Critic's Review
I tried to come here on a Saturday, but it was so crowded I just went somewhere else. I had better luck on a Tuesday afternoon.
I walked in an there's no hostess; just a counter to the left with a lot of people running around.
I got someone's attention and they just gave me the "sit anywhere" hand signal and I grabbed a table in the corner.
Your typical latin cafe; big rooms with no walls and tables too close together. This place had tables pushed so close to the wall that you couldn't actual sit comfortably. When I first arrived I was the only one in the section. I was kinda pissed when 3 non-english speaking people came in and sat at the table right next to me at a largely empty restaurant.
I ordered an iced tea and the bread came out right away.
Not very buttery, but warm and freshly pressed. I asked for extra lemon and they brought me an entire lime; don't they think of mentioning that they don't have lemon when someone asks for it? Nah. Water is provided without asking for it.
They don't have any specific lunch specials, which is different from most places. Their "churrasco" is $14.95 with 2 sides; that can be good or bad depending on how big a steak they give you. I ordered it medium rare. Rather than order it with rice and beans, I order the "Moros" rice with beans. My server questioned my choice, but I assured him that I knew what I was ordering. "More Beans" I explained. He nodded knowingly.
More people were rolling in at 2:45, mostly Spanish and Cuban speaking. I got to listen to an old dude on his phone for just about the entire time as he made one call after another. A great dining experience.
The skirt came out way too quickly.
I looked at this and I wonder if they left this on the grill for more than 20 seconds. It really didn't look cooked. I cut it open and not surprisingly, it was raw.
Normally in these places once they drop off the food, they're done with you until you cash out. I flagged him down and tried to explain that I wanted them to cook it more. His english wasn't very good. "Cook More". Finally I got it across and he took it away.
A manager or owner came over and apologized, which was a good thing. I wasn't that concerned, I just wanted it cooked a bit more. It came out only cooked slightly more; it seemed like the cook was too worried about overcooking the skinny steak.
It was still pretty rare in the thicker part, but I wasn't sending it back again.
The Chimichurri they provide was kind of vinegary; not the Argentinean stuff, but better than some of the junk I've gotten in Latin Places.
It wasn't a great steak, and the Moros wasn't very good; white rice and beans would have been a better choice (they don't have yellow rice).
Unfortunately, the experience was partially defined by the flies; there was more than one and it's hard to enjoy yourself when your swatting flies away.
When they started landing on the bread it was time to stop eating and ask for my check. You pay at the register on the way out.
Conclustion
A typical Latin Restaurant that isn't particularly comfortable. Service was fine and they gave a good portion for the price, but with no lunch menu it's not a good budget option for lunch. They can't cook steak, so order something else.
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getUser() on null in /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php:267 Stack trace: #0 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(75): threadedComments->formatComment(Object(stdClass)) #1 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(77): threadedComments->printParent(Array, 1) #2 /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php(100): threadedComments->printParent(Array) #3 /usr/local/www/insideftl/comments.php(74): threadedComments->printComments(Array) #4 /usr/local/www/insideftl/single-post.php(208): require_once('/usr/local/www/...') #5 /usr/local/www/insideftl/post.php(22): include('/usr/local/www/...') #6 /usr/local/www/insideftl/index.php(166): include('/usr/local/www/...') #7 {main} thrown in /usr/local/www/classes/comments-class.php on line 267