Socarrat Paella Bar

Came here for late night dining after work. I LOVE a good paella and this place knows how to make ‘em the real, authentic way. I’ve had paella from Spain and it came pretty close to what I had out there. I especially enjoyed my lobster paella with actual socarrat! Lovely!
I wanted to try their Sangria, but I opted for Spanish red wine instead per our waitress’ suggestion. So glad I did. Perfect pairing with our dish.
Every staff member that night was a pleasure, contributing to a great dining experience. The restaurant was lit just right — dim but not dark. Great ambiance.

I had a food intoxication and a stomach ache for 40 hours after having eaten a few tapas. Probably the sauces. Tapas had good taste, even if overpriced.

I’ve been meaning to find a place that makes authentic paella. This place came up in a Unilocal!search. I was quite impressed! Started with the Gambas al ajillo appetizer — wonderful! Nice-​sized shrimp in flavored oil & served very warm!
For the paella, I chose the Socarrat style — also VERY good! Lots of nice flavors coming together & it had whole shrimp (with the heads still one, great to suck out the innards!), mussels, clams, white fish & chicken. I could have done without the beef — a bit too salty.
My only complaint about the paella is that there wasn’t enough actual socarrat in the bottom of the pan! I was looking forward to a lot of the crusty rice at the bottom. Found some on the sides but there needed to be more!
Service was fast & really good — the guy was very polite & patient!

Whenever i want good paellas this is the place to go. I been visiting the restaurant for many many years now and it continues being one of the best. There are restaurants you cross of your list and there ones you put on the list. This is definitely the one you put in there and never erase.

Amazing. We have been here multiple times, and each time we come here, we have superb service from the waiters and the paella is always amazing. We love getting the squid ink paella with garlic aioli; the seafood in this paella is always cooked just right, and the garlic aioli gives a boost of garlic taste. Tip: it takes about 30 – 40 min for the paella to come out after you order, so it’s totally ok to come a little early and wait for the food!

We were a group of nine and ordered pulpo, croquetas, gambas al ajillo, paella de maricos and paella de la huerta. Sangria for drink.
Everything was well cooked. Pulpo and croquetas were excellent. Paella was tasty and the rice had actually the socarrat.
Negative is that shrimps in both gambas al ajillo and the paella were absolutely tasteless.
Service were not good as expected. I guess it was late (around 10pm) so they were tired to face a group of 9 Spanish. We asked about how were the portions for the paella and I considered the waitress a bit rude answering us.
A little bit pricey for the portions you got. I guess it’s best going for happy hours or brunch time with special offers.

Solid food. Bit expensive, but great flavors in the tapas and paella.
The sangria tastes amazing, but the pitcher is not worth the price (it’s very small). Good for dates or small groups.

Squid Paella is sooooooo good! Get a quiet space on the second floor and enjoy every bite of the food!

Highly recommend this quaint and inviting Paella bar and restaurant. Located in midtown on the east side. Great for groups who like to share different tapas and Paella. Tapas we shared included the Brussels sprouts: fabulous, the bacon wrapped dates: scrumptious, cheese board: great spread, and Pulpo (octopus): cooked perfectly. We shared the carne Paella and the fish Paella. The crispy Soccarat on the bottom of the pan makes it worth scraping the bottom of the pans. A great meal shared with close friends makes this place extra special.

Our group went to Socarrat Paella Bar and took advantage of the Paella of the day special which is available at 11AM-​2PM. For $ 19.95. the 2^nd Ave restaurant looks like the front needs a makeover, it has three different major sings and 4 smaller ones plaster all over the front, like if you had three owners and they all got there way with the signs. Inside has two floors with a wood type rustic paneling layout, we were seated on the first floor next to the bar.
Today’s Paella was Arroz negro, (Black Rice), which comes with shrimp, calamari, scallops, fish, and squid ink to make the rice black. We order as appetizer the fried croquettes, which today was stuff with scallops and the ‘Gambas al ajillo’ which is lite spicy shrimp in a small bowl about 5 pieces each. And then also ordered flan for desert.
The croquettes and shrimps where real tasty and they went so fast we had to ask for another serving of the croquettes while we waited for our Paella, 30 minutes+.
The Paella was absolutely delicious, very flavorful and seasoned, with crusty rice on the bottom of the pan as well. I read other review were they said the shrimps, fish were not cooked with the Paella and did not have any flavor, but that was not the case with ours.
Just a note: when you order the special of the day for 2 or more people they just give you a larger pan, not individual pans.
The flan was real good and freshly made. I will definitely go back to Socarrat again to try the other Paellas.

Went here for dinner with some friends on a Thursday night. I was quickly greeted by the smiling host, who directed me upstairs to where my friends were sitting. The place was packed — not surprising for a Thursday night.
The waiter took a while to come to our table and directed questions to one friend instead of directing them to the table. This was a little annoying but not terrible. We ordered a few tapas and paella for the table. What a delight — we were stuffed after tasting everything.
We ordered:
Gambas al ajillo
Croquetas del día
Setas salteadas
Pinchos morunos
Paella pescados y mariscos and socarrat
Dessert — we were celebrating two birthdays and they were nice enough to provide candles
Tarta de queso y peras — a must! the marinated pears are delicious and the graham crust is thick but nice and rich
Flan
Nothing was a disappointment and there were a few moments of silence at the table where food was the only focus. A pleasant dining experience and nice atmosphere — I would go again!
Don’t go here if you want a quiet dinner (at least on a Thursday night) — it’s busy and loud enough to allow you to have many laughs with friends.

I had lunch with my buddy during the New York Restaurant Week. Because their croquettes and paella of the day changes daily, I like to call them ahead to know what’s on the menu.
Croquetas del dia: We had the mushroom croquettes. Crispy inside and creamy inside. It was really good. I think it’s a mix of creamy potato and mushrooms.
De la huerto paella: eggplant, cauliflower, artichokes, tomatoes, chickpeas, snow peas. they have individual size paellas. The rice is a little crispy on the top and on the sides but not on the bottom.
Churros Sunday Funday: coffee cream, hot chocolate, whipped cream, cocoa nibs. The churros sticks to the teeth, as if they were made of glutinous rice. There were to much whipped cream for the churros. It’s served in a cup and I couldn’t reach the chocolate that was underneath the layers of cream.
There was a little disappointment that the rice in the paella wasn’t very crispy, but my favorite dish was the melt in the mouth croquettes.

Came here for 2016 restaurant week. During this time of year many restaurant offer special discounted lunch ($ 25) and dinner ($ 35) menus to encourage people to try their food. The dishes are usually from the regular menus but smaller portions or new dishes that are easier to make in large quantities. What I loved about this place is that they offered full size dishes from the regular menu! I also learned that they have other locations. You can enjoy a flamingo show on Tuesday at the Nolita location (I will be there) or a $ 20 bottomless weekend bottomless brunch at any of their locations.
–Croquettes of the day: A MUST ORDER!! What is unique about these vs any other croquette I’ve had is that the base was bachanel, soooooooo creamy and garlicky. Perfectly crispy on the outside and almost a little underdone on the inside but in a good creamy melt in your mouth kind of way. The ham is subtle adding the perfect amount of salt.
–huevos rotos: The fries were ever so crispy, the chorizo has a hint of spice, the yolk from the egg adds a creaminess that tied the entire dish together. I appreciate that the yolk was just runny enough so it didn’t take away from the crispness of the fries.
–paella de carne: or as I would like to call it, the meat lover’s paella. Who knew such a beautiful thing existed!!! Your first reaction when it come out is that you could feed a small country with it but the pan isn’t very deep so it’s not as much as it looks. Because the paella is spread out in the pan the rice is very crispy which adds crunch and texture. Each component is well seasoned on its own and although there a re a lot of flavors in the dish they do work well together. The rice is soaked is some kind of delicious very light gravy likely made of broth and lots of onions. I appreciated that I could see the chunks of meat, chicken, and chorizo in there although not all pieces were tender.
–The condensed milk flan wasn’t overly sweet and the passion fruit cream added a nice tartness. The crunch from the pistachios balances out the cream texture of the flan, could have definitely used more of those!
–Fried balls of dough filed with chocolate sauces is the other desert we had because they were out of churros. What’s not to love?!

I would recommend reservations here as it was bumping when we showed up at 8pm on a Friday night!
Party of 4 hungry ladies, they showed us to a really spacious banquette upstairs that could have easily sat 6 (yay for OpenTable ressies!).
We ordered:
Bacon wrapped dates with cheese
Pan con tomato (my favorite!)
Croquettes
Chorizo (it came in a tomatoey/​bbq sauce)
Sizzling shrimp with garlic
Crispy Brussel sprouts
Lobster paella (just 2 orders)
Dessert
Flan — it was the best flan I’ve ever had
Chocolate beignets
Churros
EVERYTHING was DELICIOUS! We left so full and happy. The clear highlights were the bacon wrapped dates, Brussel sprouts, and flan. Trying to get the lobster out of its shell was tricky. Fantastic place to hang out with friends — they let us linger over dessert, and the noise level let us talk to our hearts content!

Great place for a Paella fix! I do admit the seafood was not up to par but the cook and other meats were tasty. The food is good and I would definitely come back here again for Paella (w/​meat, not seafood).
The service was great, they accidentally made us the wrong dish but they were really nice about it. They did not take anything off the bill but apologized numerous times. The sangria is good as well, $ 40 for pitcher (pours about 5 glasses) is reasonable.

Went back last week and my review stands at 3.5. Strangely enough it’s for different reasons. This time we got the brussel sprouts tapas which was amazing. The sangria this time had a syrupy cough medicine taste. My wife diluted it with sparkling water making it better. The seafood paella was a bit on the soggy side this time. We did have much better service this time and my dessert did materialize this tine. I ordered flan and it was one of the best I ever had. My wife even loved it and she doesn’t normally care for it.
We went earlier this time and the place wasn’t packed, but the seating is still cramped.
Still on my recommendation list.

Good Paella with very large portions for sharing. The white wine sangria was also really good. We ordered Langosta Paella for 4 people and had enough left over for meals for 2 more people. My only complaint about this place is that there was water all over the floors around each table from the pitchers they use for water. Besides the possible slipping this place has a cozy atmosphere inside.

Sabroso…
Though, you MUST go with a group of people in order to order the paella (huge portions)… Don’t think twice, get the black squid ink paella (arroz negro) and another for those who eat all the other stuff.
We ordered some appetizers like the patatas bravas ( Unilocalers, have I not underscored that NO patata brava dish in NYC can outshine Olea in Ft. Greene, BK?), they were fine — but you really come for the show stopper… La Paella (insert jazz hands).
At our table of 6 Cubans, 1 Venezuelan… (and me) — I heard «Whoa, this is the best paella I have had in the states… The last time I had paella like this was in Spain…”(I personally remember paella in Southern Spain to be a bit more flavorful, but I can’t really trust my memory because I was last there in the summer of 2000 AND I used to eat chicken/​beef/​lamb back then so tried more of a variety.)
We went to this location since abuela (93 yrs old) needed a wheelchair accessible restaurant. The Chelsea location is apparently better, but they told us their seating would not accommodate her wheelchair.
Spouse went to the Chelsea location with his mom a few weeks ago… He said it was WAY better than the more square UES location where we ate… they had a THREE. HOUR. LUNCH. First a bunch of appetizers, a bottle of wine, paella, dessert… Who does that with their mom in the middle of the day?
I’ll be back… but next time I’ll opt for Chelsea and maybe I’ll give them that extra star.

The happy hour at Socarrat some how changed the way I think and feel about happiness.
If you are frustrated by something, just call a friend to meet you at Socarrat for happy hour. On your way there you can imagine you are the little girl of Dora the Explorer, going to a very chic spot in the heart of the most sophisticated place in the universe, meeting someone you’d love to talk with and this dear friend is coming all the way to meet you too. You will hold the following few hours to yourself, not to your boss, and nicely you have a little and enough pocket money to buy some very delicious tapas and wine (their happy hour tapas and wine menu is risk free. Everything is good so no worry)… after all of this, your bill will amazingly shrink to half amount too. How happy is it, huh?

There is nothing better than a Sunday complete with paella, paseo, and paisaje.
Craving socarrat, a friend and I ventured up here to try their paella de mariscos. Sharing a dish for two along with a salad and a couple of Mahous, we could hardly believe that we had found a such a delectable dish outside of Valencia.
Brimming with shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels, and clams– and of course socarrat– it not only satisfied our craving, but also made our Sunday.
What better way to end (or begin) a week?
As good as it gets!

Made a last minute dinner reservation for a wednesday night with no issue. We were seated downstairs by the bar, ambience was ok and it was a bit hot when i was there, i think there is an upstairs dining room with nicer décor so hopefully i can sit upstairs next time.
We ordered the daily special fried croquette with octopus but when we cut them open there were no octopus in there, at first i thought it was just the first one I ate with no octopus but turned out all of them have no fillings inside. We didnt want to make it a big deal but we did notify the waitress about it. On to the paella which is their main star, we got the paella for 2 people, its pretty expensive at $ 48, i have never been to spain so i cant judge how authentic it is but socarrat’s paella was really tasty, i love the crunchy rice bits and the white fish in the paella was absolutely delicious, i just wish its not that damn expensive!!! I think the squid ink paella is popular so i will try that next time.