Introducing the not-so-happy hour at Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack

At Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, the terrific guacamole is prepared from a single avocado at your table ($14), but during happy hour you can get unlimited refills. 

The restaurant makes fresh corn tortillas in the dining room.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For Christmas, my wife bought me a $100 gift card to Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, a fine-dining favorite of ours where almost everything is made from scratch.

We decided to drive there today and use the card during the restaurant's happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (and all day Sunday).

During happy or cantina hour, bottles of Mexican beer are only $4, appetizers are discounted and you can get unlimited refills of the terrific guacamole, which is made with one avocado and costs $14.

Happy hour scratched

But not today.

When I walked in with my wife and mother-in-law this afternoon and told the hostess we were there for happy hour, she said it was cancelled for the holiday.

I said the restaurant's Web site didn't mention that; she asked another employee, then said she was sorry she couldn't accommodate us.

The bar was about half-full, and the experience was embarrassing, to say the least.

Silent Web site

I looked at Rosa Mexicano's Web site this morning and saw the happy hours listed, as well as special happy hour drink and food menus.

I saw nothing about the happy hour being called off, because Rosa Mexicano is serving a special New Year's Eve menu for $45 a person with unlimited margaritas, beer and other alcohol for another $28 a person.

If one person wants the special holiday menu, everyone at the table has to order it. Ditto for the drinks; I drink, but my wife and mother-in-law don't.

In addition, the menu includes chicken, sausage and Mexican doughnuts (churros), none of which I eat.

Paul the manager 

When we got home, I called and reached the restaurant's manager, who identified himself as Paul.

I mentioned the Web site's silence on happy hour being cancelled for the holiday.

He said I should have asked to speak to him, but also noted "he just got in" to work. He also said he wanted to make things right.

But I said the Web site should be updated, and he should train his hostess to be more flexible.

Then, I wished him a Happy New Year and hung up.

NYC Restaurant Week lunch is a far better deal than dinner

Skate Wing with Chickpea Puree, Roasted Vegetables and Arugula at Fulton, a Manhattan restaurant owned by Citarella.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Fulton -- named after the famous fish market of the same name -- is a restaurant from Citarella, known for upscale markets selling pristine seafood, meat and produce.

The Upper East Side restaurant also is one of hundreds offering three-course lunches for $25 and three-course dinners for $38 during the city's semi-annual Restaurant Week, which ends Aug. 15.

Lunch is a far better value, as I discovered at dinner on Wednesday at Fulton, where the two fixed-price menus are virtually identical.

I enjoyed my meal: An appetizer of the tenderest octopus I have ever had, a generous portion of skate wing with roasted vegetables and two kinds of sorbet to finish.

The restaurant is just around the corner from a Citarella market on Third Avenue.

An appetizer of Grilled Octopus with Potato, Chermoula and Cured Lemon. The waiter said the octopus is tenderized for three hours in boiling water, and it showed. 

Moroccan marinade, stacked skate 

The octopus was marinated in chermoula, a Moroccan seafood sauce made with cilantro, parsley, garlic and other ingredients. 

Two pieces of local skate wing were stacked with chickpea puree and roasted vegetables.

Skate is normally tender, which this one was, but some of it was annoyingly chewy and stringy.

I left a 15% tip, and took advantage of an American Express promotion during Restaurant Week by registering my card and using it to pay for the meal, giving me a statement credit of $5.

That brought the cost of dinner down to $33, plus tip and tax. As I was leaving, the hostess handed me two cookies.

Still, I plan to stick with lunch during the rest of Summer Restaurant Week.

Mango and raspberry sorbet with fresh mint leaves. Fulton's Restaurant Week dinner menu offers tiramisu, but I asked the waiter for something lighter and to tell the kitchen not to cook my food with butter. 

Bread service: Crusty rolls and extra-virgin olive oil.

You can't tell from the dining room, but Fulton was busy on Wednesday evening, with most customers sitting at outside tables, enjoying $1 oysters and $6 glasses of prosecco during Happy Hour, below.

Happy Hour menu.

Fulton Restaurant, 205 E. 75th St., New York, N.Y.; 1-212-288-6600. 

Web site: Citarella's seafood restaurant