I love my job, I really do. But there are some days I really, really, really love my job. I passed by BLT last night to run some interviews and try our friend Chelo’s cooking and ended up eating half the menu. I’ll get straight to the chase because there’s a lot to cover.
The house cocktail I tried was a Hendrick’s gin & fresh mashed cucumber with house made sour. A tad tart but overall a nice refreshing starter and mood drink.
A pretty standard tour of BLT’s signature dishes started with it’s house popover bread. It’s almost biscuit-like with emphasis on the guyere cheese topped crust. I’m a fan of gruyere, it’s innate sweetness stood in for the flavored butters you see in most places.
The Tuna Tar tar was next. As common a dish as there is nowadays but this one was quite honestly the best Ive ever had. The quality on the tuna puts 95% of sushi restaurants to shame, the avocado was buttery & perfect and the soy-lime dressing carried the faintest lingering hint of wasabi. A beautiful, beautiful dish and representative of BLT’s raw bar that includes fresh oysters. The other appetizer was a double cut bacon with chimichurri drizzle. Nicely charred skin, it was screaming for a pilsner and a football game.
The ribeye was everything you would expect a top of the line steakhouse ribeye to be. You eat the whole thing, fat and all, it’s a world class cut. The creamed spinach was really more of a pureed spinach with garlic. More like a palak paneer. The horseradish was very light, my fave of the sauces I tried.
Now I’m going to get a bit sidetracked and talk about masculine flavors and feminine flavors. This is not sexism just a fact that you go to a steakhouse and you are expecting heavy “manly flavors”. Marbled meat and loaded potatoes in large quantities. Cheescake for dessert. Other global type restaurants you are expecting feminine type flavors to dominate. Fresh fish, fresh fruits, less spice, drinks that taste like dessert etc.. The biggest surprise about BLT is that the flavors are balanced. Your wife will enjoy BLT every bit as much as you will. Even the decoration is a lighter version of the dark, heavy wood steakhouse.
That was just trying the basic stuff. Our friend, Master chef runner up Chef d’ cuisine “Chelo” has a seasonal menu going. Chelo is a talented kid and a star in the making. Right now there is a truffle mac n cheese I plan on going back for. I don’t normally like to call places my favorite, but BLT is certainly on my very short list.
Located at the Ritz Carlton, Isla Verde / 787.253.1700 / 6pm-11pm Mon-Sun.
