| rev:text
| - Barrio Café Gran Reserva is essentially a scaled down version of their flagship 16th Street Barrio Café. I use the term "scaled down" because, not only is the size of the restaurant smaller, but the menu doesn't offer quite as many options for those familiar with what can be found at the original.
When I reviewed the original Barrio location, I gave it an underwhelming three stars. Most issues stem from overpriced food that seems to cater more towards the urban crowd that think paying upwards of twelve dollars for churros is "normal" in today's food landscape.
This second location is a bit different. Unlike 16th Street, they do take reservations here. In fact, they're strongly recommended, as the seating is pretty limited. My girlfriend and I were barely able to be squeezed in on a Thursday evening out of sheer luck.
The menu seems to provide a selection of popular entrées that Barrio fans will be quite familiar with. The bread with salsa-styled spread has been carried over. Additionally, they were trying to sell us on their 44-dollar tasting menu, but we decided against it.
Oddly enough, many items we've tried at 16th Street were conspicuously absent at Gran Reserva. There were no enchiladas suizas (only mole) for dinner. Forget ordering standard tacos. Those overpriced churros and equally overpriced, but decent, pastel de chocolate, were also nowhere to be found.
I convinced my girlfriend to order their Café con Leche, which is essentially just that. Someone was boasting about how they pour it at your table. Yeah, just like they poured my soda. Who cares? Be careful, as my girlfriend was asked when she wanted the server to stop pouring the leche. Uncertain of what would be considered "enough," she left it to the server to decide. The end result was a glass that was only halfway full. Ouch!
My girlfriend opted for the Chiles en Nogada, while I decided to order the Tacuba. Before they were prepared, we were provided with miniature salads. A nice touch, but its chili paste resulted in the salad having a bit too much of a "bite" for our tastes.
The gap between salad and entrees took forever, to the point where I thought they forgot about us. Perhaps more focus was placed on the tasting menu tables. Both entrées, which were alarmingly small, were just okay. We liked the Tacuba a bit more than the Nogada, which seemed to be in desperate need of some cheese or a heartier meat. Both were fairly small entrées given their asking prices, which is consistent with what you've come to expect from Barrio. Don't come here with the anticipation of leaving with leftovers. You won't - and it's also likely that you might still be hungry when finished.
For dessert, we ordered their tres leches. At eight dollars, the damned thing was practically the size of one of Bimbo's mini mantecadas (muffins) topped with a bit of espresso and leche. In fact, it could easily pass as one. Another reviewer compared it to the size of a post-it note, which is no exaggeration. I mean, could they seriously be anymore stingy?
Honestly, I don't know. I'm all for paying a little extra for places that serve superior food. Barrio is one of those restaurants that I've always, deep down, wanted to desperately like. Unfortunately, I maintain my stance that it's nothing more than high style (and price) with lackluster execution. And for that, aside from their ultra-cool interior designs, I can't really say that it's a place I'd get the urge to revisit.
All sizzle and no steak.
|
![[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)