Consider Bocaditos a work in progress. The restaurant (whose name means “little bites” in Spanish) at the new South American exhibit of the Brookfield Zoo has several solid building blocks for its foundation:
An eye-pleasing layout dominated by natural wood, bright colors and sunlight. The place seats 180 indoors and 80 on the balcony (where diners can ask for binoculars to spot Andean condors).
– The location, making it the first full-service restaurant at the zoo and a more civilized reprieve from walkup hot dog and barbecue stands.
– Attentive service (swift with pink lemonade refills on a hot day).
– A selection of South American beers and Chilean wines.
– A reasonably priced tapas menu that satisfies a range of appetites.
-Yet there is room for improvement.
We start with queso de cabra al horno ($4.25), goat cheese baked in tomato basil sauce, a standard dish at tapas restaurants. The version here is OK, though not helped by the cracked and charred pottery in which it is served. But the break point of this dish is the disappointing bread, which is not crusty as promised and far too moist without much flavor.
The shrimp fritters (two for $3) save the first round. A light batter is fried just enough to brown the outside while keeping the shrimp-vegetable filling crunchy-good. An accompanying pepper sauce is a sweet-hot variation on cocktail sauce.
Our next round begins with conchas a la Parmesana ($5.50), nearly a dozen small scallops in garlic butter, dusted with Parmesan cheese. Some of the scallops are firm and without aftertaste; others make you appreciate the fresher ones. The whole dish seems heavy on the garlic.
Two cold bocaditos helped cut the garlic. The papas a la huancaina ($3.25) is one of three traditional potato dishes. A Peruvian favorite of sliced boiled potatoes and boiled egg in a thick cream sauce, it has peppery power. It pairs nicely with alcachofas ($3.25), a refreshing blend of artichoke hearts, black olives and roasted peppers.
We also slipped some of the alcachofas on the torta de pescado ($3.50), which is a generous and deliciously fresh chunk of Chilean sea bass on crusty French bread sprinkled with lime juice. The sea bass is lightly battered yet firm. Lettuce, onion and red peppers already are on the sandwich, but the artichoke provides a missing kick.
A lively side of black bean and corn salad ($2.75) also goes well with the sandwich. Like all portions here, the salad provides plenty to share.
Bocaditos has a children’s menu, including salchipapas ($2.75 for slices of grilled hot dog served over French fries), but you might try to persuade your kids to try something new.
You can reward the kids (and yourself) with desserts such as a crepe stuffed with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with caramel pecan sauce ($3), flan ($2.50) or the cubed purple corn pudding ($2) that is most definitely purple and tastes more like Jell-O than corn or pudding
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Bocaditos
(Fork)
Brookfield Zoo, 8400 W. 31st St.
708-485-0263
Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily June-Sept.; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. daily Oct.-May.
Credit cards: A, D, M, V
Wheelchair accessible
RATINGS KEY: 4 forks: Top of the class 3 forks: Better than most 2 forks: Very good fare 1 fork: Middle of the road
