Ok, Aoli. I decided to go there because I wanted to try somewhere new. I was racking my brain about where to eat friday night and I am so sick of everywhere in downtown Sac that I can't stand it! Our party of four ladies was able to get a table right away without a res at about 7:30 on a friday night. This place isn't as busy as other not-as-good places, like the craptastic Zocalo or Black Pearl Oyster bar. We couldn't get onto the tiny patio, but I hear it's beautiful so next time I will go I will try to make a reservation to sit out there. The waiter was brusque, as I find many Spaniards to be (sorry for the generalization) so I started getting stressed out. He turned out to be nice, though.
We ordered the cheapest bottle of wine, a 26$ bottle of Dom Minho, a tasty Portuguese wine. They bring a tiny basket of bread to your table and a garlicky white bean dip. We all started with salads. The salads here are really big and you could definitely get by with a salad and a tapa and a glass of wine without spending a ton. I got the endive salad. It was supposed to have a Spanish cheese but Brew and I were pretty sure they substituted blue cheese on the sly, which was disappointing. It was delicious, though, and I'd order it again. After the salads we each ordered a tapa. I got the assortment of Spanish meats and cheeses (good, not too exciting, a smaller assortment than Tapa's gives you, but the stuff at Aoli has a better flavor). We got a seared skirt steak (so-so, a bit tough), some grilled veggies (delicious and very spicy somehow) and stuffed calamari (the only off-note of the dinner, it was very fishy. The busser didn't know what it was filled with but I'm hoping that anchovies were in there because otherwise I don't know how calamari could be that fishy). We saw flan at the next table and it was so good we split one. Excellent flan. All in all, a pleasant and delicious meal, without the airport runway-style noise level at Tapa's.
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6 comments:
If you back there with some people, be sure to get the paella...out of sight in any form.
they have a really good chocolate mousse dessert with raspberries on it. i used to go for a cup of wine and dessert with an old pal and it was never a disappointment. especially if you're sitting out on the patio.
Do you suppose it could have been Spanish blue cheese? Maybe Valdeon?
I like that someone was up at 8:45 thinking about this. Michele? It started with a C, maybe like calabra? The menu isn't on line so I couldn't look.
Cabrales = queso de Cabrales Pronunciation: cuh-BRAW-lays Notes: This is a crumbly and very pungent blue cheese from Spain. Substitutes: Picon OR Valdeon OR Roquefort
from http://www.foodsubs.com/Cheblue.html
Aha. So I guess they weren't trying to pull a fast one. I always expect Spanish cheeses to be dry. My therapist says I need to work on that.
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