Tipicos Los Amigos — Restaurant in Virginia

I had coffee and flan at Tipicos Los Amigos a month ago before my weekly standing pool game at First Break, a few steps away and decided to make it a point to return for dinner sometime soon after that. This past Saturday, October 21, I dropped in at 9:00 PM, ordering Chicken Fajitas, which comes with beans, rice, guacamole, flour tortillas and Pico de Gallo. While waiting for my entree order I enjoyed corn chips, curtido, Corona Beer, black coffee and flan for dessert. Ingredients were universally fresh and delicious in all dishes. I especially appreciate the thin corn chips TLA serves with salsa.

When I was seated, I noted that the restaurant was at capacity and clearly serving the diaspora. This is a very good sign, indicating to me the cuisine is likely to be authentic and delicious. The restaurant is a well oiled machine. The floor was covered with servers who all appeared engaging and attentive to diners. There were at least four servers, and the hostess was also active interacting with the guests.

My Spanish is limited, so my server was patient and kind while working to relate my request to the kitchen to char the vegetables in my Fajita order. I resorted to using the translation app I have and she was off to the kitchen. Returning it was apparent that the chef was not comfortable with the concept so I promptly abandoned the request. I ended up boxing the Fajitas, enjoying everything else, and Sunday morning separated the chicken and vegetables, charred the vegetables in my cast iron skillet, adding the chicken back in near finish to heat the chicken and enjoyed my made to order Fajitas for breakfast. On my next visit, I am going to...

This restaurant doesn't even deserve the 1 star I'm forced to give it. While this place caters more to lovers of Salvadorean food (for example, papusas), they have a few Mexican restaurant staples on their menu, including the enchiladas, which we ordered last Saturday, April 25, 2020. Aside from the fact they got the order wrong (we asked for 2 orders of the enchiladas but only 1 order, containing 2 enchiladas, was ready for pickup when we arrived). Given how bad the "enchiladas" were, I wish we'd skipped the second order altogether because it wasn't worth the wait. The chicken inside the enchiladas wasn't shredded, it was cubed. I couldn't really identify what else was inside the tortilla with the chicken, probably peppers and onions, but who knows? They didn't come with any sauce on top only a heaping amount of very oily cheese. Even cheese couldn't save these awful enchiladas. All of this was on top of some type of rice, definitely not Spanish or Mexican rice but something else. It also came with a side of refried beans. Only, there were no beans in there and it was so water I called it "Refried Bean Soup." I used to say even bad Mexican food is still good but not anymore. Honestly, one of the worst meals I've had in my life. ...

This place has the most wasted potential I have ever seen in a restaurant and it is solely the fault of the owner for being blinded enough by his ambition to hire women who are pretty and almost comically ineffective at their jobs as servers. Every time I walk in I feel as though it's something personal, and I almosy wish it was. The sad truth is that they treat just about everyone else with the same poor service. At one point, many years I had hopes that with time the service would get better but unfortunately it is the same slow, unwelcoming, indifferent, unattentive service as when it first opened. This place has, without a doubt in my mind, the best authentic Mexican and Salvadorean food in the area. With the proper staff Tipicos Los Amigos would be the go-to restaurant for these type of dishes but until the owner decides to train their staff to at least smile at the customers when they walk in, it will just be my takeout choice. Anyone who is thinking about going here, do yourselves a favor and get the food to go because supporting the servers' lack of service is not worth your hard...