4 Caminos — Restaurant in Vancouver

I loved the dining area! Freda Kahlo presides over the room like a lush latin queen! I thought, I've hit pay dirt! My wife will take to this place like a puppy to a pond. She loves Freda! She'll be thrilled! I even get the name, 4 Caminos, 4 roads, 4th Plain Rd! It's all designed with humor and grace. Nice interesting menu, some things I haven't seen before, I'm excited.

The very nice waitress asks what I want to drink and I ask for iced tea... sorry, they don't have that, no biggie, I settle for water.So I go ahead order the Mexican Enchiladas.

Then they bring me chips, and my heart sinks a little. I really had a hankering for chips today, that's why I opted for Mexican in the first place and though they look good, it's a miserly portion and is served with beans instead of salsa. The beans are okay, but I miss the bite of a good fresh salsa.

This is still more or less ok. I'm expecting I'll get more chips later and am still looking forward to the enchiladas. When they arrive, they are very pretty, artfully put together. I ask for more chips and the waitress repeats chips and scurries off... There were no more chips coming.

Like I said, they are pretty, although they look a little lonely sitting there on the plate like three pretty but isolated senoritas, all dressed up with flowers in their hair but nowhere to go. I suppose it is a Style. They were kind of dry and tough, I had a hard time cutting them up. The flavor was good, but they were miles away from what I expected. Maybe if they were served with some beans or something I could have mixed them around or smushed them up.

I'm still waiting for chips... And now I'm waiting for water too. It's not like the waitress isn't around, she is serving people on both sides of me, but I must have become invisible. I feel like the place is mostly show. Lots of promise, but no commitment to actually pulling off the act. It's the first time I've left a Mexican restaurant feeling unsatisfied. It just felt a little stingy. I mean it's right down the street from MI CASA PUPUSERIA, a restaurant that excels in all the best ways, not as pretty, but better food, better service and a more down home feeling of welcome.

So I feel the place has pretensions. They are trying to be more of a date place, a bit more upper crust, but they're missing some of the foundation needed to pull that off. The presentation is good, but the earthy and essential welcome is not there.

I would not tell people not to go there, but I doubt I'll go back. There are simply too many...

Location and parking is awful. Had to park behind the restaurant next to the dumpster because it was overly crowded. Walked inside, it was pretty much emptied minus the one family that just sat down. My friend and I were greeted right away and sat with a bowl of chips and dip. Chips tasted funky like it was old or the oil in the fryer needs to be changed. Server said the make them fresh each morning so she couldn't give us fresh chips. Ordered their fajitas (weird they don't offer fajitas for two) so my friend had to order a separate plate when the meal was already $20. Food was good but fajitas for two people, two $1 tacos and two beers shouldn't come out to $60, just doesn't make sense? We are, drank, paid, tipped and left thinking we'll probably won't be coming back anytime soon unless it's for their $1 tacos because spending $30 on Mexican is kind of expensive unless includes three margaritas with my meal. Overall, food wasn't the best definitely not the freshest but not horrible either, expensive: yes, service was decent but parking...

If I could give zero stars I would. The food was decent but the service was horrifying!!. I’m not usually the person to give bad reviews but I feel like I need to because this is the worst place I have been to ever. I order some tacos and burritos. The waitress came with my tacos and just seem straight up annoying with her life her word were “ uh here are your tacos if you want anything on them you need to go serve it yourself” I’ve never been anywhere where they make u prepare your own tacos from 0. I was like ok maybe it’s just this waitress. I waiting for my burrito to come and it toke forever!! I was about to head out when I saw something in the counter I looked and it was my burrito now cold! They gave me a bag and basically made me pack it up my self hello then why did I pay for service. But besides that the lady was talking on the phone talking and saying to someone “so what are you doing” I left annoyed and knowing I’m never...