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| - Once in a blue moon you come across a place that not only has good food and service, but they also have passion. That's why Carlos' Kitchen, after only one dining experience, very well could be my new favorite restaurant.
It's not an overly fancy joint located inside Spectators bar. In fact, Carlos explained to us (yes, he visited the table multiple times - more to come on that) that they used to be located inside of Charlie's Bar and had recently moved to this location. But the great thing is that the restaurant is separate from the bar and there wasn't a smokey smell in there - just a smell of amazing food.
So the service...we were greeted by Iris, a very knowledgeable, friendly, and attentive server. Absolutely awesome! She told us the specials, took our drink order, and throughout our entire meal was checking to see how we were enjoying the food and most importantly, kept our beverages filled!
Now to the food, there is good food, there is bad food, then there is Carlos' food. Prior to ordering Carlos came out and introduced himself to us, shook our hands, and wanted to find out how we heard about the restaurant. Of course we gave our Yelpsters props for correctly identifying this place as bomb-digity. He wanted to make sure we knew the specials then even told us how some of the items were prepared. He emphasized that he didn't cut any corners, everything is homemade. Literally errrthing is homemade. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken wrap. It was delicious, but very very spicy. The buffalo sauce was hot and spicy, but not in a bad way, in an addicting way. The blue cheese dressing in the wrap was also homemade and some of the best I've ever had. The french fries, which I'm sure were homemade as well, were amazing. As good as mine was, my wife was the "order winner" as she got the Asian burger special. Carlos used a ginger based Asian sauce that brought out so much flavor in the burger then topped it with Wasabi mayo and an Asian-slaw. I've had Fukuburger and Bachi Burger and both are awesome, but are second stringers compared to Carlos' creation. Maybe the best burger I've ever tasted. And for the grand finale we ordered the lava cake. Absolutely the best I've had. Carlos told us that the secret was that he used Belgian chocolate. He also makes his owned whipped cream.
Carlos came out and checked on us mid-way through our meal to see how we liked everything. I almost gave him a standing ovation right then and there. He then checked on us one more time before we left and thanked us for our business. As the owner and executive chef I certainly wouldn't expect this kind of attention, but I really appreciated it. Both my wife and I really enjoyed chatting with him. I hope Carlos' Kitchen thrives in it's new location. Anyone who is that genuine about the food coming out of their kitchen deserves the utmost success.
Simply put, 5 stars, one of the best restaurants I've ever been to.
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