Salinas Restaurant
Luis Bollo opened Salinas on Ninth Avenue in 2011. His Tribeca restaurant Meigas had left the city for Norwalk, Connecticut, a decade earlier.13 Order the rosejat rapida.2
Why go
Bollo is from San Sebastian. He has run this kitchen since the day it opened. Nicolas Matar, Mary Catherine Mikula and Donald Mikula are behind it.3 Time Out gave the room three stars in March 2012. It was clear about the shape of the cooking: His food is creative in the kitchen-sink sense, featuring plenty of everything, and sometimes too much.
1
The building was a dog spa first. It runs now as a limestone room with a water wall and a garden out back.1 I have found no bylined judgment on the cooking newer than that review.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the rosejat rapida, fried noodles in place of rice with chorizo, chicken and cockles, and a heavy hand with the saffron.2
- Order: the pa amb oli to start, chopped tomato in olive oil, garlic and sea salt over crisp country bread.2
- Order: the langostinos al ajillo, head-on shrimp with garlic and lemon zest in white wine with mushrooms.2
- Order: the porcella if there are four of you, a slow-roasted suckling pig that comes with watercress, frisee and grilled apricots.2
- Avoid: the plates carrying five ideas at once. Time Out's example was a bacon-wrapped quail with seared unripe plums, spring onions, sage and a syrupy balsamic reduction, which it called an unfortunate muddle.1
What locals & experts say
- Time Out New York rated it three out of five and marked it Recommended on 15 March 2012, praising deep bowls of crispy monkfish and sepia frito tossed with steamed clams, fennel, pickled peppers, potato and spicy aioli.1
- Andrew Steinthal, writing for The Infatuation on 17 October 2011, on the rosejat rapida:
This is the dish, as long as you're cool with a heavy dose of saffron. It's a paella-like item made up of fried noodles instead of rice, and loaded with chunks of chorizo, chicken, and cockles. Get it.
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Good to know
- Where: 136 Ninth Avenue, on the West Chelsea stretch.3
- The vegetables are not an afterthought: Time Out's other pick was miniature brussels sprouts and Greenmarket cauliflower fried crisp at the edges under citrusy yogurt, smoked paprika and toasted pine nuts.1
Verdict
could-visit — Go in winter and ask for a table beside the outdoor fireplace.