Socarrat Paella Bar

On an unassuming street (2 blocks from my apartment, also unassuming…) in Chelsea – the best neighborhood in NYC – there is a small 20 seater restaurant called Socarrat Paella Bar. Seemingly run by a family (the guy who took my coat seemed very vested in how much I enjoyed my meal), Socarrat has been getting a lot of buzz. Therefore, because I am into the new and buzzed, I went last night to see what everyone was talking about.

The dimly lit restaurant was crowded with a different scene. The lighting and atmosphere makes you feel like you may just be in a small restaurant in Spain. The staff was extremely friendly, clearing, cleaning, suggesting dishes, partially (mostly?) because they are hurrying you along so the next person can sit. Usually, I would be annoyed by this, but I think their attitudes and the fact that the paella takes 30 minutes to cook, makes it feel like you, not them, are dictating the time. It is hard to come by a restaurant with one long table, high chairs and such a mix of old and young, business and casual. That must speak volumes of the place if so many different people are willing to give it a go (or at least speaks of the people that have reviewed the place before). They do not take reservations and I heard that the line on a Tuesday night could lead you to an hour wait. So, at 7:30 on a Thursday, I was prepared to wait at least an hour. Either the food gods were looking down on me, or the recession is taking its toll, because we only waited 5 minutes.

We started with some tapas, even though we had read that they were more or less a waste of your stomach space compared to the paella. We ordered two of the specials, the white asparagus (a favorite among us) and the lamb chop. The asparagus (available year-round, spring is the best season for fresh asparagus. Crops are harvested from late February to June, with April being the prime month) tasted and felt like they came out of a can. They were very soft in texture and overly pickled, served on a yellow cheese sauce with crispy serrano ham on top (actually the tastiest part of the dish).

The lamb, which you can see a picture of on the website or in real life to the left, was overcooked. Yet, it was nicely seasoned and the sauce and potatoes were good. Generally, I like my potatoes a little more crisp, but we were not ordering home fries with brunch, so what can I expect? Our third tapas was off the menu, the Canelones, which are a wrap of thin pasta stuffed with shrimp, spinach manchego and drizzled with vizcaina sauce. I was not in love with this dish, although it was creative and relatively good. It was one of those dishes that is hot and cold at the same time. The wrap was cold and the inside was hot. On the other hand, maybe it was sitting for a while? I don’t know.

Onto the main course: The Paella we have all been waiting for… This isn’t your mom’s paella (my mom makes a mean dish). No yellow rice and saffron. See to the left the picture of Socarrat, which refers to the sticky rice at the bottom of the pan, where the servers scrape the bottom of the cast-iron dish in order for you to get the good stuff. We ordered the Paella Socarrat. The rice was topped with chunks of chicken, fish & beef, shrimp, cuttle fish, edemame, mussels and cockle clams. You have to order the dish for 2 or more people. Its huge an takes up to 30 minutes to cook, so come prepared. At a semi-steep rate of $21/person, this paella did not disappoint. To be completely honest, the rice was awesome. However, that’s where it ended for me. I had one bad shrimp, which was overcooked, soft and hard the weirdest texture and I was done. It was really hard to get over that. My date, on the other hand, said all the shrimp he ate were great. So, guess it was just a bit of bad luck on my part. The mussels, clams and even the beef (coming from a semi-non-meat eater) were all properly cooked, which has to be hard when everything is possibly cooked together. Usually the “meats” in a paella dish are overcooked and chewy, but this was not the case here (less the bad shrimp).

They deliver and do take-out for lunch only, which may be good for office orders. This is a good place to try if you are in the neighborhood and looking for something different than the typical Asian-fusion cuisine that abounds in Chelsea.