I sat down and opened up the menu at The Spanish Kitchen in West Hollywood. To my dismay the menu features mostly Mexican dishes. I opted for one Spanish dish, and one Mexican dish.
The Spanish dish that I ordered was the lobster crepe, with a Mexican cocoa crepe, sautéed lobster, leeks, Manchego cheese, and a tequila-lobster cream sauce. For a Spanish dish, it incorporates two dishes synonymous with Mexico: tequila and Mexican cocoa.
The lobster crepe was overtly sweet, with subtle undertones of savory Manchego cheese. The tequila was not a prevalent flavor, and sadly, nor was the lobster. Though the lobster itself seemed to be cooked to the proper degree, its flavor was masked by the cream sauce and the cheese. Attempting to taste the indiscernible flavor of the lobster, one solitary bite with as little sauce as possible was necessary — the lobster still had no flavor of its own.
Subsequently, the Mexican dish arrived. The plate consisted of three small tacos. There were six options of meat to choose from, so I selected the best cross-section for taste-testing: chicken, bbq pork, and mesquite steak.
Each taco was topped with lettuce, diced tomato, and Manchego cheese. Every topping added to the overall taste of taco. I started with the chicken taco because it was on the far left. The meat appeared to have been stewed and all the ingredients of the pot were soaked into the meat like a sponge. This chicken was both savory and sweet — an apparent theme for The Spanish Kitchen. Its only pitfall was that it was overcooked; making the chicken a bit mushy.
Overcooking was not the problem of the bbq pork; in fact the texture of the bbq was great. The meat separated, but did not feel mushy. If the caramelized surfaces of the pork were crispy, the pork would have had the perfect texture. The flavor of the bbq pork is comparable to that of carnitas, but again it was a bit sweet and didn’t have the apparent flavor of bay leaves. The flavor of the chicken reigns supreme over that of the bbq pork, but the texture of the bbq pork quelled that of the chicken. A combination of both meats would be ideal.
Both the chicken taco and the bbq pork taco were not improved by the addition of the tomato salsa that came with a basket of chips, but the mesquite steak tacos certainly was. The stand-alone salsa was the only thing saving the mesquite steak which was less than lukewarm by the time I took my first full bite, but not because I took too much time eating the first two tacos; the first two tacos weren’t very hot either. This certainly was not satisfactory, but even less enjoyable was the flavor of the meat. The steak was nearly bland, with a subtle smoky flavor that was somehow incorporated into the steak. Without the salsa, mesquite steak taco is not worth eating.
All in all The Spanish Kitchen is worth a visit, especially to sample starter dishes for $5 a piece during happy hour, although happy hour may have been their detriment as well. All too often happy hours consist of appetizers being cooked in bulk, and unfortunately in haste. Perhaps the salt missing from the mesquite steak and the unfavorable temperature of it can be attributed to haste in making bulk happy hour food.
The verdict is still out on whether or not The Spanish Kitchen will become a place of recurring dining for me, but the flavors of the chicken, the bbq pork, the tequila-lobster cream sauce, and the sweet salsa are reason enough for me to come back and try a few more dishes so I can find out.
