Taste of Cali, opened Friday, next door to Imo's, so Granite has another "Mexican" food place. Honestly I do wish them the best, but don't expect to see them there for much past a couple of months, unless they make serious changes.
At $40 for two adults and two kids, the value wasn't there for the quality of food received.
Starting with the chips and salsa that is customary with these kind of places should have tipped us off with what was to come. Multi-colored tortilla chips, fresh from the bag no doubt, served with what might have been homemade salsa with too much jalapeño to reasonably enjoy, mind you I do like good Mexican food with a kick, I just wasn't feeling it after this.
So I had Chili cheese fries which had probably 50¢ worth of fries and (nasty canned) chili each topped with about 50¢ worth of grated cheese went along with a large sized burger (frozen processed patties) on a soft bun that disintegrated on contact with the wet condiments.
The wife and kids were feeling adventurous enough to try the "Cali-mex" side of the menu with wife and daughter getting a "Wet Burrito" which did look appetizing. Filled with your choice of beef, chicken, or pork and what appeared to be a bean and rice mixture with pico de gallo, the "Wet Burrito" is topped with your choice of red (Colorado) or green (Verde) sauce and shredded cheese (though cheese sauce was mentioned we didn't see any). Of course being hungry they ordered the plate which meant they got more plain beans and more yellow rice, I hesitate to call it Spanish rice.
The littlest one ordered a cheese quesadilla and a taco, and mostly got what was expected. You can't mess up a quesadilla, it's cheese and a tortilla folded and cut and served with a bit of pico de gallo (which he was afraid to eat because the salsa earlier had set fire to his mouth), but no sour cream. The taco consisted of a bit of beef, raw onion, and cilantro on a 6" corn tortilla that may have been warm at one point or another.
Overall our final assessment of the meal was canned at best, and definitely not worth the price spent. Upon leaving we decided that we were still craving Mexican food, but will have to wait a few more days to get the beans out of our system.
Our recommendation to the owners of the establishment would be to reduce the serving size and increase the quality of product being served. The chili cheese fries for the same price you could serve about half the fries covered with a good homemade chili and runny cheese and it would be acceptable. The hamburger could be half the size if made with fresh ground beef and seasoned right, checkout Cionko's I'm sure they could hook you up! Beans straight from the can I can do at home for $1, if I want to pay more you're gonna have to dress them up a bit add some chopped onion and grated cheese on top. Seasonings are your friend, the meat's that I tasted was bland at best, was that chicken boiled in just water?
I'd be willing to comeback to try again if changes were made, if anyone else gives them a go and finds better results let me know, because this is definitely a local business I'd love to support. That being said I'm looking forward to the Firehouse Grill opening as well. I thought it was posted here they are supposed to open tomorrow, so I'll have to drive by and see. I know today though they still had the giant dumpster in front of the building.
on March 6, 2011, 4:43 pm