KEN ORINGER LITE

As I mentioned yesterday, Tom and I went to Ken Oringer's newest venture, La Verdad, for dinner last night. It's quite a departure from his usual m.o. His first restaurant, Clio/Uni, is ultra upscale and where he won his James Beard Award. His second venture, Toro, which I love, is a little more casual, though still serving excellent food to a very yuppie crowd. This third restaurant, La Verdad, is what I would call Ken Oringer for college students. It inhabits the former space of Tiki Room on Lansdowne Street, sandwiched between Tequila Rain and Jillian's. I'd never been to Tiki Room when it was open, but upon entering the restaurant, you could pretty much suspect that not much has changed since Tiki Room. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still using the same decor and same plastic cups. It was very much your typical college bar, with the central bar dominating most of the room and some small tables for two sprinkled around it.

But unlike Ken Oringer's other places, this was not an expensive night out. You can easily have a meal there for under $15, $10 if you're not super hungry. It was pretty empty when we entered and we were quickly seated at a high table from where we could peer into the kitchen. The Tortilla ladies (as we called them) were directly behind me, handmaking fresh tortillas. As befits it's setting, everything is casual. And there are still a lot of kinks that need to be worked out, which isn't surprising since the place has only been open one month. But I also think these problems will be taking longer than usual to resolve. When Toro first opened, and for months afterwards, you would always see Ken there. At this spot, he was nowhere to be seen, and I have a feeling that he's spending more time working on his latest venture, opening a steak house in the former Spire space.

Our waiter was friendly and super casual. We were given xeroxed copies of the menu which had a vast taco selection, and a few other items. He quickly offered us chips, salsa and guacamole, which we ordered. As usual, and per Leah's comments, I had already heard several things about La Verdad, and most were right on. First the guacamole was quite good.
And unlike Leah's experience, I felt that the chips were very well salted, almost too salty. But like everyone else had mentioned, the chips are cut far too thickly, so when they're fried, they don't cut out nice and crispy. Instead, they're a little chewy and tough.

We were also given this duo of salsas and a side of pickled carrots.

I found both salsas watery and tasteless, though Tom did like the salsa verde. I enjoyed munching on the pickled carrots, though.

At this point, we put our order in. We decided to get 3 tacos each (we knew that they were small) and Tom ordered a chicken burrito while I ordered my beloved "Toro" grilled corn. The list of tacos is quite extensive and I would have liked to try quite a few of them, with fillings ranging from steak and chicken to the more unusual tongue and tripe. What annoyed me a little was that when the first plate of tacos came out, the waiter didn't bother telling us what was on the plate. We assumed all tacos were Tom's but figured out one of them was mine (after Tom had bitten into it.) But here they are:

At the top position is my turkey pastor with cinnamon, brown sugar, mole and toasted sesame seeds. I wasn't a big fan because I found the turkey far too tough and chewy. At the bottom of the plate is Tom's carne asada taco with caramelized onions, guac and salsa ranchero. The last taco is Tom's Benny Lengua: smoked tongue, salsa roja, lime, cilantro and onion. Tom enjoyed both of his tacos. After a little time, Tom's burrito came out.

Despite being from LA, I have no idea why they call this the East LA Burrito. It was a heavy little guy, but we soon found out that it was mainly filled with rice and beans. There was chicken in there, but so much other filler that you couldn't really taste it.

Then our last plate of tacos showed up:Tom and I had both ordered fish tacos, and I also ordered a taco with chile relleno: roasted poblano, monterey jack and batter fried. For our fish tacos, it was a little odd, because Tom's was over battered and too crispy, while I had the opposite problem. We traded half way through. As Leah mentioned, I prefer El Pelon's fish tacos better. Rather than one piece of fried fish, El Pelon has little chunks of fried fish, which are all perfectly crispy. And I love the pickled veggies they add. As for the chili relleno, that was my favorite taco. Kind of hot, with lots of cheese, it was delicious.

My last dish was the famous "Toro" grilled corn. It took a good long time to come out, cause the corn takes a while to grill. So we'd already finished eating our meal, and were stuffed by the time this showed up. I finished it off, though, cause it's just so damn good. I think they put too much cheese on this one, and Chowhounder complaints that the kernels of corn are small were well founded. (it is still ealry in the season). But it was still tasty.

By this point, our waiter had become quite neglectful. We had finished eating, the plates were cleared and it was at least 10 minutes before anyone noticed. (He was drinking a soda at the opposite end of the bar) And it wasn't even our waiter, but a woman serving the next table that asked if we needed anything, and it took another few minutes to get the check for our original waiter.

Overall, the meal was quite good. I don't think we'll be returning to eat in the restaurant, but they have an area dedicated entirely to take out, so I imagine will be returning for some tacos to go. We grabbed a menu, but they're so new that they didn't even have the phone number printed on it. Normally I'd be thrilled to have a Mexican place like this near me. However, with El Pelon just 3 blocks away, I suspect that we'll still be getting our Mexican food from there. La Verdad is a little pricier, but to be honest, El Pelon is just better. I think it'd be wise of Ken to take a trip over to El Pelon and check out the competition. Maybe it'd help La Verdad become a truly great spot.