Friday night, <3M and I stopped by Austin’s newest Eastside restaurant, Suerte, to check out the masa-based menu. I had no doubt we’d love this new Mexican restaurant from Odd Duck alum Sam Hellman-Mass! We enjoyed a great meal and the cocktails & wine list were top notch.
All the dishes at Suerte are small plate style so we ordered a bunch to share throughout the night. Here’s a look at our evening!
We had reservations for 6:45pm and arrived right on time but since <3M and I both love sitting at the bar, we chose to wait a bit until a bar seat opened up. While we waited, we ordered a round of cocktails. For me, the La Chiquitita with mezcal, grapefruit, lime, ginger honey, soda and for him, the Suerte Lager, a collaboration brew with Hops & Grain Brewing.
To start, we had the Bean Taquitos, which was one of my favorite dishes of the evening! The taquitos were crisp but slightly chewy and I loved the smokey, salty slaw on top.
We followed the taquitos with a round from the Frio & Raw portion of the menu. <3M’s a bit hesitant when it comes to seafood but he will eat shrimp so I convinced him to try the Aguachile, a shrimp ceviche.
We both loved the dish, even <3M with this being his first ceviche experience ever. The Aguachile was so fresh, served with a side of extra crispy tostadas, and the red sauce reminded me of an enchilada sauce. Yum!
Next up we ordered the Chicken Tamal with recado negro and chicken skin chicharrón. We both loved the crispy chicken skin on top and the pulled, smokey chicken. The Tamal was serve on top of a cream sauce that I would have loved a bit more of as I found the masa too dry for my liking.
Right about here is when we decided on another round of drinks. <3M ordered an Old Fashioned from our bartender, Trent. And Trent did a top-notch job! <3M declared the Old Fashioned to be one of his favorite’s in the city and even bumped it into his top 5 for best Old Fashioned’s in Austin. I ended my evening with a glass of red and highly recommend Suerte’s wine menu. I thoroughly enjoyed the Tierras Moradas carmenere which Trent recommended and am even looking to add it to our own wine collection!
The one dish I was most excited about from Suerte was the Chicken En Pinenut Mole. I love traditional mole, it’s savory, smokey and has a hint of chocolate and spice. Absolutely delicious!
However, the mole at Suerte didn’t have the familiar chocolate, spicy base. Suerte’s mole is pine nut based (as stated) and while it isn’t traditional, I appreciated the twist with the brown butter and wilted greens but still yearned for the familiar mole flavors. I was also hoping for some sort of tortilla here since Suerte’s menu is masa-centric but this was served as a knife & fork dish.
We ended our meal with the Chocolate con Churros for dessert which is served with Mexican chocolate. I liked the churros but was slightly disappointed. The chocolate wasn’t sweetened, closer to a bittersweet chocolate and although the churros were rolled in sugar it didn’t cut the bitterness of the chocolate. I also was hoping for a bit of cinnamon in the dessert as I’ve come to expect with churros. I’d probably opt for a different dessert next time around.
Overall, <3M and I truly enjoyed our meal at Suerte and will likely be back again for visit — especially for an Old Fashioned and the bean taquitos. And if you’re looking for a date night spot, you should definitely give Suerte a shot.