Dinner last night was at Frank and Lola's. We showed up shortly after they opened and had the place to ourselves for a few minutes.
When we ate at Latinos we tried three of the house wines. The Rose, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet were all completely undrinkable. And I am trying my best not to sound like a wine snob. Perhaps with some orange juice, cut up lime slices and some cognac, they would make a nice sangria. But really terrible wines. We felt a nice bottle of wine would be essential to our upcoming Italian feast. They also sat us directly next to the wine room so it must have been karma calling us to get a bottle.
Miquel brought us the wine list and then had some recommendations. We have had some great Mexican wines at other resorts so were curious what they had. He recommended two. One was a Cabernet and the other was a Tempranillo. Tempranillo is one of our favorites styles so we went with that. We were able to use some of our resort credit. The wine was only $65USD which was a great deal. And so good. This style of wine is more full bodied than a Pinot Noir but not quite as bold as a Cabernet. More or less in the middle. As the wine opened up it got better and better.
They start you off with some freshly baked small baguettes and cracker bread and a plating of olive oil and balsamic for dipping. The highlight here was the amazing pesto. Deep basil and garlic flavors with just enough nuttiness.
First course was beef carpaccio. A very well composed dish with the thin slices of tender beef. I am always impressed by carpaccio since it requires a bit of skill and patience to get it right. The beef needs to be frozen to get the slices think enough. And a professionally sharpened knife is a must. This was a tasty dish. The thinly sliced parm cheese, fresh greens and large, briney capers provided a bit of salt, crunch and acid respectively to contrast with the tender beef. The mustard dressing has great flavor but there was simply too much of it. It really should have just been a drizzle or better yet a few drops off to the side of the plate so you could dip as needed. Really more of a plating issue since the quality of the dish was superb and I would order again. Just ask for the dressing to be skipped or on the side.
I ordered a caprese salad which is a staple of any Italian restaurant. This was a fine salad with nice chunks of fresh mozzarella. The highlight was the pesto dressing which seemed to be the same being served with the bread course.
My wife ordered the rocket salad. And while this was a great salad, it had no rocket in it. Rocket is a type of arugula, a spicy, peppery green. It adds great dimension in a salad, especially when you want some contrast to a sweet dressing.
For main courses we ordered the seafood stew and short rib ragu. The stew had a great tomatoey broth with the essence of the well cooked shrimp and mussels. There was also a decent chunk of lobster. As with most seafood stews, you really crave that slightly charred bread to dip into the broth. And that was the highlight for me.
The short rib ragu was the best bite of the night. Short ribs are something that take patience to make. They have to braise for a long time to break down the meat fibers. That was certainly done here. So well seasoned. It was great over the gnocchi. The ragu has the savoriness of a great Bolognese sauce.
We also ordered the lamb ravioli. The flavor was great but the pasta itself was thick and muddled where it needed to be thin and delicate. The polenta was so smooth and buttery. I could have just had a plate of that and been satisfied. I really thought I was eating a delicious celery root puree. The sage flavor really came though but was not overpowering. I also loved the crunch of the toasted pistachios. I wish the flavor of the lamb was more pronounced. It was there, but only in the background. Perhaps these are lamb raviolis for people who don't like lamb.
I ordered the creme brulee cheesecake - well just because. It seemed like an odd combination in one dessert. How would they pull this off? To use one word? Spectacularly. If they had brought this dessert to me without knowing what it is, my first guess would be to call it a creme brulee cheesecake. It has the brulee candied crust you crave. It had the smooth vanilla custard. But creamier like a cheesecake. A really well thought out dessert, executed to perfection.
No comments:
Post a Comment