Aqimero, The Ritz Carlton, Philadelphia, PA USA

Enjoyed at the lobby restaurant of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Aqimero is a great Latin restaurant with an excellent lunchtime offering.

A day trip to Philly from Boston – one of the easiest commutes imageable. Both airports are fairly close to the city, both cities have easy highways connecting them to their transportation hubs, and there are, what feels like, 100 flights a day between the two.

We had lunch on the agenda for a Monday afternoon, and the quick trip was an enjoyable one to make. In fact, choosing which airline to take was nearly as entertaining as researching lunchtime options for our group.

We settled on Aqimero – a self-described elegant wood-burning Latin grill, complete with club sandwich… a sandwich I hoped would embrace this Latin flair. Sounded good to our group!

When the plating came out, I was pleased to see the very well executed side salad – no boring iceberg to be found – attached to the meal and not floating separately next to it. I was extremely impressed with this side salad, blown away actually, and while it had no Latin flair, it delivered deliciousness and variety on an awesome level. Thank you Aqimero for not holding back on this dish.

I’ll admit, the circle plate with the two club half’s sitting back to back came off a bit disjointed though…. While it didn’t detract from the meal, it didn’t enhance it either, and this presentation left room for plating improvement. Remember, you always eat with your eyes first.

But back to the club sandwich – a well ratio’d mix of protein and flavorful condiments, I had high hopes prior to biting down.

A juicy, meaty tomato cut through and blended harmoniously with the slender layer of creamy guacamole on the bottom, and the spicy, uplifting tones brought by the chipotle mayo on the top. Well layered sliced turkey gave way to a nicely textured taste, along with the crispy albeit not-overly-flavorful bacon. The two proteins did their best to pack in flavor, although they came up slightly short… maybe the condiments just overpowered the subtleness of them.

The bread, evenly toasted yet still soft, really brought the meal together, and I finished the entire sandwich… doing my best to prevent the sauces from getting all over my hand and face.

Loved the meal, loved the conversation, loved the easy commute – I could do this more often!

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