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| - This is my second review of Chino - I went to the Chandler location last year, and my experience at the Phoenix one was very similar: hit and miss. When Chino is good, it is excellent. When it is bad, it sucks. I can understand the haters in these reviews - if you ordered a miss, you'd think the place was garbage. As far as entrees go, so far I've had pretty much 50-50 luck. In the excellent category: Jade Red Chicken (the best of all so far, sweet and wonderfully spicy), Emerald Chicken and Jerk Chicken. In the suck category: Chile Relleno: bland, undercooked and WAY TOO MUCH DEEP FRIED CRACKER CRUST... it really grossed me out. Hengrenade Chicken (DO YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE): would be more appropriately named "Roasted Flavorless Chicken." Carnitas: remarkably bland, I mean this is pork for crying out loud.
The sides are uniformly delicious. Chino really seems to understand that sides actually matter. Their sides are so good (I've had the refried beans, plain fried rice and jerk fried rice and all are top notch) that they make up for the 50% entree suckage. The freshly made salsa they provide in abundance at the counter is flavorful and spicy, and excellent compliment to the beans and rice - and the entrees too for that matter. See my review of Los Taquitos below for an example of a place that does their sides and salsa EXACTLY OPPOSITE of Chino Bandido.
I again have to mention that the menu/ordering process is overly complicated. They seem proud of this, so I can't imagine it will change. The menu is so effing complicated that they have - get this - a "menu simulator" at their website. The thing is, it's actually useful. If you run the simulator menu-o-tron-3000 you will be able to go to the restaurant and order with confidence. Glory be. Me, I'd just as soon they dumb it down.
Lots of people have remarked that the place wasn't clean. These people are probably those weird OCD types who sneeze into their elbows and take showers after every agonizing handshake. The place is grungy, which is not the same thing as dirty. It is in a crap strip mall at what could generously be described as not the nicest intersection in Phoenix - so exactly what you're expecting to see when you walk through its faded stucco facade is beyond me. But I got what I expected: a place that does as little with their decor as is necessary to get by. Dirty, however, it is not.
I will go back again, and I will make sure that eventually I get through the entire menu at Chino so that I will know what to tell my out of town friends and family to order at a place where they are sure to experience a very uniquely Phoenix dining experience.
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