Paella and tapas on an East Village garden patio
Slide into a candlelit table for paella, then linger over tapas in the string-lit backyard off Avenue B.
🥘 Paella and a backyard
Jose Luis Mediterranean Cuisine sits on Avenue B, the kind of East Village room you pass a hundred times before you finally step in. Inside, the light is low and a disco ball throws color across the ceiling while paella pans land steady from the kitchen. The seafood version comes crowded with clams, mussels, and shrimp over saffron rice, and the kitchen keeps two non-seafood paellas for anyone who steers clear of shellfish. Tapas arrive in larger-than-average portions, and a table of four rarely orders twice. Pasta and chicken round out the menu for anyone skipping the rice. Push through to the backyard and the mood shifts: white folding chairs, trees wrapped in fairy lights, a quiet patch of green tucked behind the block. Doors open at 4:00 PM every day but Monday, running to 10:00 PM midweek and 11:00 PM on weekends. Reviewers land it at 4.8 across 723 marks, with the paella and the patio drawing the loudest praise.
