Cuerno

NYC Mexican Restaurant Cuerno Serves the Best Steak in Midtown | Eater NY

"In Midtown, the new Mexican restaurant that opened in June is a thrilling, high-energy, tequila-soaked mash-up of restaurant, dinner theater, and shrine to steak that can fix a bad day fast. As the first U.S. outpost from Alberto Martínez and Victor Setién’s Costeño Group, Cuerno lives up to its “vibrant Mexican steakhouse” billing: richly marbled Demkota Ranch Beef is aged 24 days, salted with flaky Colima sea salt and black pepper, then seared over a Josper charcoal grill that cloaks steaks, fish, and vegetables in a caramelized crust while sealing in juices—there may not be a reason to eat steak anywhere else. Past the bland façade of the Time Life Building, the room explodes into a party of guitar-forward Mexican music, tequila-fueled electricity, roaming carts, flaming steaks, and chile-rimmed margaritas; the A de Arquitectos design evokes an open-air hacienda with vaulted ceilings, exposed brick, hand-carved woodwork, and a central tile mural by Saltillo artist Federico Jordán of a smiling skeleton tipping his cobalt-blue hat from atop a bull. Dinner kicks off with a complimentary, refillable salsa buffet (including a warm smoky tomato-garlic molcajete, mild macha, zippy jalapeño, and the fiery piquín limón) served with a little booklet; I liked the lime-and-serrano-bright guacamole and we loved the Japanese hamachi crudo dressed in an aguachile flavor bomb with salsa rasurada, while the truffled cauliflower mash-up was overwrought—skip it. Chef Oriol Mendivil’s steaks range from an eight-ounce filet mignon to a 52-ounce salt-crusted tomahawk, plus 16- and 28-ounce rib-eyes done in salt crust or norteño-style with pepper, garlic, bone marrow, and salsa piquín—no wrong answers. Don’t miss the tacos: the tableside Taco Taquero sees suited servers dice salt-charred skirt steak, scrape buttery marrow from canoe bones, and finish with piquín limón and fleur de sel into warm corn tortillas, and the Tacos Richi deliver a grilled-cheese-crusted tortilla stuffed with thinly sliced rib-eye, salsa verde, chicharrón, and avocado. The bar leans tequila with classic, tamarind, and pineapple margaritas, though the Cuerno margarita was one-note sweet and undrinkable for me; a smoky mezcalita is the better bet, and while the wine list boasts strong Mexican and French producers, pricing skews high with few bottles under $100. Desserts are terrific—especially the pastel de campechanas, a vanilla ice cream cake layered with caramel-coated Mexican puff pastry, pecans, and dulce de leche—which officially dethrones Carvel in my book." - Andrea Strong