visiting phoenix, we wanted to have "authentic" mexican. we drove to rosita'splacebut it was rather scary at night! we thought we'd try aplacecloser to our hotel and asi es la vida had a high enough rating to try. theplaceis rather small but colorful. there was live music on the saturday evening we were there. don't go in expecting your typical mexican restaurant with chips, salsa, tacos, etc. the food was excellent but the portions were a little small. if we ever eat here again, i'm getting two appetizers. the appetizer (queso fundido with roasted poblano peppers) was very tasty albeit a little small. 4 corn tortillas were almost too many for the serving size.
my husband had a steak and i had a shrimp entree. both meats were excellent. the cream corn and peppers was also tasty. the served rice tasted like minute rice with frozen mixed vegetables. just about the best tasting sauce i've had (and unfortunately too spicy for me) item was their smoked red sauce. it was smokily wondrous. almost worth all the tears i shed over my sore tongue.
the service was very good. .