UWS @ Cafe Frida Amsterdam

I have been wanting to go to Cafe Frida for ages, so when they opened a new outpost just blocks from my apartment I was excited to check it out.  I'll preface this post by saying that I tend to be a Mexican food snob.  Being originally from southern California I've had a tough time finding what I consider to be great traditional Mexican food in New York.  I've had a few dishes here and there at different restaurants but delivery is usually inconsistent and variety is always lacking on the menu.  It remains to be seen if Cafe Frida will face the same issues so this first review - though positive - I will write with a grain of salt.

The restaurant itself is in the old La Rural space, an Argentinian restaurant that didn't survive long on Amsterdam.  Long and narrow, there is a medium sized bar at the front with a room patio in the back.  The grill behind the bar is is in full view of the restaurant, snapping and sizzling with all the delicious meats and veggies for each new order.  I don't know about you, but an open grill (and for that matter, an open kitchen) always comforts me since everything is in full sight and eliminates the worry that an unhappy staffer might be doing something ugly to your food before it hits your table.  Paranoid yes, but true as well.  Digression - a friend of mine in college worked at an independently owned pizza place where he openly told me they make certain evil customers suffer (the ones that never tip for a delivery, even when they order pizza every Friday night for their family).  They do this by, um, ahem, taking a pizza into the bathroom and making sweet love to it before it goes in the oven.  Blech!  And this was a normal, stand up guy who was always in a good mood so I guess everyone reaches a breaking point.  So if HE and HIS STAFF were doing it well then, let's just say open kitchens are a very good thing.

But I digress.

My BF and I split an order of shrimp machaca flautas and fried fish tacos (fried is the ONLY way it's authentic, as they never serve grilled in Mexico) and decided to start with sharing corn and fresh guacamole.  We initially stuck with the standard margarita (rocks with salt) which we had though were available for the happy hour.  Alas, happy hour prices at the bar only and not the tables so it would be $10 per margarita - at a small restaurant like this!  I dispise when restaurants do this but we decided to deal.  Then the margaritas were delivered - and just about knocked us to the floor.  Holy mole batman!  I don't think I've ever had a stronger margarita in my life.  The heavy handedness provides the economic advantage of getting the most bang for your $11 bucks but the taste absolutely suffers since you can barely taste the rest of the ingredients.

The guacamole was certainly fresh but not as spicy as I had liked, even though I ordered it hot.  In all fairness, traditional guac isn't really supposed to be that spicy - it only has a little bit of heat.  The corn was delicious although they were a little heavy handed on the contijo.  However, once I saw the main courses making their way to our table I was very excited.  A++ on the fish tacos - they're everything I remember from roadside stands in Mexico and were even served with a side of spicy-creamy avocado cilantro sauce.  Freshly fried fish, a few sliced radishes, fresh cilantro and a side of lime wedges served up on corn tortillas to provide three perfect little tacos.  This size was the larger portion option on the menu but at a whopping $17.50 it was ridiculous not to have come with a single side.  Boo, Cafe Frida! 

Onto the shrimp flautas - three on a plate drizzled with a little creme to be exact.  While they were crispy without being burnt they ended up looking more like taquitos than actual flautas.  They were tasty but again, they tasted like taquitos.  Although, that didn't really matter much to my starving BF as he inhaled the first flauta before I could even take a picture of the place.  The flautas were the more affordable entree at $10 and came served with black beans and rice in a small bucket (yes, you read that right).  Not as impressive tasting as the fish tacos, the flautas were a much more cost effective option.

The bar happy hour(5-7p M-F) has $7 margaritas and we learned it has $1 tacos as well so we'll definitely be back.  I'm really hoping that the rest of the menu is as delicious as those shrimp tacos. 

Cafe Frida Amsterdam
768 Amsterdam Avenue
New York NY 10025
(212) 749-2929
www.cafefrida.com

Apparently many sites haven't yet recognized the new Cafe Frida location so here are the links to the other locale on Columbus:
Yelp Profile
NY Magazine Profile
Citysearch Profile