Bizarra Capital — Restaurant in Whittier

Bizarra Capital can be considered to be a nouvelle cuisine Mexicaine based on traditional post & pre-conquest Mexican roots. Since Socal is so multi-cultural, possibly some French, Japanese and other influences can be parsed out in this modern eatery.

First off Octavio was great in guiding us through possible menu selections. He was patient since we ordered piece meal and hadn't decided on the entire meal, but wanted something to eat while perusing other options. Amazing since he had to wait on half of the restaurant.

0. Totopos fried, crispy corn chips were light, golden brown with a pleasing corn masa taste. The cooked salsa seemed made from tomato sauce & finely ground chiles with a satisfying, semi-sweet Umami.

The Tortillas de Maíz for various dishes at Bizarra are very good, rough ground & having a toasty corn scent.

1. **Guacamole is not mashed but sliced like vegan Sashimi. Garnished with lightly fermented, acidic Pico de Gallo/chiles, onion, tomato, cilantro. Dollops of Burrata-like sweet Queso Fresco accompanied by a tostada de Maíz.

2. Costa Azul/Blue Coast is 4 meaty shrimp wrapped in bacon, stuffed with standard, boring, tough American ham. Wish it were the excellent Jamón Serrano de Bellota instead of the ham. Also it is over fried so the bacon borders on almost charred.

Came with a sour Tomatillo based Salsa Verde & mayonnaise infused with Salsa Roja looking almost like Sriracha which is fine. At $22 though, it's a pass.

3. *Pato is excellent harking to French Confit de Canard slowly cooked in its own juices. The puffy corn masa based fried Chalupa is pleasantly leathery and has textures like fried Croissant, the passé "cronut".

The orange-chocolate Salsa seems to refer to Canard à l'Orange. Chopped Cilantro seals the deal. This is the gran obra/masterpiece at Bizarra, imo.

4. *Fideo reminds me of Japanese Rāmen or Italian Minestrone. Beef broth infused with red chile hue. Light Umami, Chile piquancy & herbal flavour with initially almost al dente Capellini d'Angeli/angel hair pasta.

Shrimp is sweet, meaty, moist with a slight garlic tinge. Chorizo is porky, firm, chewy. Tons of add ons from their unlabeled Fideo menu list.

5. Huitlacoche Quesadilla: Good quality corn mushrooms that look whole instead of looking like just a black smear. The Queso Oaxaca is a creamy version of Mozzarella. Salsa Verde.

However, the whole Huitlacoche Quesadilla is absolutely bland. Wish that the Huitlacoche had been lightly sautéed in a touch of chicken broth, Pico de Gallo powder, onion for some augmented flavour. At $16, another pass.

6. Chicharrón Quesadilla: Fried pork belly skin then slow braised in its own juices till the rubbery, fatty skin is almost translucently gelatinous. Full of porky gaminess like roasted premium Cochinillo Ibérico.

Queso Oaxaca oozes slowly out of this folded, fried Quesadilla. The Jalapeño Aïoli (ah ee oh lee) is a Chile piquant version of a garlic infused mayonnaise sauce from southern France. Good if you lIke game meats.

1-6) Ice Tea: Rather week standard American "Lipton" ice tea since I had drunk too much Sakè (sah keh) at my down home favorite Sushi Dragon in Sun Valley the day before.

Looking at the wine list, I was so surprised to see only 3 wines from México!!! Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California del Norte has amazing white & red wines that were all developed in mind pairing with Mexican cuisine!

My experience is that French wines generally don't rise to the occasion with chile based foods.

Bizarra...

The food and service were pretty good, but there is some room for improvement. Prices seemed a little high, as everywhere else. $18 margaritas seemed a bit excessive, but luckily, they gave us half off when I asked if there was a happy hour (the answer was no to happy hour.)

We had fideo since that was the reason my friend brought me here, but after adding all the toppings, it came out to about $26 a bowl, and it didn't seem worth it. There was too much liquid in my bowl. Wish they put more shrimp and beans in my bowl. My friend got a decent amount of chicken in his, so I probably should've ordered that?

The ceviche mixto was pretty good. It was a pretty big serving. I wish I could have ordered a half size for half price. Seemed like a mixture of cooked and semi cooked and semi raw seafood. Crab meat on top was probably from a can. I would probably try another version next time.

The agua fresca margaritas were pretty good. We ordered the guava ones. I really appreciate real fruit in my drinks, but I couldn't really taste the guava, and it tasted a little watered down. Maybe it could have used a bit more fruit or lime juice. IDK, maybe agua fresca is supposed to taste more like water?

Our server, Yesenia, was very friendly and nice. She accommodated our requests and gave us half off margaritas. Her lovely smiles were much...

I really wanted to like it, but I was just disappointed. The menu looked promising, but the food was just not up to par. We had the Aguachiles tostada, while it tasted good, it did not taste like aguachiles. We had the mole fries and the red mole was super sweet and not in a good way and I like my mole a little on the sweet side. It had an after taste that I just couldn't get past it. Also had the Pulpo in mojo verde, highly recommended by the waiter, and it was just not good at all. The octopus was cooked right but the mojo was just too salty and over powering. I had to add lemon and the salsa they bring with the chips so it can be edible. And the potatoes that accompanied the dish where just swimming in oil....Very disappointed. I would return if they get a different cook or tweak the recipes. The menu has a good concept just poor execution. Note to Bizarra: If you are serving cochinita pibil either put it on a taco or learn how to make a Salbute instead of putting it on a sope and you would have a winning dish.....rant...