El Parador

I went to El Parador after hearing great things about their sangria, food, and atmosphere. We arrived around 9:30 on Saturday night to find the restaurant a little empty (the kitchen closes at 11 on Saturday’s). We were given menus and promptly ordered guacamole:

In my opinion, I make the best guacamole by mixing pico de gallo with an avocado or two 🙂 El Parador makes a great guac by keeping large chunks of the avocado intact and keeping it more avocado based than anything else. At some restaurants, I feel like you don’t even know what you’re eating because of all the crap they mix in with the avocado – at El Parador, they used just enough seasoning and tomatoes to keep the original flavor.

I ordered one of the specialties, the Mole Poblano, (apparently the National dish of Mexico) – complex, multi layered sauce with over 24 ingredients, served with a 1/2 of a chicken, stewed in mole:

They are definitely not stingy with their portions – my mole poblano came in a crock pot with three more large chicken pieces and lots of mole sauce. I thought the mole sauce was terrific because there were lots of different flavors mixed together. My chicken was tender and the sesame seeds sprinkled on top of the dish was a cute touch.

Chris ordered the fajitas:

The meat was well cooked (a nice medium rare) and I liked the bell peppers were soft and a good mix with the beef (although, would it kill them to de-seed all the peppers before cooking them? sheesh).

Ariel ordered the other house special, the Pollo Parador, which is 1/2 a chicken marinated for 24 hrs with their oldest secret recipe:

I thought the chicken was well flavored and tender, but Ariel thought the chicken was a little dry. Maybe the piece he offered me was the BEST PIECE OF THE ENTIRE CHICKEN. 🙂

Ariel’s friend, Darius, ordered the Rib Eye with Chipotle – Grilled 24 oz center cut rib eye rubbed in chipotle and garlic adobo and roasted seasonal vegetables:

Darius is a huge fan of chipotle and he loved the steak. He ate it all, too!

El Parador is probably the best Mexican food I’ve had in the city, although, after dinner, I realized that I don’t really like “authentic” Mexican food…I prefer Taco Bell, Chipotle, and sometimes Qdoba. Out of all the places we’ve tried so far, El Parador is at the top of my list, although, there’s a taco place I still have to try in Midtown – it’s in an office building around 49th, I think. After I go there, I’ll let you know if I’m ever going to have Mexican in NY again.