Daily Trojan USC.edu

RSS

Eat out

La Bodeguita de Pico

Cassandra Choi

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: Lifestyle

Page 1 of 1

My weekly dinner with friends this past Sunday was anything but ordinary at La Bodeguita de Pico, a charming new Cuban restaurant that has brought the Old Havana tradition and authentic Cuban cuisine to Los Angeles.

La Bodeguita de Pico is the newest franchise of Havana's famous La Bodeguita del Medio, home of Ernest Hemingway's favorite mojitos. A mojito, if you've never tried one, is a refreshing Cuban cocktail made of rum, lime, sugar, soda and crushed mint. Given the history of the La Bodeguita mojito, I knew I had to try one. My friends and I ordered a round of mojitos for the entire table and immediately understood the cause for such sensation.

Our friendly waiter, Miguel, then walked us through the menu, explaining the basics of Cuban cuisine in the process. Not long after Cuban Cuisine 101, the food arrived at our table. The pescado en salso de mojito was a light and flaky grilled halibut topped with a creamy mojito-flavored sauce made of rum and crushed mint. The clasico plato Cubano was a meaty dish consisting of tender shreds of roast pork as well as ground beef in a savory habanera pepper sauce.

Every entree includes sweet plantains on the side - Miguel explained that Cubans always balance main dishes with something sweet - and choice of yellow rice, white rice topped with black baked beans or moros y chrisianos, a traditional Cuban rice dish in which the white rice and black beans are cooked together.

For dessert, we ordered the light but sinfully rich caramel flan. Our dinner was completed with a complimentary bottle of wine that all guests receive for the first month as a grand-opening special.

In addition to the delicious food, the restaurant's atmosphere made our dinner especially enjoyable. The decor is charming, accented with dark wood finishes, colorful tiles and black-and-white photographs of Havana in its heyday.

Every member of the restaurant staff was friendly, making sure our dining experience was not only pleasant, but also fun. A Cuban pianist entertains the crowd nightly from the small stage up front with jazzy renditions of traditional Cuban songs. Miguel even serenaded our table with a beautiful Cuban song upon request.

Perhaps it was the mojitos. Or the wine. Or the combination of the two in lavish amounts. In any case, dinner at La Bodeguita de Pico was exuberant and entertaining.

-

La Bodeguita de Pico is open daily for dinner from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and offers complimentary valet parking. The grand-opening special only lasts until Nov. 24, so hurry to receive your free bottle of wine. The restaurant is located at 5047 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

Subscribe:

Advertisements:

Custom T-Shirts
Home Services Guides | USC Self Storage Discounts

Comments and Forum Posting Policy

Thank you for your interest and participation in the Daily Trojan comments and online forum system. To safeguard USC's Principles of Community while fostering a healthy campus dialogue, we require users to follow these basic posting guidelines:

Right to Delete Posts
Any postings that the Daily Trojan deems incongruent with its policies - including messages that are defamatory, obscene, abusive or in violation of copyright or trademark laws - are subject to editing or deletion. Although the Daily Trojan cannot reasonably expect to review every forum posting and is not responsible for any posted content, it reserves the right to monitor forums and remove posting privileges of users who violate these terms. All messages must be written in English.

Posting Rules
Comments, interactive areas, discussion boards, and the Daily Trojan Forums are intended to encourage public debate. We expect participants to differ ? judgment and opinion are subjective, and we encourage freedom of speech and a marketplace of ideas. But by using these areas of our website, you are participating in a community that is intended for all our users. Therefore, we reserve the right to remove any content posted on our site at any time for any reason.

Decisions as to whether content violates any Posting Rule will be made by the Daily Trojan at its sole discretion, after having received actual notice of such posting. Without limiting our right to remove content, we have attempted to provide guidelines to those posting content on our site. When using our website, please do not post material that:

contains vulgar, profane, abusive or hateful language, epithets or slurs, text or illustrations in poor taste, inflammatory attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature, or expressions of bigotry, racism, discrimination or hate.
is defamatory, threatening, disparaging, grossly inflammatory, false, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, inaccurate, unfair, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violates the privacy rights of any third party, is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual or community, contains any actionable statement, or tends to mislead or reflect unfairly on any other person, business or entity.
violates any right of the Daily Trojan or any third party.
discriminates on the grounds of race, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation or disability, or refers to such matters in any manner prohibited by law.
violates any municipal, state or federal law, rule, regulation or ordinance, or attempts to encourage such an evasion or violation.
unfairly interferes with any third party?s uninterrupted use of the Daily Trojan.
advertises, promotes or offers to trade any goods or services, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose.
uploads copyrighted or other proprietary material of any kind on our website without the express permission of the owner of that material.
uses or attempts to use another?s account, password, service or system except as expressly permitted by the Terms of Service.
includes images, photos, or articles or other content that constitutes, promotes or encourages illegal acts, violation of any right of any individual or entity, violation of any local, state, national or international law, rule, guideline or regulation, or otherwise creates liability.
uploads or transmits viruses or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files.
disrupts, interferes with, or otherwise harms or violates the security of our website, or any services, system resources, accounts, passwords, servers or networks connected to or accessible through our website or affiliated or linked sites.
"flames" any individual or entity (e.g., sends repeated messages related to another user and/or makes derogatory or offensive comments about another individual), or repeats prior posting of the same message under multiple threads or subjects.