(Notice: This article was written about a year ago, but I still wanted to publish it from the draft!)
I originally was going to put this into Brief Bites #5 since there wasnt a lot written, but since this restaurant has a special place in my heart, I had to give it it’s own page. Please enjoy my thoughts on Cosme in NYC.
We are taking a visit into my past many years ago. It is 2016 or 2017. I had more time for YouTube back in my day when I was a teenager, so browsing videos on things like food were more common as I had little responsibility. I was big into the food channel Eater at the time, specifically their meat show series in which they toured videos focusing on unique meat dishes, mainly in the NYC area. I salivated and dreamt of this restaurant, Cosme, and one specific dish of theirs for years. The thought of visiting would come and go from my mind as I got older and eventually went and graduated from college, seemingly forgetting about permanently as I entered the workforce. Despite wanting to go to this restaurant, I don’t think I ever told anyone about it, including my girlfriend, so I was more than surprised to find us making our way to Cosme for my birthday dinner.
Cosme is a contemporary Mexican restaurant by Casamata, a hospitality group focusing on Mexican cuisine and heritage. I really enjoy Mexican food(I consider it in my top 3 food cuisines), so getting the opportunity to go to this restaurant was really special to me, especially so surprising considering I can’t remember if i ever mentioned this restaurant to anyone in the first place.
For appetizers, I initially had the Cobia al pastor, raw fish prepared sashimi like, pineapple puree, cilantro, and tostadas on the side. This dish was really good, especially the pineapple puree, which was the star of the dish. It had a mild, fruity taste of typical pineapple, yet somehow smooth and almost buttery and almost cheese like in flavor. This was paired with a smoky, rich, peppery sauce.
This was honestly probably one of the best guacamoles I’ve ever had in my life so far. It’s deceptively simple, and the herbs are there just to serve as a garnish, but it’s just extremely smooth, nicely seasoned, and paired well with the blue corn tostadas.
But these weren’t even the main concept of why I came to Cosme. What I really had my eye on, and what I could finally taste after so many years, was the signature Duck Carnitas, topped with a mountain of cilantro and onion, and paired with hand-made blue tortillas. This was worth the wait. That’s it. The rich, delicious duck paired with a soft pillow like tortilla and pink onions to cut the richness of the duck, made for one of the best meals of my life. The rich duck that’s been sitting in a vat of duck fat and Mexican Coca-Cola and spices before being seared to a crisp is just simply, amazing.
The dessert, a corn husk merengue, was fantastic. A light, very corn forward dessert opened by a nice white merengue was amazing and sweet.There was a hint of smokiness with the husk too which I liked. I loved breaking it open with the back of the spoon similar to creme brulee, since the exterior was hard. I would eat 2 more if I had room.
Final Thoughts and Rating
It’s crazy to think that Cosme has been open over a decade and have made over 86,000 ducks during that time. For my sake, hope they are still open for over 10 more so I can visit them again in the future, and try different items this time. I am very happy that I was able to go to Cosme, and I will definitely be back again at some point.
aLC content: 10/10