Larad "I don't want everything, but I will have more!"

All in all, not bad!
I popped in yesterday after work, and while I wasn’t completely blown away, I would definitely come back….
I wasn’t starving, so I just had the Crab Pakora and the Keema Naan, with some Raita and mango chutney for dipping….The Crab Pakora was described as “Crispy spiced crab fritters, served with chutney”, but in fact deep fried pieces of KRAB….Blechhh! The Keema Naan however, was yummy and I just had the very friendly waiter pack up the pakoras to go and stuffed myself with the naan and an ice cold beer!
I fully intend on going back and trying some of the delicious smelling dishes that drifted by me while I dined….On the way home I gave my pakoras to a homeless man…I hope he liked them….

Here my friends is my tale of woe….Thirsty and hungry one sunny weekend afternoon, our heroine walked into a charming looking cantina and saw lovely comfy chairs for which to sit and read her book….a bartender was waiting on the only other table in the bar…., so she smiled and sat down at another table…and waited…and waited….and waited….Still smiling she finally went to the bar and ordered a margarita and asked for a menu (I guess he would only come out from behind the bar for a party of two)….He made the margarita, and said he would drop off the menu, so she returned to her table….and waited, and watched as he went into the kitchen, came back with a plate of food, sat down and started eating and talking to a co-worker….Our heroine (not smiling quite so much any more) tried flagging someone down, but to no avail…so, she walked into the restaurant and took a menu and once again returned to her table….Only to be ignored again…They would glance in her direction but go back to chatting….Was there something wrong with her? Maybe she didn’t deserve their time, or maybe they had a problem with a single woman drinking margaritas in the afternoon….In the end she would never know how mediocre their food was, because after being there for 45 minutes, She put some cash on the table and left….
Oh…and the margarita sucked!

This place is out to con you! 0 Stars!
I went there for my birthday last year and I had a 50.00 gift certificate I had gotten for Christmas….Even with that, the bill for 2 people was over 250.00!….What the heck! We had some sort of Feast (which was tiny and tasteless) and a few drinks each…Plus we sent a cocktail to another birthday person….Altogether no more than 7 drinks and that with dinner was over 300.00? I think not! I asked to see the bill, but there was no deciphering it, and they weren’t about to help….They insisted that they had taken the gift certificate off, and that I still needed to tip on it!!! WA WA WHAT?….I felt like I had been mugged! Plus, since we decided to leave before the performance, the waiter reached up while we were debating the bill and tore the nasty birthday fez off my head and exclaimed " This is only for people who dance!"

What a charming place! I have lived about 4 blocks away for 10 years, and while I have always thought about going in when I passed it, I never had….UNTIL yesterday!! I was wandering by about 3:00 after picking up some Friskies for my 20 lb hairball (apparently he would rather starve than eat the high end organic stuff I was trying out on him…) and I thought what the hell, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere (I am easy this way)…And it was just as cute as a bug! I plopped myself down at the bar and ordered a drink from a super sweet bartender, and she helped me decide between the numerous tasty sounding salads….A spinach and shrimp salad…YUM!!! Very well done with avocado and a mango vinaigrette…The whole vibe was super friendly, so I stayed for another round and then wandered home feeling like I had just made a new friend…Of course, it may just have been the rum.

Update*
9/18/07
Well, to be honest, they have been sliding downward in both food quality and service….No lie, the last 8 times I have been there there has been a problem with food…From everything to missing part of the order to waiting 45 minutes for a cold piece of pie when I was almost the only person in the place….The bartender even joked that he felt bad for me because it kept happening….But last night was the last straw….I ordered the Purple Potato Soup, and after about 20 minutes it came out cold and about half full, so I asked if they could heat it up…After ten minutes more it came back out with the bowl almost full, but all watered down, like they had put a cup of boiling water in it….It had been thick! WTF?! I used to come here every week and bring friends, now I wouldn’t be caught dead eating that crap!

3/01/2007
OK…I had been coming here almost every week since they first opened and I have to say that the food and service are pretty uneven…One time I went in and order the roasted beet salad, and it was perfect…Fresh little roasted beets, that were so sweet they tasted like candy, so good in fact that I came back the next night to have it again…And it was sliced canned beets!! Oh the horror! I was pretty disappointed, but all-in-all it was still a nice salad, so I wasn’t going to freak out over it, but sometimes it is kinda like that…A bit hit or miss, but still pretty good….As far as the service, they are starting to recognize me (I sit at the bar), so it is getting better, but other times I find myself trying frantically to get someones attention, only to have them come over to tell me they are not the bartender…and it’s not even busy!…But I like the place and I still stop by on the way home occasionally, just not as often anymore…I just don’t know what I will get.

I very much enjoyed my experience here the other night….The live scallop and Saba were excellent and the cold sake was perfection! I will most definitely be back!

I stopped by here yesterday on my way home from getting my foot cast…Needless to say, not in the best of moods….My foot hurt, I was pissed off because cute shoe season JUST started AND I needed something in my stomach so I could take a pain pill….Not to mention a drink!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for being there in my time of need! I had a enormous salad with walnuts, apples, and chicken…YUM! and a great big glass of sangria…Ok…TWO great big glasses of sangria…Ahhhh….Also the bartender was sweet as pie and helped sooth my cranky mood….I left there feeling like a new girl and went shoe shopping….After all, I still have one good foot!