Dining out - Chico's and Charlie's

This used to be my family's favourite Tex-Mex place.

We'd drop by the restaurant - Singapore's first Mexican restaurant - located at the er, the building which is next to Wheelock Place. Dunno what it's called but long time ago it used to house Gallerie Lafayette - that I remember!

Anyway, Chico's and Charlie's was a great place for Tex-Mex - burritos, enchiladas, nachos, salsa...

The place was filled with Mexican paraphernalia - hats, paintings, pinatas, those plastic-looking dried chilis all in a bunch. Waitstaff dressed in the colours of the Mexican flag and I believe there occasionally was a wandering band singing, you guessed it, songs in Spanish.

But now, C&C seems to be part of the Harry's group.

They recently opened at the Orchard Parade Hotel, all nicely done up. Very festive, great colours but what's with the huge bar? It takes up most of the restaurant, leaving the place with only a few tables and some high tables with bar stools, which people tend to hate eating at.

Service was a bit shoddy, with the waitress - having not written down any orders - coming back twice to check on the order my mum made. And not having told us that it was happy hour and that drinks were one-for-one, although I'm not fond of tequila so it didn't really matter to me, just that my mum had a virgin margarita and was later told she could get another. But on asking what the other flavours were, the waitress rattled them off but had to check with the manager if we could get it in apricot instead of lime - it wasn't like we were asking for a shot of tequila to go with the apricot flavouring! And lately, when the table was cleared and we were about to get the bill, one of the waitresses (who had earlier served us as well) plonked a serving of nachos and salsa, meant obviously for another table, on ours.

Food-wise, not too bad. I had enchiladas with sea bass and green mole (not the animal, but a type of rich sauce, supposedly more spicy than salsa verde). It came with rice and black beans. But the sauce didn't have any kick to it, so I had to add some chili to it. Then it was good and spicy.

But also pricey!

The enchiladas cost $22 and the burritos were also about that price range. Desserts were $9 but werent enticing. The fajitas, with a choice of prawns, chicken or steak, were about $25 and up. But the portions were generous. My dad ordered the steak version, which came with about 3 or 4 tortillas and what looked like really a whole piece of steak, sliced up and sauteed with onions and other vegetables.


Listening to Juanes - Volverte a Ver