Mesa Grill

We went to Mesa Grill on Saturday evening and I’ll just cut to the chase: While nothing was terribly bad (save one side dish), I have satisfied my curiosity and will not be rushing back anytime soon.

We have been curious about this place for a long time, seeing Flay on the Food Channel in Iron Chef and his Throwdown show. I had really high hopes to find a good southwestern style restaurant near home, but I just don't think this is it. Why can't NYC get this right?? And don't get me started on Mexican, Cal-Mex, or Tex-Mex!

To drink:

Pear cactus margarita. Nothing special, just a margarita that was pink. When we sat down we were only given a wine menu and had to ask about cocktails. I would think a place like that would have given you both.

To eat:

We shared a bunch of dishes and that worked pretty well.

Bread basket. Everyone raves about this bread basket in reviews. I thought the cornbread muffins had good flavor, but they were dry and crumbly. The rosemary bread was good but seemed out of place. In the end, not 100% sure what was so great about the bread basket.

Blue corn pancake with barbecued duck + habanero chile-star anise sauce ($14). Supposedly one of Flay’s signature dishes. It was very heavy on the star anise/five spice powder flavoring, lacking in the habanero department, and seemed more appropriate for a nice Chinese restaurant than a Southwestern place. This was not my favorite and with one little taco at $14, seemed out of place and overly-priced hype.

Shrimp + roasted garlic corn tamale with fresh corn + cilantro sauce ($15). This was recommended as another of Flay’s signature dishes and was more successful than the prior. I especially liked the tamale with strong sweet corn flavors although still a tad disappointed that the shrimp was over cooked and tough.

New Mexican spice rubbed pork tenderloin with bourbon-ancho chile sauce + sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter ($29). I think this was the most successful dish of the evening. I know meat is Flay’s sweet spot and the pork was perfectly cooked. I even liked the chile sauce which was very close to being a too sweet, too thick barbecue sauce, but had just the right mix of flavors to compliment the pork. Funny, I didn’t realize the tamale was supposed to have sweet potatoes and pecan butter until re-reading the menu description. It tasted very similar to the first tamale we had. Haha. It was good, but nothing like the description.

Brussels sprouts with toasted pecans + pomegranate seeds ($7). This was horribly, horribly disappointing. You could not taste anything but the overly sour pomegranate juice that they used to braise the vegetables. Brussels sprouts are normally one of my favorite side dishes and I only had one bite of it. Even B couldn’t finish it off. Disappointing doesn't even come close to describing this dish.

We decided to skip dessert given the average meal we already had. Besides, nothing looked all that appealing, even on paper.

On a positive note, service was decent. Our server wasn’t the most attentive, but other servers in her area picked up her slack. The restaurant is huge by NYC standards and the ambiance is festive. He still packs ‘em in so he is either doing something right, or America’s taste buds have lowered their standards. I'm sure there's a fair number of patrons who were also enthralled by Flay's celebrity and were as curious as we were. We walked home happy to have tried it but wondered how on earth Flay wins so many Iron Chef battles!