TalaraÂs menu includes (from left) Asian tartare with tuna, fire and ice with crab and tiradito with salmon. (KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN / May 20, 2009) |
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Talara, the new ceviche and tapas bar in Harbor East, is a four-star restaurant if you eat before 7 p.m. and don't order dessert. Why the deadline? Well, if you usually take into account what you paid for your meal when you judge it, as I do, Talara's Monday-through-Thursday happy hour has some of the best food around. (The same deal is available from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday )
I didn't have high expectations for Talara. It seemed to be a place where alcohol and loud music were going to be at least as important as the food. They are, but what I didn't take into account was that the food could still be very fine. Especially when you're paying $5 for tapas and ceviche that cost double that after 7 p.m.
Our first impression of Talara wasn't great. When my daughter called to make a reservation, she was told that we would have to move to another table at 8:30 p.m. because ours was reserved for then. She asked if we couldn't just be seated at the table we would have to move to in the first place. The conversation went downhill from there. Totally confused, but with a reservation, we decided to turn up and see what would happen. The subject never came up again.
When we walked in a few minutes before 7, we were hit with a blast of cold air and noise. A few others have discovered Talara's happy-hour specials, which include $5 cocktails, $4 glasses of wine and $3 Latino beers. People were shouting over the deafening beat of the salsa music. I actually thought it sounded like everyone was having fun, and it didn't bother me. I mention it only because it would bother a lot of people.
The looks of the place are as lively as the music, with floor-to-ceiling windows, lots of bright colors and jazzy Latino art. The ceviche bar is highlighted with a curve of neon stripes. You can tell a ton of money has been spent on the space, but the colorful but basic tables and chairs give it a bit of the look of, I don't know, a Chipotle or other good fast-casual chain. The food deserves better, although maybe white tablecloths might be a bit much.
The $5 tapas menu includes several items that aren't on the regular menu. All seven are dainty, tantalizingly good and beautifully presented. The citrusy shrimp ceviche with bits of fruit like mango and fresh pineapple will win you over to ceviche, raw seafood "cooked" in lemon or lime juice, forever. Cilantro adds a fresh, bright note.
Talara's version of sushi with salmon is equally delicious. The fresher-than-fresh raw salmon is handsomely arranged on sushi rice and nori with tobiko (roe) and, unexpectedly, capers. Other flavors like sesame, truffle oil and wasabi don't fight for attention but create a harmonious whole. A jaunty bit of fried lotus root on each one added crunch.
Salmon shows up again in its smoked form on a crisp beet chip with a bit of tomatillo.
My favorite of all was the one enormous, perfectly cooked scallop wrapped in a fiery collar of chorizo, which sat regally on a bed of polenta and corn.
Our other $5 tapas weren't as imaginative or as visually spectacular, but the pulled chicken tostado and siracha popcorn shrimp were quite seductive in their modest way. If I had to skip one, it would be the Peruvian meatballs, which tasted fine but were ordinary compared with the others.
It was past happy hour when we ordered our next round, so things were much more expensive. The pork empanada with a crisp-edged fried pastry and a drizzle of harissa mayonnaise put every version I've had of this around here to shame. A mini-paella in a tiny cast-iron skillet featured rice the texture of risotto, a portobello mushroom slice or two, bell peppers and pink slices of filet mignon. Not exactly traditional, but hard to resist.
Seviche made with enormous lumps of crab, avocado and corn was impressive, but the shrimp and fruit version at half the price was actually more appealing.
As at any tapas bar, the food is brought to your table as soon as it's ready. I was surprised at just how quickly the happy-hour tapas came. At one point I looked at my watch and I felt we were almost through, but only half an hour had passed. The staff would be wise to pace the items a bit more - we all would probably have had another round of drinks.
But maybe not. Even at $5, I was disappointed that my perfectly adequate glass of sangria had no other fruit but a maraschino cherry. The pretty layered martini Azul was a martini in name only; it tasted more like soda pop. The wines by the glass are a better choice than either. The list, by the way, is completely Latino.
Desserts disappointed because what came before had been so stellar. Tiramisu was made with so much rum the other flavors were lost. A chocolate torte relied too heavily on cinnamon, not my favorite combination. I enjoyed sopapillas with chocolate gelato and watermelon and pina colada sorbets more, but the fried dough was a bit tough and chewy. The apple empanada would have been better without the dulce de leche ice cream.
Excellent French press coffee rounded out the meal, but when we poured the cream from the pitchers, little containers of half-and-half spilled out!
We ended up spending a lot more money at Talara than I thought we would when I saw the $5 tapas menu. Let me say it again: It's an expensive restaurant. This is never going to be a cheap meal, but the carefully thought out and prettily arranged food is worth it. And go at an off hour if you can't stand noise.
Contact: 410-528-9883, talarabaltimore.com.
Hours: Open nightly for dinner.
Ceviche: $9-$24, tapas: $8-$14.
Food: *** 1/2
Service: ** 1/2
Atmosphere: ** 1/2
[Outstanding: **** Good: *** Fair or uneven: ** Poor: *]
I didn't have high expectations for Talara. It seemed to be a place where alcohol and loud music were going to be at least as important as the food. They are, but what I didn't take into account was that the food could still be very fine. Especially when you're paying $5 for tapas and ceviche that cost double that after 7 p.m.
Our first impression of Talara wasn't great. When my daughter called to make a reservation, she was told that we would have to move to another table at 8:30 p.m. because ours was reserved for then. She asked if we couldn't just be seated at the table we would have to move to in the first place. The conversation went downhill from there. Totally confused, but with a reservation, we decided to turn up and see what would happen. The subject never came up again.
When we walked in a few minutes before 7, we were hit with a blast of cold air and noise. A few others have discovered Talara's happy-hour specials, which include $5 cocktails, $4 glasses of wine and $3 Latino beers. People were shouting over the deafening beat of the salsa music. I actually thought it sounded like everyone was having fun, and it didn't bother me. I mention it only because it would bother a lot of people.
The looks of the place are as lively as the music, with floor-to-ceiling windows, lots of bright colors and jazzy Latino art. The ceviche bar is highlighted with a curve of neon stripes. You can tell a ton of money has been spent on the space, but the colorful but basic tables and chairs give it a bit of the look of, I don't know, a Chipotle or other good fast-casual chain. The food deserves better, although maybe white tablecloths might be a bit much.
The $5 tapas menu includes several items that aren't on the regular menu. All seven are dainty, tantalizingly good and beautifully presented. The citrusy shrimp ceviche with bits of fruit like mango and fresh pineapple will win you over to ceviche, raw seafood "cooked" in lemon or lime juice, forever. Cilantro adds a fresh, bright note.
Talara's version of sushi with salmon is equally delicious. The fresher-than-fresh raw salmon is handsomely arranged on sushi rice and nori with tobiko (roe) and, unexpectedly, capers. Other flavors like sesame, truffle oil and wasabi don't fight for attention but create a harmonious whole. A jaunty bit of fried lotus root on each one added crunch.
Salmon shows up again in its smoked form on a crisp beet chip with a bit of tomatillo.
My favorite of all was the one enormous, perfectly cooked scallop wrapped in a fiery collar of chorizo, which sat regally on a bed of polenta and corn.
Our other $5 tapas weren't as imaginative or as visually spectacular, but the pulled chicken tostado and siracha popcorn shrimp were quite seductive in their modest way. If I had to skip one, it would be the Peruvian meatballs, which tasted fine but were ordinary compared with the others.
It was past happy hour when we ordered our next round, so things were much more expensive. The pork empanada with a crisp-edged fried pastry and a drizzle of harissa mayonnaise put every version I've had of this around here to shame. A mini-paella in a tiny cast-iron skillet featured rice the texture of risotto, a portobello mushroom slice or two, bell peppers and pink slices of filet mignon. Not exactly traditional, but hard to resist.
Seviche made with enormous lumps of crab, avocado and corn was impressive, but the shrimp and fruit version at half the price was actually more appealing.
As at any tapas bar, the food is brought to your table as soon as it's ready. I was surprised at just how quickly the happy-hour tapas came. At one point I looked at my watch and I felt we were almost through, but only half an hour had passed. The staff would be wise to pace the items a bit more - we all would probably have had another round of drinks.
But maybe not. Even at $5, I was disappointed that my perfectly adequate glass of sangria had no other fruit but a maraschino cherry. The pretty layered martini Azul was a martini in name only; it tasted more like soda pop. The wines by the glass are a better choice than either. The list, by the way, is completely Latino.
Desserts disappointed because what came before had been so stellar. Tiramisu was made with so much rum the other flavors were lost. A chocolate torte relied too heavily on cinnamon, not my favorite combination. I enjoyed sopapillas with chocolate gelato and watermelon and pina colada sorbets more, but the fried dough was a bit tough and chewy. The apple empanada would have been better without the dulce de leche ice cream.
Excellent French press coffee rounded out the meal, but when we poured the cream from the pitchers, little containers of half-and-half spilled out!
We ended up spending a lot more money at Talara than I thought we would when I saw the $5 tapas menu. Let me say it again: It's an expensive restaurant. This is never going to be a cheap meal, but the carefully thought out and prettily arranged food is worth it. And go at an off hour if you can't stand noise.
Talara
Address: 615 President St., Harbor EastContact: 410-528-9883, talarabaltimore.com.
Hours: Open nightly for dinner.
Ceviche: $9-$24, tapas: $8-$14.
Food: *** 1/2
Service: ** 1/2
Atmosphere: ** 1/2
[Outstanding: **** Good: *** Fair or uneven: ** Poor: *]
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