Let me say first and foremost that the Executive Chef Luis Arce Mota deserves 4 stars, his food is excellent, really surprisingly delicious and well prepared. The waitstaff and the front of house deserve 1 star; they brought down the entire experience, they were aloof and not attentive.
The story:
After walking around for literally hours with a friend who was visiting from out of town, we stumbled upon Ofrenda. For whatever reason, although it's anchored on a corner of the bustling 7th Ave South, I've never noticed this place before. Upon entering, the small store front opens into a dimly lit, decent sized dining space adorned with calacas (the skeletons typically seen as decoration for the Mexican Day of the dead festival). A local artist's work is haphazardly sprinkled amidst etchings, drawings and sculptures of the skeletons, and framed with an offensive, obviously hand-crafted glitter paper, with hand-written labels.
We are seated at a small table for two, and while we hungrily peruse the menu placed before us, we notice that my cohort's napkin is stained in some odd blue liquid. For the moment we don't care because we see the restaurant's bar includes an impressive range of mid to high-end tequilas. The counter top is lined with (the hipster-favorite) mason jars stuffed with fresh herbs used to create some pretty tasty signature cocktails. I order the smoky jalapeno margarita with morita pepper infused tequila, orange liquor, lime juice and agave. After a bit of a wait, my beverage arrives in a glass whose rim is coated with a brick-colored spicy salt for a little extra kick. We sip our drinks and put down our menu's. We watch the hostess walk by us a handful of times, without even a glance in our direction. Our waitress is sitting at the bar eating dinner, chatting with the bar tender. Eventually, I grab the attention of the hostess and show her the tainted napkin and we both place our order. We have enough time to slowly sip our drinks, talk about the decor, use the restroom, all the while assuming that the distracted hostess, or our hungry waitress might notice we need our appetizer, and a refill. No such luck. We successfully flag someone down for a refill, and remind them about the dirty napkin that is yet to be replaced.
Finally our appetizer arrives. Taquitos de pollo- three crispy tortillas stuffed with potato and chicken, topped with sour cream and guacamole. We both agree these are the BEST taquitos we've had in our lives. Not too heavily fried, home made sour cream, the perfect balance of whipped potato and tender juicy chicken rolled inside. Incredible. By, the way, had to remind them AGAIN about that napkin before indulging.
Cut to the chase, much more time goes by, we grow irritated and discuss the restaurant's pitfalls because we annoyingly can't focus on anything else. It has now become the topic of our dinner conversation. Eventually we are graced with the presence of our entrees. Tonight I have puerco a la parrilla con jalapeno- grilled pork chop, chorizo salsa, pomegranate sauce, cactus pad and hominy. This was the best Mexican entree I have experienced. The flavors were well defined individually, but worked perfectly together. Everything tasted fresh and the pork chop was tender and not overdone (which is honestly a pretty rare occurrence). At this point I'm so impressed that I now feel badly for this poor chef tucked away in the kitchen, preparing mouth-watering dishes, completely unaware that his staff is ruining his career. I mean I could literally taste the potential in that pork chop.
Last, but most certainly not least, as we're (again) waiting, this time for the bill, we see a large creature scurry from the hostess' podium to a bar stool. No, not a mouse, but a really large cockroach. Part of me hoped it might crawl up the pant leg of our waitress, or any other member of our negligent staff.
The verdict:
Chef Mota, this review is a wake up call for you. Call the exterminator, and fire your staff, you really deserve better. Otherwise, thank you for a top-notch dinner, I really enjoyed it. read more