Jalao

A Dominican Celebration at Jalao NYC | The New Yorker

"Inside the new Radio Hotel in Washington Heights, I found an outpost of the popular Santo Domingo restaurant where the dining room was set at a slightly steamy, tropical temperature that felt fitting and encouraged ordering refreshing cocktails: a margarita with tequila, agave and passion-fruit juice topped with a frothy fuchsia hibiscus-rosemary foam and a gently singed rosemary sprig, and a mojito made with a zapote (mamey) syrup, rum, lime, crushed ice, fresh mint and a sugarcane stirrer. The cocktails whetted my appetite for bocaditos: bombones de yuca—deep-fried golden orbs of stretchy cassava dough filled with orange Cheddar and daubed in pineapple-chipotle sauce—crisp, fat-capped pork-belly chicharrón with sticky-sweet caramelized plantain and batons of casabe, and an ahi-tuna ceviche with passion fruit and pomegranate seeds served with crunchy plantain and cassava chips. The décor—colorful chandeliers made from perforated plastic hair rollers, striking cane-back benches with plush cushions—and the high-end resort plating belie homey Dominican classics like sancocho with chicken, beef, pork, corn and root vegetables, mofongo of pounded cassava molded with pork and shrimp, and the pecao frito, a deep-fried red-snapper skeleton fashioned into a basket spilling fried fillets with cherry tomatoes and red onion. I found the rich braised goat especially delicious, served with chenchén, a coarse but creamy cracked-corn pudding made with coconut milk; desserts include cinco leches and majarete topped with cinnamon and ice cream. The restaurant feels community-oriented—three-quarters of the staff live in the area and most are Dominican, and the dining room was packed with multigenerational Dominican families—and although the Washington Heights location lacked the original’s enormous stage and regular live music, it plans to host performers in a large courtyard and the atmosphere still broke into dance and impromptu merengue during my visits. Entrées run about $22–$49." - Hannah Goldfield