Orchid Thai Cuisine

Yesterday I had the pleasure of dining with some friends that I do not get to see too often. Since one of us was a tourist, it was great to try one of the highest rated Thai restaurants in Albuquerque according to a few publications; for example, the Alibi and Albuquerque the Magazine. I always wanted to try the Orchid, but never made the trek to that part of Central for Thai food. I arrived a little before six in the evening on a Tuesday and most of the party was already there. The restaurant is a mixture of many different things, for instance, you'll see the "light towers" which are pillars with a cloth on top that flaps and shines a light to simulate a flame while the walls are covered with beer adds and what appears to be traditional Thai art. Adding to the mixture, the dishes and silverware are mismatched.

When I arrive there are only a few patrons other than our party and there are three servers. It takes them a few minutes to take our drink order, but the drinks do come eventually. I also order two appetizers: chicken satay and a grilled shrimp on a skewer. The last member of our party arrives about a quarter after six and the appetizers are not out yet. He gets his beverage before the dishes come out. I'm amazed by the slow speed of the kitchen due to the low number of patrons. We place our orders and one in the party notices that prices are not listed for wine. I am unsure if this is for all of the alcoholic beverages, but I am surprised that the price is not listed. I ordered a Basil chicken dish extra hot and it is extra hot. I also ask for additional chili and it is brought in a carrier with four jars. There are peppers, chili oil, chili powder, and one other that I cannot recall.
The dish is excellent, but the dishes came out at different times. The dishes were all ordered at the same time, but come out over a span of fifteen or so minutes. I did not want to start before everyone else got their food so my food got a little cold. On the bright side all of the dishes tasted great.

Do not go here for atmosphere or quick service. The servers were luke warm in attitude, by no means where they rude, but the servers were slow and oblivious to the details. If you do have time and do not mind the lack luster service by all means go there for great Thai food. I would give Orchid two out of five stars.

http://www.orchidthaicuisine.com/index.html

Farina Pizzeria

This post is about my first and only visit to Farinas Pizzeria in EDO (East Downtown). The visit was awhile ago, it was Tuesday, December 30, 2008 for dinner; my dinner companion, Elaine, for this outing is a good sport who is fairly adventurous. We arrive around seven on a Tuesday and the place is packed. Parking was a fairly pleasant experience; there was a parking lot attendant that pointed us to a spot dedicated to Farina's. We then walk to the back door that is near the kitchen and the restrooms. The restaurant is very well decorated with modern decor with a vintage feel. The brick wall appears to be well worn, but adds a great touch of traditional shape to the modern geometry that is throughout the restaurant. Examples of the modern geometry are the polished rock bar and the partition wall near the kitchen.

The restaurant is busy and it is disorganized on how seating works. My dinner companion and I belly up to the bar not knowing what the rules are. We are then told by the slightly frantic, well dressed man, who was the host that we cannot sit there and then that we need to add our name to the seating list. He was polite, but there was no sign or host desk to indicate where or what do to obtain seating. We then add our name to the list and are informed that our wait will be around 30 minutes. The restaurant is cramped and there is no designated waiting area, but our frantic host does take care of us. We placed an order for a couple of beers and get them after a fairly long wait for a couple of beers. So we wait the half hour hovering over a large party who is finishing up their dinner. We were good neighbors, or personal space invaders, and offered to take their group photo for them. While we were waiting, we tried some of the beers they had on tap. The tap selection was comprised of beer from Marble Brewing Company which is a local micro brew that is a spin off of Chama River Brewing Company. I had the Oatmeal Stout and Elaine had the Wildflower Wheat. Marble makes good, not great beer. It's nice to see that local beer is being sold around town. The host then seats us at the bar. I am fairly disappointed by where we are seated, but I understand that we were given what was available. Our neighbors to our right were pretty friendly and we talked about the food that they just ate.

We began our meal with the Meatballs al Forno which are meatballs in Balsamic vinegar. The meatballs were pretty tasty but were not spectacular. For the next course we split the Verde salad with the champagne vinaigrette. The salad was pretty good the salad was greater than the sum of its parts. It had organic lettuces, roasted walnuts, apples, gorgonzola, and the previously mentioned vinaigrette. The apples, cheese, and dressing all blended together very well. The salad was a large enough portion to split if you were to have pizza as well.

For the main course, we had the Carne and the Pepe Caldo pizza. The Carne was a pizza with pepperoni, prosciutto, salami, tomato sauce, and mozzarella. I opted to add green chile to the pizza to be a good New Mexican. Elaine had the Pepe Caldo pizza that had broccoli, hot pepper, ricotta, and caciocavallo. The caciocavallo is a cheese that both of us were unfamiliar with. We asked for a piece to try by itself and it is fairly mild softer cheese. When added to the pizza the moisture content of the cheese made an impact on the crust of Elaine’s pizza. I was not a fan of this. The Carne pizza was pretty good. The crust of the pizza at Farinas is pretty good which can be attributed to special oven that they use. From what the server told us the oven is a high heat oven that is normally used to bake baguettes. The crust is crunch, but has the burned appearance. It does not taste burned at all. I liked how they did not carry “normal” things you find in a pizza joint; for example, ranch. They did serve the pizza with a trio of Parmesan cheese, red chile peppers, and oregano. I thought this was a nice touch to a nice pizza place.

For dessert we had the Lemmon Mascarpone Sorbetto. This was too tart for my palette, but Elaine enjoyed it. I also had an Espresso which was fairly good. The bottled beer selection here is fairly bland. The do not carry a large variety of beer styles. Most of the beers are fairly mild like lagers and pale ales. I also tried the Ruddles beer, which reminded me of the Morlans Hens Tooth which they also carry.

Overall Farinas is good. They did have a few kinks like the seating and the beer selection, but overall good. I would give Farinas three out of five stars.

http://www.farinapizzeria.com/