Rosa Mexicano

9 East 18th Street (bet. 5th Avenue & Broadway)
New York, NY, 10003
Tel. (212) 533-3350Fax (212) 533-5530
http://www.rosamexicano.info/

My goodness, where do I start?

This place has a pretty good rep as being one of the best upscale Mexican restaurants in the city, I beg to differ.

I have to say, decor wise, gorgeous. All shades of pink accented with orange, red and blues made it easily something out of my interior decorator wet dreams.

We (Michael and I) waited about a half-hour to be seated--normal if you're trying to have dinner in NYC on a Saturday night. The wait didn't feel to long because we were being entertained by various creatures and real life sex and the city wannabees.

We were seated towards the end of the restaurant, the nicer and what seemed to be less noisy area. As soon as the waiter came over I told him to get the guacamole over ASAP, and we ordered the signature pomegranate margaritas.

The margarita was DELICIOUS. We debated between the pom marg and getting a pitcher of sangria, until we saw that the pitcher of sangria was a miniature picture that held about two drinks and probably couldn't satisfy an infant. At Sofritos its an actual LIFE sized pitcher--8 drinks from 1 pitcher. Pitcher of sangria @ Rosa Mex=ripoff.

The guacamole was delicious, but nothing special, nothing I can't find anywhere else in nyc. Plenty of places make guacamole at your table and I just didn't see anything better about guacamole at rosa mex. Well, they give soft tortillas with the guac-in addition to chips-which works out to be a pretty good appetizer.

Entrees. Sigh. Well, there were about 3 vegetarian options--quesidilla, enchiladas and Chile Ancho Relleno de Verduras. I decided on the Ranchera Enchiladas (Two soft corn tortillas filled with wild mushrooms and spinach, topped with mild Mexican tomato sauce) and Michael had the Tacos de Pollo (Grilled chicken marinated in ancho chiles, garlic, cumin, cloves and cinnamon. Topped with slow cooked peppers, served with Chihuahua cheese and chile de arbol salsa.)

To my sopresa my enchiladas came with an extra special ingredient--LONG DARK STRAIGHT HAIR. I saw the dark hair and at first thought 'its probably mine, my hair gets everywhere', then i pulled on it and it came out of the sauce as if it was sauteed right into the enchilada. I had a mental freak, I held on to the hair for about 10 seconds thinking in my head OMG OMG OMG, the waiter came, I looked at him, looked at the hair, looked at him and he took the plate and apologized. While still holding the plate of hairy enchilada, he says "do you want another one?" "I said I don't know" then I say "fine."

Honestly, I lost my appetite and when he brought the second plate back, I took one bite and became more nauseous. I told him I couldn't get over the hair and didn't want to eat it, besides the fact that I'm convinced it was chef boyardee tomato sauce. After Michael finished his food the waiter brought over a dessert and apologized again, followed by the manager coming over to our table and apologizing. The dessert was pretty good, an out of the freezer caramel centered cheesecake with graham cracker crust circa Nabisco.

There was nothing very special about Rosa Mexicano. Yes, its a beautiful space, the pomegranate margaritas are amazing, and the guac isn't bad, but its really not worth the hype or the price.

Ratings Time! (out of 20)

Food 13. The only reason I'm not giving Rosa Mex a 10 is because of the margaritas and guacamole.
Decor 19. Seriously, I'm obsessed with the color scheme and hanging floral beads.
Service 15. The waiters were friendly and attentive but I now realize I have to add a new section--CLEANLINESS. wait. no. hygiene.
HYGIENE 1. This will be out of 5. Hair. Black spec on my glass that I was ignoring. and as Michael said "if you want to be really anal, my fork was dirty."
Expensive, considering the quality of food.

Overall, Rosa Mexicano receives a 15. I'm being generous. I don't think it deserves more than a 12. I would never go to Rosa Mex again, maybe to just have drinks at the bar. Oh, you're probably wondering about the check...My meal was comped and the dessert was free. Scanned receipt coming soon.