One of the beauties of NYC is simply walking around trying to figure out “where I am going to fill my belly tonight?” On one of these nights in the East Village we came across The Mermaid Inn. Well, if seafood is not your thing then you might as well skip this review... go home and find something else; since as the name may imply The Mermaid Inn is pretty much only seafood. There might be an item or two that is not seafood, but that’s like ordering chicken at a steakhouse and who does that?
As we passed by, the décor seemed inviting as did the menu, which not too large, yet seemed to intrigue me. As with any good seafood restaurant The Mermaid Inn has a raw bar sample consisting of Oysters, Clams and Shrimp, which is how we choose to start our meal. I genuinely enjoyed the sampler, but recently it has dawned on me that I am not a fan of raw oysters in general. Something about the taste of sea water reminds me of crazy trip to Cancun where I flew off a jet ski and ended up drinking a lot of sea water!
Moving on to entrees, since I have never had skate before, I went for their sautéed skate wing. Actually before this meal, I did not even know skate was a type of fish, oh well learning and eating always a plus! The skate was served with a citrus salad and was a decent portion.
For a random find, The Mermaid Inn was great. As I mention the menu is not too diverse, so I may not come back too often, but I will definitely find myself coming back to try their lobster sandwich.