Eric B.
Yelp
First, the service was good. The room was charming. But the food...the food was truly disappointing. I fully agree with other reviewers that give due praise to the environment, but pan the food.
I was in the mood for Mexican food, so I tried this place. I ordered the fajitas. What I received was an unappetizing plate of slop. I was starving, and it was edible. But it looked like a dish you might make when you have nothing in the house except vegetables on the way out, some leftover chicken, and one of those bottles of Mexican-inspired sauce that's been in the fridge for weeks/months. So you mix it all together and hope it's satisfying. My dish wasn't. It was as far away from traditional Tex-Mex fajitas as you can get. Should NOT be called "fajitas". Maybe something like, "chicken stew...ish". The sauce covered everything, and had it been uniquely flavorful, had the vegetables been cooked to keep flavor and texture, perhaps it would have worked. But this felt like a "lazy" dish. Just mix a buncha stuff and cover it with sauce. Presto!
I ordered a Starter of chips and salsa, advertised on the menu as "Hand Made", suggesting the salsas might have distinction. Not so. This was "chain quality", which isn't necessarily bad, but there was NOTHING, and I mean, NOTHING distinctive about the salsas. And the chips? No different than those big, yellow chips in bags at the supermarket. AND, they charged $4.
Now, this placed is over-priced, at least for what I got. And to charge $4 for these chips and salsa was a real turn-off. I'm sorry, but I grew up on Mexican food, have been to ANY number of Mexican restaurants, and a welcome serving of chips and salsa is TRADITION. The small percentage of restaurants that actually charge for chips and salsa offer something that is truly extraordinary, or if it's a second serving, or if they keep pricing in check otherwise. I could do better with Tostitos and a small portion from a jar of La Victoria. OH! And my entree came almost immediately after my chips and salsa arrived, about two minutes. So much for "Starters". I now felt that I better get to the entree before it gets cold. Had I known what awaited, I wouldn't have rushed...
When I go to a Mexican restaurant, I don't need to hear traditional Mexican music. But I do like the energy and ambiance of an authentic Mexican eatery. Certainly something more lively than the folk-ish music they were playing, which had a somber note. It felt purposely contradictory to the spirit of a Mexican dining experience. They can play whatever they want, of course, but a cocina this wasn't. It was more a cafe with some Mexican inspired dishes.
Verde Cocina was the "whitest" Mexican food joint I've ever been to. Maybe they had Mexicans in the kitchen, but this place could have been in Vermont or Maine, in the middle of Lobster country, where some daring restauranteur, raised on Lobster Bisque, tries their inexperienced hand at Mexican food to drum up some business by giving the locals some grub with an international flair. And locals, throughly unfamiliar with Mexican and Tex-Mex, might just buy into it. But it was funny...I had my back to the room, and there was only one couple in the dining room when I arrived. When I got up as the dinner hour asserted itself...a sea of White folks, primarily older, like what you might see in a breakfast diner in an Idaho farming town. A lot of plaid. The point being, what you WON'T find here are repeat customers with a strong Mexican heritage, Mexican food aficionados, or Mexican food critics looking for the next, great Mexican joint. They probably have been warned...
When I finished my entree, the server offered up coconut flan. I ordered it. It was served in a pie-cut, like cheesecake. Fancy, with sprinkled coconut, and a strawberry with another little berry inside and some dribbled syrup. OK, at best. But by the time they attempted to fix something that wasn't broken, this was flan in name only. Shouldn't have been called "flan". The texture was off, the flavor bland, and if they are going to dribble anything on it, dribble a the traditional wet caramel. If you are a flan-lover, expect disappointment.
Again, I had ONE dish. One thing of chips and salsa. One piece of "flan pie". The thing is, all were dissatisfying, So much so that I considered going to a REAL Mexican joint to wash my mouth out, so to speak. But frankly, the meal left me feeling a mix of extreme disappointment and the entree hit my stomach with little grace.
Finally, they can add their touch to the menu any way they want. Have a different take on traditional Mexican or Tex-Mex. Add a "nouveau" or a "fusion" or something to their cuisine. But don't advertise fajitas or flan when both dishes aren't. As to THESE chips and salsas, keep them off the menu, and complimentary, where they should be.