Miss Lily Sure is Pretty

Miss Lily's is the talk of the town after opening (not officially) about a month ago. By the same owners of La Esquina, they are doing this one Jamaican style. And boy are those Jamaicans pretty. From the moment I walked in it was apparent that being gorgeous is a pre-requisite to getting a job here. The hostess at the front door was beautiful and greeted us with a big smile. The bar boys...umm so delicious! I could barely focus on ordering a drink. Our waitress, who was from Paris, was ridiculously cute! All the staff was cheerful, and even dancing as they brought us our food. One thing I noticed is that they were all so positive and amazingly nice! It was really refreshing after all the attitude you get at La Esquina on any given night.

The space is really cozy and quaint. There's a first section set up more like a dinner with the bar and kitchen to the right. Then there's a dinner room in the back, that's got larger round tables with booth seating. It was really great for our group of 6.

The menu isn't huge, it's one page of appetizers, entrees and a few desserts. I really loved that it was simple and easy to navigate. We tried almost everything on the menu. The jerk chicken wings, the ceviche, the plantain chips and dip, the pepper shrimp and the cod fritters. There were all delicious but the cod fritters really stood out. For mains, I had the whole fried fish, which was tasty. Kevin had the Oxtail stew (which was probably one the best things on the menu) Sarra had the jerk chicken, which was great. Koko and Andre had the vegetable stew, which was surprisingly excellent. For dessert there was this coconut bread pudding which our french waitress warned us would make us all fall in love. Since we were all already in love with her it was easy to enjoy this dessert :) We also ordered a Guinness float, which came with a mini glass of Guinness that you pour over the ice cream. The combination of the tart beer with the creamy ice cream was awesome!

Even thought Miss Lily's isn't officially open to the public they are open for "previews" but it is running as a fully functioning restaurant. They are obviously trying to keep in on the DL so that it doesn't get overrun by the typical weekend crowds. Which is fine by me because it felt like a nicely filtered crowd and Questlove was right behind me at the next table!

Miss Lily's
132 West Houston Street (at Sullivan)
New York, NY
misslilysnyc.com