At times, living in the most populated city in the U.S. is an incredibly lonely experience. I thought I had mostly gotten over feelings of FOMO during the height of Covid, and yet FOMO is impossible for me to fully shake in a city filled with people that constantly seem on their way to something much cooler than I could imagine. I’m so grateful for the web of relationships I’ve been weaving, cultivating, in this city, and still, it’s a big, big city, and especially when my problems seem big I feel oh-so-small.
And then I’m putting on my new favorite outfit, shoving my baggage in a too-small purse, and speed walking down Allen Street, boyfriend in tow and electricity coursing through my body. I’ve said this before but the act of gathering around a table for a meal is magic, starting from the second you walk through a hidden, unassuming door into the loud hum of a restaurant in action—Corima, in this case.
I’ve been uncomfortably free falling recently, and yet my feet touch solid ground when glasses clink, cutlery scrapes against ceramic, and it’s just me and my favorite people gabbing and dreaming. Shh… there’s that magic kicking in. So, nothing beats a long, leisurely dinner, which I recently found at in Corima’s tasting menu.
I could talk a big game and tell you that I wanted to eat at Corima because of their unique POV on Northern Mexican cooking (with a heavy Japanese influence), but really, Aiden told me about their uni gin sour and I was sold.
Yes, we did start the meal with an uni gin sour (or Aiden did), and while gimmicky in name, in reality it was anything but. The drink tasted pretty much like a classic gin sour, but the uni gave it a uniquely rich additional dimension that left the drinker with a slight briny aftertaste. Honestly, it alone was worth the visit to the restaurant, and I only had one sip! (One More Sip?) I opted for the sakura martini and really enjoyed the floral flavor the leaf added. It was also impressively cold—perhaps one of my favorite martinis in the city currently.
Beyond an excellent beverage program, however, Corima’s tasting menu, extremely reasonably priced at $98 per person, is engaging all the way through, filled with a funky mixture of familiar Mexican ingredients and unusual cross-cultural flavor fusions. It’s one of the most interesting tasting menus I’ve had in New York (or perhaps of all time…), and the price makes it a no-brainer. Their tasting menu seatings take place in the back of the restaurant, where a large open kitchen is visible from all seats (but pick the counter seating for the best view!). While I’ve yet to try their a la carte menu in the front half of the restaurant, I suspect it’s quite good as well…
The meal started memorably with a 250 day dry-aged beef cecina tlayuda, typically a thin, crunchy tortilla with toppings. In this case, in addition to the beef cecina, there was edamame guacamole, salsa veracruzana, Sichuan peppercorns, and chicatanas. The end result: a beefy, smoky, crunchy, salty bite. Corima sustained its momentum from there, following it up with a fascinating potato udon and cuttlefish in corn husk dashi.
Later on in the meal, sourdough flour tortillas are introduced with Spanish mackerel in mole amarillo. Though only appearing in its purest form once in the meal, their tortillas are excellent, especially paired with the recado negro butter, which I wish I could eat on toast daily. My favorite of the tasting menu, however, was aycote beans in a spicy whey broth, topped with head cheese, which had an addictive acidity.
Usually, I would dissuade you from ordering the add-ons to a tasting menu, as I’ve felt in the past that’s where restaurants often try to sell the diner on less imaginative courses that use splashy ingredients like caviar or wagyu, but we opted into both additions offered, and they were very, very impressive. The first came at the end of the savory courses, a black truffle and huitlacoche quesadilla. It’s offered on their a la carte menu; it’s earthy, it’s funky, and extremely unique.
And finally, we ended with a chocolate caramel flan (another add-on, definitely get it), and an orange and passionfruit sorbet, coconut milk ice cream, and meringue. A perfect pairing of rich and fruity, and a perfect close to a meal that I have no notes on.
Tasting menus are such special experiences that I’m lucky to have even once in my life—it’s permission to be taken on a journey by a restaurant, to watch something unfold without intervention. But, due to their lengthy nature, they’re also such a special way to spend meaningful time with others, and that’s really what it’s all about, right?
Bite it!
Corima can be booked via Resy. I’m just starting to see chatter about the place, so while it’s still relatively easy to book now, I’d get in ASAP before they blow up even more.