The Pint-Sized Palate: A Kid’s Take on NYC Food

Holy Móle

By Churchill Stone

Mole
57 Jane St. (entrance on Hudson St.)

You have probably walked by this place a thousand times. On the corner of Hudson at Jane, it’s hard to miss. There is a large front patio with people eating nachos, or guacamole, and drinking bright-colored cocktails. I never knew what Móle was, but today I would finally find out!

Since it was a Tuesday at 7 p.m., I thought it wouldn’t be too busy. Besides, my mother had a reservation. But when we arrived, there were so many people eating outside that we had to sit inside. Fortunately, the staff was nice and let us sit at the table even though our entire party wasn’t there yet.

Inside is small. The floor, seats, and tables are dark wood. The lighting is fairly dim, but the place is vibrant with Mexican paintings and decorations. There are mirrors all around the restaurant and cool patterned lamps hanging as well. The wall facing us was bright orange — it really lit up the whole restaurant.

The kitchen was visible from where we sat, framed by colorful printed tiles. Some big French restaurants have a mountain of butter in the kitchen, but Móle had a gigantic pile of fresh cilantro. I watched the chefs putting out food for the servers — different-sized platters of delicious-looking meals served to people all around us. It definitely made me hungry.

The Móle menu is very long, which makes it hard to choose. I didn’t get to finish reading it before we had to order. All of the drinks looked colorful and beautiful. I ordered Agua Fresca, lemonade served in a large glass, and very tasty ─ more like a limeade than lemonade since it’s slightly more sour than lemonade; but it was well-balanced, refreshing, and it even came with a lime on the edge of the glass (not a lemon).

The food arrived quickly. We got the queso fundido, which they call “Mexican cheese fondue.” It’s a ton of melted cheese with flour tortillas — everyone loved it. It was very cheesy, smooth, and made a great cheese pull (my dad did that). The mushrooms made it a little less kid-friendly, but you can’t taste them that much because there is so much melted cheese. They also served us a lot of tortilla chips that were crispy and flavorful, along with salsa verde that was good, but a little too spicy.

The adults ate Mexican ceviche which is raw fish with tomatoes, onions and cilantro. I do like sushi, but I did not like this so much. Then they forgot my guacamole and seemed confused when we asked where it was, so we had to reorder it. But it was worth the wait — it was great!

My mom then ordered steak fajitas which are grilled steak strips with beans, rice, onions, peppers, salsa, and sour cream that you put in a tortilla. Even though there were vegetables mixed in, everything tasted good together, but I preferred just eating the steak with the tortilla alone. But the steak was a bit overdone if you ask me.

My father had pollo en “móle poblano” which he liked, but I didn’t even want to try it. Móle is a Mexican sauce that has lots of things in it, including dark chocolate. But that was too much for me. And by that point, with all the melted cheese, tortilla chips, and steak, I was full.

But wait, there was dessert. And they had churros. So I had to try those. Churros are long fried donuts with cinnamon sugar all over them. They came to the table super hot. They tasted great on their own. But they also came with a bowl of chocolate sauce for dipping. That was even better. My parents loved their tres leches cake, but I had four churros to eat so I stuck with those.

Móle is very kid-friendly because there are so many dishes on the menu that we like. And it’s good for families because the servings are large — I would order less than you think, not more. Next time, I want to try their nachos (without jalapeños), pozole soup, (because I read about it in a book) and carne asada (marinated skirt steak). So I have a lot of reasons to go back to Móle!