Ciudad, Downtown

Last Friday, I went to meet my "cousin," and good friend Tenacious D for lunch by his new law firm in downtown LA. His office is on the 52nd floor of the US Bank Tower, the tallest building in downtown, located right across the street from the LA public library. The view from his office is amazing, you can see almost all of one side of LA. And the best part of his office is that they have all the free diet cokes you can drink! It is like me and Angie's dreams come true. I even had to take a picture of the copious amounts of diet cokes because I really felt the need to capture the moments. It was kind of like a crack whore sitting in mountains of rock.


I rarely get a chance to go east of Robertson on the 10, so it was a really nice opportunity to enjoy the hustle and bustle of downtown. The area he works in is really gorgeous, it is the closest that LA gets to resembling a condensed metropolitan area, and in recent years, an increasing number of restaurants and bars have been popping up to attract more yuppies to move to that area.

We decided to check out Ciudad for lunch, a place I've wanted to check out for awhile. It is a Latin-inspired fusion restaurant (shocking, yet another fusion resto in LA??) opened by Food Network chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. All in all, it was a great dining experience, albeit the mediocre service.

I had the "Ciudad Classics," (essentially an appetizer sampler) as an entree, which included peruvian ceviche, spinach empanadas, and Piquillo Peppers stuffed with goat cheese. My ceviche was delicious. It was green I think from either tomatillos or cilantro-- or both, and citrusy. There were fresh chunks of crab and a white fish of sorts. The goat cheese in the peppers were amazing. The texture and multiplicty of flavors were really interesting, slightly sweet in varying flavors. The sweetness from the pepper went well with the slight tang of the goat cheese, which was lightly sweetened with either honey or dates. The empanadas were just ok. The spinach was obviously of the frozen variety and the crust was a little soggy. I missed my friend Christin's bolivian empanadas stuffed with either chicken or cheese. :(

Tenacious D had the "Cubano," which was a Cuban Sandwich, consisting of niman ranch pork, ham, swiss cheese, and dill pickles. It was pressed panini-style and served with french fries sprinkled with cumin. It was DELICIOUS. He was nice enough to trade me half of his sammy for half of my sampler, and the sandwich was perfect. The different types of meat with the swiss tasted really lovely, and the french fries were crisp and salty, just the way I like em.

The inside is really funky and cool looking, it kind of resembles Mary Sue and Susan's other restaurant, Border Grill in Santa Monica, with modern with Matisse-inspired abstract art. The waiter was nice at first, but at some point disappeared to the land of never never and never came back, until very later. But the lack of service was not that bad of an issue given the great food.

Ciudad
445 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
213.486.5171