I had been looking forward to visiting Ricarda's since they had opened. But, a co-worker had eaten there a few weeks back and he was not impressed by his meal. This made me lower my expectations so when I had a lunch with some friends I was pleasantly surprised.
It's pretty obvious that the space is beautifully designed. There is a separate To Go area where you can grab lunch, breads or desserts. They all looked really good from the outside and I will come back to try their offerings. My friends and I sat at the dining area for our meal. The service was polite and quick, but they seem to keep dropping things. Quirky feature was the sandwich board they place at the side of each table to display the specials of the day. There were a lot of choices in the specials as well as the menu. It was nice to see that you can customize salads and flat breads but this seemed to be really extensive.
My friends decided to get their custom salads and I opted for one of the specials, Shrimp and Octopus with Harissa ($18). I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. It had a good amount of spice and there was an abundance of large shrimp and diced octopus with pearl couscous. I would definitely come back for this meal.
Overall, Ricarda's is a nice addition to the area. It's a 3.5 stars for me but I'm bumping to 4.