Lolita

Hi friends!

Last Friday night the boy and I tried out a new restaurant that I had heard great things about in Boston, Lolita. It is a Mexican restaurant on Dartmouth Street that seems to be all the rage right now. I had heard nothing but good things so I know I definitely wanted to try it. I apologize for the pictures beforehand, the restaurant is really dark and I didn't want to be obnoxious with my flash.

There are two dinner areas on either side of a rather large bar area. It is dimly lit with red light and the atmosphere is very intimate and slightly vampire-esque.

They start out by bringing you a grapefruit Italian Ice kept cold and steaming with dry ice. You have the option to have tequila added, which we of course opted for (who is going to turn down free booze?). The grapefruit and tequila together are exquisite, I highly recommend getting the tequila.

For our drinks, we both chose the Diablo Margarita. The Diablo Margartia is lunazul reposado, luxardo triplum, serrano chile, blood orange, pineapple, and strawberry. The drink itself was quite good, but they rim the glass with a mix of sugar and black pepper. The black pepper actually completely ruins the drink. It's an unpleasant combination, and unfortunately some of the pepper inevitably drops into the glass, thus ruining the whole drink. If you order this drink, ask for only sugar on the rim and you will not be disappointed. 

With our drinks they brought out warm tortilla chips with a choice of four dipping sauces. The first was a salsa verde, the second was a queso dip, the third was a roasted red pepper salsa, and the fourth was a very spicy mango salsa. The salsa verde was exactly how you would expect it to be, possibly out of a jar. The roasted red pepper salsa was just ok, really nothing special. Had it been warm, that might have improved it marginally. The queso dip was delicious. It had a great smoky flavor that definitely put the other salsas to shame. The fourth one I did not try because supposedly it is very spicy, and I'm just a mild spicy kind of girl. The boy confirmed that it was really spicy and the flavor was odd to him.

For my entree, I ordered the Garlic Lime Chicken with matchstick potatoes and roasted corn. The chicken was very juicy and cooked just the way I like it...a little charred. However, the garlic sauce was used sparingly and didn't have the strong garlic flavor I was expecting. The roasted corn was actually only about 2 tablespoons full. The matchstick potatoes were good, but reminded me of the French's potato sticks I ate as a kid.

I didn't get a picture of the boy's entree, but he ordered the Ancho Chile Chicken Quesadilla. They actually looked like enchiladas and the boy did not like his dish at all. He said that the bacon was what prompted him to order it and he couldn't taste the bacon. He ended up stealing some of my chicken and matchstick potatoes.

For dessert we ordered the Bananarama, which is a fried banana cheesecake. While it looked absolutely amazing, it was cold on the inside when I was expecting it to be warm. The outside was crunchy and delicious but I was not blown away by the dish like I had expected to be.

Ordering dessert is almost unecessary because they bring you green apple cotton candy with pop rocks at the end of your meal. I had a few bites, but the majority of the cotton candy was finished by the boy. Yes, I said finished. He ate the entire thing of cotton candy after eating most of the chips, finishing his dish, half of mine, and half of dessert. He's a pig.

With the cotton candy they also bring temporary tattoos. That is the boy's arm, not mine. Don't want you guys thinking I have hairy upper arms.

All in all it was a pleasant experience. It's really the extras that make this restaurant special, because the food itself is really only so-so. I'm glad that I was able to go and try it out, but I wouldn't go again for dinner, maybe just drinks and cotton candy.

Boston peeps - I am always open to new restaurant suggestions!

Have you tried any really great restaurants lately?