Salinas is a Spanish restaurant at 136 9th Ave. in New York. Its kitchen is under the direction of chef and partner Luis Bollo, and its focus is the cooking of the Spanish Mediterranean. Our listing describes the room as a plush, romantic townhouse setting. This post sets out what the listing says about the food.
A Spanish Mediterranean menu
Spain's Mediterranean coast runs from Catalonia through Valencia and Murcia to eastern Andalusia, with the Balearic Islands offshore. Much of Spain's rice is grown along it, around Valencia's Albufera lagoon, in the Ebro Delta in Catalonia and at Calasparra in Murcia. According to its listing, Salinas draws on the region's culinary traditions and also serves new dishes that combine modern technique with traditional flavours.
If you want to know which dishes are traditional and which are the kitchen's own, ask your server. The listing does not name individual dishes, so we won't guess at them here.
Rice and pasta beyond paella
The most distinctive line in the Salinas record is about rice and pasta. It says Chef Bollo has explored contemporary Spanish rice and pasta dishes that go beyond traditional paella, treating the method as a genre in its own right. The aim, in the record's words, is to highlight the texture of the rice and pasta rather than the ingredients that accompany it.
In Spain, paella is one dish inside a much larger family that cooks call arroces. Rice dishes are often described by texture: seco (dry, cooked in a wide shallow pan), meloso (creamy and loose) and caldoso (brothy, eaten with a spoon). Pasta gets the same pan treatment in fideuà, where short noodles are cooked in stock in a paella-style pan. So the idea of rice or noodles as the star, with everything else in support, is rooted in how these dishes are cooked in Spain.
Planning a visit
- Address: 136 9th Ave., New York.
- Listed hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 17:30 to 22:00, Thursday 17:30 to 23:00, Friday and Saturday 17:30 to midnight.
- Sunday and Monday: the listing shows no hours for these days, so check with the restaurant before planning a visit.
- Setting: a townhouse dining room that the record describes as plush and romantic, which suits a dinner booking more than a quick drop-in.
Opening hours change, so check the Salinas page or call the restaurant before you go.
More Spanish cooking on and near Ninth Avenue
If you're building an evening around the area, these venues are also in our New York directory:
- Txikito, also on Ninth Avenue at number 240: a Basque restaurant open since 2008. Its record mentions salt cod croquettes, octopus carpaccio and txakoli poured from a height.
- Socarrat Paella Bar, Chelsea at 259 W 19th St: described in its record as the first Socarrat restaurant, with traditional tapas and signature paellas.
- Txula Steak at 515 W 30th St: a Basque-inspired steakhouse built around an imported Spanish oven, serving 60-day aged txuletón ribeyes.
For more options across the city, browse Spanish restaurants in New York.
