I have many-a-post to catch up on, but I couldn’t wait to to give a scathing review of the restaurant my friends and I dined at last night, Co-op Food and Drink. The menu was so promising – all my favorites glamorized: truffled mac & cheese, pork tacos, scallop nachos, sushi with rock shrimp..I really couldn’t wait to devour each and every one of these over-priced ($20) dishes. But the second I walked in, I smelled the disaster ensuing. Blasting obnoxious techno played as elderly men with gelled hair fondled their New York / New Jersey-Housewives at the bar. I tried to ignore the desperate scene, but after being seated smack center of the commotion, I knew it was going to be challenging.
Scene aside, the night got progressively worse as the noise increased and our drinks took longer and longer to arrive. Big mistake to request to turn down the music to accommodate my partially deaf friend (thanks Sonia) – the volume only got louder after that. When we put our food order in, the dishes came out simultaneously, within seconds. Though I normally would have complained about this horrible timing, I didn’t mind so much because I couldn’t get out of the place sooner. We were anxious to get the meal over with.
In an effort to be thorough, however, I will touch on a few of the dishes that were at least edible. Soshito peppers – fine, they were good, nothing special.
kale caesar and peppers
The sushi was actually decent, but again, not worth going to this place to try. The chicken lollipops were tasty, but probably came out to $20 per bite of meat given the ratio of edible food to bone on the plate. The biggest joke was the $20 black cod butter lettuce wraps, which not only tasted odd, but had literally a tiny cube of fish on three measly pieces of lettuce. And, the steamed duck buns tasted like dog.
chicken lollipops
duck buns
Before I go deeper and deeper into my negativity, I’ll just close with some advice. Only go to this Stanton Social wannabe if you’re looking for a Meatpacking scene with overpriced, despicable food in the lower east side.
Grade: D
Location: Hotel Rivington: 107 Rivington Street
Website: http://www.co-oprestaurant.com
