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| - The best part of the meal at Chino Bandido was the free snickerdoodle cookie. On the outside, it had a flaky crust with a dusting of cinnamon, and on the inside, it was warm and chewy. Oh yeahhhh!!!! Unfortunately, when the best part of the meal is the free desert, then Phoenix, we have a problem. I feel really bad about giving this place a bad review, especially since they were so nice about giving free samples before I ordered. Unfortunately, from my experience, it really is all hype here. As I tried the samples, most of the Chinese dishes, including the signature Jade Red Chicken, were either overly sweet or not spicy enough. Even if this place is an inexpensive hole-in-the-wall, I expected much better since it was featured on DDD, but especially because their website says one of the co-founders is of Chinese descent. The only other Mexican dish to sample besides carnitas was the pollo diablo which tasted more Chinese than Mexican.
By the time I finished trying all the samples, however, I felt obligated to give this place a try, so I ordered the combo with jerk fried rice, emerald chicken, carnitas wrapped as a burrito, and refried beans for about $7.25. At first, it seemed like there would be almost too much food because the combos come in nice big aluminum take-out pans, but instead of serving all the items on top of a steaming gut-busting bed of jerk rice, mine had only a 1/3-pan wedge of rice to the side of the other items. Come on guys....rice does not cost that much! Even the combos from Chinese fast food take-outs in strip malls come with more rice!
The jerk rice was salty and slightly spicy but did not have that habanero allspice garlicky cinnamon nutmeg taste I usually associate with jerk seasoning. The pulled pork that passed for carnitas did not taste as if it was slow roasted nor was it seasoned with anything other than salt. It was simply a greasy stale wad of shredded pork wrapped in a tortilla without any salsa, guacamole, or cilantro to make it more interesting. The refried beans had a meager sprinkling of melted cheese but were otherwise bland and pasty. The best part of the main meal was the emerald chicken which consisted of sliced chicken breast meat covered with an overly-salted, but flavorful, green onion & ginger sauce, but it seemed as if the sauce was simply poured onto unmarinated chicken. The pathetic metal stand they called a "salsa bar" had plastic eating utensils, napkins, soy sauce packets, and siracha sauce packets...but no salsa!
Now, some people have characterized this place as fusion cuisine. I don't mean to be a gourmet snob, but the food here is definitely not fusion! It's simply a hodge podge of dishes from different cuisines put side-by-side onto the same plate, similar to a "Hawaiian plate lunch." If Chino Bandido had actually synergized Chinese and Mexican foods into unique new creations, such as crispy fried wontons filled with carne asada & queso fresco with a side of Sichuan peppercorn-spiced bean dip, steamed chipotle-lime crystal shrimp dumplings (har gow), or hoisin mole sauce-smothered enchiladas stuffed with shredded Hunan beef & roasted pasilla chiles and garnished with cebollitas & pomegranate seeds, well then, my friends...I would call this fusion! As it is, the combination of Chinese and Mexican food, or at least their version of it, clashes. If you crave heavily-Americanized Chinese food served with a lackluster attempt at Mexican food, then this is the destination for you! Although their food is edible, the weak and unremarkable flavors here carry more weight towards my enjoyment of the meal than their intriguing idea of serving Chinese and Mexican dishes together. I can otherwise find much better Mexican food down the road at one of those cheap fast-food burrito stands and better Chinese food at a shopping mall food court.
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