I really like the atmosphere at Patria. It is gimmicky and themey, but I LIKE IT!
(I used to say that theme restaurants such as this reminded me of cheesy Las Vegas super-sized restaurants but perhaps I am no longer as cynical...)
Anyway...
My girlfriends and I had a very nice time at Patria last night. We ate light as we were going out afterwards.
We had:
The mixed platter of cured meats - the meats were fantastic, however this dish did not come with crustini which I thought was a bad choice. We had to order the crustini al la carte -- a bit off putting.
The shaved fennel salad with crispy artichoke -- this was ok. I couldn't really taste the fennel. I would skip this.
The butter lettuce, avocado and goat cheese salad -- OMG YUM! This is a 5 star dish!
The oxtail - tender, braised meat stuffed in a small red pepper. This was small and tasty.
The Brocolini - Another winner! This had a nice creamy sauce on the side. and I love Rapini (or "brocolini".. whatever)
The crispy potatoes - I only had one potato. My friends loved this dish. It came with a fried egg on top that the server mixed in at the table.
***BTW the salads were large enough for 4 of us to have good sized portions. I am mentioning this because the server recommended 3-4 dishes per person. In my opinion that would be entirely too much food!
I had a martini but my friends who ordered mixed drinks said they found their drinks to be weak.
There were many meat dishes and paellas that I hope to try on my next visit.