The only other time I can remember having food that made me feel like I was in a puebla in the middle of New Mexico (aside from when I was in New Mexico) was at Mesa, Bobby Flay's restaurant in Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas. Bobby Flay, from Iron Chef and on Throwdown, is very clearly a lover of all the spices and seasonings and flavors of the Southwest, those zesty combinations that remind you that we live so damn close to Mexico.
I know I might get some hate mail for this, but I didn't like Mesa. I'm not a fan of Southwest cuisine, opting instead for the fresher Mexican flavors of Baja Mexico. Southwestern cuisine seems to heavy, sometimes too spicy, sometimes too sour, sometimes too.... tomato-ey. I didn't like what I had at Mesa, or anything I tried from anyone else's dish. And this is at the restaurant belonged to an IRON CHEF.
So enter Wilson. Located in the burgeoning social district of downtown Culver City, Wilson is just off the restaurant strip, which is perfect for the quiet ambiance for this semi-kitchy restaurant with plastic chairs. Despite the patio furniture indoors and the lamps that looked like they came from Ikea, the place looked surprisingly CLASSY. Walking past the full bar, DD and I sat ourselves in the far corner, where we got a glimpse of the rest of the restaurant and giant mural of chefs rejoicing.
And did they have something to rejoice!
For drinks, DD had a Belgian beer, Delirium Tremens, which was tart, but fresh. I tried ordering the cherry margarita (quite a curiosity!), but they had just run out. I opted instead for the strawberry margarita, which went down like a smoothie. Beautiful. Our starters consisted of ceviche and grilled octopus. Let me stop for a moment, because it hardly does justice to even put these two items in the same sentence--they each deserve their own epic poems.
The ceviche was not your average ceviche. I've had home made ceviches, ceviches made in Mexican restaurants, and ceviches made in Grand Hyatt hotels, and they're all.... je ne sais quoi. Too tart. Too sour. Too.... fishy. They're all a little too much of something, or they're completely bland. This was seasoned to PERFECTION. You tasted the tartness, the sourness, the fishiness, the flavors of the tomato and onion, and yet it wasn't overwhelming. It was perfectly balanced in every way, and perfectly complemented by fried and salted tortillas. Delicious!
Also cooked to perfection was the octopus. The grilled octopus may as well have been flank steak, it was seasoned and grilled so beautifully. While usual preparations of octopus are chewy and leave the diner looking for something to wash it down with, this octopus looked exactly like grilled vegetables and tasted like a steak. When you bit into it, you got it on the first bite, and if you tried, you could probably separate it with a fork. It was so tender and so juicy, and yet you got so much richness of the grilled, charred taste without so much as a hint of burnt taste. It was an opus! (Har har har.)
The main courses were equally impressive, a plate of lengua (tongue) and a soft shell crab burrito, one dish a hard-core return to Mexican roots and the other a defiant Cali-Mex fusion. And while tongue is usually chewy and tough (actually one of the things I love about it), this lengua was refreshingly soft, cutting like butter with a generous side of fat to make it tender and rich. The slices, which usually come out 1-2" in diameter and 1/2" thick, came out looking like slices of filet mignon. One slice was actually 1" thick and 3-4" in diameter. I couldn't finish it, no less work on the side of popcorn tossed in Tapatio we had also ordered (you can see it at the top of the next picture).
Would I go again? Hell yeah, if only to try the cherry margarita this time. Would I recommend it? Only to someone who wants to try an inspired twist on Mexican food and hate on every other ceviche they've ever had in their entire life.
Wilson Cafe + Bar
8631 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
http://www.wilsonfoodandwine.com/
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