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Not too many places where you can get authentic spanish food in nyc (caribbean style) but this is def one of them. Not all the staff is fully knowledgeable as to how to pronounce words on the menu but who cares when you are taking bites of heaven... Must try the camarones & cocktails as well! If you like great spanish food, you will not be disappointed.

Love this place for the ambience/decor/music and our waiter, Tom, was pleasant and attentive. Then our food arrived looking lovely but both dishes had a ton of salt. Between a potent mojito (mint up the straw!) and too much sodium we felt felt pretty yucky upon leaving, especially given the stiff tab. Would loved to have gone back but the salt and the price will keep us away, sad to say.

Ideya, is a lovely space with its art work on the walls, and tables spaced closelybut not on top of one another. We did not discover any dish or "thing" which would give one a feeling of "you must go running back for more," The service was a bit unresponsive. It took so long for the couple next to us to get a drink for his date, he ended up going to the bar and ordering it himself. The plantain chips with salsa are not recommended for those watching their waist lines! As the saying goes "you can't eat just one!" I'm glad they brought out our appetizer and entrees relatively quickly or else we would have eaten the whole basket! We started with the Frituras de Pescado (Grouper fingers) which in my opinion, is all about the accompanying sauce because there really isn't too much taste with the fish outside of its batter. We thought this to be quite good and reasonably priced at $9. My dinner companion had the Vegetales Ideta($18) and was quite contented. with it - lots of zucchini with corn & goat cheese molded into a lovely presentation & drizzled with a pleasant pesto. I had the Chuleta Cubana-grilled marinated pork chop, honey-rum baked black beans, orange salad, jalapeño cornbread ($20) This was delicious! What we found really tasty IN THIS dish was THE CORNBREAD. YUM!-YUM! This made the dish memorable. We skipped dessert because the restaurant was becoming very loud and we prefer not to scream at each other. So this would be something for a diner to consider who is adverse to a loud environment. We would suggest either eating earlier than 7:30 or later than 9. All-in-all, we found Ideya resonably priced, (given its area), good food, and good service. We would probably do lunch herenot dinner. As for an earlier reviewer who feels that the food is not authentically Latin, while that may be true, one must remember that you have to appeal to a variety of tastes. Therefore that fine line of authenticy and main-stream must be reached. We feel that Ideya has been successful in meeting that objective.

Being latin, living in NYC-it has been almost nonexistent to find good latino or Cuban food in the North East. This place was an addition for the flop-list which had no flavor in the food and can be described as the epitome of "Gringas/Gringos" trying <-(operative word) to showcase/serve authentic latin food. Of course the ratings may seem above average on this site, which I think is due to the over powering drinks made with excessive, ahem-cheap, alcohol, impairing one's judgement and goes down harsh, giving you a headache after the first sip! Service was just ok, an the atmosphere chill, but the place seemed money hungry and just plain cheesy.

Went here for Valentines Day with my girlfriend and was very pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere and quality of the food. The music was great and the mojitos were even greater. The meal was a display of perfection from begining to end. The Corquets were phenominal and the mashed casava with corizo was to die for. This place beats any latin cuisine restaurant in NYC....

I think I have dragged my husband to every New York bar looking for a decent Mojito, after our Carribean honeymoon. The food is average Spanish food, but their Mojito menu will keep at the bar for hours. The staff is friendly and the late night atmosphere is an alternative to the club scene. Remember, when ordering your mojito, ask for 'Grande'.

I had a corporate brunch here in March 07 - have decided to keep this place on my rotation for events from now on - the entrees are satisfactory - I had the salmon, very good, the staff is friendly and we had great conversation with the manager about the art and the music in the restaurant - drinks were excellent as all the other reviews say. You MUST get the platanos and the spicy hot chocolate - in fact get all the appetizers.