[NYC - Harlem] The Expat NY - Great new happy hour spot

The Expat NY is a rather new Asian fusin pub/restaurant in west Harlem.

Today is the first post of my try at blogmas when I try to post one post per day in December. We'll see how long I last this year.

I am trying to post more about some more uptown Manhattan restaurants and cafes these days, let me know which other neighborhoods to explore.

I saw The Expat NY opened earlier in the summer and have had it on my list for a while now.

Scroll down to see the entire menu.

One of the things that caught my eye about The Expat is that there's a daily happy hour from 4:30 to 6:30PM.

This is the happy hour menu from the last week in October (my guess is that the pumpkin red curry chili is seasonal, but don't quote me on that). Some of the items seem to be from the main menu, but other items, like the pumpkin curry, seem to be potentially special items.

I got the Gin and Tonic from the Happy Hour menu. This was a very refreshing drink and I would definitely recommend. I think this may have been the first time I have had star anise in my gin and tonic and I think this may be one of my new favorite flavors.

This is everything we got from the happy hour menu. My friend got a glass of the pinot noir, my gin and tonic, and we also got the crispy cauliflower wings, and the pumpkin red curry chili.

These crispy cauliflower wings were the stars of the night! The outside of the wings were so crispy, but the inside was so tender. I don't know how they did it. I have tried to recreate this in my airfryer at home and I can't succeed.

The flavor was great, too. It wasn't too sweet and was just the right level of subtle spicy. When it came out I was a little worried it was going to be kind of barbecue sauce flavored, so I was so happy that it was more like a sweet and spicy chili flavor,

We thought we'd order the pumpkin red curry chili because it sounded fun and seasonal. To be completely honest, what we got was not at all what we imagined it to be and it was kind of a miss for us. We wouldn't recommend it. We had thought it was "chili" like spicy, but this was chili like the form of the word that means some beef stew. It was also topped with some cheddar cheese, which also seemed a little weird. I think this was more of the fusion side of the Asian fusion category of food. We ate a little of it and just couldn't get into finishing the cup of chili. We both felt like maybe it needed some sort of starch or something - like it should top rice or noodles.

We got the bun cha vermicelli bowl. This was a nice, light meal. I would recommend this bowl. You can also opt to add some additional protein like sausage or some pork for a small fee. We opted to just get the original.

We also decided to try to be "healthy" and added the sauteed bok choy with garlic. This was fine, but I am not sure I'd order it again since I know that the cauliflower wings are so delicious and we could have gotten two more orders of those for the same price as the bok choy. That being said, the bok choy was good, but maybe not exactly what I was looking for that day.

The restaurant seemed like it was a good neighborhood spot and pretty family friendly (judging by the number of families with young children in the restaurant).

Overall, I would recommend the happy hour and then recommend maybe checking out Jin Ramen (see tomorrow's post) for dinner.

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