I am in a new brunch relationship with Macondo. I am totally committed to Macondo, everything it has to offer and all that it continues to offer to its wonderful patrons. When I finished my brunch at Macondo, I asked myself "why would I ever go anywhere else?" Now, obviously I like to mix it up and try different brunch spots. But for great food and an AYCD (all-you-can-drink) spot, this place rocks.
I walked past Macondo on my way to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory one day. I thought, "what is this?" This restaurant looks so cool, with this bamboo feel, great music, and lots of people smiling. And then I saw the sign: $9 for all-you-can-drink mimosas. Wow! I had never heard of this place. Why was Macondo not on the AYCD lists of every brunch website? Mmmmm. Some places, like Sunburnt Cow, do $18 for your dish and the AYCD, which is a great deal. But the $9 AYCD for two hours seemed pretty reasonable. Several places add $12 or even more for AYCD, and usually there is a time limit of 1 hour.
When I arrived at Macondo with my 2 aycd brunch girls in tow, we were seated immediately. They have high-top communal tables up front, so we sat beside 2 other diners. We could not even hear what they were saying though, so it wasn't a bad deal.
First, we ordered the Mimosas. Now, here is the reason why this $9 AYCD Mimosa deal rocks - there are 3 different kinds!!!! The selection for that day included Orange, Grapefruit, and Lychee. We got one of each to start. And even better - this place does not require a Mimosa commitment. You can have an orange, then grapefruit, back to orange, try a lychee, etc. The selection of mimosas is what made this place seem classier than your average AYCD spot. Instead of pounding back orange juice and champagne, we sipped brunch cocktails of different varieties.
Everything on the menu sounded delicious. Eggs Benedict can be typical for brunch, but not when served on an Arepa. We struggled picking out items with so many fabulous choices. I was drawn to the Polenta con Chorizo ($8), truffled polenta, egg, chorizo, and manchego. I could not think of better brunch items to put together for one awesome dish. We also eyed the Isla Mangu ($13), green mashed plantain, salchichon, crispy cheese and fried egg. Yummy! But, we all love sandwiches so we thought the Tostado de Huevo ($10) sounded great, a fried egg nested in brioche, serrano ham, truffle oil, piquillo peppers, and manchego.
The server comes over and asks us what we want. We simply say "Everything sounds great. What do you recommend?" I am not even kidding when I say - she named the three dishes above that we had already kind of picked out. I did not want to commit to picking one. We decided to order 1 of each and share all of the dishes.
When the dishes came out, I was surprised at the portion size. The dishes were great portions! I was mostly surprised with the Polenta. At $8, I thought this would be a small, almost side dish. Nope! Each dish had a fried egg, so we each had an egg, and then just dug in with our forks. The server was happy to give us additional plates to make sharing easy, while filling up our colorful mimosas.
We had great food, fabulous mimosas, lovely conversations with our server, in a fun atmosphere. We fell in love with this restaurant. At the end of it, with tax and tip, we each paid $30. For two hours of fun, $30 works for me. We used to get together on Friday nights and do sushi and drinks, then bars, and cabs, etc. Those nights were definitely more expensive than this tasty and drunk brunch at Macondo, so $30 seems reasonable.
And as much as I love to try new brunch places (reservation at Beauty and Essex this weekend!!!!), I know that my new AYCD go-to spot is Macondo.
Have a delicious day!
NYC Menu Girl
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