We had a delightful lunch at Red O Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles a few days ago. This is the first restaurant outside of Chicago featuring a menu by renowned chef Rick Bayless – who is known for changing the image of Mexican food in America through his fine restaurants in Chicago, his PBS series, seven cookbooks about authentic Mexican foods and for winning on Top Chef Masters a couple years ago. We loved it. We can’t wait to go back. The ambiance is cool, inviting, like walking into an elegantly relaxing outdoor room. Truly breezy and comfortable. But my “test” at any restaurant these days is…can they serve you a good cup of tea?
Actually I did not expect much in the way of tea from a Mexican restaurant as coffees are the focus. This menu had some wonderful coffee drinks to choose from; however, I still ordered hot tea. The tea bag was whole leaf Dammann Freres. A truly delicious tea. The server did not know anything about their teas (he was really pleasant though and a conscientious server)…he brought out a cup with hot water in it and a bag of Earl Grey. I steeped the first cup and it was not good as the water was too cool. While Red O doesn’t seem to have tea pots, they have really good tea. That was fine with me as my able assistant, D., came up with this idea after having the cup refilled with hot water…
Dammann Freres Tea Bag Pouch…Earl Grey
D. made a makeshift teapot for steeping this wonderful Dammann Freres tea bag by placing his bread plate over the cup…it worked great!
Dammann Freres teas are from France and are of great quality and flavor. This Earl Grey was one of the best I have ever had. It was not overpowering with Bergamot (citrus oil). It had a nice subtle flavor of orange. I loved my second cup, even re-steeped using the same bag (as it was whole leaf and didn’t do much in the first steeping in too cool of water.) So, nice job on the tea selection Rick Bayless…
I can’t resist showing you this photo of the crab cake I ordered…it was beautiful and flavorful. The sauce enhanced each bite. The tomato and avocado relish on the side made for the perfect pairing with the panko crusted crab cake…just fantastic. Next time I prepare crab cakes I’m going to use panko bread crumbs on the outside.
Red O Crab Cake….just Deeelicious!
Enjoy. Drink Tea…
The description of your experience made me want to jump in the car and head North!! …and I don’t even like crab cakes!
You would love it!! I should show you the photo of my second dish…a gorgeous fresh made ground corn tamale with goat cheese and chiles. I think a girl’s trip to lunch to Red O would be something everyone would enjoy…let’s get planning.
It looks like a beautiful place, and good for you being so positive about the tea when it was served with warm water! I would have been a bit distressed about that, but I’m glad you found a good way round it and enjoyed the tea. I think every chef/restauranteur/waiter/waitress should learn how to make a decent cup of tea as part of their training, it’s not difficult and it makes such a difference to the taste.
Thanks for your comments…I totally agree with you about staff needing to be trained in basic tea preparation…while coming a long way to access to better teas in America, we are still in baby step stage compared to you.
We’ve been the same with coffee over here, it’s only quite recently that we’ve been able to expect a decently made cup, no doubt thanks to places like Starbucks and Costa setting the standard. There are still places in the UK that don’t know how to make tea, which I find astonishing.
Not having a tea pot is ludicrous. One would think a tea pot would be standard issue for having a complete kitchen. Why would they make the effort to have a whole leaf tea without having something other than a cup to brew it in? Disappointing….crab cake looked great
Agree. I plan on jotting them a note…it is possible that the server didn’t know to use a tea pot. Now I want to check on this with the restaurant. Will update when I find out…we’ll need to go and find out ourselves too.