New Year’s Eve at Orale Mexican Kitchen, Jersey City

On New Year’s Eve, we went to Orale for dinner. John had pretty much worked a full day of work, so we decided to keep our celebrations pretty low key this year. I’ve only been to Orale once, but just for their amazing margaritas! They had a prix fixe New Year’s Eve menu with 3-courses and unlimited drinks for $69.Appetizers: Queso Flameado (mix of melted Oaxacan and Chihuahua cheeses) and yummy guacamole. There was supposed to be salmon tartare too, but we switched it out for more guacamole. Love the squeeze bottles for the different types of salsa! Entrees: We both ordered the Vegetable Enchiladas since that was the only meat free option. Good stuff! The sauce was pretty spicy. The enchiladas were packed with veggies, including mushrooms that John didn’t complain too much about. I’ve never done New Year’s Eve at a restaurant before, but it really nice and relaxing. Not too crowded with good food and drinks. It would be great to do this again with a group of friends. As you can see, I enjoyed several delicious margaritas! They had a DJ at Orale, and unfortunately, all the speakers were angled towards our table. We just happened to be seated at the table that received the maximum impact of the speakers, ugggh. It didn’t look like there was any way to switch tables. Over the course of the evening, the music went from fun party time mode, to a little bit too loud to talk, to OMG my ears are ringing and my head may explode. It was a mix of top hits, which is great and all, especially for New Year’s Eve, but just way too loud. Even at concerts/clubs, I’ve never been blasted with music like that. Poor John kept covering his ears… We eventually decided the volume of the music was too much for me. I *really* hated to be the party pooper that wants to leave early, especially on New Year’s Eve, but I honestly felt nauseous from the music. If I stayed at the restaurant, this story wouldn’t end well. (I did a quick search online and confirmed that you can get motion sickness from a loud bass!)

Dessert: Thank goodness we brought the desserts home or else we wouldn’t be able to properly enjoy them. John ordered their Vanilla Flan, and I had their Morenitas (pecan brownies). The 3 brownies were good, but too much for me! Sorry Orale, New Year’s Eve kind of went downhill as we were halfway through our meal. The food was delicious, and the drinks were yummy, but the unpleasant sensation of that bass was pretty bad. I’ll go back on a night when they don’t have a DJ…