Essex

I don’t think there is a more difficult dining dilemma than finding a restaurant on a Saturday night for a group of 15 plus. Everyone is always looking for places that won’t break the bank, or make other guests uneasy and a place that has darn quality food. It’s always a bonus if alcohol can be included, too. You might think of the Lower East Side bottomless mimosa brunch spot, Essex, only for Sunday mornings, but they do offer great group dinner deals as well. For $60, each diner can choose their own appetizer, entree and drink endless vodka sodas, beers and wine for two hours (although who is keeping time?). To begin, the cold white bread somehow seems pretty good at least at the moment. Choose the Ahi Tuna Salad for your appetizer. Dressed with green beans, olives and hard boiled egg, you really think you’re getting your bang for your buck. The fish tastes a lot better than it looks and you receive about five pre-cut cubes that survive for about three bites each. The Kale Caesar Salad with tomatoes and croutons might be a little bit wet and creamy, but if you are participating in an all you can drink dinner and celebrating a birthday, let’s face it, you need it. For the entree section, I went with the Organic Roast Chicken. Served with a light mushroom gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans again, I was pretty impressed. I loved it in fact. It was a standard great roasted chicken breast that I cleaned off my plate. The Salmon was pretty standard and tasted similar to the piece of salmon you can buy in the cold, already prepped meal section at Whole Foods. Again the food isn’t something to draw attention to here. It’s satisfying and reliable but the main attraction here is the group price including alcohol and food and the availability. Everyone knows what they are getting into beforehand and everyone will walk away happy, tipsy and ready for more. Enough of those stressful birthday dinners where you end up paying for your neighbors steak or five extra whiskey sours.