Sunday, June 5, 2011

Dos Comales -- Corpus Christi, TX

Dos Comales, 227 N. Water St, is a newcomer to Corpus Christi, but not to the Coastal Bend. You could say that Dos Comales is a direct decendent of Los Comales in Rockport, since the son of the owner of Los Comales runs Dos Comales. If you're not confused, we'll continue. Festive is the word that comes to mind when you enter Dos Comales. Bright and festive. The building itself is rather small, but the decor cleverly takes advantage of the fact by cutting the space lengthwise, separating the bar area with a brightly painted wall, but punching that with arch windows, keeping the space open with a patio feel. A loft level over the bar povides even more space, and for those who don't want to be boxed in, there's the actual patio off of the parking area. Speaking of parking, stay on the street. The parking lot is tight -- very tight. It'll be much easier to get in and out on the street.

Being near the bayfront, I understand it can get pretty busy at Dos Comales, expecially on the weekends. I've read some reviews complaining that it took a while to get food. Well, I can tell you that the kitchen is small, having worked in it over Christmas making bread with a friend, before Dos Comales was there, so I can see how things could get backed up. Personally, we like to eat fairly early, so we had no trouble with the time it took to receive our food. Our waitperson was great. She was knowledgeable about the food and was able to make some wine suggestions. She was attentive and gave us the history lesson on the place.

Tarasco Shrimp
There are plenty places to get enchiladas in this town, so we go straight to the specialties. There were two dishes that caught our eyes. Tarasco Shrimp and El Yucateco. These were the dishes that Rob and I both wanted to try so we ordered both, sat the plates next to each other in the middle of the table and ate from both of them. Fortunately, since we were there early, there were not too many stares. Both dishes were good, but my favorite (and Rob's) was the Tarasco Shrimp. Six jumbo shrimp sauted in a creamy sauce with red onions, mushrooms, cilantro and Parmesan cheese. I was surprised that this would be my favorite because I'm not a big mushroom fan and there were plenty of mushrooms on the plate, but the creamyness of the sauce and the cheese just fills your mouth with rich but mellow happiness.

The El Yucateco was good, but not quite what we were expecting. The description read: Eggplant twice crusted and once fried, with crab, shrimp, scallops and chili con queso, and it was beautiful. We thought it would be rich and flavorful. Though I can't really say I was disappointed, it was good, just not impressive. The seafood was cooked well, but it just didn't deliver on the flavor, and the eggplant was rubbery. But, this is what sometimes happens when you try something new.
El Yucateco

Overall, we liked Dos Comales. Can't gush about it, but we were treated well and we did enjoy our time there. It was comfortable, affordable and we were able to sit in a place where we couldn't see the televisions. We would go there again.

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