red o es delicioso

Happy Cinco de Mayo! This is a day that people traditionally eat great Mexican food and drink margaritas. But -- being the non-comforming Aquarian that I am -- I did that earlier this week cuz I have a rule to never go to a Mexican food restaurant on Cinco de Mayo or an Irish Pub on St. Patrick's Day. (It allows me to avoid the drunken fools that tend to use these "holidays" as an excuse to act like drunken fools, who I have zero patience for.)

My Mexican food restaurant of choice? Red O on Melrose Avenue, which features menus designed by renowned chef Rick Bayless, and is one of the "places to eat" on my 2013 list of things to do in LA. It also happens to be down the street and around the corner from my pal Marleine's awesome new place. So she joined me for Girl's Night Out. She'd been to the restaurant before and recommended the margies and that we split a bunch of stuff rather than just ordering individual entrees, and as usual, her recommendations were spot on.

Here's what we enjoyed:




La Dama Margarita 
(Karma tequila, serrano chile, mango grenadine, lime juice, a drizzle of  pomegranate liqueur. Garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds. Begins sweet & finishes with a bite!)

This was delish, even though it tasted more like a sweet cocktail than a margarita. I was worried the serrano chile would make it too spicy, but it didn't -- just gave it some nice spice, so that the sweetness wasn't too overpowering.

And I loved the pomegranate seeds floating around :)

Classic Guacamole 

(Freshly made, chunky, sundried tomato, onion, with warm chips & salsa)

This was good but nothing spectacularly different. I didn't even notice the sundried tomato, which is what would set this apart from normal guac. But you can't really go wrong with chips and dip. 

Pork Belly Sopes
(Niman Ranch pork belly, black beans, salsa negra, sesame)

These were something totally new to me and I really liked them. The salsa negra was amaze-balls! And the pork belly was seasoned and cooked just right.

Fresh Corn and Goat Cheese Tamales
(Fresh ground corn masa steamed in corn husks, roasted poblano chiles)

I've never met a tamale I didn't like and these were no exception. Really loved these actually. The goat cheese plus corn mesa was a totally new and very yummy taste combination.

 

Red Chile-Braised Short Rib Enchiladas
(Red guajillo chile sauce, melted Sonoma Jack, black beans, frisee, watercress)

All the enchiladas on the menu sounded really good, but I settled on these because short rib tacos are the best item on the Kogi BBQ menu (which has nothing to do with Red O except they have made me think good things about short rib ;). These were good too, but what really stood out was the chile sauce and the cheesy gooey goodness.

Mexican Chocolate Torta
(Mexican chocolate mousse, canela ice cream, caramelized almond crunch with local berries)

Choosing a dessert was really hard. After I ruled out the options with coconut (which I can't eat) and cheesecake (which I don't really like), we might as well have flipped a coin. Our waiter helped us narrow it down by telling us the three most popular items on the menu, and from that we chose the chocolate torta. The mousse was great, the cinnamon ice cream was soooo good, and once again pomegrante seeds made an appearance, adding a crisp tangy texture and taste to the soft sweet mousse and ice cream.