On Tue, 03 Mar 1998 02:59:57 -0500, Ralph Feldman Someone wrote: > Mago Latino, may it rest in peace, was one of the most unevenly >reviewed restaurants to appear on this news group . And for good reason, >the food was wildly uneven. It seems to me that the owner(s) came to the >conclusion that people wanted Americanized, pseudo-mexican food and >subsequently crippled their kitchen, which actually had a few competent >to very good latino cooks. Their salsa is the perfect example. By >default they gave you a bland, pointless salsa which did in fact seem >canned. But... if you badgered them a little, and extracted one of there >other salsa's, it was a totally different story. The pico de gallo was >very fresh tasting and even a little picante, the salsa verde was also >good, and the hot red salsa was a incredible concoction of several >different varieties of dried chile peppers. which were toasted and >reconstituted. This salsa was obviously made by someone that understood >Latino cooking. Unfortunately, half the time you went in and requested >this salsa, your server would look at you like you were crazy; like >she/he had no idea what you were talking about. I tend to dwell on the >salsa, but there were other glimmers of authenticity on the menu. If you >avoided the menu items that are duplicated at any chi-chi's, and if you >could convince them not to 'gringoize' the food, you could get a pretty >decent mexican meal. I'll particularly miss the breakfast foods, >particularly the huevos con chorizo, and huevos rancheros ( served with >the salsa verde ). > > I went back to Mago Latino on Saturday, and while the food was good, it was probably the worst dining experience I've ever had. As much as I crave Mexican food, I'll have a hard time going back, especially since my enchiladas and burritos were pretty substandard (still good, but not super duper great). Anyways, here is the story: We showed up at 20 till seven. We didn't get menus until seven. We didn't get our order taken until 7:25. We begged for chips, salsa and water at 7:45, which arrived fairly quickly at 7:55. Our food finally arrived at 8:10, sans drinks. Drinks had to be requested twice (we never did get any water), and showed up at 8:20. We requested our check at 8:35, which never did arrive. Finally, at 8:45, we got up and actually tracked our waiter through the restraunt and kept him in one spot until we could pay. Now, the correct question is why we didn't leave at, oh, seven like most rational people did. Mainly because we were havinga hard time thinking ofanother resteraunt that was close by, and reasonably priced, and wasn't named "pleasure bar" (Actually, is that place any good? :)). By the time that we thought about it some more, it was already 7:25, and the guy came to take our order, and we foolishly thought that food would be quickly arriving. Our waiter mumbled something about waiters not showing up, but as far as I could tell, they weren't all that busy. The waiter would disappear for 20 minutes at a time. I'm usually pretty tolerant about service, since I've done a lot of restaraunt work, but the waiter actually acted rudely any time we asked for or reminded him of anything. The food, when it arrived, had obviously been waiting for quite a while - the sauces had soaked in, and developed a skin. They didn't discount our meals or give us free drinks (we didn't ask, mainly because we were trying to flee at this point). I hope this experience wasn't the norm, but I was really disappointed. Gail Lucas [email removed] http://www.pitt.edu/~gmlst10/
Pittsburgh, PA
Mago Latino closed?
Actually, the Pleasure Bar (and the attached restaurant, Mariani's), is one of my favorite places in Bloomfield, and is typical of the several excellent Italian restaurants on Liberty Ave, starting with Alexander's down to Del's. "Mariani's at the Pleasure Bar", which I guess is their full name, is an inexpensive place to get excellent Italian food. Nothing fancy, just great big plates of good Italian food with a very moderately priced wine menu- you can get a half-carafe of Chianti for $5! It's tough to spend more than $30 at dinner for two, including dessert and wine. Try the wedding soup. Don't get scared away by the name: that's probably just a throwback to kinder, more innocent times!
Gail L. wrote: >[...] we were havinga hard time >thinking ofanother resteraunt that was close by, and reasonably >priced, and wasn't named "pleasure bar" (Actually, is that place any >good? :)). I like the Pleasure Bar a lot, but it wouldn't have solved your slow service problem. The PB has perhaps the best "simple" Italian food in the city; the pasta is always al dente, and the sauces are very very good; they have that fresh tomato quality that's so hard to find. There isn't anything particularly complicated or innovative on the menu, but the staples are excellent. The last time I went I had rolled, fried eggplant, stuffed with ricotta, smothered in their maranara sauce --- fabulous! The decor is very simple, almost to the point of detriment. The bar in front of the restaurant is quite good -- as is the food, it is reasonably priced, and the drinks are ample. Quite smoky though, as are most Bloomfield bars. It's one of the nicer neighborhood bars on Liberty. It is not a quick let's-pop-in-for-dinner experience. You will wait for a table, (though my memory is that they are accurate in prediction), and once you are seated, expect a leisurely pace. It's not bad service --- they don't exclude or swap orders --- just on the slow side. We don't go there unless we have a few hours to spend on dinner. When we do have plenty of time (a rare event), and aren't looking to go to an on-the-way-to-the-symphony kind of place, the Pleasure Bar is high on our list. They're also in the Entertainment Book, IIRC. -brian