Review: Foothills Mexican restaurant dishes up classy dining

Its menu, recently redone, traipses from the Oaxacan jungles to coastal Veracruz to the familiar Sonoran desert.

El Cisne — which means “The Swan” in Spanish — opened in January 2013 in the space that long housed Papagayo Mexican Restaurant and Cantina in Plaza Bel Air, on the northeast corner of Sunrise Drive and Swan Road.

George Ferranti, who teamed with his father, Phillip Ferranti, to open the restaurant, says they brought in some of their staff from La Placita Cafe, including head cook Alicia Gastelum. Phillip Ferranti owned La Placita for close to 18 years until selling it in 2005.

At El Cisne, the team wanted to create an experience similar to “what you would find in any of the big cities in Mexico for a fine dining restaurant,” George Ferranti said.

The spacious dining room is the sort of place you imagine celebrating a special event or gathering for a business lunch, while the bar, tucked behind a wall and hidden from most of the tables, nods to a more regular crowd. The restaurant also has a small patio out front.

Swan decór perches around the dining room and pops of color from red tablecloths make the restaurant warm and inviting. The Ferrantis picked up some of the art on the walls during European travels, says George Ferranti.

This is Foothills Mexican fare.

FOR STARTERS

We have no shame about this — the chips and salsa that a Mexican restaurant serves make a lasting impression on us. Here, it was a good one. The lightly salted chips showed up right away, accompanied by salsa that finds the middle ground between chunky and soupy, biting and bland. We like a nice kick.

The menu’s seafood emphasis begins with the aperitivos, or appetizers. We ordered the jalapeños rellenos ($9), breaded and baked jalapeños stuffed with shrimp and crab. For dunking purposes, the restaurant’s signature dressing arrives with the four peppers. After a few, fiery bites, we were thankful for the sauce that Ferranti said is mayonnaise-and salsa-based.

Sticking with the seafood offerings, we also went with the ceviche del mar ($10), which could easily stand as a lighter meal of its own. The zest of citrus and a sprinkle of cilantro nicely pull together the corvina fish, gulf shrimp, cucumber, onion and tomato. With a slice of avocado crowning the bowl, don’t expect your corn tortilla chips to stand up to the challenge of scooping this thick mix. We had more than one chip casualty.

BRING ON THE MEAT

That’s not to say El Cisne skips the vegetarian options, but after two visits to the restaurant, the meats stand out.

From chicken to beef to fish, our inner carnivore rejoiced — and we didn’t even get around to trying the Oaxacan-style chuleta de cerdo ($22). Ferranti called the grilled, French-cut pork chops smothered in molé sauce one of the more popular dishes.

We ordered our first entrée on the recommendation of our waitress — the Veracruz-style camarones culiche, which came with a side of rice and beans ($19). We counted six jumbo gulf shrimp swimming in a creamy, green poblano sauce under a layer of melted, mozzarella cheese. Alone, the rich sauce would overwhelm after a point, but drizzled onto the side garnish of lettuce, tomatoes and queso fresco or ladled out with one of three corn tortillas, it is decadent and savory all at once.

We paired the shrimp with typical Sonoran fare: The carne con chile chimichanga, enchilada style, served with beans or rice ($14). We chose green chile beef wrapped in a crunchy, flour tortilla and doused in red enchilada sauce. All of it blended to showcase the fork-tender chunks of certified Angus sirloin. Eater beware, this is classic Mexican food with gigantic portions. You don’t go for the chimi if you aren’t prepared to tuck in.

With memories of our food coma fresh, we made some different choices on trip No. 2, ordering the ensalada topopo with chicken ($10). Again, the meat did not disappoint. We found the generous heap of shredded chicken the centerpiece of an otherwise basic taco salad. Mixed greens, tomatoes, black olives and black beans (you can also pick refried pinto beans) filled our crispy flour tortilla bowl.

Slivers of avocado and shredded cheese topped the mound. The dressing, served on the side, is the same secret sauce that comes with the jalapeños rellenos. We skipped it, preferring the lighter salsa already on our table.

Another coastal jaunt introduced us to the poached salmon from the Oaxacan portion of the menu, served with rice and beans ($18). Drenched in a smoky béchamel sauce spiced with chipotle chiles and cilantro, the flaky salmon needed no knife. Both sauce and salmon pleased, but the fish was so delicate, we felt like its subtle flavor and tender texture disappeared in the sauce.

THE SWEET SPOT

This is how you (and a friend) want to end a meal: With general manager Nancy Carnero’s Peruvian torta de leche, or five milks cake ($7). The giant slice of chilled, white cake comes out oozing and moist — and we mean this in the very best way.

Two layers of cake soaked in five milks (condensed, evaporated, etc.) sandwich a layer of fluffy, chantilly frosting and seasonal fruits. The fruit was fresh, but our waiter wasn’t entirely sure about the selection. This is why you eat light — to save room for this piece of heaven.

THE SERVICE

We stopped by El Cisne on two Sundays, once during chaotic dinner hours and the second time for a quieter lunch. In both instances, our food (and check) arrived at a leisurely pace, though the staff zoomed around, multitasking, even on our Sunday lunch when the restaurant was less than half full.

This is not the kind of place where you should expect to order, eat and leave in a rush. At lunch, we had to do some creative gesturing to request forgotten salad dressing, and dinner required a similar wave-down for the check.

Still, we found the staff friendly and willing to chat about each dish. Our waitress at dinner won us over, stopping her mile-a-minute pace to chat in-depth about the menu. And after dinner, she loaded up our doggie bag with extra chips and salsa. For us, that’s a win.