I discovered Yuca Bar NYC approximately three years ago, while dining with a friend in the Wast Village. I absolutely love the food and it may be in the running to top my list as my favorite restaurant in NYC.
The Crowd: Yuca Bar NYC is a great place to interact with a fun young professionals. This restaurant definitely caters to the younger after-work crowd. The restaurant unfortunately gets too loud to have good, networking type conversation or serious interactions. However, if you have someone looking for a good time and an even better happy hour, take them to Yuca Bar immediately!
The Food: For starters, the happy hour is pretty darn good; $6 Sangria & Wine, $4 Beers and a host of Margarita’s and mixed cocktails for $7, Monday thru Friday 1-8 pm. Yuca bar also runs daily food specials, so it’s worth it to see which daily deal sparks your interest. Tuesdays are ½ price tapas, paired with happy hour until 8 pm; by far the best night of the week to visit! I will warn you, this place gets packed! So get there early or be prepared for the crowd!
During my last visit, I ordered all my favorites. For starters, I ordered the Espresso BBQ Costillitas, which are juicy (falling off the bone) baby back ribs with a delicious and lightly sweet Latin espresso, coffee inspired BBQ sauce. (pictured above). This is by far my favorite dish at Yuca Bar NYC.
My second favorite dish is the Platano Relleno; which the perfect combination of savory and sweet; the dish is a perfectly sweet plantain stuffed with an abundant portion of slow roasted pork, drizzled with creamy sour cream. (Yummy)
I also tried something “new”, the Fish Tacos. My friend who is obsessed with fish tacos , specifically the ones she’s had in LA, even cosigned that these were in fact amazing. These fish tacos are served “baja style” topped with a delicious spiced cabbage.
Something else that I enjoy at Yuca bar that I didn’t have room for during this visit was the shrimp ceviche. If you have room, you should definitely give that a try!