Cork ‘n Fork

One of my new favorite places. Went in during happy hour for apps and a drink to only end having a full meal. Salmon was Delish! Had the caprese salad and the croquetas de jamon. Caprese was super fresh and tasty. Croquetas melted in my mouth. Sooo good. Staff was very attentive and accommodating.

A group of 6 of us stopped in here on a Sunday around 12:30 and were the second party in the restaurant. It seems as though it’s a one man show around brunch time, but our waiter was prompt and engaged throughout our brunch.
We started off with some drinks, and for $ 6 dollars a pop it really was a deal. My boyfriend loved his sake based bloody mary and my white sangria was also great. Coffee came free with a meal, so we had all of the proper liquids lined up for our day.
We decided to order the Avenue A (chorizo and egg on baguette, mac and cheese ball stuffed omelette, and shrimp/​pork pot stickers) as well as the Avenue C (stuffed baked avocado, an egg dish, and fried basil cheese balls). My boyfriend is severely allergic to shellfish and wanted to swap the pot stickers, but there are no substitutions whatsoever for the tapas style brunch. A bit of a bummer, as the Avenue C could benefit from a little more meat. However, the food was served quickly and it was as delicious as it sounded. On the menu it just says mac and cheese balls as part of the tapas brunch, so I was a bit confused when there was an omelette on the middle of the plate. However, a little investigating led me right into it’s gooey cheesy wonderfulness.
Others at the table also tried the rancheros style dish, the eggs benedict, and the French toast. Everyone was beyond satisfied with their dish, and the prices are also very tame for New York City. We have another gift certificate here through my boyfriend’s work and were so excited to finally test it out — we will be back many more times.

I’m sad to have to write this review because I love restaurants and I want them to succeed. This place is not for the food snoots. If you’re like 24 and hung over and have $ 20 to blow on brunch maybe I’d say ok go sit down but even for that demographic you might be better off getting a red bull and a bar are the bodega because this food blows.

DON’T GO, TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE, RUDE STAFF!!!
Went to this restaurant this evening with my boyfriend who has a fatal Nut allergy. He told the staff numerous times about his allergy but was still served hazelnuts on his desert. I find his outrageous because if he was not alert or aware we would now be sat in hospital. The staff and MANAGER were rude us and made us feel stupid. They still tried to charge us the full bill and said if we refused to pay they would call the police. I work in the hospitality industry myself and find this outrageous! If they don’t care that they almost killed their customer, I worry as to how much care and attention they put into their food.
I suggest not going here, there are many other better more welcoming restaurants in the east village.

Came here for an after work night cap. Heard some amazing things.
The décor, ambiance and menu are amazing. Service was fast and food was overall good.
DRAW BACK: the boss/​owner (Jimmy) not sure what his role is, made customers feel uncomfortable.
Sadly, the server was so amazing, but the boss was always micromanaging and really jeopardizing the potential of this restaurant. Great servers — tough management.
Overall: Will come back on the condition that Jimmy is NOT in!

Cork ‘n Fork is a great spot. Most wine/​tapas bars I find to be extremely overpriced, way too small or too high-​brow, but this place was none of the above. The wine list had enough variety without being too daunting, the food was flavorful and surprisingly big portioned for tapas and the inside was warm, spacious and inviting.
I especially enjoyed the décor, as they had wine bottles poking out of every corner and some melted wax candles for some added ambiance.
I’d recommend starting with a cheese platter. It’s a great way to start the meal and there’s plenty for two people to share.
Just nearly misses a perfect rating because they brought out our main tapas while we were still eating our cheese platter (and we’d asked them to hold off on them) so they sat and got cold by the time we ate them.
Regardless though, this is one of those places you keep in your back pocket if you need a good date place that won’t disappoint.

Brunch tapas are awesome — way different than your standard city brunch fare.
We got the avenue A and the avenue C tapas. Each comes with three small dishes, and nicely cut orange slice between each. The plating is pretty, makes the food look quite appetizing. There are cool dishes like pico de gallo in a half avocado skin with a poached egg on top, or like fried mac and cheese balls wrapped in egg.
The cocktails were decent as well.
Only complaint would be the one poor waiter had to serve a lot of people, and no fault of his own I think, the service was quite slow and our food was actually a little cold when we got it.

My previous experiences have all been great at Cork N Fork, which is why they get a 3. The service is great and they do some great deals here, however…
On this visit, one of the items I ordered was the Chorizo Picante. This was described as spicy chorizo grilled and sauteed in rioja and balsamic reduction, it sounded delicious. When the dish came out and I saw the size of it, I was pleasantly surprised as it was a really nice portion size :), I then took a bite and hmmm not so good, my face turned to –_​-​, then the after taste kicked in and my face turned to :(. It was a hot dog chopped up and cooked in red wine. What the hell were they thinking? No no no Cork N Fork, just no.

Good vibe. Great happy hour sangria. Cheese plate was underwhelming – dry bread, small.

Came here to do happy hour and dinner for two of my friend’s birthdays. You could make reservations through Unilocal or opentable so that was easy enough.
They have a pretty good happy hour 7 days a week from 4 – 7. I chose this place because they not only have drink special but also have food specials.
Drinks are pretty standard but the service was pretty good, granted we were the only ones in the place for probably 2 hours. It does get really busy for dinner though around 7:30pm on a Saturday.
We didn’t end up eating dinner here since a few of our party arrived late, but we did take advantage of the happy hour specials for 2 hours… The patatas bravas were alright, could use a bit more sauce. The croquettes and mac and cheese balls were quite good. The vegetable spring rolls, well it definitely taste exactly like the frozen kind that I bake in my toaster oven… They didn’t have clams available that day, but had a decent selection of oysters, they were a bit gritty though, but all in all not bad.

The tapas here is an incredible value, and tastes delicious. I don’t know how this place isn’t more busy than it is! You can get Spanish inspired plates and beverages at a decent price. The employees are very friendly and willing to explain anything on the menu. The atmosphere is adorable, very romantic and whimsical, and the bar is very eye-​catching. They have a good deal on local oysters during happy hour. I recommend the mussels, spinach croquetas, and the spicy chorizo. And, of course, the sangria is legit. Definitely a place to check out in EV!

I came here for HH while waiting on a friend to finish up work. I got their HH specials of white wine — delicious! $ 6 for machego and you get 4 big pieces, $ 6 of their Butifara which had a spicy kick to it and you get plenty of slices. Additionally you get bread, olives, and some grapes — it’s a great deal for $ 12! I then tried the white sangria which was crisp and only $ 4. Great place for HH specials and the staff is super friendly and attentive as well!

I was trying to wait for happy hour @ the bar at Flinder’s which is a block away. but came here instead after getting fed up with the wait.
Had happy hour special that lasted till 7PM. I enjoyed all the tapas, especially the spinach croquettes. We ordered all the happy hr tapas, and the only one I wouldn’t recommend is the grilled asparagus. ($ 6 for 6 strings of asparagus… moving on) Sangria was very very light. I didn’t feel rushed at all, it’s a nice place to eat leisurely and chat with friends. I think oysters were $ 1.25 during happy hr, the waitress didn’t know much about them, but I really liked the ones that started with ko– (forgot the name); those are the smaller oysters, creamy – delish! Wish I ordered more.
I would happily come again!

Cork ‘n Fork has an uncanny resemblance to one of my favorite UES wine/​tapas bars, Pil Pil. Hmmm…
Regardless, a cute option for happy hour, a first date, or enjoying some tapas.
We ordered:
–The garlic shrimp: loved by both of us. There was roasted garlic in the buttery sauce, and the shrimp were not overcooked.
–Chorizo: not our favorite, but still yummy.
–Chicken Quesadilla: was not expecting much with this one, but it was our absolute favorite! I think I would come back just for the quesadilla. Super flavorful and generously-​sized. Also very reasonably priced during happy hour.
Speaking of happy hour, check out their specials for both drinks and food. We will be back!

I truly wanted to like this place. From the moment I walked in, I loved the choice of colored wine bottles and wood interiors. Tapas/​small plates restaurants have always impressed me before. This fell way below my expectations. We made a reservation in case, but when we arrived for 1pm brunch, the place had only one other group there.
We opted for the Tapas style brunch. You only have 3 options– A, B, C which comes as a set meal of three items. We ordered one of each for the three of us to share. Food was mediocre and did not have enough flavor. Nothing really stood out to me, even the Kir Royal and Bellini were unsatisfactory. What a disappointing first experience.

Ordered: Patatas bravas, Mac & cheese balls, Pan con tomate, Black angus skirt steak, and Pork belly bun
Pros – The skirt steak was really good with the chimichurri sauce.
Cons – The pan con tomate was too peppery.

I like the name and I think that is probably one of the reasons my friends and I came by. The wines were pretty good — and 3 wine tastings portions were quite generous. And so were the tapas — a good amount of food came out, which was actually much more than we were expecting! The ambiance is nice — great date night place — or for a small group of friends. The bar was not too busy so the four of us opted for that. Very nice layout and great service. Overall, found this to be a solid 4 star place — the décor makes it stand out a bit from other wine bars.

Sighs, after reading so many good reviews my group of 6 decided to visit over memorial day weekend for dinner. We ordered an assortment of tapas such as the chorizo, pork belly bun, brussels, calamari and a couple other. I mean long story short, they just ween’t great. They were very mediocre, nothing stood out as good, even the chorizo was dry and just tasteless.
I’m very disappointed that we came here for dinner and guarantee we wont be back.

So it seems like they may have worked out some kinks with the food — nothing spectacular but mashed potatoes did not have freezerburn, garlic shrimp actually retained juice and heft, and they gave us a ton of chopped up chorizo ends. Sangria must have been strong, given how loudly the girls at the table next to us (see below), but it tasted like watered down fruit juice. Prosciutto on flatbread was my favorite.
This is in no way an indictment on Cork ‘n Fork in particular, but it attracts a certain type of crowd on Friday nights, a crowd of scream-​ey, slightly belligerent twenty-​somethings who like to lay waste to the acoustics and shred everyone’s eardrums. Stepping inside was like running face-​first into a wall of noise.
I’m not a fan of having to shout into people’s faces (mostly because well when I can see spittle flying, I get grossed out on my companion’s behalf) and I really can’t think of anyone who does. Sure, I suppose if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, but as I was paying, I was thinking that if I ever opened up a restaurant, if I can hear anyone over the German death metal that will be playing on repeat, they’re getting booted.

I am bummed to give this very cute wine bar 2 stars but I just can’t get passed the quality of the food especially when instant mashed potatoes are served and what I think was frozen vegetables and bread.
First let me start off with the pros. The ambiance is great and the service was very, very good. My friend and I ordered the wine flight which was an awesome way to experience 3 different varieties of wine in 6 oz glasses.
Now the food. We ordered 4 things: the gambas (shrimp in olive oil), mac and cheese balls, flatbread primavera and the albondigos de chorizo (spanish meatball with smashed potato). Out of all of these items, I would only recommend the gambas. They were pretty good, tasted fresh and had roasted garlic.
What really got me was that the «smashed potatoes» served with the meatballs were INSTANT MASHED POTATOES. WHAT!!! They were watered down and had NO consistency whatsoever. Horrible.
The flatbread primavera was also a disappointment. The bread was not fresh, I think it may have been frozen, as were the vegetables. The artichokes were minimal and the asparagus was definitely not fresh asparagus. The whole flatbread tasted like something you would buy in the frozen food section of a grocery store.
The mac and cheese balls were just that. Nothing memorable.
Overall for $ 90 total for both of us, I would not recommend it based strictly on quality of food. Maybe for a glass of wine but I would not recommend eating here.