Makes sense since Sprout owns the building and Ray Garcia was working with them at the Rose. Looking forward to having it in the neighborhood.
Me too. Great to have that Chicharron local.
Itâs basically a downscale version of the prior iterations of Broken Spanish. The food tastes about the same, but the menu is less ambitious. There is no wine list other than what you see online (wines by the glass), and the huge mezcal list is a thing of the past. But if you liked the food before, youâll like it now too. We both like it.
How busy was it?
any must get besides the Chicharron?
The restaurant was full at 8 pm. You definitely need a reservation for peak times, as the bar / lounge is small.
My favorite Broken Spanish dish is the refried lentils with tortillas. I wouldnât necessarily call it âmust orderâ if thatâs not your thing.
For comparison: We both like the food at Broken Spanish more than the food at Damian. I would choose Damian as better overall restaurant due to every other factor, whereas Peony would choose Broken Spanish.
What are the first three dishes?
Trout. Pretty good. The sauce was too strong for the delicately flavored fish (think rainbow trout not ocean trout), but otherwise good
Roasted chicken thighs. Pretty good. I didnât love the intrinsic flavor of the chicken thighs themselves for some reason (strong gamey), but otherwise no complaints.
Camotes (sweet potato). Best of the three. I really liked the texture and depth of flavor of the sweet potato itself, and salsa matcha complements it well.
The duck albondigas with bacon, chipotle, and nopales are excellent, with a good heat that supports the other elements without overwhelming them. Get a half order of the house made blue corn tortillas to go with them.
I agree, this was a great dish, and I liked the heat many of the dishes came with but still balancing out the other flavors. The habanero in the ceviche really came through but despite that the carrot flavor in the habanero really complimented the heat well. I also enjoyed the tortillas.
Other dishes we enjoyed besides the albondigas and ceviche: coal roasted japanese sweet potato, chicken and leek enchiladas, tamal
Dishes with mixed reviews: fideo verde, the barbacoa (most said that it had too much fat for their liking, I didnât mind it as much)
Iâm not running to go back but I enjoyed our dinner at Broken Spanish - they were packed and things were moving pretty well despite losing service because of the storm and being open for less than a month
Excellent meal Saturday. I missed Broken Spanish and Comedor fills that void. I was always impressed at the depth of flavor chef gets in his dishes, particularly the sauces. Albondigas, ceviche and camote were great with really nicely balanced flavors. Enchiladas and refried lentils were equally good. Chef definitely isnât afraid of the heat, so if youâre sensitive to chile heat, be forewarned. Probably the best margarita Iâve had in some time. I canât wait to return for more.
Likewise we were there Saturday - great food and drinks. Ceviche had a bit much heat for my taste but the rest was perfect. Tostada was great, as were tamal, and chicken thighs with mole. Refried lentils were such a hit with our group we ordered 2!
Great to have him back!
Maybe they updated, but there was a huge Mezcal and other agave distillate list when I went last week. Some pretty good stuff from the usual suspects like Jolgorio, Mal Bien, Cinco Sentidos etc. Have to ask for it though.
Nice meal overall: ceviche, sweet potato, lamb neck, chicharron, refried lentils. Annoying to be that guy but prefer the Gabriela Camara bone marrow salsa macha sweet potato but otherwise agree about the ambition and overall quality. If this were in my neighborhood Iâd eat here every few months.
IMHO, best margarita Iâve had in LA. Chef definitely likes the spice. We have loved all the dishes, not a dud so far after 4 visits. Bangin HH too!
had my rehearsal dinner at the long dead BS Taqueria and the kitchen kindly made separate plates with less heat for my 93 year old Nebraska born grandmother hahaha
we had a very good meal. walked in on saturday around 7pm and got two seats at the bar. service was attentive; staff had a good sense of which dishes were done, and which should proceed to the next round. you know when you have a dip, and thereâs not a lot left, but you just sort of want it just in case? like a security dip? thatâs how i felt about the refried lentils. and i think the staff picked up on that. apps, entrees, sides, and two cocktails set us back $200 after tip, i think.
chips and guac
i think other folks have said that RG isnât afraid of spice. itâs true in the guacamole. a nice little picoso goes well with the textures.
refried lentils.
yum. the sort of thing that makes me think, âi have lentils at home, iâll try this and iâll never have to eat out again!ââ and it will not work at home. but it works really well in the restaurant.
flautas.
delicious. smoky fish flavors with creamy sauces in a slightly crunchy roll.
japanese sweet potato with salsa macha butter and pork rinds.
really over the top great flavors. very intense. in the end we had to leave a few bites behind because the savory sort of overwhelmed the palate.
not pictured is the tamal, which i thought was the best bite we had. iâm a real sucker for earthy corn flavors, and this delivered. great texture. lovely firm bites of mushroom. good bright spots from the salsa.
barbacoa.
i thought it was ok. it was unctuous. it had a little smoke on it. good lamb flavor. missing something to punch it up, but i canât figure out what. i expected it to be better than barbacoa ramirez â but it wasnât. the tortillas are ok. i wouldnât order it again.
a note on the space. it was dark. it can get rather loud. all of the doors were open and it was windy. none of that bothered me, but i can see it being an issue for some diners.
Opening for brunch starting this weekend.