El Fandango

Passing by Old Town this evening we decided to stop in for a quick drink and bite to eat. The nice thing about Old Town is I always feel I am on vacation when I go there- I guess it's because everyone else is, plus the Mariachi bands and the rose sellers. The ultimate tourist experience.

Lines at Casa Guadalajara were insane, so we wandered around and found ourselves in the usually fall back of El Fandango, a cute little restaurant with a nice patio. El Fandango attracted us primarily as we could actually get a place to sit down- okay our table was next to the entrance to the kitchen and not exactly prime seating, but at least we were outside.

We ordered a couple of margaritas (one house, one strawberry) and the Fandango Sampler to share. The strawberry maragrita for $5.95 was actually incredibly good, far better than the house variety of the same price. Really this is just what frozen fruits are made for.

The sampler arrived fairly swiftly- it consisted of nachos, guacamole, an empanda, cheese quesedilla and a couple of shrimp stuffed with crab. It was all fairly okay- the guacamole a bit below par, but the nachos were good. The shrimp stuffed crab were rather overpowered by the bacon n which they were wrapped, but nonetheless added an interesting component to the sampler.

Most of all the evening was interesting for the people watching element. Families on vacation are always so amusing to watch. Sadly no one looks to happy- many families- especially those with older children, just seem to sit there and stare, no one talking very much- occasionally conversation is made. Then you get the older tourists, the ones who like to act like they are in a foreign country and treat the Mexican waiters like small children, speaking loudly and slowly, sure that such people won't understand a word they have to say. And finally you have the couples, a romantic getaway- you can always tell the ones on their first vacation- they are the ones who get the rose, order the margarita especial, hold hands, with their eyes all starry.

Lucky we had plenty to watch, because the service was just horrible. We asked one of the busers for our check, as we hadn't seen a waiter in quite some time, and then watched bemusedly as he chased our waiter around for ten minutes or so, desperate to pass on the message. Eventually the waiter himself passed by our table and we asked for the check again, many long minutes later it arrived and eventually we could leave.

We have learned our lesson here before, and I don't know what makes us such slow pupils. Saturday night in Old Town is always a bad idea.