This is another awesome Tasting Collective dining club event we attended. (You can read about the previous posts about Tasting Collective events here: Fish Cheeks, Win Son, F.O.B., Xixa, Huertas, Bessou, Maharlika, and Traif). Tasting Collective is a dining club for food lovers, and they offer brunch and dinner at great NYC restaurants. They close off the restaurants for the club, so we get to have the entire restaurant and chef(s) all to ourselves. So, this is more than just eating food at a restaurant, but you get to have the background story and its passion from the chef(s), eating 8- to 12-course brunch/dinner created specifically for Tasting Collectives.

This event was held at Lalito, 10- course Nouveau Mexican Feast. It opened up about six months ago in Chinatown (yes, a bit odd location for Mexican restaurant). We were curious to try a traditional Mexican cuisine with a modern twist at this restaurant. The exterior of the restaurant didn’t really scream out elegant or fancy anything, but Tasting Collective often picks these type of restaurant, where you can’t judge them by its cover…

 

And I was right, the inside was very nice, clean, modern and elegant. What a different from exterior! It had nice contrast of yellow and sea green, with simple white-ish floor, wall and ceiling.

 

It was not very large, but a good size with plenty of seating. Most of the seats have booth on one side and chair on the other side. But then again, the tables were arranged to host this event, so I am not sure if this is how it usually looks on normal business day.

It has a fully stacked bar, with bar stool seats. The restaurant ends at the end of the bar, and then they have their kitchen in the back.

At the beginning of the event, chef/co-owner Geraldo Gonzalez came out to greet us and gave us a quick background about him and his restaurant. He told us that he grew up in San Diego, with large Mexican-American family. He offers traditional dishes he grew up with, like his mother’s cooking, with his own twist at this restaurant. Also, we learned that he does not serve avocado (in any style) here… He is somehow against it, which is kind of funny…

The first course was Local Oyster Shot, with mexican cocktail sauce, tomatillo, and beer broth. It was super fresh, nice size, and had great flavor! It was a perfect beginning to the much anticipated course dinner… But then, after I finished the oyster, I realized that it was sitting on a bed of salt. I had no idea until one of the members said that the salt really made the oyster flavor pop. I wish if I had known… But since it was not indicated on the menu, and the server didn’t mention it (and it was a bit dimmed in the restaurant) that I didn’t see it…

Next up was Fluke Ceviche, with pickled cherries, chayote, red onion, and cilantro. These are for two people, so we got one of each. The base was about the size of Ritz cracker, maybe smaller? We finished it with one bite. It was so small that I didn’t really taste much of the fluke…picked cherries had nice flavor though.

Third course was Boquerones Tostada, marinated anchovies on toasted bread with cultured butter, carrot top salsa, and olive oil. The dish was rather small for family style. This was to be shared among three-four people. It was flavorful, and had nice mix of textures.

Next up was Melon Salad, with ham, tarragon, and melon vinaigrette. Tarragon was a nice touch, and had interesting sauce… I didn’t really get to have good portion to fully appreciate this dish, I wish if they gave us just a bit more.

Then there came Mixed Zucchini, with tahini, cubanelle pepper, and gomasio. We all got to have one zucchini piece per person, and this one was pretty good. I liked the seasoning, especially the gomashio, which is Japanese seasoning with black sesame and salt. It was cooked perfectly, had really nice texture.

The sixth course was Marinated Beets, with whipped cashew cream, horseradish, and dill. I am not a big beets fan, but this one was done really nicely. Very fresh, soft without losing its firmness. The sauce was great, had a nice little kick to it.

Course number seven was Baby Corn Esquites, with cotija, corn nuts, hominy, and cream. It was nice and comforting, it had nice sweetness to it from the corn and cream. I liked the crunchy texture from the corn nuts.

Then the item a few people skipped (the restaurant provided alternative dish for them). It was Masa Sope, with braised beef tongue, fried sweetbreads, and pickled carrots. Not everyone is adventurous with food. We each got one, and this time, it was much  bigger than Ritz crackers. The base was some kind of tough, dry bread, I would’ve liked it to be moist and a bit softer. Beef tongue was cooked perfectly so that it was not too tough or chewy. The sweetbread was good, but I say Traif does do them better.

The last savory course was Lalito Carnitas, with confit orange, pickled onion, cilantro, cream, and pineapple hot sauce. It also came with house tortillas.

I made my taco, with not too much filling to be considerate for others. Family style dishes are not always easy, especially certain dishes. The last person who got the plate got more than twice the amount, as he was not willing to share the rest with others…thanks. Anyways, the meat was juicy and it was overall tasty. I felt like too much ingredients were included in here, so nothing really jumped out. I didn’t taste confit orange, or pineapple hot sauce.

The last course was a dessert. Plantain Cream Pie, with tumeric meringue and goats milk caramel. When I saw the dessert being made, I was certain it was going to be served individually. But then, I was wrong… They brought out this cream pie in a martini glass to be shared among three-four people! Needless to say, very difficult to share… I would rather have then served us a small amount of them in tiny container individually than to have shared this awkwardly among strangers… Well, it was tasty, I liked the torched meringue, and coconut shaving. It was really sweet.

 

So, this event was not our favorite… But you can’t have perfect event every time. Some dishes were nice, but none of them was very strong. Maybe we would’ve had better experience if we had them non-family style, as the portion was rather small. It still was good to experience new restaurant, I was glad to see the new, upcoming restaurant.

For those of  you who are interested in joining this great dining club, Tasting Collective, you can use this link to get a discounted annual rate of $115 (over 30% off the normal $165/year) for the first year: https://tastingcollective.com/?invite_code=JUN4346

Lalito – 104 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013