Chilango's Mexican Restaurant

User Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Chilango's owners and staff would greatly benefit from visiting some other Mexican Restaurants to understand how Mexican food is flavored - there are other seasonings than salt in Mexican cuisine.

In most traditional Mexican restaurants, you are greeted, seated and immediately brought a basket of chips and usually, a very vibrant (deliciously zesty) salsa that gets the mood going. Not so here. We were seated and eventually asked for our order... surrounded by a sea of white tablecloths in an otherwise, rather cozy and inviting setting that should have been more fun... less stuffy.

I'd ditch the pretentious white tablecloths and use the savings to offer free salsa so that people have something to do while waiting for their meal... other than watching the poor hostess shaking white tablecloths all over the place as new diners are seated. I'd also suggest a new salsa recipe featuring less water and salt, more tomato, onion and cilantro...

I'd also recommend that unusual dishes, such as cactus salad, are offered in a half-size or tasting portions - or provide a detailed description about what to expect. We wanted to try it, and balked a bit at paying 6.00 for an appetizer we had no idea if we'd even like.

We ordered because it was just too unusual and interesting to pass up - I liked it on the chips rather than the corn tortillas, though hubby loved it in any configuration. It is unique in texture and taste - not over powering, just mildly unusual. It was dressed and served nicely though.

The pork dish we had featured salt, err.. some other ingredients, one of which might have been cactus, but the pork medallions were dry - I'd reccomend doing the meat Mexican style where it is broken up, like pulled pork. Always tender, flavorful and juicy and easier to eat when there's not much else served with it (other than beans and rice of course). The flavors blend much better and you're assured a little of everything in each bite.

The Mole was an interesting interpretation that left us wondering if someone had spilled an expresso in it or if it had been a bit scorched. Granted, Mole is as individual as the cooks who prepare it, but this one was unique enough to make us wonder what had happened to it...

All in all, it is a nice setting (minus tablecloths!) and could be a great place to eat if they improved food preparation and spicing - the refried beans were good and the manager was understanding about our disappointment with our experience.

I do hope they'll consider adjusting their recipes and find some fun! Good Mexican restaurants are hard to find in this area. Our favorite is 25 miles away... so we'll be going there for a while and give Chilango's another try in a few months.

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User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Since moving to and opening their new location, in my opinion, Chalingos has gone downhill, except for the decor. While waiting for our table, we sat at the bar. I would hardly call it a bar, not because of the bar itself, but the lack of alcohol to choose from. Not only is there a lack of choices, but the bartender was very off her game. She seemed overwhelmed and clearly wasn't giving me her full attention when I ordered my drink. She ended up making the wrong drink. When I mentioned it was not what I ordered, I received a pretty rude look, as if to imply I was the one messing things up. When I corrected the bartender, she didn't even have pineapple juice to mix with Malibu (which was the most of the bottles they had there). I agreed to have my drink mixed with cranberry juice instead. I took my money out to pay for my drink, and the bartender just left the bar, for about 20 minutes. At that point I assumed my drink was "on the house", considering the mess-up. Finally the bartender came back to collect $7.50 for an extremely small drink. What bothered me the most is she appeared to be irritated my money was no longer sitting on the bar waiting for her. I think it is in poor taste to leave a customer for 20 minutes, without taking their money for their drink first. Finally we were seated for dinner, and that in itself was a disappointment as well. Our waitress was not very personable, and seemed to be rushing us for our orders. She never came back once to see if we needed anything else after serving us our food, and was in a hurry to give us our bill and get us out of there. I understand a restaurant environment can be busy and stressful, but a good restaurant should most importantly have polite employees and care about their service. As for the food, it also was not too great this time. The guacamole was brown and the food was plated sloppy and seemed a little cold.

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User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Worst expierence ever. Food was cold and looked and tasted like out of the box. Expensive too, for the amount of food you get.
Do your self a favor and go to Taco Bell instead!

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