Monday, September 30, 2019

La Cocina De Roberto

We had a family dinner here the other night and had a great experience.  It's tucked away in Glen Loch in a low-end gas station--feels like a real find, but the neighborhood definitely knows, it was comfortably full on our visit.  They opened up the party room to seat our group of six.
We got off to a great start with chips, queso and guacamole.  The chips here are not free, but once you get them you'll know why.  They are fried fresh, incredibly crisp and perfectly seasoned.  "Free" chips will never taste the same.  


The salsas are worth special mention.  When you order chips, you get three--a mild red salsa that has excellent flavor, a green salsa that is hotter and is very interesting (in a good way), and then their specialty--a habanero salsa.  Heat fans will love it.  I tried a bit, and could taste the rich flavors of the salsa just before it fried my tongue.  The queso is nothing special, just melted cheese, but the guacamole is quite good.  Appearances do deceive a bit--there's a huge scoop of guacamole in a good-size bowl (see one of the pictures in other reviews) but turns out it's sitting on top of lettuce that fills the bowl.  Still plenty.


I am a pork fan, so I had the Senor Gobernador, thin slices of grilled port with green salsa.  The pork was cooked perfectly and very tender, and the salsa complemented it well.  The sides were all at least competent--the rice was done with corn and peppers rather than standard tomato, and I like it better. The tortillas are made in-house but for me they were just OK, denser and chewier than most.  Our enchilada fan had the enchiladas Suizas--swiss cheese enchiladas.  They were OK, not amazing.  We also had the fajita a la mexicana, fajita meat served with the usual sides.  It was tasty and presented nicely, but it should be noted that this is served on an ordinary plate, not the traditional sizzling one.  The beef fajita quesadilla ate well, and the mozarella sticks one child had were good too (they are served in a pastry wrapper rather than a breading).


We tried some interesting beverages.  I had the agua fresca jamaica, a hibiscus-infused sweet beverage, which was quite good and a nice change.  Several of the kids had their hot chocolate, which has a hint of cinnamon and is quite good.


Dessert is a bit of an afterthought here.  They only have flan and bread pudding.  The bread pudding is pretty dense, and did not seem like it was made there.


The service concept confused us at the end of the meal.  Our server picked up some plates and then went to take a break.  I watched the locals go up to the counter to pay.  When I went up, they had the tab ready.  They don't bring a check.  When you're finished, just get up and go to the counter.


This is a family run place, and the owner came out with his young son to greet us an make sure we had a good experience.  I can absolutely recommend it.


My Yelp Review

No comments:

Post a Comment