L’Auberge Chez Francois
[$$$$] Food: 8.4 / Ambience: 8.4 / Service: 8.6
332 Springvale Road, Great Falls; 703-759-3800; www.laubergechezfrancois.com.
Open for lunch Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, dinner Tuesday through Sunday.
Between the mounting TV appearances, blossoming brasserie and continued oversight of his family’s legendary Alsatian restaurant, one might be tempted to think chef/restaurateur Jacques Haeringer could use a well-deserved break.
But, just like his famously gracious father was, Francois Haeringer, Jacques is seemingly always at Chez Francois. The tireless toque practically lives in that kitchen, though he pops out from time to time to visit with lifelong guests who have, in all likelihood, followed his career for decades.
And Jacques rarely disappoints.
Wet your whistle with an ersatz cider produced by pouring Stella Artois into a mug filled with house-made orange liqueur (quite refreshing).
A plate of sautéed frog legs marries the exotic (light, chewy meat) to the familiar (garlic and oil).
Peppery steak veers into the sublime after promenading through a captivating mustard-shallot reduction.
La Bergerie
[$$$$] Food: 8.5 / Ambience: 8.3 / Service: 8.4
218 N. Lee St., Alexandria; 703-683-1007; www.labergerie.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner daily.
During a recent visit to La Bergerie, my party was obliged to share our classically trained waiters with the Joint Military Attache School, a Department of Defense organ that treated the slew of would-be diplomats to a formal dining tutorial that spanned several hours and involved plate after plate of sumptuous French food.
Cramming for that particular exam was, no doubt, the highlight of their training.
Staff make no bones about picking favorites from executive chef Sylvain Tonnello’s carte, routinely championing favorites (from-scratch Caesar, hearty French onion soup) while torpedoing suspect specials (exotic-sounding “spider steak” was pegged as “nice,” but less satisfying than traditional tenderloin).
Frisee wraps its curly, vinaigrette-soaked tendrils around smoked duck, fat-packed gizzards, blue cheese and candied walnuts.
A diet of crushed sea salt and sautéed peppercorns works wonders on the seared steak.
Chocolate soufflé melts like pudding across the palate.
La Strada
[$$] Food: 7.6 / Ambience: 7.5 / Service: 7.4
1905 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria; 703-548-2592; www.lastrada-ontheave.com.
Open for dinner daily, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
True intimacy, never to be confused with the faux closeness foisted upon us by each new layer of status-blaring social media that invades our everyday lives, is fast becoming a lost art.
Enter: La Strada.
Folks can’t seem to help themselves when they are here, be they a consummate gentleman obliged to pull out chairs for a procession of fashionably late acquaintances or the shameless wives/significant others who reach their forks across the way to sneak a taste of their companion’s order.
Ultra creamy polenta and tannin-spiked duck play tug of war with complementary roast vegetables.
Housemade noodles—wider than a watchband and striped like a lethal serpent—encircle chewy crawfish tails, sun-dried tomatoes and potent slices of sparingly cooked garlic.
Sautéed fennel and peppery mustard-cream sauce leave their mark on medallions of juicy pork.
Lebanese Taverna
[$$$] Food: 7.8 / Ambience: 7.7 / Service: 7.2
Mulitple NoVa locations; www.lebanesetaverna.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner daily.
Finding something you’ll like at the Lebanese Taverna is typically far less challenging than narrowing down said discoveries to just a handful of favored mezze per person.
The family-run empire excels at piling multitudes of plates around each table, encouraging their most adventurous guests to sample freely and frequently rather than pushing pricey entrees. The low-pressure strategy appears to be a proven winner.
A twist on artichokes ushers forth semolina-dusted hearts—just enough breading to crisp the outer edges, while the balance of the herbaceous bud remains delectably tender—escorted by garlic-lemon-herb dipping sauce.
Seasoned lamb, vibrant mint, piquant onions and crunchy pine nuts all working in concert beneath the cover of marinated grape leaves.
Soothing saffron and arresting orange zest place a seafood-laden bouillabaisse, loaded with chubby shrimp, calamari and succulent mahi mahi, squarely in the Mediterranean column.
Lightfoot
[$$$] Food: 8.6 / Ambience: 8.1 / Service: 8.2
11 N. King St., Leesburg; 703-771-2233; www.lightfootrestaurant.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, dinner daily, brunch Sunday.
Depending on the hour, a peek into Lightfoot can return decidedly different information.
Lunch is often seeded with local professionals decompressing via “Sports Center” appreciation or impromptu dessert worship. Brunchers lounge like nobody’s business, while the dinner crowd tends to get a little showier (“Look. That’s from a real bank vault,” a dad pointed out to his brood).
Back in the kitchen, chef/owner Ingrid Gustavson remains a little bit country and a little bit wok ‘n’ roll, peppering her picnic-perfect carte with Asian offerings (housemade bahn mi, anyone?).
Eggs entice, be they deviled and embellished with Sriracha, and bread and butter pickles (snacktastic), or fried alongside Italian sausage- and cheese- stuffed mushroom caps.
Fried zucchini and feta-studded yogurt sauce complement the lamb gyro.
Vanilla cake, butter cream frosting, warm Belgian chocolate sauce and shaved tropical fruit converge in the ideal slice of coconut cake.
The Liberty Tavern
[$$$] Food: 8.3 / Ambience: 7.9 / Service: 8.1
3195 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-465-9360; www.thelibertytavern.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Friday, dinner and late-night dining daily, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
Female patron: “I’m going to get the pizza. Why don’t you order the duck Bolognese?”
Male counterpart: “And then you get everything you want? I know how this game is played.”
This episode of Sharing Shy Theater was brought to you by Liberty Tavern workhorses Liam LaCivita (savory) and Rob Valencia (sweet), the mealtime maestros who have taught once-trusting boyfriends to stand up for their ordering rights lest they wander home hungry after another successful “just-a-taste” offensive.
Of course, standing your ground against an army of invading forks can be very challenging, particularly when the Liberty Tavern team continues to develop tantalizing little somethings—think: artisan pizzas weighed down by home spun, hand-crafted lamb meatballs; fried donut sundaes slathered in housemade ice creams; and a newish line of specialty, house-aged cheeses (bourbon-soaked chevre was the best mix of booze and dairy this side of a Dude-made Caucasian, truffle-honey-thyme ricotta rocks, salalta-style goat was interseting but warrants further investigation)—everyone wants.
Hickory smoked-salmon arrives ensconced in necklaces of velvety craime fraiche and shimmering clusters of piquant caviar.
Country ham and roasted red pepper aioli join unctuous roast pork on a handheld trip to Cuba.
Old fashioned chocolate cake enjoys new life courtesy of cream cheese frosting, sea salt and ground coffee.
Lyon Hall’s summer salad
Lyon Hall
[$$]
3100 Washington Blvd., Arlington; 703-741-7636; www.lyonhallarlington.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Friday, dinner daily, late-night dining Friday and Saturday, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
What was my favorite memory from the past year?
That would have to be inadvertently spooking a first-timer in Lyon Hall’s interconnected washroom. The clearly bewildered woman stared at me, turned to inspect the wall, then slowly extended a trembling, uncertain hand, hoping to connect with glass, or metal or anything. “Is that the men’s room?” she finally asked, at which point I let her in on the gag. “That’s cool,” she affirmed, relief washing over her at last.
Making friends one bathroom break at a time.
Loved the rainbow of funky housemade donuts—four trippy flavors per weekend, ranging from plain chocolate to a scintillating passion fruit-cracked peppercorn glaze—the kitchen trots out for brunch.
Tender duck, bitter celery leaves and sweet carrots fit quite comfortably in a mustard-creamy stroganoff.
Bahn mi clone packs chicken liver, velvety pate de champagne, cured ham and pickled vegetables into a terrifically crusty baguette.
Maple Ave funnel cake
Maple Ave
[$$]
147 Maple Ave. W, Vienna; 703-319-2177; www.mapleaverestaurant.com.
Open for lunch Tuesday through Friday, dinner Tuesday through Sunday, brunch Saturday & Sunday.
Co-founder Joey Hernandez typically polices her tiny dining room with aplomb, playing host/busser/menu advisor—“We recommend two-three small plates per person,” she explains, following up with an aside about hubby/chef Tim Ma’s nonconformist culinary preferences—as situations warrant.
But when the newish mom spots a hungry tot slurping up their butternut squash broth, she melts.
“The first soup?! We’re so honored!” Hernandez shares with the fellow mom. And so the extended MAR family grows.
Hot wings fly to the Far East after a rubdown in fiery Korean chili paste, with craime fraiche supplanting blue cheese as the cooling agent du jour.
Zesty Chinese sausage and caramelized kimchi lend the exotic to scrambled eggs.
Scattered rosemary helps diffuse the cheesy richness (the gruyere-mornay sauce is heavenly, but heavy) of gourmet mac ‘n’ cheese, while panko delivers admirable crunch.
The Majestic
[$$]
911 King St., Alexandria; 703-837-9117; www.majesticcafe.com.
Open for lunch and dinner daily.
No offense to EatGoodFood Group drink guru Todd Thrasher, but I’m partial to having my preferred poison vigorously shaken by Majestic’s strawberry blond mixtress—the one with the mantra “live” inked inside her wrist—for obvious reasons.
But when it comes time to dig in, toque Shannon Overmiller is all the woman I’ll ever need.
Ricotta dumplings take very kindly to meaty, sage-covered mushrooms, summer corn and brown butter-tinged onions.
My eyes feasted on the perfectly symmetrical slabs of onion gravy-drenched meatloaf, while my mouth sent the fork out in search of more bacon-studded green beans at every opportunity.
Juicy peaches and mint-laced whipped cream tag team a savory cornmeal scone in a savvy shortcake send-up.
Market Table Bistro’s bacon and eggs
Market Table Bistro
[$$$]
13 E. Broad Way, Lovettsville; 540-822-3008; www.markettablebistro.com.
Open for lunch, dinner Tuesday through Saturday; brunch Sunday.
Jason Lage is a wily one.
First, the On the Potomac alumnus locates a perfectly charming split-level home he has transformed into a country restaurant. Then he recruits a crew of buxom servers—save for the long-lost Lee Bros. lookalike, of course—who readily flip curious newcomers into repeat customers with their tender loving care.
Lage sprinkles regional spoils across his menu. And he’s not forgotten the locapours, pairing all manner of desserts with complementary sips from the surrounding vineyards (golden raisin-cinnamon bread pudding with Chrysalis’ Petit Manseng).
Pork belly proves versatile, whether adding oomph to slaw-filled, chili gastrique-splashed Bibb lettuce wraps or teaming up with poached eggs for a resplendent breakfast-for-dinner switcheroo.
Roast trout revels in a river of ghee, the meal completed by corn-studded grits (too much) and spirited peppadew relish (not enough).
Me Jana
[$$$]
2300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-465-4440; www.me-jana.com.
Open for lunch and dinner daily.
Making the most of Mediterranean dining often means turning to the sea.
And while Me Jena has updated their menu to reflect a newfound respect for the ocean’s incredible bounty—baked and roasted whole fish, fried seafood cakes and marine life-laden sandwiches are now prominently in the mix—staff often remain wedded to their old favorites.
“It’s cooked overnight at very low temperature. It’s like butter in your mouth,” one server asserts as he slips into momentary trance while thinking about their signature braised lamb shank (marvelous). Another touts the popularity of their Manchego-rich mezze (where’d all the halloumi go?) but begs us to save room for pistachio- and honey-covered bread pudding (divine).
Golden fries are enrobed in aromatic thyme; request the housemade roasted tomato “hot” sauce for an otherworldly dipping experience.
Baked branzino arrives blanketed in butter, herbs and garlic, and couldn’t be more delicious.
Michel
[$$$$]
1700 Tysons Blvd., McLean; 703-744-3999; www.michelrichardva.com.
Open for breakfast daily, dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
While ushering a pair of gastronauts through the restaurant, a Michel hostess paused to ask, “Would you prefer to sit near the open kitchen or perhaps in a quieter spot towards the rear?”
“Can we sit IN the kitchen?” the intrepid young man ventured.
Then again, getting in on the action might ruin the mystique behind the signature fake-me-out dishes. Toothsome trickery, however, is hardly the only recourse in their culinary repertoire; there are plenty of straightforward thrillers, including Richard’s signature gougeres, artful burgers and impeccable fried chicken.
Steamed leeks are shaped into a verdant patty, anointed with lemon and oil, then crowned with a savory Parmesan tuile.
A Nicoise salad harbors “eggs” fashioned from milky mozzarella embedded with yellow cherry tomato mousse.
S-L-O-W-cooked short ribs (72 hours) practically melt into veal demi-glace.
Mokomandy
[$$]
20789 Great Falls Plaza, Suite 176, Sterling; 571-313-0505; www.mokomandy.com.
Open for dinner daily.
As their legend continues to grow, so do the demands for extended hours and alterna-dining opportunities.
If Mokomandy founder Thaddeus Kim and executive chef Daniel Stevens are itching to expand, they continue to mask their ambition with sphinx-like silence. But when pressed about the possibility of ever feasting on Korean- and Cajun-influenced brunch offerings, one waiter immediately lit up. “It’s coming out of research and development!” the staffer asserted, a strong indicator that servers are at least as excited, if not more so, about experiencing savorous new sensations as their regulars.
Wine-braised duck and buttery foie gras are galvanized by plum sauce drizzled atop fancy, festive dumplings.
Fried Cornish game rules a gustatory roost feathered by bacon-laced collards, cane syrup-spiked sweet potato mash and mouthwatering Cajun rice.
Steam-filled beignets are snowy with powdered sugar and flanked by winsome dipping sauces (milk chocolate, gooey caramel, tart berry jam).
Nostos’ manouri and spoon sweets
Nostos
[$$$] Food: 8.3 / Ambience: 8.2 / Service: 8.0
8100 Boone Blvd., Vienna; 703-760-0690; www.nostosrestaurant.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Friday, dinner Monday through Saturday.
Just how popular is newcomer Nostos? Let’s just even say we’ve seen perennial presidential hopefuls relegated to the thin strip of two-tops (better luck next time, Newt) opposite the routinely crowded bar.
Those fortunate enough to snag a seat inside Peter Pagonis’ latest paean to Greek cooking—he also owns Mykonos Grill in Rockville—are greeted by a white-washed paradise punctuated by black and white portraits of life on the
Mediterranean and yawning picture windows that invite the sun in to play.
A word of warning: The printed menu lists all POSSIBLE seafood specials, not what’s necessarily available each day.
Tyrokafteri channels our pimento cheese, folding together crumbled feta, roasted red pepper, onion and plenty of cayenne, into a dangerously delicious spread.
Steely trout arrives awash in a vibrant lemon-herb sauce that clings to each tine.
When in doubt, get the breathtaking sardines (available broiled or fried, as either appetizers or entrees).
Baja fish tacos
PassionFish
[$$$] Food: 8.4 / Ambience: 8.3 / Service: 8.1
11960 Democracy Drive, Reston; 703-230-3474; www.passionfishreston.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Friday, dinner daily.
My second favorite dining memory from the past year?
Watching a pair of gents camped out at the far end of the PassionFish bar—away from the TV, smart phones cradled—sipping tall flutes of bubbly, slurping down fat, liquor-flooded oysters, truly enjoying each other’s company.
Carpe diem, indeed.
Chef Chris Clime’s salads rocked my world, including a seared steak offering reoriented by fresh basil, shaved papaya and chili-lime vinaigrette plus a smokehouse wedge bolstered by multiple cheeses (smoked gouda, tangy blue), sun-dried tomatoes and a dressing larded up with bacon and caramelized onions (jackpot).
Spice-crusted tilapia—moist, flaky meat—is baptized in frothy butter, pecans.
S’mores donuts
Patowmack Farm
[$$$] Food: 8.9 / Ambience: 8.9 / Service: 9.1
42461 Lovettsville Road, Lovettsville; 540-822-9017; www.patowmackfarm.com.
Open for dinner Thursday through Sunday, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
“Seriously. This is food art. It’s just gorgeous,” a guest pronounced when presented with the first in a series of assiduously arranged dining creations.
Christopher Edwards, he who took to Twitter to tout revolutionary cooking tomes “Noma,” “East of Paris” and “Modern French Culinary Art” as the inspiration for his fall menu, deserves the lion’s share of credit for any wonderment that passes through your lips. But Mother Nature deserves mad props for sending such lovely companions; curious butterflies and spiraling hawks entertain at brunch, while fireflies lazily dance along the breeze on summer nights.
Local crabmeat goes for a swim with stewed okra and puffed saffron rice in a clever gumbo.
A novel blueberry-espresso reduction adorns seared scallops, while frisee tangles with crispy duck confit and spongy chanterelles.
Roast pork, glazed in a riveting mustard-molasses sauce, embraces savory cabbage and sweet grilled peaches for one last summer fling.
Rangoli
[$$] Food: 7.3 / Ambience: 7.1 / Service: 7.4
24995 Riding Plaza, Suite 120, South Riding; 703-957-4900; www.rangolirestaurant.us.
Open for lunch and dinner daily.
The slowly deteriorating décor (cloth dividers have worn through in spots; duct taped booth benches) has begun to betray Rangoli’s age.
But chef Kannan Padd’s latest slate of menu updates has renewed our interest in this exurban spice palace.
Hollow potato puffs are spot-filled with a spicy-tangy broth—tamarind, cumin, salt, black and red pepper, plus other secret ingredients—before quickly consumed.
Jumbo shrimp are caked with a sinus-clearing, chile pod-studded paste that left us begging for relief even as we devotedly returned to the source of our torment.
Garlic- and hot pepper-studded lamb is sweetened by soy, diffused by sweet peas in basmati rice.
Ray’s the Steaks
[$$$] Food: 8.2 / Ambience: 7.7 / Service: 7.6
2300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-841-7297 raysthesteaks.com.
Open for dinner daily.
Only at Ray’s—owner Michael Landrum’s anti-establishment steakhouse, a gustatory crossroads where one might encounter beer-guzzling hipsters faithfully reenacting David Chappelle’s brilliant “Playa Hater’s Ball” at one table and devout oenophiles dropping hundreds on coveted vintages at the next—can the truly carnivorous watch slabs of sanguine meat slowly transform from mere sides of beef into beautifully marbled, butter-aping slices of oral ecstasy in the centralized aging room.
A cooked-to-order top loin sirloin hits the table bloody as hell, it’s brazenly peppercorned crust further lavished in slow-melting shallot butter.
Kinky macaroni are baked to perfection beneath an avalanche of utterly entrancing cheeses (sharp cheddar and mellowing gruyere were our favorites).
Jumbo lump crab is seared till coppery, the generous cake dutifully crisping around the edges even as the center of the patty drinks in its corresponding compound butter.
Restaurant Eve
[$S$$] Food: 9.1 / Ambience: 9.1 / Service: 9.2
110 S. Pitt St., Alexandria; 703-706-0450; www.restauranteve.com.
Open for lunch Monday through Friday, dinner Monday through Saturday.
“This is just …” a companion started to say, her mind cross-indexing the known universe of superlatives in order to best describe the nexus of braised beef, roasted onions, sultry peppers and winey ‘shrooms on her tongue, before declaring, “perfect.”
The symphony of splendor is masterfully choreographed by chef/owner Cathal Armstrong and his wife/right hand Meshelle. Staff are equal partners in the mirth making, from parceling out hot slices of housemade bread to fanning flames of anticipation about what’s next.
Peppered egg, savory antelope and crunchy hash browns underscore our belief that Society Fare MUST do breakfast.
Lusty lamb ribs parade around in nothing more than brilliant vinegar.
Olives, tomatoes and capers add poignancy to roast dorade.
Rustico’s ricotta doughnuts
Rustico
[$$] Food: 8.2 / Ambience: 7.9 / Service: 7.8
Multiple NoVA locations; www.rusticorestaurant.com.
Check locations for times.
“Let’s make it fancy and give you a stand,” one affable waitress joked. “We’re doing it up here.”
Her self-effacing humor aside, Rustico has moved well beyond its artsy pizza and craft beer origin story into a mature, multi-talented dining operation that was obviously worth replicating.
Case in point: A celiac sufferer shared that she’d come in dead-set on ordering up a gluten-free pie, but was pleasantly surprised by all the tempting alternatives. She wound up switching to the soup/sandwich combo—“I can make gluten-free pizza at home,” she quipped—and left options open on dessert.
One summery pizza bore basil-brushed dough decorated with smoky grilled squash, crunchy fried green tomatoes and pools of bubbly ricotta.
Couscous carbonara revealed a tapestry of pearly grains charged to capacity with cream and butter, all embellished by smoked ham, bacon, carrots, onions and mushrooms and a big, beautiful poached egg.
Sea Pearl
[$$] Food: 8.4 / Ambience: 8.0 / Service: 7.7
8191 Strawberry Lane, Suite 2, Falls Church; 703-372-5161; www.seapearlrestaurant.com.
Open for lunch and dinner daily, late-night dining Thursday through Saturday, brunch Sunday.
The crowds gather early at Sea Pearl on weekends.
There are the happy hour warriors who flee their offices and firmly plant themselves on a bar stool till closing on Friday. Families and large groups of friends camp out in the stylishly decorated main dining room during brunch hours.
But during the week, it’s easy enough to get a table—co-owner Ly Liao might even seat you—and explore the unique experiences chef/owner Sly Liao sends out from his kitchen.
Caramelized Berkshire pork belly joins jalapenos, herbaceous cilantro and crushed peanuts in a smashing pork bun.
Julienned beets, preserved figs and syrupy pomegranate dressing deluged us with sweet while toasted almonds and crumbled feta toed the salty line in a particularly memorable Mediterranean feast.
Crab pasta featured lump meat basking in a mouthwatering ragout tempered by preserved lemon but largely fueled by myriad heating agents.
Tachibana
[$$] Food: 7.4 / Ambience: 6.2 / Service: 6.8
6715 Lowell Ave., McLean; 703-847-1771.
Open for lunch and dinner daily.
Pity the poor staff at Tachibana.
Sure, they’re dressed the part. And most of them seem to genuinely know their stuff. But the cold hard reality is that they are really just traffic cops fighting a losing battle to halt the most fervent of nigiri and maki fans from constantly swarming the bar in pursuit of an audience with the most masterful sushi chefs around.
The main dining room teems with Asians and Westerners alike. But the unifying factor is that nobody shows up alone.
“Sharing is the best part, right,” one wily young lady posits while liberating a taste off her significant other’s plate.
Dulcet soy sauce and piquant scallions battle for control of broiled tenderloin.
Meaty scallops rumble with tempeh crunchies in a multi-sensory-pleasing sushi roll.
Exotic ice creams (green tea, red bean paste) burst forth from gummy, frozen rice cakes.
Tallula
[$$] Food: 8.0 / Ambience: 7.6 / Service: 7.8
2761 Washington Blvd., Arlington; 703-778-5051; www.tallularestaurant.com.
Open for dinner daily, late-night dining Friday and Saturday, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
“Well, this used to be a dive bar … and pet store before that,” a lifelong resident informed me as we dined within the same four walls that once housed the rough-and-tumble Whitey’s (remember it fondly) and other kinds of animals before that (news to me).
If only these walls could talk …
The dishes communicate everything you need to know about Tallula today.
Buttery pork jowl basks in the attention paid by mirepoix-laced lentils and wine-braised purple cabbage.
Pan-seared grouper rides a raft of pungent mustard greens across a sea of creamy black-eyed peas and smoked ham-studded risotto.
Tart lemon custard serves as the foundation for a fabulous ice box layered with blowtorched meringue, citrus-spiked caramel sauce and tongue-teasing buttermilk sorbet.
Trummer’s on Main
[$$] Food: 8.7 / Ambience: 8.6 / Service: 8.2
2761 Washington Blvd., Arlington; 703-778-5051; www.tallularestaurant.com.
Open for dinner daily, late-night dining Friday and Saturday, brunch Saturday and Sunday.
Whether it was his intention or not, cocktail guru cum Trummer’s co-founder Stefan Trummer has created an absolute monster with his handcrafted beverages.
Barkeeps are constantly muddling grapes, shaving ice or swirling together housemade tonics for the other half dozen featured drinks everyone and their grandfather flock here to guzzle.
Meanwhile, executive chef Clayton Miller knocks ’em dead with cutting-edge culinaria unlike anything Clifton has ever seen.
Housemade “scrapple” consists of jamon Serrano ground with bread and piquillo peppers, wrapped in prosciutto and slow simmered until maddeningly tender.
Beef tartare is padded with pickled peppers, bossy capers and chimichurri sauce, then further cooled off with dollops of frosty, freaky ketchup sorbet.
Cumin-coffee-rubbed pork shoulder unravels with ease, the slow-cooked swine surrendering to pineapple confit-covered sweet potato cakes.