New York City has a lot of great food. Walk down any given street in this city and you’ll likely pass several delicious but completely different cuisines. The one thing this city severely lacks though, is good Tex-Mex. You can find decent Mexican food, but Tex-Mex is a classification all its own. Naturally, growing up in Texas, this is one of my favorite kinds of food. If you are not lucky enough to have a lot of experience eating Tex-Mex, the one thing you need to know is any authentic Tex-Mex restaurant will have a delicious queso on the menu. If you need proof, just check out this article from the New York Post. Queso is served as an appetizer, and is traditionally comprised of melted cheese, tomatoes and chili peppers. Queso literally did not exist in New York City. Trust me, I’ve looked everywhere. Enter Javelina.
When I first heard that a Tex-Mex restaurant was opening in New York City I was skeptical. Namely, because I had very high expectations. I immediately went online to research the menu and my fears dissipated when I saw queso on the menu. Through further research, I learned the restaurant owner was originally from Texas, so he should know his stuff.
Javelina opened on March 4th and I was there a few days later with queso on the brain. We arrived shortly after they opened at 5PM and were told that the restaurant was completely booked with reservations, but we were welcome to sit at the bar. The bar was actually full already (full of Texans with a queso and frozen margarita craving, ha ha) but we opted to stay and awkwardly stand behind the bar to order frozen margarita’s and queso. Annoyingly, literally every single table in the restaurant was open for a solid hour. With a large crowd at the bar, it was very frustrating that with all those empty tables, and a waitstaff standing around staring at us with nothing to do, they wouldn’t seat anyone without a reservation. The queso was amazing and the margarita’s were nice and strong, so it was hard to stay irritated for to long. We left wanting to come back for dinner soon.
A couple weeks later we returned. When we sat down we were immediately brought warm tortilla chips and salsa- the mark of a true Tex-Mex restaurant. In my opinion, the salsa was too bland and while I prefer salsa on the spicy side this salsa was lacking any flavor at all.
The drink menu is inspired by various famous margaritas at the big Tex-Mex chains in Texas. Just like queso, a good frozen margarita is hard to find in NYC. Javalina’s traditional frozen margarita offers a classic flavor and is an excellent choice. And I’ll add, it is very strong as far as frozen margarita’s go. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous try the avocado and cilantro frozen margarita. If you like a little spice try the jalapeño margarita on the rocks.
For an appetizer, we decided on the queso sampler where you get a small bowl or the traditional yellow queso, a small bowl of white queso and a choice between two of their specialty quesos. We chose the Mag Mud which is white queso with black beans and guacamole. All the quesos were great but the Mag Mud was a combination I’d never had before and was delicious.
For entrees all the classics are represented. You can rarely go wrong with a good Tex-Mex taco, enchiladas, or fajitas. At Javelina, I definitely recommend ordering the fajitas sunset style (traditional fajitas smothered in queso!). They were delicious, but, what was slightly disappointing was that the long list of “trimmings” (guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, jalapeño relish, and jalapeño ranch) never arrived. Also an issue was that the tortillas for the fajitas arrived to the table a good 10 minutes after the fajitas did. For a great vegetarian option I recommend the avocado tacos. The avocados are lightly fried, and while the tacos had a good flavor on their own, they could benefit by having some sort of sauce for an added flavor profile. Ordering chicken fried steak at a Tex-Mex restaurant is not common even in Texas, but the promise of southern style chicken fried steak on a menu in NYC was too hard to pass up. The verdict- this is a major miss. Just aesthetically it didn’t even look appetizing on the plate, and it had a mushy texture. Definitely not the deep fried chicken fried steak and cream gravy one finds in the south.
At this time, no dessert was being offered but some warm sopapillas with honey would be a sweet end to the meal.
Overall, there are some definite highlights at Javelina but there are also some areas that need improvement. However, I will definitely be returning anytime I have a queso craving!
Ashley xx