Oh, The Places I'll Eat: Barrio Chino

One margarita, two margarita, three margarita, dinner.

Well, that's how it went at Barrio Chino on Tuesday night. Barrio Chino is a small Mexican place in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It has no sign and decorates its walls with Chinese art and its ceilings with Asian hanging lamps in what appears to be a blatant attempt to make it nearly impossible to find the place. Apparently, though, this does not work as the restaurant is packed on a regular basis.

While we waited I began to sample their much-touted margaritas. First off was the Raspberry Paloma margarita's fruitful flavor. My friend ordered the Jalapeno infused lime margarita which tasted more like an alcohol infused hot pepper so I decided it was worth trying the other hot pepper flavored margarita; the Habanero infused grapefruit margarita. Wow. If you don't like spicy, stay the heck away from this. If you do like spicy, you too might want to stay the heck away from this. The Habanero infused grapefruit margarita is the most intense margarita i've ever had. Drinking from the glass produced a mild habanero taste as the true spice had decided to settle at the bottom. Inserting a straw into said margarita and drinking from it produced a spicy flavorful wallop that left my mouth burning. Perhaps it was the novelty of an intense spicy flavor coming from my drink or perhaps I'm a tad bit crazy, but either way I think I really liked the spicy margarita. Third margarita was strawberry vanilla and tasted like candy.

There was food too. Their chips and guacamole were above average and the chorizo quesadilla was quite tasty. I could tell it was an authentic quesadilla because it was ridiculously greasy, which is both gross and delicious. For the main course I ordered the Chile en Nogado. A grilled poblano chile stuffed with shredded pork, pears, apples, almonds, and raisins covered in a creamy walnut sauce. Very very good. My friends ordered the strip steak and the enchilada de Mole. Both of these were really good too.

For dessert we had the coconut flan (really just flan with shaved coconut on top) and the strawberry tacos. Get dessert somewhere else.

Barrio Chino
253 Broome Street
New York, NY 10002