Katie S.
Yelp
I genuinely had to wait a few days after dining here to leave this review because I was truly bothered by a specific practice and a surcharge I received at this establishment and I needed a few days to decide what to say.
Lets begin with the "elephant in the room". My experience that I had, I saw happen to other guests as well which was they don't print your check and drop it at your table. They show you their handheld pos system (not sure the exact name, but its what they use to enter your orders and process your payment) and you click if you plan to add a tip and give them your card and you can click if you want a printed receipt or not. I am glad that I elected to see the printed, itemized copy because it was at this point I discovered they charged an additional $2.54 for prop 206 (5.00%). I wasn't sure what this was so I asked the manager and he basically told me it was something some small businesses started charging and I should google it, which I did, and its a surcharge to offset the increase in minimum wage. I have heard of this and know that some restaurants add it, not just this restaurant. My issue with that I was not given a check showing this charge before I was asked to pay my bill. That is a shady/sneaky practice in my opinion. I should get an itemized check, so I can make sure I was charged properly and to also see any additional charges, like this one. Furthermore, the practice of not printing the check and just showing the customer their handheld pos device to pay, doesn't allow the customer to see that the suggested tip includes tax. I don't tip on tax, I tip on subtotal cost only, that is my right as a patron and I should be allowed to see a printed receipt, sit at my table and figure the tip myself. Now I can't prove that not printing and dropping a check is to avoid people knowing about this surcharge but it certainly looks that way. Based on the managers response when I asked about it also tells me this practice is to avoid being asked about the charge. Its uncomfortable for all involved.
Now on to our dinner experience. We arrived around 5 on Saturday. The place was dead. We asked to sit outside and a server followed with menus. She took our drink order and went to get it as we reviewed the menu. I hadn't been here in such a long time so I didn't really remember what I did or didn't like about my previous visit. The menu item descriptions sound amazing and sound like they'd be very tasty. We started with the Mexican street corn. It came with chips and it was very good. We each ordered two tacos. In all we had 2 Birria tacos, Italian Stallion, Rasta Man, Californian and Baja shrimp taco. The birria was one of the better tasting tacos we ordered. The portion of consume was not enough to dip each bite. One of our Birria tacos had a lot of fat in it, the other did not. If you are not a fan of eating fat open the taco and do a quality check first. The Italian stallion is crispy chicken, garlic parm sauce, pico , sour cream and lettuce. Sounds amazing, right!? It was not. First, the chicken was not crispy at all, it was grilled or sauteed but not crispy chicken. I was expecting breaded fried chicken pieces. Second, there was no garlic parm sauce on this taco. Two of us tried this taco and neither of us tasted garlic parm sauce. This taco was 1/5 stars and disappointment. The rasta man was grilled chicken, jalapenos, mango habanero crema, cilantro and jerk sauce. My son asked the server if this taco was super spicy and she indicated she didn't think so, especially because he asked for no jalapenos. This was the tastiest taco of all that we ordered. I tried one bite and it was delicious! I didn't get too much spiciness but as my son continued eating it he said it was super spicy! The Californian, fried avocado, pico, lettuce, and jalapeno sauce. We all thought this taco was bland. The concept is amazing but it needs other flavor components like cheese and another sauce that has more flavor to it. And the last taco, which was the most expensive, was the Baja shrimp. Grilled shrimp, pico and mojo sauce. I shared this with my daughter and we both thought it was bland and boring. We get shrimp tacos at every taco place we go to and this was our least favorite we have ever had. As a matter of a fact, we didn't finish this taco and even left a shrimp and for us that is shocking. The consensus for us was the food was just okay. Nothing to rave about and not worth the $54 dollars it cost and $67 spent in total with tip and surcharge. The saving grace for our visit was the perch next door had a 90's rock cover band playing which we really enjoyed.
We won't be back to this establishment for several reasons. I am selective these days where I choose to spend my money and nothing blew us away about our meal here. And to top it off the shady practice of not disclosing the surcharge by not dropping physical checks it all it took for me not to return.