Anita's New Mexico Style Mexican Food — Restaurant in Virginia

The food was mostly not terrible, but absolutely not good. The fish tacos, however, were nasty. It was cheap fish with an unpleasant odor and taste, and none of the Mexican flavors or toppings I'd expect. The worst fish tacos I've ever had. The chicken fajitas were presented with unseasoned sauteed white chicken tenderloins. The chicken was nicely cooked and were good pieces of meat, but not really prepared for fajitas. The fajita veggies were undercooked, underseasoned, cut into awkward sizes, and too scarce. The chips are boring. The salsa is lacking and not spicy. The refried beans were good. The sauteed veggies were okay, with salt and pepper added, but not great. They wouldn't do a substitution of veggies for rice on the fajitas, but server didn't say that at first, then blamed it on "them" when he explained it to us. We paid for the side of veggies and requested no rice. The Anitarita margarita was way too sweet, and lacked lime taste. The server was nice but had bad timing, was kinda inattentive, brought the check without offering additional drinks or dessert, and never asked if we actually liked the food. The window seat we were in was very drafty, letting in below-freezing air.

I'll be going to Chuy's next time.

(I'm from the southwest, and have eaten New Mexican, Tex-Mex, Sonoran, and Californian foods in their native lands. I can recognize quality, but my standards are...

Moral of the Story:

"¡Ahí está el detalle! Que no es lo uno ni lo otro, sino todo lo contrario". Mario Moreno, Cantinflas

Translation: this restaurant missed the point!

FOOD: Guacamole Dip: Flavors were dull. Big pieces of onion spoiled the main star of the dish, the Guacamole.

Never overshine the main actor or you will lose the main part. You must "become one with the Guacamole."

Pico de Gallo side. No flavors at all.

House Dressing: HYPERTENSION ALERT!!

So salty the Devil would be proud.

The Taco salad was decent. But the cheeses used seemed not fresh. Tasted like bulk cheese you buy at one of the members only stores.

The enchilladas:

Meat was acceptable. The rest of dish was ok.

Sad that this modern take on such great history of dishes doesn't represent any of the delicious and spectacular Mexican cuisine.

In short, "definitivamente" need to ramp up the quality control on dishes and ingredients used.

I've been there before and food was much better. Sadly, the current experience was sad. Those vibrant tastes in my previous visit were no where to be found.

No coherent flavors or ingredients. The light was on but not shining where it should.

Bathrooms: Clean

Prices: high due to food we received.

Why then so high stars? Customer Service.

But as a famous book says, "Not only from Customer Service shall humans live."

Return Factor 50%

Recommend a Friend Factor 0%...

As a former New Mexican, I was extremely disappointed by both the service and the food. Let's start with the service. My girlfriend wasn't too hungry so she wanted to order something smaller from the Kid's Menu. It turns out that you have to be age 10 and below to order from the kid's menu, which made no sense to us since the kid's menu orders were essentially 80% of the cost of the normal entrees. The waiter then asked for her ID, which also made no sense as I don't know of any 10 year olds who carry an ID. I asked to speak to the manager to see if the manager could make an exception to allow us to order a kid's menu item. The manager took a long time to come out and said that as the manager, she was unable to do anything for us. The alternative was that we wouldn't order a kid's menu item and my girlfriend would just share something with me, which ultimately meant that the restaurant would lose out on money (and I'm almost certain the kid's menu items are not loss leaders anyways). Eventually, we were assigned a new waiter who was quite nice but we overheard our old waiter complaining out loud about us to his other coworkers. The green chile was a let down and our food was nothing to write home about. Altogether, a very poor experience and we almost left several times during the meal due to the bad experience. Would...