Ohhhh Rico! Are you single?
Alas, I am not but I felt like I was cheating a bit as your cooking won me over and tugged at my heartstrings!
This place was recommended to us by a couple of people. My husband is Spanish and we love tapas style dining. I have gotten wayyy better at sharing my food as this new genre of food has made its way into so many communities!
Wed night - we did not have a reservation (recommended to have one esp. on weekends) but the 4 of us were seated upstairs in this house converted into a restaurant. (there is parking to the rear) It was said that the house is the 2nd oldest in Airdrie! The decor was simple with Latin influence and I liked the paint colors up and down in the different rooms. On the upper level there are 2 separate spaces that would accommodate private parties of 6-8 people nicely. The Spanish music really made the atmosphere, it was wonderful.
Now for the good part - the FOOD! WOW! We each chose a tapas plate and vowed we would all share fairly. The plates are staggered so that you get the plates at different times. The chef is made aware of how fast or slow a particular table is to gauge food delivery!
We ordered a bottle of Chilean red wine (they were out of 'Fat Bastard' our company's first choice), white wine and Estrella beer from Barcelona. All good!
Soup of the day was a potato and corm chowder, really good.
Baby roasted Potatoes with a lovely dipping sauce.
Chorizo and Sirloin skewers - needed 2 orders for 4 people. Worth it! Steak was cooked med.rare, chorizo very good quality.
Portobello mushroom, stuffed. Served nice and hot, beautifully done.
Stuffed jumbo shrimp (my choice!) OMG, stuffed with jalapeno and goat cheese. MMM
Pulled pork on crostinis. Melt in your mouth excellent!
Dessert Trio which are said to come from a local bakery. The white cheesecake was my fave!
Everything was well seasoned!
The sauces that are served with the dishes are mind blowing.
TIP Make sure you try the green peppercorn one if you can! They need to bottle that stuff up for sale!
I wanted to order the mussels and was told it was the one thing they did not have tonight.
TIP for you mussel lovers - they come in on Thursdays so they are nice and fresh for the busy weekends.
Alex was a great waiter and raved about all items on the menu - kudos to him for going up and down those stairs all night delivering the food and drink.
We had the pleasure of meeting the Red Seal chef/owner Rico himself just before dessert. He is a wonderfully humble guy, French trained and has used his techniques to make his South American food sing. Rico is from Chile and it is obvious that he is proud of this fact and the food he puts out. He works long days getting up early to go and hand pick his veggies and meats for the day.
I could absolutely connect with this food on so many levels. I loved the space and the ambiance and we had a wonderful time with our friends.
I want to go back ASAP to try the mussels, crab cakes and chicken and bacon skewers.
A real gem of a restaurant in Airdrie and I could not think of a reason why this restaurant should get any less than 5 stars. We were impressed!