Tepatulco

Anyone been here? I'm going this weekend, always liked Geno Bahena's places...but then he disappeared...just wondering.

There are a few reviews in the Tepatulco thread here.

Best,
Michael

i went there for valentines day. Service was real good. Im not sure if its like this every night, but that night it was a set dinner of $45 a person. Food was pretty good, but i was still very hungry at the end. The meal came with a glass of margherita, 2 sides, 1 main, soup and a dessert

I went there twice before writing this: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/restaurants/070223/

The first time I went (a few days after it opened) I felt the food was B-; the second time (about a month later) it was more like B. In between visits, I read Tamarkin's review in Time Out Chicago, and he felt pretty much the same way: some random hits but pretty much not quite there yet. I get the strange feeling that Bahena's heart is not totally in this place -- a totally subjective call, I know, and yet...

I too have been there twice, and each time I saw Bahena hustling and sweating his butt off in the kitchen. At the end of each evening, near closing time on both nights, he sat at a table in the front to thank patrons for coming and ask for feedback. I'm quite sure is heart is fully into this venture. Tastes are subjective, of course, and in my opinion the food here earns a solid A.

David Hammond wrote:I get the strange feeling that Bahena's heart is not totally in this place -- a totally subjective call, I know, and yet...

I felt the exact same way after my visit. It's as if it's a work in progress and he decided he should open it up and bring in some revenue while he works the bugs out, even if it means serving a mediocre product in the interim. The decor is the first tip off of this. It's half-assed at best and other than a few nice paintings, looks more like a corner taqueria than a place hoping to build upon Chilpancingo.

Kennyz wrote:I too have been there twice, and each time I saw Bahena hustling and sweating his butt off in the kitchen. At the end of each evening, near closing time on both nights, he sat at a table in the front to thank patrons for coming and ask for feedback. I'm quite sure is heart is fully into this venture. Tastes are subjective, of course, and in my opinion the food here earns a solid A.

Our experiences in regard to what we saw of Bahena are, indeed, different.

What dishes did you have that you thought were truly exceptional?

Ralph Wiggum wrote:It's as if it's a work in progress and he decided he should open it up and bring in some revenue while he works the bugs out, .

I felt the same way at Dudley Nieto's new Xel-Ha. Both restaurants are on some pricey real estate, and the temptation must be great to open the doors and start generating revenue even if everything is now quite right yet.

What dishes did you have that you thought were truly exceptional?

As I mentioned in the other thread, I thought the mixiote de borrega and the salmon en mole verde were excellent.

Kennyz wrote:

What dishes did you have that you thought were truly exceptional?

As I mentioned in the other thread, I thought the mixiote de borrega and the salmon en mole verde were excellent.

Thanks for reminding me of that thread. I thought the margaritas and green mole were very good, too.

Went to Tepatulco last night, reservations for 7:00. They first tried to seat us in the what I would call the unfinished room. Old disco, school auditorium like space. They let us move to the main dinng room, but said they usually don't seat in there until after 8:30...what's up with that? I saw them marching all these people back there and could see the disappointment on their faces. Besides that we all enjoyed our food, excellent mole, sweet corn tamales, etc. But I wouldn't go back unless I was guaranteed I could sit in the real dining room.

uneverknow wrote:Went to Tepatulco last night, reservations for 7:00. They first tried to seat us in the what I would call the unfinished room. Old disco, school auditorium like space. They let us move to the main dinng room, but said they usually don't seat in there until after 8:30...what's up with that? I saw them marching all these people back there and could see the disappointment on their faces. Besides that we all enjoyed our food, excellent mole, sweet corn tamales, etc. But I wouldn't go back unless I was guaranteed I could sit in the real dining room.

Seating people in a construction site is not right, and suggests (as do other elements of my experience at Tepatulco) that this place was opened to the public a few months before it should have been (the real estate is expensive, and I understand that they need to start showing a return, but really...)

Though my initial reactions to fellow star chef Dudley Nieto's Xel-Ha have been lukewarm, I think it speaks well of the place that they have not, as yet (and to the best of my knowledge), had a "grand opening."

Opening a place before it's ready may make short-term financial sense, but that's usually not good sense.

Hammond

I've been feeling bad about not liking Tepatulco that much. I was looking forward to the huitlacoche remembering the Chilpancingo app but this one wasn't working. I could barely taste anything with the spicy pepper and sour cream. The service was average and the molcajete stew was average. The margarita was good but all in all it's not doing it at all.

And that's really wanting to like it and make up for a crappy Ixtapulzalco review. Lots of the same problems here though.

Just want to say thanks for everyone that gives their reviews! I don't post much,but depend on all of you that are out there eating! Going back to Tepatuclo, As said, had a good time, but thinking back probably won't go back. (forgot to mention the filthy wine glasses!)I LOVE mexican food, loved his other restaurants Chilpancingo, Ixtapulzalco,still not a good Margarita..how hard is it to put a shot of tequila, fresh squeesed lime juice and alittle triple sec? Hey if I'm eating in a taqueria it's one thing!

My wife and I dined at Tepatulco last night. It was a mixed experience. We live a very short distance from that intersection so we have high hopes that it could be added to our regular rotation of “Places we can walk to for a casual dinner even when it's cold outside”

I’d say it’s about 50/50 after the first visit. Unfortunately, the main reason it’s not a higher percentage in favor was the service, not the food. But first the food:

We shared the App platter that includes “Mexico City-style quesadillas (turnovers), crispy chicken taquitos with sour cream, tangy ceviche tostadas, and guacamole”.

All pretty good. The ceviche tasted fresh, something I worry about on a Sunday night. We liked the guac as well.

For entrees, we had a Rack of Lamb in Mole and the Shrimp in a crème sauce with vanilla. Both were pretty good. I thought the mole was excellent and I understand it’s one of the chef’s specialties. I have not been to his other restaurants, so I can’t compare.

The margarita was very tasty.

Here are my service issues:

First, I was pleased to see that they were at least 75% full for early Sunday night. We arrived shortly after they opened at 5 and the place filled up quickly. Only the front room was being used and I noticed that the door to the “club” area was closed. However, there was only one waiter. By mid meal, service was Slowski slow.

When I ordered my lamb, I was asked how I wanted it cooked. I mentioned to the waiter that I usually like it med-rare but sometimes am served, what I consider, rare lamb. Uncooked flesh in the center. He assured me that their med-rare was a “pink” center. When my lamb arrived, it was uncooked flesh in the center. Because the place was now pretty busy, it took about 5 minutes for me to get his attention. He looked at the lamb, agreed that it was “rare” and said, “This always happens when they rush orders”. Hmm. Also, I’m not sure how a kitchen normally handles a too rare dish in terms of re-cooking it, but it was obvious to me that they simply placed my plate in an oven. The plate was mega, mega hot when returned to the table and I could see the edges of the mole dried around the edge of the plate. Maybe that’s normal??? Anyway, what irks me is that now I’m completely out of rhythm with my wife in the dining experience. I hate that.

When we finished, the plates were cleared promptly but it took about 10 minutes for the waiter to come over to discuss dessert. We had browsed the website earlier that day and had planned on dessert and coffee/after dinner drinks. After confirming that we are interested in dessert, the waiter rambles off the 3 available, not the 6 or 8 that we saw on the website. Since this was different than what we had read, we asked if he had a list so we could think about it. He didn’t. We then asked for a list of Tequilas (I had seen a list on the website), again, he had no list. He started to verbally describe them but I waved him off. I like to read the descriptions of the desserts and the after dinner drink choices then match one up with another. Am I alone in that? I guess part of the problem was the waiter had a style of speaking that was slightly irritating to me. Just sort of a rehearsed, drama inflected style. We got ice cream from Savor The Flavor…

Anyway, the food was good and we’ll give it another shot.

Oh, and the water glasses were dirty.

DM,

Assuming that 2 questions you asked above were not rhetorical-I would say that throwing your plate in the oven may be an okay way to cook your lamb to proper temp, but totally re-plating(re-saucing, etc.) after it was cooked would be the only way to go for a place of this caliber. As far as not having the drink and dessert menus-if I count as a person, you are not alone. I had a similar experience at De La Costa, and it drove me psychotic. (Admittedly a short ride.)

Coot,

I've been accused of being a bit persnickety about wait staff behavior but I'm glad I'm not alone!

I suppose that I would not mind HOW they cooked my dish, but I agree that it should have been re-plated.

As to the dessert/drink menu, we have a whole negotiation process we go through on dessert selection. Particularly when were sharing, as we had planned to do last night. It’s best if this is done in private without the waiter hovering over us…

It's funny - thinking about the hot plate burnt mole thing... maybe restaurant prices are hitting highs that put me in old-crumudgeon-land but that lamb dish was around twenty five bucks! In a nutshell it's the same problem Bahena has had at Ixtapulzalco... the Mole might rock (it is awful good) but the dining experience is not so hot. I'd NEVER go back to a place that hot plated a whole entree like that. It's just lazy. Granted mole might taste good cooked-out like that but it certainly seems like the short cuts and lack of attention to detail fits a pattern and is more of a rule than an exception. That's just a bad restaurant.

DM,
As far as the dessert and drink menus-sounds like a bad service problem, but probably not a problem caused by the server. Also, his overall slowness sounds like it was a function of being alone on the floor. At least these two issues seem to be caused by management. You being penalized with a scorched plate for returning an improperly cooked item is clearly the fault of kitchen management. Seems clear that you were a victim of major service problems. I guess an issue in this scenario, now that I think of it, is the potential for punishing the server for things out of his control. Sounds like he was irritating for other reasons, (lord knows the possibilities are endless here)and I'm not saying that you "punished" him-just thinking about all this...
When a customer has a host of service issues like this, I think they get fed up, and are beyond caring who is to blame. (I know this has happened to me.) Most often(of course this is 20/20 hindsight) the manager is the one to flag down and gripe at, since he is ultimately responsible for the dining room. Of course, all of this is tied to picking your battles...
All that being said-separate issue-waitstaff behavior can easily spoil my supper!

My primary beef with the waiter was his "presentation". I didn't penalize him for being who he is...and tipped about 18%...I'm normally good for 20% if things go well, 25% if things go really well...

You are correct in that most of my gripes are with the restaurant itself. I am usually a “speak-up” kinda guy but the place was packed, my wife was tired and we wanted to exit gracefully. We’ll give them another chance and see how it plays.

Developing.