| rev:text
| - I would give Barrio Correano 3.5 stars. I came here with two friends for dinner on a Friday night. I wanted a reservation around 6 or 6:30, but they only had 5:30 available.
The ambiance and environment is really cool here. It's too bad that the restaurant doesn't have a patio as I'm sure the decor could have been really well done on one. I had the sense that the design was aiming for a rustic, run-down, side-of-the-road Mexican establishment, but with a hip and edgy vibe, and I would say they certain accomplished that feeling. As other reviews have mentioned, there are no paper menus. Their offerings are simply listed on chalkboards on the walls. I did not have an issues with reading the boards as I was sitting right in front of one and the restaurant was not too busy, but I could see how it would be a pain if you are ordering multiple rounds of food or drinks (which is how they recommend ordering) to have to constantly remember what each dish contains. The washrooms are clean, but I only saw a single room for ladies and a single room for men, so I imagine that there can be a line up at times, especially later in the night.
Dishes we ordered:
1) Guacamole and chips - my friends were disappointed that it did not come in a mortar bowl (how it is served at Playa Cabana) because it gave the sense that it was not quite as fresh. Apparently the guac does have a slight kick to it.
2) Fried quaso chihuahua - my friend likes this, but it was also a bit spicy. It is literally a block of fried cheese on a tortilla
3) Kalbi beef taco - we were told that this would be little pieces of charred beef cooked medium-rare. We were all disappointed to see that the meat was definitely more cooked than medium-rare. It was more like medium-well.
4) Baja fish taco - I asked for this to be grilled, not fried, and to have it without the aioli. The waitress was happy to oblige. It was a good dish and I really like the slaw that is served on top, but I thought that the fish was slightly undercooked and I found that the tortilla had gotten a bit soggy (possibly from the fish?) which made it hard to eat. Despite this I was happy to see that they were not stingy on the amount of fish that they provide!
5) Grilled calamari with burnt arbol kimchi - the calamari was delicious, I would definitely recommend ordering it! I did not find that it came with a lot of kimchi, and do not order it thinking that it is like Korean kimchi, because it isn't.
7) Jumbo shrimp taco - this really was a jumbo shrimp which is tempuraed, placed on a tortilla, and loaded with a bunch of toppings. My friend said it was rather spicy, but she really liked it.
Service - I am a bit torn about what to write about this. I had the opposite experience to what other reviews have mentioned. Our server was extremely pleasant and very engaging. She took the time to go through every dish and offering with great detail when we told her that we had not been to the restaurant before. I have a friend who is both vegan and sensitive to gluten (she was not with me on this visit) and so I am always on the look out for places that can cater to both carnivores and people with dietary restrictions. I asked the server about one of their dishes (the portobello fajitas) because it sounded like it could cater to my friend's needs. The waitress said it would fit the bill and she also suggested other dishes that can be adapted to fit my friend's needs. This aspect of service gets five stars! I called earlier in the day to see if it would be possible to change our reservation from 5:30 to 6 because 5:30 is a bit early for dinner. I was told that this would not be possible because there were other groups coming in at 7, and that the restaurant tends to get busy around then. When we arrived at the restaurant at 5:30, we weren't too hungry so we thought we would just enjoy some drinks and guac with chips while we figured out what to eat. I got the sense that they wanted us to move along and order our food because they didn't want us to take up the table for too long. When we left at 7:20, I was surprised to see that the restaurant was only about 60-70% full. As a result, it was disappointing that we were felt a bit rushed earlier on in the meal. We also did not ask for our bill, it was simply placed on our table when we had finished our plates and we were not given the chance to ask for separate bills (although our sever was happy to enter individual amounts when we paid).
Overall I had a good time at Barrio Correano, but I do not feel any real urgency to rush back. I would go if other people wanted to try it out. It won't be a staple in my restaurant repertoire.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)