The Hungry Russian

Pedro’s Mexican Bar & Restaurant
73 Jay St, Brooklyn 11201 (At Front St)

After Park Slope, DUMBO has to be one of my favorite neighborhoods in NYC. What I love most about DUMBO is the fact that you can still see a lot of the old and historic Brooklyn almost everywhere you look. From old trolley tracks and cobble stone streets to  old fashioned signs on buildings, DUMBO remains an area that is quite rich in NY history. When it comes to eating in DUMBO, I haven’t really explored too many of the local eateries there. Every time I visit DUMBO, it’s almost certain that one way or another I will walk by Pedro’s and each time the place looks jam packed with people. I decided that this time I would finally give this place a shot and see if the crowd is really here for the food or just for the margaritas.

Elote: I love grilled corn on the cob and any time I see it on a menu I will always order it. It is a popular street food in Mexico and various other Latin American countries. I have seen many variations of this dish but essentially it’s grilled corn on the cob that’s slathered with mayo (or chipotle sauce), spices, and sprinkled with cheese. The elote at Pedro’s was ok and definitely not the best I’ve had. It was covered in way too much plain mayo, contained zero spices, and had very little cheese. Luckily the corn itself was tasty and sweet but it would have been much better with a touch less mayo, some paprika, and definitely a lot more cheese.

Mexican Green Apple Soda: Although sodas are not the healthiest thing in the world, the one good thing about Mexican sodas is that they all use natural cane sugar which is probably a good reason why Mexican Coke tastes so good. The Green Apple Soda (Manzana Verde), although quite sweet, was definitely tasty and refreshing on that particular hot and sunny day. Unfortunately it was quite filling, as most sodas are.

Fried Plaintains with Beef: An extremely oily dish but a very tasty one as well. A sweet plaintain split down the middle, stuffed with ground beef, covered with cheese and then fried. This was a wonderful combination of sweet and savory! The beef was very flavorful as was the cheese. Besides the plaintain, I doubt there was anything healthy about this dish not to mention that some people might be turned off by the heavy amount of oil it was swimming in but I would definitely come back for this dish.

Fajitas Mixta: Fajitas with chicken, beef, and shrimp. Total disappointment! The beef and chicken was definitely tender and might have actually been quite tasty if it wasn’t for the excessive amount of salt that was apparently used. The shrimp was even saltier than the meat! The peppers and onions were a little less salty but overall this dish had more salt than the Dead Sea. The only thing somewhat helped the situation was the bland rice and beans which I will discuss next.

Rice & Beans: Rice & Beans is a pretty simple side dish but it’s preparation can tell you so much about a place. All I can say is that the rice, besides being slightly dry, along with the beans was very bland. I suppose it made an excellent side dish for the sodium infused fajitas.

I’m not entirely sure about Pedro’s yet. The Fried Plaintains with Beef were great but the rest of the meal was rather disappointing. I was very curious about their Mofongo but the waitress was kind enough to inform me that at the moment their Mexican chef was working in the kitchen and that I should hold off on the Mofongo until the Dominican chef’s shift begins. I guess that alone gives me a reason to give Pedro’s another shot.