Tracy R.
Yelp
So... Canasta kitchen. I've been meaning to try this place forever. It was hit and miss for me.
I thought the food was good - the salsa slayed. There were three kinds they gave us, tomatillo, a regular red salsa, and a creamy hot salsa. They didn't give us much of any of them though, so we had to ask for extra.
I had the taco salad and it was flat out delicious. The shrimp for perfectly cooked and there were a lot of them, with a lemon dressing that was very light, a lot of cilantro and pico de gallo with shredded lettuce. Healthy and light. Total thumbs up. Altho the shell was funky but who eats that.
Husband had the empanadas which were dry but of course he asked for no cheese - so - I would discount his opinion.
The drink thing is confusing. I asked for a Mojito and my husband had a beer - pretty straightforward. The menu is super unclear as to what they're doing on the drinks. It rambles about how they use some random combination of sake and something else but then it says the mojitos are made of rum, so I don't know what the hell they're doing. I said can I have a Mojito with light sugar and I got a Mojito full of sugar.
The main issue... The ambience was awful. I don't understand why restaurants can't get their stuff together. They have a bar, which is basically a storage unit. They store a lot of stuff at the back, which you can see right below the window to the kitchen. Some delivery guy came in and brought a bunch of toilet paper, and just threw it in the front near the bar. This is all extraordinarily unpleasant. What they need to do is spend a few bucks and put booths in there, set up the bar like a real bar. They will make a ton more money, and it would be great, because the food is pretty good.
Like so many restaurants, they are woefully understaffed. It was dinner time on a Thursday and there were literally two people working in there. The lady was running around, trying her best but it took us half an hour just to get the check. It was a little frustrating. We sat there and looked at other people's piled up food plates all around us. Oy.
Unless they decide to step up their game on the interior, I won't be back, but I might order takeout.