Corto Lima — Restaurant in Lexington

Selection of drinks are good, now on to the food.

I may get some names of dishes wrong, but I'll do my best.

Black Bean Dip with fresh chips - This was great. The chips were just about as perfect as you can get, maybe a few too many broken chips in the bag they were served in. The dip itself was solid, not over powering, top notch starter.

Pork Tacos - I do not like soft corn tortillas as a general rule, this is where the exception is. The meat was tender. Very spicy, but to my liking. Just a solid little plate.

Tostones - Fried plantains with a chipotle (I believe) dipping sauce. This is a more mild dish and the plantains were a little over cooked. All in all a very pleasant dish.

Aperatas - This was a corn cake, filled with queso blanco, and topped with guacamole. It was fantastic. I was hesitant when I ordered it because who knows what the corn cake would be like, but this turned almost into a savory molten lava cake. Just the right amount of crisp. The guacamole was solid as well. Delicious.

Chicken Chicherrons - My favorite thing I ate all night. I can't honestly describe this well enough. A flavor packed bite, just the right levels of texture and a subtle heat. I will come back just to have this dish again.

Shrimp Tacos - This was ordered at the end because I wanted to taste something from their seafood side. This was a major disappointment. The most important thing here, which was left off the menu, is that this is made with fried shrimp. In a restaurant were everything is such quality, to get served a heavily breaded fried shrimp taco was almost insulting. The flavors of the slaw on it were good, and had this been some kind of sauteed shrimp it probably would have been great.

All good listed above with one margarita and one Dos Xs the bill came to about $53. Considering the amount of food i thought it was a very fair price. Could easily be a nice quick lunch place for a light meal of any of their small plates.

I will be back. This place is a gem.

Our server was Jordan and he did a great job of checking on us at appropriate times. He wasn't invasive, but we also never wanted for anything. He did a fantastic job and all the staff we interacted with were very...

I went there for the first time this weekend for a friends birthday dinner. The dinner was a self serve, buffet type style, and I say this politely as possible, it was absolutely not worth it! I'll give the restaurant two stars for the nice environment, the quality guacamole, and the delicious alcoholic beverage. But that's it! What was served on the self serve menu was toritilla chips that are so thin you can't load toppings onto them because they break. Soft tortilla shells that are tough and taste like they've been freezer burned (I assume they're homemade, but gosh they taste terrible). They serve pork that looks like dog food. Chicken that is so smothered in cinnamon seasoning, it completely overpowers the whole taste. The chopped steak was decent, I'll give them that. But for paying $25 per person for a self-serve meal, they need to step it up a whole lot! I would've been happier at another local place like Hacienda. And here's the kicker, when the check came, they tacked on $10 gratutity per person. I'm all for taking care of servers, but that's basically a 50% tip for people who only got the $25 meal. Insane! Who knows, maybe the regular menu items are delicious, based on the reviews I've read. But for people planning their birthday, please beware of the special menu they offer for your guests. It is not good! They will rip everyone off and it will put a damper on the night ahead because everyone leaves broke. For my meal, one drink, and added gratuity it cost me $50. For a couple that showed up late, ate only chips, cheese dip, and ordered two drinks- it cost them nearly $100. Make your birthday a pleasant one and avoid their little party special! Not worth it at all. Everyone felt like they got robbed and did not enjoy the food! Everyone could've spent all of that money elsewhere and left 100x more satisfied! BEWARE! I would not lie...

Pros: -Service was excellent. -Pleasant atmosphere. -Some of the best homemade hot sauce I've ever had. (Seriously I wish I bought a bottle before I left)

Cons: -Ridiculous portion sizes -Overpriced for quality of food regardless of current inflation -Weak $12 margaritas

Either they need to up the portion sizes or lower the prices. The food is adequate. And I mean that literally. It's good. Not bad but also not exceptional, just adequate. Considering that, the fact they charge $18 for three barbie sized tacos is insulting. My friend had the aforementioned tacos and I had the slow cooked beef (Ropa Vieja), it was again good but was it $25 good? Um...no. Also whoever's idea it was to put all that food for the Ropa Vieja on that tiny plate needs to rethink that. I understand they're doing it to make the portion sizes appear larger but it's misleading and all it does is frustrate me because my food keeps spilling off the plate. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my ENTREE covered the entire surface area of a small plate.

Now just to be clear I'm okay with spending a ton on smaller portion sizes, but the food needs to be very good if not exceptional. This was definitely not on that level. I spent $61 for my entree, guacamole that was good not great, and one $12 margarita that was pretty weak (but tasty) plus 20% tip. And that really annoys the heck out of me when I could spend half that at Agave & Rye and would have left both full and tipsy. At the end we both left there unsatisfied and still a little hungry.

Overall, I think this was an okay experience. Would I go again or recommend it to anyone? Probably not. I was just not impressed. And again that's mainly because of the prices/portion sizes being completely disproportionate to the...