Each time I’ve walked inside Yellow Rose, it felt like I walked into the home of a Texan grandmother—well, if grandma decorated her walls with the front bumper of a car. Sans the car detail, something about Yellow Rose feels like home. Perhaps it’s the brown wallpaper with orange and yellow flowers and lamps that look like they were imported straight from Applebees, but this East Village restaurant needles at that nostalgic nerve of the brain.
The food follows suit on comforts, bringing a taste of Tex-Mex cuisine to the city. With its beginnings as a pop-up within Superiority Burger, Yellow Rose officially opened its doors in November 2020. Since then, its tables, bar and pews-turned-booths have been packed with diners coming for a taste of “Genuine Cosmic Texas Cookin.’” And while some dishes had staying power, many fell short from “out of this world.”
The impressive bit starts with their claim to fame: the housemade tortillas. Made to order, the tortillas are something to be admired—warm and blistered in pockets, all while having a nice, substantial chew. They are best showcased in their tacos—the slow, six-hour simmered beef barbacoa and the carne guisada in a reddish tinted gravy being the best of them.
But perhaps because the tortillas are handmade, they take time, more than I thought they would. For my first visit, it took 45 minutes for three tacos and a steak quesadilla to hit the table. The second visit, I skipped the tacos, but the table of five next to me didn’t. Though I was seated a cool 20 minutes after them and placed my order much later, my chicken mole beat their tacos to the table. It was made worse by the fact the waitress came by and dropped their check, somehow not noticing no one had received a single taco. The menu does mention that the tortillas are handmade to order, perhaps leading to the delay. That being said, the food around the periphery of the tacos is a bit of a range. Some impressive, some underwhelming and the rest sat in the middle as perfectly fine.
The impressive bit starts with the Skillet Cornbread. Due to its prep in a cast iron skillet, the cornbread has a crust to it, as if a corner piece from a baking dish. But the center easily crumbles and is made sweeter with candied pecans, a dollop of butter and thinly sliced scallions. The best dish of the night, surprisingly goes to a salad so special it should have stars around its name. It’s the Smoked Tomatillo Salad—remember it, put it on your list. The smoky tang from the tomatillo is paired with an underlying brine and salt from the anchovies. Topped with a glorious crown of cotija, this is a starter I would order each and every visit.
But somehow, most of the dishes didn’t stand up to the salad. The first fews bites of my Skirt Steak & Long Hot Pepper Quesadilla were more cheese over anything else, peppered with a skimp of steak here and there. After more unsatisfactory bites, I opened every triangle only find a single shred of hot pepper in the last one, making me question the $22 price tag. The Spicy Chicken Sandwich with Fries did have a nice spice to it, but it’s a sandwich that I could get (and have) at any other restaurant in the city. And while the chicken in the Chicken Mole & Rice shredded beautifully and the mole had a telltale hint of smoke and fruitiness to it, I wouldn’t necessarily clamor to order it again.
However, the desserts pick it all back up again with the sheet cakes taking the, well, cake. Two thick slices came to the table. The first, the rich Texas Sheet Cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting balanced with sweetened and candied and fried pecans and a sprinkle of sea salt. The Corn Cake proved lighter with lemon cream cheese frosting, candied stripes of lemon peel and a thin layer of strawberry jam in its center. Both were drizzled in olive oil that pooled at its base. It's hard to say what my favorite was, as one jostle the other out of the top spot depending on the last bite I had. But what I can say is order the cake in any form and you won't be disappointed.
And not to be forgotten, but there is also plenty to explore at the bar. My most favorite (and a favorite of the dining room) was the Sherry Cherry Coke. With a base of Mexican coke, the drink features a glug of sweet sherry and muddled bits of roasted sour cherries. Sure, some bits got stuck in my straw, but it was so good and perfectly jammy, I really didn’t care that much. And if you are abstaining, the bar whips up a non-alcoholic shrub soda. Mind you, my first sip had a sharp tang of vinegar, similar to kombucha in nature, before the flavors of green apple and celery came forward. While a satisfying stand-in for alcohol, I'd make sure to give it a stir before sipping.
All this to say, I would still come back to Yellow Rose. The menu changes so often, their Instagram so aesthetically pleasing with honey butter chicken biscuits and dulce de leche sweet potato pie, it’s clear there is fun to be had here. But perhaps a few dishes need to come back to Earth before they can truly reach the stratosphere.
Vitals
The vibe: It feels like visiting grandma’s house if grandma had a car bumper on the wall and cowboy portraits in her bathroom. It’s comforting—Dolly Parton would like it here.
The food: Tex-Mex aplenty can be found here, tacos and queso for dinner and kolaches and doughnuts in the morning hours. Riffs on the classics can waiver, but the Smoked Tomatillo salad is one of the best.
The drinks: Ordering at least one of the Sherry Cherry Cokes is a must. But plenty of the drinks here are sure to keep interest with shrubby syrups and roasted tomatoes and serrano mixes make their way to Micheladas.