Raclette

Last night I joined some friends at this tiny little nugget of a restaurant in the East Village. Mind you all of my friends that were there are Swiss or have lived in Switzerland, speak multiple languages and then there was me! The entertainment! 

I have never eaten raclette before. Fondue, yes, I do have a lot of Swiss friends but never raclette. All I knew was it was melted cheese on top of potatoes. What doesn't sound good in that equation? One thing that is funny is that I am the only person out of the group that keeps Swiss Time. Everyone staggered in 10-30 minutes after our reservation. I was concerned as this place literally has 12 seats and we were a party of 6. The waitress told every other table that she had reservations coming in afterwards so I was worried they need to turn our table. Thankfully they didn't because we stayed there for 3.5 hours. Slowest wine drinkers ever! We had 4 bottles and literally were just hanging out drinking wine after our 1 course meal. I would've hated us! 

According to the Swiss kids, the raclette was just okay. They fried Yukon potatoes instead of boiling red potatoes. A big no-no I guess. Personally, I thought it was pretty good but not mind blowing by any means. It also came with a side of arugula, proscuitto di parma, cornichons,  pickled onions and a slice of baguette. I made a little sando with the bread, arugula (rocket salad), proscuitto and raclette. The potatoes were the best part but I do agree they would've been better if they were boiled instead of fried. Somewhat of a mashed potato with creamy cheese momentito. 

Overall, I thought it was good but nothing super fabulous. I think the service lacked. They were pending a grade from the health department. Our plastic water cups weren't the cleanest. One of them, I gave back as it had lipstick marks all over the rim. Since it was BYOB, to get them to replenish the bottles  along with water that were in the fridge was a constant battle. The music was a little random. It included "Girl from Ipanema," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Nice and Easy." Jazz moments for sure. The waitress seemed to be more involved with the Ipad than her guests. The bathroom was the tiniest thing ever with a makeshift mirror and paper towel dispenser. 

It was cute and I think if you are in the mood for raclette it will satisfy your craving. But if you are going for anything more than a craving you can skip it!