Hi Mike--

I once got tepid mashed potatoes at Chilpancingo, as did my wife at La Petite Folie. I know from experience at home that it's sometimes hard to get mashed potatoes to the table hot, but I figured there were some foodservice tricks for keeping them piping while waiting for the rest of the dish to come together. It is a fairly glaring error in an ambitious restaurant.

Patrick

Or they could serve something more interesting than mashed potatoes.

Mike G wrote:Or they could serve something more interesting than mashed potatoes.

I've very much enjoyed the mashed potatoes in the past at Ixta and I'm not even a big mashed potato fan. I have (I think two) Restaurant.com certificates for this place, so I hope your visit was an aberation.

Speaking of Mexican restaurants that served mashed potatoes, I had some really tremendous mashed potatoes on my one visit to Dorado a couple months back (served with whatever the steak special was that night).

Dined at La Bonita last night. Phew. I think this place has issues, some of which were raised by other posters previously, some of which have not.

I arrived at about 7:30 - no one else in the restaurant. You could hear a pin drop. Not good for a place with as many tables as this to be empty. The sign outside (pretty shabby) stated "Ixcapuzalco" in that removable sign lettering below a cut-rate sign stating "La Bonita" in cursive lettering. The menu I was handed by the server also stated "Ixcapuzalco." Clearly, they are trying to feed off the buzz that once surrounded Ixcapuzalco. Okay, I'm fine with that - Ixcapuzalco achieved a regular clientele on their moles alone. That's a fine achievement in my book, as moles can either be totally mind-blowing or some of the worst things you've ever tasted, so if you can do a mole that approximates mind-blowing, then you deserve your buzz.

I look at the menu - pretty much the same as Ixca's, set up the same, listing the dishes featuring the moles on the left. You're offered a choice of chicken or duck breast with the "manchamanteles" mole, which the menu states has ancho chile and chorizo, among other things. No prices are listed for these. As for beverages, they feature only "premium" margaritas with upscale tequilas, fine, but again, no prices, and no cheap margarita option. (Only wines by the glass were offered, as far as I could tell). There were other entrees as well, priced steeply, in my opinion, between about $17-22 (the chicken enchiladas were about $17).

Because I'm always suspicious when prices are not listed, I asked how much the mole entrees were. $20. I thought to myself, $20?!? Now it's starting to come together. "And the margaritas?," I ask. $9. Yikes. Now I see why this place is empty.

Here's the problem. The outside of the restaurant is somewhat shabby and has a "look" similar to Mexican-American burrito joints like Arturo's and Lazo's right down the street. So you're likely to get neighborhood customers who roll in off the street thinking they're trying a new Lazo's style Mexican joint and then, once in the door, might be pleasantly surprised that the inside decor, while not much fancier than those restaurants (with the tile flooring, high-back wooden chairs), is a little more dressed up than those places. But once these people sit down, read the menu, don't see any burritos on it, and are presented with $20 chicken moles and $9 premium margaritas, they're probably wishing they hadn't come in.

So my party starts to order. (Didn't Ixca given complimentary chips with a salsa duo a la Frontera or is my memory failing me? No such chips last night, but maybe they never gave those. Whatever.) I order sopa de rajas (sp.?), the creamy roasted corn and poblano soup to start. The server, who was perfectly friendly and attentive, by the way, says, "No, we don't have that tonight - we have no corn." [I skip the starter because I really wanted that.] I bite the bullet and order the mole, as does one of my companions. My other companion orders carne asada. The waiter blurts, speaking very quickly, "Tonight we have carne asada with quail, is that okay?," as if he was trying to catch him off guard and get his assent before he objected. My companion declines, and orders a different dish on the menu that included skirt steak. The server responded that they don't have skirt steak tonight. What?! So having the server practically nix almost half the menu, my friend settled for chicken enchiladas. I understand being out of certain dishes, but jeez.

As for the food, it was perfectly fine. The moles weren't quite as good as remember them being when Geno was overseeing the kitchen as Ixca, but they were definitely better than most. But do I feel ripped off, having paid $20 for it? Yes. Oh, and the chicken enchiladas had the same mole as my dish did but was $3 less. The check for four with five margaritas, one beer, four entrees and one starter? $168.00 including tip. (Yikes.)

I can only assume given La Bonita's move to a location in a gentrifying strip like that part of Western Avenue, along with its large size, the owner was hoping to generate repeat business from adjacent Bucktown, along the lines that Think Cafe has. But I think the mixed messages between the decor and the prices, along with its menu that is heavy in more authentic Mexican dishes, will leave some people who wandered in expecting something else feeling a little tricked, and I don't think that's a way to generate good will with diners. [By the way, by the end of our stay there, a total of only three other diners came in - a table of one and a table of two.]

And comparing prices, I was just in Think on Sunday. Its entrees were between $13-20 ($20 for a steak dish). It's easier to justify a steak at $20 than a chicken dish, good as those moles are. And Think is BYOB which makes it easier to swallow when you don't have a $9 margarita to add to the tab.

The other problem arises to the extent that the La Bonita folks are comparing themselves to Frontera. Yes, Frontera charges prices either on par with these or maybe a little bit more, depending upon the dish, and their drink prices are likewise on par, and, let's face it, Frontera's decor ain't that nice (remember what it was like before they undertook their that recent renovation about 6 years ago? I remember you had to go down to the dank, leaky basement for the bathroom.) However, nobody is ever going to justify eating here on a weekly basis because, hey, Frontera Grill does the same thing. There really is no comparison there, in my book.

All in all, it was an OK dining experience, but not one I'm likely to repeat soon. But my experience there is obviously grating on me, as I'd like to see them succeed, but it's plain that they're doing a lot of things wrong.

Just dined at La Bonita/Ixcapulzaco. I thought the food was good (red mole (Wed. night) and corn masa boats were what I remembered from the Logan Square location). Unfortunately, the decor left a little something to be desired. It was also pretty dead in there.

To me, it was overpriced for the dining experience. If the plates were about $4-$5 dollars cheaper, I would go regularly. As is, this will probably be a one in awhile thing. I realize this probably doesn't add a whole lot of new information, but generally I found Aschie 30's post and previous posts to be on target about this place.

Driving up Western I noticed that Ixcapuzalco/La Bonita suddenly has a new sign that says something new-agey like "Karma Express." I kid you not. No idea what this latest chapter in the Bahena soap opera is....

No Bahenas have been connected to this place for awhile. It may well be an East Indian concept of some sort, given the current owner.

Who is the current owner? Is it open? The name (Karma Garden, if my memory serves) actually made me laugh out loud when I drove by. Maybe it was the font it was written in...

Not open yet (as of around 5pm tonight)
No menu in the window
Interior still looks the same as in Ixa days...

griffin's wife wrote:

Not open yet (as of around 5pm tonight)
No menu in the window
Interior still looks the same as in Ixa days...

No answer on zee telephono either.

I drive by there every day to/from work (okay, 5 days a week).

I'll make sure to keep my eyeballs on it.

The sign on Karma Crossing says
Now Open
Food Drink SPCLS.

A peek in the window reveals that the tablecloths are gone.
A GoldenTee Live machine has been added.
There are several tap handles on the back bar (although I could read none of them)
And the tables have 'Beck's' candle holders on them.

i.e.
2165 N. Western Ave. looks like a bar now.
No menu was posted.

No photo
but as of today the sign reads
"INDIAN FOOD &
SPORTS BAR"

Made me cross the street after stopping at the market for dinner food.
Enquired and menu is new starting today (but had no copies of menu to take home. And, had dinner in hand, so will have to be a guinea pig/canary in the mines at another time...

From memory, about $9 an entree.

Asked if the chef had worked somewhere else previously and the hostess did not know.

so does posting the desire for indian food in our neighborhood on LTH have *that* much influence? or did many others make the same inference based on the name, prompting this change? Stewed coot, where are you? Who is the new owner?

I have nothing heavy to reveal--I was told some time ago by someone marginally connected with the industry that the owner was East Indian, and was planning some sort of E.I. concept. One can only hope it will be way better than that which came before.

Any word on the new Indo-Pak incarnation of this address?

I know nothing about the actual restaurant but their sign outside says something like "Indian Food/Sports Bar".