I was just in Asheville and ate the best Spanish food (in The US) of my life at Curate. It reminded me how much I love the cuisine. What are the best spanish restaurants here?

I feel like there aren’t many oft discussed spanish places in NYC. Does anyone have any recs? I did enjoy casa mono a lot! How’s Ernesto’s? Spanish Diner?

Wife and I are looking for a good Spanish restaurant. Something on the nicer side as it’s for her birthday!

Have some friends coming into town who were interested in Tapas, or good Spanish in general! Haven't tried too many Spanish places, I remember Nai and the new El Quijote being solid but kind of overpriced while Boqueria is fine.

We'll probably be near Clinton Hill but interested in options anywhere (ideally with reservations available for early July).

Hey hey! Like the title says, I’m looking for a great Spanish restaurant for NYC for this weekend. Tasting menus or a la carte are fine, we’d just love a great meal and experience. Thank you!!

I feel like it’s really hard to find Spanish food here! Any recs?

In NYC for the day and I’m interested in looking for a good Spanish restaurant. Casual, nothing upscale or anything like that

I’ve been meaning to try Carnal for a minute: the chef, Francisco Aguilar, made his name running the Simón truck which I had read about but still haven’t tried but I was certainly willing to give his brick-and-mortar spot a shot. They're located in a small space off Figueroa, by 59th, in Highland Park. There's metered street parking and a small lot in the back.

We got there around 7:30pm on a Sunday and their listed hours is 9pm that night when we arrived, the server said that the kitchen was getting ready to close. It didn't impact our meal but I'm wondering if they had considered closing early that evening because the restaurant was running a skeleton staff of just the chef + one server. We were one of three tables in there so it wasn't particularly busy but my point is that, had we arrived 30-40 minutes later, they might have already been closed by that point, regardless of the listed hours.

Importantly as well, on Sundays, they have an all-seafood menu that's completely different from their regular menu, the rest of the week. When I say "all seafood," that's what it is so if you don't like mariscos? Don't come on a Sunday!

What jumped out to us on the zarandeado (grilled) portion of the menu was whole Spanish pulpo. Every time we’ve gotten octopus in the past, it’s either been just the tentacles or chopped pieces so a whole octopus seemed like a worthwhile change of pace. 

It took about 15-20 minutes to come out (the menu says to be prepared for it to be 25 min) and whistle. As you can see, you get the whole octopus, plus three handmade tortillas with melted cheese on them, micro-cilantro (or something that certainly tasted like it), slices of cucumber and radish, pickled onions, a small bowl of delicious refried beans (seriously, those were really really good). There’s also two kinds of salsa on the side and they give you a basket of plain tostadas rather than soft tortillas (not pictured). 

The pulpo was done well, grilled after soaking in a mole-esque marinade, producing a mix of crispier ends and a softer mantle. Not having had much mantle before, I wasn’t sure what to expect but it’s quite different from the tentacles which, as muscle, have a denser texture. The mantle was well-cooked here but still verging on the gelatinous side. (That may be a reason why it’s not as common as the tentacles on menus). I didn’t mind the texture myself but throw anything into a tortilla or onto a tostada and the texture of either helps balance things out. We took most of the mantle home as leftovers so we’ll see how it cooks up on reheat. 

In any case, it was enjoyable to put together our own pulpo antojitos but I would have preferred more soft tortillas rather than crunchy tostadas. While I know tostadas are common at mariscos places for ceviches, when it comes to cooked protein, my personal preference is tortillas.

As you can also see: It was a lot of food. The whole octopus is $62 before tax/tip but that platter would have easily fed 3-4 people. I doubt it was intended to be a 2-person plate; it definitely is more of a "family-style platter."  

In any case, the meal was certainly good enough to warrant us going back again, both on their “normal” menu nights but I’d do mariscos Sunday again, especially to try some of the other items we saw on there.