Jessica S.
Yelp
What does one need after three hours of wine tasting on an almost empty stomach? Food, of course! Now, I'm not sure if this restaurant was the one sending scrumptious scents our way as we sat on the patio of Corks N Crowns sipping wine, but the food sure was tasty.
We - totally soberly - walked the two blocks from the tasting room to the restaurant, and asked - soberly - for an outdoor table, since we had the pups with us. We were led to a large table in the back of their shaded patio, and settled in to choose the items that would help us soak up some of the booze.
Naturally the first thing we ordered was the Tamarindo con Chile margarita ($15 each) - one for each of us. Totally unnecessary, but I'm not sure we were thinking straight at this point.
Munching on the warm and perfectly salted house chips, we decided to share two entrees and an appetizer. We started with the Ceviche de Atun ($24), added on the Barbacoa de Res ($30) and because we weren't quite full enough, we ordered the rack of lamb: Rack de Cordero en Costra de Chile ($52).
The ceviche was served more like poke, but it was delightful. The fish cubes were swimming in a tart and bright sauce and mixed well with the cherry tomato halves, crisp cucumber pieces and creamy avocado slices.
The Barbacoa was served with a side of black beans and warm tortillas. The flavor was good, but the meat was on the stringy side and a bit bland. The beans were also bland, but the tortilla was at least warm and stretchy.
The best plate was by far the rack of lamb. The lamb was perfectly cooked, the sauce perfectly complemented the flavor of the meat, the guacamole added a bright and creamy accent and the potatoes were somehow both crispy and tender. It's one of those dishes that we still talk about to this day.
Oh, the margarita was good - *strong* - spicy and alcoholic and wholly unnecessary at that point in our lives. But we finished them both, because they were $15 a pop and my mama didn't raise no quitter.
Staff was polite but certainly didn't go out of their way to check on us or anything. I know they had their hands full with the party of 12 people on the patio with us, but it would have been nice to have had our water glasses and/or the chip basket refilled at least once while we were there.