Las Palmas

Nondescript and dirty. These are two words that I really never want to use when starting off a review, but during my first visit there that was my immediate «take» on the restaurant upon entering the establishment.
There was only one other table with one person there at the time we went, which was around 2pm. First, their restroom was dirty, now I have been in worse but this one definitely did not rate up there in the «they clean it thoroughly daily» list. Second, the interior of their facility was very dirty. The floor had lots of dirt all over it as well as scuff marks that could readily come off with a good sweeping and mopping. The chairs had stains and food particles on several of them as did the bench seating.
The interior in regards to decoration was just very nondescript and boring. And the sad part is that it would not take much money or effort to add a bit of color and interest to liven up the environment.
Let’s move on the the important part of the review, the food and service.
In regards to service our waitress, I believe her name was Jennifer, was very attentive. And she was also proactive with a few issues we had, which I will detail in a little bit. I have to say that she is really the reason we will go back and try them out again.
A couple of bobbles in the ordering process. I wanted to try their Seven Seas Soup, but was told that they had none of their soups available. This was disappointing to say the least. In addition, we were informed that they had no beer or alcoholic beverages available either, as they currently did not have their liquor license. Then later when we ordered a fried ice cream, we were told that they did not have that available either. She did bring out an order of flan and sopapillas, which was given to us on the house, and that really spoke volumes in regards to her being proactive to keep her customers happy.
For our appetizer we ordered the Botanas Caramba house sampler tray. The description was; crispy bean and cheese nachos, quesadillas, tasty taquitos and armadillo eggs; served with guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo. Price was $ 8.99
The beef quesadillas were the star of this appetizer tray, with really good flavor and cookery. The tray though was missing the taquitos, which we honestly did not notice until after the meal was over. The crispy bean and cheese nachos were a miss. One barely had any bean and cheese on it, the other one had a decent amount but the chip was burnt and the third one had too much bean and cheese on it, making the chip soggy. The armadillo eggs were horrible. The batter was undercooked and the centers of them were not only undercooked but had a «graininess» to the cheese, which also had an off taste to them. When I asked if they were made from scratch or not and if the cheese was fresh or from a can, I was told they were a bought in frozen item. I could not even eat a whole one. Now, when she saw the issues we had with this tray, and that we did not eat all of it, they comped the tray. Again, being proactive to listen to their customers and take care of them. We were told that there was someone being trained in the back of house, so hopefully this means that this type of hit and miss in regard to the food offerings will not be something long term.
On to the mains. We had the shrimp chimichanga for $ 9.99 and an order of Camarones al mojo de ajo for $ 12.99.
The shrimp chimichanga was excellent and the cheese sauce was quite good. This was a solid hit.
The Camarones al mojo de ajo was good overall the only real point of contention for me on this one was the amount of jarred diced garlic that was used on the shrimp. When using that type of garlic it is very easy to the garlic taste to become overpowering and this dish was bordering on that «too garlicky» taste. And I am one that likes a lot of garlic. The shrimp themselves were large, which was nice.
In summary; The restaurant has been in this area for right around a year, so having lasted a year in a small community this must mean that they have done some things right. As I had mentioned before, the service is really good there. Watching our waitress interact with a young family that was there during our visit, she was caring and attentive. Those are the hallmarks of really good customer service. So due to that, we will be back to try them again.
We were told that they were training someone new in the kitchen. And while that might explain the food issues, if they had an expediter doing QA, those dishes would never had reached us.
So, if you are in the area, give them a try and see what you think yourself. And fingers crossed, they will sort out the inconsistencies in their food offerings, they will keep their facility clean and maybe they will even liven it up a bit in regards to how it looks inside. If they can fine tune these items, I think they could have a gold mine there.