La Cava Tacos & Tequila — Restaurant in Newton

The good news first. Service is polite and frequent. Salsa good though a little salty. Chips good.

We ordered something a little different from the norm for entrees. My dinner companion ordered the mole enchiladas. The mole was excellent and very authentic. ( if you are not familiar with mole, it is a dark sauce made of chocolate, raisins, chili peppers, spices, among other things. It's a very complex flavor)

I got Pollo Vallarta, chicken topped with shrimp. I asked for this dish without the rice or beans or tortillas. They gave a small green salad with fresh avocado, and some kind of weird dressing that looked like French dressing. I didn't care for the dressing, as I don't like that kind of dressing in the first place and second, it's not authentic Mexican.

The chicken was very tender and flavorful, though a little greasy. It was served on a wooden cutting board which I didn't favor for sanitation reasons. The shrimp were a good size, and the onions were a good addition to the dish. There was a big cup of chipotle sauce served with this dish. I personally thought the dish was fine without the chipotle sauce as it was already so flavorful. The sauce was okay but I didn't think it was necessary with this dish.

I ordered a side of pico, so that was good. We ordered some cheese sauce, which we never received and were not charged for. At the end of the meal, they gave us each a card for a free appetizer upon our return visit.

Now let's go to the bad news. The decor did not resonate with me at all. Everything was grey, white, and black with a few odd pops of pink and gold and strange looking greenery. I mean, the restaurant is called La Cava the cave and I get it, it's supposed to be like a cave or the entrance to one. But I sure as heck don't want to have dinner in a cave especially not at the Mexican restaurant. The whole feeling was dungeon like, very much a downer. The atmosphere did not feel festive at all like most Mexican restaurants. There were odd black studs (like nails, you know like those nails that go around the edge of certain styles of furniture but they were black) framing the all black booths. The floor tile was kind of a spiky design. There were incongruous elements that just didn't work for me, such as the giant pineapple on the wall with huge agave leaves sticking out of the top. And the giant pink fake dogwood tree in the middle of the restaurant. Dogwood does not grow as far as south as Mexico. Confusing. Felt like it was dreamt up by somebody in Corporate rather than somebody who's in touch with the earth.

The decor felt harsh and cold to me, not friendly or family friendly at all. It was depressing to me and too citified, too poser. I just couldn't get comfortable there with the way the place looked. Have you ever wondered why McDonald's logo is red and yellow? It's because those are the colors that stimulate appetite. The colors in this restaurant did absolutely nothing to stimulate my appetite or make me feel happy or joyful.

Plus, they had the air conditioning on what felt like about 38° as it was ice cold in there. I had to go outside and get a jacket. It worsened the feel of the already frigid, rigid mood of the decorating. I also ordered some hot water right away when we sat down, and it came piping hot. They definitely understood the assignment on the hot water..

On a scale of 1 to 5, I will give this place a 4 for food, 4 for service, and a 1 for decor. I give it an overall rating a 2 since the atmosphere dragged absolutely everything down, and the food and service could use...

First off the inside dining room was so cold on July 31st I had to go get a cost from the car after ordering lunch. I told my server no tomatoes or rice as im allergic to both. I also ordered corn tortillas with my fajitas as I'm also allergic to flour. One out of 3 isnt bad. There was no rice but tomatoes on the plate which she recognized and did offer to take them back. I declined as I just could avoid eating that lettuce and tomatoes. However I was served flour tortillas and since nobody stopped to ask how I was doing I was never able to ask for my corn tortillas so I dealt with it. Before leaving I went to the men's room which was fairly clean but needs tidied up. As I was standing in front of the bar I was stuck to the floor by spilled drinks or something. The food I could eat wasn't bad but everything else destroyed the...

Unfortunately, a major downside was our server :( We went when it wasn't busy. We got sat and our server greeted us and got us water then walked away. Our server didn't come back for about 20 minutes while we waited for anyone to take our order. We asked another server to get our order and he said he'll go find our server. Then, that server forgets to tell our server that we're ready. Meanwhile, we literally see our server watching TV and talking to the bartender instead of getting our order... we waved down someone that looked like the manager and told him that we've been waiting a long time for someone to take our order. Finally, we're able to get our server to take our order after at least 20 minutes. Our server never apologized for forgetting about us. At a restaurant...the guest should...