Irma's B-day @ Agozar's

For Irma’s birthday, we went to Agozar’s again. Yay for Agozar’s! But it was a Saturday and their early bird menu is Mon-Thurs only! Like older folks don’t need to eat on the weekends!

Haydee made reservations but it was pretty empty when we first arrived. It got really crowded as the night went on (our reservation was for 6.)

It was also quite a beeyuuuutiiiiiiifulllll day. Quite lovely so that even waiting outside was fine.

Plus Haydee had invited another guest who invited another. So she was giving directions to them and I was texting Barb and talking to Irma. Irma had no idea they were coming.

We decided to go ahead and get seated as we were all hungry.

For appetizers, we went with :

This was made from plantains but not fried up and served alone. This was more like a dip and it was pretty good – a nice start to our meal.

This was a plate of mini empanadas – beef, chicken, and mushroom. All were yummy.

These were delicious shrimp in a double garlic sauce and if you like garlic, this was it! I dipped the bread and ate it and the sauce was just the right amount of garlic, seasoning. -_- I want more.

This was chicharron de pollo – a crispy fried chicken which was nice and hot when it came and it was quite delicious. But then again, fry = yum.

I think we could have stuck to appetizers and drinks with no problems.

However, we went ahead and ordered main menu items. Why? Because when you are starving, your eyes are always bigger than your stomach!!!

Haydee’s cousin ordered this vaca frita. A fried beef, which is fried to a crisp.

This was the other beef special – I forgot how to spell it all. It’s meat surrounded by thin flat plantains and therefore, the beef was moist.

And I learned that lechon meant pig. So this is lechon, a moist, tender pork dish. It was pretty good but not as good as other lechon I’ve eaten.

This is paella marinara, a lovely rice dish cooked with seafood. I would rate this pretty much average because the rice was just tender but this was not the same paella marinara I’ve had at other places – such as this one restaurant overlooking the cliffs in Fort Lee, NJ. This was passable with a slightly bland seasoning.

The ambiance of Agozar’s is a fun, hip vibe with loud music and great staff. Our primary waiter was Jose and he was very attentive and did alot of special touches like get a flan with a candle for Irma’s song. The whole restaurant erupted into applause at the end and it was pretty fun to have that attention on Irma, who was beet red.

This is definitely a great place to go for their happy hour specials and early bird specials – 2 for 1 drinks and appetizers in the lounge or bar as well as $14.95 3 course dinners are fantastic bargains in NYC.