Reviews: Contento
In Summary: I’d go back
Formal | Peruvian | East Harlem
Reservation difficulty: Low - I was able to find a Saturday evening reservation within a week of booking.
Food: 4 out of 5 - Wonderful dishes, incredibly well executed, and a couple with unique flavor combinations that I will be thinking about long after the meal.
Flavor: 5/5 - Everything we ordered was delicious, well-balanced, and seasoned well. The dishes that came with sauces had plenty of it and all the components blended well and had a purpose on the plate. Each dish featured ingredients from a range of regions and cuisines. The food at Contento definitely has a Peruvian spin, but this is not the place to expect dishes to adhere to their ‘traditional’ versions.
Uniqueness: 4/5 - From what we ordered (two small plates, one large plate, one dessert), two of them were standouts including the best ceviche I’ve had, and one of the most unique takes on a short rib. These are both dishes that would bring me back to this restaurant in a heartbeat.
Optionality: 5/5 - It can be rare for a restaurant to strike the balance between having a limited menu that ensures everything is well-executed and providing enough optionality and exciting options that a glance at the menu doesn’t make a diner sigh and think ‘chicken, salmon, or duck again?’. For both the small and large plates, Contento had a range of options including multiple exciting vegetarian options, seafood dishes including octopus, tuna, ceviche, fluke, mussels, and short ribs, aged beef, and pork belly for heavier meats.
Service: 4 out of 5 - Although we had a reservation, we did have to wait about 15 minutes for our table. However, during that time the host checked in to assure us they had not forgotten about us and that our table would be ready shortly. After we were seated, the service was wonderful. Nothing took too long to come out, but the speed of our courses did not feel rushed at all. We shared all our dishes and with each course, the staff changed our utensils and individual plates - a small gesture that not all restaurants will do. The short wait did not impact the overall service experience at all but that small blip is the only thing keeping this restaurant from a 5 out of 5 for service.
Ambiance: 4 out of 5 - The indoor portion of Contento is fairly small with a beautiful bar with stool seating on one side and small and medium size tables opposite the bar. The dining room has a chic and cozy feel but you’ll come back for the food, not the decor, as it should be.
What I ate:
Ceviche Clasico: Corn, onion, cilantro, sweet potato, leche de tigre
Must order: This dish was by far the best thing I ate at Contento.
When I think ceviche, I usually think of a mish-mosh of seafood in an acidic zingy broth, and maybe some heat from a chilli or two. To me, ceviche has always been like oysters: tangy and refreshing at its best, deeply concerning, and potentially food poisoning-inducing at its worst.
Ceviche has never been a favorite of mine, but the ceviche at Contento is everything good about the dish, fresh, acidic, and savory but nothing like you’d typically expect.
Rather than coming in the usual glass or goblet, this ceviche came almost like a seafood carpaccio or salad. Tender, raw pieces of whitefish were accompanied by an acidic and flavorful broth with corn for some sweetness and peanuts for a bit of crunch. Instead of relying on the acidity to flavor the seafood, this whitefish was marinated in leche de tigre, a spicy and citrus-based fish marinade that allowed the fish to stand on its own and created another layer of flavor.
But what truly made the ceviche was the sweet potato puree that acted as a second sauce. I am not usually a fan of sweet potatoes but this puree was perfectly seasoned, slightly but not overly sweet, and lent a wonderful creaminess that is not often found in ceviches but is now something I’ll always want in one.
By the time, we were almost done, the remnants of the puree had mixed with the broth, and my dining companion thought aloud about just picking up the plate and drinking the rest of the liquid. It was that good.
Roasted Sunchokes: Uchucuta sauce, shaved pecans, nigella seed
Skip and try another salad: With so many wonderful veggie and salad options on the small plates menu, on my next trip back to Contento, I would opt to try something else.
The sunchokes were perfectly tender. If like me, you rarely eat sunchokes, their texture is waxy and starchy, similar to a potato but the flavor is a bit more vegetal like a carrot or turnip. The dish came with a sauce made with mint, parsley, tarragon, and several other herbs. However, besides the mint, the other herbs did not come through in the flavor. I’d expect an herb-forward sauce like this one to taste very fresh and bright, but something about it was missing and the flavor fell a bit flat. The pecans also did not do much to lift the overall experience of the dish. In fact, I only remembered the dish had pecans as I was writing this up and went back to the menu to reference the description.
Although the individual components of the dish had potential, there was nothing that kept me going back for more. Unless you are crazy about sunchokes, give another vegetable or salad dish a try.
Short Ribs: Udon noodles, spicy peanut sauce, togarashi
Must order: The most unique and overall one of the top 5 short ribs I’ve had.
For anyone who reads ‘fusion’ on a menu or description and thinks ‘is it X, is it Y, why can’t they just pick one and do it well?’, this short rib dish is everything that fusion food should be. Two seemingly separate components from different cuisines combined to complement each other and create an experience you’ve never had.
The short rib itself looks unassuming but after one bite, you’ll find a perfectly cooked, falling apart, amazingly seasoned, not overly fatty dish. Alone, this is not unique but it is simply an amazing short rib.
The peanut sauce-covered udon satisfies all your sweet and savory inner Thai food cravings and has creaminess but also a small amount of acidity to offset the chewy but light noodles.
Take a bite with both the short rib and the noodles and you’ll find the peanut sauce adds its own version of meatiness to the short rib, and the noodles add another textural element that evokes a similar satisfaction to eating other meat and noodle combo dishes, like bolognese. The noodles offer a great way to break up the denseness of the short rib and this dish is what I think of when I want a good meal after a long day.
Olive Oil Cake: Whipped sweet ricotta, seasonal fruit
Good, but eager to try their other desserts: If you like olive oil cake, this version is great. If you don’t like olive oil cake, this is still pretty darn good and might change your mind.
I’m someone who can be picky about dessert. For me, I either want the best version of a tried and true classic or a unique experience. Surprisingly, this dish does a bit of both. The olive oil sponge cake is the perfect option for a not overly sweet dessert but still, nothing that’s too crazy, The slice we got was moist but still held its shape and had enough olive oil flavor to remind us that we weren’t just eating regular cake without it being oily.
The ricotta kept the not overly sweet theme but offered a similar satisfaction level as a lighter whipped cream. And the strawberry compote that accompanied it lent the much-needed tartness to the dish.
Although I won’t dream of this dish, I’m so glad we ordered it. It was indulgent without being heavy or sugary and was a great ending to the meal. However, as an adventurous dessert-goer next time, I’m eager to try their creme fraiche panna cotta.
The whole meal: two small plates, one large plate, one dessert, two drinks, and a coffee, split between two people was about $75 per person before tip.