The mission of Nacional 27 when it opened almost a decade ago was practically impossible. To feature the cuisine of "South and Central America and the Latin Caribbean" -- which includes, by someone's count, 27 countries (hence the name) -- was asking a bit much of any chef/kitchen/organization -- even if the organization was Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.
Nacional 27 was starting a culinary revolution that had a hand in the whole idea of Nuevo Latino as a brand. I have been to Nacional 27 only twice since it opened, but it looks to me as if that 27-country idea has been whittled down to three or four, and that's a good thing. But what's in a name? Show me the food.
In the early hours of most evenings, Nacional 27 is a quiet restaurant that serves good food in a plush nightclub atmosphere. A nice buzz circles the room, and conversation is all about whispers and soft tones. As the evening wears on, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, this place does an about-face. Now you are in a nightclub (the tables in the center of the dining room make way for a dance floor) that just happens to serve food, as the music -- sultry salsa and moving merengue -- gets patrons up and on their feet.
First-course choices are a nice mix of seviche creations and tapas. Nacional 27 was one of the first restaurants to dive deep into the seviche craze. The seviche ordering process allows for individual servings or a sampler platter. For example, four people could each select a seviche (five to choose from), and the $9.95 price per person includes one oyster shooter per person. The presentation was quite elaborate (call it seviche on ice) and the seafood could not have been fresher. Knock back the oyster shooter and have at it.
Two of the four seviche choices -- hamachi mojito and ahi tuna and watermelon -- were terrific. The Atlantic halibut was bland, and the poached shrimp and celery reminded us of an overblown Bloody Mary (non-alcoholic, of course) .
"Tiny Taco" choices were quite good. We ordered a "flight" of three. Grouper mixed it up with olives and slaw. Lamb got a mild avocado salsa. And grilled beef tenderloin got splashed with a spicy tomatillo salsa. The extra sauces on the side for added interest were quite good.
Not so good was the calamari a la plancha. The "plancha" part implies cooking over a very hot metal plate. If that was the cooking method in the kitchen, then something was amiss. The rings of squid were gussied up with too much sauce, as in a salsa cruda (olives, lemon), so the squid was squishy-bad.
Main-course choices were fine, especially the citrus chicken Milenesa. This is a version of the classic Italian chicken Milanese, in which a boneless chicken breast is pounded thin, lightly breaded and pan-fried. And all went well. The chicken was quite flavorful and delicious, the flavors amped with a piquillo-garlic aioli. A tangy-crunchy vegetable slaw nicely rounded out the plate.
As for the grilled marinated skirt steak, I have had better and I have had worse. This one was a little tough around the edges and lacked that deep, grilled flavor that I associate with skirt steak that I have had, say, in a steak burrito. A form of guacamole and a salsa cruda flanked the steak, and both were kind of boring.
Desserts were interesting. The "Ice Cream Sandwich" was a joke of sorts, with two scoops of ice cream separated by a couple of crispy cookies. Come on, you can do better than that.
Better by far were the cuatro chocolates, with a shooter glass of chocolate shake, a square each of checkerboard cake, chocolate cake and chocolate sorbet. Don't worry about the calories -- it's a few bites of each, and the bites were pleasing.
Pat Bruno is a local free-lance critic and author. E-mail brunoeats@aol.com. Listen to Pat Bruno talk about food and wine Tuesdays at 6:23 p.m. and 10:23 p.m., and 7:53 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays on WBBM News Radio 780-AM.
