La Condesa: Attitude, Great Drinks, and Corn Mold
July 20, 2009
Saturday night Sara and I were able to take in La Condesa with two of our cooler Austin couple friends. After seeing their menu online, I was looking forward to it–not only do they have a separate drinks/cocktails menu on the web site, but they also have a Ceviche category in their main menu. Not a single dish, a category. Cocktails and ceviche–I’m in. While I enjoyed the food, it did come with an unhealthy serving of attitude that may make it unlikely we return, at least during the weekend.
Six people dining can be a tricky experience. Most restaurants are equipped for four-tops (that’s fancy restaurant talk for four people) so anything beyond that requires some creative table arranging. Totally understandable and not an easy accomplishment when a place is busy. So I wasn’t too surprised that their online reservation system only took reservations for 4. Made the reservation, but the only time available was 6:30pm. Our group was meeting at 7pm, but I figured if Sara and I sat down early and started ordering appetizers (did I mention they had ceviche?) then we’d be fine. But when the restaurant called to confirm the reservation, I asked if we could bump it to 6 people. The woman looked at the book and said since we were coming in at 6:30 she could manage. Gulp. I said thanks, then hung up.
Then I had Sara call a few hours later to see if we could get our 6:30 reservation changed to 7. She did her best bat-her-eyelash-working-the-mojo voice and the (different) person on the phone said he could do it–but they were really busy so we would have to leave the table by 8:30. Okay, that’s a bit weird asking people to leave by a certain time, but I gave them some slack since we’d changed a 4-top at 6:30 to a 6-top at 7. I also figured once they saw the amount of food and drinks we were consuming, they wouldn’t kick us out.
When we arrived at the restaurant we were the first couple, so we checked in. The hostess said we could only be seated when the party was complete, which we thought was an odd policy given the tables weren’t full. But we waited and a few minutes later the entire group was there so we could be seated. But right in front of us, two people were taken to their table of 4 where the other 2 had already been seated. Ummm…ok. We’re all led to our table and it’s a 6 person table. So now I’m confused on their inconsistent policy and that they don’t technically allow 6-person reservations when they have 6-people tables.
But enough of the attitude issues, let’s talk food/drink. First, drinks were outstanding. I had a passion fruit and mango margarita on the waiter’s recommendation. The other two guys had the classic margarita. The two pregnant ladies (Sara and one other woman) had non-alcoholic beer and one of their many fruit-laden fizzy waters which looked pretty good. Everyone seemed to enjoy their drinks enough to have a second and possibly third or fourth rounds (seriously, who keeps track after 2?).
We ordered a number of appetizers to share. We went with the trout ceviche on the waiter’s recommendation–it was one of the newer style ceviches as he explained, which means it looks like sashimi with some other chopped ingredients on top. But it was awesome. We also had the crab tostados–three small crispy corn circles piled (seriously, PILED) high with super sweet and not fishy crab. We had an order of the toasted almond and chipotle guacamole (they have four kinds of guac, another plus) and it had a really nice kick to it. It was also served with four types of salsa, none of them your traditional red salsa, that ranged from non-spicy vinagrette to a pleasantly hot green mixture and two in between.
One of the special appetizers was a large oval of crispy tortilla with beans and what was described as “mushrooms that grow on corn.” I’m pretty sure that’s fancy talk for corn mold–but we’d already had a few drinks so of course we were ordering the corn mold. Either the beans overpowered the corn mold or corn mold tastes a lot like black beans. Either way, not horrible.
And after seeing some others order it the three men at the table partook of the roasted bone marrow taquitos. Three bone segments were served with a narrow spoon to put the marrow on a small floppy tortilla along with an incredible spiced bacon mixture. First time I’ve had marrow–the texture was like a slightly more gelatenous foie gras, but not as flavorful. Worth trying, but not my thing–although the bacon mixture was pretty awesome.
After all the appetizers and a few more drinks, we pressed on for main courses. Sara had the chile relleno, the others had a carnitas plate (pork belly and bacon). I was tempted by the carnitas as well as another ceviche (or three–did I mention how much I love ceviche?) but ultimately went with one of the specials since I wasn’t sure if it would be on the menu if we ever came back. The special: veal tongue salad with greens and a quail egg. It was actually pretty awesome–mild flavor and the texture of a good sausage. Not tough like you would expect and went really well with the greens and egg. There was also a very salty cracker or three to accompany the dish and putting all four tastes together was outstanding.
By the time the check rolled around it was getting close to 9. Yes, I took a perverse pleasure in each minute we were there past 8:30. But it was a small happiness given there were several open tables. So either they had a lot of last minute cancellations or all the reservation attitude was entirely uncalled for. Either way, we didn’t do dessert there but instead had some more drinks at another restaurant a block away.
Looking back, I’m glad we went. Not sure if the attitude we experienced came from it being a Saturday night or if that’s the norm for trendy Austin restaurants these days. There certainly were enough trendy people in the restaurant, including one woman at the table directly behind me who had…a certain look…and a miniskirt so short it caused us to wonder after she left if her chair now had chlamydia.
One thing very much in La Condesa’s favor is their broad menu. When I go to a new resturant I may see one or two other items beyond what I order that I would be interested in trying. This menu easily had 5 or 6 items I’d still like to try, including one award winner I forgot to read about before going on Saturday (their Pulpo Tostados won Best Octopus Dish so it remains uncrossed on The List). But if we do go again we’ll likely try during the week just to see if the attitude was a weekend-only special.
