The menu at Lazy Dog Restaurant borrows from American, Italian, and Mediterranean dishes. Now they’ve added authentic Mexican entrees to the mix with great success.
My last visit to Lazy Dog was back when it was called Lazy Dog Café; they switched the “café” to “restaurant” to avoid confusion. Margaret and I had visited to check out the new happy hour and cocktail menus. Click through Eating Through Happy Hour at the Lazy Dog Café and New Cocktails on the Happy Hour Menu at Lazy Dog Café for those reviews.
On my most recent visit, Nicole and I were invited in to sample new Mexican inspired dishes. ¡arriba! 😀
The chefs started off on the right foot with the Ceviche ($7.50), pictured above. The blend of shrimp and white fish gave a nice play on textures and kept the dish interesting. Authentic, hand-cut tortilla chips made the perfect, edible utensil for shoveling scoops of this seasoned seafood by the mouthful.
Next up were entrees with the featured dishes being Chicken Pablano and Carne Asada. I’ll warn you now that both of these well portioned plates require a very healthy appetite, a friend to share with, or a doggy bag…or maybe all three!
The Carne Asada ($14.95) was excellent: tender cuts of marinated Angus skirt steak grilled to perfection. While I savored this dish, I felt like I was enjoying a very authentic Mexican meal; I expected an abuela to come out of the kitchen and ask how I liked her cooking! The rice, black beans, and warm tortillas rounded out the experience very nicely.
The Chicken Pablano was just as good – if not better – than the Carne Asada. I had to stop and ask the manager how they were able to get the chunks of chicken so tender. He explained in detail about marinating at length and cooking over low temperatures. I’ll just call it “magic”.
The real key to the flavor in the chicken was the namesake pablano sauce. Creamy and light, it was far from overwhelming in heat or flavor. The corn added a touch of sweetness and the tamale cakes brought plenty of crisp texture to the dish.
Because man cannot live on meat alone, we had to sample a beverage too. The Mamacita was the highlight. An interesting tequila martini, she’s a real looker: Patron Silver Tequila, house made organic sweet & sour, Cointreau, and orange juice, served up. The sugar rim might be too much for tequila purists; you can always ask for salt.
Homemade butter cake ended this parade of Mexican dishes. This lovely confection was almost too much to bear…in a good way. The cake would make any pastry chef proud: crunchy on the outside, crazy moist on the inside, and steeped in butter from top to bottom. The strawberry compote and softball scoop of vanilla ice cream are great accompaniments, but this little short cake has enough flavor to stand on its own.
I would never have thought of Lazy Dog as a “Mexican” restaurant. And all too often, restaurants add ethnic dishes to their menus as an afterthought and the dishes fall flat. Clearly they’ve done their homework at Lazy Dog and have pulled off their Mexican inspired menu additions with success.
- Lazy Dog Restaurant’s New Mexican Inspired Dishes
- http://www.lazydogrestaurants.com
- Del Amo Fashion Center, 3525 West Carson Street, Torrance CA 90503; (310)921-6080
* Prices and menu items are subject to change without notice. Some items mentioned in this article were provided on a complimentary basis for the purpose of this review. This story was accurate when it was published and reflects the uninfluenced opinions of the reviewers.