January 1- 7, 2004
food
Fork in the Works
You might not need a reservation to eat at Rio Bravo, the largest of Washington Avenue’s Mexican restaurants, though it ranks high among them for consistent, authentic cooking. Even on the Friday night we visited, the dining room, which could easily host the population of Bella Vista, was quiet and mostly empty.
Part of Rio Bravo’s failure to attract clientele may have to do with its less than slick service. Despite the fact that there were only three tables of customers to juggle, service was bafflingly awkward, going beyond an obvious language barrier to an obvious lack of experience. Dishes arrived unevenly; beverages were confused. We had to ask repeatedly for table settings until at one point mid-meal we discovered that we had a total of 12 forks on the table for four people.
The overabundance of cutlery and confusion aside, the staff at Rio Bravo makes a show of hospitality with small touches, like a complimentary bowl of tomato noodle soup following the customary chips and salsa. Since we had also already ordered tortilla soup, it was a bit much, and the tortilla soup was infinitely better than the freebie, anyway; intense but not salty, the tomato broth was woven through with thin strips of fried tortillas, floating dried peppers and creamy slices of avocado.
The first courses were uniformly tasty. Enormous and fresh salads marry unusual ingredients such as mango and red beets, peanuts and avocado in the ensalada de mango y betabel. In another typically Mexican combination, spinach leaves were tossed with toasted almonds, sesame seeds, fried tortilla strips and crumbled queso fresco.
Rio Bravo is known for its seafood entrees, so we sampled several dishes, all of which featured mucho mojo. The filete a la bilbaina, striped bass sauteed in garlic, oil and red peppers, was simple and fresh, though I took greater interest in the huachinango, or red snapper, with a nutty hot sauce made from sesame oil, chili and cascabel peppers. Inky sauteed octopus had the horror-movie special effect of turning our mouths black and our breath pungent, but the octopus was deliciously garlicky and remarkably tender.
Still, my favorite dish was the carne a la Tampiquena, butterflied grilled filet mignon topped with an avocado sauce with roasted peppers. The dish also came with a mole enchilada that was truly transcendent, as well as black beans with a dusting of queso fresco.
By the time we reached dessert, which hit an unexpected high with a better than average flan, we had almost forgotten that we were the only ones around, but we were still trying to figure out what the hell to do with all those forks.
Rio Bravo
1100 Washington Ave., 215-551-7099
Sun.-Sat., 10 a.m.-10 p.m.
Appetizers, $2.50-$13.95; entrees, $7.95-$23.95
Wheelchair accessible. Smoking section provided. Reservations not necessary. All major credit cards.
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