Support westside restaurants

[Starlady]

We have seen how empty some of our favorite west side restaurants are. Let's keep the best ones open- Tabarka, De Ossos Tacos, Frida Azul and the fench pastry shop. Local suport is critical for them now.

[ajijicis4me]

We have seen how empty some of our favorite west side restaurants are. Let's keep the best ones open- Tabarka, De Ossos Tacos, Frida Azul and the fench pastry shop. Local suport is critical for them now.

Also support the stores in La Huerta Plaza: Pacifico Pescaderia, Carniceria and the family owned/operated Mini Super

[ibbocat]

We found Frida Azul was awful, Mexican food at its worst, overcooked and under seasoned.

Unfortunately if you recommend a place where the reader has has had an unhappy experience then the rest of your recommendations are also suspect so be more specific and add some supporting info!

[contrarian]

Restaurants with good food and service don't need our "support." For example: La Taverna Di Quattro Mori, a thriving west side restaurant that you neglected to mention. Meanwhile, no amount of gringo special pleading will save bad restaurants. Dining out shouldn't be an act of charity.

[gringal]

Restaurants with good food and service don't need our "support." For example: La Taverna Di Quattro Mori, a thriving west side restaurant that you neglected to mention. Meanwhile, no amount of gringo special pleading will save bad restaurants. Dining out shouldn't be an act of charity.

You said it well. Restaurants with good food don't need charity. For instance, Tony's: been in business for years and will no doubt stay in business in good times or bad. Some I don't even like have a loyal following year around.

[El Cartero]

Gringal I find myself agreeing with you on too many things. And i love Azul Frida, they cook food the way they do in their own home.

[ComputerGuy]

Anybody been to Daniel's lately? Can't remember the name; he's in the big place where the theatre readings take place on Rio Zula. I hear he's doing 2 for 1 meals again.

[ajijicis4me]

Anybody been to Daniel's lately? Can't remember the name; he's in the big place where the theatre readings take place on Rio Zula. I hear he's doing 2 for 1 meals again.

It's called Tabarka. He's going to move down that same street this month.

Haven't been recently, but best fish in town.

[El Saltos]

No it's not. Tabarka is owned and operated by DAVID. Daniel's is in the former Sol y Luna location where the Feria Maestros del Arte was held last year.

[ajijicis4me]

No it's not. Tabarka is owned and operated by DAVID. Daniel's is in the former Sol y Luna location where the Feria Maestros del Arte was held last year.

Sorry, my mistake.

[bennie]

charity seems to be the name of the game. service is replaced by customer graditude. (agree w/some of the comments).

[cedros]

One of the better ones on the west side is Ancla. Located on the carretera west of Los Sabinos.

Nice decor inside and outside. They make an excellent Cesar salad at your table, excellent Margaritas. We had the lamb arrachera which was excellent and the beef burger which was very good. The staff are very obliging. Eric, the owner, is a fine fellow. He also runs the several stores beside Ancla that sell ironwork and wooden furniture so while waiting on you he has to keep an eye out for customers to those stores.

They have an outside and inside eating area. Soon they are building a palapa on the second floor.

[el bartman]

Cedros, I was very disappointed with the burger and fries. The burger tasted like something out of a convenience store, the bun dripped in the blood from the underdone meat and the fries - well how hard is it to cook up a few fries from the fast food freezer section of Wallyworld. Is it really hard to peel a potato and cut it into fries? Is it really hard to hand make a burger? I can cook this kind of stuff at home. I did like the decor, the staff was very obliging and I will go once more and try the Caesar Salad and Margarita.

[FHBOY]

Let's add Bruno's to those restaurants that don't need charity, because the food is good, the prices are fair and the service is also good. Yes, their wine choices are less than stellar, but we don't go there for wine.

We've also found that Rustica is an up and comer. Again, good food, good service, fine prices - and the thing about the dust - yeah, but we still eat there and watch the town go by.

One more, Junky Munkey - again no need for charity, good pizza, great wings, open late - caring staff.

Buying a meal at a restaurant is not doing charity, it is because your hard earned money is buying what you want. For example, on the east side, Schwarmex just closed down. Why? We also lost The Score here on the west side. Why? From my experience there, going there was charity. Yes, they could have good food, but the atmosphere, unless you were part of the "crowd" was less than friendly and for that, they lost a possible new clientele base.

If I am going out to eat, it is because I like the food, service, atmosphere and price, not because it I don't they will go out of business. Restauranting is a dog-eat-dog tough business where only the strong survive. Unfortunately that's the way it is.

[ComputerGuy]

My fish and chips at Ancla was awful. Agree with Bartman: frozen, cheap fries. I had the portobello w/cheese as an appetizer. Blech. Soggy mushroom, and really: two slices of white American cheese, not even properly melted, slapped on top?

[twelveoaks]

I have two comments on this topic.

First: restaurants need to earn our support with consisently well prepared good quality food along with friendly service. There are several restaurants that do this such as La Traverna, Brunos, del Osso taco and Tabarka.

Second: I am always amazed at the disparity in reviews. A perfect example is Cedros review of Ancia versus the other two reviews. I have been here a year now and used to rely on reviews to help me select a restaurant but found that in general the actual food did not live up to the review. I don't know if the reviewer tended to over look the problems in favor of price or because he/she liked the owner or what.

[Ginger]

Twelveoaks, I don't think it's the reviewer but a problem around here is inconsistency in the restaurants. One day the food can be great, the next day it can be awful.

[contrarian]

Twelveoaks, I don't think it's the reviewer but a problem around here is inconsistency in the restaurants. One day the food can be great, the next day it can be awful.

inconsistency=mediocrity.

[FHBOY]

As a former film critic (a waaaay long time ago!) I learned that any review is only as complete as 1) the actual experience and 2) the reviewers POV. Unless any of us here are connoisseurs, professional chefs or inveterate foodies with an extensive portfolio of restaurants eaten at, we need to accept that our experience is colored by those two factors.

What I have found here is that I need to make a minimum of three visits to any place in order to form an opinion worth publishing. Also, coming from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, my taste buds are used to a certain thing. Yours may be from Toronto, BC, Minnesota, LA or Dallas and you have a different interpretation of how food "should" taste and be presented.

Gee, it comes down to a simple, duh, thing: "It's a matter of taste!"

Caveat: If many of us "amateurs" seem to have a siomilar reaction/opinion, perhaps there is a preponderance of evidence that what is said is "true". In any case - isn't it great we have the time and luxury to do all this? Life's good.

[Carnivore]

FHBoy: Bruno's has always allowed patrons to bring their own wine. They have a respectable and totally deserved (read: earned) cover charge that still results in being able to have a bottle of your own "good wine" at considerably less than what you would have to pay at any normally priced local restaurant and....considerably less than at the one or two more pretentious local establishments.

[CocinaMod]

I'm closing this with a reminder to keep on topic. The positive and negative reviews in this thread should have been posted to their own threads, where readers might have found them in the future. Where they would had some value. But I'm not going to take up my free time to fix it.