Chiquito

Oh man, I hate giving bad reviews… But sadly, this place gets one.
The good:
The staff was good, took my order quickly, and were friendly!
The place looks the part, and has a nice our door seating area!
The bad:
Sadly, the food.
Every Mexican/​Latino place I have been to has served chips and salsa. They gave me stale popcorn.
The menu items were not Mexican/​Latino for the most part. Fajitas and one or two other things were the extent of the main courses.
I ordered the fajitas, which I thought would be excellent. Sadly, this let me down even more. The meat was over cooked (I asked for medium rare and it showed up with barely any pink), and it was sliced with the grain of the meat, making it tough. To make matters worse, there was no seasoning. Traditionally you would find a mix of cumin, salt, garlic, etc. but this had none of that. It was served in a bed of onions. I had around 5 pieces of red pepper to 50 pieces of onion. It was also served with the smaller portion of guacamole and sour cream I’ve ever seen.
I did have a piece of their orange cake with chocolate, and that was very tasty!

Took my mum here for a mothers day gift, although not on mothers day as we wanted to go when it was quieter. This was on a Tuesday evening and the staff were very helpful and food was good. Although it is quite pricey I’d say it’s value for money because you get a good amount of food, no trouble with service but it can be a bit slow when it is busier but that is understandable.

I have been to a few Chiquitos before, and while they weren’t the best Mexican I’ve ever had, it wasn’t the worst. So I already had managed my expectations, but was still excited for something other than Italian. The restaurant is quite large and according to Mr. Snarky, they have renovated the décor inside. While the atmosphere is lovely, the décor comes off as more African than Mexican. To be honest, I thought it felt a lot like being in Nando’s. This isn’t where Chiquito fell miles short on this visit though.
It was a couple minutes before we were seated. Our waitress took our drink order and we received our drinks relatively quickly, which would be the last thing that we received quickly for the rest of the night. We ordered the Tostada Platter to start with, Mr. Snarky ordered the BBQ Pulled Pork and Fried Chicken while I ordered the Chimichanga. Mr. Snarky was looking at the menu and commenting on how the menu had changed a little bit since the last time he stopped in.
Our Tostadas showed up to the table just as we were starting to get anxious about the amount of time that we were waiting. There are two of each flavour (BBQ Pulled Pork, Chorizo, and Butternut Squash and Feta) so it is ideal for two people if you want to try all of the flavours. The BBQ Pulled Pork was the one that we liked the most (although I am partial to a really good Pulled Pork as it is my usual item if we go to a BBQ Restaurant). The Butternut Squash and Feta was ok, but the Butternut Squash had no flavour. It was like they just boiled it to make it soft, but hoped the Feta would just mask the fact that the squash had not been seasoned. And the Chorizo one tasted a bit off. Mr. Snarky doesn’t like sour cream so the fact that there was a huge dollop on the Chorizo one did not help the case. They also served it with a Cranberry and Red Onion jam. I say jam because it had the consistency of jam and it was very sweet. While I am usually one to try something different, this reminded me of Thanksgiving and Cranberry sauce with my turkey. It didn’t really work.
Then we started the wait for our mains. Customers came in after us, they ordered (three courses) and were already on their desserts while we were still waiting. Mr. Snarky had noted that the couple of times he had been here, the wait for food was usually longer than other restaurants and as mentioned in another review, it seems to be an issue. I did notice that it may have been our section and our particular waitress as customers seated in other sections were the ones that were being seated, having three courses, and leaving before we had even started on our mains. We also noticed that our waitress seemed to be prioritizing some tasks that really didn’t need to be prioritized as her tables were waiting. One example: Mr. Snarky asked for the bill and instead of heading to the till, she took it as an invitation to go wipe down tables and set them. After two and a half hours, most of it spent waiting, Mr. Snarky was not amused.
Our mains showed up and it was all a bit disappointing. Mr. Snarky’s chicken looked like it had been burnt. My Chimichanga was served with fries. The last time I had a Chimichanga it came with rice and refried beans. The menu had mentioned rice and beans, but I discovered the rice was in the Chimichanga, not sure where the beans went to, but because we had waited so long for our mains, I wasn’t about to send it back. There was a bit of BBQ Pulled Pork at the end of the Chimichanga, then the majority of the Chimichanga was tasteless rice. However, I was thankful for the pots of Guacamole, Salsa, and Sour Cream since there was no flavour after I eating all of the BBQ Pulled Pork. I also am not sure that there was any pulled pork with Mr. Snarky’s Fried Chicken. Eating came to a halt when Mr. Snarky had found a hair on his onion rings.
We had been excited about dessert, but now we weren’t very sure whether or not we should chance it. However, I suggested that the desserts had been coming out quite quickly, so we ordered. I had the Mexican Mess: pieces of Churros, Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate sauce, Strawberries, Ice Cream, and Berry Yogurt. Mr. Snarky had the Strawberry Deep Filled Cheesecake (that is really what it says on the menu). The cheesecake only had one strawberry inside, the base was beyond soggy and they topped it with some purple concoction… I think it was pears and blueberries, but the blueberries had turned everything purple (the coleslaw from Mr. Snarky’s dish had also been purple and he nearly spat it out after taking a bite). My dessert was good except the yogurt. It fought against everything in the dish. Our waitress told us about a survey at the bottom of the receipt and how we could save 10 quid off our next visit… not sure if 10 quid is enough to entice us back.

Reasonable quick service for a chain restaurant. Fajitas are smoking! Vegetable chilli a bit dry. Good choice of cocktails including non-​alcoholic. Handy for before or after a movie at the Empire cinema

Went to a Chiquito Mexican restaurant before going to see the new movie: Avatar! (which was very good i might add).
The meal was very nice the service was average!
you really must try the chili poppers with cream cheese they are very tasty! and also the Chimichangas
Fried flour tortilla parcels with rice and melting Monterey Jack cheese.
Served with salsa, sour cream, guacamole and re-​fried beans. i had mine with beef! they were great!

The food was lovely but the service wasn’t very good. There was a big group of us and some of the group ordered drinks before the meal arrived and didn’t receive them until they had finished their meals!
I had a salad and it was very very tasty! I would def recommend it to other people as long as they don’t mind having to pay over £10 for the cheaper things on the menu.

I have been here lots of times as it is next to the cinema (Empire) so is good for a drink or a meal before watching a film.
You can just sit in the bar area and have a drink. I am never very impressed with it here, there are never enough seats and it always take ages to be served for your drink. You do have lots of choice though, cockatils, beer, wines etc
You can also have a meal. Again I am never very impressed. The restaurant is big, but never feels very full. Therefore there is not much atmosphere. Food is ok, never really bad but never really good.
On the plus you can always get a table here and never have to reserve. Its handy for the cinema and the staff are always friendly and happy.