08/08/09

Worst Mexican foot ever!

by DLBM

We order what they call in the menu "Big Burrito", it turned out to be lasagna in a tortilla. No Mexican flavor or spices at all, totally Italian flavor with spaghetti sauce on top. They should be ashamed for the food they serve. In fact, we recommend them to change the name to Italian Cantina. Unacceptable!

• Pros: Very nice waiter
• Cons: Everything else

08/08/09

The Worst Mexican Food on the Planet

by theurbansherpa

Panchito's, the Mexican restaurant at 105 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village in New York City, doesn't seem like the sort of place that would inspire superlatives: the entire block is given over to sloppy, unassuming restaurants of all ethnicities—Indian, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern—aimed presumably at the students of nearby NYU.

But it turns out that Panchito's is exemplary in more ways than one.

Panchito's is, first of all, the largest restaurant in all of Greenwich Village, on a scale so large that its cavernous dining rooms could fit a dozen or more Village-sized trattorias and bistros.

The menu immediately greets you with a second superlative: Panchito's, it turns out, is home of the "best margarita in New York." Fine print later goes on to clarify, the margarita is actually considered one of the top six best margaritas, though by whom is anyone's guess. (The menu itself is a contender for another superlative—Worst Graphic Design—though that's a contest that will be waged bitterly through all of Chinatown before the label can be definitively applied.)

You order one of these margaritas. It sets you back $10, and when it arrives at your table, it's lukewarm. A lukewarm margarita defies a law or two of physics.

A small bowl of stale unsalted corn chips eventually finds its way to the table. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover and you shouldn't judge a Mexican place by its chips. Still, there's no denying: these chips are bad. The comparison with cardboard is obvious but unavoidable. The chips are accompanied by a small plastic ramekin of vinegar and sugar that they call salsa.

You didn't actually realize it was possible to make bad salsa, till now.

The entree arrives. It is served without silverware, till someone notices and brings a miniature knife and fork, like for children or dolls. The plate of food is the saddest looking plate of Mexican food you've ever seen. The menu, which bragged about "three different kinds of beans!," didn't warn you that the beans would be overcooked into a crunchy powder, nor that they'd be lacquered in an inch of (is that Velveeta?) cheese. Two tacos remind you of the cafeteria at summer camp. One of them literally has a few slices of unseasoned, sauteed flavorless white mushrooms and a chunk of unmelted cheese. The rice (the best thing on the menu, by far, if you can find it under the cheese) has a single green pea in it—for flavor? for nourishment? an accident?

"Is everything alright?," the waitress asks, pointing at the mostly ignored pile of food. "You want more chips?"

"Yes!" But—somewhere else...

• Pros: Spacious dining room
• Cons: Bad food, bad drinks, bad service, overpriced

04/22/09

Just try your luck

by yin1104hr

I had a terrible dinner here 2 years ago, which made the four of us leaving just a dollar tip for the waitress. This time we went back just to see if things have been improved. And I was not disappointed. Service was good. Food was not as horrible as last time. The margarita and the burrito that I had were okay. It is not as disgusting as other people say, but don't expect too much.