After waiting years for a Mexican place to open in the Bay, I was thrilled to see Fajitas pop up. After finally having the chance to dine there recently with my family, I was sadly disappointed.
Firstly, I'm a native Californian, so I have long experience with Mexican food prepared by, you know, actual Mexicans. The beauty of Mexican food is that it's typically made from fresh ingredients, is quickly prepared, and is inexpensive. Fajitas hit none of these marks.
The best part of the place was the succulent garden outside. Very pretty. Then we entered through the bar where it's sole (very drunken) patron attempted to engage my two year old in conversation. The decor in the dining room was sort of New Mexico meets the Alamo at a fancy dress party in a New Zealand country hotel.... A good effort but not very Mexican.
We were brought a bowl of popcorn while we waited for our food. This kept the kids interested, but what kind of Mexican place doesn't bring chips and salsa to the table? My daughter's quesadilla arrived after 20 minutes... A very basic affair with just cheese and flour tortillas, served with sweet chili sauce instead of a more traditional salsa. It would take me 5 minutes tops to make at home, and was just tossed on the plate. Did I mention the place was almost empty?
After another 20 minutes, at least, our mains arrived. I ordered a burrito with the beef filling. It was nicely grilled, but the flavoring of the beef was way too sweet for Mexican food. Similarly, the guacamole had a sweetness to it that was off putting. The worst part were their "Mexican" beans. Mexican beans are typically pintos, or sometimes black beans. These tasted more like standard Kiwi chili beans than anything Mexican! The portion size was small, too. For $24 I would expect a pretty big burrito, but this felt more like lunch than dinner.
My husband had the fajitas, which were arguably worse than the burrito. He had the same over sweet beef, which wasn't very spicy, considering he ordered it "I dare you to" spicy. The strangest part was that it came with only two prepackaged flour tortillas on a plate! I've never seen fajitas served with less than four tortillas, always in a warmer. And there is always a choice of flour or corn tortillas!
We didn't order drinks - it was hard to get excited about margaritas when they display a wall of cheap margarita mix in the dining room!
The place seemed way understaffed. Our server was also the bartender, and he disappeared into the kitchen for a few lengthy stretches. He never checked on us after the food arrived and we left pretty thirsty.
My overall verdict: not Mexican and way too expensive.
Until we're brave enough to venture into one of the other new Mexican restaurants, I guess it's back to cooking it myself. Tonight I made steak fajitas for my family of four for $12. With 2 dozen homemade flour and corn tortillas. read more
