Añejo — Restaurant in New York

(A copy of my Yelp review)

Attended a brunch here this past weekend (June 29, 2019) for a party of ~20 ppl, we had a pre-fixe menu for the party and given the size of the party this review may not be applicable to parties of smaller sizes.

Food: 4 stars - As mentioned given the size of our party the restaurant was good about working with us to set up a 3 course pre-fixe menu. There was a set price for the menu and everything was brought out family style, so it made it easier to bring out the food. Everything was delicious (yum chicken chilaquiles!) and additional items could be ordered for an added price should you require additional food.

Drinks: 4 stars - Brunch came with unlimited Margarita, Bloody Maria's, Mimosas or Sangria. I stuck with the margaritas which were good and everyone else enjoyed their drinks as well.

Service: 1 star - The staff was really friendly, however service was terribly slow. While the people running the food were speedy with bringing out the various dishes, we constantly had to order and remind our server for refills on drinks and water. We had a few late joiners to our party and it took a while to get them set up with plates and utensils; same with requests for new plates if they got taken away when they cleared the table for the next dish. I get that we were a big party but this place is not that big (we probably made up 1/3 of the restaurant) and it wasn't like we were a 20 party walk in. This reservation was made weeks in advance, they knew we were coming, bringing out pitchers to refill glasses would have been much faster then making each mimosa individually at the bar ... it doesn't take long to fill a carafe with water, one shouldn't ask 3 times and wait almost 20 minutes for water.

Overall experience: 0.5 stars - Anejo has these retractable doors that opens up the restaurant for an indoor / outdoor experience. Cute in theory, but when it is 90 degrees in the NYC heat and humidity the novelty wears off quickly. Especially when this place has NO fans or A/C. It was entirely too hot (idk how their servers and staff endure these conditions, the servers were drenched in sweat, I am sure there are rules against making people work in these conditions). Requests to close the doors or turn on the A/C were declined. With the patrons sweating in the heat, you would think the staff would be more prompt to keep them hydrated, but no such luck (See my earlier review on service). A few individuals in our party had to leave early as the heat was too much for them. As we were settling the bill (This place only accepts 2 cards for large parties so make sure your party brings cash, we did) our server was real prompt to make it known there was another party right after us and that we needed to clear the table ASAP, a few of us still had drinks to finish, we had already finished eating but no one was clearing the table, and they had not yet run our card...wish the servers were as prompt during the meal as they were to make sure we left in order to sit their next party.

Overall the food was good and the staff was friendly, just not very efficient. Sitting there in the heat for two hours was not enjoyable. If we weren't such a large we probably would have left to another location. There is a plethora of options in the area to eat and drink, but as the days heat up in NYC, unless you notice that the A/C is on when you walk in, do yourself a favor and go...

When Añejo first opened, I remember having a really solid time with delicious food and drinks. I was invited here for a boozy brunch yesterday and, while in the end it was fine, it started out extremely stressful and frenetic.

Our server was telling us that EVERYONE must put in their FULL order by 2:30 and not a second later or else we couldn’t do the (strictly) 90 minute bottomless special. We had every order except for our final friend who was running late and this was not going to fly with the server.

Apparently “the kitchen closes” at 4 (which it ultimately didn’t). And “the servers start going home at 4” (which they didn’t). Confusing.

I know rules are rules but these rigid guidelines aren’t listed on the brunch menu at all. In fact, they continue seating for brunch until 3PM. So would those seated at 3 automatically miss the bottomless special? Strange.

Drinks are lackluster / very watered down — especially the margaritas.

The guacamole is delicious and the coconut French toast as well.

Entrees were fine.

Our server — again, rules rules rules — didn’t love the idea of bottomless. We aren’t a group that’s downing the drinks the second they hit the table..but why offer bottomless if you’re not going to give bottomless drinks?

Our server made sure to let us know when it was last call.

I am willing to chalk it up to the pandemic and restaurants having to hire inexperienced people who are just looking for...

Delicious - we started with the guac trio - the bacon was hard to taste among the guac, which was fine because the guacamole itself is tasty. The pineapple spicy guacamole was FANTASTIC.

Actually we started with a pitcher of house margaritas, 1 pitcher exactly filled the 4 glasses they gave us. Delicious, not watered down.

I had the shrimp tacos - an excellent choice. Friends had the barbacoa ("yummy but a but heavy, expected from the dish though") and the fish tacos ("spot on!").

We finished with churros, perfect because it came with 5 mini churros (2 nice bites each). 3 sauces came with it - chocolate, dulce de leche, and raspberry. We each chose 2 sauces and dipped each end of our churros - I chose chocolate and dulce de leche- the former was decadent, the latter could have been sweeter. The raspberry was reported by my dining companions to be overly sweet and fake tasting.

All in all a great meal, total after tax and before tip came to $204 for 5 people. $40 per person for dinner in NYC including 1 margarita, 1 entree and 1 dessert is great, especially since everything was fresh...