Citrus

I moved to the UWS a couple months ago, and rather than ditch my 'hood every night when dinnertime rolls around, I'm trying to find some cool places where I don't need to hop on a subway or in a cab to get to.
After a few web searches, and juggling some "critic's picks" on New York Metro, Swimster and I decided on Citrus. Now, I know I've mentioned in previous posts (SushiSamba) that I'm not totally sold on the Asian/Latin American fusion thing but Citrus sounded worth a try anyway.
Swimster met me there. I had advised him to get there a little bit earlier than our reservation ( I couldn't because I was coming directly from work) to try at getting us a seat in the "garden." Well, the "garden" was actually simply sidewalk seating. Which was fine, but it was a relatively toasty evening so we opted to stay inside, on a window, in the air conditioned dining room.
Swimster lived in Miami for a while and his first words were, "This is straight out of South Beach." I've only been once, but that description seemed accurate.
The ceilings were skyhigh and the bright orange and yellow lights made me feel I might turn into a citrus popsicle. The farthest wall to the left had a large slab of stone with water trickling down. The only thing this soothing fountain was missing was a Buddha statue and a rock garden.
Menu memorables: We decided to try the chile lime shrimp, corn and queso fundido quesadilla, basically a fancy title for a shrimp and too-much-cheese quesadilla. It came out with the spinach tortilla on the bottom and a sun-dried tomato tortilla on top. This made for a pretty picture, but not such a pretty flavor. There were some small rock shrimp inside but they were drowning in cheese, and the cheese didn't even taste that good. Could they have used American cheese in the quesadilla??? For the main course we decided to share two things: the ultimate roll combination, which was a great deal for only $19 (one yellowtail roll with mango and avocado, one spicy tuna roll with banana, and one salmon roll with cucumber), and the paella de valencia. The sushi was alright, but none of it knocked our socks off. I have to admit it sounded much more exciting on the menu (kind of like clothes that look better on the hanger). The paella was probably the highlight of the dinner with chorizo, saffron rice, shellfish, and chicken. This Mexican jambalaya was meshed together in a light sticky sauce, a little on the salty side, but very good. Swimster and I were fighting over the last bites of chorizo.
Our server was very friendly, and the busboys were very attentive. Plates were cleared with haste and our water glasses were always filled.
I tried both their sangria and their margaritas and if I had to choose which one to get again, it'd be the margarita. Both were served in tall elegant glasses. The sangria was just too sweet and not meaty (red-wine heavy) enough for me.

Perhaps Citrus should just do away with its sushi efforts and go full-blown with its South American fare which it seems to do well with. Until it makes up its mind which it's going to master, I probably won't be hurrying back...






320 Amsterdam Ave., (Upper West Side)
212-595-0500