La Carniceria is a small place with about 10 small bare wood tables and a few counter stools.  Tables are placed fairly close together and a mural of hanging meat fills the back wall.  Opposite that is the cooking area behind the bar.   The chairs are a comfortable wire mesh and the floor is a lovely terrazzo.  Music plays in the background and windows look out onto the street.  It looks relatively new and is a comfortable ambiance.  It filled up quickly and the noise level rose with that, but it workable.  Our server was helpful and friendly and spoke great English. The menu is small and is heavy on the grilled meat.  Portions are generous and the food is simple and straightforward but seriously delicious.  Doing something simple really well can often dwarf the frilly, less flavorful options.  This place is highly recommended by me to visit.

 

They offered two types of gin and tonic, so we tried one of each.  Both were made with Bombay gin but the secondary ingredients gave each a distinctive taste. Bread service was large slices of dense brown bread with a herbed butter. Both were quite good.

 

We started by splitting the Sweetbreads with corn, honey and black garlic. They were amazing. They were crusty on the outside and the inside was creamy loveliness. The light colored swirl on the plate tasted like an extra creamy mayo. It came with a yellow hot sauce that looked like mustard but it was most surely not.  It was perfect with the sweetbreads that were placed on top of some delicious corn bread.  It was pudding like and studded with kernels of corn. It was out of this world good. A marvelous plate of food.

 

Next we each had our own Parrilla Cut of ribeye beef.  They were at least 2 inches thick and cooked a perfect rare with the nicest bit of char on the exterior. Alongside was a purée of squash that was smooth and sweet. The nicely spicy green chimichurri sauce was thick with strong flavors of cumin and herbs.

 

For dessert we had Bread pudding with ice cream, the server’s recommendation. It was covered with peanuts, walnuts, raisins and dried cranberries. The cake was yummy and moist and perfectly contrasted with the crunchy toppings.  The ice cream was the perfect accompaniment to launch this one to a yum x2.