September 3, 2019 Lunch –
Villa de Capo Dinner – Hotel Chaco Level 5
We spent last night at Hotel
Chaco. We ate PPIs for dinner at home, Chicken mole, bean salad, and ratatouille
and then at 7:30. The food did not agree with my stomach guest.
This morning I ate the bag of
granola and an apple put in our room by the hotel and then I went to Bill’s
office to work.
At noon
I went with Sally to Villa de Capo at 722 Central for lunch. Capo’s is now my favorite Italian restaurant in
Albuquerque. I particularly like their
Lunch Special for $6.99. This the fourth
time I have ordered lunch and the first time to order Bona Mangata.
Capo's menu describes Bona Mangata as,
hand-breaded, thinly sliced eggplant rolled and
stuffed with spiced beef & cheese, topped with meat sauce & mozzarella
cheese and baked. served with your choice of spaghetti or Italian vegetables.
It was served salad and a side of spaghetti with the
lovely marinara sauce with the Bona Magata.
I must admit I liked the lasagna and Eggplant Parmigiana better, but it
was interesting and I love the spaghetti with marinara sauce. Sally ordered the Italian burger, which was
an Italian bread bun split open and stuffed with four links of Italian sausage
and topped with marinara sauce with steamed vegetables.
We enjoyed our meal on the patio al fresco. I recommend Capo’s. Dinner entrée are about twice the price of
the Lunch specials
When Suzette
arrived around 6:00 the wind and it was raining with blowing hail, so we
decided to eat in the fifth floor Level 5 Restaurant in the Hotel. As we took seats at a window table the rain
stopped, but we decided to stay. The
menu was limited and quite expensive.
Suzette ordered Pork tenderloin; four slices of pork tenderloin with two
Peruvian Blue potato stuffed empanadas.
The Pork was topped with mango sauce for $29. The meat was pink on one side and gray on the
other. I ordered the Southwestern
Chopped Salad with romaine lettuce, corn kernels, black beans, bacon, small
cubes of Chimayo cheese, and a ranch dressing with green chili. I asked if they had blue cheese dressing. At first the waitress told me they did not
but after the salad was served she brought me a small cup of creamed blue
cheese that was really delicious. It
helped each of us enjoy our salad more.
Here is the bio for Executive Chef Christian Monchâtre
Hotel Chaco is proud to welcome a new
Executive Chef at our new restaurant in Albuquerque. Born in Paris, Monchâtre
began his career in his family owned restaurant in the Loire Valley, France. He
brings to Level 5 the experience of leading top restaurants in California,
Italy, Germany, and Mexico. Winner of “Chef of the Year” & “Medal of the
Chevalier of Merit,” he is also a member of Academie Culinaire de Françe. We
invite you to come taste his sophisticated new menu.
Executive Chef Christian Monchâtre came by our table to say hello and ask us about
the food. When I told him about the unusual treatment of the slices of pork he explained
that the pork tenders are braised and then when an order is place they put the
slices under the salamander to heat on one side, which turns gray and the other
side stays red. Chef Christian explained that they serve over 200 covers per
dinner, so there needs to be a way to quickly heat and plate a dish.
My salad was okay
especially with the extra creamed blue cheese, but not much better than my lunch
salad served with my entire lunch for half the price of this salad.
Chef Christian came
by after dinner and offered us a special dessert, a round almond and flour tart
shell filled with key lime butter cream when ordered and then garnished with a pastry
tube filled with meringue squeezed into peaks toasted with a butane torch like
a baked Alaska with red chili chips scattered around the tart. We were also served decaf coffees. I found
the dessert pleasant but not very exciting. Suzette found the combination odd and
the tart crust was so firm, we chose not to eat all of it. Again, this is an
example of how the kitchen is geared to produce a dish quickly.
There is nothing
wrong with quick prep, but the result must be a finished dish that has fresh
ingredients prepared in a fine dining manner for these prices. I did not get
the feeling that that is what is occurring at Level 5. It is wonderful to have
a new great French chef in Albuquerque.
I only hope that in time he will produce really great Cuisine.
Let me say that I
enjoyed our $18.00 lunch more than our $61.00 dinner of one entrée, a salad,
and one margarita, plus a free dessert and two coffees.
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