Celebrating Cinco de Mayo w/ some BRUNCH in NYC (Que Viva Mexican brunching!)

Cinco de Mayo (not to be confused with Mexico’s Independence Day) is a day in which Mexican’s all over commemorate the Mexican army’s victory over the French at the battle of Puebla. In the US, we take this celebration pretty serious with bars offering fiestas and drink/food specials. Everyone is Mexican for the day and hey it is a great excuse to grab that margarita and sip it like you are in Cancun. Tequila shots anyone??

Here at BRUNCHINEE, we dedicated our weekend brunching to Mexico and tried two awesome new Mexican restaurants that had us singing mariachi tunes all day. 

On Saturday, we took it to the UPPER WEST SIDE and checked out Jalapeno Restaurant, a fairly new small but cozy Mexican Restaurant that offers an all you can drink Brunch menu that includes prosecco, mimosa or bloody mary (you have to stick to one type of drink.) This place is a perfect spot for either a date or a small group brunch because it is not overcrowded and has a pretty intimate setting.

They started us off with some corn bread with sweet tomatillo butter. Was not our fave corn bread but the butter was pretty interesting!

We always like to ask the waiter/waitress what is the best/most popular dish on the menu and then we make our choices. So we asked our waitress who gave us some awesome suggestions-- which all included our fave denominator when it comes to brunching, eggs! The menu consisted of dishes such as marinated skirt steak with eggs, huevos rancheros, burritos, quesadillas benedict and more yummy egg dishes. We went with the Huevos Acapulquenos, (pictured below) which consisted of two poached eggs, crab cakes on top of crispy corn tortillas with cheese (We LOVE cheese!) and chipotle aioli served with home fries! OMG! The liquid from the egg yolk dripping on the tortilla and on the crab cake just meshed so well and formed a FIESTA in our mouths! Simply delicious! As you can tell from the pictures below, we took these bad boys down!

Huevos Acapulquenos w/ a Mimosa

Up close

All done!

We enjoyed our time at Jalapeno and the service was good too! We were also invited to their CINCO DE MAYO FIESTA taking place this Thursday with a LIVE mariachi band and FREE TEQUILA! ARRIBA!

Here are some pics of the restaurant and its décor:

Check out Jalapenos website for more info on menus and upcoming events: www.jalapenonyc.com


On Sunday, the babes gathered the troops (Shawn, Evelyn and Danny) and took it down to the WEST VILLAGE to a place that was highly recommended, Agave Restaurant located on 140 7^th Ave South and OMG we instantly fell in LOVE with this place! Not only did they have al fresco seating but they had unlimited frozen margaritas! The pre-fixe eggs brunch for only $18.95 included unlimited mimosas, wine or frozen margaritas with flavors including: guava, mango, blackberry, strawberry, pomegranate, prickly pear and regular flavor. Yes we had choices and we love that! We loved the guava and mango flavors and they kept those drinks coming!

Agave Restaurant (Al Fresco)

Guava Frozen Margarita

 

Brunching babes enjoying al fresco brunch @ Agave Restaurant

The food was definitely authentic Mexican cuisine and we had amazing choices from egg omelets, huevos rancheros, Hand Hacked Three Beef Hash, poached eggs, sunrise fiesta burritos and more. If you do not want to do the pre-fixe eggs brunch, then the menu offers other options but why not go with the unlimited drinks option? It is only right!

The sunrise fiesta burrito was a popular item on our table. 3 out of 5 ordered this dish which was filled with scrambled eggs, cheese, potatoes, chicken chorizo, avocado crema and the beans!! Those beans had pulled pork and chili in them and we have never tasted beans like those! YUM YUM YUM!

We also had to try the HUEVOS RANCHEROS because when in Rome you MUST. This dish took huevos rancheros to a whole new level. The huevos were served on top of a fresh blue corn tortilla with beans which had pulled pork in them and pleasantly tasteful. Anything with guacamole in it instantly makes any dish better and this my friends had a good amount of GUAC!

Huevos Rancheros

We also had to try the skirt steak and eggs as well as the chili and both were delicious options. 

Marinated Skirt Steak, scrambled eggs & potatoes

The weather cooperated with our al fresco dining experience and at moments we felt as if we were on vacation. The ambiance and vibe of this place is awesome. Fashionistas, models, actors, and artsy folks filled up the scene. We even spotted one of the Basketball Wives enjoying brunch. 

Lime Frozen Margarita

This place will definitely become one of our regular spots especially now that the weather is getting better in NYC. We look forward to it!

For more information on Agave Restaurant please visit:  www.agaveny.com. We hear they also have a sister restaurant, Mojave Restaurant in Astoria, Queens and you better believe that we will be checking it out!

Here is a toast to Mexico! QUE VIVA MEXICO!! ARRIBA!