The interior is exactly as you would suspect it would be for a chic Rittenhouse Restaurant. Dark wood, polished interior, hip design. The major flaw I could find is that to the best of my knowledge there was only one, unisex bathroom in the joint. I'm going to address that flaw right now: If you're Bibou or Marigold and only have a dozen tables or less you can get away with one Unisex bathroom. If you have two dining rooms and a bar, you can not. I twice had to lower the toilet seat because previous male patrons had left it up. This does not help my appetite. Take the cut in dining room and add a second bathroom. There is no excuse for this lapse.
Onto the food. Our first plate were the figs wrapped in serrano ham.
This is a simple well prepared dish that is often seen in varying forms on many Tapas menus. However it's still a delicious combination of salty and sweet, fruit and meat. I'm not ashamed to say that the memory of this was what prompted me the following day to buy those same ingredients and enjoy them in my own version of "hurricane preparation" for the upcoming Nor'Easter that weekend.
KrustyBlini had been reading the menu and reviews for a couple of days ahead of time and was very excited try to their Sopa de Costano.
A truffled chestnut soup, duck and mushroom hash, fried quail egg and pistachio. The soup is served table side with the duck hash and fried quail egg neatly arranged with the seasoning in the bowl. They then pour the soup from a pitcher into the bowl with makes for a lovely bit of presentation and formality. After first bite I considered leaving KrustyBlini alone with the soup so they could enjoy their private moment together and I could have a better chance of leaving the restaurant with all of my fingers intact less he slice one off if he perceived I'd taken more than my fair portion. It's a complex blend of the earthy flavor mushrooms and the sweet taste of the chestnuts and pistachios. I found it a little heavy for me to properly enjoy on a 90F night however KrustyBlini proclaimed that statement sacrilegious and scooted the bowl closer to him.
Moules Basquise
Mussles, chorizo, frites, lemon aioli.
This was my favorite dish we had. The muscles are served in a spice tomato based sauce that made this dish stand out. The lemon aioli with the frites helped to cool off the spice from the sauce and the tang of citrus made your mouth water slightly as if it were sweet further helping to balance out the temperature of the sauce. I would happily sit down to this dish and a glass of red wine on a cold autumn day.
Ablondingas
KrustyBlini had been very excited to see this on the menu as it was reminiscent of an offering at Bar Ferdinand that he had very much enjoyed but had sadly been taken off the menu. The poached egg was solid so we were unable to incorporate it into the dish and decided just to shove it off to the side and enjoy the meatballs. I tried them, and while spicy and tasty I felt it fell a little flat. Blini, while he still enjoyed them, also found that they were a let down compared to his memories of the dish from Bar Ferdinand.
Duck confit, serrano ham, black cherry, la peral spread.
The first two bites of duck are delicious, tender, fatty, excellent. The last bite containing the black cherry however are out of this world. The element the cherry adds of sweetness and acidic juice is a perfect pairing. I wanted three more in a to-go baggy.
Wildmushrooms.
By the time these were brought to us I was feeling quite full so I left these mostly to KrustyBlini. They mushrooms were as all the dishes were, well prepared and tasty... But they're still just mushrooms, I had limited room left in my stomach, and I had scallops coming.
It was around about this time that we noticed the second flaw in Tinto's design. The space is cramped and you have to do the airplane shuffle to get to the bathrooms through the supermodel-thin and very busy bar area to the tune of "'Scuse me, pardon me, sorry, pardon me, was that your foot? 'Scuse me, pardon me"
While I obviously take photos in the restaurant with flash for a quick shot of the food the two couples next to us were have an all out fashion shoot with a large camera with an even bigger flash attachment. The second part isn't a flaw on Tinto's behalf but they should consider it a blessing that KrustyBlini was too enamored with the food to make good on his muffled threats to relocate the camera into a new storage facility located in the photographer's rectum. After the first seventy-two photos you have of each couple smiling over glasses of wine you really don't need to go on to seventy-three.
Diver Scallops in a cider demi glaze with Benton's Bacon and shaved apple.
Sorry muscles, I might have to take back your standing as my favorite from Tinto. I don't know how you go about making a foam but the foam on this had the crispy sharp freshness of biting into a Granny Smith apple but it is gone in 1/100th of the time. It leaves you questioning if you actually tasted that or imagined it. The scallops are served on butter with a side of grits. If you didn't catch it that was my way of saying the grits are tremendously buttery and very velvety smooth. That's right. Velvety smooth grits. They're so smooth and creamy that I took a bite, had a question mark light up over my head, took another bite before finally asking KrustyBlini "Is that...are those... Grits?!" The shaved apple is a simple component that provides a beautiful contrast against the sweet and creamy grits. The scallops were almost spot on. They fell short in that on side was over cooked slightly. Perhaps I'm wrong and they were going for them to have a crust in which case one side was slightly under done. Either way it felt lopsided to have one very crunchy and the other only slightly seared.
New York Strip, herb roasted trumpets, truffled goat cheese. There's no nice way to say it, so here it is: This was a total flop. It was perfectly cooked. The praise ends there. The rub they used on it was so salty I wrinkled my nose at it. To paraphrase Fry from Futurama, it was the saltiest thing I ever ate and I once ate a bowl of salt. If I cut away the outer portion of the steak it was notably improved. However the herb roasted trumpets reminded me of a side portion of the same wild mushrooms we'd had earlier and I found them to be equally uninspired. The menu lists truffled goat cheese but I can honestly say it had so little flavor I didn't any goat product came within 50ft of the plate. It was really a bummer.
I'd be happy to tell you all about the dessert "Chocolate" we ordered. Except some bum in the restaurant ordered the last piece as we were debating over if we should be completely gluttonous and order dessert or not. I look forward to eating here again in the future. However next time: More mussels -less beef.
