We were looking for something a little more low key and since we were in LA we were hoping to get some tasty Mexican food (unlike our failed attempt last trip down here). I found this place not too far from our hotel with open reservations and more importantly it was founded by Enrique Olvera of Pujol in CDMX and Criollo in Oaxaca, both of which we loved.
Cocktails were fine (Clarified Picante for Andrea and the Imaginary Friend for me), although we knew we were going to order some mezcal flights. For small starters, we ordered the Guacamole, the Cesar Tostada, and the Carrot Aguiachile. Guac was decent and I liked the fresh herbs on top and came with some nice large thin house made crispy chips. I wanted the Cesar Tostada because it had boquerones. It did taste quite a bit like a Caesar salad plus the boquerones. The aguachile had very fresh and sweet blue shrimp and scallops and was striking with the orange aguachile.
For our medium size starters we ordered the Lamb Tlayuda and the Tamal de Ricotta. The tlayuda was topped was nicely presented with squash blossoms on top. The tamal was rich corn flavor and creaminess from the ricotta.
For our main, we ordered the Carne Asada with the 10 oz flat iron (would have probably preferred the ribeye, but we didn’t need 22oz of meat at double the cost that we knew we wouldn’t finish. the carne asada was good, not spectacular, but solid.
We didn’t really need dessert, but it’s always nice to end the meal on something sweet. The waitperson had a couple recommendations, a meringue (i don’t like meringue) or the strawberry dessert which I would normally go for, but they had a Banana Leaf Flan and since I love flan I had to order that. It was served on a round banana leaf cutout. The flan is relatively flat and is infused with banana leaf. It is very soft in texture and topped with a caramel sauce made with tahini that made it rich, but too sweet. It was different and we ate it up, but it wasn’t quite like the more eggy flan that I love.
All in all, a decent last meal for us. Amusingly, the bathrooms were reminiscent of the bathrooms at Pujol, lol.
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