Jens B.
Yelp
Wandering out of the Hotel Ella, there are surprisingly many options at hand for munchies, meals or drinkies. Since we were having a lazy four day stay at Hotel Ella, we found ourselves here twice. Once just to catch the England match on their telly and the second time for a lunch. We sat up at the long bar which gave us a view of the kitchen as well as access to our own telly to watch the game.
I liked the menu, since it was divided between a quicky menu and then tastes. On our drop-ins we enjoyed the Barbacoa Grilled Cheese, Quail Poppers and an enormous Steak Burger with Truffle Fries... as one does. Grilled Cheese was everything you wanted in a messy, gooey, cheesy sammy with rich deep meaty flavors of the Barbacoa filling. Delicious. Quail Poppers, seem to be everywhere these days. I always get them, since we seem to find places that have then on offer. They are like little birdy lollipops with all the savory meat punching through the picked Jalapeno and a dipping sauce of green goddess dressing. You should bung one of these in the dressing since you probably don't see this available often. Great stuff.
I personally am not one to order burgers, just not in my wheelhouse. But, with Suzie on board, she hails from Fort Worth, so a burger was requested. I wasn't very hungry and was happily recovering from the day before with an Ice T. I'll nab some of her fries. The burger arrived with a plomb. It certainly was a well crafted and cooked to temp burger. Nice fresh toasted buns and a well balanced meaty burger to nosh on. I liked the grilled onions, fresh lettuce and tomatoes. Steak sauce was in there somewhere and another nice dipping sauce of Jalapeno aoili on the side. Truffle fries were crisp and had the little nibble of Truffle here and there. I ended up eating a quarter of the burger since Suzie threw out the white flag early on. My kind of burger if I was to order one for myself.
Service was attentive, friendly, knowledgeable and honest. During our lunch date, again at the bar, we were just chatting away, not aware of time or place and the manager came over and apologized to us for the error in the kitchen. Not sure of what had transpired, he let us know that they had the burger ready, however there was a mis-communication with the fries and that he felt the burger had been sitting around to long and they were going to drop another one on for us. In the meantime, please enjoy a complimentary Bison Albondigas while they get that done. What? Completely understandable and we were not in any hurry at all, he insisted and while we were chatting, the little meat balls arrived. As with all our food, they were also yummy. Tender, flavorful little bites.
When you sit at the bar, you get a real feeling for the place as far as how it is operating. Watching the cooks laughing and working together to get the orders out in time. The barkeep was engaging and also went about his duties. Most folks when they were behind the bar, made sure to say hello, how ya doing.. etc. A management team that address a potential issue before even it becoming noticed, is really top drawer. I made sure to include the price of the Albondigas to the tip when we checked out.
There are several restaurants and areas to enjoy around Hotel Ella in the Pearl District and when we are back again to stay, we will definitely drop in and say hello to the folks at the Boiler.
