just last weekend, we had our 7th seasonings event. k chose red o by rick bayless as our restaurant to try. it was just y, k, liz, and myself at this outing, and we were all very excited as we had all tuned in to the very first season of top chef masters, and watched rick bayless make his way to victory. all of his dishes looked so pretty and tasty all at the same time. we were all so excited when we heard that he was going to open a restaurant here in los angeles. it's located on melrose right by the jonathan adler store.
as we walked in, i took in the decor and got the casual elegant yet laid back ambience. once seated, our server came to our table pretty quickly and took our drink orders, and got us started with an order of the chips and guacamole. i started off with an oro blanco margarita. yummy! and boy did it pack a punch! part way through the meal i felt a little light headed.
the guacamole was probably one of the best guacamoles i've had. the flavors were really fresh and bright, and just the right amount of heat. the chips themselves were good as well. alongside the chips, salsa roja and salsa verde were served. both were very tasty, and between the two the salsa verde was my favorite - offering a good amount of heat with a tangy zing, but the roja was also good, it was the kind of hot sauce that i would like to have on hand at home for whatever reason.
i started off my meal with the short rib sopes. the braised meat was tender and juicy, and sitting in the golden masa cups, provided a wonderful, savory bite. we all shared our first course - y shared her shrimp tostadita with me (another good one!) and i got to try some of liz's tortilla soup. k got the soup as well, but she also got the corn and goat cheese tamales and i got to try a bite of that, too.
for the main course, i ordered the chilpachole -(what i think is) a mexican version of bouillabaisse. it was served with fresh corn tortillas. the chilpachole was so good...a huge flavor blast in my mouth. it was served in an iron skillet and contained mussels which i don't really care for but the whole dish was very fresh and tasty. the broth was thick, smooth, and a touch creamy. absolutely fantastic!
for dessert, we decided to share the buñuelos and the flan. the buñuelos were served with a warm kahlua sauce and salted caramel ice cream. we were all underwhelmed by the buñuelos, but k and i couldn't get enough of the salted caramel ice cream on the side. the flavor of the flan was good, and the strawberries on the side had a little bit of a kick, as if they were macerated with a little bit of cayenne pepper or something spicy. but the overall texture was very firm - too firm in our opinion, to be flan. it was pretty dense and heavy.
overall, in my opinion of course, we had a great experience at red o, albeit the desserts. we could have skipped them, but the savory dishes more than made up for the lackluster desserts. we ended up having a dessert redemption by making our way to milk, which wasn't too far away. would i go back to red o? that's a resounding yes! but i'll probably skip dessert.
