The Fold: Botanas & Bar — Restaurant in Little Rock

Man were we disappointed.

My girlfriend and I met up with some friends for dinner. The Fold was their suggestion.

We started with the very over priced four dip combo. It was a red and green salsa, bowl of cheese dip and bowl of guacamole for $20. You would pay half of this, at most, for the same thing at a Mexican restaurant since your chips and salsa would be complimentary. It would also be much tastier. At least the servings weren’t tiny but I certainly wouldn’t call them generous either.

Everything on that sampler was bland. They all needed salt badly. The cheese dip was very bland, watery and lukewarm at best. You couldn’t scoop up this cheese dip. It just dribbled off my chip. I let the waitress know it was cold and she brought us another one. It was also lukewarm, if we are being generous.

Next we both got the taco plates. The appetizer was truly the warmup to set our expectations and palette. Again, the food was lukewarm and bland. The black beans needed salt terribly. Once they were properly salted you could really get the nice flavors in the beans. Some of our party made the same comment.

Now onto the tacos. This was a bit of a travesty. The corn tortillas were very mealy and cold. Some of them were so soggy they just immediately fell apart when trying to pick up the taco. This was a disappointment and no longer a taco. Now I’m eating a mouthful of meat with soggy corn meal chunks in it.

Oddly the tacos are not served with limes or sauces on the side. I guess I have really gotten used to street tacos. I had to request some limes. They just made the tacos colder. A poor lime just didn’t have enough oomph to make these tacos tasty.

Flavor wise, the only one I liked was the chorizo and potato and I tried six different ones. My girlfriend and I got all different tacos and we shared. The chorizo tasted very similar to what you can get at the grocery store but it was very flavorful and well cooked.

The margaritas were excellent. I will definitely give them that. The service was prompt if a bit standoffish.

I really wish we could like this place but the food was just subpar and especially for the price, they have to do...

We had a negative experience after optimistically hoping to try the food we knew was featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". We loved the look of the place, being that it was in an old gas station, and had a cool atmosphere.

First of all, it is a VERY overpriced place. Also, we unfortunately had a waitress that ruined the whole experience for us. (Believe her name might be Karen!?)

She was very standoffish, pushy, and not personable. She rubbed us the wrong way.

She didn't explain details about the food, even after being asked about them, and we found out upon receiving our bill/check that the taco salad doesnt include meat, which she didnt explain to us, or inform us upon ordering (with questions about it!) Instead" she charged $5 just for the meat - so it was $15 for basically a salad with lettuce and tomato, with chips underneath it, that do rd doesn't automatically have meat on it!? Never seen a taco salad like that!

She said "ranch" comes with it, but waitress gave us a very spicy dressing - that was super spicy and we couldnt eat it!

She offered churros like 3-4 times, and then when asked how much they were, she said she didn't know the price & had to go check. That seemed odd to us, especially after she told us she had worked there for 4 years!

Unfortunately we have decided that we would never go back, because It was that bad of an experience.

Save your time and money - go...

We've had up and down experiences with the Fold, and they haven't had to do with the food, which is generally good. They have more to do with the demeanor of some of the greeting staff and wait staff, which can be less than welcoming.

The whole place has a cool, young, with-it vibe, a kind of I'm so cool that I can't be bothered with pretending to be friendly and polite vibe. Maybe as an older person, I expect a sort of non-brusque, authentic and human, approach from people with whom I interact in a public setting. And maybe increasingly younger folks are not socialized to see things this way.

What's good about the Fold, the sometimes iffy reception and lack of politess in employees set to the side, is the food. The salsa roja is top-notch, loaded with cilantro and blessedly free of the sweeteners with which some Tex-Mex places not far from the Fold love to load their salsa.

We had brunch today, and I found my plate of chilaquiles not bad but also not great. There are better chilaquiles to be found locally than these, which are on the dry side. The huevos rancheros my spouse enjoyed were, however, first-rate. We both thought so.

It was a warmish but not hot April day, a breezy one, and sitting outside on the patio was very pleasant. This is another plus of the Fold, the ample outdoor seating at tables not crammed too...