My family and I have been here several times over the past few months, and it has always been good,…read morewith the occasional comment of, "Well, I won't order that again." But for the most part very good the enchiladas are fabulous, the tlayuda delicious and many other meals.
I genuinely liked this place.
But after tonight, I have to say that the complete lack of respect shown toward the food was mind-blowing. There were three things tonight that simply could not be forgiven.
1. The Ceviche Trio
The pulpo was chewy as a bouncy ball wrapped in rubber bands--completely inedible.
The fish had no salt, no acidity, and was cut so poorly that I made the joke that the cook must have forgotten his knives at home, thrown it against the wall a few times, and said, "Well, that's good enough."
The shrimp was effectively a cheap riff on shrimp cocktail, if they had remembered to clean the shrimp before serving it.
I've had better ceviche from Taco Bell.
Granted, that was from a vagrant selling what I thought was ceviche outside Taco Bell, so take that for what it's worth. Either way, it was loads better.
I hope it was fish.
2. The Al Pastor Tacos -- "Served Table-Side"
When you read that something is being served table-side, you imagine someone coming out of the kitchen with beautifully marinated, succulent pork piled high on a proper trompo, topped with pineapple, slowly roasting and caramelizing away as you wait for it to be carved right there at your table.
Instead, out comes a busser with a trompito, spinning a metal skewer and attempting to give the meat some sort of roasted effect with a blowtorch emblazoned with "Ace Hardware."
He then passes me this metal box containing room-temperature, dry pork that tasted like it was made with a seasoning packet.
Not to mention there was no practical way to eat it. You basically had to tear the meat from the skewer with your hands because the apparatus was so cumbersome. If the butter knife provided had actually been capable of cutting the meat, it would have fallen directly into my lap.
It was as if they took the iconic mid-century dish made famous in Mexico City and decided to serve it à la Easy-Bake Oven.
This was an absolute failure of a dish from concept to execution.
3. The Pork Fajitas
We have all had and loved fajitas: sizzling meat, onions, and peppers arriving at the table still sizzling away.
This was not that.
This was stew meat in a puddle of broth.
Soggy and overcooked, with no caramelization and barely any flavor.
One Positive
My brother said his pork belly tacos were nice.
And honestly, that's part of what makes tonight so disappointing. We've been here several times. I genuinely liked this place. I understand that not every dish is going to be a winner, and I've certainly had meals here where I thought, "Well, I won't order that again."
But tonight wasn't a matter of one disappointing dish.
It was three dishes that felt like nobody involved had any respect for what they were supposed to be.
