We recently discovered Blend, a restaurant serving Latin cuisine in Long Island City (LIC). The first time we went there was for brunch and we surely had to go back for dinner. I like this place which is quite big, because of the variety its menu proposes, with dishes from Latin America, like a puzzle made of specialties from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba or Peru. Varied and well executed. Here is what we had:

Dining room at Blend in Long Island City

Brunch:

Guacamole and chips: quite good, freshly made with chunks of avocado.

Huevos rancheros: eggs any style (Jodi chose poached) over black beans, jack cheese and a quesadilla with salsa and guacamole. Very good, I like the fact that you can choose how you want your eggs (3 of them that is a lot) cooked.

Arepas Benedictos: their take on eggs Benedict where two sweet corn cakes (arepas) are topped with ham and perfectly poached eggs smothered with hollandaise sauce. This was delicious: the arepas was delightfully sweet, giving a different dimension to a classic brunch dish. And it came with some deliciously crispy house potatoes.

I should mention that with your egg dish, you get a choice of coffee, tea or orange juice, all of that for $9.95 that is a great deal.

Orange juice and coffee at Blend in Long Island City

Dinner:

As a cocktail, I got a classic caipirinha that was quite good.

Appetizer: Maduros con queso that are sweet plantains with cotija cheese and sour cream. This has an interesting taste, combining the sweetness of the plantains and the saltiness of the cheese.

For her entree, Jodi got the veggie burger that was composed of a panko crusted portobello mushroom stuffed with a black bean patty and served with guacamole. You then pick a side between fries, yuca fries or a salad. She went for the latter.

On my side, I ordered the seafood paella that was sublime: I hate when you can tell that the rice was cooked separately. It was not the case at Blend. There was a lot of seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp and calamari) and it tasted very good. I should mention the appetizing presentation of the dish that you can notice on the photo.

Last was dessert. I was hoping that they would have a tres leches, but no. So we settled for the flan that was good and could have been better without the passion fruit coulis...

We had nice meals at Blend and I would definitely go back there and know that the train ride is not that long…

Enjoy (I did)!

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Blend - 4704 Vernon Boulevard, NY 11101

Jean-Philippe Gerbi