Calle Dao — Restaurant in New York

Very nice and welcoming restaurant with amazingly friendly staff. I came for my birthday at dinner and then came back for lunch. At dinner, despite the absolute crowds in the place, the waiters never missed a neat and we're always checking on tables. At lunch, it's more relaxed, but the servers continued to be a great asset to the overall enjoyment of eating and taking your time in the restaurant. The overall feel of Calle Dao is open and inviting. It has some neon light fixtures and an old-fashioned looking bar to the side, as well as an inner dining room behind a very beautiful black gate. Bits of Chinese paraphernalia, like the wooden lattice closet, pepper the scenery. They also have an outdoor seating area. Entering for dinner, I came with friends and we luckily got a table quickly, just before dinner rush was in full swing. Now that the pandemic is virtually over for most people, the area's bars and restaurants become hubs of incredible throngs of activity once work is over, so either come a bit early or have a reservation if you have a group. For lunch, it is more relaxed and open, but I recommend coming at later hours, brtwee 4pm and 7pm, preferably, because happy hour foods are worth it. I didn't take any photos of the dinner because I was too busy having fun. But the experience was amazing. I had the char siu pork belly and the table ordered duck bao and tostones with pork, as well as several rounds of sangria and margaritas. The pork was tender, with a sweet sauce. It was so rich that even the small block I got was filling. Duck bao comes with three bao and a leg that you cut yourself to mimic a Peking duck bun. It was nice and crispy. Pork on tostones was the best bite of the night, as the tostones were fried well, and the pork was juicy. Just before dessert, one of the bartenders gave me a free shot for my birthday, and he was very attentive to my liking of fruity drinks versus alcoholic ones. We ordered a tres leches for dessert, and the staff lit the candles and told us the cake was on the house. It was probably one of the best birthdays in a restaurant I ever had, and the staff were 100% critical to the experience. At lunch time, I came and sat at the open door area, just bordering the street. The server was very attentive and energetic. I saw her speaking and being friendly with other patrons, and she helped some of them with directions in the area, too. She gave me the recommendation of yucca fries over tostones, which was a great idea because the yucca fries come with a delicious aioli and a gochujang ketchup, which was probably the best ketchup I ever had. The yucca itself was thick and crispy. It was also very filling, almost so much that I was thinking I couldn't finish my chicken and rice. The chicken was juicy and tender, undersold as just breast on the menu when it, in fact, comes with a nice drumette. The rice has peas and bits of pork mixed in but I couldn't taste any saffron, though it was a pretty yellow. There was also a tomato red sauce and a scallion green sauce on the chicken, both of which were delicious. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in the area who wants to have...

Latin Restaurant deal drew me to try this spot. My unfortunate luck. Seems like no reservations get you seated at the table behind the hostess with a birds eyeview of front and back pockets of every person at the bar. Every customer who came in and the waitstaff had to shimmy and squeeze to get past the people at the bar and the 2x2 table we sat at. The people at the bar who are not remotely aware people are sitting behind them when they back up to the table. Very uncomfortable eating with people's behinds, moving back and forth coming too close to the table. No one else was seated at any table behind us, and there were about 4 or 5 tables. Big clues we didn't see until after we ordered our appetizer and entree. Another clue..our waitress became the bartender after she placed our order..never said a word or came back. Finally, I had to ask the waiter who refilled our water 4x about our waitress and that we were ready for dessert and the bill. He returned with the credit machine and held it so close to my face I had to push it back to focus and see the charges. He refused to let it go so I could hold it and sign, saying something to the effect that they were not allowed to let the customer hold the machine. I support local restaurants, and wait staff workers but I struggled to leave a tip for this service and blatant insensitive wait staff. The hostess 2 of them, never asked or checked in on us. It was so obvious that seating us there was a bad choice. If you do go to try this spot, there's more room further in. Do yourself a favor and don't sit behind the hostess along the wall opposite the bar. The hostess and restsurant should know better as well. But I guess it's all about the $$$. I can't and would not recommend this spot to anyone local or visiting. I'm sure they'd say it was an off day. I read the room, and if I were a hostess and had to squeeze past this table and the bar 2x, let alone the 10x she did I would have known immediately these customer's are in a bad spot let me check on them, or offer...

I finally tried Calle Dao one Tuesday night. Two of my friends and I came in for our 6:30 reservation. They have happy hour from 4-7 ($8 glasses of house white, red, or rose, and select cocktails), which is valid at the table as well.

To start, we had some happy hour $1 oysters and clams. These were pretty basic. The oysters were pretty tiny. We also ordered the Cuban sliders (2 per order), which I loved. Instead of buns, they used fried plantains, which was a unique spin. I normally don't even like plantains but I liked them with these sammies.

For mains, we decided to order two entrees and share. It was more than enough for three people, with leftovers. I think the dishes are meant for sharing anyway, similar to Chinese-style dinners. We had the Peking-Style Half Chicken in Banana Leaves (braised chinese eggplant, parsley rice, tomate de árbol-parsley sauce). The chicken was a bit on the dry side, but the parsley rice was great. It had a lot of flavor, yet the parsley wasn't overbearing, as it easily can be. Next, we had the Black Rice Seafood Paella (top neck clams, shrimp, mussels, calamari, chorizo,beets, daikon radish, chimichurri-sofrito sauce). The chorizo that's mentioned is actually Chinese sausage. I didn't even know there was sausage in there, so it was a nice surprise for me. They give a pretty generous amount of seafood too.

Usually, I'm pretty iffy about fusion places because they're not really fusion. They're more than likely just one restaurant serving two different types of cuisines. But Calle Dao did a great job in taking two very different cultures, and meshing them together. I'll definitely be back for some more Cuban sliders, and to try some of their ceviche, and skirt steak.

Tip - it seems like they like to use a lot of cilantro and/or ginger, so if you hate either of these, you may not...