| rev:text
| - My family stopped in here today for a late lunch (early dinner) after a fun day out at the Science Center. It has been at least a couple years since my husband and I had eaten at the Barrio Cafe, and this was my toddler's first time. She's a HUGE fan of guacamole, so we were really looking forward to the table side preparation but unfortunately it's only done at dinner time. Ok, minor disappointment, but not a big deal. What was disappointing was the guacamole itself. (Wish I hadn't forgotten my phone at home or thought to ask for my husband's so I could have taken a photo!) For $11.25, you would think you would at least get the equivalent of one decent sized avocado, but that didn't happen. Nor did we even get what could be passed off as guacamole. It looked as though what avocado was there was was cut up, tossed into the bowl along with the other ingredients, topped with their signature pomegranate seeds and brought to the table! Don't get me wrong, I love a chunky guacamole but there wasn't one mashed piece of avocado in the bowl until we mixed it up ourselves. Then the first bite from my daughter elicited a "NO!" response, usually reserved for something like bell peppers or brussel sprouts. I tried a bite and could not believe how much lime was in it! Overkill would be a kind adjective.
For my meal I ordered the Tacos Pescado ($12.75) with a salad. The salad would have been a good simple one but unfortunately was overpowered by the amount of dressing on it and had mushy chopped tomatoes. There were three small (approx. 4" white corn tortillas) tacos that were overflowing with cabbage. Each taco had 1 small piece of fish on them, that were cooked perfectly. Fish was tender and the beer batter was flavorful and crispy. Well... Crispy where it hadn't been drenched in what was only supposed to be a drizzle of Baja aioli. Unfortunately there was almost as much batter as there was fish! My daughter picked at a taco, chose to eat the fish, one of the tortillas and left the rest. The aioli had a bit of a bite to it but it tasted too much of mayonnaise to be considered good. I do have to say the tacos are filling with the double layer of tortillas. Completely overpriced for what I received.
My husband ordered the Tacos Cochinita ($12) with spicy fries. He didn't find it at all spectacular. It was good but not nearly as flavorful or enjoyable as in the past. Strange thing was the dish was accompanied by a side of BBQ sauce of all things! The fries had a slight bite to them but were over salted. The portion of meat on this was huge in comparison to what I received. Pricing and portion on this meal was closer to being on par with other specialty restaurants.
Our waiter, Hugo, was awful! The restaurant was not very busy (over half the tables empty). I assumed it was because of the odd hour we dropped in but even so, service by Hugo was lacking. My husband sat with an empty glass as Hugo walked by our table several times, empty handed half the time. My husband finally had to just stop him and ask for a refill. As I said before, the guacamole wasn't guacamole, and from what I understand the server is the one to mix this? And if not, isn't he at least supposed to make sure the item ordered is what he is serving? He never came by to check on us to see how our meal was so we opted to skip our other favorite here, dessert and their fresh pressed coffee. The bus person was super attentive, refilled waters when glasses weren't empty, cleared plates as soon as we were finished, impressive. Wish we could have tipped him instead of our waiter!
Also, as a side note for those of you with young children... they do have high chairs but no changing table and the bathroom was filthy. Floor was sticky, I don't even want to know with what and the garbage was overflowing. Kids meals were all $7 even just for a plain cheese quesadilla.
Had this been our first visit we would not have been impressed, but not nearly as disappointed as we were. Because we had had such great experiences previously this last visit was such a let down. Food just wasn't as good as it had been, service was nonexistent in comparison, prices went up and portions went down.
We hadn't been in the area much after having moved, but after having signed up for a membership at the Science Center we were hoping this restaurant would have become a weekly thing for us. Guess we'll keep searching.
|
![[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)