully decorated, well-staffed and only a short ride south on the Metro-North from campus. I am grateful that NYC Restaurant Week encouraged me to check it out because I never would have found it otherwise. Restaurant Week isn’t over! Many spots are still offering deals through Feb. 4, so take advantage of the event and try some new food.
