Quick Bites: The Nugget Spot

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 3, 2014]

The single-dish restaurant craze is not as new as some would have you believe. Just in the East Village, you can trace it back beyond Wechsler's German sausages and This Little Piggy's beef sandwiches to the Caracas arepa bars.

But yes, we've seen an uptick, what with Baohaus, Empire Biscuit, Brookyln Piggies, and The Nugget Spot. Partly this is market/cart vendors coming down to earth (the Halal Guys are opening a restaurant on East 14th); partly it serves the neighborhood's booming dining demographic--thirsty students.

Not that such places aren't convenient drop-ins for the rest of us, certainly when looking for something more interesting than a deli sandwich, less gut busting than a burger, for a quick lunch. My thoughts on The Nugget Spot fit that context: this is not "worth a detour," and it will be hideous to anyone who rejects the concept of nuggets outright. But what it does, it does decently well (and cheaply).

As at Baohaus, the menu is wilfully goofy, and you need to check the small print to find out what's on offer.  Essentially, there are four chicken nuggets with different crusts, one pork, one fish, and two vegetable. They come with recommended sauces, but you can switch the sauces up or order extra. S'Nuggets turn out to be biscuit sandwiches; you can guess what S'Morons are; and there are waffles and a few sides.

I've tried the Southern Belle and Cap'n Crunk (I warned you) chicken nuggets, and the darker crusted Grove (pork). The plus: the nuggets embed authentic pieces of meat, not some reconstructed meat-type protein. As far as one can tell, the meat is decent quality. Of the crusts, the coconut crust on the pork was the most distinctive. Sauces can swing dramatically sweet (my daughter and I agreed that you could drink the pineapply Mambo sauce over ice. Best was a smoky BBQ sauce, which had a flavor of chipotle's without the heat.

Fries were rated "like McDonalds"--high praise--although they bore evidence of potato skin. $3 is more than reasonable. The nuggets come eight to an order for $7 to $8. The southern fried chicken biscuit (two nuggets, sandwiched) was warranted good too (and my daughter has eaten a lot of biscuits). 

No, we didn't try the S'Morons.

Here's the website.