Paladar Happy Hour

Okay, I know I wasn’t intending on reviewing restaurants which I dined at  previously, as it makes for a fuller, more holistic review if it is all new to me.  I have been to Paladar before, but on this particular evening I went for their Happy Hour… So, still a  newish experience? I have seen Paladar on lists of the better happy hours in Cleveland, and now I would probably put it on mine as well (I have mental lists, but never actually write them down. Also they would all depend on the food offering, obviously).

According to Google, Paladar is a Cuban term for a  restaurant run by self-employers.

Paladar Latin Kitchen and Rum Bar doesn’t seem like it is trying to look like an authentic Cuban destination, yet they manage to provide a nice, classy but casual vibe (despite varied light fixtures and large paper flowers which could easily look a little tacky).  I have had dinner here a few times, but have always ordered the same item (the rum glazed pork, it was highly recommend to me and it is incredible). The full menu here. They also take rum VERY seriously here, serving over 50 types.

We went to the bar, which was busy, but were able to find a high top table right away. There was only one waiter handling the whole bar area (even though there were more people there than in the main dinning side). It was not immediately clear whether ordering was to be done at the bar or if someone was going to come around to us. This is not something that particularly bothers me, especially when I know I’m going to be spending much less than  on a normal dinner out. We only had to wait a few minutes and the waiter was very friendly.

Since it was happy hour we ordered a regular mojito and a white tropical sangria. I realized later that it was the very important Facebook holiday of national margarita day. woops.

Both drinks were fun and tropical, but not exactly strong. I am dubious if there was actually alcohol in them. just very sweet and no discernible alcoholic taste… but at 5$ each, they weren’t exactly pricey cocktails.

“It looks like a swamp, in a good way“. Exactly what you want from a mojito; sweet, minty and a touch of citrus. The real sugar cane is a nice garnish.  The sangria was juicy and refreshing with small bits of mango and made with peach schnappes instead of the traditional brandy.

 One of my favorite things about Paladar is that they don’t just give you normal chips. We got the mango guacamole (good, but not as exciting as other specialty gaucs I’ve had in the past such as their black bean goat cheese or sage-bacon). It comes with a  large basket of dried yucca and plantains with the traditional tortillas. Unique, tasty, salty. And for 3. 95 a great deal.

We also split 2 orders of tacos (you get 2 for $5.95). The blackend fish and the braised beef. Both of these items have the little Star next to them on the main menu showing they are the “crowd favorite” dishes.  The regular menu entree for these items were $16, which I think is 3 tacos and a side of some sort… so this is a great deal.

For many years, I thought the phrase “fish taco” sounded disgusting.  I’m glad I got over that, because these were perfection.  The tacos are corn/flour hybrid, giving them a nice flavor and a soft texture. There is a cilantro aioli, pickled onions and a pineapple slaw with the rather large piece of exquisite fish.

I don’t know how to describe them without sounding like a pretentious Iron Chef judge… it was balanced, it had sour notes it had a sweet kick,a  brightness and an appropriate crunch…. But seriously, these were good tacos, at a great price.

  The braised beef tacos, which consisted of  Queso fresco, jalapeños, cilantro and aji pepper aioli. The meat was tender and, well I believe I took a bite and said “that is Beefy”. Very heavy. I enjoyed it but was very satisfied with just one.  For the record the plates were very over sized, these were not tiny tacos.  Below is a picture of the everything for scale.
 I realized that both tacos had a pretty strong cilantro taste. Did you know that liking this herb has a genetic component? My parents both like it (which I am more grateful for inheriting than I am my terrible eyesight). I am teaching genetics to my biology students now. Perhaps I will use this as an example for a Punnett Square in class. Also fun fact, it was named after the creator, Reginald Crundell Punnett, who has one of my favorite names in all of science.

(now if you decide you never want to go to Paladar and don’t particularly care for my review of it you can still walk away learning something about cilantro or genetics. You’re welcome.)

Here is some elaborating  NPR info on the idea Genes and Cilantro.

Not involved with my food adventures, but look at this homemade bananas foster which was dessert after Paladar. It actually flambéd appropriately. I’m going to pretend I did it, but in reality I stood there giggling at the fire and salivating over the smell.

Birthday Moxie

Moxie is a restaurant that I’ve heard/read a good deal about over the years. It always comes up in those lists that cleveland.com and scene seem to put out every 27 minutes.

My parents made the incredible journey up to Cleveland to celebrate (for some unknown reason they view the 75 minutes as particularly grueling).  Saturday was my mothers birthday (our birthdays are only 3 days apart).  They entrusted me to pick a restaurant. This is a big responsibility, and after stressing out on yelp and open-table I was rather near to opting to go to somewhere I had been before. But the excitement of trying somewhere new (and not having to pay for it) won.

Moxie doesn’t open until 5:30 on Saturdays. My parents and I might be rather different, but I have inherited their chronic punctuality, we were all there at 5:15. We were the only ones there. Mother was a little worried, why would we want to go to an establishment that nobody else was at? By 5:40 it was busy and by 6:00 every table was occupied. 

Moxie has an easy elegance to it. Bigger on the inside than I imagined, it is dark but not dreary. It has a feel of a big city restaurant that is both trendy and established. The menu had a wide array of items, many of which seemed enticing. Although I greatly enjoyed the taste of everything, the stand out parts of the meal to me were the service and the plating. The waitstaff was constantly checking in on us and the food was so visually appealing.

Moxie doesn’t just give you bread and butter (don’t be confused- bread, butter and I have been good friends for many years).  They serve their multigrain bread with a white bean dip that has a glaze and crunchy bread crumbs in it.  I was a fan, and the superb servers brought us more very quickly.  Oprah also recently celebrated a birthday, so we have a lot in common.

Our waiter, who was rather personable, recommended a few different appetizers, many of which had an Asian influence. One was the potstickers, My father then proceeded to use the sentence “Evan loves potstickers” at least 12 times until we ordered them.

Note: I really liked potstickers and when I was in high school, 11-15 years ago. The potstickers were my favorite item at TGIFridays (unlike Cleveland, Canfield did not offer much in the way of non-chain restaurants).  My father, despite not remembering lots of things that I’d consider to be crucial details of his son’s life, recalls my favorite appetizer from a different restaurant when we went in 2002.

Moxie’s potstickers were very good. Fried and crispy on the outside. The peanuts and glaze were perfectly spiced. Lots of cilantro flavor. The name, Kung Pau potstickers, did lend me to think they were going to be hotter than they were. Still, very delicious. They were served tumbling over each other on a wooden plate. There isn’t much you can do with fried dumplings, and the impressive plating only got better from here. I was a little worried though because it was not a large portion and I worried that it was indicative of the entree sizes. (this turned out to be not true). I would have liked there to be two more, for the price.

We got a simple mixed green salad. This is a half portion, because we like to share and asked for it to be divided. There were so many toasted almonds, as well as golden raisins. I can’t say anything bad about my mother, since it was her birthday, but the fact that she hates goat cheese with such a passion but enjoys all other cheese simply baffles me.  The cranberry red-win dressing was very good. A simple salad but well done.

Using a flash makes food look strange, and it was rather dark where we were sitting, so the true beauty of the food was hard to capture. Sam’s chicken, called B&E chicken,  is named after the local farm where the birds come from. You can get it one or two pieces, and it was honestly one of the most moist pieces of chicken I’ve ever had. It was charred wonderfully and so flavorful. It was served over a sweet potato puree, with persimmons (mmm persimmons) and a tangy Brussels sprout slaw and a beacon glaze. This was no typical baked chicken dish, and I understand why the waiter spoke so highly of it.

I could never be a vegetarian full time, but I often find myself eating vegan/vegetarian food.  I do this for a few reasons, obviously vegetables can be delicious. However, a side salad isn’t a high end dish, so in order to make them an interesting culinary experiences, the chef must be a pretty dedicated and talented individual. It is not hard to make steak taste good. To make squash and rice into something exciting is harder. This, like all good risottos was heavy and creamy. Filled with Gouda, HUGE chunks of garlic, kale and toasted pumpkin seeds this was no light veggie option. I couldn’t finish it, but it made a great lunch as left-overs.

If you clicked on the above youtube link, I am sorry/youre welcome. My father ordered the Opah, which it is so hard to read or say without thinking Oprah (fun fact: her legal name is ‘Orpah’…google it).  This was a special of the night, the waiter advised my father to deviated from his typical salmon. It had a crispy sweet and salty coating, over a fish that is more like a tuna/chicken hybrid. My father was so awe with this fish and it’s presentation, perhaps he will order non-salmon seafood more often.  I tried to ask the manager when she came around what the fried topping was but I don’t think I was able to articulate it (and by this point it was long gone). Perhaps it was skin? Whatever it was, it tasted great.

Mom’s mushroom bolognese…Not much to say.  The torchio pasta was a fun shape. My bites had a LOT of basil.  The mushrooms were very tasty, both porcini and cremini. It was a good dish but not my favorite. The globs of ricotta are nice but I it wasn’t the uber-authentic Italian or innovative twist to make me love the dish. Kale is very prominent in many dishes on the menu, that’s not a bad thing just an observation.

Our shared birthday outing and our shared birthday dessert. Not a bad thing because the baked hot chocolate that our server brought us was super decedent. I like when places give celebratory desserts. This one is good for the photo, its pretty, it has the logo’s M as a ultra thin sugar cookie.  Its a dark dark chocolate flour less cake with some housemate cream on top. For 9$ it was good, but kinda one-note.

We also ordered the crustada. Did i spell that right? This was a very buttery, almost short-bread like, crust and made with local apples. It was not too sweet and delicate and the house made caramel ice-cream was a nice departure away from simple vanilla. Also, look how lovely it looked with the dried apple chip on top!
Overall. I understand why Moxie is a well-known restaurant in the area. The website boasts they are the crown jewel of the east side. This is a little boastful, but not an oversight. This restaurant is special. The food isn’t simple, but doesn’t confuse the eater either. Every component of every dish seems intentional. I’m glad I chose to celebrate there.

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And as a little bonus: I went to Barroco Grill in Lakewood.  Check out the video-filled website here.

I have such little experience with Colombian food (or South American cuisines in general) so I didn’t really know what to expect.

My biggest take-aways:

• this place has a ton of character. I don’t think the picture accurately shows how original and charming it is.
• The food is not spicy at all, but they give you an assortment of sauces, and you can mix them to make some truly unique flavors. The restraurant is BYOB which I think adds to the fun, communal feel it had.
• The portions are large. As in the 2 of us split and appetizer and a meal and we couldn’t even finish everything.

Cheesy corn appetizer on left.  It has chicken, bacon and cheese and you dip wonderfully greasy arepa wedges (which are also good for trying out sauce combos). We coudnt finish this fondu. * Resisting the urge to make a fondu-pun*

On the right was the  Reina Pepiada: An Arepa with Grilled chicken breast and fresh avocado, roasted red peppers & feta cheese

An arepa is a thick, almost corn-bread like bread on a  pocket-type sandwich. Avocado was very good for texture and creaminess. I don’t think  Feta and Latin food, but it sure was good. We tried various sauces.

The side of maduro plantains was incredible. GO GET THEM. I mean it.

All of these were the suggestions of our server, Chris. He was very helpful and seemed to genuinely love the food.

Also, I liked that on our check, after the food items, it listed “Chris…..$0.00”.

😛

The large portions, fun options and great prices mean I will definitely go back.

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Unrelated, here is a fancy food quiz. Some of the questions are a little subjective, but some neat info. I got a 16/20.