La Paloma Restaurant — Restaurant in Heath

My friend and I wanted to try out a new "Mexican" restaurant for cinco de Mayo...so we went to this place for it had fairly positive reviews. When we entered, there were already red flags to head for the exit. Not a single employee had a drop of Hispanic blood which does not necessarily make it a prerequisite for a Mexican restaurant, but it is usually not a good sign. Second, the air was filled with the smell of deep fried pastries; more like a donut shop rather than Mexican cuisine. Third, we were not greeted at our table by a complimentary basket of chips. Instead was an industrial sized plastic bottle filled to the brim with the blandest salsa I've ever tasted. My friend ordered some chips which came in a small bowel at the tune of $2. The stale, bagged chips were an excellent compliment to the bland, tomato paste salsa.

Although things already looked (and tasted) bad, we decided to give La Paloma a second chance with their menu. There were positive reviews about their sopapillas so we each ordered one. When the waitress asked if I wanted sour cream with my $9 meal, I made the incorrect assumption that it was included. A sit down "Mexican" restaurant that charges for chips AND sour cream: La Paloma you ARE one of a kind...

Our food was brought out rather quickly and the large sopapillas which dwarfed our plates looked pretty appetizing. The deep fried meat pastry was covered in shredded lettuce and diced tomatos. For a moment, my doubts about this restaurant fleeted...until I took a bite. The pastry dough itself was clearly a special, homemade recipe which had a sweet, flaky taste. This was clearly the reason why La Paloma has positive reviews. Unfortunately, the handcrafted dough-pastry was filled with the most generic, store-bought, tasteless fillings. All I could taste was Colby cheese. I could not taste the beef at all and the beans tasted straight from a can. I asked the waitress if there was hot sauce I could dowse this abomination with and she pointed to the red towering tube of blandness. I asked if there was anything hotter, and she brought out a green plastic bottle which was made with jalapeños. The green salsa actually had some heat and helped cauterize my taste buds from the terrible taste of the sopapillas. I could only eat a third of it and my friend ate about half.

Overall, La Paloma is right to boast in the fact that they are not your traditional Mexican-American restaurant...they are far from it. Save yourself a trip and money and go to Taco Bell. (At least some of their items come...

I had a takeout order and picked it up at the drive thru window. The person at the drive thru window was very friendly. The problem I had was with the payment. She handed me the portable credit card reader for me to sign but I first had to get through the TIP screen. The TIP screen had 25%, 21%, and 18% as options with a small button to do a custom TIP. THIS NEEDS TO STOP! Before COVID there was no tip for takeout. After the COVID government handouts, everyone is asking for take out tips. I am all for employers for paying fair wages but please quit asking for handouts for takeout food! If I was dining inside and the server brought me food and refills on drinks, then the tip is earned. Restaurants need to have tips earned and quit asking for handouts for takeout food where no service is given. Even La Paloma To Go which has a business model that they only do takeout and have no servers, asks for handout tips when they flip the screen over for you to sign. Again, you have to get through the TIP screen to get to where you sign. You can always select custom tip and then enter $0.00 or sometimes they have a no tip button. After you do that, you can sign. I am old school where you need to...

We've lived in Heath for over a year and had heard great things about this restaurant, so we decided to try it. The food was delicious...the staff needs retrained! We walked in, the hostess looked a mess and didn't smile. We asked for a booth, she walked away, came back and asked if a table would work and I said no because we a small child and booths work better. She walks back over to the server line and a long blonde haired server says rather loudly, "they will have to take a table, that's all we have available right now. Can't always get what they want, unless you want to clean off a booth!". She was talking to the hostess, there were 3 booths empty but not clean. Another server cleaned off a booth, the hostess walked us to that booth by having us squeeze between two tables in the middle instead of going around where there was more room. We ended up getting a really nice server who was fantastic at her job, I made sure to let her know we appreciated how well she did. If we had been sat at the others servers table, we would have walked right back out! The server we had was blonde with glasses, I didn't get any names but I'm sure if they read this they will know...