Bar Verde — Restaurant in New York

I was so excited to try this place. I found it while walking home and couldn’t wait to make a reservation. My wife and I love Mexican food and as a vegetarian, a plant-based Mexican restaurant is like ... well, gold.

So why only 3 stars?

When we arrived, the hostess was quite nice and we were seated immediately despite the crowd waiting by the bar. We were seated at a table that was so close to the table next to us yet somehow in the middle of the floor. I was basically shoulder to shoulder with my neighboring diner. My wife was against the bar and as a server retrieved a coat for a leaving patron, the woman put the coat on and basically hit my wife in the face with her sleeve about 5 times. She almost knocked over my water. Obviously in a situation like that she should have put the coat on outside, but that’s another subject for another time.

About 5 minutes after that, while we were still taking our first sips of water, that kind hostess returned to ask if we wanted to move to a table that “wasn’t on the end.”

YES! I think we both shouted it at the same time in response.

She took us to another table, which, somehow was more crowded than the previous one.

Ok.

So did I mention THIS PLACE IS REALLY, REALLY LOUD?

What? You say you’re so very proud?

No, I said THIS PLACE IS REALLY, REALLY LOUD!

You’re totally right. Big crowd!

Also, it’s super tiny. Like an apartment that’s the size of a closet tiny, except 100 people are crammed inside trying to eat, drink and socialize.

In such a small space with so many people, it’s going to be loud. But it’s not loud-loud, it’s impossible to hear loud. I was actually going to suggest texting each other but it was so crowded there was little room to use our phones.

I had a menu on my lap for the duration of the meal. The server had forgotten to take it and I had no place to put it so I put it on my lap.

What about the food? Wonderful and beautiful. But it took a long time to get drinks. In fact, our first round didn’t come until after our appetizer course.

Near the “end” of the meal after the churros, that nice hostess came back and explained that she had a large part waiting to sit and said “I noticed you ordered another round of drinks and we really need this table.” She offered to pay for that round if we finished our meal at the bar.” We accepted. She was nice.

Problem is we didn’t order another round after the churros. We ordered the drinks before and, as was mentioned earlier, the crowd backed everything up. So the drinks weren’t ready in time for dessert. We got them shortly after moving to the bar. They were good, just late.

At the bar, my wife was basically sat inside the water machine. As you might have guessed, a place this small doesn’t have a big bar.

I think the quietest spot in the whole place was the bathroom. And while normally I’d call it a claustrophobic’s nightmare, it was clean. But to get to it, you had to wait for every server and diner to move or sit or something. If any single person so much as moved the path to the restrooms was blocked. Upon leaving the restroom, opening the door required praying you didn’t smack someone in the face. The door opens right next to the kitchen and second bathroom.

Had this review been solely about the food, it’s 8 stars. But a good review is about the entire experience.

Bottom line: You can have the best restaurant in the world. But if it’s in a space that’s too small, it’s not the best restaurant in the world. In this case, an otherwise delicious meal was marred by a tiny uncomfortable experience in a place so loud you can’t hear your companion. And the slowness that came from that sent everything out of whack.

The bill with the free drinks was about $180. For $180, my memory shouldn’t be how tiny and loud and uncomfortable the space was, it should be how great the food was.

My advice: If you really want to try this place, consider coming at 3 pm...

I outdoor dined here a few years ago and had a nice time, but the food was hit or miss and I was really disappointed to not be blown away by anything… I remember the things that had the most potential being off-balance, in that they were light on sauce/filling and there were preparation/cooking inconsistencies.

I just decided to give them another shot for delivery and it’s just … like it was made by someone who’s only seen Mexican or Tex-Mex food in pictures and doesn’t believe in using acid? I really, really just wanted a half decent bean burrito… their California burrito ended up not being a California burrito at all (it was a red flag that the description didn’t mention French fries, but it was the closest thing to what I wanted) and instead was a giant burrito mojado that was 90% unseasoned rice and iceberg lettuce and smothered in a sauce that seems to be trying to be a mole but tastes like somebody added some cinnamon and the mildest chile ever to Hershey’s syrup. It tasted closer to something you would put on a churro than anything that would belong on a savory dish, and I found it difficult to eat. It had very few beans, the “salsa” was super basic pico de gallo, and the guacamole looked and tasted so watery I couldn’t taste any avocado. For a $19 burrito, this is downright offensive. The mole on the croquetas was less offensive, but still not good. The croquetas themselves were like a bland hush puppy and I couldn’t make myself eat more than one. I liked that they came with pickled jalapeños, but they were sickeningly sweet with barely any acid that they were practically candied jalapeños (except that I’ve literally had candied nuts that were spicier). The only thing I finished was the empanadas, but they were basically all cheese to the point of being overwhelming and not really enjoyable. The green salsa with them was probably the most decent sauce in the meal, but it was still aggressively bland and I just liked that it was the only thing that tasted relatively fresh. There was a random side salad that was so saturated with vinaigrette that it sat limp and flat in the container, and when I swabbed a taste of the vinaigrette it tasted just as overpoweringly sweet as their moles (who puts sugar in a basic vinaigrette, let alone more sugar...

Five stars because this is a good vegan standby and deserves a good rating because it's usually very good. Nice fun vibe.

However, I don't know who was working the kitchen tonight but the food was disgusting. In the chips and salsa, the chips were literally swimming in oil, and the salsas had absolutely no flavor (the tomato one in particular was nothing more than unseasoned canned tomato puree). In the maitake tempura tacos, the tortillas were thick and undercooked, the maitake was mushy and chewy in all the wrong places, the tempura batter was raw in some spots, and the plating was horribly sloppy overall, with not even enough sauce or seasoning to redeem the dish. The burrito was okay, usually very dry and rice-forward anyways, but the side salad that came with it was drowning in dressing, and the mole again was bland. Overall, really not a good meal.

To clarify: it isn't usually this bad, I've been a number of times and won't stop coming because of this one experience, but I did want to put this out there so staff can know and adjust standards accordingly. This was Sunday night March 27th.

Otherwise, staff was great tonight, and it is a worthwhile place all the other...