Flex Mussels

I just went to a new mussels place in the Upper East Side tonight with a few friends called Flex Mussels and it was pretty damn good. This place has the potential to become annoyingly packed soon though so I could go quick or wait for the buzz to die down.They got such good press after they opened last week that when I went in on a Monday night at 6:50pm all the tables were booked solid until 10:30. Luckily, they had a few open seats at the bar so I saved myself one and a couple extra for my friends that were joining me.

The decor is much nicer and trendier than you would expect from their website,but it is the Upper East Side so I guess its not that much of a surprise. The service was pretty quick and friendly, so nothing to complain about on that front. They have a variety of non-mussels dishes and even a couple non-seafood dishes, but you would be doing yourself a major disservice if you ventured to any of the land-based dishes because the seafood ones are pretty damn good.

We started with an appetizers that was dubbed Burnt Fingers, which I am assuming are named because they are so good and so hot that you burn your fingers as you try to eat them. It is a basket of fried seafood & some shallot rings. Overall it tasted pretty good with nice lemony flavor without having to actually squeeze any lemon on it and get the nice crunchy crust all soggy. They must have added something to the batter to get that effect. It also came with a nice spicy dipping sauce. I was a little disappointed because the dish was supposed to have calamari, shrimp, and oysters, but there were only 2 shrimp, 4-5 oysters, and mostly calamari. The oysters were definitely my favorite out of the bunch, and I would have liked to see more of them. The fried shallots were also a nice touch as they were much smaller and crispier than fried onion rings. This was a great variation of the classic fried seafood assortment that you usually get.

For our entrees we all decided on getting a pound each of different flavored mushrooms. I got the Provençial which had tomatoes, basil, saffron, orange zest, pernod, garlic, and white wine. One of my friends got the Fungi with mushrooms (portabella, shitake, & button), thyme, smoked bacon, cream, and garlic, while my other friend go the Bisque which had lobster meat, tomatoes, brandy, scallions, cream, thyme, and garlic. Out of the three, I actually liked mine the least. I liked the subtle saffron flavor that it had and it was good variation of a more classic mussel broth, but it couldn’t really compete with the other two which were awesome. It probably would have been great on its own if it didn’t have to compete with the other two. I couldn’t really pick a favorite between the two that my friends ordered. The Fungi had a really fantastic smoky bacon flavor infused throughout all the mussels and the broth. And the Bisque had all the great sweet and rich flavors of a lobster bisque mixed with the great flavor of the mussels themselves. It is impossible to decide because they both were great in different ways. I think next time I’ll have to try some of the more exotic flavor combinations like the Thai, Bombay, or Acadian combo’s.

We also got an order of fries, which were okay. They were nice and hot and crispy as good fries should be, but they weren’t seasoned very well. If they put some of the seasoning that they had put on the Burnt Fingers also on the fries I would have been all about them.

There was another table of friends that were there also and they got the Green Fairy mussel and the daily special mussels. I didn’t try it, but they said the green fairy was a little too out there with the absinthe flavor, but the special of the day with a subtle truffle flavor was really good. I didn’t order the truffle one because I was little worried about it being too overwhelming for the mussels, but these were apparently done right.

Dessert didn’t seem to inspire any of us that much so we skipped out on that. But I didn’t come here for dessert so I didn’t really care. I came here for the mussels and the mussels definitely impressed everyone at our table so I give them points for that. I would definitely skip the fries next time and probably try a different appetizer for variety sake. My friends at the other table said the grilled mussels were awesome so I’ll most likely go with that. It comes with double smoked bacon and you can’t really wrong. I also heard good things about the lobster roll so I might give that a shot at some point.

In terms of prices I would say they are moderate. Good seafood is never cheap and this is no exception, but for the amount you get it is still pretty reasonable for Manhattan. The mussels range from $16 to $18 a pound depending on which flavor you get. Appetizers are $10 to $20 and entrees are $20 to $30. A pound of mussels is a pretty good amount for one person so you can usually get out for under $30 depending on if you order anything else to share for the table.

Flex Mussels
174 E 82nd St (between 3rd Ave & Lex)
New York, NY 10028
(212) 717-7772