Ceiba

[Mark Sommelier]

Several of us had dinner at Ceiba last night. This is a very attractive space in the evening. Service at the bar and overall was excellent. We pigged out on lots of appetizers and a few main courses. My new favorite dish is Queso Fundido. Damn, that's good!It was interesting to see the fine tuning on some of the dishes we had last time. Oysters on the half shell with tequila granité were a knockout as were the crab fritters and pork shoulder. I had a really tangy spiny lobster for the main course. It was quite delicious. As stuffed as I was, I still couldn't cram enough of the outstanding caramel popcorn into my mouth at the end. Kitchen stays open till 11, so this may be the new after work munchie spot. Bravo Jeff, Gus and David!!

[John W.]

Quite a nice time it was. I really like the space and overall feel. Service is where it needs to be, I made a comment about wine temps in an earlier post and they went out and bought some temp. controlled storage. That is some serious customer service right there.

Marky, you forgot about the slab o' foie gras!

Bravo Jeff, Gus and David!!

Agreed. Congrats on a great new space.

[JRage]

OK. I've just made reservations for dinner at Cieba this Saturday night, so I'll give a full report early next week. Reading this thread, the comments seemed to go from good to better, so I'll admit, my expectations are pretty high. Anyway, if anyone has any additional recommendations, post them before Saturday night!

[DonRocks]

I had my choice of spending my dollars anywhere tonight, and I spent them at Ceiba. James and Christopher behind the bar are welcoming to groups or solo diners, having come from DC Coast, and Ten Penh, respectively.

The 97 Pesquera Ribera del Duero Reserva is a good deal despite its $49 pricetag. If you have a group of four people, it's ideal and better than anything on the by-the-glass list. Plus, it went quite well with the foie gras.

The Foie Gras sitting atop a corn cake (a blend of whole-kernel corn and cornmeal) was a difficult choice with the red wine, considering it was also served with caramelized red onions in a sugar-cane balsamic reduction. But it worked, and it worked quite well, as the onions and vinegar were a backdrop to the rest of the dish. (Who on earth said Ceiba wasn't fine dining? Not me!) At $15, you might not think to order this as an app, but I think you should.

Queso Fundido is a big ol' lava-stone pot served with volcanic, melted Oaxaca cheese, burbling with skirt steak, poblano chili and corn-meal tortillas with which to make fajita-like scarfers. I generally prefer flour tortillas, but not in this case as the strength of the dish needed the grainy corn bouquet.

Surely, this is not enough for one person, so a 1/2-bottle of Trimbach Riesling (2001) appeared on the table, accompanied by some more food.

The Jamaican "stamp and go" crab fritters are named for what must be "à emporter" in Jamaican: you stamp up to the counter, and get it to go. They're served with a mango/lime crème fraiche for a dipping sauce that is more mango than anything. In Washington DC, any sauce this color generally has curry in it (which is also heavily used in Jamaica, hint hint), but this tended towards a predominance of mango which was a tad too much. These fritters were really good, and I think that, yes, I ordered in the correct sequence: foie gras, queso fundido, crab fritters.

The riff-raff in the DC culinary world told me once, in a back-room sort of fashion, that "Chris Clime, the chef at Ceiba, is a big, bad guy, and he'll snap you in half like you were a twig."

"Is he Wabeck-big?", I asked.

"He is to Wabeck, what Wabeck is to you," was the reply.

My nuts instantly and without hesitation shriveled to the size of small raisins, and I responded in a muted voice ... "oh."

Edited November 26, 2003 by DonRocks (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

Rocks,

You said in part: "and I think that, yes, I ordered in the correct sequence: foie gras, queso fundido, crab fritters."

Any dolt knows that the queso fudido is the first course to have with the cocktails/wine. '97 Pesquera Reserva at $49 is an incredible bargain, also. Must be a closeout. Foie is always the middle course in America. Crab Fritters were also a poor choice, as the Fish Tacos are far superior. Also, pardon me for being pedantic, the quote was "He will break you like a stick".

Bisous,

Edited November 26, 2003 by Mark Sommelier (log)

[Steve Klc]

Rocks--87 posts is not enough for such a talent. Pick up the pace please. And include more snippets of dialogue.

[John W.]

Rocks;

All dialogue must be screened by myself or Slater for content. Somethings must remain in the family.

[DonRocks]

Weird. The format of egullet's private-message screen has apparently been changed to look like the screen I get when I write a regular post.

Anyway John, no worries: I promised you I'd never mention anything about that infrared coagulation procedure to treat those pesky hemorrhoids, and your secret is still safe with me. Word!

[John W.]

Anyway John, no worries:  I promised you I'd never mention anything about that infrared coagulation procedure to treat those pesky hemorrhoids, and your secret is still safe with me.  Word!

That's the least of my worries.

[Mark Sommelier]

Anyway John, no worries:  I promised you I'd never mention anything about that infrared coagulation procedure to treat those pesky hemorrhoids, and your secret is still safe with me.  Word!

That's the least of my worries.

This is where we re-run the Pootato thread.

[John W.]

Anyway John, no worries:  I promised you I'd never mention anything about that infrared coagulation procedure to treat those pesky hemorrhoids, and your secret is still safe with me.  Word!

That's the least of my worries.

This is where we re-run the Pootato thread.

We have pictures as well.

[John W.]

Ahhhh. Tom's review

[bilrus]

Ahhhh. Tom's review

Just a little premature. Link works but reviews not there quite up yet - at least on my corner of the 'net.

[John W.]

Hmmm. I knew it was coming and typed in Ceiba into the search engine and it came up. Works here.

[bilrus]

It's there now. Not quite as glowing as I would have expected.

My entree when I went was the Pork shank - it was a little "monotonous" as he described, but it was a really hearty filling monotony.

[tastedc]

Kind of new to Egullet (been perusin!), but ate at Ceibas last night with my "Foodie Group" and we all thought the restaurant was really great! I tried the Hemingway Mojito with dark rum to start and it had a really caney/sweet flavor with no bite, but I only had 1 glass of wine afterwards and was feeling it - must be the Cachaca?

We split: duck confit empanadas (all loved, I wanted a bit more meat in mine!),

4 ceviches - the yellowfin tuna had some kick, so I loved that one!,

Black bean soup -well, it was too bland for all of is, the Only real disappointment in the meal, and no Biggie!

Wine was the Santa Ema Carmenere Maipo Valley 2000 and was a bargain for

$26 - very fruit forward red with a lovely peppery spice which wasn't too tannic to fight with the spices of our dishes and not too fruity to overwhelm the flavors..got lucky with that wine choice!

Mains:

Rib Eye with Chimichurri - excellent flavor, oily/garlicky sauce with a light kick, personally I like more heat, but the flavors were beautifl together, this is more like comfort food - especially with the 3 large onion rings and mushrooms, this was a keeper!

Spiny Lobster with the crispy spinach, Cheryl had this and theire was an exotic flavor of Cumin or something like it that really woke up the dish - a beauty!,

The Red Snapper was to die for - this was the only spicy/hot dish other than maybe the touch of spice on the tuna ceviche, and the presentation of the whole (large) snapper was exciting! All the entrees were really good and huge!

Desserts: Split the Flan - love this stuff, again, comfort food with the syrupy caramel sauce, how can you go wrong? and the 3 assorted Sorbets: Coconut-Vanilla, Guava-Lime, and Salted Pineapple (stole the details from their website), they all tasted just like intense fruit ices!

Overall, we all loved the experience, the server was very attentive and answered all our questions (split everything up really well too!), had a top-rate experience, would go back, and plan to try their lunch which is a different menu.

It's good to see a real attempt at DC's restaurant owners actually pushing the Foodie Envelope, we have to support these ventures!

[Mark Sommelier]

Everyone keeps forgetting to mention that absolutely DELICIOUS caramel popcorn that is served with the check. I love this place.

To tastedc: they have a cane sugar extruder in the kitchen to make the syrup for the cocktails. That makes a huge difference.

[bilrus]

I didn't really like the Popocorn myself. It tasted good, but the texture of the coating (more dry and powdery) wasn't what I like in caramel corn.

But I do like it when a place gives you the little extra at the end - like the cotton candy at 2941 or the little basket of cookies at the Inn at Little Washington. It makes it feel like a more 'special-event' type of meal.

[tastedc]

To tastedc: they have a cane sugar extruder in the kitchen to make the syrup for the cocktails. That makes a huge difference.

Thanks Mark - beats the Hell out of regular Sugar Syrup!

[Mark Sommelier]

Had a brilliant lunch there today with Mr. Rising Star and a wine guy. All the dishes were beautifully focused. The service was great, too. I find it easy to order too much in this restaurant because everything sounds good. The fritters were marvelous, the chicharones very, very good, the queso fundido was delicious, as always. Tasted some great wines, the Germans being the standouts. 2 Eisweins at incredibly low price points ( under $25 a half bottle!!).

[John W.]

Ow my hand!!!

[Mrs. P]

Went this Saturday (10 pm) to Ceiba - excellent meal for all. It was our first visit, and as we are always looking for upscale latin american cusine variations we'll be going back soon!

We started with the ceviche sampler, which included a fabulous peruvian-style ceviche with a creamy super-spicy rocotto sauce and roasted peruvian choclo. Best I've had in quite a while. The queso fundido was spectacular as well, and quite spicy, though it came with what appeared to be packaged corn tortillas.

For dinner the plates were:

Seared scallops with an incredible sauce and huitlacoche gnocci - the peak platter of the night, with the unusual complementary flavors blending well together.

Grilled salmon with mariscos and green mole - quite nice mole flavor with toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish. The grilled salmon itself was fairly standard but the sauce compelented it well.

Seared tuna on fufu - the fufu was amazing, apparently a mash of plantains, sweet potato, and other items I can't remember. Garnished with a fried plantain, this plate was beautiful and delicious.

Churrasco with chimichurri and fried onions - I didn't try this one, but there was no steak left at the end of the meal! The fried onions were huge and didn't get eaten.

Dessert: Churros (think of a cross between a donut and a funnel cake) and hot chocolate

Wine: Chilean Cusino Macul Finis Terrae - excellent!!

Total Price with coffee for all: $200

[laniloa]

I had a great lunch at Ceiba yesterday. I had a creamy gazpacho with a nice garlic kick. Perfect way to welcome the sweltering start of summer. They presented the bowl with an avocado and jicama salad and then poured the soup on top. Two companions had the skirt steak and devoured it quickly. Another person had the fish tacos and appreciated the presentation (separate crockery bowls for the condiments) as well as the generous portions of well-seasoned fish. We ordered a few servings of churros for the table to share for dessert. The coffee arrived. The churros still hadn't arrived by the time the first cups of coffee had been drunk. We started to get fidgety about going back to work but not yet to the point of asking the waiter. The manager walked over and apologized for the delay and said the churros would be out shortly and gave us a sampling of goodies (fudge, passion-mango gels, caramel corn) to keep us busy. It was a very nice gesture that we all appreciated. The waiter came over to pour more coffee and also apologized. When they finally brought the churros, the manager explained that they were on the house. While not at all expected, it was a nice touch that reflected the very attentive service we'd received throughout our lunch.

[JennyUptown]

Mmm, churros sound GOOD.

Does anyone know what their policy on just ordering drinks and dessert is?

[laniloa]

I've gone for dessert at the bar before. We asked them to add a splash of rum to the amazingly rich, bittersweet hot chocolate that comes with the churros. A very nice treat for a winter evening! I keep meaning to try some of the other desserts but then I remember how amazing the churros are.