La Pinata — Restaurant in Boston

One of the worst food experiences I have paid for, that wasn't actively illness inducing. 4.7 stars? The wisdom of the crowds failed us this time. Since nobody ended up chained to a toilet and the staff was not rude, Mexicali Sushi gets better than 1 star, but the two I gave seems a little high.

Pro: The ceviche was inoffensive. Nobody got food poisoning.

Con: Where to begin.

Fusion cuisine is supposed to take the best aspects of two different traditions, and meld them in creative, delicious ways. This was, at best, substitution, rather than fusion.

For example, the rice: sushi rice uses seasoned vinegar, and Mexican rice has a different flavor and texture, but both are interesting. The rice here had no flavor, but still sticky so it could be used in "sushi" rolls. It held the rolls together well, but the rice to stuff ratio was skewed so much towards the rice that overriding flavor was just "bland".

The Salmon Fillet was also bad. I don't know if it was microwaved or kept warm in a steam tray or what, but this was not even up to the standards of a cheap steakhouse that begrudgingly has a fish option for non- steak eaters. It was just an overdone slab of vacuum sealed frozen salmon with a slightly smoky sugar sauce over a bed of sticky rice, not to be confused with the wonderful Thai style sticky rice, just the same stuff as the rolls. The only vegetable garnish was some shaved carrot strings - not enough to be a side.

As for the rolls, as mentioned above, they are mostly rice. The inclusions - beef, shrimp, veggies, cream cheese, etc. - were so muted by the rice that one could hardly tell the difference between the "veggie" California roll (all the veggie rolls had cream cheese) and the fancy meat and seafood roll.

Even the drinks were off. We ordered Jarritos sodas, and one flavor they had in stock (lime, no complaints there) was served in mason jars. Was this a pun, making it "jar"ritos?

As we walked away, stomachs heavy and leaden with extra starchy rice, we ended up heading to a nearby restaurant for dessert and drinks. We were completely full, but we wanted to end the night with a positive experience.

One of us came up with this gem of a description: this was like a Hipster culinary school project that would have gotten a C+.

tl:dr - not a positive experience, but...

It was a hot summer evening when I decided to stop in at MexiCali Sushi Bar conveniently located in Maverick Square East Boston. The patio folded out onto the street and was mostly crowded with one or possibly two servers in sight.

Upon arrival with my two good friends, we had to wait a few minutes for a table of three to be cleaned and reset. We didn't wait very long and were seated promptly. I was super excited to try this place because one of my friends recommended it based on a recommendation another friend gave her. I was expecting a fusion of authentic Mexican food with traditional Japanese dishes, but ended up having a HUGE let down. And that's mostly my fault for having expectations versus reality.

The menu was limited and was 90% sushi. I'm not sure if this was a different menu than the one they had pre-Covid, but it was super basic. Essentially, there were a few ceviches and Mexi-American ingredients inside of sushi rolls and slap cream cheese on EVERY roll. Being lactose intolerant, it was super annoying combing through the menu thrice to 1) find something I could eat and 2) wasn't hamburger meat or something of the like and cream cheese stuffed into rice (insert vomit emoji).

Of what we did order, the ceviche was the best dish with the little crab salad/slaw and the big tortilla chips. The sushi was sub par. The ingredients weren't fresh and again cream cheese was on everything. I felt bad for our server because he was getting slammed being the only one on the patio and the food hardly made it a better experience.

The concept is cool, but the execution is basic and poor. Probably won't dine here again,...

Worst experience I've had at a restaurant in a very long time. Placed an order on their website then drive 20 minutes to pick up my food to find out that they didn't even input my order because the waiter "didn't push a button" to confirm my order. Even though there was an email sent stating that the order was received and the chefs were working on it. I get here and the waiter's trying to make it seem like that it was my fault and I shouldn't have started to drive her until I got an email stating that my order was received, even though I showed him proof that I did get an email that my order was placed.

On top of all this, my private information was on the table for everyone to see. My full name, email address and phone number was on their keypad. Out in the open.

Not to mention, their food wasn't even that great. For the service alone, I will never return here and I'll be sure to let my friends know that the service here is horrible.

P.S. Both my sister and I got food poising from here, after we had there sushi rolls. Not sure whose bright idea it was to put red meat into...