*****Ofrenda Latin Restaurant recently opened in the beautiful little town of Cave Creek Arizona. At the moment (subject to change) they are currently open for dinner and bar starting at 3pm and weekend brunch. This is a unique restaurant that is two stories with two stories of wrap around patios. Inside is full of hand crafted things. Lots of warm wood and bright lively colored accents.
They also have an open kitchen.
We took advantage of dining outside.
We shared an appetizer called al carbon board. We received a very generously sized board. Nobody brought us silverware or napkins so we got up and got our own.
There are lots of grilled vegetables (carrots, yellow squash, asparagus), a soft cheese, pepita hummus, guacamole, fried hominy and fresh tortillas. I didn’t notice crispy pork skins on the menu so they were a surprise. (pork should never be a surprise on a menu …………certain people don’t eat pork) Anywho- The tortillas, cheese and some of the vegetables are very good.
I tell The Forking Truth so here it is……….This restaurant is newly opened so some of the execution is off.
You can see in the above picture one carrot is shriveled and very chewy and the one next to it is raw. The carrots were either raw or chewy. The hummus is unusually thick…..It should be a creamy dip and not crazy thick….like modeling clay.
The fried hominy is hard and chewy and is next to inedible. Our waitress did stop by to ask how things were but she came before I dug into the plate. I do have to note again that some things really were very good. The tortillas were fresh and delicious! The squash and asparagus were excellent. The cheese was very tasty. It also was a very large platter and I took a lot home.
Dinner was better. (but the staff left us mostly alone and we had to pour our own wine.)
Both of us had the trout tamal.
This dish is made of trout, fresh masa tamal with smoked trout seasoned with hoja Santa leaf and wrapped in a banana leaf with pea tendrils, water cress and apple mole. The fish was prepared reasonably well. We both really loved the apple mole….that really made everything special. The apple mole was really delicious! I think the tamal would have been even better without the smoked trout because the trout turned dry in it when it was cooked. But other than that it was a good dish.
It was nice that this wasn’t a heavy meal so we could share dessert. We tried the key lime pie.
The nut crust was PHENOMENAL…WOW I never had anything like this before. Trust me it was really great! It has this incredible light texture. It’s like a mouthful of snow that taste really great! I could eat a bowl of it…It’s just so light and delicious! Now we get to the curd…….
OMG….It must be a kitchen error. It seems like an accidental slip with lots of corn starch. The curd has a pleasant flavor but it’s so thick and heavy I can’t eat it.
Well that was my trip to Ofrenda Restaurant in Cave Creek AZ.
*****This restaurant closed for business briefly and re-opened May 28 2022
www.TheOfrenda.com
Everything is subject to change.
