Pajarito — Restaurant in Saint Paul

Daughter picks me up from the airport as I'm in the Twin Cities for her graduation for her Masters! YES! VERY PROUD! (Plus she has her undergraduate in chemical engineering and that's kick ass). Ok, enough of my bragging 🤣. She asks what I'm hungry for since it's past noon and she offers sushi or Mexican. SAY WHAT? you all know I'm a Mexican foodie! Off we go! Oh wow, we enter this place and it's cavernous and cozy at the same time. Very, very cool artwork too! We grab a booth and immediately greeted by our server. Menus presented. Of course I'm ordering a margarita and yes! Daughter orders guacamole. It's interesting they don't bring out salsa and chips like most places for free. We order the 3 flight of salsas (yes, it's not free): habenero, cashew and avocado salsas. I order the shrimp tacos and Daughter orders chicken tingas. We decide to divide and Conquer. The guacamole is the way its supposed to be: semi chunky with a flavor of lime and a good bite of cilantro=perfect! Their chips are house and hand made. Not too salty (so you order more drinks) but crispy and break down immediately in your mouth. MAY I go on infinitely about the flight of salsas? Ok, first, really clever about offering a flight! The habinero is hot but not where you're gasping for a dairy product. I like super hot dishes and this is a good balance. I didn't care for the cashew salsa but daughter loved it and the avocado salsa was delicious! To each his own! My margarita arrived in a smallish glass (15.00 and see photo). It was one of the best but I feel the drink needs to stretch its legs and be a taller portion. The waterfall of salt may be too much? But! The blend of tequila and lime was perfect! Ok. FOOD. YES! our plates arrive and I nearly careen off the bench. The shrimp tacos are a medley of eye rolling backwards with joy and melt in your mouth. So many flavors I'm flummoxed as to how to describe! I do know I was mad I told daughter we would share dishes UNTIL I had one of her chicken tingas. So how many of you have had a chicken taco and its DRY? seriously, you need water to help it down your throat? Not here! This chicken was not only flavorful but moist. Absolutely delicious and thank you Chef! Bathroom was super clean and server was fantastic! I highly, highly recommend...

Tried this place for lunch and split the yuca fries, the torta and the cubano sandwich. A few thoughts:

The menu is upscale Mexican. They do classic Mexican dishes or use traditional Mexican flavors but put a twist on many of them. Love it! The staff were friendly and considerate. Got there when it opened and they let us choose where we wanted to sit. When we got the yuca, they asked if we wanted to order or enjoy the appetizer and then order. It was so nice not to be rushed through a dining experience... especially bc it wasn't busy. They gave us a new pitcher of water when it was empty. The flavors were spot on. Hot and crunchy yuca tossed in a vibrant 'chimichurri'-esque sauce - what?! Yes please. We were almost full on that. The twist on a torta ahogada was amazing as well. The beef was tender. The sauce was spicy, and I loved that you controlled when and how 'ahogada' it was. The cubano was very good, although I would have wanted the pickle 'relish' (really just jalapeno en escabeche... but smoked!) inside the cubano as opposed to having to open the sandwich to add it to taste as you expect for the pickle to be in the sandwich for a cubano. We walked out STUFFED.

Why 4 and not 5? Honestly, it's just the price point. For dinner, wouldn't bat an eye. For lunch, I was teetering on the edge of suggesting someplace a little less upscale. (And honestly, it's so silly, but I think it's psychological. For example, I kind of want chips or fries with a sandwich if I'm at a restaurant. And if I look at "Hola Arepa," another inventive eatery with a latino vibe, you have similar sandwich (arepa) price points... but served with yuca fries.

I'll play my own Devil's advocate here though: it's clear the ingredients are quality. A cubano, after all, is a meat on meat on meat sandwich. The steak in the torta was tender and had no grizzle whatsoever. And their take on yuca fries was flavorful (no ketchup needed) and inventive. Also, you can view menu + pricing online, so there is no hoodwinkery here, either.

Overall, I'd come back and introduce to my husband or maybe a friend or two. Maybe for a date night or...

While I don't typically write bad reviews, tonight has me inclined to do so... My boyfriend and I have been here a handful of times this past year. The restaurant itself is beautiful and the food is always amazing (put the octopus/chorizo taco on permanently)... however the last 3 times we have been in the service is just AWFUL (always with different server). Once we put our order in the waitresses are nowhere to be found. The front half of the restaurant near the bar seems to be severely neglected and it's 20 mins before you can flag anyone down. While I always see at least 2 waitress floating around the back half of the restaurant and the bartenders always seem to be on top of their area.. We went in tonight and waited 40 mins for our food. My boyfriend got his steak while I waited an additional 20 mins for my tacos. Seriously, tacos!? When we finally managed to catch our server, she was not super helpful or friendly telling us she "was the only server in the restaurant and food will come out in the order is was put in"... funny since our 2 dishes should have come out at the same time and the restaurant had mostly cleared out by that point.. By the time I finally got my 2 tacos, I was over it. My boyfriend had pretty much finished his meal and I lost my appetite. We waited another 10-15 minutes before catching someone, who I assume was the manager or lead on duty, and asked for our tab. Had the waitress or any staff simply informed us they were short staffed, backed up or simply messed up, we would have been more understanding but if your staff cannot communicate delays or display any hospitality/customer service, you will lose patrons. Which is pretty unfortunate because the food really is very good. Needless to say, we won't be back for quite a while and IF we do come back it will only be...