#37 – PAELLA at CALIU

For the third year in a row, I’m going to attempt to eat every single item on Time Out New York’s annual 100 Best Dishes list. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100. Let the gluttony continue…

There was something not quite right about Caliu. Maybe that’s why Lady Gaga famously spent a New Year’s Eve here a while back. It felt a little sloppy, amateurish, and almost as if we had stumbled into some teenagers playing restaurant.

Walking down Hudson Street, we passed RedFarm and a few other restaurants that were surprisingly busy for a Wednesday night. When we arrived at Caliu, there was not a single person in the dining room. And this was at 7:30, which is closing in on prime dinner time in NY. For the record, three more groups showed up while we were dining.

This restaurant serves moderately priced Spanish tapas and wines to go along with them. I knew each time one of our dishes was ready because I literally heard the chef call across the dining room for the food runner to come pick up the food. Not even a bell?

The first two dishes were promising: Buñuelos de Calabaza (little donuts of butternut squash puree) were soft and tender with just the right amount of sweetness from a maple yogurt) and Montado de Lomo (nicely tender pork tenderloin) was held up on the toast by dollops of a tangy spiced goat cheese.

After that, we started to see the restaurant’s weaknesses. The calamari came out slightly undercooked and rubbery with a lingering metallic taste. There was no char or crispness and the pool of squid ink was uninspired. The brussels sprouts were fine but got weighed down a bit by the ham vinaigrette and could have also used more char.

The paella is probably what they’re most famous for (like any good Spanish restaurant oughta be) and it’s what Time Out included on their list. It ended up being a rather small plate, but was filling enough. There is a focus here on the crunchy layer of paella called soccarat (the menu even calls the dish Crujiente – which translates to crunchy). It was indeed crunchy. It actually reminded me of when I was younger and would put bologna in the microwave for an afternoon snack.

I enjoyed the crunchy texture and the smoky, salty, spicy flavor combinations, but I thought the ingredients were lacking a little. There was a nice tasty hunk of homemade chorizo, but the calmari was again lackluster while the cockles and mussels were all shell and no meat. If it wasn’t for the well-cooked rice and pork, I’d have written this off completely. And, where is the dramatic skillet this dish is often served with? That’s half the fun, isn’t it? Oh, these kids and their restaurant!

Would Caliu’s Paella make my Top 100 of the Year? 6 out of 10 since I’ve had much better versions and there was something about this restaurant that was a little dank and amateurish.