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| - LOCATION: This restaurant is indeed in a part of Phoenix (south of I-10) known to be a "bad" neighborhood. This is no easy badge to earn, because, unlike most other cities, there aren't good neighborhood separated from bad ones: Phoenix is one of the few cities I've ever been to, where you can have a million dollar home and two doors down from it is a crack house. Bizarre, but true. Having said that, I personally would not want to come here when the sun is down, but when we arrived at 6pm, it was quiet and I didn't feel uneasy about the surroundings.
PARKING LOT: The entrance to the restaurant is off of Garfield and not 16th Street, which you'll be taking to get here. This is important, because you'd think it would have an entrance to the parking lot from the main road; it doesn't. The parking lot, like the restaurant, is small and they share it with a barber shop, which threatens to tow if you park in their spots. Obviously, this is no problem after they close; but during business hours, I imagine it can be hard to find spots which "belong" to the restaurant.
THE RESTAURANT: And, like the parking lot, the restaurant is small inside. There aren't a lot of tables, so it wouldn't take much to fill up the place. The decor is typical "Mexican": lots of colors, nature motifs, sombreros, etc. It may be jarring for some conservative Anglo types, but they more than likely wouldn't come here anyway. The pinks, blues, greens, yellows and other colors so typical of the Mexican Pacific seem to blend nicely and don't seem garrish at all. Now, as I said, the place is small. So, for example, someone sitting at the table behind me actually had to pass next to my table to get to their seat. Not a big deal and she politely excused herself twice. This might be unacceptable in a 3 or 4 star restaurant or even something simply "formal". But the atmosphere in this place is far from formal. It's friendly, loud, noisy and familiar. If you don't like people and if you're uptight about someone walking past you while you're eating, you won't like this place. If you're there to enjoy the food, have a good time with friends, or don't mind a lively atmosphere, you'll do fine here. That being said, I believe, I read somewhere that they have live Mariachi music on Fridays. I'm not a fan of the genre, but even if I were, as small as that place is, I have a strong feeling it would be very LOUD while the music was being performed. There are two TVs in the place, which, typical for this kind of venue, were playing soccer. They were not loud and did not intrude on personal conversations. The place also seems to have a full bar and a number of beer specials.
THE FOOD: Being older and having to bring in my reading glasses, one of the things I very much appreciated about the menu was each item being listed in Spanish and English, with Spanish written in blue and English in yellow ink. This made it much easier to separate the two and quickly see what was what. I ordered a fish combo which was supposed to come with octopus and shrimp and with a creamy mushroom sauce. It was not a "combo" in the sense that most Americans would be used to. I expected there to be some fish filet, some shrimp and some octopus. What came was a fish filet covered in mushroom sauce with some shrimp and very tiny pieces of octopus mixed in. My companion had a less expensive fish filet with garlic sauce. Outside of the different price and the cream sauce, they looked exactly the same. Nevertheless, while this might sound negative, I was not at all disappointed with my plate. My companion thought his fish greasy; I think it was the garlic sauce. My fish was not at all greasy and tasted wonderful. The food was served hot, but not so hot as to burn you. The rice served with the fish was plain and nothing exciting; and yet, it complimented the fish perfectly. The portions look huge and they are; but I didn't feel stuffed when I was done; just contented. It was just the right amount of food. I had oysters as an appetizer. If you like oysters, they were good with the lime juice I squeezed on them. If you don't, well, then it doesn't matter, does it? The ceviche was okay; a lot of reviewers made a big deal about them in their reviews. There was nothing bad about them; just nothing special. Overall, we were both VERY happy with the food, the portion size, the temperature they were served at, and the taste ... and my partner usually complains about everything! So this is a BIG endorsement!
THE SERVICE: *sigh* ... Not everything can be perfect and this was the pebble amidst the pearls in the evening. The service staff is friendly. But the place is too small, has too many people (on a Thursday night, no less ... can you imagine it on a Friday?!?); and not enough servers to be as attentive as they have to be. Food and drinks were served promptly. But when it came time to pay, I had to track them down.
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