I gave this place one star because the guacamole was good and the interior is clean.. Everything…read moreelse: service, presentation and actual food was bad.
We're vegetarians, who don't make a lot of demands. We asked if we could get a taco without ground meat. We were told no. We tried small changes (beans instead of meat, no meat added, etc.) but the waitress said she wouldn't even put it on the ticket because the "cook would just ignore it" as she made motion of throwing a ticket over her shoulder. She seemed a little irritated that we asked about items on the menu. Each time came by, she would say in an irritated tone "are you ready YET" . Since it was obvious this restaurant was not interested in meeting any dietary needs of their customers, we decided to just order something we could eat without asking any more questions.
My husband got chips and salsa, and the cheese chile relleno with rice and beans. Since I couldn't substitute anything and I would end up giving my husband my rice, I ordered the papitas à la carte and the cheese enchilada plate with rice and beans. I also got a small (VERY small) guacamole.
Now that the ordeal of ordering was over we relaxed and enjoyed the ambience. It is a clean little place and although they were several people dining it was quiet. The chairs were comfortable the tables were big enough. The interior was nicely decorated. One of the things that drew us to the restaurant was that Yelp stated they had outdoor patio. We didn't go to the patio but my husband looked at it before we ate and said that it was a nice, separate area across the parking lot. I told him we'd have to try it the next time we came.
Then our food arrived.
It's always been my opinion that it's very hard to mess up Mexican food, whether it's New Mexican or Tex-Mex. Basically it's corn, beans, rice, posole, salsas, with cheese or meat. Kocina de Rapfael proved me wrong!
Without having been in the kitchen I can't swear, but I strongly believe that they had pre-cooked the food and put it somewhere to sit until somebody ordered it. I suspected it when they wouldn't make even the most simple substitution that every Mexican restaurant has
always been willing to do. But when the food came my suspicion grew into a certainty.
You could beat on my enchiladas with a fork (see video) and it would literally make a sound like hitting a hard surface. I've never been given a steak knife for cheese enchiladas before, but I needed it to cut through the laminated tortillas that they had wrapped around a big glom of cheese that was so hard it made me gag to swallow it. The cheese on top was burnt to the plate and made a solid, inedible surface on top of the tortillas. I managed to cut a bite, but I couldn't chew it. I had to do that awkward spit it in your napkin thing, hoping that the surrounding diners wouldn't see it and be grossed out. I tried cutting the side of the enchilada open and just eating some of the cheese and it was another disaster. The cheese inside the enchilada was something I've never encountered. It was cheddar, it tasted like cheddar, but it was such a big glob and was so hard that it was making me gag to try and chew it.
The papitas tasted like old MacDonald fries that had been put back in the fryer for a minute then served. Instead of being crunchy or crispy they were soft in the middle and hard to chew around the edges.
The beans were a pile of dry, smashed up refried beans with no flavor, no seasoning. I don't think they used cumin or other traditional spices and it's doubtful they used lard because they were tasteless and so dry you had to take a sip of your drink to choke them down. I didn't taste the Spanish rice because I don't like it, but it was drenched in tomato sauce to such an extent that it was not even a semblance of light and fluffy rice, more like tomato rice soup.
My husband's chile relleno was not that great either. He said it tasted like it came frozen out of a box, heated up and smothered in green and red sauce. He said the breading on the chile relleno was doughy with no flavor just a huge portion of cheese in the relleno and then smothered in hot sauces.
They warn on their menu to be very careful because their sauces are so hot.. My husband will eat hot sauce so hot it makes his nose sweat! He said it wasn't very hot so I tasted it. I'm the person who gets the mild salsa from Taco Bell and the grocery store. I can't take any heat and I was eating that sauce just fine. Must've been an off day in the heat department.
I've never had such badly prepared food in a restaurant in my life.
What a disappointment!
We immediately asked for a to go box to bring it home and see if the dogs liked it. They didn't.
I don't recommend this restaurant to anyone under any circumstances even if you're starving and it's the only place open I would recommend you go to Walmart and get some at the deli.
