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| - The short: Mouthwatering Cuban-influenced cuisine, awesome service, cute and warmly decorated space with a cool mix of art all over the walls. This is a restaurant I'll be going back to.
The long:
Fuego Bistro is off the east side of 7th St., just south of Bethany Home. Keep an eye out for the sign that says Apollo and turn in just north of that building. Fuego Bistro is next door to Apollo, and the small main parking lot is on the east side of the restaurant, but there's parking, sometimes makeshift, up and down Palo Verde Dr. If you're brave, or dumb, you can try to use the spot with the power pole growing out of it.
I liked the look of the place--not too loud (visually or otherwise), and cozy without looking homely. I love the art there. The diners represented an even spread, which is always nice to see. The restaurant smelled like pork, but not in a scary way--it smelled like their famous pernil asado. The host was friendly, and the rest of the service staff was wonderful--fast, efficient, and totally unobtrusive, sliding silverware and refills in as needed before slipping quietly away, doing quality control checks after we'd taken a couple of bites of each course. That was especially impressive, considering out table was just big enough for the two of us.
We split the appetizers. First we had the green chile cheeseburger empanadas with Yucatan BBQ Sauce, and fresh pico de gallo. While a lot of food can get by solely on the merit of being fried as long as they're fried well, as these were, the filling and accompaniments were so yummy. All the flavors melded together beautifully, and the pico de gallo added the fresh zest and bright flavor I wanted to start off the meal. We also had the Ancho-dusted Pacific wild salmon croquette with fresh capers and lemon buerre blanc. This was also well done and tasty, though it took a backseat to the empanada for me.
My entree was the signature pernil asado, which the restaurant describes as "slow roasted succulent pork shoulder with a mango habanero mojo sauce." And it absolutely was as mouthwatering as its description implies. This was as good as any pernil asado I've ever had, and while I can't attest to Fuego Bistro's recipe, I can definitely say it tasted like a hunk of luscious meat that's been marinated overnight and roasted low and slow for 5 or 6 hours before landing on my plate. *sigh* It came with a continuous supply of little flour tortillas, tasty chipotle cheddar mashed potatoes, and perfectly cooked and delicious sauteed organic green beans.
My boyfriend has the Fuego chile relleno, which was stuffed with "Natural Chicken, Black Bean, arroz, Oaxacan cheese, Penko Breaded in a Guajillo Chile Sauce." This dish was also really good and well cooked, but I was more impressed with his side dishes--a highly addictive green chili cornbread casserole and maple chiliglazed carrots, which were the best cooked carrots I've ever had. Between my green beans and his carrots, I was totally happy. If you make veggies as if they were a boring obligation or afterthought, you lose major points. I eat my veggies first before any other part of the entree, and if I don't want to go into my main dish feeling sad. Fuego Bistro does veggies right.
For dessert, we had the Ancho dusted chocolate torte and the horchata chocolate chip bread pudding. Dessert's often the highlight of a dinner out for me, and while both were good in this case with the chocolate torte being my choice, it doesn't bother me at all that the first and second courses were the stars of the meal. Bonus points for the bartender who was so willing and gracious as to translate their extensive mojito menu into virgin drinks for us, since we weren't drinking that night. We would not turn down another round of watermelon and mango mojitos, and I'm looking forward to trying more of their menu.
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