Frontera Grill part II - Redemption ??? or disappointment??

I was hesitant about coming back to rick bayless's restaurants especially when i was disappointed during the restaurant week menu.  My friend wanted to go there and try a dish that was on the bets thing I ever ate website / show that he follows and he was able to get reservations for lunch so I decided to give the Chef another chance.  So I asked the waiter what are the 3 best items on this menu that he loves and of the 3 he named we were eating 2 of the 3 he suggested.  I ordered the Puerco Oaxaqueno which was a Grill-roasted Gunthorp pork loin, smoky black bean "enchilada" (homemade chorizo, queso anejo mashed potatoes), limey grilled knob onions & guero chiles, cilantro.  This dish looked very similar to the dish I had back at restaurant week.  This time it was on the dot!  The flavor was really hit the spot and each bite was juicy.  The mash potatoes was also amazing.  At first I wasn't sure what it was until I asked the waiter and I thought that was a great idea to put the mash potatoes inside some tortilla.  All the bold flavors came together for me and I was extremely satisfied.  I also tried the rib eye dish my buddy ordered and that was really good too.  I would say Rickbayless has redeemed himself for Frontera grill and Topolobampo.  Excluding XOCO

Puerco Oaxaqueno
Grill-roasted Gunthorp pork loin, smoky black bean
"enchilada" (homemade chorizo, queso anejo mashed potatoes), limey
grilled knob onions & guero chiles, cilantro

Carne Asada a la Oaxaquena
Creekstone Natural Black Angus rib steak (marinated in spicy
red chile & wood-grilled), black beans, sweet plantains with
sour cream, guacamole

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Lure - IZAKAYA PUB (Chinatown)

So we decided to head to Chinatown and try Lure an "Izakaya Pub" since we had purchased a groupon for this restaurant.  The decor felt very much like a night club and it was pretty dark while the music was very loud outside as you walk in so if you didn't know about Lure being a restaurant you would think it was a night club as you walk by.


We ordered some of their drinks and they were very good and refreshing.  I would suggest getting their mixed cocktails here.  For those who have not been to a style of Izakaya Pub it's pretty casual after work dinning in Japan and lots of small dishes which includes yakitori (skewers) and other fish dishes to share with your group.  This restaurant is fairly new with the menus still on clip boards which I found comical.  They told us they were in the process of getting the menus finished which was fine with us.  The waitress we had serving us was very new.  We could tell but she was very accommodating and trying hard to make things right for us so I give her kudos for that.


We ordered the summer salad, potato croquette, shims hokke, lamb chops, yellowtail, braised pork belly, lobster spaghetti and some chicken wings.  Well started off with the salad and I thought the flavor was good but it's very hard to eat the salad with chopsticks especially if you are trying taste all the ingredients together into one bite.  Maybe because it was cumbersome to eat so I didn't like the dish but my wife liked it and my friend felt the same way as I did.  The potato croquette was our next dish that came out and when we went to bite into the croquette it was cold on the inside.  Now usually when something gets deep fried, you would think it would be warm/hot on the inside but that was not the case.  The waitress kindly took it back and went to get another one for us.  Our guess on this dish was the chefs probably weren't use to the deep fryer and wasn't able to gauge the temperature on the different foods that are being cooked in the fryer.  The croquettes were okay nothing to rave about but I would not order it if I come back.


They are supposedly known for their fish dishes so we had the Shims hokke and Yellow-tail coming.  Both of the fishes were really good.  The flavor was there and it the texture was great.  They did a good job cooking both fishes and I really wished we ordered more of the fish dishes.  The lamb chops were good but nothing spectacular about them.  They were cooked well but it was off by a little on the flavor.  The lobster spaghetti was good although I wished that dish had more lobster in it because we can barely taste the favor of the lobster or see much of it.  Both the braised pork belly and chicken wings were really good.  I would suggest ordering the braised pork belly.  It's full of yummy flavor and melts in your mouth.  We also ordered the Yuzo Black Cod and that was also a great dish.  Only thing I didn't like about the dish was the proportions of the asparagus to the fish.  They were so SKINNY!  Anyways, my buddy who is a fries fan decided to order the tiger fries.  That was one of my favorite dishes here!  Truffle oil flavor fries.  If you are a truffle oil fan try these fries.


The prices were very reasonable and food was good.  I would say try more of the fish dishes here since they fly the different types of fishes you wouldn't normally see at a sushi restaurant.  Drinks are cheap and good.  I would come back again and maybe their menus have been completed and they have their music turned down a notch so it doesn't feel like a night club.

Summer Salad - watermelon, grape, feta cheese, pear cactus dressing

Potato Croquette

Shims hokke

Lamb Chops

Yellow Tail

Braised Pork Belly

Lobster Spaghetti

Yuzu Black Cod

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