Monday, October 22, 2007

Autentica


Having just returned from Mexico, I decided to hit Autentica's brunch on Sunday to see how it stacked up. I had read many great reports over at PortlandFood.org, so I had a couple things in my mind to try. First: shrimp in spicy broth. Well, not really what I expected. It was 4 big shrimp, butterflied, tail and shell-on with legs in a bowl of red broth that was surprisingly, not spicy at all and very fishy. One thing I have never mastered is peeling hot shrimp with utensils, so I made a mess of myself removing the shrimp to a napkin, peeling them and returning them to the hot broth. Besides not being spicy, the broth was one-dimensional. It was a little better after adding some red chili table salsa and lime, but I didn't finish it. The shrimp were cooked well and tasted good. Bf got the huevos rancheros that came with ham and black beans. Pretty yummy, though also very mild. The ranchera sauce was great and I ordered tortillas to help him scoop up the sauce. The ham was very thin and so-so, while the eggs were done right and the beans very flavorful and just salty enough. For apps, we had the shrimp and octopus ceviche and a chicken sope. The ceviche was was in a cold tomato broth and the seafood was tender and flavorful. The saltines on the side were good with it, tho I wish there were a few more. The sope was the clear winner. A small, thick tortilla-like base topped with shredded chicken, beans, cabbage, crema, avacado, onions, cilantro and maybe some other things I'm forgetting, piled on a plate. Each bite was the perfect bite. Next time I'm ordering a pile of these.

It was expensive. The 4 dishes above, plus 2 spanish coffees came to $48. (How did it compare to Mexico? Who knows, since I ate very little "authentic" food while I was there - our all-inclusive resort featured mostly buffet meals. I had a few carnitas tacos that rocked, and some good scrambled eggs with chorizo.)

Autentica
5507 NE 30th Ave
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 287-7555

1 comment:

Mark_E_Evans said...

I loved me that torta there. try it next time! Their dishes seem to be hits or misses, but damn are those hits grand slams.