| rev:text
| - FINALLY--AN UNBIASED REVIEW!
Y'all know Arizona has the best Mexican food in the world, but somehow, despite our affinity for it, we never ate at Tia Rosa's before the fire. It was too far from home. SO--this is NOT a comparison between 2 businesses at the same location. Buildings change hands--get over it, people! I once worked at a flower shop that is now a dry cleaners. Hacienda de Rosa's, while enjoyed by many, has been unfairly condemned by others who would likely walk into that dry cleaners and get mad because they don't sell flowers. It's a different business with different owners!
We read the yelp* reviews. We found the bad ones unrealistically harsh and the good ones over-the-top in the other direction. We used nine specific criteria to rate this establishment according to our expectations of any restaurant in the world.
Service--the most important factor in dining out. We can eat anywhere in town, but if we're not treated right, we won't go back, no matter how good the food is. This new Rosa's earns 5 stars for service. We were greeted & seated immediately. The friendly waitress got our order right. The food courier was adept, the bus staff, awesome. Our refill of chips & salsa included a small bowl of the red salsa for EACH of us. The busboy was singing. He enjoys his job. That's good to see. He checked on us every time he walked by, offering refills of water or chips & salsa. We appreciated his attentiveness.
The FOOD--3 1/2 stars. The food is good. Tortillas, cheese, rice, beans, various kinds of meat. It's authentic and good, although not exceptional. My letdown was the lack of crunchy tacos. BUT the next morning, my face, fingers and toes were not swollen. Many restaurants add MSG or other inflammatory ingredients. I think this is why several reviewers said the food was bland. It is not bland. It has plenty of real, honest-to-goodness flavor. I appreciate the lack of artificial enhancers in my meal. Now for the beans--that smoky taste is shocking, even after the heads-up. Apparently, they won some bean award and assumed everyone would like them, so they make them like that on purpose. I would award them for the creamy texture, but not so much for the out-of-place taste.
Authenticity--5 stars. We've had Baja food IN BAJA and Rosa's can hold its own with any of it. In fact, it's better than most.
Portions--5 stars. The portions are great. I was able to keep half my food for leftovers, which is one of my favorite parts of going out to dinner on Friday nights. Still, good-sized portions aside, the ingredients of Mexican fare are among the cheapest on the planet and the prices really ought to reflect that.
Chips and Salsa--4 stars. The chips are plentiful, delicate & hot. The chunky red salsa is flavorful, but not spectacular. It's tasty--don't get me wrong--but it is super mild. That mild salsa is why this place is good for tourists. The green salsa, does have a nice flavor, but is way, way, too sweet, and is why they only get 4 stars for salsa. It was a whole star too sweet.
Location--3 1/2 stars. Location is both their biggest asset and their worst drawback. The building itself is gorgeous, but moving into THAT building and keeping the Rosa's name has clearly backfired, garnering a deluge of negative comparisons. The location in northeast Mesa benefits tourists and snowbirds, but is an obstacle for me. I pass good Mexican restaurants to get there, and for 3 1/2 star food, that's not as likely to happen on a regular basis as they might hope.
Atmosphere--Beautiful! 5 stars. We went on a rainy-ish evening. It never rained, but smelled like vacation outside, and felt like it inside. It's a pretty place to bring out-of-town visitors. Like I said before. The food is good. People from the midwest should fall in love with it, and it's served inside a Hacienda that looks almost as authentic as the meal will taste. The lighting is light. Not diner-bright, but not romantic, either.
Seating--4 stars. I would not call it cozy. That's good for not being squished so close to other diners that you could join their conversations. Almost all of the seating is on hard wooden chairs at square wooden tables. There are only a few booths around the edge of the dining room, so it's not a place where you can sit close and have a quiet conversation. To me, that's the downside. I get date night once a week and prefer to sit in a booth, but whatever; it was fine.
Now... the main reason we give this restaurant 4 stars instead of 5. The PRICES are way too high. Way. Too. High. We may return to Hacienda de Rosa's, but if we don't, it will be because they charge $11.29 for an $8.99 dinner of 2 items with rice & beans. We felt gouged, even with the generous portions. I can also leave Mi Amigos or Chalo's or Mi Pátio with half my food and keep a lot more of my money! Only 1 star for prices.
We arrived at our 4 star Overall rating through sincere and conscientious deliberation. ~ M&M, Mesa
|
![[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)