Ortanique

You may remember Ortanique from its 21 years on Miracle Mile, where it served “cuisine of the sun”—dishes with tropical flavors like jerked pork chop with guava rum sauce and seared ahi tuna with mango and papaya salsa. We sure do. Sadly, the restaurant closed in 2020 at the height of covid. But it’s now back as a pop-up inside MKT Kitchen, which has completely transformed to look like the Ortanique of yesteryear.

Those sheer white curtains are back, and so are the hand-painted oranges on the walls. There are only ten tables in the small dining room, so it can get loud and feel tight. But one bite of the coffee and cocoa crusted steak with creamed corn polenta is enough to prove that the food is still as extraordinary as it was two decades ago. It helps that you’re also eating directly from the original Ortanique plates. The chef’s still got it, and you’ll probably see her chatting with old regulars. But even if you're not one of them, you should still stop by for the mango tres leches—especially because the pop-up ends on December 16. 

Oranique’s menu is prix fixe and priced at $98 per person (excluding gratuity). It includes an amuse bouche like beer battered red snapper, an appetizer, an entree, and dessert. The menu changes weekly, so you may not always find that pork chop, but hits like mussels with scotch bonnet peppers in Red Stripe broth rotate in and out. Ortanique is open Thursday through Saturday and reservations are hard to come by. But you’re in luck. The only way to make one is by calling, and unlike those of us who grew up eating Ortanique’s food, Gen Z suffers from a terrible case of phone-phobia.