The Spotted Pig
The Spotted Pig, one of my favorite restaurants in New York and a Michelin star restaurant, has a crave-worthy sandwich. The cubano, filled with lots of pork, cheese, peppers, and other ingredients to clog your arteries on a perfectly toasted baguette, is one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. EVER. Better than Jimmy John’s (by the way, when are they going to bring those to New York?!). Better than Potbelly’s (which is saying a lot since I used to go there everyday when I was in college). Even better than Pearl Oyster Bar’s lobster roll. (…actually, I take that back….the lobster roll isn’t a “sandwich,” it’s a “roll,” meaning they’re in two different categories!
My perfect cubano with a side salad:
Every time I look at my cubano pictures I begin to salivate; I can’t even begin to describe how elated I am whenever I see the sandwich!!!. The cubano from The Spotted Pig definitely ranks up there with the best sandwiches ever made because of the salty flavor of the pork mixed with the crunchy pickled veggies and perfectly melted cheese. If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
Chris ordered the French toast with bananas:
I’m kind of picky when it comes to French toast; the bread has to be thickly cut so when the bread is dunked in the egg mixture, it completely absorbs it but doesn’t lose its original shape. Also, it can’t be thick to the point that the batter can’t touch every crevice of the bread because then it’s unnecessarily dry. Picky, I know. The French toast at Spotted Pig fit all of my criteria; a thick piece of challah bread that was perfectly moist but not soggy flavored with crème fraiche and syrup, with bananas on the side. Perfect!
Chris and I have gone to The Spotted Pig on a couple of occasions and have always been treated nicely by the wait staff, but I feel as if the prerequisite to work there is that you HAVE to be a hipster with absolutely no food service background. Seriously, they have really terrible service! This time was no exception; we already looked through the menu before we got there knowing there’s always a long wait for the cubano (allow at least 15 minutes for prepping) but on our most recent visit, we ended up waiting an hour and a half for my sandwich and Chris’ French toast! Not only that, but we were seated in an area with a direct view of the kitchen so I could see what they were doing – and I saw the hostess grab my salad with her bare hands! She was using the phone, touching her body, scratching who knows what, and then she just used her bare hands to pick up my salad! Can you believe that? I mean, I’m not a germaphobe, but when I see something like that, I get completely turned off. I brought it up to our waitress and she gave me a new salad, but seeing the way the hostess handled my salad was enough to put me off.
Since the kitchen took so long to get our orders, they offered us a free dessert – which took another 20 minutes – can you believe that?! We ordered the lemon lime tart:
The waitress raved about the tart and said she really loved the taste so we ordered it, but it was just a lemon square that hadn’t completely solidified so it was a little goopy. Not something I’d order again.
Overall, the food was great (minus the dessert) and I would go there again, but they should definitely work on their waitstaff because the time you wait for your food is simply unacceptable.
