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| - This Mexican Grill is apparently owned and managed by the folks at the nearby Bellagio's Mediterranean restaurant. Bellagio's is great, but this Mexican offshoot needs a re-work in order to be successful.
The concept is very much like Chipotle's...walk up to the grill, place your order, they cook it, you pay at the end of the line and seat yourself. Unfortunately, the menu is too extensive and the food is not very fresh. They bill themselves as a Mexican Grill, but there are several Asian items on the menu. So which is it?
I ordered a chicken burrito/chicken taco combo platter, expecting fresh-grilled chicken. What I got was chopped up chicken fished out of some sort of liquid on a steam table, then put on the grill for a few seconds, then put on grilled re-heated tortillas. Afterwards, they asked me what extras I wanted, which ranged from pico de gallo, salsa, cheese, rice, etc. By the time I got to my table, the tortillas were too soggy to hold their contents (see liquid chicken above), so I was left to eat the thing with a knife and fork. Both items were bland and unremarkable. My combo also included choice of beans and rice, and I got black beans with Mexican rice. Those were bland, too.
There was a salsa bar, but none of the choices looked particularly fresh or appetizing. I tried some of the red salsa to spice up my meal, but it didn't help at all.
We ordered a glass of wine and a beer with our meals, but they didn't have what we wanted, so the cashier put in a call to Bellagio's, and 5 minutes later, one of Bellagio's waitresses brought over a bottle of wine and a bottle of beer. If the items are on the menu, shouldn't they be stocked in the restaurant? The drinks were fine, but it seemed odd that they had to be brought in from a restaurant two doors down.
I'm willing to give Pachuca another try. Maybe it was just an off-night. Maybe they're still trying to figure out their identity...I think they've only been open for less than a year.
The menu needs to be re-worked to something SIMPLE, and the food needs to be fresher. I'll blame it on growing pains...I'll give them another 3 months to see if it's any better. I hope so.
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