PINTXOS

510 Greenwich St
[C, E to Spring Street]

Pintxos was a restaurant I discovered, by chance, when I was looking for a new lunch location - largely, to tell my ex-boyfriend why I wasn't speaking to him. (Its a long story and, fug me, I still owe him for the soup I got...) But, after that initial dip into the restaurant, the menu looked so good, I had to go back. And so, I did. About once a week.

Pintxos does tapas - that's the most important thing. Not that the actual food doesn't look amazing (in fact, the lunch specials all look amazing; steak and salmon are both offered for about $8, alongside veggies so fresh and young that I felt dirty for looking at them with my unabashed longing). But its the basque style tapas that kept bringing me back - not only is it reasonably priced, its all delicious. The sauces are good enough to be soups, the "spicy" mussels and chorizo is flavorful but not offensive. And the sangria is rumored to be best in the city ... but shhh, don't tell anyone.

Additionally, the general atmosphere is charming; something about the tile, light blue and prevalence of wood. The waitstaff (with the single exception of a guy who was short with me not once but on two separate visits last week) is sunny and shiny; especially if you try to pronounce the dishes correctly, double points for apeing the "barthelona" accept --- not unlike my Basque, coulda-been father-in-law.