Que Rico

Cobre Nuevo Latino

Latin Fusion Cuisine

52 Powell St.

Vancouver, BC

V6A 1E7 Canada

Ph: (604) 669-2396

I always make a mental note to keep my ears open for fresh, new restaurants that are creating a buzz in the area and somewhere, I'm not sure exactly where, I have heard about Cobre Nuevo Latino. Mostly, hyped up restaurants have a lot to live up to but stepping into this modern Latin-fusion restaurant already made me a little less skeptical.

Cobre Nuevo Latino is actually almost a year old situated in the now trendy Gastown where new restaurants are mushrooming in every nook and cranny of its cobblestone alleyways. Their space is small but it was stylish as it was cozy. The brick wall in the restaurant gives a "warm blanket" feel while the sleek wooden tables give a modern touch to the setting. It was a very nice mix of hipness and comfort.

Upon ascending the stairway, we were warmly greeted, seated and our server came immediately. We were waiting for a couple more friends and ordered the corn bread with the spicy butter and I had a glass of Rose wine. The corn bread had an interesting flavour and the butter was good but I like my spicy with a nice kick and it was lacking a little of that. We were enjoying the bread when my friends finally came as well as a bunch of other people as we were noticing the place filling up very quickly. The restaurant was already getting busy but our server still took his time giving us a run through of the menu and gave us suggestions and an introduction to the more popular dishes. After some debating, we opted for the scallop ceviche, goat cheese empanada with eggplant, wild prawns with corn arepas, duck taquitos and the flat iron steak.

It was either the interesting conversation we were having or the quick service which made it seem like minutes when our scallop ceviche arrived. It was nicely presented although the quantity was very small. The flavours were very light, it was good ceviche but it had no "wow" factor. Our next dish though made us forget everything about our scallop ceviche. The goat cheese empanada came right after the first dish, and it was one of the best empanadas I ever had. The crust was thin but it gave a nice crunch to the very tasty goat-cheese-eggplant medley and the red pepper salsa contributed a nice tang to the flavours as well a good contrast on my tongue, it was warm-empanada-meet-cold-salsa combination.

I was still raving about how good it was was when our second dish came, once again with perfect timing. The prawns alone were already good but adding the corn arepas with the creamy, cheesy centre was a knock-out. The combination was amazing. I had a different idea though what an arepa was since my Venezuelan coworker made us batches of fresh arepas a few times and it was a bit different, less bread-like and but I have to say, I really liked Cobre's. When the next dish came, I was a bit hesitant, I am not a duck fan. Duck is like lamb for me, it's a hit-or-miss. If you have a bad duck dish, you're stuck with an aftertaste so intense that will linger in your mouth until the next day but I have to say, Cobre converted me with their duck taquitos. Maybe it was the cilantro that gave it a fresh taste but there was definitely no bad aftertaste, instead there was that duck flavour that was prominent but not over-whelming, ask your server for a slice of lemon and you'll love it even more.

My taste buds were already satisfied that I wasn't even thinking about our last dish, the flat iron steak which came with a heaping serving of crisp sweet potato chips drenched in chipotle sauce. The steak was tender and the sauce to match it had that perfect smoky chipotle flavour and together, it was phenomenal and adding a genenerous amount of sweet crunchy chips just made this dish beyond phenomenal.

We didn't end our little rendezous with Cobre with the steak. Although full, we had to see their dessert menu and we had to give in to their dark chocolate souffle and dulce de leche. Forget the calories, you should indulge yourself once in awhile and these desserts will make you say "Oh my god!" on the first bite. The souffle had a side of warm, crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside churros which was perfect for dunking in that rich chocolatey souffle centre. This dessert is great especially if you don't like anything too sweet. The dulce de leche on the other hand was an experience on its own. It was light and creamy and just a dulce as it should be. The berries were a good touch and it meshed well with every dulce de leche bite. Every bit was just perfection.

You'll know if you've found a gem of a place when you tell your friends, coworkers, random people about it and we did find ourselves spreading our love for this restaurant and are shamelessly getting into that Cobre hype. We are definitely going back for more and maybe try that albacore tuna ceviche I have heard about and hoping that our next experience will be as good as the first, hopefully even better.

*picture stolen from Vancouver Courier News / dinning