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Home > Restaurants > El Quinto Pino

El Quinto Pino

Critic's Pick Critics' Pick

401 W. 24th St., New York, NY 10011
at Ninth Ave.  See Map | Subway Directions Hopstop Popup
212-206-6900 Send to Phone

  • Price Range: $$

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  • Reader Rating:

    7.0 out of 10

      |  

    4 Reviews | Write a Review

  • Cuisine: Spanish/Tapas
Enlarge Image
Photo by Jay Hanna for New York Magazine

Hours

Sun-Thu, 5:30pm-midnight; Fri-Sat, 5:30pm-1am

Nearby Subway Stops

C, E at 23rd St.

Prices

$3-$15

Payment Methods

American Express, MasterCard, Visa

Special Features

  • Dine at the Bar
  • Hot Spot
  • Reservations Not Required

Alcohol

  • Full Bar

Reservations

Not Accepted

Profile

El Quinto Pino honors Spanish tradition by offering some foods, like olives and anchovies, virtually untouched. But elsewhere, the fare is personalized with unexpected flourishes. Five tender shrimp float in a pungent garlic sauce that’s infiltrated with ginger. The meaty bite in a chickpea-and-spinach stew comes from pimentón. Sea-urchin roe is big in Asturias but not like this: inserted into a skinny length of ficelle, slicked with butter and Korean mustard oil, then pressed in the Easy-Bake-Oven-size kitchen behind the bar. It comes, like the menu’s other streamlined sandwiches (serrano ham and a pulled-chicken-pork-and-morcilla concoction) tucked into a waxed-paper bag like a Shackburger. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Extra

In addition to beer and wine, El Quinto Pino also serves specialty frozen cocktails.

Note
Try to station yourself at a bar stool in front of the chalkboard food menu, which might be the best seat in the 26-seat house.

Ideal Meal

Fried eggplant, uni panini, fried cod, chickpea stew, casadielles (fried ravioli with walnuts and honey).

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7.0 "Recommended"
Average Reader Rating
on a Scale of 10		 Write Your Own Review
100% Would you go back?
100% Would you take a date?
0% Would you take kids?
0% Would you go on business?
0% Would you go on a special occasion?
Food: 6.8
Service: 8.0
Décor: 8.3
Value: 6.5

Great place, but salty

amberlynn1106 from 10027 | Posted on 3/6/09

Overall Rating: 5 (Mixed Reviews)
Food: 4
Service: 8
Décor: 8
Value: 4

I am known to like food with a salt quotient a bit higher than others. I also love good wine. Often, the two compliment each other fine. Tonight, my husband and I tried El Quinto Pino for the first time. The place is very charming and the service was great. I truly loved the glass of wine I had, but disappointingly, our food was almost intolerably salty. In addition to the garbanzo bean dish, which was very tasty, we ordered the cracklin's and Basque anchovies. Both of the latter dishes are known to be salty, which we would savor normally. However, the anchovies were not good because they had little taste other than salt. The cracklin's were tasty, but a bit too salty. We may go again, but won't order the anchovies.

unexpected delicacy

foodieQ from 10011 | Posted on 10/5/08

Overall Rating: 8 (Recommended)
Food: 9
Service: 7
Décor: 8
Value: 7

I was very happy to find this unique little wine bar in my neighborhood. Uni is one of my favorite seafood and when I read about the uni panini, I had to try it. The panini came in a wax paper bag. I was a little disappointed of the understated presentation, but not for long. The crunchy crust of the bread followed by the rich buttery uni full of flavor was unexpected and delicious.

Read All 4 Reviews >>

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