michoacan

they can't make rice. i had never been to this restaurant before, but i heard good things so i thought i would give it a try. my hubby and i went today around 1:30pm and ordered the lunch specials. i had the shrimp rancheros with rice and beans, while the hubby had a chicken dish with a cream sauce and green chilis...his also had rice and beans.

first, let me say that we were given chips, salsa, beans, and fideo when we first sat down. we both thought the chips, salsa andbeanswere good, but we didn't like the fideo soup. the soup was really salty and i have made better fideo from the soup packet i buy at the grocery store.

ok so the food overall was good. i liked the shrimp and the sauce it came with was really delicious. my hubby really liked his chicken dish, and i have to admit, i thought it was good too. thebeanswere pretty good and even my child liked them. one complaint i have is that the rice was disgusting. the rice was hard and not authentic at all. no one really came around, so i didn't have anyone to complain to about the rice. there was a bus boy that came to fill our drinks once, but we were not sure who our server was.

a different guy came to take our plates, and i told him in spanish that the rice was hard. he offered to get us more, but we were both full, so we declined. he went back to the kitchen and the cooks tasted the rice and decided to make more. the guy came back to tell me thatnks for letting him know about the rice.

overall, i think the food would have been overpriced if it wasn't for the lunch special pricing. i am hispanic and i have eaten at many many mexican restaurants in arizona, where i am from, so i have high standards. i probably won't come back here again unless its for a lunch special. the food is not worth the price for dinner, especially since they can't make rice. i am not the greatest cook, but spanish rice is one thing i can at least make.

know mexican food - it's better than this!. this is probably the worst regular mexican restaurant that i have ever had the misfortune to visit. i bought a take out order for my family around 7 pm on a saturday night at the centennial location. i had never visited this restaurant but read reviews and its menu on-line so i thought it was safe. also, given that it was a weekend night when i ordered food, i expected that the better cooks would be on duty. i ordered quite a few items from the menu and paid $50 (with tip). besides the food being really over priced, the quality was substandard to say the least. the pork carnitas consisted of dried-out chunks of pork swimming in a thin, overly hot tomato sauce - probably to hide the age of the ingredients. the carne asada taco was a small, flat corn tortilla with a tablespoon of burnt meat on top - no cheese, no seasoning, no green onions, etc. the beef and pasta soup was like dish water and even my dog would not eat it when she was offered it. the chile relleno had little taste other than the eggy batter and had not much sauce. thebeansand rice were a thin portion spread at the bottom of a take out pan and were terrible - rice a roni makes a better rice version and rosa ritabeansout of the can have more flavor! the tamale and the green chicken enchilada were also dried out and tasteless - and again, no cheese. even the chips and salsa were a disaster - the chips were thick, greasy and had no salt. the salsa was hot and was really just low quality taco sauce - no chunks of tomato, onion or cilantro were present. i paid a lot for a side serving of their fresh, table-side guacamole which was marginal but had absolutely no seasoning. overall, given my family's meal experience, i doubt that this restaurant even owns any jars of cumino, garlic and oregano nor fresh cilantro or cheese. i called the restaurant the next day to complain - spoke with "jose" and have not heard back. if you are familiar with gordon ramsay's kitchen nightmares, the fox distressed restaurant series, you can definitely imagine that this restaurant deserves to featured!