Verde Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Town of Islip

After years and years of searching for a Mexican Brunch on Long Island , I stumbled on Verde Kitchen and Cocktails. After waiting a month for its opening, I was lucky enough to be one of their first customers. Not only is the food spectacular, the ambiance is truly out of this world.

The first thing that I noticed while walking into the restaurant was the colorful day of the dead style hand painted mural behind the bar. A perfect contradiction to the beautiful dark wood bar and hand made furniture collected from different parts of the island. They also have brass bowls and trinkets scattered around the front room. Reminding you of its authentic Mexican roots that's commonly paired with fresh flowers from the greenhouse. It's very charming however, the best was yet to come. As you continue to walk into the restaurant you find yourself in an exquisite greenhouse with plenty of seating. Filled with flowers and herbs that are used daily in their cocktails and food. The chairs and tables are refinished by the owners, giving the feminine green house a lovely masculine touch.

The food leaves other "Mexican" restaurants holding their heads down in shame. After being in Mexico, and having the pleasure of eating authentic street tacos, you can never go back to the "American" taco. Luckily, Zach, the head chef does a superb job recreating a street taco. Not too much, not to little. After every bite I kept on saying "this taste so fresh" and I wasn't speaking in slang.

The entrees are something that you simply can't find anywhere else- I actually dare you to find a better Carne Asada. The Skirt steak is marinated with Guajillo peppers, giving it flavor that I've never tasted before. The steak had a great char and was cook perfectly to temperature. Below the grass fed organic skirt steak was a bed of green onions and poblano peppers that were roasted perfectly. The dish also includes yellow platanos. A nice soft and sweet touch to the dish. Lastly, the avocado relish is added on top. A pleasant treasure to this sublime dish. Its served with warm tortillas and garlic rice, allowing you to remake your dish into many tacos.

As far as the drinks are concerned, I can't say enough, actually, I don't shut up about it. After drinking at Verde Kitchen and Cocktails quite a few times, I simply roll my eyes to any other restaurants that try to focus on cocktails. They just can't compare. Ian, CJ, Annie, Jen and last but certainly not least, Julie should all tap themselves on the back for being able to reproduce gorgeous cocktails time and time again. Like the tacos, every drink is so, fresh. Each cocktail is made with fresh squeezed juices topped or muddled with fruits and herbs. After coming to Verde, you won't want to drink specialty cocktails anywhere else. I promise you that.

Lastly, the brunch! The reason why I walked into those doors. The brunch is way better than any Mexican brunch I've ever had in Manhattan (and, I'm pretty sure I've been to them all). One of my favorite dishes is the Masa biscuits with chorizo gravy. The biscuits are made with masa to give it a distinct corn flavor. The gravy has their homemade chorizo that never disappoints and to top off the dish are two perfectly 2 poached eggs, served with chorizo home fries. They also offer fresh squeezed mimosas and Bloody Mary's for $5.00 that are well worth it.

With all that said, I must compliment the owners Andy and Anthony. They do a great job greeting tables with a smile on their face, always willing to explain the food and cocktail menu in great detail. They really have a passion for their restaurant and it leaves you excited to be there. I wish them all the luck in the world and I will continue to visit Verde regularly. Thanks for bringing such a fresh, hip and delicious restaurant to the south...

Meh. I have been here at least 15 times over the last few years. Parties, drinks, lunch, dinner, ect. I really want to like it, I do. But, I don't. It's always left something to be desired for even on its best day and I could never pin point what was wrong so I just always thought it was me. Upon my last visit though, I think I figured it out, its apathy. They have great recipes and a great vision, but the execution is lacking. It's like an amazing chef and owner sat down and made a great idea and exciting plan, worked there for 3 months and sold it. Food is either over seasoned or under seasoned. Sometimes it just tastes like leftovers. The only thing that is ever consistent is my level of expectations is never high for Verde so sometimes I can be presently suprised, but not usually. The margaritas are also always very very good. So drink 4 of them and eat the chips and salsa. I hate to be this harsh but it is the truth of my experience. And although I try to steer away from leaving reviews that are not positive, especially after a pandemic, this was my last visit here if I can help it, because, now, even the service has declined. The hostess was bizarrely checked out like she was going to quit that night. We asked to sit in the garden area and she said they had no tables there. Okay understandable even though it was only 5pm or so. But when I asked how long the wait would be, she seemed confused? I was basically told that no tables would be available for the rest of the night? Okay, so we just sit at the bar. Which, I'm fine with and is where I usually sit anyway. The bar tender seemed overwhelmed with the service bar and was so unattentive is was borderline rude. Having been a bartender myself I was understanding and patient, knowing that once she got caught up, she would be able to focus better on her bar patrons. Nope. I actually felt like us being at her bar was a bother to her for the entire 90 minutes. She actually attended to other patrons though a little better than us. I can only assume she knew them? Normally, I can make some comedic excuse to endure bad service. Everyone has an off day and is entitled to some grace. This was bad though. It was inexplicably bad. I was actually annoyed. Like all local businesses, I want Verde to succeed. I want everything there to be as good as the margaritas. Yet someone, like an owner or partner needs to live at this place for 2 weeks straight and get everything back on track. Taste the food before it leaves the kitchen. Fire or retrain anyone who does not have a passion for serving customers and creating a great brand experience. Clean the bathrooms. Do whatever it takes. Or, just sell the place to Besitos. Come on, it just takes some care and execution and this place could be amazing with the location, decor, and...

My friends and I gave verde a third try tonight. Yup that’s right.. 3rd try. I understand restaurants have off days so I usually give them another shot.. but tonight totally blew it for us. (1st visit the food was alright.) (2cnd visit we had hair in our food)

I wanna start off by saying our waiter was lovely.. not overly attentive, but he had so many tables so it really didn’t bother us. My friends ordered tacos, rice and beans, and I ordered chicken flautas. The taco corn tortilla was so soggy my friend couldn’t even pick up her taco to eat it.. she could only eat the fillings. The rice and beans had absolutely no flavor. My chicken flautas were missing more than half of the toppings listed on the menu. It was listed that they came with sauce and when I asked for them (because I didn’t receive them with my meal) I was charged for them. Seems ridiculous to charge me extra for sauces listed on the menu. It was a really busy night but we noticed the manager hovering in the dining room ALL night. And not a nice, warm how is your food type hover. It was a “come on hurry up” we have people waiting to be seated type hover. We all felt so rushed and uncomfortable! We caught her staring at us multiple times throughout the night, & not in a friendly manner. She was present in the dining room the majority of the night but never once asked a table how their food was. Strange. We ordered dessert and it was very clearly my friends birthday and we asked them to sing and they did not. Okay we’re adults no big deal but when they brought out the dessert we said something to the food runner and he blatantly ignored us. The churros were brought out so undercooked. The middle was gooey, and they were completely flavorless. Idk this place has such potential but the poor service and lack of flavor in their food will definitely keep us from...