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| - Read the reviews on Yelp tonite and decided to give Arriba's a whirl. We went to the Camelback location. The place was OK. Nothing stupendous and nothing God awful either. The whole place looked pretty grungy, in particular there was trash all over the floors; bits of paper, wrappers, gum and such.
The service was "meh". After we were seated a highly disinterested bus person or food runner dropped off a heaping wrought iron edifice of greasy, pretty tasteless chips. They actually tasted more like cereal than tortilla chips. She also sloughed off extra ramekins of bland, but spicy bean dip and salsa. She kinda dropped the stuff on the table and withdrew quickly as if she were throwing a diaper into the trash. Our server barely spoke English and barely seemed to notice we were there. She seemed either aloof or afraid to speak, which I guess was her personal rendition of subservience or something.
The BF and I both wanted to try the White Sands Chimi after all the awesome reviews on Yelp, so we agreed that he'd get it, give me a bite and I ordered the Arriba sampler, which was like 8 appetizer sized chucks of really greazy, indistinguishable and pretty tasteless finger foods. He ordered guacamole with his and I asked for sour creme with mine. His guacamole did not come out on his plate or on the side, but we were charged $2.50 for it. I did get "sour creme" but it was more of a frozen glop of dairy than anything else. The White Sands Chimi seemed like it would have a good flavor but I couldn't really savor it because the intense burning was too much to endure. The BF & I literally swapped plates halfway thru the meal b/c he couldn't take the heat of the chilies anymore. I really don't think they're hatch chilies. They burned like jalapeño. I buy roasted hatch chilies fresh-roasted at Food City all the time and they do not burn the crap outta your tongue like this food did.
Our server never came back to check on the food, our drinks, bring more water or soda and I literally had to flag her down to ask for the check. It was NOT busy in there at all and I saw about 5 other servers buzzing about serving the maybe 10 tables total that were seated in the whole place.
All in all -- nothing overwhelming, including the food. It just all tasted like overly greazy fried corn chips that had been in a half empty cereal box for 6 months. Other than "spicy" -- there were no particularly memorable or enjoyable flavors. I don't think that just burning my (I suppose wuss-assed, from other people's reviews) tongue on bland fried foods is authentic Mexican.
There were some people hootin' it up in the bar. I guess if you like Big Gulp-sized margaritas, this place might be cool. Doubt I'll return. The BF liked it though, so who knows. Maybe it was just an off night for me. The desserts did look amazing so maybe some other time we'll check it out for sweets.
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