Seafood Heaven at Mermaid Inn and My First Magnolia Experience

Happy hour is very big in New York…many restaurants offer reduced price drinks and special menus between the hours of 4-7 and I have not taken advantage of this enough since moving here. Well that began to change the other night when I headed over to the Upper West Side for dinner at The Mermaid Inn. This restaurant specializes in sustainable seafood and has fantastic deals at happy hour…cheap wine and beer, 1$ oysters, and reduced prices on some of their specialties…how could I turn this down?? Everything on the menu sounded good to me…luckily, my happy hour friend had been here before and when she told me what her favorites were…well that made the ordering very easy!

We started with a platter of oysters, (I mean for 1$ a piece, how can you turn them down!) We got a dozen oysters, half east and half west coast. The west coast were definitely our favorite…plump, juicy, and tasted just like the sea (which is a good thing with oysters). If you are afraid of trying oysters…don’t be! They are really not as scary as they look and dipped in a spicy cocktail sauce they were just perfect.

Shishito peppers with sea salt and lemon

We were looking for some green to balance the richness of the rest of the meal (oh, you’ll see what I mean in a second!) The waiter recommended these peppers and I’ve never had them before so was very curious to try. They seemed to be lightly fried, slightly spicy, and topped with salt and lemon they were quite interesting…in a good way. Now I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves for the rest of this meal.

Lobster sliders...plump pieces of lobster with a touch of mayo on brioche buns

Lobster and Truffle Mac and Cheese...Huge chunks of lobster in every rich bite!

Yes…it was as good as it looked! There is no skimping on the lobster here! For fresh and tasty seafood…go to Mermaid Inn!

Now, I’m not normally a cupcake fan. They just don’t do it for me, you know? Give me some ice cream, dairy queen cake or white Loblaws cake and I’m in but cupcakes…not so much. That is until I finally tried the famous Magnolia Cupcakes (as featured on sex and the city…they even have a “Carrie” cupcake). Walking by this shop the smell of flour, butter, and sugar just draws you in…that’s because they are baking the cupcakes fresh, right in front of you! I really didn’t have any sort of expectations as the women handed me my red velvet and vanilla cupcake in a very cute box…I mean, they’re just mini cakes right? WRONG!!!

Vanilla on the left and red velvet on the right

These were absolutely incredible! Thick…I mean very thick layers of icing on both little cakes of deliciousness….the vanilla had an incredible buttercream and the red velvet a whipped cream. The cake was light, moist, and fluffy. I can now understand what the lineups are about! Not a cupcake convert yet, but definitely willing to try some more!