Adoro Mexican Grille II

We celebrated Valentine’s Day early this year on Monday February 11 with dinner at Adoro Mexican Grille (www.adorogrille.com).  We had actually been there before in December on the evening we also saw the Filipino Three Tenors Christmas concert.   We enjoyed it then and decided to go there before another concert as part of our 2008 Valentine’s celebration.  For the concert part, see the Mika concert review.

When we arrived at the restaurant around 5:30 pm it was fairly empty given that it was well before the usual 8 pm L.A. dinner time.  It looked like some people were there just off work for happy hour.  The host/server said we could sit anywhere and he recognized us from when we came in December.  We sat inside in the back amongst the décor of mission-style arches.  Our place setting had the large copper plates that we knew from experience were for decoration and would be cleared when the food came.  Through the speakers played the music of David Bisbal: “¿Que me iba a decir?” from his 2006 CD.  They also played salsa, Spanish ballad, and jazz tracks over the stereo throughout our dinner.

They brought us our complimentary tortilla chips with their homemade salsas:  fire roasted tomato red and tangy green.  We could happily feast all evening on these if they let us.  At our December visit we had the Calamari for appetizer, I had the Brocheta Mignon skewers with steak fries and baby greens, my wife had the lobster chimichanga (technically the Chimichanga de Mariscos with the lobster option) with sides of green rice and white beans, and for dessert we had the plantain split, all excellent.  This time we got the Shrimp Senior appetizer: 6 jumbo shrimp in a large glass (more like an elevated clear bowl) of cocktail sauce with avocado and pico de gallo.  The shrimp were large, not fat but rather wide, tapered, and curled such that we could almost scoop out the sauce with them.  The avocado slices in the sauce were also good.

We had barely finished the shrimp when our entrées arrived:  spinach enchiladas with mushroom chipotle sauce for my wife and two tacos Méxicanos made with flour tortillas and filled with pork carnitas for me.  Both came with guacamole, pico de gallo and sides of rice and beans.  My entrée came without cheese or sour cream as I requested and the beans were in a separate dish altogether.  My wife especially enjoyed the mushroom sauce comparing it favorably to Campbell’s golden mushroom soup.  The best part of my entrée was the carnitas.  They weren’t overly soft or fatty or dry like at some fast casual Mexican places but the perfect combination of crispy, juicy, and fire-grilled flavor.  They went well with the onions, guacamole, and pico de gallo.

We opted not to have dessert this time since everything left us quite sated and ready for the concert.  Adoro did not suffer any sophomore slump.  If anything it’s one of those rare times when the sequel is just as good if not better than the original.