REVIEW: Ciudad

tortilla soup	empanadas

For the sixth anniversary of my Vermont civil union on 08/08/00 I took my civilly united spouse out to dinner at Ciudad (445 S. Figueroa Blvd). We had eaten lunch at the Border Grill in Santa Monica a few weeks ago and enjoyed it a lot. Ciudad is the "high end" restaurant of Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. We almost cancelled our reservation after seeing the bad reviews at City Search. However, we wanted to try something new, and there were lots of positive reviews also. We consulted the menu on the restaurant's website to make preliminary selections but the menu we were presented with was different. "Oh, our menu changes weekly," our server informed us brightly. Ohhh-kayyyy, but why does the website claim "Dinner entrees [cost between] $16 - $29" when the cheapest entree was $23 on our menu and almost all were either $27 or $28?

We ordered the tortilla soup (with manchego cheese and guacamole, $7) and Argentine empanadas (wild mushroom with warm chipotle sauce and swiss chard with tomatillo sauce, $8.50). The soup was incredibly smooth, delightfully piquant with an exciting blend of flavours (the cheese, guacamole and broth with succulent chicken chunks). The two medium-sized empanadas were interestingly presented, with one side of the plate filled with a yellow cheese-based sauce and the other side was a bright green tomatillo sauce. I ordered the pomegranate lemonade ($3.50) and was glad I did. It was refreshing with just enough pomegranate to deliver a soothing reddish tinge to the beverage along with the much needed anti-oxidants, but without overwhelming the basic sweet-n-sour lemonade flavor.

After about a twenty minute gap our entrees arrived. I had the boneless baby-back ribs (slow roasted in chile, spices, and glazed with mistela, a homemade honey liqueur served with Mexican dipped corn cob and mashed yams, $27) and the better half had the argentine gaucho steak (caramelized jalapeño and roasted garlic stuffed beef rib eyeserved with an herb and garlic chimichurri sauce, bacon mashed potatoes, and a warm black bean, corn, and spinach salad, $28). The parenthetical description of the entrees are from the website but, again, the actual food on the plate that arrived was somewhat different. The food was good, but I think the gaucho steak was better than the baby back ribs. The portions were not huge, but were definitely filling.

At this point we didn't feel like dessert but we did order two scoops of ice cream (dulce de leche and yerba mate flavors). I thought the yerba mate was disgusting but he liked it, the dulce de leche was fantastic--not overly sweet and incredibly smooth and creamy. And even though we only paid for two scoops ($5) they gave us an extra scoop (of dulce de leche) for free.

Overall, it was an enjoyable dining experience and some of the food (the tortilla soup, the hummus with the spicy papadoms, the gaucho steak) was excellent. However, for it's price category, Ciudad is not really exceptional, although it's definitely worth going. Once.

GRADE: B+