This can all be summed up in two words: Manolo’s Caracol.
Copper hood under which the magic happens!
Well known Spanish chef Manolo serves a 10 course tapas dinner at a fixed price in his Casco Viejo restaurant, an unassuming place at Avenida Central and Calle 3. The place seats about 50 and has an open kitchen with a large copper hood. It is under this hood that these fabulous small plates are prepared. Each month the menu is changed and it can easily be adapted to special requests, such as vegetarians or no shellfish.
So let me count the ways:
Happy Birthday, Bob!
- Charbroiled octopus and a wheat couscous salad
- Shrimp ceviche with passion fruit, onion, red pepper, pixbae and shaved dried pineapple. It was at this point that I figured I should start taking pictures of the dishes so I’d never forget. Easily the best ceviche ever tasted.
- Chickpea, goat cheese, spinach salad
- free range chicken ‘halla quitas’, a little tamal
- Tomato soup with onion confit croquettes. Oh, the croquettes were rich!
- Lobster brochette with pumpkin puree infused with ginger. Self-explanatory delicious
lobster on pumpkin puree
- coconut risotto with shitake mushrooms and osso buco
- passion fruit lemon pie, grapefruit, and ‘cookie dust’
- Seems I forgot one, might have been something with pork?
- You get to choose any of the above and repeat. Two questions: how do you choose one and how do you squeeze in one more morsel?
It was a fabulous dinner and such a clever way to serve. It would cost a fortune to try so many different flavors in one setting. This was a $30 dinner worth much more.
one satisfied customer!
Just desserts
- Little chicken tamales
