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going mexican at real food daily
13January 5th, 2009LA restaurants, real food dailya couple of weeks ago, i had the pleasure of eating a much anticipated lunch with fellow vegan blogger, foodeater of to live and eat in la. we had been planning a meal of epic proportions for quite sometime and finally chose real food daily in west hollywood as the location for our feast. after all, it’s pretty fancy and very well-reviewed. plus, i never get a chance to go there because mr. meaner, my dining partner and the other half of this blog, fucking hates the place!
since we considered the lunching of quarrygirl and foodeater a pretty special occasion, we decided to share a decadent appetizer to start, the better with cheddar nachos.
better with cheddar nachos: Tortilla chips, melted cashew cheese, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, tofu sour cream. $11.75
i have heard a ton of good things about real food daily’s nachos, and i can add to the hype by saying they were very tasty. the plate was huge and overflowing with crispy chips, black beans and guacamole. we just about finished it all off between the two of us, and i seriously have no idea how we still had room for any entrees.
although we ate them right up, i gotta say, somethings about the nachos were a let-down for me. the cashew cheese wasn’t anything like real cheese; it had no melty texture, it was more of a just a yellowish sauce. plus, we ordered jalapeno cheese, and while there was a slight hint of flavor, it really wasn’t spicy at all. while the cashew sauce wasn’t bad, i was just expecting something more thick and well…cheesy. similarly, the tofu sour cream was a little disappointing. it was drizzled over the top of the nachos, when i was wanting something more like a big blob of sour cream. the guacamole and black beans were perfect though, and the nachos were overall yummy, even if they weren’t what i expected. worth 12 bucks?…maybe.
after piling half a ton of nachos down my gob, i decided to stick with the mexican theme and order some enchiladas.
el bandito rojo: Corn enchiladas, seasoned tempeh, salsa roja, Spanish rice, black beans, pico de gallo, tofu sour cream, guacamole $13.95
i love ordering mexican food whenever i can, because in most restaurants the stuff is riddled with chicken fat and lard. real food daily’s fine-dining take on the classic enchiladas was pretty decent. the soft corn tortillas were delicate, filled with all kinds of unusual vegetables, and slathered in a rich red sauce. again, the tofu sour cream was almost nonexistent and a little disappointing. the guacamole and the salsa were amazing, as was the light and healthy-tasting enchilada filling. i can’t even place what it consisted of, but i know it was a blend of RFD’s delicious crumbled tempeh and assorted vegetables including onions and chilis. although this was a million miles away from the old-school mex enchiladas i’m used to, it was still tasty in its own right. but honestly, not worth 14 bucks.
the lovely foodeater went a completely different route with her entree, but i will let her tell you all about it when she does a write-up on her blog. going into this lunch, i definitely planned on getting some dessert, especially since my last birthday cake from RFD was so bloody delicious. unfortunately, though, we were so full after all the nachos and main courses that we just couldn’t stomach it. oh well, i guess that just gives me an excuse to go back.
overall, the food i had on this visit to real food daily was very tasty. it wasn’t incredible or spectacular though, and not worth the insane prices. i sooooo don’t mind paying a lot if i am getting something really special, and RFD just didn’t quite deliver. plus, they sat us at a really crappy table next to the bathrooms and kitchen, and there was a huge distracting ruckus going down right on the other side of the wall. the service was great though, and the presentation was beautiful, so i will definitely be back to real food daily to give it another try.
Tags: enchilada, mexican, nachos, west hollywood
13 responses to “going mexican at real food daily” 
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Nooo! I am so disappointed for you. I am sure you were super excited about your RFD feast, and I know firsthand that it is so disappointing when a restaurant you’re excited about just doesn’t deliver. Oh well, it could have been worse and all the food could have been plain nasty. The nachos looked so yummy in the pictures though! In theory, cashew cheese should be really tasty.
I think I’ll have to eat Mexican in honor of you next time I go to a vegan restaurant…this post made me hungry for it and here in Texas there most certainly are not Mexican restaurants I can trust. I’m too scared of lard and waiters who don’t know what “vegan” means! -
miss anthrope January 5th, 2009 at 09:13
rubyredvegan: in the end, we really did have a wonderful lunch. i mean, we were in great company and some of the food was really good! 😀 just the prices were high, and i dunno, i don’t think RFD is worth ALL the hype. i can’t wait to hear what foodeater has to say about it.
i am so glad you will get mexican food in honor of me! i hope it rocks.
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biliji January 5th, 2009 at 09:34
Forget all the Mexican food. Bring on that CAKE!!!
http://archives.quarrygirl.com/2008/10/06/rfd-vegan-cake/ -
I really enjoyed the nachos the one time I ordered them. I’m not a fan of the enchiladas, as you can probably imagine, because of the onions. Darn those things! The beans and rice are really good, though. Lucky you for having lunch with the fabulous Foodeater and lucky her for having lunch w/ the fabulous you!
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Yum, your nacho pictures are making me hungry all over again! Those were definitely the highlight of the meal (other than the fine company of course!) Damn, I better hurry up and write up my post 🙂
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The nachooooos! yum. Okay, so we typically love them & go to the Santa Monica location. Last time we went to the WeHo location & the nachos weren’t all that good. Ryan’s reuben wasn’t tasty either. I want to be superstitious & stick to the Santa Monica location now!
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I’ve turned someone vegan via those nachos! After they tasted them they said “wow I think I can do this” and have been vegan ever since.
I’ve definitely discovered that you shouldn’t double up on the mexican because the ingredients are all the same so your nachos end up tasting the same as your taco the town, etc.
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used to work there and the nachos were my favorite. i agree though – the cheese is more of a cheese-inspired sauce. that’s what i would try to tell people.
i also lost weight when i quit working there and i blame the cashew cheese for all the extra fat.i think that their club sandwich is far superior to the mexican food.
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The RFD nachos downfall is the chips! If they made their own chips it’d be worth it, but the chips they use aren’t fresh. They must have made a mistake and not have given you the jalapeno cheese because it’s pretty spicy!
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they didn’t give you the jalapeno cashew cheese. if they did you’d see green jalapenos in the cheese. however, the nachos are incredible, but the best mexican dish RFD has is it’s supreme burrito! it also comes with a side, and i love their caesar salad and their mashed potatoes and gravy cannot be beat!
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I won’t go to RFD anymore now Interim and other options are so close by. I used to live in Santa Monica within walking distance of RFD so over the years I have tried the place at least ten times. Usually it was the idea of my friends more than me. Every time I have gone to RFD I have gotten such shitty service and so-so food. The servers I have gotten were: snotty, indifferent, dismissive and neglectful until the very end of the meal when they wanted to hurry us out of the restaurant to get a new table of chumps. My friends and I learned that we would have a better dining experience at Swingers or even Bay Cities Deli. Now that Interim is close by and cheaper and nicer, RFD and its prices and staff (my apologies to the poster above who used to work there — i’m sure not everyone is a jerk there) I will never go back to RFD. If only interim served beer on tap…
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My two cents:
* Servers at the Santa Monica are far nicer than WeHo
* The best way to enjoy El Bandito Rojo, in my opinion, is to request that they add cashew cheese, which my server (in SM, of course) so kindly recommended. I’ve been a huge fan of the dish ever since!
rubyredvegan January 5th, 2009 at 08:45