Please pass the tapas

OK, New York visitor in town -- New York teen, to be precise -- so where do I take her on a Sunday night? Someplace lively and casual, someplace that would fall in the category “only in L.A.”

I rummage through the possibilities and come up with the perfect solution: Ciudad. Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, known as the “Too Hot Tamales” to their many cooking show fans, launched a Sunday-night tapas menu in early August and I’ve been meaning to check it out.

Ciudad (Spanish for “city”) is usually thronged at lunch, quieter in the evenings. But when we pull up in front of the downtown restaurant, we can hear the beat of the music and see an interesting-looking crowd occupying the patio. That, it turns out, is a private party. Inside, the dining room is filling, and we, in fact, get one of the last free tables.

First order of business: drinks. For Bibi, a delicious limeade. For us the question is, should we go with the killer margaritas or capoeira or any of the other tropical cocktails proposed by the bar?

Or should we go with wine? The list has a nice selection of Spanish, Argentine and Chilean bottles. I’m torn. I want a margarita, but everybody else wants vino. And so I cede the choice to the guys, who order just what I thought they’d order: a Rioja.

When Milliken and Feniger decide to do tapas, they don’t fool around. The menu is a long list of wonderfully eclectic choices from their vast repertoire and, like the restaurant’s regular menu, embraces accents and influences from all the Latin countries. They’re small plates -- that goes without saying -- but most are large enough that four people can easily get a taste of everything.

We start off with a bowl of spiced almonds, a sumptuous grilled artichoke lavished with aioli and fluffy goat cheese fritters the size of golf balls. After a bit of surgery on the fritters, everybody gets a bite. The debate is whether we should get another order; somebody really likes the Sherry-soaked cherries that come with it.

Instead, we move on to empanadas, those fat little turnovers stuffed with either cheese and greens with tomatillo and chipotle sauces or a spinach version that comes with pine nuts and raisins. In the end, the spinach has a slight edge, but they’re both delicious.

From the next round, I love the pale green fresh lima beans with crisp bits of serrano ham. Ditto for the lamb meatballs served with a minty chimichurri sauce and soothing yogurt. Deviled eggs go Latin with a touch of chipotle chile and smoked paprika. And everybody wants more of the grilled morcilla (blood sausage) perched on little toasts with caramelized onions.

Again, the visiting New Yorker wants seconds on the fritters, this time salt cod fritters with a drizzle of honey. I second the motion. We follow with a small bowl of very decent saffron paella laced with seafood, chorizo and chicken.

By this time, our little group is flagging. But somehow we find room for dessert, namely a seriously rich goat milk flan, an order of churros and a cookie plate. The highlight should be the churros, but the kitchen stumbles badly tonight. These are sorry skinny things, tepid and not at all crunchy. Back to the drafting board on these.

As we polish off the cookies, Bibi looks up and asks, “Where is everybody? It’s not even 9 o’clock. In New York, everybody would just be coming.”

I don’t know how to tell her that in downtown Los Angeles, achieving 9 o’clock is quite a feat.

And besides, for her, it really is midnight. Time for bed.

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Tapas at Ciudad

Where: 445 S. Figueroa St., downtown Los Angeles

When: 5-9 p.m. Sundays; full bar and valet parking

Cost: Tapas, $4-$12

Info: (213) 486-5171