Paloma Restaurante

The serving staff was good at their job and that's the only positive thing I can say about this place, unless you're really into white-washed vaguely Mexican minimalist decor. The food was overpriced, small servings, and insanely bland. The guacamole had 0 lime or paprika, and for $14 I expect a serving larger than 1 cup. The fresh chips were the highlight of that app, and those weren't very good either. One or 2 chips weren't even cooked enough or were stale, all I know is that I could bend them in half without breaking the chip. I got a blueberry margarita that tasted like a watered down children's fruit punch, 0 lime or anything that'd make it a margarita. The horchata was ok but I can't imagine how they could mess that up, and overpriced compared to the serving size I'd get at the far superior Mexican places on Haddon Ave.

When I say the food was bland, I'm not even talking about a lack of spice, which was very evident. I don't even like spice all that much. But when the waiter brought out "chef special homemade hot sauce, if you're feeling brave" I just about laughed when I tasted it. I can sweat through a mild salsa, and this hot sauce was weak as hell and still lacked flavor!! I put that on my buttered shrimp entree, which again was extremely overpriced given it was $25 for about 7-8 bland shrimp on unseasoned spinach sitting in a pool of butter. The butter was seriously the best of that dish, and the hot sauce only provided a tiny amount of heat that couldn't possibly save any of our dishes. I will say if you order the chicken entree, you get a very big portion of chicken, and I'd be more upset over the portions if the food was worth eating. I ended up eating again when I got home, bc I had 0 leftovers to take home and still was hungry. The whole meal reminded me of losing my sense of taste to COVID back in 2020, except that I could actually taste what little flavors they did put in there. And when I ate at home, I was able to confirm that yes I can still taste flavors, there was just little to no flavor to be had at Paloma.