La Contenta LES — Restaurant in New York

I visited this place for the first time nine years ago, and I was impressed by their drinks and starters at that time.

Before I share my experience, I want to give a big shout-out to the warm and friendly service. The staff is incredibly nice and always there to help ensure you have a great experience. They are polite and treat you well, making it easy to consider coming back.

Now, let's talk about the food. The whole experience was fantastic, but I want to highlight the dishes we tried that day.

To Start: We ordered fish tacos and classic guacamole. I’m not a big fan of fish, but those fish tacos were really, really good. The guacamole was fresh and tasty, a perfect match with their totopos.

Main Course: I really wanted to try their Pollo en Mole Poblano, but we arrived too early for it. However, it was very kind of them to open the lunch menu for us before 4 PM.

Enchiladas Suizas: Five stars! I loved how they were prepared. They had the perfect level of spiciness, enhancing the flavors without being overpowering. This is exactly the amount of spice I enjoy in a dish.

Huarache de Camarón: This dish included masa dough, grilled shrimp, bean purée, Swiss cheese, and roasted salsa. The roasted salsa was incredible—so rich in flavor. Five stars!

Branzino Veracruz: This dish featured Branzino with Veracruz sauce and Mexican rice. It had incredible, rich flavors. It was lightly spicy, just enough to enhance the experience. Five stars!

I am a big fan of desserts and always look for something interesting and memorable.

I ordered their Tres Leches cake made with pulque and corn flour. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very happy with my choice. The flavor was different—not too sweet, just perfect. It was a unique experience that I really enjoyed.

Will I come back? Absolutely! I can’t wait to try their Pollo en Mole Poblano. I highly...

Okay, this was my first visit and I brought my friends who were visiting the city. The reasons I chose to come here while I had a few other safe options where I've had more experiences with were - A)I wanted to show them around the nice neighbor of LES and B)the reviews were just great. In fact, all the reviews have been only 5 stars so far and you know this isn't something you'll see from even Michelin starred restaurants. Then the number of reviews is pretty low for such a highly rated restaurant, so I thought the comments were unreal or this is a real hidden gem spot. No wonder I arrived here with half excitement and half concern.

When our table was set, we noticed some of the dishes and cups weren't clean and had to ask for replacements. Then chips were served to start with and they were damp... I was really surprised because I believe chips and guac are like the most basics of the Mexican cuisine and yet the chips here contained too much moisture to say they were freshly made. The second dish of chips, however, was okay. The food and drinks overall were mediocre - there was nothing special to notice in the freshness or quality of the ingredients placed inside tacos. The texture of fried fish was pretty soft but the composition of ingredients including the mayo-based sauce on top didn't provide any personality to the fish taco dish. My friend enjoyed the braised chicken breast but it was just okay for me - the chicken wasn't cooked tender and the sauce was bit salty. The drinks were good but not like these can't be seen in other restaurants.

I don't think my expectation was particularly high for a five starred place but not all the experiences can be equally pleasing... Unfortunately, mine was disappointing and I hope to be entertained more for my next visit if I have a chance, so I can agree to other...

Drinks here are amazing, but the food looks bad and doesn't make up for the price on its taste. Also the place is extremely crowded I guess because is one of those trendy places because it is new in that area. I hated the experience, it was overly crowded, the music way to loud and the servers got an attitude of "Please eat fast and leave so we can get more people in". I give it one star because the drinks, other than that that place sucks. If you come with one extra guest you won't be able to sit your guest, there is no space, tables are too close to each others, to me this place is a disaster, expensive, bad service, over crowded, nasty food and with the music too loud, go if you want to waste your money. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• MY ANSWER TO THE OWNER: As you can see in the picture I just posted this restaurant has a very bad customer service policy. I do not work for a competing restaurant or any restaurant for that matter, I just happen to be an unsatisfied customer and the way that the person in charge of this decided to answer me is very disappointing. Old or new, I visited your restaurant once and it was enough for me to get out of it unhappy, your duty as manager or owner should have been to apologize and assure me as well as other customers that I probably had a bad experience because I visited on a crowded day or something like that, but instead you choose to attack me and make a false assumption about my reasons to dislike your restaurant. I give lots of reviews to other places too, and if you see contributions here I rarely refer to places in a negative way, however if I did not feel comfortable at your restaurant because of the reasons I explained the review above you should just take that information and try to work with it to improve your business instead of...