Tamie F.
Yelp
Ciclo is so close to five stars tonight! Story time in bullet points for you efficiency seekers (but I still love words).
Notes on very impressive food:
-Happy Hour small bites are very small and very good!
Guacamole--Plain and simple with a sprinkle of cojita, which is a nice touch. Comes with a little tasty brisket on the side.
Empanadas--Really good. Only two on the tiny plate, but so good I would have ordered more.
Crispy Cauliflower--I don't know what the sauce is, but everyone at the table really liked it. We did order more.
Prime Beef Sliders--Not sure what the chef's special sauce is, but I did not like this one. The baby burgers were still good.
Truffle Fries--Wish we had tried them!
-Main courses were amazing!
Seared Sea Scallops--Perfectly prepared tender scallops with great flavor. Risotto was pretty good.
8 oz. Angus Filet Mignon--Seasoned really well and cooked to a juicy medium rare. One of the best filets I've had.
14 oz. Signature Prime Ribeye--Hickory smoked to perfection.
Lomo Saltado--Tender pieces of steak in this interesting dish.
Chocolate Pudding Cake--So good we had to order two! The house made salted caramel ice cream would have been a fantastic dessert on its own, but combining it with the molten chocolate cake, whipped cream, and cookie was perfection. I will go back for cocktails and this dessert many times!
Notes on less impressive service:
-Called ahead and got good information about what to expect. Made reservations just in case Happy Hour was too packed to get into the bar/patio area. When asked on the phone, mentioned celebrating a birthday.
-Arrived to see plenty of open tables in the bar and on the patio, so mentioned the reservation and asked about being seated for Happy Hour. Hostess didn't seem thrilled, but found and deleted our reservation to seat us on the patio for HH. Asked if we wanted to eat dinner as well and we told her we did. It then took about 5 minutes to get seated and were only given dinner, not HH, menus. She also didn't check the notes on the reservation, so completely missed our birthday celebration.
-Server took another few minutes to come over and apologized about the wait for the table. She didn't have enough water for the 4 glasses and forgot to bring more to fill the last glass until we reminded her.
-She was flustered, and told us it was due to being seated too many times. She tried to make up for the inattention at times by having another server check on us, so that was a positive step. She forgot my wife's glass of wine for a good 30 minutes, but came right out with it after a reminder.
-Service improved greatly after 7pm when Happy Hour ended.
Live music was nice, but loud because our table was in such close proximity. The patio is beautiful, but not a lakeside table to be seen. The hotel is swanky, but you can go to Ciclo in dressy casual and be just fine.
The Happy Hour small bites were a good deal, but the dinner menu is really the draw here. Oh right, and dessert!