Perla Café makes a truly wonderful burger and a truly awful shrimp salad. Remember that, it will be a on a quiz later.

A few of my besties had just flown into town to help me celebrate my 40th birthday and one of the first (of many) food related stops we made was for lunch at Perla Café.

The lunch menu is sparse, to say the least. Nothing sounds very inspired. Nothing leap out of the page, gives you a proper slap in the face and shouts “Order me, bitch!”

The Brunch and Dinner menus are definitely where the fun is. There may be a few things that might slap you in the face, be warned.

The burger, as I had mentioned before was just wonderful. It comes with a delightful herb mayo and TATOR TOTS! For such a posh, elegant atmosphere, I really didn’t expect tots. Some kind of frites, perhaps. The tots were DELICIOUS and immediately devoured.

The Shrimp Salad was….flavorless…saltless..pointless. Did it even come with a dressing? Maybe just gross shrimp moisture.

It was like the owners only knew one thing for certain before opening Perla Café. And it involved the absolute necessity of having a Shrimp Salad somewhere on the menu, God dammit!

234 W 4th St
New York, NY 10014
b/t 10th St & Charles St
West Village
Phone number (212) 933-1824
perlanyc.com