$1,000 Paella Latest to Join Family of Outrageous Restaurant Dishes

100808paella.jpgIt's obscenely overpriced publicity gimmick time again! Today the object of derision is the $1,000 paella now on the menu at Sofrito. Chef Ricardo Cardona says the dish—made with rice, truffles and truffle oil, baby eel, octopus, Maine lobster and Alaskan prawns—was inspired by other outrageously expensive meals, which include such greatest hits as the $1,000 bagel and $25,000 dessert. And like Karl Rove before him, Cardona seems to have divorced himself from such vulgarities as "reality" or "facts"; he asks the Daily News, "Who said 'recession'? Who said 'bad economy'?" To his credit, Cardona's taking in just $800 from each paella sold because 20% is being donated to Ayuda, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged Latino youngsters. A nice gesture, but it also makes our righteous indignation about 20% less fun.

Email This Entry

Comments (10) [rss]

Now I can cross this place to eat off the list of places I will eat at. Maybe I just don't get it.

user-pic

En espanol dice "El Schmucko" o "El Putzisimo!"

The way I pronounce "Sofrito" is "Suck it good".

Ugh, this place is terrible. I got arroz con pollo there before, it was greasy and tasted microwaved.

"And like Karl Rove before him, Cardona seems to have divorced himself from such vulgarities as "reality" or "facts";"

For goodness sake, is there any topic you can't awkwardly shoe-horn your political bias into? You can't even mention paella without a dig at a political figure you don't like?

This is just plain old, crappy writing and poor journalism regardless of political persuasion.

If there is a God, this scumbags restaurant will be foreclosed by next week.

$900 profit sounds about right.

Who wouldn't happily fork over $1,000 for a dish that looks like pig vomit?

this warrants a $1,000 price tag because rice prices have skyrocketed to $0.005/lb wholesale.

Wow I cannot believe this. Both times I've dined at Sofrito, I ordered the "regular" Paella, and both times it was below average, fishy (the muscles were unopened and bad) and lacking any "wow" factor. I can't imagine what could possibly be in the $1,000 Paella to warrant such a price tag. (Truffle Oil is @ $12 at your local supermarket and for $1,000 you can purchase a decent portion of whole truffles yourself...)

The best dish I had was the bread!

Post a comment (Comment Policy)

Tips

Get your daily dose of New York first thing in the morning from our weekday newsletter, now in beta.

About Gothamist

Gothamist is a website about New York. More

Editor: Jen Chung
Publisher: Jake Dobkin

Newsmap

newsmap.jpg

Contribute

Latest Photo:

Subscribe

Use an RSS reader to stay up to date with the latest news and posts from Gothamist.

All Our RSS