On Saturday night of my New York City trip I was staying with two of my best friends (who are married to each other). They wanted to take me to their favorite Mexican place in their neighborhood. From their apartment at 100th and Broadway we walked to Gabriela's at 93rd Street and Columbus Ave.
When we arrived, my friends informed me that during the summer Gabriela's has an incredible outdoor patio. They had white, twinkle lights up all along the patio and I could just imagine how bustling it is during the warm weather.
When we walked in I was surprised how big the restaurant is. You just don't tend to see really large restaurants in Manhattan.
We put our name in at the hostess stand and took seats at the bar while we waited. Right away I noticed the pyramid of tequila behind the bar. How awesome is this?
I also love the round, terra cotta colored light fixtures illuminating the tequila pyramid.
Before we even had a chance to decide on drinks the hostess called our names! What a delightful surprise!
We were seated at a roomy table for four on the back wall of the restaurant. Our table was right next to a private room, which was also shockingly big!
I love the decor in Gabriela's. They have decorative plates mounted on the walls, colored ceramic tiles in the columns and these cool, curved benches at their booths.
As soon as we sat down our waiter brought us a basket of yellow, corn tortilla chips and a side of both red and green salsa. The green salsa had an awesome kick to it. I couldn't get enough.
Gabriela's has one of the largest margarita and tequila menus I have ever seen! I was having a really tough time deciding what to order. I ultimately chose something called the rainbow margarita.
As you can see, the margarita has three flavors: strawberry, lime and mango, and it's served frozen. This reminded me of the firecracker popsicles (red, white and blue) that I love to order at the ice cream truck at Nantasket Beach. Plus, with this drink, I didn't have to settle on just one flavor of margarita!
My friend ordered the passion fruit margarita (also frozen) which was incredible! The passion fruit flavor was a bit tart, cutting the usual sweetness of a fruit flavored marg.
The token boy at our table ordered a glass of tequila on the rocks.
As we were looking at the food menu I saw guacamole get delivered to a neighboring table and it came in a tortilla chip bowl. Um, yes please!
We ordered the guac and it was so fresh. The flavor was delicious, not too heavy on the cilantro.
For dinner we tried a wide variety of things. One friend ordered the butternut squash soup, which may seem an odd choice at a Mexican restaurant, but it was actually awesome and had a bit of spice to it.
To go with his soup he ordered the fish taco appetizer, which was a good size and the tacos were topped with crisp, fresh veggies.
My other friend ordered the veggie burrito which comes with beans and rice. She said it was outstanding and she hasn't had a better burrito anywhere else. Well then!
I went with the chile relleno. The chile was breaded, fried, stuffed with cheese and then sent for a swim in a sea of spicy tomato sauce. This was so fantastic that I literally finished it in four minutes. If you like stuffed peppers, Gabriela's makes a mean one!
Gabriela's is the total package. The restaurant is spacious (a rarity in New York City), the servers are attentive, the drink menu is massive (and fun!), the food is authentic Mexican and I am positive it's a blast in the summer on the patio. In fact, I plan to go back and test my hypothesis.
