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| - I was pondering whether to give this place two stars or three, but ultimately settled on two for a number of reasons.
First the positive: Some of the tacos I tried, in particular the short-rib tacos and the tinga tacos were the second best in the city after Grand Electric.
But here's where the problems start right away. Grand Electric charges $3.60 for a slightly superior taco, whereas the tacos at this joint are $6, which is frankly crazy for a small single taco. You'll need 4-6 for a full meal.
And the negatives continue. The tacos al pastor were not bad, but they weren't particularly authentic. Also, I questioned whether all the tacos needed to have cream on them, it seemed like a non-creative way to enhance the flavour.
I'll turn next to the service. We had to wait for about 10 minutes for a table, but when we were finally led upstairs I counted at least five empty tables. Also, for some bizarre reason all of the Hispanic staff are relegated to either busing tables or serving as quasi-hostesses. I just found this a little weird, but hey if the white applicants happened to be more qualified, maybe it was just a coincidence. But here's the thing, our server was pretty crappy. He didn't come to our table very often, mispronounced Spanish words (e.g. pronounced "Pollo" as Polo), and was unfamiliar with the menu (we had to point out where the Micheladas were located on the drinks menu). He also forgot one of my taco orders. So that made the delegation of the Hispanics to lower rungs a little more sinister in my eyes. I should also add that we tried to order a drink from the person dropping off our tacos and we got the worse response possible in the situation: "No you can't order drinks from me, but your waiter should be along shortly." Here are the expected responses at a restaurant that is this expensive: 1) "Absolutely" (and then give the drink order to the server). 2) Second best "I'll send your server right over." In contrast, the response we got amounts to: "Tough, you can order your drink when your server happens to come around." Which kind of misses the point, i.e. if our server had been coming around regularly, we would have already ordered the drink from him.
Next, in terms of the drinks, they were ridiculously overpriced. Seriously, the pitchers were priced in the range of $42-$99 which is again, nuts. And, when we ordered Micheladas, they served up some odd concoction that appeared to have tomato juice or some other weird red substance. I was able to drink mine, but my girlfriend was not. And here's my qualm, it's one thing to have an original take on a classic drink, but the menu needs to spell it out. A traditional Michelada has lime juice, salt, beer and a salted rim, nothing more. A Michelada preparada typically also has Maggi sauce and some other spices. But I've never been served anything approximating the concoction at Playa Cabana Hacienda.
Let's turn to the ambiance. I will say that they had nice imaginative decor, but the tables were a little bit too cramped together though that is a minor complaint. Overall the set-up of the restaurant was pleasant, but the narrowness between the tables made them difficult to navigate which may help explain the slow service.
Which brings me to the next point. The clientele at the place was incredibly douchy. It was pretty much exclusively white, and people in their late 30's and late 40's who ostentatiously spend cash. Ordinarily I wouldn't blame a restaurant for their clientele, but when a restaurant plays loud music on the ground floor to give the place a clubby vibe (btw it is NOT designed for people to stand up with drinks on the bottom floor but they encourage it anyway), and charges those ridiculous prices, it's bound to attract the douchy sorts who like to flaunt their money.
Bottom line: good tacos, but not $6 good. Go to Grand Electric instead.
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