Cocina Economica Mexico

Cool hole in the wall amongst packed bars. Amazing skirt steak nachos. Amazing soft shell crab special. Ceviche was good but do not order unless you like spice. I couldn’t feel my face afterwards! :-)

This place is closed.

I almost died having a bite of their striped bass taco. Fish was so spicy. I did not expect that. I took a bite and spiciest and bitterness taco in my life. From all those flavors I could not breathe… Omg! I turned red. That was almost the end.
On the other hand, the decorations are nice in this cozy place (one star). Drinks are good and yummy. (One star)
I got my milk to save my thought from burning.
The service was mediocre.
Do you think I will ever come back?
–No!!!
–I want to live!
There are so many other choices of amazing Mexican restaurant in New York, thank God!

3 stars for lunch — still 4 for dinner.
The lunch menu is very limited. The kitchen staff may even be different because the food was good but not as outstanding as some of the dishes we’ve had there at night.

Great Mexican food on the UWS. Comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. Perfect place for Unilocalers.

I ended up coming here when the restaurant I wanted to go to was too full, but I am glad I did!
The food is good quality, and I love the intimate space this restaurant creates while still maintaining a well-​lit, festive atmosphere.
The food is «upscale Mexican» — at upscale Mexican prices — but I appreciate they also offer some healthier options, like grilled cooking methods and vegetarian options.
I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to come here, but I am certainly glad I did come and really enjoyed my experience overall.

We love this place! Simple, reasonably priced, creative menu, and fresh ingredients!
I love their special tacos, such as the cactus taco, and their special shrimp quesadillas are great!
Mix and match 3 enchiladas for a meal!
I didnt know they served alcohol… but I am pretty sure a while back we brought in our own cans of beer from the bodega next door. Not sure if things have changed?

We came here for an early dinner on a weekday and were the 2^nd people in there … very cute atmosphere, small/​narrow restaurant. The food here is delicious! We ordered the guacamole, avocado cornbread, ceviche, two tacos (beef cheek and carnitas) and the steak salad. When the guacamole came out I thought it was small, but it turned out to be the perfect serving amount for the two of us (it comes with blue corn tortilla chips). They gave us a little tray of two different sauces, one red and one green, lime slices, and what seemed to be pickled jicama/​tomatoes. The ceviche was fresh and had fish, octopus, shrimp, jicama, peppers, cilantro, radishes, red onion and lime/​lemon juice. The steak salad was pretty good, they give you a good amount of steak. I had the beef cheek and carnitas tacos and both were really good! The meat was juicy and flavorful. We had the avocado cornbread the very first time we came here but didn’t order it the second time around … I think it is a bit overrated, but good to try for the first time. From what I remember it was a bit dry and crumbly and did not detect the avocado in it at all. Overall, a very good Mexican restaurant, would come here again in the future!

Many people have misconception with mexican food in USA. If you are looking for burritos or a tex-​mex taco then its not a right place. They have an authentic mexican dish and a great ambience. For a moment you might feel like you walked into a restaurant in mexico. Hats off to the designer who put his/​her creative concept behind it.
Don’t forget to try their tortillas with spicy fries if u are there for your lunch. Margarita is a must try too, try it with the spicy chill rim.

Another failed attempt at Mexican in NYC – just what we need. Not sure why these restaurants can’t get it right? You need good cheese, savory beans & rice, hand made tortillas and you are already half way there. But some restaurants get caught up in the presentation and drink options and CEM is no exception.
I ordered chicken enchiladas with roja sauce, and rice and beans. I received 3 corn tortillas, filled with chicken breast cubes and corn pieces. No cheese whatsoever, inside or out – thus nothing to hold them together. Even worse, the «roja» sauce was merely a sprinkled chili powder rubbed onto the tortillas. There was no sauce at all.
Sadly, the rice and beans were about as tasteless as you can get. To cook good beans, there probably needs to be some fat involved at some point of the process. Who are the chefs at these restaurants?
I’ve lived in NY for 4 years and Houston for 10+, and if one TX restaurant would open up here, they’d make a killing.

I waited way too long to come here. I’m moving away from the UWS/​NY in about three weeks and came here for the first time last week. I feel like life with me is perpetual amateur hour.
Walked in and there was a little bit of a wait. The space is pretty tiny — only a few tables and some seating at the bar.
Once seated, we got things moving with the red sangria. This stuff is pretty good — not too sweet and they throw in some Bacardi Silver. Nice touch.
For our appetizers we got the avocado corn bread and the grilled calamari. The avocado corn bread is tasty and CHEAP ($ 2.50). It’s a pretty small serving and I think next time I’d probably go with one order per person. The grilled calamari was great. It’s mixed nicely with red onion, cilantro and mango and topped with pepitas. Yum.
For my entrée I got the pork enchiladas with the salsa rojo. Sooo good. Really an excellent/​filling $ 10 meal. The pork was flavorful and the salsa rojo is fantastic.
If I make it back here before I move I want to try the burrito — their flour tortillas are homemade.
Only drawbacks: no outdoor seating and service can be somewhat slow.

My doorman suggested I try this Mexican place so I figured it must be a good recommendation. I made the mistake of calling in my order before I was completely sure of what I wanted but the woman who helped me was INCREDIBLY patient and helpful (it wasn’t during a busy time of day, otherwise I would have called back).
The food was delicious. The chicken burrito was a LITTLE spicy and not as filling as the burritos you can get for two dollars more at Great Burrito. However, I thought it was totally worth it for the lunch-​time special. I was also thrilled with their guacamole and chips. I usually like plain corn chips but I really liked their blue chips a lot, the texture was great. In addition to that, the guacamole was flavorful but not spicy which I find to be a rare find in Mexican restaurants. I would definitely come back for that side again.

Still searching for an outstanding Enchilada. I used to frequent the last restaurant in this space, Recipe. They didn’t change much, only the décor on the walls.
I ate here last night w a buddy. We sat at the bar.
The house margarita was pretty good. Not too sweat…
We ordered Chips and Guac ($ 6), but not enough chips to finish the guac and then they charge you for extra chips ($ 2). Hell, what’s 2 bucks, but it just bothered me… They give you a small cast iron bowl of chips, about 10 – 15 with your guac and then charge you for a refill… 99% of mexican restaurants give you free chips and salsa… Again, not the $ 2 that ticked me off, just the principal, I guess. A little ridiculous.
My buddy ordered Chicken Enchiladas Verdes and I ordered Roja… Both were good, but not great… Once again NYC Mexican falls short.
I want to go back and try the other entrees, they looked good.

Valentina cocktail, ok not great. Go for Oliva if you like cilantro. Not sweet, just perfect with the kick of cayenne pepper on the rim.
The guac was good. The waiter recommended the the salmon wrapped in banana leaf, I ordered it medium and it came well done ;[ I should have known, this isn’t a seafood place. My husband had the Pork Shoulder, very flavorful, a bit spicy.
Would come back for the Olivia drink, but would try another dish. Ok food, but not the best mexican I’ve had.

During last night’s snow storm, my partner and I ventured out for dinner and ended up here. It wasn’t too busy, which was nice — the place is pretty small.
I honestly wasn’t expecting a lot but was really pleasantly surprised! We shared the guacamole and chips to start; the guac was fresh and not overly flavored; the flavor came from the accompanying salsas. My favorite was the red — super spicy but super flavorful. I also liked that the portion of chips wasn’t too big; hate filling up before the main course comes!
She had chicken tacos and really liked them; I has the carne asana which was perfectly cooked and delicious. It came with some mixed vegetables — the potatoes were nice and I even are the kale. And I hate kale! But it was really quite good. The only veggie that was over cooked were the snap peas. But to quote Meatloaf, two out of three ain’t bad. :)
Will definitely be returning!

Good, cheap Mexican in the area.
I stopped by with two friends on a Sunday around noon, and it was not very busy at all. We split an order of the fried dough and the avocado cornbread, and the latter was much better than the former; I found the fried dough to be too flimsy to retain any flavor or provide any sustenance, while the avocado cornbread was really nice with subtle flavors. For my entrée, I had the sausage and cheese with poached eggs, which was very tasty. The salad that it came with was indeed a bit lacking, but the potatoes were decent, and the eggs were poached nicely.
The service was about average, with our server having to pull someone else over to answer our questions but was otherwise alright. It’s a nice, small spot for cheap, tasty Mexican in the area, and I would come back if I desired such a meal in the UWS.

We tried to join the hype at «good enough to eat», but there was a line at 2:45pm on a Sunday. Then we tried Jacob’s pickles, and there was an hour long wait.
Unilocal came to our rescue! We found this spot and glad we did. This place is small and cozy, such a cute little set up. We warmed up with a tequila drink for the man, and sangria for me. Then start off with 2 tacos each (steak, pork, lamb and octopus). They were very tasty especially the lamb taco. We also ordered 2 entrees off their brunch menu. I had poached eggs with steak and the bf had eggs over easy with pork enchiladas. Both dishes were very good. I am so glad we came here instead of feeding he overhyped restaurants in the area.
The menu is affordable and tasty, we would love to come back to check out their dinner menu one of these days.

My friend Monica insist it is a must-​try NYC mexican chain with nice lunch deal.
Of course I gonna be impressed by there guacamole. The staff just out a cart and start peeling in front of you. Cannot be more seductive…
But I have to say it is not quite satisfactory to have the lunch set. Feel like some baby set though the fish taco tastes good.

5 words.
MEATBALLS & CHORIZO FONDUE CON CHIPS. We ordered it because it sounded «different.» But never have I ever tasted anything so heavenly and tittilating. LOVE LOVE.
Then I surprised myself by ordering the Braised Pork Shoulder. Everything was fantastic, despite the fact that they still included beans in my plate. But without the tortillas, the meat /​sauce was a little on the salty side.
Also, love that the salsas here are actually spicy, as they should be! Perhaps, even a little bit too much: P

My girlfriend recommended this place to me, after she had a good experience here the other day. We are absolute foodies, and I totally loved this place. I also liked Recipe a lot which was here before, although that was a bit more expensive if I recall that correctly. I liked the styling of Recipe better.
Enough beating around the bush. The experience:
Cocktails:
My girlfriend and I washed down our food with a bunch of Olivia cocktails. They are TO DIE FOR and I highly recommend them over Mojito’s or Margarita’s that you can get any day of the week anywhere else. Very refreshing with the cucumber and all the other fresh ingredients.
Starters:
We started off with Avocado Cornbread. SO good, that words don’t do it justice. We also ordered grilled calamari: SO good, that I can’t wait to sit there again to scarf them down by myself.
Main Course:
We ordered chorizo filled taco and a lamb meat filled enchilada. I don’t know if it was because I was hungover, but I had one bite of each, and my girlfriend had to finish the rest of them. I was not crazy about them personally. The braised vegetables will even turn someone that is normally scared of vegetables into a vegetable lover, so good.
Desserts:
I went for the one with banana, and my girlfriend went for the one with pineapple. The banana dessert is highly recommended by me. Really, really good. Then again: I am a bit biased because I seem to like ANYTHING with banana. I must have been a monkey in a former lifetime or so. But get it anyway, and you can thank me later. You’ll like it, I promise!
Service:
The waitress/​bartender was prompt, kind and caring, exactly how we like it.
Reservations:
I don’t think this place takes reservations. Just arrive early on in the evening, and/​or be willing to wait half an hour, because currently this is quite a popular place on the UWS. I walked in around 6.30 PM and the place was completely full within minutes of our arrival. We had nice seats at the bar, and our glasses were constantly filled.
Bottom Line:
I had a fantastic experience between the charming ambiance, the great food and the nice staff, all while being able to stay within 5 minutes walking distance of where I live. People from Manhattan get a little lazy sometimes, therefore it is refreshing to find a place like this in the neighborhood that delivers such a great experience when you are looking for great Mexican cuisine, that leaves you walking out satisfied and wanting to come back for more.
Good job, guys! Please stay around! We’ll be back for sure!