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| - I don't understand all of the 5-star reviews on this place. Maybe it's just the service? Maybe they're just pleasantly surprised to find a semi-ok place in a practically defunct mall? Maybe this was just an off-day for the chef? Maybe I'll never know.
Ambiance: They made the place look pretty nice! You almost forget you're in a mall.
Service: Definitely friendly enough and timely enough, except the secondary server / busboy was wearing so much cologne we assumed he'd bathed in it and expected him to give us a sales pitch for it. It literally -- and I'm using that word as it's intended, not in a figurative way -- stung our nostrils every time he came by to refill our waters. That's a huge turnoff when people are trying to eat/smell/taste things. I can't believe the mangers let him work like that. Our actual waiter didn't have the same problem. Also, just like a couple other Mexican places around town, be prepared for multiple people to try to get you to order their guacamole. I love guac, but I hate up-selling.
Food: The free chips & salsa at the beginning are pretty decent. The chips will remind you of Mundo, if you ever went there. The salsa is a tad on the bitter/fire-roasted side, so if you like that style, you'll really dig it. Not very spicy st all. We ordered the calamari and the carne asada chile relleno. Calamari is grilled, FYI - not sure if we just didn't see that or it didn't say. It had a good flavor, but included way less for the money than most similar offerings, so don't expect to get a whole plate of it. For $10, you get maybe 8-10 small pieces and some salad. The chile relleno was a let down, especially since it's listed as a "fan favorite" on their site. It's basically meat, potatoes, mushrooms, rice, & beans in a large green chili with red sauce & a bit of cream. The meat was ok, but not as flavorful as I expect carne asada to be. The biggest issue with it was that the potatoes were not cooked all the way through; we ended up not being able to eat many of them. The red sauce it was bathed in was very odd, way too bitter & smoky for our taste (so take their salsa, which was good, and turn up the bitterness & smokiness until it's obnoxious, and that's how the sauce seemed). That could just be us, though, even though he usually really enjoys smoky sauces.
NOTES: You should know that the happy hour just changed (today, apparently) and is now 7-10pm instead of 5-7. My loss, your gain! Also, don't get your hopes up for sangria, cause it's not (at least not currently) on the menu.
Though I certainly appreciate friendly service, it doesn't outweigh the taste of your food (and the under-cooked-ness of it), especially when it's supposed to be a house special of sorts. I plan to come back and try a couple other things and will update this review if those things warrant an extra star.
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