Eating House serves modern, zesty options for lunch

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Eating House sous-chef Adriana “Lip” Egozcue prepares tacos with her own Sra. Lip’s salsa.
‘Baja’ tacos are served for lunch on a casual red tray and basket. Nancy Cermeno // Contributing Photographer

serve it up: Eating House sous-chef Adriana “Lip” Egozcue prepares tacos with her own Sra. Lip’s salsa. Baja tacos are served for lunch in a casual red basket on a tray.

Eating House, the modern restaurant that has earned a following from local foodies, now offers a lunch you eat with your hands to make a sloppy fool out of yourself in front of the chef as he pours you more water.

It does not help that Giorgio Rapicavoli is a young rising star chef who, at 26, fulfilled his lifelong dream of opening a restaurant he could call his own.

But his commitment to serving good food means he does not judge you when you have crema (Central American creme fraiche) dripping down your cheek and hands.

Eating House has unpretentious tables built by the chef himself, and the decor is simple but well thought-out. The gray walls, dark wood furnishings and street art play to Miami’s urban culture.

The Miami Heat paraphernalia and sneakers that adorn the bookshelf wall make you feel as if you are stepping into a hip professionals loft turned restaurant.

Lunch is a simple but frequently changing 15-item menu that includes soups, salads, sandwiches, sides and sweets. It is lead by Eating House sous-chef Adriana “Lip” Egozcue and served from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

You order the baja tacos because you decide that the lunch menu could only be as good as its tacos.

You also order lentil tabouleh because sometimes you like to think you’re a vegetarian.

You also order a WTF cookie for the kid in you (and boy, did you have a WTF moment when you found out the cookie was inspired by carrot cake).

The WTF cookie is meant to be a surprise. You think you have a white macadamia nut cookie, but one bite of the cream cheese frosting with bits of carrots, almonds and other nuts that you eat too fast to remember, and you realize the origin for the exclamatory name.

The reggae music reminds you to enjoy the simple things in life like the delightful tacos you are eating.

Rapicavoli says the sous-chef is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to tacos, making the corn tortillas herself in the morning.

The seafood in the tacos varies by day, but yours are made with shrimp, crema with lime zest, avocado puree, cilantro, coleslaw and Egozcue’s salsa, amazingly fresh and moderately hot.

Egozcue is a chef after your own heart, and you find yourself admiring her more than the handsome young gentlemen you are surrounded by.

 

Eating House is located at 804 Ponce De Leon Blvd., Coral Gables.