Last Friday was my first night out this time in New York and what a night! Since we were a mixed crowd of partygoers (both girls and guys), we decided to skip Meatpacking District and go for TriBeCa instead.
Our cocktails and dinner destination was Macao Trading Company, which is a stylish, yet cozy bar/restaurant on Church Street. Now I’ve already mentioned Meatpacking District, for those of you familiar with that area, I can tell you that Macao was actually a bit like a more intimate version of Spice Market in Meatpacking.
We started out with cocktails in the bar, but we were soon seated at a very nice table overlooking the dining area. The menu was a rather confusing mix of Portuguese (Macao used to be a Portuguese colony) and Chinese dishes with a dash of contemporary American cuisine. Such fusion menus always freaks me out, as I never know whether I should stick to one cuisine, or if it works out mixing the different flavors. In this case, I just closed my eyes and pointed at a handful of dishes, when the waiter came to take our order.
At places like Macao, the food isn’t really what you come for anyway, so I was surprised to discover how tasty, most of what we had, was. The Grilled Strip Steak deserves a special mentioning, as it was extremely tender and succulent and outmatched all the other dishes in terms of deliciousness. And that doesn’t mean that the other dishes weren’t good, it means that this steak was freakin fabulous!
After the dinner, we decided to go have a look at the bar downstairs, which turned out to be more like a small club, complete with tables, red/black decor and a jam-packed dance floor. Our original intention was just to have a cocktail or two to round off the night, but somehow, we ended down that dreadful tequila shots trail. The rest of the night is still a bit blurry, but bits of tofu all over the floor, a 1-hour “why-I-hate-kale”-monologue captured on iPhone and a mango-animal created at 4am bore witness that I probably had a really fun night…
My guide to NYC restaurants with a party vibe
Macao Trading Co. 311 Church Street, TriBeCa, New York
