Hooray for Tapas: Plancha, Garden City, NY

More Brooklyn than Long Island, Plancha is a find in Garden City. Tony Franklin Avenue is used to good restaurants, but Plancha takes a small sliver of real estate, a fryer, a broiler, and a flattop (aka Plancha) and voila - a tapas place. Unexpected? Yes. Worth a visit? Definitely.

Sit at the bar, as we did, and watch the small plates delicately composed while sipping a quartino from their large wine selection. 

Start with a platter. We chose cheese (Spanish and Italian meat platters were also on offer) and indulged in six artisanal varieties from  Gouda to D'Affinois. We rounded out the platter with olives, fig jam, nuts and a generous amount of olive oiled bread. 

Each tapas selection looked tantalizingly delicious. We tried to venture beyond our comfort zone. 

#1: Anchovies over rustic bread with mascarpone cheese, capers and onions: Thumbs up for mascarpone, thumbs down for anchovies. A word to all anchovies - go back to just being in Caesar dressing.  

#2: Roasted brussel sprouts: Sounds ordinary but wait there's more. Puréed chestnuts make this dish go from a 7 to a 10. 

#3: Pork belly with kimchee, sesame mayo, lime and cilantro on a soft roll: It's a fancy bacon sandwich, need I say more? 

Speaking of more, there are many tapas to choose from. We saw the lamb run coming out of the broiler and drooled. Croquettes kept being tossed into the fryer. And patatas bravas looked wow. 

We will return for another round. 

Until our next burger, 

KLB

La Plancha
931 Franklin Avenue
Garden City, NY
516.246.9459

No website but check out their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/BarPlanchaGardenCity