BuenoMalo — Restaurant in Andover

I think the review ballot box is stuff with paid reviews. I Live up the road , been here three times with friends and had similar experiences. I think the restaurant is slowing down. I brought my family of 4 here on Thursday night. Dinner took two hours and the place was empty from 7-9pm.

The vibe is cool but the actual process and value nay gate coming back for even a drink with a friend, which is a shame. My overall take is this place is a pretentious hipster nickel grabb, and we are paying for the pleasure of being there. I won't say stay away but here's what you'll get.

The mixed drinks are expensive at $14-$20 for served in small 8oz glasses, where ice takes up half the volume of the glass. Tequila, which I enjoy straight starts at $22 or so for well brands, don Julio was around $25. Mixed drinks are priced with low quality liquor which I think they cut, it's not like tequila I've ever had. You can pay an $3 upcharge upcharge for patron, bringing the price up to $17 for essentially a 4oz drink. It's not uncommon for us to spend $100+ on alcoholic drinks at more expensive places during a night out so it's not so much the cost vs we'd like a good drink. Who doesn't? Unfortunately drinks were disappointing.

I had base margs, wife had Rickey martains and a base. Our margs were noticeably weak. My wife felt the same way on hers. Were not lushes but $14 for 8oz glasses, where the drink it's really only about 4oz, You should get a good drink, these were not. I understand sometimes you can get a light pour from a bartender, no big deal it happens. While ordering a second drink I mentioned the first was a little weak. They said they'd make it stronger. They actually charged me $6 extra for a double shot and didn't tell me. I saw the charge on my email receipt the next morning. Had I known they'd change me a double I would have rathered straight tequila. I'm sure that would have been a tightly controlled pour too. The double shot brought out the flavor of the well tequila they used which wasn't particularly great. It's almost like the silver tequila was cut with water and the flavor was dulled. Or perhaps they shake the tequila first with ice watering it down. I didn't feel like I just had 3 shots worth of tequila within 45min so something is up with the drinks.

The wait staff was plentiful, attentive and friendly. No problem there. They seemed to be staffed for a crowd but when we left at 9 it was quite all night. The low star rating is for the kitchen speed.

This places makes burritos and tacos at $22 for two tacos or a burrito. No kids menus, no problem. The food was good. Not sure about $22 good but good, no authentic flavors or anything really strong in real flavor. Their homemade hot sauce was weak. Quality ingredients though, better than casa Blanca, however and id had to say this but compared to Chipotle in quality or in flavor, idk it's close. Chipotle has way more flavor and $13 burritos, add that to the tequila I have at home and the over all experience would be better. I will say the steak i had in the burrito was perfectly cooked med. rare and a great sirloin cut. If they had a $40 carne asada with flavor that didn't take an hour I maybe down. The issue is the kitchen speed.

Nachos took 45min. another 45min for the entrees to arrive, again the place was less than half full and the inside of my burrito was warm going on cold. All of their dishes are simple and quick to make so something is broken in the Kitchen . This seems to be well known problem.

The two hours was painful, the drinks were disappointing sub par and we paid top tier pricing on everything. $260 including 20% tip and my $21 "double shot" marg. It's a cool vibe, the food is good but there is no draw to go back here with the pricing, speed or drink quality. Fixing two of those three would make a...

I read a few reviews about how it was authentic baja Mexican before coming but I found only a few dishes really felt that way:

FOOD / DRINKS: The tacos and burritos definitely felt authentic. We only had the carnitas tacos and vegan burrito (minus the cauliflower because its utterly random) and they were good. They came with unlimited rice and beans which felt canned and unsalted. Who else gives unlimited bad food ... oh wait Olive Garden. For 22 dollars, not really authentic, wasn't really worth it. We also ordered the salsa trio, guac, shrimp, pork belly appetizers, mushroom empanadas and man were they all misses. The shrimp was just 6 pieces, all small and the corn wasn't on the cob, it was already cut up. Reminded me of a place where I got a salmon salad and salmon was precut, not really sure how much I got or if it was any good because they decided it for me. Could have been canned for all I know and certainly felt like it. The empanandas were very "Vanilla" - nothing baja about them. The flavour was really basic and I know they are hoping the mushrooms and pastry to shine but felt like there was nothing to hold it up, whether onions or cheese, or even salt. The pork belly was the most disappointing - really overcooked and overfried. I felt like I was eating burnt food. Drinks were OK, really had a lot of sugar for cocktails, even though I got a mocktail.

SERVICE: Service was nice and friendly, I really liked our server. Wouldn't change my 5 star review of her.

ATMOSPHERE: Was OK, was cute, but we were put near the service door for a table with a toddler. Otherwise the place seemed nicely decored.

OVERALL: If you are there for the alcholic drinks, this place may be nice, if you just stick to basics, burritos and tacos, sure its OK, but then again, you can go somewhere...

I've found the Holy Grail. The PERFECT eating experience from start to finish. And surprise, it's at a taco shop!!

Most meals, even fantastic ones, come with occasional missteps, whether it's cold, hard bread at a fancy steakhouse - or limp soggy French fries at a great burger place. You just always expect one piece of the meal to be lackluster, always.

However, Bueno Malo REFUSES to give a sub-excellent food experience. Every single piece of our enormous meal was sensational. Not a single bad moment! Here's a recap below:

Tacos - huge portions, generous amounts of pico de gallo salsa, big pieces of flaky delicious fried fish. There's no holding back.

Quesadillas - We opted for the steak and shrimp. Again, super generous portion sizes with large chunks of juicy steak. Honestly, it felt like we could eat this with a knife and fork because the steak chunks were almost the size of steak tips!

Sides - Homemade empanadas, deep-fried pockets filled with juicy mushrooms. This felt like a juicy lucy in the way that molten mushroom juice hit your mouth. Also, their French fries are cut in the most unique way, into thin, wide slats. Makes them extremely crunchy and tasty!

Finally to top off the meal, we got the deep-fried Oreos, which was our first experience having them. The Oreo interior was molten and soft, while the exterior had a nice crunchy bite. Paired with a scoop of Oreo ice-cream, this meal was finished with a bang!

Thank you for the amazing experience,...