Sucre
Eating at Sucre felt like eating in a renovated factory -- lots of metal, concrete, sparsely placed tables and furniture -- fortunately, this was countered by the warm fireplace, comfortable chairs, dim lighting, and backlit liquors at the bar. The wait staff was dressed in black and intimidatingly attractive, might I add. While Fernando Trocca's restaurant was really swanky, it also served good food to match.
To start, I got the Huevo de campo a baja temperatura y jamón Serrano brioche de naranja, espárragos y crema de queso manchego (country egg cooked at a low temperature, serrano ham and an orange brioche, asparagus with manchego).
My main consisted of Ravioles de conejo estofado con canela en rama salsa de conejo, olivas negras tipo calamata y salvia fresca (rabbit ravioli stuffed with cinnamon and black duck sauce, calmata olives). The ravioli was way overcooked ... sort of soggy, too.
My friends ordered ensalada tibia de codorniz y verdes amargos jengibre dulce, avellanas, calabaza y vinagreta de salsa de soja y panceta (warm salad of bitter quail and green sweet ginger, hazelnuts, pumpkin and of soybean vinagrette with panceta), followed by Confit de pato manzana asada con especias, emulsión de papa y jugo de pato (duck confit, spiced apple, Pope emulsion and duck jus). Another friend ordered speghetti with lamb, the description for which does not seem to be available on Sucre's website.
For dessert, we split creme de “Dulce de leche” con espuma de maní, mantecol desgranado y teja de café torrado (dulce de leche cream with peanut foam, mantecol pastry and wafer of torrado coffee), as well as frozen honeycomb. The highlight of me was the frozen honeycomb which I hadn't tried before ... it was really light, fluffy, and well, cold at first ... but after a few bites, it quickly condensed into a chewy ball of crunchy honey ... the texture was really playful.
One of the advantages of eating with a group of friends is getting to try a variety of different meals. I think I ordered pretty well with my lamb ravioli, it seemed to be the best of the group. The dishes used a lot of foam, which I was sort of expecting, by dint of the chef's penchant for modern. None of the appetizers were particularly special; but all were good. This seemed like a good place to take an out of town visitor; but ultimately, it was more trend than cuisine.