La Cocina de Roberto — Restaurant in Texas

Disappointed. Had read great reviews, and have been wanting to try this place for a long time.

They don't seem to like single diners. When I approached reception as a party of one, she said she first had to seat a party of four who was waiting. This makes sense.

When she came back to front desk, a new party of two had just arrived. She said, "let me take care of these two, and I'll be right back with you". So she seated the party of two.

When she came back to the desk, a brand-NEW party of two had just arrived. She said, "let me seat these two and I'll get right back with you". By now the message was clear. Two people means double profit compared to one person, so you'll just have to wait.

When I was finally seated (at a table which holds four), waiter handed me menu and said "have you decided what you want to order?". Well, frankly, I have not even opened the menu yet. Again, the message was clear. You're just a party of one, so please HURRY UP and EAT and LEAVE so we can serve the REAL customers.

I ordered and the meal was served. To be honest, it was nothing to write home about. I expected Mexican to be fairly spicy, compared to this meal which was rather bland. Normally at a restaurant with rave reviews like this one has, you'd expect the dishes to be very good renditions. I can't say that anything I had was "very good".

But more importantly, the waiter kept coming by and asking if I needed anything. I had a side order which was temporarily sat off to the side while I gave my attention to the main dish. I intended to consume the rest of the side order later. But I didn't get that option. Waiter removed the unfinished dish without asking.

Waiter asked if I needed a to-go box at least three times, while I was still eating. I was NOT taking a long time to eat. Instead, , the message was clear. You're a single diner, so please, if we may politely ask, if you don't mind, would you ever so kindly and cordially GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR RESTAURANT? We have REAL customers. (Although I did note there was nobody in the lobby area waiting for a table).

I basically felt unwelcome, and rushed, and I felt like they wish I would leave ... and it was all for food which wasn't really all THAT good. The cuisine was ordinary at best, and I can't say anything was particularly delicious or compelling. Let's be fair by admitting that if they had treated me better, perhaps the cuisine would have tasted better. Bottom line is that I did not enjoy it.

Maybe I'll return but never ever in a million years as a party of one. They just don't seem to like parties of one. Hey, I just had an idea. Maybe I'll go there every night as a party of one, just to piss them off. Hmmm, might be fun.

Anyway, here's the thing they may have never considered before: life is not a One-Way Street. It's TWO-way. As a party of one, they did not want me in there. Well, I did not want to be there. So it's reciprocal. That's important. Let's admit they wish I would go elsewhere. But let's also be brave enough to admit that I wish I had gone elsewhere. There are two sides to every story.

If you're a party of 2 or more, maybe you'll like this place more than I did. Good luck. I was very disappointed in the food and service, because reviews made it seem like a great place to dine. Well, it was not great. I very much wanted it to be a nice, memorable, pleasant, welcoming dining experience. But it just flat wasn't. I cannot...

I want to give a warning that the dishes that we ordered were not the same as any other Mexican Restaurant that either of us has eaten at.

First off putting thing is that you do not get the free chips and salsa that are ubiquitous among Mexican Restaurants everywhere. Expect to pay $5 for the privilege. We skipped them. Choosing the Chips and Queso instead. The queso was OK, but I would say very Velveta ish. Not quite the flavor we are expecting. I actually asked my husband if he wanted to leave at that point. But we decided to give them a try because they were so highly rated. And the staff was nice.

When you are craving a certain food and you get an odd looking plate that you don't recognize the looks or the flavor it just doesn't work for me.

My husband ordered thr Cheese Enchiladas. Pretty standard cheese, tortilla, abd what he calls Enchilada Gravy that gives it the traditional flavor. Except that these didn't have that gravy. They were green, beige, and white. Just cheese flavored. No spunk.

I ordered a Chicken Quesadilla. The waitress askex rather i wanted grilled or shredded chicken. It would have been helpful, given that we said that it was our first visit) if she had said "shredded chicken in sauce," To be fair there was a LOT of chicken. But very little cheese and I hated the sauce and the soggy texture. I expected cheesy with pieces if meat. I guess you could argue that i should have asked what shreaded meant to them. I would call it a "sloppy quesadilla" i knew that the quesidilla was a la carte, I assumed that meant no sides. But it came with none of the exras that they usually come with as an appitizer. No sour cream or Pico de Guilo, let alone Guacamole. Each was an additional charge. Making the $12 dish rather expensive if you wanted all 3. I opted for just sour cream. Thinking that I could have ordered the Fajitas for if I had gotten both toppings that i like.

The reason that we gave them 3 stars was because they were very nice and they did not charge us for the food that we didn't eat. They offered to remake the food, but it was unclear if the sauce on the enchiladas would be rhe correct sauce or just some random red sauce. And I just didn't want to try again. My stomach was queezy from the 2 bites of sauce filled meat that i had tried.

I didn't expect the comp and was expecting to go hungry because we were already spending too much so that my husband could have enchiladas before a medical proceedure tomorrow. It's small but there is always a risk. And he wanted Mexican. The Mexican that we are used to. Or even the the tex-mex that so...

Don't waste your time. I went with a party of 4 for lunch. The young kid up front kept saying they don't have tables for 4 people. Yet you see plenty of tables with 2 chairs. He could of put two tables together for us. Someone else that worked there over head us say that we can go elsewhere to eat...this person said a table is available and asked us if we wouldn't mind waiting a while for the table to be cleaned off. So we waited about 5 minutes. When the table was ready we were offered to view the menu on line or if we wanted a paper menu. After looking at what they serve, we placed our orders. I had the Pechuga A La Parrilla. The chicken breast had no flavor. Not even salt. The rice looked like fried rice and tasted like rice pilaf. Black beans tasted like the were from a can. They give you chopped lettuce and tomatoes and about 3 slices of avocado on the plate as well. They offer 3 different salsas. The best one was the habanerro salsa. The woman who took our order was nice but kept offering suggestions of what else we may like to eat. So we ordered guacamole and queso. These are not cheap. AND no, chips and salsa are not free. We split a bread pudding. I asked what was in this bread pudding. She said it had golden raisins, cinnamon, a little bit of apples and came with ice cream. Sounded good and it was ok but I didn't see or taste any apples and it didn't come with ice cream, you are charged for the ice cream. The check arrives. Wow! Over priced. 2 glasses of tea, 1 tap water, 2 beers, the 3 lunch meals, quacamole, queso, half of pint of habanerro salsa to go, plus dessert came to $85 dollars for lunch. Can't believe lunch came out to be that expensive! The a/c was turned down very low and as freaking hot as it is in Houston, you felt the warmth hitting you in the face as you walked in to the restaurant. I assumed it was turned down low as electricity prices are high... just as our food is? This place is more like a Tapas bar. Although the salsa and bread pudding was decent, I will not...