Beauty & Essex

146 Essex St.  New York, NY
www.beautyandessex.com

Price: $$$
Favorite dish: Tuna Poke Wonton Tacos; Molten Chocolate Bread Pudding

After having eaten at and absolutely loved Chris Santos's The Stanton Social, I had been wanting to try his other Lower East Side restaurant Beauty & Essex.  My parents and I booked an early reservation prior to seeing a show on Broadway, so we were there pretty early on in the evening before the crowd really started arriving.  After walking in, the decor was certainly unexpected.  We walked into a small pawn shop storefront, and then walk through another door leading to a large, trendy and sophisticated restaurant atmosphere.  The food on the menu is all unique and distinct, and being that the restaurant is tapas-like and meant for sharing, we ordered several things off the menu.

What we ordered:

Shrimp Cocktail with charred jalapeño cocktail sauce 

Tuna Poke Wonton Tacos with micro cilantro, radish, and wasabi kewpie 

New York Pretzel topped with shaved NY strip, mustard aioli, and crispy shallots

Watermelon and Avocado Salad with feta, gem lettuce, mint, red onion, and charred lime vinaigrette 

Crispy Eggplant Pizzetta with charred san Marzano tomato sauce, whipped ricotta, and chile oil

 Dessert:

Molten Chocolate Bread Pudding topped with hazelnut ice cream

Box of Doughnuts: vanilla beignets with chocolate hazelnut creme & raspberry jam

Unpictured: 

Roasted sweet corn with avocado, lime, and manchego; 

Broccolini with garlic, soy, and chile

   I can honestly say that there wasn't one thing that we ordered that I did not like.  The shrimp cocktail with jalapeño cocktail sauce was great; we were expecting it to be a bit spicier, but it did have a really nice kick that made it different than a typical cocktail sauce.  The Tuna Tacos were amazing--I usually am not the biggest fan of raw tuna, but something about these tacos made them incredibly addicting.  The wonton in itself had great flavor, and mixed with the tuna, radish, and wasabi made for a great marriage.  The New York Pretzel was also amazing; the pretzel tasted like a perfect NY pretzel.  However, I am not a huge fan of mustard, so I found myself scraping off the aioli so I was able to taste the meat and pretzel combination better.  I loved the watermelon and avocado salad.  It was super refreshing and the watermelon was perfectly sweet.  We also loved the crispy eggplant pizzetta.  The eggplant was unbelievable; maybe it was that it was flash fried, but the combination of the eggplant and ricotta was mouthwatering.  The two side dishes we ordered were both super tasty.  I adored the subtle spiciness of the broccolini and it had a great pungent flavor.  The sweet corn was also a very good version of one of my favorite things: roasted mexican corn.  The salty manchego and the sweetness of the corn went perfectly together.  

Both desserts we shared were actually incredible.  The chocolate bread pudding was actually perfect and incredibly irresistible.  The doughnuts were also amazing.  Half of them were filled with a nutella-like filling, and the others had raspberry jam. Both were very tasty.

It honestly was hard to pick one favorite dish from all of those we were able to try!

I highly recommend coming to Beauty & Essex for a really fun and elegant night out in the city.  The ambiance is very classy and fun, and it seems like it would be a great spot for groups of friends.  There are several things on the menu that I will definitely try next time.  

Some of the jewelry showcased in the front pawn shop restaurant entrance

XOXO,
Danielle