I want to begin with an important distinction: my two-star rating is not meant to suggest that the…read morefood was terrible, the service was bad, or the restaurant unpleasant.
It reflects something a little harder to quantify: value.
The amount a restaurant asks me to pay inevitably creates a certain expectation. Food, service, atmosphere and price don't exist independently of one another; they form a package. And for me, the package simply didn't come together here.
There were things I genuinely liked.
We sat outside, beneath a corrugated metal covering, and I actually enjoyed the design of the space. The tables and chairs are a refreshing departure from the polished, corporate, "haven't I seen this in twelve other restaurants?" look. And the candle wall at the far end of the patio is simply wonderful--warm, cozy and genuinely beautiful.
Unfortunately, the food didn't live up to the setting or the prices.
We each had a beer: an 11.16-ounce can for $10. It was cold, fresh and perfectly drinkable. It also wasn't particularly good. Obviously, the restaurant didn't brew it, but ultimately they chose it, priced it and served it.
We also shared the Chicken Empanadas ($18) and Mariscos Fritos ($22).
The empanadas were... meh. Nothing particularly wrong with them, but nothing that made me want another one, either.
The Mariscos Fritos were the bigger disappointment. The menu promises calamari and shrimp, although I honestly had trouble identifying much of either. There was plenty of fennel, which was far too raw for my taste, and the dish was a considerable distance from what I would describe as "cooked to perfection."
And I want to be fair here: nothing tasted spoiled. Nothing appeared to have been fried in old oil. Nothing was inedible. We finished the plate.
It simply wasn't enjoyable.
The service was perfectly fine and, frankly, perfectly forgettable--and I don't necessarily mean that as criticism. Good service can be a little like music in a movie: sometimes you barely notice it, but you'd certainly notice if it weren't there. Nothing about the service bothered me, and nothing particularly stood out.
What finally crystallized my feelings was looking to my right from our table and seeing a parking lot. At one point I was being blinded by the headlights of a car whose driver needed about four attempts to park.
Had I been looking at the Caribbean Sea, I might have sipped my $10 canned beer, eaten my rather ordinary appetizers and thought, Well... I'm paying for the whole experience.
But I wasn't looking at the Caribbean Sea. I was looking at a parking lot.
And perhaps that's the best way I can explain the two stars.
Two $10 beers and two appetizers brought us to $60 before tax and tip. That amount, by itself, doesn't offend me. I've happily spent similar amounts elsewhere and walked away thinking, Worth it.
Here, I didn't.
The food wasn't terrible. The service wasn't bad. The setting had some genuinely lovely touches. And the prices, considered in isolation, aren't outrageous.
They simply didn't belong together.
For what we ate, where we ate it, and the overall experience we received, I left feeling that what I had paid and what I had received were too far apart.
And ultimately, that's what I'm rating.
