La Poblanita — Restaurant in Town of Washington

Still looking for some Carne Asada.

Started off with chips, salsa, and the Flautas. The complimentary salsa was a trio and the red salsa was weird. It had a ceviche like taste, like there was too much acidic flavor from lime or something... I could not put my finger on it, but it was weird tasting.

The flautas were different. I am use to a more tightly rolled flauta but these were loosely rolled and the chicken was subject a lot of oil. This left the meat a little drier than I would expect. They were tasty enough for me to finish off, but the wife was not happy with them. Added a lot of green salsa to them to make it edible.

We also had a Chimichanga with the three sauces, added carne asada for the meat, rice and beans. The refried beans were delicious, ate those up, they nailed it. On the other hand the rice... the rice reminded me of Rice-A-Roni. It was not the fluffy rice like my Nana and aunties would make, but like the Rice-A-Roni my mom would make. It was also overly orange, not sure why, but the texture and flavor was just not right, for me or the wife. The chimi was disappointing for various reasons:

1. Green Bell Peppers... raw. Not sauteed, but raw. I have no idea what region puts raw green bell peppers in their chimis... confusing

2. The rice, again, as I did not find the rice appetizing, it was not helping the chimi as it was the base ingredient

3. Disappointing Carne Asada, perhaps we got steak instead of the carne we ordered, but it was flavorless grey meat

4. Sauces, the red and cheese sauce were nothing to write home about...the green sauce seems to be based on their green salsa, which was really good, but the other sauces were not

The good:

Green salsa, amazing. As well as the creamy green salsa, I liked that one too. We started with chips and dip and I was excited for the meal.

Guacamole, well done, had fantastic flavor and we finished it off.

Chips were not overly salted or oily, they were great and we would take home an order of chips and green salsa... which means we may like their nachos.

If this is not a regional composition, then ignore this advice... fix the rice. Add more flavor to your carne asada, charge more if you have to, make it worth an upgrade. Highlight that green salsa, and perhaps the red salsa was not prepared correctly... if it was, then the audience for it is not me, and that is fine.

The service was great, friendly and welcoming. The decor is amazingly colorful and there were families eating there. It felt welcoming.

Thank you for the meal. If I am coming off as a jerk, then I am sorry, I just want to provide an honest review of how I experienced the meal I was served on a...

I experienced the first (and subsequently the second) time in my life where I've ever returned food to the kitchen. I've always been able to finish my meal at a restaurant even if I didn't particularly care for the item. Not this time.

I ordered the steak fajitas. They came out on a cold plate. It was a pile of overly salty, greasy, mushy peppers and onions. Mushy to the point it almost seemed like they were boiled. You know how when you typically get fajitas at a restaurant they ome out on a still sizzling plate and everything usually has a nice slight char on it from the sautee? Ya this was not it.

The steak? Are you familiar with what Steak-Umms are? If not you can go here and find out because the steak was most definitely those. Or probably an even cheaper knock-off brand. Pale flat sheets of salty processed meat product that wasn't even sliced fully.

I thought I could just power through it like I always have and lie to the waitstaff when they return to ask how everything is but this time I could not lie. I told them it was just not good. To their credit they immediately apologized and offered to remake which I said sure. My wife was enjoying her meal well enough so I figured why not.

What they brought back to me was everything about the first meal but worse and with even more salt. I just couldn't do it. It was one of the most revolting things I've ever put in my mouth and I'm a pretty adventurous guy.

I just pushed it aside and ate some chips and salsa while my wife finished her meal. Their salsas are really good.

Lastly, to their credit again, they did comp the price of the fajitas off of my bill since I didn't eat any of it. Given the quality of the ingredients they used it was probably $1.50 in food cost they had to eat so I didn't feel too bad.

I'm not saying to not go here. But if you do go here do not order the steak fajitas. Or probably any of the fajitas. Good chance it might be the worst meal you're ever going to have.

Two stars because one meal was actually edible and the chips and...

This was a delightful little place on London Road (just off Clairemont) in one of the several plazas/strip malls. The fare was typical Mexican (or at least the type we see in the US).

We ordered some tacos (they have three tacos for just under $10 but they all have to be the same kind--I wish they allowed us to choose different kinds because then you could try more variety) and some sopes (which are like open-face sandwiches), all of which were quite delicious. We tried the carnitas on the sopes which were good but for the tacos, we tried the meat called pastor (which if I remember correctly was brined pork) and it was delicious!

You get some free chips and three types of salsa ("regular red", guacamole salsa and a green tomatillo salsa--we really liked the last one) too.

As for ambience, it was good. They had booths and tables. The walls were decorated with sombrero, scarves and little arches made with handmade tiles, which were...