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Red Pepper is Mexican done best
| Wednesday, Jan 4 2006 10:50 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Feb 10 2006 10:44 AM
If I go a few months without a Red Pepper fix, I start to get grouchy. Sure we have plenty of Mexican restaurants. A wide variety of styles.
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But who can match the culinary adventurousness of Gilbert Sabedra?
His restlessness, his creativity, his inventiveness, his ambition at elevating what is not routinely considered one of the world's great cuisines into something more satisfying has made my job over the years more fun.
It's even more fun just to go to the Red Pepper when I'm not reviewing it so I can kick back and just order what I want.
But the restaurant has changed enough since I last wrote about it to warrant another review. Old-timers will remember when The Red Pepper was just a restaurant on Sumner Street, before the second location opened in the northeast and then the later venture into Rosedale (later sold).
My companion recalled that when the northeast restaurant opened, people complained it didn't have the character of the Sumner Street location, but a few decades later, it has aged to the state of respectability.
Personally, I could care less about the atmosphere there. I'm there for the food, and I usually head right to Gilbert's specials. They're always changing. I used to love his lobster chile verde. It was incredible. Now, of course, he's got a new twist on it: lobster enchiladas chipotle ($19.75).
My companion, being very wily, spotted that on the white board at the entrance and claimed it before I could get a word in. It's very typical for The Red Pepper. Take what's worked well in the past and add a new spin on it.
The Red Pepper kitchen uses langostino tails and cuts them into rich bits. This sauce on these two enchiladas had a smoky bite that suggested a fine French restaurant rather than something tossed together. It was a signature Red Pepper dish.
I was tempted by the other daily special, chicken and shrimp chili verde, though I was a bit skeptical of how poultry and shellfish would blend together. My waiter did his best to reassure me that it was a very popular choice, but I instead chose a shrimp selection off the yellow "specials" card inside the menu. It was the gambas al allijo ($17.95): shrimp floured and sauteed in spicy chili piquin, butter, lime, lots of fresh mushrooms, onions and madeira wine sauce. It had bite, and the six jumbo shrimp reminded me of the excellent shrimp served at Lam's just to the north.
There were other alluring choices on the specials menu, including zarapes made with shrimp and a fish casserole (pescador, $17.75) made with gulf shrimp and halibut, jalapenos, white wine and onions. Reasons to return.
Service was fine throughout the meal, though there was an inexcusable delay in getting seated. We'd been told on arrival that the wait was 15 minutes, so being the sheep that we are, we headed to the bar to watch some college football and wait it out with a margarita.
Half an hour later, we had to go back to remind them of our existence. We were told they searched for us, but a mere shout out of our name would have brought us running.
Football or lobster enchiladas? Not a close call.
I've been getting a lot of e-mails from new Bakerfield residents who have moved here from down south, seeking guidance about restaurants. Put Red Pepper on your list of must-visits if you're new to town. It's always an adventure, and anything but another Mexican restaurant.
The one thing that has been on the menu forever has been the albondigas soup, which is nearly perfect after all these years of tinkering.
With cabbage, zucchini, carrot and onion, it's oddly similar to the Basque vegetable soup served in so many Bakersfield restaurants.
The Red Pepper can be recommended for a fine dining experience.