Carino--Brooklyn

718.384.8282

You can always tell a new restaurant by the disjointed service, it's choppy and the staff take ten too many steps because the systems aren't in place to make things fluid and efficient. There's also a lot of bickering because the requisite hot-ass hostess is actually forced to do things that pretty girls just don't do: like work. In my younger days I would have teed off on this place, but now that I'm older and wiser, and have had the displeasure of opening not one buy two facilities in the city (notice the gaping hole of 2007 entries), I am much, much more patient with the service of a brand new restaurant. Especially when they're at least some hot ass girls struggling to not break a nail.


Enough of that. This is a restaurant blog dear readers, and a for that we should keep things focused. We originally wanted to go to this place when it first opened around June. The cooks and chef were all from Bonita, but were frustrated that their authentic Mexican cuisine was being doctored by the good people at Diner so decided to do it on their own. I'm reporting this from a somewhat reliable source though I have not heard that from them myself. It's gossip, pure and simple. We didn't go in June because they did not have a full liquor licence (one tremendous mistake of Bonita's) and there's no way I'm eating Mexican without a Margarita nearby. So we waited. Eventually they got through the steeple chase that is the SLA and voila, here we sat a month or so ago.


Their guacamole is pretty damned good. I've said this before about Mexican food, if their guac checks out then most everything else to follow will too. See Elote post for more extrapolation. Here's something not posted in the Elote post: what is up with habanero salsas? For the record, they don't taste good. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what a habanero even tastes like, because my mouth is suffering from a minor chemical burn. I appreciate spicy food, and understand the complexity of say, a chipolte pepper, but habanero peppers are down right inedible. They've somehow permeated the condiment barrier and are now standard at every fucking Mexican restaurant in the city. Why? So some douche bag can show off his ability to stomach battery acid? Well I for one have sworn off trying to enjoy the little bastards. Let that douche bag become the poster child for acid reflux, I'm gonna stick with the much more refined jalapeno based salsas.

But this is a restaurant review damn it! The food was pretty good despite the staff's best efforts to fuck it up. Now I feel better.