Wednesday, August 29, 2012

secret good restaurant

Has anyone else noticed that Red Rabbit has secretly gotten better?  I can't review it cuz Greg Lucas did not that long ago.  So, number one, it's a local spot for me.  I am all for a neighborhood spot that's maybe not the best place in the world, but that is walkable, and, as with Red Rabbit, is open every day and pretty late, etc.  But at first when it opened I really wished that the food was better.  I got stuck ordering the veggie burger because nothing else appealed to me that much.

Recently I realized, hey, they have a super good bar and bartenders, so right under my nose I now have a place to go get an excellent cocktail.  That's something I've wished for for years.  I don't like dive bars really.  Their cocktail list is not too exciting, so I just go with a cocktail in mind.  Lately I've had a good Manhattan and last night a Last Word.  And all the cocktails are 7 bucks, not bad.

When I had my birthday on the back patio (they did a great job) I discovered that their "street" tacos, especially the tongue one, is DELICIOUS.  I wrote a little blurb about if for the SNR best of issue, and when I asked the chef about the prep I found that it's labor-intensive.  There's over a day of brining, and then a bunch of other stuff I detail.  Sure, it's 6 bucks for two, but 3 bucks each is not that crazy.  Next time I am going to see if I can order two tongue ones.

I've been wanting to try the burger with a Vega egg.  Vega is a great company, so that's pretty awesome.  The patty was a little too thick and the bun disintegrated but besides that it was excellent.  Heirloom tomato, housemade pickles, an array of cheese choices (I will always go with Manchego). 

SM got the house salad and it was kerazy.  Almost too crazy but admirable.  They use Del Rio greens and it changes a lot, but I'm pretty sure that the predominant green was full-sized shiso leaves, like not baby tender ones, but big old strong intense ones.  With flower petals and it always has Green Goddess dressing and how cool is that?

So anyway, if you wrote it off, maybe check it out again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We drink the same drinks--although sometimes I get an Old Fashioned or Sazerac.

NM

wburg said...

Their variant of a moko loko is pretty excellent. I don't care for the moniker, so I just call it the "Sacto Moko" and they know what I'm asking for.

beckler said...

rad! the short rib sandwich is tasty, but too rich. I've gotten the whole trout too, which is a good deal. It's an entire smoked trout from a good fish farm. I want to try the chicken too. I sound like the Red Rabbit cheerleader

BC said...

I know this isn't exactly the heckasac focus but could you comment on how kid-friendly it is? I know they have a super kid-friendly menu (basically they will make anything in a kid's portion, which is awesome) but I'm wondering about things like service, ambiance, noise. Kid-friendly for us = pretty quick service, not a super raucous loud place ("family" restaurants with kids running around and people being loud totally rile my kids up, they do better if everybody else in the restaurant is generally being quiet and non-monkey like), and no tiny little glass tables full of breakable things (or, why we will never go to Kru until they are in high school).

It's super close for us and we were big fans of Red Lotus so we'd like to try it but I am always nervous about slow service and crazy loud atmosphere when we try a new place.

Pete Barker said...

Salad should be kerazy. Just sayin. Otherwise it's just (yawn) salad. (yawn.)