Review: San Angel Inn

Our waiter was Hector. He came and asked immediately if we wanted to order drinks. (No one in my family drinks alcohol but the restaurant is known for their large variety of margaritas.) We said no, we looked at the menus and he then brought us water. I asked if there were any vegetarian options. My husband eats seafood and no other meat, our daughter and I are both ovo-lacto vegetarians. Hector said he would have someone bring us a vegetarian menu. I thought that sounded promising. I changed my mind as soon as I saw the menu. There were two options, Plato Vegetariano and Ensalada De Vegetales. It wasn’t exactly what I had been hoping for but we looked it over. We quickly realized that the Ensalada De Vegetales was a fancy name for a salad. My daughter and I usually split an entree so we decided to order one of each thing on the menu. After all, it was only a salad that we were adding on.

My husband had a much harder time with his decision. Hector came back to the table at least three times to see if a final decision had been made. The food on the menu is not the Tex-Mex fare that you will usually find in the United States, it is supposed to be more authentic Mexican. There were two fish entrees on the menu and when my husband asked a question about one of them Hector seemed a bit disgusted. I realize that it was towards the end of the night but we were all surprised. Eventually my husband decided to just get the Ensalada De Vegetales.

A few minutes later a basket of tortilla chips with salsa was brought out. The chips were fantastic, fresh and not too salty. The salsa had a nice consistency, it wasn’t too thick and it was not at all watery. It had a mild BBQ sauce flavor to it. There was a noticeable kick, especially a minute of so after we finished. I’m sure that those who eat a lot of spicy foods would say that it was mild but I do not fit into that category so I took it easy with the salsa. We all finished our waters fairly quickly and had to ask Hector to bring us more.

It wasn’t long until our dinners arrived. The two salads were huge but did not have the ordered dressing. (The menu choices are light Italian or honey mustard.) It was mentioned to Hector, who insisted that the dressing was on the salads. He said he would get more for us. He brought out a small dish of it, since neither of the salads did have dressing it wasn’t really enough but we decided to let it slide. As I already mentioned the salads were quite large, but there was nothing special about them. They were mainly iceberg lettuce with tomatoes, carrots, peppers, jicama and lots of onions.

The Plato Vegetariano was more what I had expected. A flour tortilla was covered with black beans. Grilled vegetables (onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, etc.) were on top. It had a slightly smoky flavor that I thought was good but my daughter said that it tasted burnt. She liked the beans under the vegetables better. The dish wasn’t overly big but it was filling. It was getting close to closing time for the park so we opted to skip dessert

F.A.S.T. Review

F-Food- Disappointing for us as vegetarians. I did overhear others talk about how much they were enjoying their meals so I am sure that our experience is not the norm.

A-Atmosphere- Beautiful. The setting is charming. They could use less tables so that there would be more space between the parties. The light is dim, making it an intimate setting but it was hard to see the menu.

S-Service- Average. Hector was attentive during the actual meal but there were several times when service could have been better.

T-Tips- Read the menu before you decide whether or not you want to eat there. Although it is a Mexican restaurant the food is not what many Americans would expect. If you find something that sounds interesting then you won’t be disappointed.