Earlier this month, the co-workers and I were planning to have lunch with our ex co-worker (this is the one who retired last year). We thought Achiote near the Otay Ranch mall might be a good place to go so we decided to do a "test run coupled with the fact that In 'n Out had outrageously longass lines! Little did we know...
It looks nice enough inside...
I kid you not, but the first thing that assaulted our olfactory senses was the overwhelming stench of sewer! I tried to suppress my gag reflext.
The waitress sat us in the back, away from the horrible stench! What did we get ourselves into?
The menu was basically overpriced Mexican food. One of my co-workers is Mexican and she even said that it was pretty bad - to be charging $10 for rolled tacos.
These chips were plain awful. They were burnt tasting and we asked for another basket. The waitress brought back another one (I think it was the same one, ha ha) and told my co-worker in Spanish that these chips were not as "fried". Well, wrong again because they tasted exactly the same. We had about 1 or 2 chips total and left the basket alone after that.
My two co-workers shared the sopes - some of them had shredded pork along with shredded beef.
I ordered two sides. One was the seasoned, fried potato wedges. This was a WIN. The fries had a nice and light batter coating them. They kind of reminded me of Rally's fries, which I like. I shared these with the co-workers.
The other "side" that I ordered was the house salad. I asked for the dressing on the side and ended up giving the cheese to my co-worker who was glad to have it. It was that salty Mexican cheese (kind of like Feta, but no). It was cheaper for me to order two sides rather than get a full meal with rice and beans that I probably wouldn't be able to finish.
The service was slow even though it wasn't crowded. We already regretted going here and instead wishes we waited out the lines at In 'n Out. To make a long story longer, we ended up scratching this place off the list for our lunch with our retired friend. In fact, we don't plan on coming back. We'd rather to go a "Berto's" hole in the wall. I think their inflated prices pay for their high rent in this area.
2 comments:
Ew, hate that sewer smell! Interestingly we noticed a minging smell at our favourite place, Kous Kous, and we mentioned it to the owner and he said its not the sewer its the grease trap that usually gives that smell. He was quite embarrassed!
I dont know if that makes you feel any better, bad smells dont make for good dining experiences whatever the reason!
hi jw - it was so odd, getting a whiff of that...odor! maybe it was their grease trap. you're right - the initial smell didn't really portend a totally disastrous experience. if the smell permeated throughout the whole restaurant then we would have complained.
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