Some close friends from London were visiting and since they were staying in Beverly Hills, they asked the concierge at the Four Seasons to make a reservation at a restaurant where it is relatively kid-friendly for us to get together. This is how we ended up at Frida in Beverly Hills.
Prior to going, I had already read some of the reviews on yelp and I was really not anticipating our meal there, although, I did tell myself that this is a really dear friend and the food isn't the main reason that I'm dining at Frida's. With that in mind, I didn't have any expectations, good or bad, when I got there.
The first thing I noticed upon entering was that although this was a Beverly Hills restaurant, it wasn't all that upscale on the inside. It looked like any other restaurant one would find in the Marina in San Francisco or in and around Santa Monica. Even the clientele didn't look Beverly Hill-esque. I was so happy to see my friends we ended up yakking so much and not really perusing the menu at all. The servers came over several times to see if we were ready, so we ended up getting 2 appetizers just to get them to leave us alone. It wasn't as if they were packed - they weren't! There were several empty tables there which remained empty throughout our 2 and half hour meal!
Our Frida platter arrived, four small pieces each of cheese quesadilla, taquitos and sopes. For what it's worth, the sopes were pretty good - I don't like sopes in general, but these actually were tasty. The quesadilla and taquitos were EH. Guacamole was also very boring. I make a better guacamole at home. There was lack of flavor... it just tasted like mashed up avocadoes and nothing else.
After our appetizers, my glass of iced tea had been sitting empty for a while now and no one came to refill it. Our 2nd bottle of Panna was also empty and no one bothered to ask if we wanted another. In fact, we had to ask for a 2nd bottle when the first one emptied out. Seriously, the service was HORRENDOUS! If I'm going to be paying anywhere between $20-$40 for an entree, I'd expect the wait staff to be falling over backwards to make sure that our glasses were never empty and that things were tip top.
I motioned for someone to come and refill my iced tea (and had to keep doing that throughout our meal a total of 3x), but naturally, no one noticed that the water was empty. UH HELLO! Another bottle of Panna??? SHEESH. If I wasn't enjoying my friends' company so much I would've seriously lost it.
We then ordered 4 main courses: enchiladas tapatias ($18), mole verde ($21), al ajillo con camarones ($25), arrachera nortena ($26). We decided to do this family style so everyone can try everything. Well, enchiladas were no better than what I've had at other Mexican restaurants for $10 less. Mole verde was flavorful but the chicken was dry. Arrachera nortena again had great flavor, but the beef was overcooked even though I said medium, it arrived almost well done. Luckily, the al ajillo con camarones I ordered was the best dish although, it wasn't the taqueria style camarones al ajillo as this had a cream based sauce unlike the regular garlic butter sauce. It was good (thank god!).
But get this. The servers now became attentive and attempted to take my empty plate away although we had only just started eating. I was like "I'm NOT done". Can't they see that we were eating family style with ALL the dishes in the middle of the table and none of the entrees were dented to say the least? Just keep your eyes on those glasses amigos and not on my plate!
When we finally finished our entrees, my friends wanted dessert so we decided to share the Crepas con Cajeta: crepes with a caramel sauce and topped with walnuts. I don't like dessert, but this was really really good. Probably what redeemed the worse than worse service and 3 lack luster entrees we had to sit through.
They are just lucky that my friend paid for dinner because I would not have left them a good tip at all. Dinner for 4 adults and lil guy who only ate the tortilla chips and drank water came to over $200 before tip. We only had 2 alcoholic drinks (margarita was great by the way and a beer), 2 iced teas, 2 soft drinks, 3 bottles of water and one coffee on top of our meal. I've had far memorable Mexican food at medium-scale restaurants (if this is to be considered upscale) for a fraction of the cost.
Yes I understand it's in Beverly Hills, and yes, I understand that maybe self absorbed celebrities might not have noticed poor service, but weighing the food we ate, the service we received against the bill they slapped us with at the end - hmmm --- consider yourself lucky I'm feeling generous by rewarding you with 2 stars.
I still had a wonderful time despite everything, but that was due to the company. PURELY the company! read more