This past Saturday we celebrated Lisa’s birthday starting with dinner at Samba Le, a cozy little cash-only restaurant that I was told was a Brazilian joint. As we were waiting for the rest of our party to arrive, we started out with a few coconut mojitos which were generously sized, had plenty of fresh mint and topped with shredded coconut. Superb. When we were finally seated, the cozy aspect of the dining room quicky morphed into cramped as we were awkwardly jammed into a corner with our tables arranged in an L shape. Twoin got the short end of the L and had the pleasure of talking to Rick and Kat’s back all night. But seating issues aside, I was still determined to be open-minded about the food…
Our prix-fixe dinner got underway pretty tamely with a simple salad of shredded lettuces featuring a few pieces of hearts of palm. Simple, but the lettuce was fresh and not over-dressed, so it was a decent if unimaginative start. Then the next dish arrived and the fun really began. It was a rectangular platter of what looked like mounds of creamed spinach extruded from a soft-serve ice cream machine. In other words, they looked like moist little miniature dung piles. Never one to shy away from strange looking food, I admit I was immediately drawn to them. The only way a chef would turn out a dish that ugly is if he was supremely confident that the taste would completely make up for it. This dish turned out to be very much like a restrained version Indian saag paneer; spinach with a little bit of a mild ricotta-like cheese. The idea of pooping them out and baking them so that they would hold their amusingly scatalogical form never would have occured to me. But looks aside, these, as I expected, were actually really tasty little morsels. We managed to take this picture of the last two before we scooped them up, hahaha:
Next came a dish of italian sausage bites (yes, you could say they resembled poopy pellets) served with broccoli rabe. The sausage was excellent, but in no way was it Brazilian; it couldn’t have been more Italian if it tried. With two “crappy looking” but delicious dishes under our belts, we couldn’t wait to see what was next. We were not disappointed as the waiter brought over a platter of mini meatballs drizzled with a pesto sauce! Hahahaha how awesome is that? It was clear that this chef drew his artistic inspiration straight from the men’s room. From the toilet bowl to your bowl, baby! I kept thinking of what Nari Kye said was the translation of the Korean name for chicken gizzards- “chicken house of poo”. This was the real house of poo right here. But to us, it didn’t even matter because flavor is what counts and this food was great.
The entrees were not as thematic but they were also terrific. I had the filet mignon ravioli in a wonderful mushroom sauce. A very generous portion and the meaty ravioli worked so well with the intensely flavored mushrooms. I sampled a piece of Kat’s steak which had great flavor but was a little tough to cut. Also tried a bit of the short ribs which were a treat as well, but to me the degree of difficulty in making short ribs delicious is too low to merit any raves. But from the satisfied looks on all the faces around our L-shaped table, I’d say everyone really enjoyed their entrees. Onto dessert…
Out came a big bowl of three big cream colored jiggly blobs. Expecting something sweet and creamy, I was quite startled as I took my first spoonful and my palate got an awesome blast of tart and fruity flavors. It turned out to be a something of a passion fruit curd or custard. I was truly impressed at how remarkably clean and bright the flavor was. Next up was a chocolate and banana crepe type thing which was Lisa’s favorite. And finally, after we plowed through those, it was time for our final dessert. Can you guess what it was? That’s right… fudge brownie cake.