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| - I had a decent time at Verde. It was dead when we arrived, aside from some people at the bar, so we just pulled up to the bar for our meal. The food was pretty good, and my drink was excellent. The bartenders were also really cool. Unfortunately, when I received my check, my palate laughed almost as hard as I did.
Granted, we order a lot of food when we go to a restaurant for the first time. After all, we want to see if it's really worth coming back, but when you look at the cost vs. flavor that Verde is serving up, it's just not worth it...and we're the furthest people from frugal. Only two restaurants in recent memory have made me actually look at the check and feel like I just wasted money. Verde, unfortunately, was one of those places.
For apps we tried the fritos de camarones y maizi. They were good, but after a few bites, became very monotonous and greasy. I found myself digging deeper in the shallow puddle of crema to add flavor. We didn't even finish the plate. I then moved on to the patatas bravas. These were okay, but the potatoes were just drenched in sauce that, again, became very bland after a few bites.
For our meals, I got the fish tacos. They were good. Light and flavorful. My wife got the pork tacos, which were the special that night. Those, too, were really good. For my drink, I opted to try the veranda, and I'd recommend that to anyone...even though the bartender told me that he messed up and used Wigle rye instead of regular Wigle, it was excellent!
After a blah start to our meal, I ended up being happy with our main plates. Unfortunately, I wasn't blown away enough for the cost. Don't get me wrong, the prices aren't that bad, but if I'm paying essentially $8/taco, I'm going to Yo Rita for more adventurous, filling, and impressive tacos. Is that subjective? Absolutely, but it's an opinion I'll stand behind. Verde might have the East End popularity to support it, and it's a good restaurant, but it's far from worthy of the hype.
Would I go back? Sure, but as soon as we left - $95 lighter for two apps, 3 drinks, and two orders of tacos + tip), we knew that it hadn't impressed us nearly enough to become a regular spot for us.
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