pecked by the beak of the rooster. when you arrive here, you will first notice that the restaurant location is high on a hill and has some sweeping views particularly from the outdoor patio. cool! . . . or it can be with prevailing breezes from the sse. inside you will find the modern architecture eye pleasing with graceful curves and sparkling pendant lights. the ear is another matter. hard concrete floors make for easy clean-up, but raise the decibel level 15 or so marks when there is a crowd. and there was a crowd when we went. i shouted across the table to one of our dinner companions and it sounded like normal speech given the surrounding cacophony.
service lagged after we we were seated. however, an enterprising young waiter noticed our plight and sallied forth to serve though our table was out of his area. through most of our lunch, the waiter jack-rabbited in and out with our requests and in serving the requested items. he told us his name was chris. however, it could easily have been mario (as in andretti) as he accelerated through the restaurant careening through tables and turns, slimly avoiding diners and other waiters to speedily service ourfoodand drink needs.
appetizers of queso and bean & cheese nachos were rather unremarkable. the refrieds on the nachos were bland and the cheese sprinkler must have had an unsteady hand from over-consumption the night before as half of the chips were only half covered with cheese. several of us selected the jose special which consisted of two average tasting white cheese filled enchiladas with gravy and a nicely grilled, well seasoned, beef fajita taco, clumpy rice and good bacony frijoles a la charra. another diner had the cheese filled chile relleno which she said was a little small and that the ranchera tasted like unadulterated tomato sauce.
as part of the order, my wife decided to substitute a beef enchilada for one of her cheese and i asked for some pico de gallo to accompany my fajita taco. unfortunately this just happens to be one of those "sneaky, penny-pinching" restaurants. the kind that is accommodating to most requests, but fails to mention that the request will impact the check's bottom line. it's not the amount, it's the principal and the courtesy (or lack of it) of divulging these "little secrets" at the time of order and giving the diner the election to approve or disapprove the charge. we had also ordered 4 rounds of drinks. so it is not as if they were not going to make a nice profit from our group (a happy hour price quote on our drinks is another matter which i will not go into here). $1.00 for a tiny cup of pico and $2.49 to substitute a beef for a cheese enchilada . . . .really!?!?!?!
above average prices for average tex-mex, nice ambiance but noisy with a crowd, lickety-split service, and a need to develop some integrity and respect for the customer is my one sentence review and "recommendation" for aldaco's.