High hopes for a new restaurant

When Vallesol restaurant on Murphy avenue closed - everyone I knew was disappointed. It had a great casual atmosphere, great prices and even better food.

When my friend mentioned that a new Mexican restaurant had opened in the same place I had high hopes.

This should have been a warning sign (pun intended):

Instead of having a sign with the restaurant's name they just had a generic sign out front.

The chips and salsa were a disappointment. The chips were cold and seemed like they were straight out of a bag and the salsas seemed like they were poured out of a jar - yuk.

I ordered the tostada salad which was OK but not great. 

And the veggies that were in the salad were an odd mix of peas and carrots which I imagine was from a frozen bag mix...

The best part of the tostada salad was the shredded beef which was warm and nicely seasoned.

My friend ordered the cerviche.

My friend said she enjoyed this dish and that there were plenty of shrimp. Her complaint was about the side of rice and beans she ordered. 

I took a taste of the beans and they were very bland and without a hint of heat. My guess is the beans were dumped straight from a can and then doctored up with cumin - not a great dish.

She also commented that the rice seemed dry - like it had been sitting out for hours.

I really hope this restaurant turns it around. There are tons of great restaurants on Murphy Ave. This new restaurant will definitely have to step up its game if they hope to compete with the rest of them.

On the plus side, the prices were very reasonable but again - this does not really work in their favor since there are a lot of cheap taco places in the area that make everything from scratch.