La Ñapa — Restaurant in New York

Happy to see a new restaurant in the neighborhood when I first walked by. I finally walked in for lunch with a friend and my excitement was quickly dulled. First off, I love local spots and I want them to work. New spots with new chefs are amazing, but the understanding has to be clear about the value proposition that makes a good experience. Here are the keys.

-service -portion to value understanding -neighborhood context for price and customer flavor, taste, menu, etc

My friend and I looked on the menu for some options. It was lunch so we figured tacos would be good, and also judging by the waiters suggestion ordered 4.

When they arrived I was greeted by the smallest taco I have ever seen. And, I lived in SoCal, where the tacos are plentiful. Now, if it was $2, or 2.50 cool, but these mini bites masquerading as tacos were $5-7. Mind you they were good, but the portion was inadequate for the price. We’re in crown heights people, not TriBeCa. Needless to say, all the food was at least 30-40% more expensive than it should be and 30-40% smaller than it should be.

I give three stars, because the taste was good, but sadly the price and portion are the key adequate reasons that make us go back and become a regular patron.

Side notes, the service was fine, but nothing notable. The chef was not relational, but perhaps it was an off day.

The Closing statement is this:

Understand your clientele and also the value proposition that makes a restaurant powerful where it is positioned. Get better La Napa, I want to...

La Napa I love you, and I would also love for you to definitively improve your take out/delivery order experience or not do it at all.

Every order I’ve made since my first order has made me question whether or not to order again, but the chicharrones which are never messed up keep me coming back (though it’s been about 6 months since my last order since that was a bad experience). Last night I ordered shrimp arepa and a double cheeseburger. Ate the arepa. My god. Chef put their foot in it. Tonight I took out my double cheeseburger. Instead I found a double…burger. No cheese, no bacon. I can kind of forgive the forgotten bacon but I don’t know a soul in their life who has ordered a double burger- it’s not even on the menu. Someone had to look at this and feel like it was missing something.

Sometimes the burger tastes handmade, sometimes it looks and tastes like bulk frozen patties from the way back of the freezer. My previous arepa experience scarred me and had me questioning the other positive reviews. But the problem is just that your kitchen is marvelously inconsistent. This is not a money grab, I already got a refund from DoorDash, it’s just a dedicated plea from a disappointed hungry person...

Dined-out here last Friday. We were able to take our food to the Pub next door.

Really nice curb appeal with the display of their vast wine collection. I could literally stand all day looking over their wines. Aside from two bottles of wine, we also ordered their house lemonade and margarita.

Their Venezuelan tapas style menu seemed very different and intriguing. We ordered four tacos, spinach appetizer and two arepas. Out of all the tacos, the duck pastor really really stood out. Also liked the beef and chicken. My least favorite was the mushroom. Disclaimer, their arepas are HUGE. Like the size of my head. Thick, dripping with garlic aioli and queso, rich in flavor. The two of us got full from half of one arepa. I took the rest home and got 2 lunches out of it. The catalina (spinach) appetizer was a good respite from all the fried dough that we had been eating. Very tasty too!

I would come back to try the yucca balls and the lamb chops. Really wished they had some outdoor dining situation going. They do have the sidewalk space for it too. In the meantime, will be back for more...