DOS CAMINOS - MIDTOWN
825 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 336-5400

Man oh man was I craving a mojito. But where can a guy in midtown go when 8pm rolls along to get one? Aha! Dos Caminos. This Third Avenue branch of BRGuest's LuxoMexican brand opened up last year launching another salvo at the popular Rosa Mexicano chain. I had gone once with M and Bro back on what was, if not opening night, opening weekend. I'd also been to the louder one in the East 20s with Speeds once upon a time, but that one's cramped and you can't sit outside. This time, the weather was perfect. So I called up D, convinced her to see Blade Runner at the Ziegfeld, and told her to meet me at Dos Caminos to get a pre-movie buzz.

Starting with the booze, I'm gonna lay out my immediate and deeply saddened disappointment. I ordered a mojoito. It came with the sugar gritty and settling to the bottom and with way too much mint leaf. It was like a salad in a glass. There's a right way to make a mojito, and there's a wrong way. Here, fellow readers, is the right way: Start with your mint leaves. Not a ton. Just a few. Grab a knife and chop them up some. Toss them in the glass along with a splash of light rum. Start violently stirring with a spoon to mash out the oils. Add a bit more rum. Now find powdered sugar. Toss it in until you're sweet tooth's been satisfied and start stirring to blend it until dissolved. When it's smooth, add rum until the glass is 2/3 full and top that off with club soda or 7up. Ta Da. Gritless. Still, I ordered two. So read into that what you will.

In the meantime, D went for the sangria, which, last time I checked, had fruit in it. This was more like sweet, thin red wine with a few grapes tossed in. Weak. Come on guys. Backburnering a recipe, I'll give you a crucial ingredient. Fruit. Not three grapes. Maybe a hunk of orange and some cubed apple. Plus the three grapes.




For an appetizer, we decided to split a Roasted Plantain Empanda. This was delicious. If you like empanadas, which are stuffed, fried pastries filled with whatever you want them filled with (basically, a Spanish knish), you'd love this sweet, warm treat. Sure, it's about as healthy as getting punched in the kidneys, but it feels better.

For entrees, we both ordered from the taco menu. Though they're small (three five inch long mini-tacos.), we actually found them pretty filling, especially when paired with a side dish. I based my choice solely on heat and went the most allegedly spicy option, the Asada Taco. The Asada Taco has Kobe beef (though that's almost guaranteed to be American Kobe, since Japanese Kobe would be prohibitively expensive), caramelized onion, cascabel chilies, and guacamole. As I said, small, but filling. And also very good. D went with the more generic Pollo Taco, which is basically a chicken taco with tomato, avocado, and salsa. Not bad, although not something to write home about, either. I mentioned that we got a side dish: Plantains. Yum. Sticky sweet, quasi-bananas. Seriously, I love these things. I wouldn't have them every day or anything. But once in a while, I can't say no.




After dinner, but before dessert, I headed to the bathroom... pardon me, el bano. The bano. Which forces me to mention a pet-peeve that I have. My peeve is the bathroom attendant. I know that this guy exists not to be fancy, though at Cavo they offered a variety of colognes in addition to their soap and mint offerings. "Here, sir. Try washing your hands with this. It's made from a rare root grown deep in the amazon. Isn't that nice? Let me get you a towel". He's there to make sure you don't do anything you're not supposed to be doing in there. I won't mention that keeping yuppies from snorting a line off the marble sink or getting it on in the stalls are on the shortlist of his primary functions.

I wonder... do women's bathrooms have security guards in them? That mystery may never be solved. Oh wait. D went. She says they do.



For dessert we split the Raspberry Tres Leches Cheesecake, which as you can see from the photo below, was a cake with alternating layers of pastry, cheesecake, and raspberry jam with a delicately smooth frosting on top. De-lish-us. I'm definitely recommending this one.



Our meal of four drinks, an appetizer, two entrees, a side dish, and a dessert clocked in with tax and tip at $106.21.