| rev:text
| - A group of 10 girls came to El Catrin to celebrate a friend's birthday. The feeling amongst the group was that the food was underwhelming and overpriced and we felt that the restaurant was not able to handle a big group, despite the fact that the area where we were seated had a few long tables to accommodate larger groups.
I'll start with the food. They did advise us that portions are on the small side as the restaurant is tapas style and the intention is that the food be shared. I felt the price point did not reflect the fact that the portions are miniscule. For example, the guac is intended to be a portion for 4 people. At $13.50 for an order of guac and chips, the portion was tiny. I think this should be properly advertised as a portion for two guests. I liked how the waitstaff mashed the avocados in front of us but it looked like only about half an avocado, which is tiny for 4 guests to share. The chips tasted like Frito Lays out of bag whereas at other Mexican establishments in the city you can tell that the chips are baked in house. I felt the guac was missing some lemon/lime and garnish. I did appreciate that our waitress walked everyone through the menu and recommended substitutions. I shared the couscous salad which was delicious but also tiny for $11. I ordered the chicken almond mole as my main as recommend by our waitress. The chicken was good but the vegetables underneath were practically inedible (I actually spat them out!). The menu described the side as squash but nothing on my plate resembled squash. While I didn't personally order tacos, I heard my friends complaining about the fact that the tacos are 2 for $12 and you can't mix and match. In my opinion, they should be priced as 1 for $6 so guests can try different varieties.
More importantly than the food itself (since ultimately when you are a large group, the focus should be on the company), we felt that while our waitress was extremely patient, that the restaurant was not able to accommodate a large party. At the end of the meal, one bill came out. As you can imagine, at a restaurant that is tapas style many of the dishes were shared so it was a scramble to remember who ate which dish (not to mention many of the menu items are in Spanish so it can be difficult to decipher which items belonged to which guest). I appreciate it is not the waitress' job to remember who shared which dishes but I think at the outset of the meal, she ought to have warned the group so we could have paid some more attention to prepare for settling up the bill. For a restaurant that seems to attract large groups, I am surprised that they were not able to issue separate bills. I wouldn't have even minded if some items that were shared were on one guest's bill and the guests could sort that out themselves. But one bill for close to $550 for 10 people to sort out ... Even two bills would have worked!
I am always somewhat forgiving in a large group at a restaurant but felt in this case the food was poor so therefore I will not be returning.
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