La Contenta Oeste — Restaurant in New York

Great menu, fantastic service, ideal location! I’m from south Texas and finding quality mexican food or tex mex is near impossible. I’ve been happy to see that places like this can exist in Manhattan; offering quality food, generous portions, and not for an explosive price. I feel anything that resembles authenticity in this city, automatically inflates in value. There are varied indoor and outdoor seating types including covered outdoor bubbles, a covered outdoor patio, and indoor small tables!

I highly recommend coming here if you’re a Mezcal fan! Some great cocktails with various twists.

Food/Drinks: 8/10 The crab taquitos were tasty! They were smothered with cheese and mild sauce and salsa. They did not feel heavy though, they had a very clean flavor and helped me feel a little bit better about diving in head first to a mexican menu. The tacos were very good! The seasoning was just enough to be tasty but not over the top or salty like tex mex styles. The chicken enchiladas were the most memorable. I am usually not too excited about chicken as my protein in most meals due to its bland and boring contributions, but this chicken was flavored nicely and complimented the enchiladas well. The mezcal cocktails were excellent and a fun feature for everyone to try. Overall the food wasn’t memorable since my exposure to high quality mexican food is immeasurable, but it was definitely tasty and a staple for Manhattan’s West Village.

Service: 5/5 Was there for 3 hours and had excellent service. Waters were refilled way more than needed, which was great because I felt obligated to drink more!

Experience: 5/5 Great for a date spot. It’s classy enough for a date, but casual enough for West Village! Having various types of seating during Covid is a selling point. The elaborate menu made me have to be a little pickier. Great for tacos, drinks, or entrees!

Value: 5/5 The prices are fair in general. For $15 you’re getting two tacos, but the tacos are OVERLOADED with meat (see pictures). The entrees are normal sizes entrees you see outside of the city, served with rice and beans making it a killer value. The crab taquitos were a little small, but worth it for splitting with the table. Drinks, a few tequila shots, an order of tacos, taquitos, and one entree split between two people was a perfect amount and ran us about $60 a person. Food only can be $20-40 a person depending on what you want to try. Overall, a very good value for the location and portion size!

Definitely a must stop place for a date, a night out with friends, cocktails, tacos... you name it. I can find that this place has something to offer nicely for any...

Poor service. Mediocre food. EDIT: I would love to elaborate, since you've asked. Let's start with the service. Since the music playing at the bar where we were seated was blasting at about 1000 decibels, making it impossible to have a conversation without yelling, we politely asked the bartender if he would mind lowering the volume just a bit. He couldn't hear what we were asking at first (shocker) and finally, after repeating the request much louder so he could hear over the music, he replied, "No. No, we can't do that." After a few more ear-bleeding minutes, we finally asked the host if it would be possible to lower the volume, to which he replied "Of course!" and swiftly accommodated our request. Apparently, this upset our bartender who went on to completely ignore us for the next 10-15 minutes. Since we were no longer being served and could not seem to get this gentleman's attention, we got up and moved to a table to order our food. About 10-12 minutes went by at the table before a server arrived (it should be noted that the restaurant was at less than 1/3 capacity). We ordered guacamole and chicken tacos. The guacamole came out first. I found it to be under-seasoned and very much like something one would purchase from a supermarket. The tacos came next. They too were under-seasoned and additionally lacking in any spice. No hot sauce or other condiments were provided or offered by the servers. I hope this was the kind of detail that you were looking for, Chef Mota. Perhaps you should focus on making sure that your cooks are consistent in their food preparation for all patrons, since it sounds from your response that you allow them to do their...

My friend and I decided to check out La Contenta Oeste at 1:30pm on a Saturday. We made reservations, and the restaurant was decently crowded, so I would recommend reservations. We were seated at an oddly located 2-top table that seemed to be in the way of anyone walking by. I personally think the interior could use a bit of an upgrade for the vibe I think this restaurant is going for. The bar area seems very bougie, but the rest of the restaurant is not.

We ordered the guacamole ($16), huevos rancheros ($17), and quesadilla ($17). The guacamole was tasty, but I thought the chips were a tad oily and tough. I could have demolished the guac with some Tostitos. My friend ordered the quesadilla and mentioned the most distinguishing factor was the use of oaxaca cheese, which elevated the taste. I thought the huevos rancheros were good, but nothing special. I think if the chips are made the same way as the tortillas, I just don't like the way this restaurant makes them / the source they are bought from.

Service was great, albeit a tad aggressive. However, it was not aggressive to push us out! It seemed like the staff was striving to be extremely hospitable. For example, I still had my fork in my hand and a bit of beans and a slice of egg left, and one of the staff tried to take my plate away. After this, they still refilled our waters, so that's how I know they were not trying to kick us out. Overall, I think prices are reasonable for the location, so it's a solid spot to check out...