Where to Eat in NYC: Coppelia
Chef’s Julian Medina and Louis Skibar have created a gem with Coppelia, a 24-hour Latin and Cuban Diner in Chelsea.
Address: 207 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011
The interior of Coppelia has a truly energetic atmosphere. It is colored with vibrant hues and was able to give me summer vibes even in the cold New York winter. On the night I visited, they were pretty busy. They don’t take reservations, but even on a packed Saturday night, our party only waited around 20 minutes to be seated. The seating is booth style which adds a comfortable and relaxed ambiance to the place. We came for dinnertime, but they apparently have a great happy hour with $6 cocktails.
Coppelia’s All Day Breakfast Menu is enough to get me excited. In addition to that, their menu has a wide range of dishes from all around different parts of Latin America with an emphasis on Cuban cuisine.
For an appetizer, I ordered the flautas de pollo. They’re topped with a bit of guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, and queso fresco. They had just the perfect amount of crisp and crunch with each bite.
Flautas de Pollo
I ordered the rabo encendido for my main dish. The oxtails were braised and served over fufú in a flavorful tomato-red wine sauce with a side of rice and beans. This was my first time trying fufú. From what I gathered, it is some sort of mash of plantains and cassava. It is eaten widely throughout out some parts of West Africa and the Caribbean. To me it had a sweet taste, but I can’t be sure if that is due to the sauce it was served over. As a Jamaican, I don’t think I’ve had oxtails served exactly like this before, but it is always nice to see how another culture prepares this familiar dish differently. I was very satisfied with the taste and presentation of my meal.
Rabo Encendido
One of my friends ordered the churrasco, a grilled skirt steak, with moros (rice and beans) and sweet plantains. The dish is topped off with queso fresco and a chimichurri sauce. As for my other guest in attendance with me for the night, they started eating before I could snap a photo.
Churrasco
Overall, Coppelia has a really good menu and I felt it was a great choice to spend a dinner with a small group of friends. The next time i’m back in the city, I plan to make another stop at this restaurant to try their other dishes! Check out my post on my full weekend in NYC to see some of the other places I visited and ate at in the City.
