December 23, 2004
Review of :
Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen
12150 Jefferson Ave.
Newport News, VA 23606
(757) 249-8411
Scenery: Interesting, warehouse-esque and colorful. I felt like I was walking into a dotcom with all the ceiling panels not installed, allowing us to see all the air conditioning vents and ducts. Is that a fashion statement or is it supposed to be more functional?
Smell: It smelled pretty good in there, on the other hand, with that virtually endless ceiling, maybe it didn't smell like anything. I can't tell.
Service: We had a good waitress. She was very attentive and brought out those oversized corn chips and supplied us with, believe me, *more* than enough salsa in those "overstated" little brimstone style salsa cups. Why does everything in American restaurants these days have to be overpriced, over-stated, and larger than life?
Anyway, I don't want to knock on the waitress, because, like I said, she didn't forget about us, and she didn't smother us like they do at Ruby Tuesday. You know what I mean? You ever been to one of those Ruby Tuesday's where you take one sip out of your sweet tea and they bring you another? So definitely a plus on the service.
Taste: I ordered a chicken chimichanga. I remember my aunt a long time ago told me the same story about 10 times about how she went to this mexican restaurant called Garcia's and had a chimichanga that was crisp and piping hot on the inside. Unfortunately, this was nothing like that.
But before I go into the taste, I ought to mention that the look of the plate was more like a small city, so when I say they brought us the food, what I really want to say was the food touched down. I and my partner in eating for the afternoon, Awadeh, both looked at our plates, because we ordered the same thing, well, we kind of stared at it for a minute. And here came those salsa cups again! Only this one was bigger and contained the black beans I ordered instead of refried.
I think the only thing that tasted good about this dish was the chicken on the inside of the chimichanga. Awadeh surprised me, because even with his non-medical background, he was able to dissect the chicken right out of the middle. The rice was not tasty and those beans I told you about? They were filled with onions and peppers and tasted like black bean salsa without the salsa. The question that comes to mind: is anyone that works at this restaurant even *from* Mexico?
Sticker Shock : $15 USD for a chimichanga and a beer. Pricey but I guess expected. Someone's gotta pay for all those salsa cups!
My Final Rating: On a scale of 1-10, a 5. Try going to some authentic Mexican restaurants in the area, and do what they do.
- Deepfog